Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge discussion

Hi everyone! I'm soliciting recommendations for a YA book or two (or set) to buy for my 14 year old daughter for Xmas. She likes fantasy, dystopians, and romance. She has read and loved:

the Harry Potter series,
the Hunger Games series,
the Divergent series (well, she hasn't read the third book yet, I told her not to! curiosity will get to her eventually and she'll read it, and then she'll know why I told her not to!),
The Fifth Wave series,
Lauren Oliver's Delirium series
Anna and the French Kiss
Warm Bodies
The Outsiders
Everything, Everything
Gone (just the first one)
City of Bones and City of Ashes (she didn't seem to want to keep reading this series)
the Percy Jackson series
Obsidian (she liked this, but she didn't keep reading the series for some reason - I should ask her why not)
thirteen reasons why
all of Raina Telgemeier's graphic novels
the Amulet graphic novel series

She read Code Name Verity and didn't love that one as much, so I guess it was a little bit too mature? (Because I loved that book!) She also read Need (Carrier Jones) and she liked this okay but didn't want to keep going with the series.

She LOVES watching the Vampire Diaries TV show, so I thought about getting her some of those books. I'm also thinking about getting her the other books in the "Anna and the French Kiss" series, and I'm thinking maybe I'll get her the Gone series, but I thought I'd ask for other ideas too.

You list Warm Bodies, but did she read the second one (The Burning World)? It came out this year. The third is due out sometime next year (The Living).

A lot of people who didn't like Clare's TMI series LOVE The Infernal Devices, I know it is my favorite.

Marie Lu's Legend series is great.

The Selection series by Kiera Cass are easy YA reads.

I loved The Blood of Eden trilogy by Julie Kagawa. Also her Iron Fey series.

The Jasper Dent trilogy by Barry Lyga.

I think Cinda Williams Chima is a master of fantasy, I highly recommend her Heir Chronicle books. The Seven Realms has a strong female lead.

The Ascendence Trilogy by Jennifer A. Nielson was a fun read but is a bit more middle grade.

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison is a fantastic stand alone.

An Ember in the Ashes series by Sabaa Tahir is amazing.

His Fair Assassin series by Robin LaFevers was fun for me.

The Remnant Chronicles by Mary E. Pearson was a fun ride.

I really liked Morgan Rhodes Falling Kingdom series.

Thanks! Those are some good ideas!

The Chronicles of Ixia or the Study series. The first book is Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder

To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han

Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff (It's a trilogy, the third book comes out next year)

Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer

Monument 14 series (I liked it, but I know a lot of people don't)

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

Ahhhhh!! How could I forget The Lunar Chronicles! Thank you for the ideas!

I inhaled Trudy Canavan's black magicians and traitor spy trilogies. Still love to reread them occasionally.

I haven't Illuminae yet, but These Broken Stars was amazing, if you don't mind the part where it rips out your heart and stomps on it.

Other YA books I enjoyed that are appropriate for that age (not necessarily great ones, but fun, at least):

The Ex-Pacifist
The Paper Magician
100 Cupboards (aimed at a slightly younger age, but really good anyway)
The Last Dragonslayer
Gregor the Overlander (again, aimed at a slightly younger age)
Matched
Partials(Disclaimer: I don't remember this one well enough to know if it's actually appropriate for younger teen or not)
Dangerous

I'll second-

The Lunar Chronicles
The Illuminae Files
Both are also amazing audio books.

I loved Anna and the French Kiss, but it was actually my least favorite of the series. Lola and the Boy Next Door is my favorite.

I wasn't going to add new books because you've already gotten a lot of suggestions, but I have to add Eleanor & Park and Fangirl because Rainbow Rowell is my absolute favorite author.

All recommendations are good recommendations! Because after Xmas comes her birthday ... and I also have a younger daughter, so I'll be looking for different books to buy for her in another year or two ... so I am so happy to have a growing list to choose from. Some of these are great books that I have read and loved and then forgot, and others are new to me!

Any of the Tamora Pierce books. She is an amazing writer with extremely strong female lead characters. My son used to read them and even at nearly 29 will still pick up a new one and read it if he sees it (even though I think we probably have every one of them and when you look at the website you will realise just how many that is)

http://www.tamora-pierce.net

Raquel wrote: "I haven't Illuminae yet, but These Broken Stars was amazing, if you don't mind the part where it rips out your heart and stomps on it.

Other YA books I enjoyed tha..."

The Paper Magician was not my thing. As soon as I finished it I deleted the rest of the series from my tbr list.

Interesting! It was one of my favorites, actually. By the third book I was little tired of the main characters lack of growth/improvement as a person (at least that was how I felt), but I'm using The Plastic Magician for my book coming out in 2018 prompt, because overall I liked the stories and writing.

I'm also looking for some YA recommendations as one of our English teachers here has said that she's behind in updating her classroom selection. If anyone has some recommendations, especially of recent YA, I would be very appreciative! (I did take notes from the suggestions above already)

Another suggestion is to take a look at the Young Adult Library Services Association (part of the American Library Association). This link will get you to their general awards page. They give out many awards and compile various lists, including at least one that has suggestions from YAs themselves. Also mentioned on the awards/lists page are a Teen Book Finder Database (at/near the top) and a Teen Book Finder App that will probably appeal more to smart phone savvy teens than old retired librarian me.

I know we're getting super close to Christmas, but since you said you're daughter's birthday was soon after the holidays, I'm going to post this anyway.

Two of my all time favorites books as a tween/teen were the Bar Code Tattoo and the Bar Code Rebellion by Suzanne Weyn. There's also a third called the Bar Code Prophecy that I have never read.

Suzanne Weyn also wrote a book entitled Reincarnation, which was a really good YA romance.

The Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld was also a dystopian favorite of mine.

Thanks! all recommendations are good!

I don't think Throne of Glass series or A Court of Thorns and Roses was mentioned. I am guessing you have already read those but maybe for others looking at the collection.

There was a few on this list I didn't know. So thanks for the suggestions!

If she likes YA/SF there is always the Lorien Legacies by Pittacus Lore

Taylor wrote: "I'm also looking for some YA recommendations as one of our English teachers here has said that she's behind in updating her classroom selection. If anyone has some recommendations, especially of re..."

I have high praise for Adam Silvera's recent stuff, as well as Echo After Echo by Amy Rose Capetta and Starfish by Akemi Dawn Bowman. For SFF, I've heard people rave about The Last Magician by Lisa Maxwell and Before She Ignites by Jodi Meadows, which are also new releases.

Mercedes Lackey Tales from the Five Hundred Kingdoms are quite good. They are a unique spin on classic fairy tales. Her Elemental Masters series is also based on fairy tales, but are set in the Victorian/Edwardian eras.

I realize Christmas is over but I recently discovered The Kingfountain Series by Jeff Wheeler and love it! I'm reading based on his recommended reading order from his website so I've read the first three in that series and just finished the Muirwood Series.

It's fantasy, possibly dystopian. And it's clean. I don't recall any real swear words although there may be an occasional one in their world (that's how I see "crickey" in some British works. And no sex. There was some thinking about kissing, and chaste kisses but nothing that made me blush or that I wouldn't be able to read out loud to a pre-teen.

Ive been reading them via Kindle Unlimited and the Kindle versions were pretty cheap or recently on sale.

There's The Hate U Give - it's wonderful, although I don't know about its suitability for younger teens - I guess it's the parent's call on that.
Anything by Garth Nix is good, particularly his Old Kingdom series starting with Sabriel. They're a little dark but not so much they'd be disturbing, I don't think. As far as I remember I first read them at 15/16 and absolutely adored them.
Terry Pratchett's Tiffany Aching series, beginning with The Wee Free Men, is still one of my favourite things even as an adult. Wonderful, funny fantasy with a great female protagonist, and a good introduction to the Discworld series for when the reader is older.
Of course there's the Earthsea series by Ursula K. Le Guin, classic fantasy.
I remember really enjoying Jaclyn Moriarty's books as a teenager. They're YA contemporary, told in an epistolary format - i.e. through emails, letters, diaries, even flyers on noticeboards.
Chinese Cinderella: The True Story of an Unwanted Daughter by Adeline Yen Mah is very good YA nonfiction. It's an edited-down version of her book Falling Leaves Return To Their Roots.

I know it is after Christmas, but figured I'd still add. Love looking at others suggestions too! Those are all really great. One more dystopian series I would add to the list is The Testing. A few other fantasy or sci-fic dystopian books are suggestions are Warcross, The Screaming Staircase, Replica. And two romances I would recommend are The Upside of UnrequitedFoolish Hearts

Anabell wrote: "I don't think Throne of Glass series or A Court of Thorns and Roses was mentioned. I am guessing you have already read those but maybe for others looking at the colle..."

Pittacus Lore is great in all the books so creative and the next generation has just started as a sequel series for I am Number Four.
Andrew Fukuda the Hunt Series (since she likes vampires and these have a heart)
John Marsden Tomorrow When The War Began series or anything by John Marsden. I can't think of anything bad to say at all about any of his books.
The Gone series is good but Michael Grant also has another series for young uns BZRK and a newish one Monster. (Kids save the day of course.)
Megan Crewe the way we fall (a bit deeper surviving after a plague and keeping humanity)
Kathy and Brendan Reichs the Virals series. (accidentally get some wolf DNA and develop strange "powers"/senses then run about solving mysteries).
I read a lot of whatever I see the kids at school reading because it is a good way to make a connection with them not related to what I have to teach them.

Taylor wrote: "I'm also looking for some YA recommendations as one of our English teachers here has said that she's behind in updating her classroom selection. If anyone has some recommendations, especially of re..."
Jasper Jones, The Giver and The Handmaid's tale are on our student's reading list. Handmaid for y12 though.

I recently read Far from the Tree and I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, and loved both. Both are really well written and moving.

Far from the Tree is really good!!!

I could recommend YA all day! But some favourites that are 14 year old appropriate (in my opinion) are -

Love & Gelato
The Sun Is Also a Star
All the Bright Places
We All Looked Up

Oh, and the Lunar Chronicles!

The Graceling books are good (some sex in book 1, but not graphic)
Graceling, Fire and Bitterblue and they can be read in any order.

I just read Long Way Down and liked it.

Daughter of Smoke & Bone and sequels

Revolution

Walk Two Moons

The Book Thief (OMG, one of my all time favorites!)

Speak and other books by the same author. They're pretty mature, but if she liked 13 Reason Why, she could probably handle it.

I could go on all day, too! Love YA!

I realize this is an older thread, but for anyone still looking for YA ideas, I loved the Gallagher Girls series by Ally Carter, which begins with I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You. She also has s couple other series, Heist Society (starts with book of same title) and Embassy Row.

If you're looking for some great YA reads, I would recommend any of the following:

~Romanov
~Heartwood Box
~The Forbidden Game
~The Enchanted Forest Chronicles: Dealing with Dragons / Searching for Dragons / Calling on Dragons / Talking to Dragons
~The Testing

marissa meyers books - cinder series
taren matharu - summoner series
keeper of night --kylie l. baker
mediator series by meg cabot
ranger's apprentice series -- john flanagan
A Curse So Dark and Lonely - kemmerer (read first one liked it.)
Rebel seoul, rogue heart, girl who fell beneath the sea by axie oh
magaret rogerson books
dragon's bait - vande velde
enchanted forest chronicles by patrica wrede
pellinor series by allison croggon


she might like isekai too

so i'm a spider, so what? - Baba, Okina
the saint's magic power is omnipotent -- tachibana
in the land of leadale - ceez
The Alchemist Who Survived Now Dreams of a Quiet City Life - Nonohara, Usata
bofuri - Yuumikan

ps love every book by L. J. smith. vampire diaries (original 4), night world (not finished. i've been waiting since i was in my late teens early twenties for the last book. sigh.), strange powers, forbidden game

Mandy wrote: "she might like isekai too..."



Wow I wish *I* had known about some of these back when we had to read litRPG for a Challenge!!! (And if you had been here all along telling us about these and I just missed it, I am having regrets now.)

Ooh I'll second
Sabriel by Garth Nix the first book in a ya fantasy concerning necromancy. This is still my favourite book since reading it at 13.

and also Cinder series.

Has your daughter read any Holly Black?
The Cruel Prince fantasy series was great all about faeries.
The Darkest Part of the Forest is a good standalone fantasy set in the same world as The Cruel Prince series.
The Coldest Girl in Coldtown a standalone vampire book.

The Wrath and the Dawn by Renée Ahdieh fantasy duology was good. A retelling of the story of Shahrzad.

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli was so cute like the Heartstopper series.

There's the Red Queen series that is more sci-fi/dystopian than fantasy.

Kelley Armstrong has multiple ya fantasy series.
The Summoning is her biggest. This is urban fantasy and includes all sorts of supernaturals.

In Every Generation by Kendare Blake a return to Buffy/Sunnydale following Willow's daughter.

Shadowland by Meg Cabot. Teenager who sees ghosts and falls in love with the one who haunts her new house. Recently reread this series as an adult and it still was good.

Legendborn by Tracy Deonn. A great way to update the Arthurian legends. This is a heavier read dealing with grief and collonialism.

I'll stop there because I've read a lot of ya.

Nadine in NY wrote: "Mandy wrote: "she might like isekai too..."



Wow I wish *I* had known about some of these back when we had to read litRPG for a Challenge!!! (And if you had been here all along telling us about t..."

I joined the group this year. So I’ve only been recommending light novels since then. And the light novel industry has blown up in the last two years. It’s grown by 300% in the last 3 years or so.

Never too late to read them. I did put it in the suggestions for ps and Aty for light novel and for specifically isekai.

It would also work for the ps alternate world. isekai is the literal meaning of alternate world.

Then there’s devil is a part timer. That is reverse isekai. Meaning they come to our world. That is a fun series too.

Mandy wrote: "Then there’s devil is a part timer. That is reverse isekai. Meaning they come to our world. That is a fun series too. ..."


I have so much to learn.

So are shows like Death Note and Blue Exorcist considered reverse isekai?

Nadine in NY wrote: "Mandy wrote: "Then there’s devil is a part timer. That is reverse isekai. Meaning they come to our world. That is a fun series too. ..."


I have so much to learn.

So are shows like Death Note an..."

Technically not. Their worlds are connected to ours. Isekai is more to another world altogether that isn’t known about.

I would classify them as shonen horror or paranormal.

Think more portal fantasy.

Versions include summoning: My Status as an Assassin Obviously Exceeds the Hero's (Light Novel) Vol. 1, death and reincarnated: In Another World With My Smartphone: Volume 1, That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, Vol. 1, Reincarnated as a Sword (Light Novel) Vol. 1, portal:Restaurant to Another World (Light Novel) Vol. 1.

There’s also a sub genre of video game reincarnation/summoning as in the player is brought to their video game world. Overlord The Undead King, I'm the Villainess, So I'm Taming the Final Boss, Vol. 1, My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! Volume 1, Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody, Vol. 1, In the Land of Leadale, Vol. 1, Demon Lord, Retry! Volume 1