5 books from my youth

To learn to read is to light a fire - Victor Hugo.

I'm not just a writer. First and foremost I am a reader. I love words, I love book shops and perusing shelves of new literature and second-hand classics. 

Some of my earliest memories are based around books and reading. From the fairytale book my mum read to me when I was very small, the yellow Care Bear book I received with a pack of Cadbury Fudges one Christmas Eve which I sat in an armchair reading straight away, to the first book I received from school, about a big red bus. I still remember the excitement of sitting at the table to read it.

I joined the library as a young child and I never left, the access to free books a wonderful thing, even if I was bad at giving them back. The library was especially important to me as a teenager as it was where I found the books that shaped the genre I like to write in. 

Obviously, as I've grown older, my tastes have widened and matured but I still return to my favourites to reread, because as well as nostalgia, they're damn good reads with stories I love. Which are my favourites? Here are five books that hold a special place in my heart and history.

The Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton

This was one of the first books I read once I advanced from picture books to bigger ones. It was also the first I read more than once. I read it at home for fun and then we read it in Primary three at school. I read it many more times after that. 

Climbing the tree with Jo, Bessie and Fanny and meeting the magical characters along the way. Moon-face was a favourite of mine and many other readers.

This always stands out to me as one that developed my love of books.

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott 

I felt like such a grown-up when I first read Little Women. As a young girl, I could relate to the March sisters, even though their lives were vastly different to anything I knew. Their relationship with each other, their parents, and the love stories that developed, translated through history. 

I fell in love with the characters in this book, and that has carried on to many movie adaptations. 

The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline B Cooney

The Face on the Milk Carton is the story of a girl who sees her face labelled as missing on a milk carton. She recognises herself as the kidnapped girl. 

Some stories you read just stay in your memory, and this was one for me. I borrowed this book from the library and I always remembered the plot and the main character. I bought it recently so I could read it again.

Malibu Summer by Jane Claypool Miner

Malibu Summer was one of the first modern YA novels I read that was predominantly a love story. It's the story of a girl who travels to Malibu to Au Pair for a wealthy family and gets caught up in romance. 

I still own this book. It took me down the path of young adult romance, and now the love stories in fiction are an important part of the fiction I write. 

The Forbidden Game by LJ Smith

What can I say about The Forbidden Game trilogy? I found my first book boyfriend in Julian, and they say you never forget your first. I fell in love with this book and then I fell in love with LJ Smith's Night World series. 

LJ Smith introduced me to the supernatural in romance and romance in the supernatural, and I never looked back. These books inspired the stories I wrote when I started in the genres of young adult and paranormal romance. 

Honourable Mention

There were so many books over so many years; some memorable, some not so much, but even the books I can't recall, taught me about writing and about story-telling. 

The Ladybird books, Point Romance, Point Horror, Sweet Dreams, Sweet Goodbyes, Fear Street are all series with books I still have on my shelf. I have found plenty more YA authors as I've grown older, and it's a genre I still read, and I always will.

Reading books has been important to me my whole life, and now so is writing. 

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