As some of you may know, I love to read. So naturally, I have to write about books once in a while.
When I was eight years old, my parents got me a membership to the local library, to save themselves from having to buy me new books every single day. That’s right, I read like crazy. My mom loves to tell the story of how she found me, a wee two-year-old, crying on the bed with a book in my hands. The reason behind my tears: I really wanted to read by myself, but I couldn’t. So she ran to the nearest bookstore to get me booklets to teach me how to read.
My passion for books still exists today, but sadly, I barely read for fun these days. Don’t get me wrong, I love the things I get to read for my classes, but it’s different when I get to choose what I read. For me, a trip to Waterstones is like a trip to Disneyland, but at the same time it’s pure torture. SO MANY BOOKS, SO LITTLE MONEY. I kid you not, I usually leave the store half in tears, because I wanted to buy 50 books, and I had money for two. Sometimes I’m so overwhelmed, I leave empty-handed and I need to cheer myself up by going to TopShop or River Island. But I’ll tell you about my shopping addiction some other time.
Anyway, I want to tell you about a book I recently read by Santa Montefiore: The House by the Sea. Altogether, it took me about four hours to read all of it, because it was perfect. I love authors who grab my attention from the very first sentence. It is amazing to feel like the characters in a novel are your friends. On more than one occasion I found myself talking to the characters, out loud. I tried to give them advice, as if they could hear me. Maybe that means I’m crazy, but I like to think it shows just how good a writer actually is. I was sad for an entire week after I finished reading The House by the Sea. It’s been almost three months since I read it, and I still think about Mariana and her little hotel every day.
What really captured me was the fact that the characters were all so well-rounded. The detailed descriptions were beautiful and I didn’t have any trouble imagining myself in the scenery, but the characters are what did it for me. I mean I hated Clementine at first. I didn’t understand why she had to be so selfish and rude and unambitious. But towards the end of the novel I just wanted to be friends with her and I RARELY change my opinion about characters.
Two days after I finished my book, I went straight to Waterstones to buy another book by Santa Montefiore. To be totally honest, I have a tiny crush on her writing style. If I could marry her books, I would (apologies to the boyfriend, but I just have so many feelings about her novels). It is my mission to read all of them before the year ends. On the other hand, if do manage to accomplish that, I have no clue what to do with my life after that. Knowing me, I’ll probably start all over. Or I’ll just read Harry Potter again, since I read the series about once every year.
Talk to you later,
Mel ♥
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