What YA book are you reading RIGHT NOW?, issue 2

Ellaroni

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Finished the Kody Keplinger book already. Short, sweet for summer, but the MC was so grumpy I felt my own good mood disappearing!

Next up is Laura Lam's SHADOWPLAY.
 

Quentin Nokov

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The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater.

It's actually better than I thought it would be. The beginning made me doubt, but now that I'm 3/5 of the way through it, I got to say, it's pretty good. :)
 

Momento Mori

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I've almost finished PURITY by Jackson Pearce and I'm having a massive problem with the central premise (which I'll hide for spoilers). Basically, the MC seems to think that a promise to "love and listen" to her father means that she has to obey him and at no point so far in her search for a loophole to one situation has anyone sat her down and said "listen does not mean obey - it just means listen". Maybe this is one of those English-English/American-English translation/cultural things but it is seriously beginning to annoy me and it's a shame because otherwise this is a perfectly fine YA sex comedy with some good lines and nice supporting characters.

Not sure what I'll read next - debating a couple of choices including a Marcus Sedgewick and GRASSHOPPER JUNGLE (which I've heard is great).

MM
 

rose3

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reading now

Reading now Extinction - Daleen Viljoen. Love it. Easy and enjoyable to read. Love the romance and the hunky alien mixed with enough action. Anyone else read it?
 

Momento Mori

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Finished PURITY by Jackson Pearce and I never got over my central issue re the promise point. There's some nice themes about loss and religion and it's breezy enough but it didn't do it for me.

I'm about to start A LOVE LIKE BLOOD by Marcus Sedgwick, which I think is another adult venture for him but seems to be about vampires, which he's been good on in the past.

MM
 

endearing

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Momento Mori, I feel you on Purity. The main premise on the promises being so important/unbreakable was never quite believable enough for me, and the rest of it just wasn't particularly satisfying.

Gave up on Schasm--just really wasn't for me. Finished Of Sea and Stone by Kate Avery Ellison, who is definitely my favorite indie author. Now armed with a new stack of library books, starting Alienated by Melissa Landers. :)
 

Yeasayer

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Finished LOVE AND OTHER FOREIGN WORDS by Erin McCahan. Loved the voice. I laughed out loud quite a few times. Although the narrator, Josie, and my teenage self had nothing in common on the surface (me=not a genius, not a straight girl, not from a wealthy family, etc.), I saw a lot of me-at-16 in her. It seemed like a refreshing take on how a teenage genius might actually think/act/feel.

Side note: I'm starting to notice a trend of titles that are [BLANK] and Other [BLANK].


And I finally got around to reading Huntley Fitzpatrick's new book WHAT I THOUGHT WAS TRUE. Her debut was a five-star favorite of mine. I'm not sure why I put this one off, maybe it didn't sound as appealing to me? But wow, I loved it so much. I love the worlds she creates. Much like Sarah Dessen, I kind of want to live in them. For people who had some criticisms about how perfect Samantha and Jase were from MY LIFE NEXT DOOR, you'll be happy to know Gwen and Cass are very flawed.

Bonus points for being sex positive and family positive. Fitzpatrick always has family at the forefront, no matter what's going on with the romance. You don't see that very often.
 

Velvet27

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I've just finished If I Stay and Where I Went by Gayle Forman. They were alright, I really liked how quick and easy they were to read. If they had been any longer they would have dragged.

Next up in the YA department for me is The Giver series by Lois Lowry. Well, I'll read the first one. If I like it, it'll be the rest of the series.
 

Velvet27

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The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater.

It's actually better than I thought it would be. The beginning made me doubt, but now that I'm 3/5 of the way through it, I got to say, it's pretty good. :)

I've got intentions to read that book / series. I read The Scorpio Races by her and loved it. Something a bit different, but really enjoyable.
 

Taylor Kowalski

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It's more MG than YA, but I'm about halfway through MY NAME IS MINA, which is bizarre as hell. I think I like it? It's a quick read, at the very least.

I'm planning on starting Libba Bray's THE DIVINERS next. It'll be my first Libba Bray novel. Properly excited. :D
 

Taylor Kowalski

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The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater.

It's actually better than I thought it would be. The beginning made me doubt, but now that I'm 3/5 of the way through it, I got to say, it's pretty good. :)

Is that worth keeping with? It sort of lost steam for me once Blue and Gansey (was that his name?) actually met. I might give it another go one of these days.
 
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I tried to read The Raven Boys, but I couldn't keep it up. maybe I should give it another shot.





ION, I'm reading The Disreputable History, and it's absolutely fantastic. Sometimes I think maybe there's something to these fancy boarding schools with their ginormous(apparently vBulletin accepts that as a real word) campuses. You could never get up to this kind of fun in any of the schools I briefly attended.

I now kind of want to write a YA novel in the form of a Disreputable History all marked up by the group members. Naturally, some impossible liberated young lady shall interfere with the plans within. It will be from the club's point of view, of course, and the young lady shall be a most frustrating and hateful villain. I am probably not the first person to have this idea, but sometimes it's okay to follow the path most travelled by.
 
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SillyMom25

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I recently read an ARC of DANGEROUS BOYS and it was awesome. Didn't love it quite as much as DANGEROUS GIRLS, but the author is extremely talented at slowly unfolding a riveting story.
 

wampuscat

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Finished LOVE AND OTHER FOREIGN WORDS by Erin McCahan. Loved the voice. I laughed out loud quite a few times. Although the narrator, Josie, and my teenage self had nothing in common on the surface (me=not a genius, not a straight girl, not from a wealthy family, etc.), I saw a lot of me-at-16 in her. It seemed like a refreshing take on how a teenage genius might actually think/act/feel.

Side note: I'm starting to notice a trend of titles that are [BLANK] and Other [BLANK].


And I finally got around to reading Huntley Fitzpatrick's new book WHAT I THOUGHT WAS TRUE. Her debut was a five-star favorite of mine. I'm not sure why I put this one off, maybe it didn't sound as appealing to me? But wow, I loved it so much. I love the worlds she creates. Much like Sarah Dessen, I kind of want to live in them. For people who had some criticisms about how perfect Samantha and Jase were from MY LIFE NEXT DOOR, you'll be happy to know Gwen and Cass are very flawed.

Bonus points for being sex positive and family positive. Fitzpatrick always has family at the forefront, no matter what's going on with the romance. You don't see that very often.

I have the sample of WHAT I THOUGHT WAS TRUE on my nook, but for some reason I haven't gotten to it yet. I think, given what you've written above, I'll have to take a look at it. We seem to have similar tastes in books.

I'm just about done with WILD AWAKE. It's beautifully written and terribly intriguing, but I feel like some of the plot isn't as fully developed as I'd prefer it to be.
 

Momento Mori

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Momento Mori, I feel you on Purity. The main premise on the promises being so important/unbreakable was never quite believable enough for me, and the rest of it just wasn't particularly satisfying.

Yes to this. :)

Just finished A LOVE LIKE BLOOD by Marcus Sedgwick. It's his first adult novel and I really didn't like it. It's a lame, dull vampire story with an MC who is an utter and irredeemable idiot.

Have just started THE YEAR OF THE RAT by Clare Furniss, which is a YA about a girl who loses her mother in childbirth and blames her newborn baby sister. The dialogue's a little clunky but the voice is great so far and I'm interested in seeing how it develops.

MM
 

The_Ink_Goddess

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Just finished CHARM & STRANGE. I had some pretty big issues with it - I generally hate the elliptical and deliberately vague structure wherein the protagonist refuses to discuss something terrible and traumatic happened to them except for vague glimpses; it sometimes feels like a cheap way to "discuss" an issue without actually discussing it, like having your cake and eating it. C+S couldn't quite convince me on this structure (though I wouldn't say I hated it), nothing from the "present" section could drag me in as much as the eerie and claustrophobic "present" sections, and I didn't like how long it was dragged out before we had any answers, I thought it could do with more development and just more words -- but GODDAMN it was emotional. I'm physically aching all over. Everyone's saying how bad they felt for Win, and I felt bad for Win, but I felt terrible for Keith. Yeah, it was great.
 
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Yeasayer

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I have the sample of WHAT I THOUGHT WAS TRUE on my nook, but for some reason I haven't gotten to it yet. I think, given what you've written above, I'll have to take a look at it. We seem to have similar tastes in books.

Forewarning: A lot of people had trouble plowing through the first couple chapters, but then warmed up to it once they got used to the world. I didn't quite have this problem, but I did think the first two or so chapters had way too many characters popping up.
 
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Quentin Nokov

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I tried to read The Raven Boys, but I couldn't keep it up. maybe I should give it another shot.
.

I'll admit it was difficult to get going. The main charactre has a really stupid name too. Blue? Really? I kept thinking of "Blue Skiddoo We Can Too!"

I finished The Raven Boys, and I'm not overly bright, but I didn't get the ending. [Spoiler > I didn't understand what Adam was "sacrificing" to wake up the ley-line. Or Gansey's "Am I that horrible to you?" statement. I know Adam has pride issues, but what exactly was he sacrificing? It couldn't have been his pride. I felt at a loss. The reasoning wasn't clear and possibly even forced. Can someone explain what was really going on?

I'll probably read the next one when it comes out, but I'll admit, I'm not sure I have high hopes for the next two books. I'm afraid I'll get annoyed.

ANYWAY! I'm going to try and read THE LIST by Siobhan Vivian. Hopefully it can hold my attention. I think I might be ADHD.
 

CQuinlan

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I'm just starting Rachel Arron/Bach's 'Nice dragons finish last'. I enjoyed her Eli books and her Fortune's Pawn series (although I didn't think it was as good-but that could be just because I prefer Fantasy to Sci-fi).

She's self-published this one and I'm curious to see if it suffers because of it. I'm only one or two chapters in so I can't tell yet.
 

Windcutter

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Can someone explain what was really going on?
I'll put spoilers about THE RAVEN BOYS in white. That's what I think happened

I think Gansey's influence makes Adam want to give up the fight and allow Gansey to support him. It's like being seduced by Gansey's friendship with benefits, and Adam feels it's robbing him of strength somehow, and he's mad that Gansey has a problem seeing the effect.

As for the sacrifice, I think Adam sort of allowed the energy to live within him. He became part of the ley line, and ley line entered him. He's fiercely independent, and now he belongs to the ley line. That's what he gave up. He'll never be his own person now, not completely.


end of white
 

LadyA

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I haven't been on this thread as much as usual (because I am taking ages to get through books atm with my new job), so now I'm going to multiquote a ton of people - sorry! :)


I'm currently reading MY LAST KISS. Reminds me of Pretty Little Liars meets Before I Fall, maybe a little Lovely Bones.

I really want to read this, but I've been put off because it looks a bit fluffy and ditzy - but your description makes me really want to read it! All three books/series have darkness and hauntingness (not a word, I know) to them, and I love that.

Is it relatively dark/haunting, then?

I'm reading WE ARE THE GOLDENS by Dana Reinhardt, and I'm totally loving it. I've fallen in love with 2nd person, and I'm really enjoying the execution of it for this novel. Has anyone else read it yet?

I read this! I liked it, although it wasn't a groundbreaker for me. I think you'll really enjoy this if you have visited San Francisco (check) or especially if you're a younger sister (nope). Not a mad-keen fan of the 2nd person though.

I finished COMPL1C1T. Guessed the twist early on. Didn't like the main character. The ending was awesome, though.

This sounds awesome but the twist seems really obvious from the back cover blurb, which is putting me off a little. Would you recommend I go ahead with it anyway?



And I finally got around to reading Huntley Fitzpatrick's new book WHAT I THOUGHT WAS TRUE. Her debut was a five-star favorite of mine. I'm not sure why I put this one off, maybe it didn't sound as appealing to me? But wow, I loved it so much. I love the worlds she creates. Much like Sarah Dessen, I kind of want to live in them. For people who had some criticisms about how perfect Samantha and Jase were from MY LIFE NEXT DOOR, you'll be happy to know Gwen and Cass are very flawed.

Bonus points for being sex positive and family positive. Fitzpatrick always has family at the forefront, no matter what's going on with the romance. You don't see that very often.

I'm currently reading this one, and really enjoying it - Cass and Gwen are SO HOT together. Ms Fitzpatrick sure knows how to write steamy scenes without the characters going that far.

I also love the family stuff, although I wish there was a semi-translation of all the portuguese bits. I feel like I'm missing out!

Just finished CHARM & STRANGE. I had some pretty big issues with it - I generally hate the elliptical and deliberately vague structure wherein the protagonist refuses to discuss something terrible and traumatic happened to them except for vague glimpses; it sometimes feels like a cheap way to "discuss" an issue without actually discussing it, like having your cake and eating it. C+S couldn't quite convince me on this structure (though I wouldn't say I hated it), nothing from the "present" section could drag me in as much as the eerie and claustrophobic "present" sections, and I didn't like how long it was dragged out before we had any answers, I thought it could do with more development and just more words -- but GODDAMN it was emotional. I'm physically aching all over. Everyone's saying how bad they felt for Win, and I felt bad for Win, but I felt terrible for Keith. Yeah, it was great.

Hmmm, I know what you mean. I felt like it was a bit spare, and there could've been more to it, but at the same time, Stephanie Kuehn sure has a way of saying a lot with a few well-chosen words. I started it expecting werewolves and was quite surprised at what I got - but I think the mystery surrounding its topic worked well in the end. It was a heartbreaking book - and yes, I felt so, so sorry for Keith.
 
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Windcutter

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This sounds awesome but the twist seems really obvious from the back cover blurb, which is putting me off a little. Would you recommend I go ahead with it anyway?
That depends on whether you like neurotic protagonists submerged in internal monologue against the everyday life background. It has mystery/thriller elements, but mostly it's about people dwelling on past tragedies. There is also a bit of a romance, I'd say realistically drawn.