“Heirs of Anton” series by Susan K. Downs & Susan May Warren

It’s been years since I read this series, but I loved it!
And I’m really looking forward to re-visiting it. 🙂

One thing I especially love about this series is how it appears to be written in reverse.  By that, I mean that the series progresses backward in time– each book telling the story of the previous heroine’s ancestor (#1 set in the early 2000’s, #2 starting in 1970, #3 starting in 1941, and #4 starting in 1917).  This is the only series I have ever read that is like that, but I would love to read another!

Heirs of Anton
~ Susan K. Downs & Susan May Warren ~

I recently finished re-reading Ekaterina by Susan K. Downs and Susan May Warren.  It’s the first book in their Heirs of Anton series.  And it’s just as good the second time through! 🙂

My wonderful sister-in-law introduced me to this series (and to Susan May Warren) when it first came out about ten years ago.  I absolutely loved it!  I’ve “re-browsed” the books a couple of times since then, though I have never actually re-read them.

So, a little over a week ago, I was having difficulty choosing a book to read.  I picked up several different books.  One by one I selected them from my shelf or kindle.  I would read a few pages of one… a couple chapters of another… and inevitably put each one back where I’d found it.  I wanted to read!  I almost felt a need to read!  But I just could not seem to find the right book!
*cue feelings of sympathy & pity for me for having to go through such turmoil*

It would be a while before I would be able to make it to my library, so I logged into my library’s online e-book lending site and browsed.  And browsed….. *sigh* …and browsed.  I looked at historical, I looked at contemporary…  I looked at mystery, suspense, romance, comedy….  Yet I found nothing that caught my attention!

Finally, I decided that maybe I should just take a reading break.  Yes, you read that correctly.  A break.  And no, I do not make a habit of taking such breaks.  But I was in a reading funk and thought there might be no way out other than to simply stop reading (maybe I was trying too hard) and wait for some book to just pop out at me or something.

But how long might that take?!

Then I went to my brother and sister-in-law’s house and, as I often do, I decided to browse her bookshelf.  (Let’s take a moment here to really appreciate — and thank God for! — those people in our lives whose taste in books is so similar to our own! 😉 )  Anyway, while browsing, I happened upon this series and it grabbed my attention.  I thought to myself, “I’ve been meaning to re-read that series… Why haven’t I done that yet?”

So I took the first book off the shelf and just held it for a moment, looking it over and considering it… feeling it.  (Yeah, I know it may sound a little weird, but sometimes I can tell just from that whether or not I want to read a book.  I’m sure some of you book nerds out there will understand.)  And the book seemed to whisper to me, “Yes, I’m the one.  Pick me.  Disappear into my story, visit my places and spend some time with my people for a while.  You know you want to…”

And I did!  I had finally found the book that I really wanted to read!  The book that captured my attention and held fast — before I even opened it!  The book that got me out of my funk. 🙂

So this is what I’m reading right now…  I haven’t written a review for any of these books and I don’t know that I ever really will.  But I will say this: Check out this series!  Give it a try and see what you think.  Maybe you’ll love it as much as I did! 😀

Check out the entire series!

(Click the images for links)