What YA book are you reading RIGHT NOW?

Serpant's Shadow

I'm reading the third installment of the Kane Chronicles, The Serpent's Shadow, by Rick Riordan.

Just finished the Trylle Trilogy by Amanda Hocking. The first book is probably the weakest in terms of plot and character development (very focused on one relationship) but I really liked the series. The third book Ascend was great and you could really see how much the author had developed. A friend of mine has now borrowed them and I've got her sucked in

Becca C. said:

ANNA!!! lovelovelove.

I didn't like DEADLY COOL much... the textspeak did it for me. In real life, people send legible texts. I text where are you? to my friends. And now that I have an iPhone, even capitals and apostrophes are easy. In DEADLY COOL, they all text like whr r u? and i sw jill tdy nd she lkd so cte. SO GODDAMN UNREALISTIC RAWWWWR.

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Yeah, seriously. I use proper punctuation in texts even. The only time I ever get a text where sum1 tlks lyk this is when they're being facetious or sarcastic. So not cool about the ending either. I expect more from a mystery writer. Oh well, already gave up on it.

Reading B!tt3rblu3 - enjoying it so far. Its been a while since I got into high fantasy

I'm sorry to hear In$urg3nt is not that great :-/

traininvain said:

I recently finished Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist, parts of which I loved and parts of which I very much did not like. I feel like I'm the only one who didn't go crazy over it.

I'm currently in the middle of You, Maybe by Rachel Vail, a fast and fluffy read but enjoyable, and Nailed by Patrick Jones, which I will probably put down unless it picks up in the next chapter.

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I tried a sample of Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist and found it really pretentious. Does it get better?

I just finished Insurgent, book 2 of the Divergent trilogy. It's an interesting trilogy, though I enjoyed the first book more.

Spells by Aprilynne Pike

I hated Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. I didn't even finish it.

Something Strange and Deadly by Susan Dennard. Absolutely loving this one so far.

I *should* be reading THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT TIME because my neighbor loaned it to me and I've had it for nearly a month, but I think I'm going to start STARCROSSED.

Just finished Black Heart by Holly Black. Excellent series. I greatly recommend it.

Finished THE CITY'S SON by Tom Pollock, which I thoroughly enjoyed. It's imaginative, thrilling and generally well paced (although I did find the ending a little rushed). I had a couple of quibbles and nitpicks but they're really minor. If you want to see something different in your YA urban fantasy then give it a go when it's released in August.

Am about a third of the way through CITY OF LOST SOULS by Cassandra Clare and I'm finding it really bloated. There are a lot of scenes in there that don't add anything but seem to exist to please the fans - mainly to do with relationships (Jordan/Maia, Isabelle/Simon etc) - but there are also some that exist to set up the new trilogy that she recently sold that's going to be set in LA. (Literally there is one scene where you meet 2 completely new characters solely so you can be told that they work in the LA clave). It's a real shame because the central storyline triangle involving Jace/Clary/Sebastian could be really interesting given the conflict between Clary and her evil brother and the dilemma that if you kill Sebastian then you also kill Jace. I'll finish it and probably read the final book in this trilogy but I'm probably not going to be picking up the new trilogy when it's launched in 2014.

I've got a YA steampunk anthology to read next and then I'll be picking up SLATED by Teri Terry, which is a YA dystopia. I've been pretty jaded by that genre recently but I know the author and the bits I'd read previously intrigued me.

MM

Read Across the Universe and A Million Suns this weekend. I remember ATU getting a mixed reception, but I really enjoyed both books.

Not meant to offend: Why do people go thru such lengths to alpha-numerically disguise book titles and author names?

I tend to ignore these posts entirely as it's too much trouble to decipher.

Thanks.

This week I read Cinder and Spellbound; heartily enjoyed both. Nicely creative.

vsrenard said:

Not meant to offend: Why do people go thru such lengths to alpha-numerically disguise book titles and author names?

I tend to ignore these posts entirely as it's too much trouble to decipher.

Thanks.

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I was wondering this too...

It keeps the review from showing up in a Google search. Honestly, it kind of annoys me, too. One disguised letter isn't so bad, but when almost every letter is changed, it's a pain to read, in my opinion (and unnecessary). I sometimes skip those, too.

vsrenard said:

Not meant to offend: Why do people go thru such lengths to alpha-numerically disguise book titles and author names?

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A lot of authors have Google alerts set up on their names and book titles. If you write Titl3 instead of Title, they won't see it. That way you don't end up the subject of one of those threatening posts authors make about the way they punish people who give them bad reviews.

I read Insurgent. The first time I read it, I was pretty upset. I felt a lot of the strong characterization was lost. The second time I read it, I understood decisions a little more. The third time I read it, I was more comfortable with it. I'm not sure what that says yet. I think Divergent was a stronger book, I think the end of Insurgent was a cop-out (but I think that about all books that use that plot device), but I'm very intrigued for the third book. She certainly didn't lose me as a reader.

I read Bitterblue and was disappointed after such a long wait. My favorite parts were the cameos by characters from Fire and Graceling. I simply didn't like Bitterblue as a narrator. The conflict and the story was good, and the worldbuilding is exquisite, per usual, in Cashore's writing.

I recently read:

Where She Went -- love, love, love...I cannot love this enough.
The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight --loved the conflict and the plot and the characters, but not the POV. I really wanted it to be from first person.
First Comes Love --surprisingly good! I didn't expect to like it, but enjoyed it immensely.
The Girls of No Return --brilliant debut. Delicate, nuanced, artful, superb characterization.
Wicked Lovely (reread) -- just like the first time I read it, I was surprised by how willingly I fell into a faerie story (I'm not normally a faerie girl)
Under the Never Sky (reread) -- I love this book
Psyche in a Dress (I consider this YA) -- Block is like a happy drug to my brain.

I finished Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley a couple days ago, and may I just say how ridiculously good Aussie YA is?! I loved it. Really good, really real teen characters. It has dual narrators and I honestly can't say which I liked more.

Now on to Hemlock by Kathleen Peacock. Isn't she on this forum?

I read DRIVE BY by - okay, I've forgotten the author's name, but it was good. In one sentence: Teenage prank goes badly, tragically wrong. See - awesome, no?

And now I'm reading SLIDE by Jill Hathaway, which I'm loving so far - the concept is brilliant. LI feels a bit shoehorned in, though.

Just finished Divergent and Insurgent by Veronica Roth. They were okay. I'll probably read the third book when it's published, but I'm not anticipating it or anything.

Last night I started The Selection by Kiera Cass, and so far I also think it's just okay. A little boring and hard to get through.

LadyA said:

And now I'm reading SLIDE by Jill Hathaway, which I'm loving so far - the concept is brilliant. LI feels a bit shoehorned in, though.

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I'm reading this too. I was having trouble finding something that kept my interest but this definitely has. I like the concept but some of the characterization is a little wooden. Also, the MC's love of 90s music made me laugh. Obviously, the author grew up in the 90s and these are definitely her favorite bands from her teenage years.

On my looong flight(s) home yesterday, I got around to reading INSURGENT, which was...okay... and BLOOD RED ROAD which was awesome.

dystophil said:

On my looong flight(s) home yesterday, I got around to reading INSURGENT, which was...okay... and BLOOD RED ROAD which was awesome.

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See, I told you!