Let's Discuss: Spotlight Oldie But Goodie

 

It's time to go back and do another Spotlight on an Oldie, but Goodie book! One of my favorites and I can't remember if I ever did a post diving into the whys of it, I know I've mentioned it over a 1000x or so over the course of this blog, so it's long overdue! Lol.

Spotlight Oldie But Goodie:
Demon in My View by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

So a long, long time ago, my younger self was strolling the shelves on Borders, as I was wont to do and I found this book. It caught my eye with its cover. I mean, a pale guy just sitting there holding a rose, he's a little distorted looking, so I was intrigued! Right away my attention was caught because the blurb mentions a young girl named Jessica who was a writer and catching the wrong kind of attention from the vampires! And I was like interesting. That is when my love affair with Amelia Atwater-Rhodes' Demon in My View began! Lol.

So I read the book and my mind was just blown! I am 99% certain that I might have read this one before the first book of the world series. It wasn't necessary to read the first book first as I later learned, it's just where you see a different different side to the reluctant vampire hero, Aubrey.

I guess what I found soooo fascinating was watching the character of Aubrey take form! He started out as a villain and became more of a hero and I just WHOA! This was the first instance that I had ever seen this in reading as it was my first paranormal read and therefore my first read outside the "normal world."

This quickly spawned a love for all things paranormal! I was back at the bookstore looking for more paranormal reads and let me tell you, those were tough times (and still are!)! Contemporary was the genre publishers assumed teens wanted at that time, but every once in awhile I could find something that wasn't contemporary. Sometimes it even involved me picking up a title that was ten years old at that time but was still on the shelves!

But find YA paranormal titles I did! It was challenging, but I found so many great reads back then that are still books I look fondly on now. I suppose this is how all the scholarly people think of the classic classics, the ones that put me to sleep in school and dreaded reading. 

But anyway, what I loved about this book was how it blended the vampires into the modern world. That they were always there hiding in the shadows. Some are good, some are not so good, and some evolved from one to the other. It was amazing. I knew in a sense that Amelia didn't have the invention of the vampire and reluctant hero. I knew enough to know that every story is different back then. This book just gripped my heart and didn't let go! I positively adored it and I can remember many times I read this one. Yes, I used to re-read books a lot! Especially when there wasn't an abundance of paranormal titles to read. I had to re-read books and this one I re-read so many times.

Did you ever encounter a book that just gripped you so fiercely and never let go? What was that book? Or what was the book that spawned your love of reading? What book made you go out to the store or library and hunt endlessly for similar titles? This was that book for me!