Hi everyone,
2006: The love for books started at an early age for me, my parents both enjoy reading and transferred that love for books on to me. I can still remember my mother taking me to realms beyond my imagination just before bedtime.

From the moment I could read the library has been a portal to adventure and fairy tales. Later on as I grew older the romance was discovered with my first book: Bertrice Small's, THIS HEART OF MINE. Also Stephen King and Dean Koontz gave me the thrill of sheer horror with the world's they created.

In my twenties I re-discovered the historical novels when I found out that, THIS HEART OF MINE, belonged to a series. Also a few years ago I got a book for Christmas, Nora Roberts' SANCTUARY and from that moment I started to collect her books. Also Anne Rice with her Witch-hour trilogy, Katherine Neville, Nicolas Sparks, Laurell K Hamilton, they all found a way to my bookshelf. Only a year ago (2005) I got my hands on a English novel, for in the Netherlands the translations couldn't keep up with the way I was reading. So my first novel was bought and a passion ignited to a roaring blaze!

My first series was the one of Karen Marie Moning, Dageus and Cian MacKeltar, but the darkest Fae of ém all, Adam black, got me hooked to a genre I will always cherish. As with all first times the series of Karen Moning and its characters will forever be in my heart and on my "keeper bookshelf". What Karen Moning started, Sherrilyn Kenyon finished as she swept me off my feet with her Dark-Hunter series. Still, many more authors conquered a place on my "keeper bookshelf" yet there are many more authors who I still need to discover and it will be quite the adventure ;)

Authors whom can take me to thrilling worlds is what I cherish most. Interesting and complicated storylines which keep me immersed in the book, just wanting to know how it all ends is a must, and the journey of love a sizzling experience. Books that make me cry, laugh or just let me be baffled will be forever loved and with my reviews I hope to give you extended information of the book to that which is already out there.

2010: Above was my original introduction when ROOB went live on October 14, 2006. Since then I’ve read a slew of authors who’ve had an impact on me; J.R. Ward, Kresley Cole, C.L. Wilson, Joey W Hill, Anne Bishop, Anne Campbell, Nalini Singh, Elizabeth Vaughan, Shannon McKenna, Shiloh Walker, just to name a few. I will always be on the hunt for the books and authors who will create that impact that leaves me baffled and my reading preferences are an ever changing side of me.


I always say; "Getting inside my mind is a risk you have to take,” because one…I’m known for my scatter brain which delivered me more than one Bridget Jones experience. Two…I have a fierce love for cover candy and I’ll always be in the mood to talk hunks. Whether they come from the books, the covers or plain man candy, tell me a place and a date and I’ll be there. And Three…my love for M/M romance has taken a huge leap since I now am the proud owner of an e-reader and I love to talk M/M smut. Haven’t you started to run for the hills yet? If not, then I think you’re my kinda girl and we’ll have a blast together *grin*

I’m pondering here…what on earth you want to know more about me? Age; 33 and celebrating it most of the days! My profession is neonatal nurse and I’ve worked in a daycare center for kids. I’m married for eight years but hubby and I are together for fourteen and the love is still strong, as are the Mars/Venus moments *sigh* I’ve got four senior citizen dogs to serve but who I can’t live without. One day I’m going to touch US soil and attend the RT Convention which will be equal to paradise :)

You want to know more? Ask away….

Hugs,

Leontine

2006: I loved reading from the early age. I remember getting yelled at by my mom because of reading under the blankets with a flashlight after “lights out” at the early age of 8 or 9. At that time off course they weren’t romance books but children’s books. But at the age of 14 –I really think for most of us this was the magic age of discovering there was an enticing world of books waiting to be read– I went to the library and was mesmerized by a cover of Jude Deveraux-book (shame on me but I really can’t remember the title) and then I was truly lost. I read –no, devoured!- every historical romance I could find in the library and started buying the Candlelight-pockets. And later started buying the historical romances I had first borrowed from the library.

Unfortunately due to many circumstances I had to give up reading for a long period and even lost my precious books I had collected for years. But it proved to be an addiction you can never kick because about 8 months ago my best friend gave me a Candlelight-pocket because she hated the fact we didn’t talk historical romance anymore and that restarted something which will only stop when I die or go blind!

Those are the only two reasons that will be able to make me stop reading books ever again....

A good book to me can only be described with one word: emotions.

I don’t care if it makes me sad, happy, angry or overtook by passion but a book that doesn’t make me feel something, to me is not a good book. When I get goosebumps and that funny feeling in the back of my neck, as if someone is stroking a very sensitive spot....I know I got me a keeper no matter what emotion caused the feeling.

I haven’t been reading English for a long time, I just restarted reading at all 8 months ago and the English books kicked in about 5 monts ago. I started reading English for two reasons. The first reason was because I started reading Stephanie Laurens in Dutch and then suddenly there weren’t any more translated books from her so I turned to the original English books. The second reason is similar. There are so many good books that aren’t being translated, if you don’t want to miss them you have to read the original English books. And to be honest, I think reading a book the way it was meant to be and in it’s originally written form is way better than reading the interpretation of a translator, however good the translator may be!

My first series was Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Dark-Hunters. A review by a certain Dark-Huntress (thank you so much!!!) on a messageboard urged me to buy the series and I was hooked. I plunged myself into a genre I never was attracted to before and now I can’t imagine how I lived without it. Some of my favourite authors are J.R. Ward/ Jessica Bird, Stephanie Laurens, Sherrilyn Kenyon/Kinley MacGregor, Suzanne Enoch, Nicole Jordan, Susan Sizemore, Lisa Kleypas, Susan Elizabeth Phillips and Karen Marie Moning. But for me there are still so much authors to discover that I’m absolutely sure the list will only grow longer and longer in time.

I have no real favourite genre, I really like a lot of genres: regency, medieval, vikings, pirates, highlanders, contemporary, vampires, time-travel. As long as the book is good, the genre doesn’t really matter to me. However, there are some similar genres I’m not particularly fond of and those are the ones on indians or U.S. civil war ...I don’t know why but these just doesn’t seem to capture my interest. Maybe I just haven’t found the good ones yet...

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