TGIF Follow Friday (3)

TGIF is a weekly feature created and hosted byGReads! that re-caps the week’s posts and has different question each week.

This Friday's Question:

Gateway Books: Which particular books opened you up to a new genre?

For a long time during college and grad school, it seemed as though most of what I read was graphic novels and manga. While these are great books unto themselves, I missed being able to just sit down and read a book. College will definitely burn you out on reading, let me tell you.  I think it was actually three books (given to me by the same person) that opened me up to Young Adult Literature.  

First was Maria V. Snyder's Poison Study, which rekindled my love of fantasy books. In addition, I think that might have influenced my desire to bake, thanks to all the cinnamon swirl references. Then, there was Annette Curtis Klause's Blood and Chocolate, an amazing werewolf love story that really helped me delve more into the werewolf novels. After that was Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver, and I was blown away by this particular genre. So I have to say thank you to Karen of Books Beside My Bed for getting me to branch out into YA through these novels. ^_^

Special Side Dish: Speaking of YA books, check out Marla's Bump in the Night Giveaway going on now at Starting the Next Chapter!