Treasured Thursdays: Thanksgiving Edition

Treasured Thursday is a weekly event created by Touya over at The Reader's Garden that is all about our most treasured. We're hosting it here now, for those of you who are interested in joining me. We're changing things up a bit this week in honor of Thanksgiving and today we'll be talking about the author, series and character we're most thankful for. 

This took some major mulling for me. There are so very many wonderful authors, series and characters out there. And I'm thankful for all of them in some way or another. I will start with the easiest one for me. The character I am most thankful for (and probably always will be) is Jo March from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. 

Jo is the first character I ever read about who I immediately felt a kinship to. She wasn't worried about her hair or her clothes, she cared about books and writing. And she, like me, would sit and read for hours, sometimes laughing or crying along with the stories.  Her story remains one of my favorites to this day and I do believe she helped cement my love of the written word. 

As for series I'm most thankful for, I'm cringing just thinking this, but it's true so I have to say it: the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. 

I'm not saying it's the most well-written series I've ever read or even my favorite series ever. It's about the people I've met and the ways my life has branched out because of this series that I'm really thankful for it. Twilight came into my life at a point when I had a lot of stress and worry and it helped me escape and made reading exciting again.  It was the first thing that I was so passionate about that I started a fan community on facebook. Also, I have met so many amazing people thanks to my love of Twilight. It brought me to the YA genre and in a roundabout way, to Lana and blogging. So you could say, I found what I love to do and some of my very best friends all because of this series. For those reasons,  I am definitely thankful for Twilight. 

Moving on to the author I'm most thankful for; again, this took some thought. But, this lovely lady was the very first indie author I ever dealt with and she's a gem, to put it mildly. Michelle Warren, author of the phenomenal Seraphina Parrish trilogy, is the author for which I am the most thankful. 

I will be forever thankful for Michelle Warren because not only did she create an amazing universe for us to read about in her books but she opened the door to the Indie universe to me. I am ashamed to say I had never read a book by an indie author before her so I really didn't know what to expect.  I was completely blown away by Wander Dust and made it a point to search out other indies after I finished it. Now, I'm happy to say that probably 80% of the books I enjoy the most are all written by indie authors.  If not for Michelle Warren, I wouldn't have even looked at some of my favorite books (The Hope Series by Frankie Rose, Intangible by J Meyers, the PJ Stone Trilogy by D.T. Dyllin & so many more). So, thank you again Michelle, for opening up this vast new universe to me with your superb storytelling.  

Okay, so, I honestly don't know what Mel and I were thinking. This has got to be the hardest selection I have ever done. I have been sitting here for hours, trying to figure this out. But I think I've finally got it.

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No, I don't.

Can I be honest? I don't have a character I'm most thankful for. I don't! I'm sorry. I apologize. But honestly, there are too many I care too deeply for. I can't tell you there is one character who changed my life or one who still influences me now. But I don't want to leave you guys hanging... So, my favorite character--

And you wanna know why? Because Butter is the prime underdog of the planet. He's a he (and in YA, this is hard to be), he's fat, he's not the most popular and he's not trying to fit in. I love his story more than any other I've read in the past three years (and I started three years ago, see below) and probably always will. His story broke my heart into tiny little pieces and it'll probably never be whole again. I adore this book with a passion and will always be thankful I found it. xoxo

Now...I feel like a hypocrite saying this, considering how much I bash it and make fun of it, but... But this is truth-

NO ONE HIT ME! Listen. I am not ashamed of this. I remember why I got into this series. I had seen the commercial for the movie every 5 minutes and I'd thought Edward was cute, and therefore ended up watching the movie, and then wanting to read the book, which I got as a present for Easter of 2009. Before Twilight, I didn't really "fangirl" over anything. I watched Criminal Minds and played on a website called Miniclip and Facebook and hung out with my one and only friend at the time and that was it. But when I started the Twilight Saga it gave me something to fangirl over. I'm not saying it's the best thing I've ever read and I'm not saying it's the worst. But what it did was introduce me to vampires, which sent me on a hunt to find a billion fangtastic books (Vampire Academy, Vladimir Todd, Vampire Diaries, etc.) and shows, which led me to fan pages on Facebook, which therefore led me to Mel, whom of which I don't know I would do without at this point. And The Twilight Saga opened up my mind to hundred of books and genres that I never would've went out and found on my own, which means I would never be on this blog that I love. 

So, yes. Twilight is, hands-down, the series I am most thankful for. Thank you for sharing, Stephenie Meyer.

....URGH!! Do you know how hard this is for me? Take one look at my Goodreads shelf and you'll understand. I don't obsess over specific authors often. Yes, I follow David Levithan and Julie Anne Peters and Ellen Hopkins like a creep stalker when it comes to their work, but... Ugh. Okay, I got it. The author I am most thankful for is Auntie Heather Brewer.

And the weird thing is, the only thing I've read of Heather's is her part in Dear Bully. But that tiny little short was enough to make me fall in love with her. And last month, I met her at The Tattered Cover, and just listening to her talk solidified I will forever be a minion. Whether I read Eighth Grade Bites and/or First Kill and hate them both (pfft) or not, I will always love this woman. She has got to be the sweetest person ever, and she's scarily open about her experience with being bullied, and isn't hateful about any of it. I am most thankful for her because she proves to everyone they are not alone, and her love of her minion hoard (aka: fans) is obvious and doesn't seem fake at all. 

Thank you for being there, Auntie. We love you!