You guys! I’m so excited that this is Liza’s first guest post! (As in post post – not review.) Isn’t that awesome?! She’s a well established member of the romance community, but I know we definitely don’t all “know” each other. So this is a little bit more about her. I also can’t believe it’s already the third Saturday of the month. Eek! But yay for another special feature on a romance reader! I hope you all give Liza a lovely and warm welcome! <3

I have to first say thank you Lime for inviting me to be a guest on her blog today. Other than doing a guest review for another blog once, this is my first time being a guest where I talk about me. Lime told me to talk about anything I wanted to talk about, so since I know we are all readers, I thought I’d talk about my love of reading.

I was very lucky to grow up in a house where books were loved. My aunts and uncles started giving me books as soon as I was born, and my parents and grandparents always encouraged my love of reading from a very young age. My mom joked when I was little that she taught me how to read before I started kindergarten so she didn’t have to read Green Eggs and Ham to me anymore. I was the kid who read the back of the cereal box every single morning at breakfast. Even once I could read books on my own, my favorite part of the day was when my dad would lie on the floor between the twin beds in my room and read a chapter or two before bed each night. He read Little Women, all of the Little House books, and many other classics to my sister, brother and me that way.

Trips to Walmart usually equaled me coming home with at least one new book. The librarian in my elementary school knew my favorite authors and would put them on hold for me so I could reread my favorite books over and over again. When I was about 10, I started sneaking behind to sofa to read my mom’s Harlequin and Silhouette romances. I say I was sneaking, but since my mom was usually in the room, not much sneaking going on. I still read what would be categorized as “Young Adult” novels while exploring the pretty tame Harlequin and Silhouette romances until I was about 13. At that point I was introduced to historical romances. I’m pretty sure I read every single book Jude Deveraux wrote while I was in high school. While romances have always been my first love, Stephen King was also a big part of my high school reading. In fact other than books for school, Jude Deveraux and Stephen King were my go-to authors for a while.

While I was in college, I took a big break from reading for the most part. I don’t know if it was because I was too busy with school or partying or both. I just know for about 4 years, I don’t remember really reading much of anything not related to school. I worked full time and took classes each summer, so didn’t get to read much then either. I remember reading some Harlequin and Silhouette books because they were really fast reads that I could read during lunch breaks. I moved home for a couple of years after college, and there really is not much to do in my hometown…okay, make that nothing to do, so reading once again became a huge part of my life. I still liked to read mysteries and thrillers, but my true love was and still is romances. At this point I mostly read contemporary romances, with the occasional historical romance. Once I moved away from home, I had easy access to a bookstore and with the suggestion of some very helpful bookstore employees branched out into pretty much every genre of romance.  My bookshelves are full to overflowing with books by some of my favorite authors. I’m pretty sure I own every book ever published by Roxanne St. Claire, Nalini Singh, J.R. Ward, Jill Shalvis, Carly Phillips, J.D. Robb, Tessa Dare, Victoria Dahl, Nora Roberts, and many other favorite authors. I was one of those people who said I’d never switch from print to digital…then I bought my first kindle. I now have my original keyboard kindle, a paperwhite, and a Fire HD. I read almost everything on my kindle, and generally on read print books when I get them from the library. I still buy favorite authors in both print and digital. 😀

I am never without a book, either physical or digital or both. It’s kind of funny that many of my closest friends aren’t readers. However, I was lucky enough to meet so many reader friends on-line thanks first to blogs, and then both Facebook and Twitter. I’m luckier still since I get to see those reader friends in person at least once a year at the RAGT in Cincinnati in June. My reader friends totally get me and my need to read, since they all feel the same way about books.  I am currently counting down the days until I can spend time with all my reader friends. We always have the best time talking about favorite books, authors, and especially sexy heroes from books. (Pssst A Week to be Wicked – one of my favorite books of 2012 is only 99¢ on kindle right now!!!)

So how about you? Have you ever had the pleasure of meeting Liza before? If not – let’s talk about her post! Have you been to any conferences? Met people? How did you get started reading romances? Which authors are your favorites? Come on – we all love to dish about romance!