Romance Readers Reading Challenges discussion

Inspired by the other thread about YA books. I thought I'd start this one. I recently read some of my favorite YA authors from my teen years and found I still enjoy reading teen thrillers.

I want to expand into all YA genre's. So any suggestions (and a comment y is always nice) can be posted here. Thanks!

What kind of YA fiction are you looking for, Kenjii?

Starting with fantasy and romance is good but any genre that you might have a favorite in is fine. Popular fave's like Harry Potter or Twilight I am not really interested in =)

I devour YA because I've got a niece and a daughter that I love to discuss books with. My daughter is only 10 but reads at a high school reading level and has for awhile now. I got big into YA so I could find things for her to read that were a higher level of reading without being inappropriate for her younger age. I have a whole bookshelf here of just YA that you can browse, but here are some of my favorite authors.

Louise Rennison (9 books in a series so far, written in diary form, fast and extremely funny reads)
Laurie Halse Anderson (lots of good stand alones)
Deb Caletti (all stand alones, all excellent)
Meg Cabot (I've read everything, but Princess Diaries and loved it all - she has two series with 5 or 6 books that are complete so it was fun to read them back to back)
Ally Carter(all girls school for spies! I just found her and book three is due out this Spring)
Melissa De La Cruz (she has a vampire series and a few stand alones that are good)
Rachel Cohn (great reality fiction author, series and stand alones)
Cassandra Clare (mortal instruments trilogy, urban fantasy)
Katie Maxwell (this is really Katie MacAlister, she has a really funny 5 book series about a young american girl living in England for a year)
Rachel Caine (vamp series)
I could go on forever!

I've noticed lots of the pnr and urban fantasy authors are starting to write in the YA genre so check your favorite author's website and see what they've got planned. For example, I know Lilith Saintcrow and Kim Harrison are both releasing YA books this Spring.

There is a really cool series of books written by a handful of different authors that are re-tellings of fairy tales. All of the classics like Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella and The Little Mermaid. They read like historical fiction. I've read about half of the series and own almost all of the rest. There are a few more to be released in 2009. The series is Once Upon A Time. Cameron Dokey and Suzanne Weyn are two of the authors I can think of. I've loved the ones I have read so far.

I don't know if this is up your alley, but I enjoy reading the Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer/

It's about this boy genius when it comes to criminal activities. I would categorized it as sci-fi/fantasy.

TYVM Melissa! I will check out your shelf and see what my LIB has. Thanks for the list you posted.

I just searched Lilith Saintcrow's site before coming here and saw she has a YA novel coming out. Funny you mentioned that. I will check out my fan author's.See what they are up to =)

A few recommendations:

Wicked Lovely - Melissa Marr
Ink Exchange - Melissa Marr
Graceling - Kristin Cashore
The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
Hallowmere series - Tiffany Trent
Wondrous Strange - Lesley Livingston
A Curse Dark as Gold - Elizabeth C. Bunce
Keturah and Lord Death - Martine Leavitt
Mediator series - Meg Cabot
Vampire Academy series - Richelle Mead
Red Handed - Gena Showalter
Blacklisted - Gena Showalter
Avalon High - Meg Cabot
A Countess Below Stairs - Eva Ibbotson
Beastly - Alex Flinn
Boy Toy - Barry Lyga
Thirteen Reasons Why - Jay Asher
Gallagher Girls series - Ally Carter

TYVM for your list Sarah. It makes it so much easier to look up since you can't search by genre here on GR =)

I enjoyed reading John Marsden's tomorrow series. The first book in the series is called Tomorrow, When The War Began.

It's about a group of Australian teenagers who go on a camping trip over the holidays and come back to find that the country has been invaded and their families are in a prison camp.

It's an entertaining read.

Wow! Mel that sounds interesting. Thanks!

I have to agree with Melissa about Meg Cabot. She has some I'm not too fond of and at least one I wouldn't recommend to young girls. The Princess Diaries books were okay but there are alot of them and the first movie only vaguely resembles the books (the second doesn't at all). But knowing you like PNR and UF, check out her Mediator series. That's the one where the teenage daughter (eventually) falls for the male ghost that haunts her room when she learns she can talk to ghosts. Other ghosts then seek her out to help them.

I love Meg Cabot's 1-800-Where-Are-You series too. There was a tv show based on these characters that was on for like a heartbeat. There are five books in that series and it's complete. The main character is struck by lightning by page 5 or so of the first book and she can now find missing people. Lots of snappy dialogue and some decent mystery and action. There's also a bad boy involved. Loved these books.

The Georgia Nicholson series byLouise Rennison is a lol cute series I call it the Teenage Bridget Jones

I enjoyed the two Gemma Doyle books by Libba Bray. I haven't read the last one yet.

I have heard great things about Sarah Dessen. My niece loves the Libba Bray series. I haven't read them yet, but plan to.

Melissa wrote: "I love Meg Cabot's 1-800-Where-Are-You series too. There was a tv show based on these characters that was on for like a heartbeat. There are five books in that series and it's complete. The main..."

Based on what you said I did a search on goodreads for them, then searched my library's online catalog. Good news is that they have When Lightning Strikes, the first book in the series. Bad news is that's the only one of the 5 they have.

That is bad news that they don't have the other 4 books. I bought them all. She published 1 thru 4 and waited a long time before writing number 5, so when 5 was getting ready to be released I bought them all. Amazon.com has buy 3 get one free and with $25 or more (before the get one free!) you get free shipping. This is how I buy most of my books. It makes them all 25% off and I feel better not paying full price.

Hi Kenji (and everyone)...
In no particular order.. or sense!
Love Sarah Dessen...
Plug for New Zealand authors: Margaret Mahy (The changeover in particular); Brian Falkner (The tomorrow code has just been published in the US); Sherryl Jordan...
Annette Curtis Klause - Blood and chocolate - must-read werewolf romance!
Robin McKinley - most are regarded as YA
Patricia C Wrede & Caroline Stevermer Sorcery & Cecelia and the sequels...
Joan Bauer
Megan Whalen Turner... Gen is my favourite literary guy - I'd marry him...
Holly Black
Chris Crutcher

I have lists coming out my ears on my libraries' site: http://www.aucklandcitylibraries.com/....

You guys are totally awesome. I will start with the first post and go from there. I would like to get started right away so I will see what my local LIB has. Then post on my swap lists. If yall want I can list here what I find and so on/so forth =)

I ease of reading some YA books really helped me get lost in them and I loved that feeling of them just being so easy to read. The stories were great too!

Louise Rennison (9 books in a series so far, written in diary form, fast and extremely funny reads)
Laurie Halse Anderson (lots of good stand alones) requested from Hemet Lib.
Deb Caletti (all stand alones, all excellent) req. Honey, Baby from Hemet LIB.
Meg Cabot (I've read everything, but Princess Diaries and loved it all - she has two series with 5 or 6 books that are complete so it was fun to read them back to back)
Ally Carter(all girls school for spies! I just found her and book three is due out this Spring)
Melissa De La Cruz (she has a vampire series and a few stand alones that are good)
Rachel Cohn (great reality fiction author, series and stand alones)
Cassandra Clare (mortal instruments trilogy, urban fantasy) requested CITY OF BONES from Hemet LIB
Katie Maxwell (this is really Katie MacAlister, she has a really funny 5 book series about a young american girl living in England for a year)
Rachel Caine (vamp series)
I could go on forever!

Hi,
Melissa, Annie, and Sarah has suggested quite a list. I like most of them. To add the list,here are other YA authors that is so good I worship them.
In fantasy genre: Rick Riordan (Percy Jackson series), Joseph Delaney (Spook Chronicles), John Flanagan (Ranger Apprentice series), Tamora Pierce, Jean Ferris (Once Upon a Marigold), Judson Roberts (Strongbow series)
Contemporary genre: John Green, David Lubar (Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie), Dandi Daley Mackall (Love Rules), Mellina Marchetta, Gary D. Schmidt (Trouble), Wendelin van Draanen(Flipped, Sammy keyes series), Michelle Jaffe (Bad Kitty, Kitty Kitty), Jordan Sonnenblick.

Paranormal genre: PC Cast (the House of the Night series), Libba Bray, Darren Shan (Cirque du Freak series).

Well, that's the list of most of my favorite YA authors. Hope you can enjoy them also

Before I Die - Jenny Downham
The Silver Kiss - Anita curtis Klaus
Vampire Kisses (series) - Ellen Schreiber
Vampire beach series - Alex duval

I read Eve:The X-files by Ellen Schreiber. Thanks for your adds. I will see about looking them up too =)

Frezanda,

For the Tamora Pierce books, do the series need to be read in any kind of order? I picked up some discards from one series in the library booksale, but I didn't know if you had to read one series before another, or if I could just jump into the one I got.

Hi Sarah - for Tamora Pierce, some do need to be order (if you're an order freak like me)...
Tortall books:
Song of the lioness (Alana books), Immortals (Danae books, eg Wild magic), Protector of the small (Kel), Trickster [about Alanna's daughter:], Beka Cooper [prequel, George's ancestress:]
Circle books:
Circle of magic, Circle opens, Will of the empress, Melting stones...
Hope that helps!
Annie