Guest Blogger: The Book Lush

It’s day three and today, I’m get to introduce a site that is new to me.  When I sent out the call to see if anyone wanted to guest post this week, Rachael from Enchanted by Books pointed me towards Wendy over at the The Book Lush. Wendy’s site is one I’ve definitely been getting to know since and I hope everyone else gets a chance to head over there too.

The YA Novel

When Jackie first invited me to guest blog, I was honestly stumped. I’ve never done it before and I’m fairly a boring person so what could I blog about? My nursing career? My unhealthy caffeine addiction? But at the end, I settled on what I love the most: Books.

I fully admit that I was never really interested in reading young adult books for as long as I have been reading. Sure, I read them in middle school but once my love of books really grew and I grew as well, I quickly moved on to “adult” books and never looked back. I had read Tithe and Valiant by Holly Black a few years back and while I enjoyed them, it wasn’t enough to really get me into reading more YA until I read Going Too Far by Jennifer Echols. I can’t tell you how this book made me feel, because there are honestly no words for it. All I can say is that I absolutely loved it and it was the one book that finally made me take a second look at this quickly-booming genre. And by the way, I definitely recommend you read Going Too Far! It’s awesome.

That was only about four months ago and since then, I’ve found great young adult books that I’ve read and every day I get more recommendations, like Strange Angels by Lili St. Crow which I definitely enjoyed and can’t wait to read the next book, Betrayals! And I’m absolutely dying to read Fallen by Lauren Kate and Need by Carrie Jones, and wow, there are just so much more that I could keep listing but I won’t bore you (further, haha). I only regret that my rapidly growing love for young adult books didn’t start sooner. But that’s okay, because I’m more than happy to make up for time lost.

So, what about you? Do you read YA books? And if so, what are your favorites? Recommendations are more than welcome!

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Thanks Wendy for a great article!  For me, I’m no a big fan of the YA genre, but I’ll read it.  The ones I tend to steer clear of are the ones who find it necessary to constantly remind the reader how old their characters are.  Their age doesn’t matter to me, they could 14 or 50, I would still read it if the story is good.  A couple of YA series I particularly enjoy are the Vampire Academy novels by Richelle Mead and the Fae series by Melissa Marr.

Here’s your third chance to enter my week long Hiatus Contest.

For full contest details, click here; here is the short version:

  1. Leave a meaningful comment at The Book Lush; then, come back here and leave a meaningful comment.  When you leave a comment, include a link to the post you commented on at the guest posters site.
  2. As always, if you want one more chance to win, you can post about today’s contest on your blog, social network, or anywhere you can. Digg it, stumble it, twit it (#litesc), share it with the world. Wherever you share it, make sure you add a link to it along with your answer (all in the same post please). The more places you share it, the more entries you get.

For your previous chances, check out what Natasha and Rachael had to say.


About Jackie 3282 Articles
I am a 30-something SAHM with two adorable boys and a supportive husband who is very tolerant of my reading addiction. I love to read and easily go through about a dozen books a month – well I did before I had kids. Now, not so much. After my first son was born, I began to take my hobby of reviewing a little more serious and started Literary Escapism to help with my sanity. I love to discuss the fabulous novels I’ve read and meeting all the wonderful people in the book blogging community has been amazing.

18 Comments

  1. Hi Wendy!
    I love YA books too. They’re my absolute favorite genre right now. I’ve read Justine Labalestier’s Magic or Madness Trilogy (and loved it!), Harry Potter of course, Twilight (only the first two books..still making my way through the series), Rachel Caine (still making my way through the series), Michelle Rowen’s first YA Demon Princess: Reign or Shine, and many others. Right now I am reading Julie Kenner’s young adult book Tainted and there’s so many other YA books I want to read. It’s become an extremely popular genre and everyone is reading them! I have Hush Hush in my TBR pile and I also am dying to get my hands on Fallen! Great post as this is my favorite genre and I love to talk about YA books too!

  2. I just finished reading Going Too Far by Jennifer Echols and Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles I recommend. Shiver is another great YA for those who enjoy the werewolf myth.

    But my all time favorite YA series is good old Nancy Drew. Drama, suspense and romance all rolled into one :D

  3. Hi there! **waves** Just read your guest post….one of the many hats I wear is that of a bookseller (part time gig at local store) and there are a lot of adult readers with a similiar perspective. They are “adults” so why would they read “young adult” books. I for one LOVE the YA genre. There are so many really great titles in there and the stories! Unlike “regular” fiction, they tend to move quicker, lack the extreme heavyiness factor, and yet still deal with interesting topics and characters! In the end, I definitely recommend the genre (try the new release Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick…it’s really good!) and think your post was great!

    Oh, and please enter me in the contest too! =0)
    Link to comment on The Book Lush post: https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=3904921218797298966&postID=1463389555665472744&page=1

    grgenius(at)go(dot)com

  4. Hi, Raelena! I’ve heard a tons of good things about the Vampire Academy series and I have the Summoning by Armstrong on my TBR pile, can’t wait to read it! :)

    Rachael! Oh, you have to read Hush, Hush! So good! I so can’t wait for Michelle’s boo and I’ll check out the other ones!

    Katie! I have Shiver on my TBR pile, glad to hear it’s good! I definitely want to read Perfect Chemistry too! And if it’s anything like Going Too Far, I know I’m going to love it!

    Hi, Elie! (thanks for commenting on my blog!!) Heh, I’m not technically YA either! but who cares! I still read it. :D I love Showalter’s “adult” books so will definitely read Intertwined, too!

    Thanks for all the recommendations, everyone!! :D

    • Wendy, you haven’t read the Vampire Academy series yet? You so need to. I don’t read a lot of YA, but that is one I’m addicted to. It’s one of the few I’ve come across that doesn’t constantly remind me that the main characters are young.

  5. YA is not a genre I read much in…I actually only have three novels at the moment: Melissa Marr – Wickedly Lovely (read and liked it), Suzanne Collins with The Hunger Games and the latest and for now last one I have bought: Kristin Cashore – Fire.

  6. Oh! Hi, Gina!

    I used to feel like that, since I was an adult, why read YA? Well, clearly I was missing great books! I actually read Hush, Hush last week and it was so good! Loved it. :D

  7. Hi, Leontine!

    I read Wicked Lovely a while back and it was actually really good. I haven’t read the others you mentioned but I’ve seen reviews of them around and everyone seems to love them!

  8. I just wanted to say that I think I’m wrong about Julie Kenner’s book Tainted being a YA! I don’t know why I thought it was. I guess because of the covers. Anyway I was just reading it and there’s cursing in it and I was thinking…hmmm that’s interesting for it being YA. I know alot of YA books have cursing but I haven’t come across many of them. Anyway so I looked up the book and saw nothing about it being YA. And on the book’s spine it says Urban Fantasy so I guess I was wrong and it’s an adult book! Just wanted to clarify.

  9. Yeah, I was just going to say that! I don’t think Tainted is YA, isn’t it her new Urban Fantasy book? I didn’t think it was YA.. still can’t wait to read it though! :)

    Lili St. Crow’s Strange Angels has cursing (I’m fairly certain..) but considering these days the young’uns. ;) curse a lot, it doesn’t seem like a big deal..

  10. Nice blogging Wendy!! I’ve not gotten into YA , yet. I like romance and romance susp and there are so many good authors writing right now, I can barely keep up. Thanks, Sue

  11. Hi Wendy!

    I don’t know what you were worried about this is a great first guest post! Plus you are dragging me over to the dark side of reading YAs. LOL I was so surprised when I came over here to read this because lterally right before I read it I was on twitter having an intense discussion about why I don’t read YA. I started cracking up when I saw that is exactly what your guest post is about. After reading this I am going to heavily consider your recommendations and possibly give in a read a few. Maybe I will end up a YA convert like you.

    I also left a comment over on your blog about “Some Girls Bite”. http://suchalush.blogspot.com/2009/10/2-for-1-reviews-some-girls-bite-friday.html

    Congrats on your first guest blog post, may there be many more!
    ~Heather
    a.k.a. BookobsessedGrl

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