Page 2 of Bookworm

"I preferred movies, and besides, there were so many other fun things to do. Plus, the books they required us to read in school sucked."

She finally looked up and crossed her arms.

"Like really sucked," I said. "Depression-inducing tales by men who were either too out of touch to write for normal people or too stuck up to even try."

Her mother frowned, but the girl chuckled.

"Sounds about right," she said. Thenshe gestured to me, "But then how'd you end up working at a library?"

I grinned. "Well, when I was about your age, I startedmaking my own reading choices. Turns out I have better taste than the board of education."

"Books are so boring though."

"Not all of them."

"They're depressing like you said."

"Not always," I replied. "Some books can bring you to whole new worlds where there areawesome characters with superpowers and epic battle scenes and even a little romance—if you're into that kind of thing.YAfantasy has some great choices."

After a beat, she shrugged. "That doesn't sound so bad."

"I can give you a couple recommendations if you like," I said. "There's just one catch."

"What?"

"If you love it, you have to come back and tell me."

"And if I hate it?" she said with an arched brow.

I shrugged. "Then I guess you can tell me that too—but you won't hate it. Matching books with readers who will love them is my superpower. It's a librarian's assistant thing."

The girl rolled her eyes again, but I wrote down the book recs for her and her mother, pointed them in the right direction, and a few minutes later, they checked out both books (as well as a few others in the series). As they were leaving Darlene/Darkling was already nose-deep in book one, and her mom turned back to mouth "Thank you" before they left.

"I still don't get how you do it," Casey said in awe.

"Do what?" I said.

"That girl was two seconds away from burning the whole library down, and you converted her in under five minutes."

"Oh that."I smiled and stretched."What can I say?It's a gift."

Natalia walked over then, pushing the book cart back into place. "We've really got to figure out a better system. Some of those books are heavy," she said, pushing the glasses back onto her face and wiping her brow."What did I miss?"

"A mysterious stranger walked in," I said with a smile.

Casey nodded. "He was tall, dark, and handsome."

"Oh yes," Natalia said.

"But not too handsome," I put in.

Casey put her hands on her hips with a pout. "Why not?"

"Yeah Lottie," Natalia said, "you never want them to be gorgeous.Why is that again?"

I nearly laughed at their petulant expressions. "Because as everyone knows, if they're too pretty, they usually can't be trusted."

My friends sighed in unison.

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