My Year With Nora

This year has been a interesting one for me. I took six months off of university, and spent that time with my family. I was diagnosed with anxiety, which in hindsight was a wakeup call I needed. I got some counselling and sorted out my life.

I also decided to pick up a Nora Roberts book for the first time. I have been reading romance novels for about three years at this point, reading my first around this time in 2009. The reason I avoided Nora’s books is because I wasn’t sure they were romance, I thought they might be “women’s fiction” with romantic elements.

I took the plunge in April about when The Last Boyfriend was released. I used my local library, which felt a little awkward as the librarians there are the same ones who set me up with my first library card back when I was eight. My first Nora Roberts book was The Quinn Brothers a reprint of the first two books in the Chesapeake Bay Saga. Then I borrowed the next two and read them.

I was hooked. So I looked up her books and set myself a list, from the earliest single title books Nora wrote that weren’t Harlequin/Mills and Boon to the latest books. Not because I don’t respect Harlequin but because after twenty years the effort to find those books just isn’t worth it; I know some if not all have been reprinted in light of Nora’s success, but still.

Using my list the next books I requested from the library were the Born In trilogy. Around this time I also joined a book club run by the library, which was a good experience and although I was the youngest there by decades, all the people were very welcoming and encouraging.

This first half of the year was very low key for me, apart from helping my mother and reading the major undertaking was my counselling sessions for anxiety.

I also read the Dream trilogy, the Gallagher’s trilogy and the Key trilogy which I borrowed from the local library and read in that order.

Around half way through the year I returned to the city for University. I ended up in a different place to last year which meant joining yet another library. I now have memberships at four different libraries within my state, something I am both proud and embarrassed by.

I reserved and read the Three Sister’s Island trilogy before I ended up without a car. I had to spend several hours on a weekend going to the Uni campus using public transport because my regular bus doesn’t run on weekends. But I am proud of the fact I got up every day for Uni at 7, well 7:30 and walked to my bus-stop and got to Uni. Something I know I could never have done two years ago living alone(ish) for the first time. Also positive was the inability to get to fast food.

I took the bus to the library to pick the In the Garden and Circle trilogies; at separate times. I’m very proud of my prowess with the bus system at the moment.

This semester was fraught with both highs and lows. Unlike previous years at Uni I was able to do far more cooking, if only of my meals which still remains as a soothing activity.

Then after my exams which included a Saturday exam, seriously guys wth? and an almost two week break between my first and last exams. I had one on the first day of the exam period and one on the third and second-to-last days of the exam period.

I picked up the Sign of Seven trilogy from my city library and brought them home with me. Reading in the wee hours of the day, and sleeping in, the way only I can when I have nothing pressing in the mornings. I also helped my mother and sisters by cooking tea while they worked. Honestly, my sisters can get jobs but I can’t get one in the city?

On a trip back to the city I picked up the Bridal quartet before Christmas which I read amongst others as I frantically tried to reach my Goodreads set goal of 800 books for the year. (What was I thinking?)

So, next year will I pick another’s author’s backlist? No. This was not a plan, it just happened to take up an entire year. My plans for next year are to finish of my degree at university and to read as much as that allows in my “spare time”. I also hope to post at least one review per month here.