Are you in?

“Each month beginning March 1st, 2012, challenge members will read or re-read the title for that month. In addition, challenge members will either post a review, their reading experience, character castings or anything else related to that title. You have freedom to have fun with your monthly post so be creative! Seeing as this series is 13 novels long, this challenge will last 13 months.” – Moonlight Gleam’s Bookshelf

Ever since meeting my good friend Becca in highschool, she’s constantly bugged me to read. One fateful day in 2002, after telling her I’d gone to see Twilight she said “If you liked that movie, you have to read Kelley Armstrong’s Bitten.” She told me that Kelley’s books were for adults. Supernatural without all the swooning and while I enjoy a good chick flick now and again, teenage swooning is a little much for me. So, I gave in. I went to my local library to see if they had Bitten. Being a non reader, I refused to buy the book. By the fourth chapter I was hooked. My husband came home from work to a disastrous house, wanting an explanation. The sink was still full of dishes and we had no clean clothes. I hadn’t been able to put down my book. 🙂  I’ve gotten somewhat better since then. 😉

Ebay became my new best friend, allowing me to buy the whole series in one big lot. Then I found out that the series wasn’t even done! Living with the Dead was due out soon and I already couldn’t wait. I hadn’t even started Stolen yet.  To this day, I still go back, re-reading my favorite parts of my favorite Kelley books. Now, I’m waiting with great anticipation for Thirteen. It’s a bag of mixed emotions.

Kelley’s writing introduced me to the joys of reading and I’ve never turned back. Kim Harrison and Patricia Briggs have both joined Kelley on my favorites list. I even have Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth series under my belt. I’ve never read books so thick!  There are many more who’s writing I’ve enjoyed all because of Kelley Armstrong and a little book called Bitten. Since then, I’ve also joined her OWG and started a bit of writing of my own.

This challenge is special to me. I’ve never gone back and re read the whole series as a whole. I can’t wait to find thing I’m sure I don’t remember from my first read through. I want to re-discover the characters lost to me. I’m going to go in looking to see more in the MC’s that never made it to my favorites list, watching everyone as they grow into who they are today. Re-reading the series, remembering why I fell in love with these books and reading as a whole, is the perfect tribute to Thirteen‘s release. Going back to the beginning, to immortalize the end.

So, are you in? If you haven’t read Kelley Armstrong’s Women of the Otherworld, there’s no better time to start.

Or maybe you’ve already joined Moonlight Gleam’s Otherworld challenge. If so, what are you looking forward to most?