Overprotected: Into the Past

Hi readers! Today I have author Jennifer Laurens here to promote her book, Overprotected by telling us about her favorite books as a child.

Favorite Past Books:

Since I was an only child, my mom started collections for me: dolls, dollhouses, miniatures, tea cups, books, were among the few. Dolls were a favorite. Naturally, Dare Wright’s series The Lonely Doll became an obsession for me. A lonely doll living in a fantastic penthouse in New York City? Candy for this child. I loved the black and white photos, the setting of New York even at that age, and have been to NYC and written about it in two of my novels. I’d live there if I could.

At 12 I had pretty much devoured every Nancy Drew mystery and had the whole set. Mysteries were a favorite of mine at the time, but no book rated on my shelf like Time at the Top by Edward Ormandryod. Again, about a girl living in the city who sees a crazy lady on the street ( dressed in old fashioned clothes) who tells her, “I’ll give you three.” The girl has no idea what “three” the old lady is talking about, but when she presses the elevator button to go to the top floor of her building and finds herself back in time, she quickly realizes she has three trips back. It’s a fascinating story and I still have my original hardback.

Girls my age hid romances in lunch bag wrapping paper when we were in high school. My friend introduced me to my first in class one day: Shanna by Kathleen Woodiwiss. As a sheltered, only child, the lusty romance was an eye opener for me and I devoured a bunch of those during my high school years, along with classics I read in school that I loved: The Good Earth, Lord of the Flies and selected SciFi. It wasn’t until much later that I fell in love with romances again via Nora Roberts’ work. I also read Endless Love by Scott Spencer for the first time. I never forgot the book, but, at 16 hardly appreciated his literary genius. It was only when I picked up the book again and re-read it 10 years ago that I was, once again, BLOWN away by his text. His book is one of the few on my NOOK now. A Keeper. I was working hard in the film industry at age 21 – no time to read. I wrote screenplays. I didn’t pick up reading heavily again until I’d been married and had a few children and found the escape an inexpensive, wonderful time for me to “get away” from it all – even if only temporarily. My favs: Nora Roberts’ Quinn Brothers series, selected Lisa Kleypas novels and the occasional suspense thriller by Sandra Brown and Penn Williamson.

I don’t think I would have appreciated the books I love now, if I’d had them back then. Like I said with Endless Love, it was the book everyone was reading, so I read it –but I didn’t see the beauty in his story, the structure of his sentences, etc, that I see now as a writer. So, there aren’t any books that I can say I would have LOVED to have had in my hands. I don’t spend much time looking back, I never have. I look forward.

Jennifer

Thanks, Jennifer! Make sure to check out her book, Overprotected. You can read my review of it here.