Jen's Bio

Jessica and I have been friends for years. We met in the 7th (?) grade and have been friends since. It's hard to believe that 13 years after high school graduation, we've not seen each other but we're still in touch. Considering we're both from military families and we live across the country from each other, it's amazing!

So, more about me. My name is Jen and am a book-a-holic! I find it nearly impossible to walk into any store that sells books and not walk out with at least one. Of course, it doesn't help that my friends and family (for the most part) support my habit. I'm also a big believer in the library and almost always have something checked out. But I often find that my library lacks in the books I like to read, so I'm forced to go out and buy books.

I've been reading since I was young, too. The first adult book I remember reading was Jules Verne's "Around the World in 80 Days" when I was in the 4th grade. Early books I enjoyed also included Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Encyclopedia Brown, Sweet Valley High, etc. In high school, I discovered Danielle Steel books. Wow! Talk about a jump in genre reading!

College years took me away from reading for pleasure. I found that I generally preferred to get lost in TV when studying was over (and that was a time when there was something good on TV to watch). But in my senior year of college, I got a job in the library and then decided that I might want to make a career out of it. After graduation, I got a job in a local library and I fell back into reading for fun. I lost that job to budget cuts, but I decided to go back to school to get my Masters in Library Science (which I never finished... I know, shame on me).

So, when I went back to reading, I gravitated towards mysteries and action-adventure novels. I love Clive Cussler's books. And when it comes to mysteries, I prefer them to be in the cozy genre. You know, an amateur detective. I don't "do" horror or graphic violence, so they are perfect for me. Then about 8 years ago, I rediscovered romance novels. I used to be one of those who turned my nose up at them. But, I realized how wrong I was. Sure, love is the main theme, but there is so much more is 90% of romance novels. And so, these days I almost exclusively read romances. And like Jessica, I'm a big fan of series.

In June of 2006, I discovered the world of ebooks. And a couple months later, I fell into an editing job with an epublisher. I loved the job and the behind the scenes look at how a novel is put together, published and then promoted. The epublisher has now closed its doors, but I'm doing some freelance work for some authors that I've worked with and hope to eventually get back into editing for a publisher again (once I'm more settle with my new day job).

So, as you've probably noticed. Jessica and I read completely different genres of books and very rarely do we read the same books. In fact, the only ones that I know of are the Harry Potter series and Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum books. So, readers of this blog will be getting quite a variety of reviews, which we hope you will enjoy.

Check out all my reviews!