Anyone who knew her well knew to not trust her with any form of money in a bookstore. Given the chance, Angela would spend everything she had and would walk out with her arms overflowing with books. This had been the case since she was little. She was always getting in trouble for reading during classes despite already having her schoolwork done. When she began her career as an editor and moved into her own apartment her book collection doubled. She had long ago run out of shelves and dresser space at home to keep her book collection so many of her books were scattered around her apartment.
Her personal library included the following series: the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan, the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling, the Kane Chronicles trilogy by Rick Riordan, the Michael Vey series by Richard Paul Evans, the Heroes of Olympus series by Rick Riordan, The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins, the Magnus Chase trilogy by Rick Riordan, the Lunar Chronicles series by Marissa Meyer, the Trials of Apollo series by Rick Riordan, the Divergent series by Veronica Roth, the Prophecy of the Sisters trilogy by Michelle Zink, the Infernal Devices trilogy by Cassandra Clare, the Vampirates series by Justin Somper, the Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare, the Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien, Mary Stewart’s Merlin Trilogy, the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis, the Blue Blood series by Melissa de la Cruz, Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer, the Ender’s Saga by Orson Scott Card, the King Killer Chronicles series by Patrick Rothfuss, the Alvin Maker series by Orson Scott Card, the Full Moon series by Ellen Schreiber, the Keeper’s Chronicles by Becky Wallace, the A-Z Mysteries series by Ron Roy, the Magic Tree House series by Mary Pope Osborne, the Sherlock Holmes collection by Arthur Connan Doyle, the Grimm’s Fairytales by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, the Young Merlin trilogy by Jane Yolen, the How to Train Your Dragon collection by Cressida Cowell, The Ranger’s Apprentice series by John Flanagan, the Zeroes series by Scott Westerfield, and the A series of Unfortunate Events series by Daniel Handler.
She also had the following books in her collection: Snow Treasure by Marie McSwigan, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, Trust No One by Paul Cleave, Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen, The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, Persuasion by Jane Austen, Space Boy by Orson Scott Card, Mansfield Park by Jane Austen, The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, Emma by Jane Austen, The Host by Stephanie Meyer, Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, The Princess Curse by Merrie Haskell, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, both Hidden Talents and True Talents by David Lobar, Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke, Robin Hood: The Real Story of the English Outlaw by Jim Bradbury, Pirates! By Celia Rees, Hamlet by William Shakespear, Animal Farm by George Orwell, Othello by William Shakespear, Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut, King Lear by William Shakespear, The Odyssey by Homer, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Scarlett Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, The Crucible by Arthur Miller, The Giver by Lowis Lorey, The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, Tom’s Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce, The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster, Black Beauty by Anna Sewell, Séance by Shannon Taggart, Cycle of the Werewolf by Stephen King, Greatest Works of Edgar Allen Poe by Edgar Allen Poe, Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell, The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, and The Birds by Daphne du Maurier.
Angela was proud of her personal library and refused to listen to anyone who told her she had too many books and should get rid of some. Dating had been a struggle for years with the men she dated thinking her too strange or having too high of standards. She had adopted a cat in the meantime and ended up meeting a man she claimed to be too good to be true. They dated for two and a half years before he proposed to her at her apartment after taking her to Barnes & Nobel’s to add five more books to her collection.
As she watched her fiancé install new bookshelves for her collection around the house, which he had bought for the two of them to move in on their wedding day, she felt tears prick her eyes. He turned to her with a proud smile on his face that damped when he saw her face. He set down his electric screwdriver and approached her, pulling her into a hug.
“Something wrong?” he asked.
She shook her head. “You are amazing!”
He squeezed her tighter and pulled back to look at her with a soft smile.
“Do I get a prize?” he asked teasingly with wiggling eyebrows.
“You want a trophy?” she asked with a wet chuckle.
He shook his head. “Just a kiss.”
She pulled him in once more.