Every Book Deserves Another First Reader

Good morning, friend.

Put the kettle on (or pour the coffee—I won’t judge). Pull up a chair.

This week I’ve been thinking about...

The life of a book.

I know. It’s not something that often crosses your mind, probably. But as both an author and a reader, I spend more than a little time thinking about the life and times of certain books.

As a reader, I appreciate that a book like Celia Garth by Gwen Bristow, published in 1959, still matters to me today. I’ve read this book so frequently, it feels like a beloved friend.

I also appreciate that Kristin Callihan’s first football romance The Hook-Up still brings me the warm fuzzies when I do my annual re-read.

The sort of lifespans these books have are the stuff of author dreams. Think about it: we pour our hearts, our time, our energy, and sometimes, our very souls into our books. We carefully and with love launch them out into the world with such hope.

With any luck, our literary offspring makes a big splash, is loved by thousands (millions?) of readers, lives long and prospers.

Even so, just about every book eventually passes out of its time in the sun. It joins the ranks of our backlist.

But as I’ve ventured into the next phase of my author life—Chapter Two—one phrase has danced around my mind.

Every Book Deserves Another First Reader.

This idea just makes me so happy because I do love all of my books, and I’m very excited to think about all the first readers who are going to discover the love story goodness.

You may have been with me for a long time. Maybe you read my first few books . . . maybe you’ve read some of the others along the way. Or maybe you’ve joined me more recently, and you’ve only dipped your toe into my later releases.

Either way, I have lots of options for you to be a first reader of one of my books!

When I was at Writers on the River, many visitors to my table asked me where they should begin reading my books. There’s not really one correct answer . . .

My favorite places for people to start reading are:

Sugar Huddle—where football romance begins. It’s the first book in my Leo/Quinn/Nate saga, where we meet all of the characters who figure largely in the next six books.

The Last One—where Burton begins. I only planned to write one book in this little town just west of Savannah, but here we are, twenty-seven books later! I love Burton, and spending time there is always a pleasure.

The Posse—where contemporary romance began for me. I never planned to write contemporary romance—this was just meant to be a one-off. And then . . . just as Jude and Logan fell in love, so did I.

The Anti-Cinderella—a dream story come true! I had been writing Kyra and Nicky’s romance in my head since I was a teenager, so making it all a reality was incredible.

Maximum Force-where my military world began. It was so much fun to discover these hunky Army guys and share the women who made them go gooey with love!

You can find all of the titles above at Tawdra Kandle Books, on Kobo, Google Play, and Apple Books.

Because every book deserves another first reader. <3

Today’s mug for Coffee with Tawdra reads, “Cultivate deep roots and grow in joy”.

Joy has been a sort of buzzword for me over the past few years. Not that life has been filled with sunshine and unicorns—I’ve had the same ups and downs we all experience. But even so, the word joy and its many facets have been popping up all over the place, like quiet but persistent reminders.

One place joy has been pervasive is within a book I’ve been writing for almost four years. That’s a long time for me! This book is different than anything I’ve created, and it is destined to be published in a different way than any of my other books. I can’t share any other hints, but I can tell you that writing this story has brought me tremendous joy.

As do all of you.

Want to do me a quick but very important favor?

My new(ish) Instagram account Tawdra Kandle Books needs more followers so that I can do some kind of cool things to share about my books.

If you’re following me on my personal account or not at all, could you please follow me on Tawdra Kandle Books?

Or if you’re a TikTok fan, you can follow me there. I’m trying to pop up there now and then, too!

Thanks so much. I appreciate it.