Wow! My blog was taken over in style this past week!! I have to give a HUGE, smexy thank you to Erotic Horizon and Cecile from All I Want and More for taking over my blog. Months ago I asked these two lovely ladies if they wouldn’t mind doing a guest review or post while I went on vacation. I never expected it to turn into a week long extravaganza! I know they put weeks and weeks of planning and work into this and I am so appreciative that they did this for me!!! I honestly had no idea what they were doing…and what they did blew me away. I actually snuck away for an hour while on vacation to a little cafe that had WIFI access to check in. I couldn’t believe everything that was going on. So thank you to Erotic and Cecile!!!! I honestly can not say thank you enough!!
A Smexy Thank You!
Speaking of my vacation, can I just say, I don’t want to see sand for another year!! No, we had tons of fun at the beach, the kids loved it, it was nice and relaxing. While we were there the boys took one day to go golfing, so the girls of course needed one day to ourselves. Besides finding some cute shops and the best little wine and cheese shop for lunch, I had to go back to one of my favorite bookstores, Beach Bag Books & Music in the Outer Banks of North Carolina.
Last year when we went to the Outer Banks, I brought a little book called Twilight with me. Anyone heard of it? :) So I read it I think the first day on the beach and became a teeny bit obsessed with Edward and company, so I immediately found a phone book in our beach house and started calling bookstores to see who had New Moon and Eclipse in stock. This is how I discovered Beach Bag Books & More.
I walked into this store, owned by the lovely Sarah Keating and right in front of me is an entire bookcase titled – Vampire Fiction. At that point I was not huge into paranormal romance, so I turned to my friend with a little snicker and was like – who would have a section just for vampires???
While I was there, Sarah’s coworker Julia Pierce, told me that if I liked Twilight, I had to read JR Ward – because those vampires are the real thing. So I stored JR Ward’s name back in my brain, picked up my New Moon and left. When I got home last year, I had nothing to read so I decided to try JR Ward. Hello!!!! Favorite author now!!
(You know I stayed in the Steamy and Romantic section for awhile!)
Last week I could not wait to go back to that bookstore to tell them they got me started on JR Ward which turned into a massive reading obsession and eventually Smexy Books!! Plus, an entire section totally devoted to Vampire Fiction!! That is so awesome..it is my dream bookstore. If (and when!!) I open my own bookstore, that will be the first bookcase organized:)
Now back to real life. At first I was bummed it is Monday, but then I remembered Destined For an Early Grave – Jeaniene Frost comes out tomorrow!! My week is looking up!
RKCharron says
Hi :)
An excellent blog post.
The joy of discovering a new writer you love is tremendous and that it lead into a whole new genre is terrific.
Thanks for sharing.
Love from Northern Ontario
twitter.com/RKCharron
xoxo
PS – I am your 100th Member! xo
Mandi says
RKCharron – Yay!! Thanks for being my 100th follower!! It is the best thing when you find a new author you love:)
Blodeuedd says
Fun week indeed :D
JR Ward was kind of the person who got me started in this direction too, her and Kelley Armstrong
Blanche says
Welcome back from vacation! That bookstore looks amazing! :)
This past week was a lot of fun, I discovered several new to me authors!! :)EH and Cecile are the best!!
Patti says
Glad you had a nice vacation – welcome back! I went from Twilight to Sookie to JR Ward on my journey to discovering sexy vampires. I'm also looking forward to Jeaniene Frost's book release tomorrow!! I <3 Bones :)
Stacy~ says
Love these kind of bookstores. I'm going to a UBS on Sunday to see Julie James & Beth Kery, and though it's small, it's got a great set-up that focuses mainly on romances.
Glad you had a fun vacay. It's hard to see them end. Welcome back – we missed you :)
Katiebabs a.k.a KB says
What a lovely book store. So many pretty books.
Mary says
Isn't it great when you have good memories of a place and book like that? Loved your story. So, which J.R. Ward book should I start with – since I haven't read any???
Mandi says
Blodeuedd – I just read Bitten last week…total Armstrong fan girl now!
Blanche – so glad you discovered new authors! EH and Cecile are the best!
Mandi says
Patti – I heart Bones too:) Such a good series!!
Stacy – the little bookstores are always the best:)
Katie – yes it was lovely!
Mary – Dark Lover!!!
Shannon says
I'm glad you had fun, what a great book store. Welcome back, last week was great I found a few new authors in your take over.
Donna (Fantasy Dreamer) says
I really like the look of the bookstore. Very nice.
Welcome back!
Lea says
Welcome Back Mandy!!
Looks like you had an awesome vacation, wonderful pictures.
Best
L
Tricia says
Hey Mandi Welcome Back!
The ladies did an awesome job last week :) It sounds like you had a great time and what a cute little bookstore.