Top Ten Tuesday is a fun weekly feature hosted by the fantastic blog The Broke and the Bookish. This week the topic is: Top Ten Favorite Books in X (your pick!) Genre. Since this is my first Top Ten Tuesday, I decided to stick with my preferred genre of YA, specifically YA fiction.
Top Ten Favorite Books in YA Fiction:
1) Origin (Lux #4) by Jennifer L. Armentrout- This is probably my all time favorite YA paranormal series, and it doesn’t get the hype it deserves. It features aliens, a book blogger, one of my favorite fictional guys, and doesn’t censor out the realities of teenage life.
2) Silence (Hush, Hush #3) by Becca Fitzpatrick– I have a weakness for angel mythology, and I love love love Jev in this book. It’s not the perfect series, but it’s definitely my guilty pleasure. I also get to see one of my favorite fictional couples fall in love again. Add that with angel/nephilim warfare and I’m hooked.
3) The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot- Nearly nothing like the movie and written with unbelievable wit, this book was my first transition from children’s to YA books (in 4th grade no less) and with all of the pop culture references, I get something new out of it with each reread.
4) City of Lost Souls (Mortal Instruments #5) by Cassandra Clare- I don’t care that Cassandra Clare keeps writing within her same fantasy world- I could indulge in the Shadowhunter realm forever. And the tension between Jace, Clary, and Sebastian is creepy, addicting, and will keep you reading straight through the night.
5) Texas Gothic by Rosemary Clement-Moore- A recent read with a throwback vibe to the old school mysteries of Nancy Drew and Scooby Doo. With the much neglected witches in YA paranormal fiction and a vivid southern atmosphere, this was my first five-star read of 2014. Read my review here.
6) The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashers- Another oldie but goodie. One of my first YA novels, Brashers doesn’t shy away from dealing with tough issues in her series. I used to revisit this book on the first day of summer break every year until college.
7) City of Masks (Stavaganza #1) by Mary Hoffman- I feel like this series hovers somewhere between children and YA, and I have never read anyone else who has read it, but it’s seriously amazing, filled with world/time travel, a parallel world Renaissance Italy, a city-state led by a teenage girl Duchessa, and courtly intrigue. What more could you ask for?
8) The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky- Although I didn’t read it until I was in college, this novel is a YA classic for a reason, and the narrator’s heartbreaking honest and rawness will keep it relevant through the test of time. Read my review here.
9) A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray– I read this book so long ago I could definitely use a refresher, but the gothic victorian atmosphere coupled with Bray’s elegant writing style has stuck with me. I’m sad to say I have yet to finish the series, and a reread is definitely in order for this summer. Bray’s writing is sophisticated, complex, and doesn’t feel targeted to thirteen-year-olds.
10) Siege and Storm (Grisha #2) by Leah Bardugo– I just finished this book 48 hours ago and I cannot get it out of my head. The colors, the science, the political intrigue! You know a text is good if it leaves you with a book hangover. Read my review here.
And there you have it! Forgive me for posting an hour early- it’s almost midnight and I couldn’t resist!
Oh my god, I freaked out when I saw Silence as your #2…. cause I wrote a book called Silence, and put it up on my blog… that’s kind of hilarious… xD
Sorry to freak you out! Congrats on writing a book though- that takes so much creativity and dedication! hopefully one day I can finish a manuscript as well
I believe in you!! 😀 Writing literally taught me how to think for myself, more than anything ever has!
The secret to finishing a book is just pushing that monster out of your uterus. Like, even when I hated writing, and my brain was so fried that I couldn’t spell the word ‘the’, I still forced myself to sit down and slam the story out, no matter how icky the first draft was.
Then, take a huge break, figure out what’s worth reading in your story, and edit it line by line until you can’t read a sentence without finding another 10 ways to write it out of the same words xD
Fun fact: If you spend enough sleepless night’s editing and/or writing, and then take a month’s break, you can actually read your story with only a vague sense of what’s about to happen!
Hehe, this is more than I meant to write. I hope I didn’t scare you xD