Paranormal Romance & Urban Fantasy discussion

I'm visiting my family for three weeks, and I'm currently getting my baby sister into reading. She's 11 turning 12, and I'm letting her borrow my Fallen and Shivercopies. She's into "mystery" which she means suspence. And she is likeing Fallen so far.

I need help with recommentdations for books that I don't have to be worried that she's going to read things I don't want her exposed to. For example, I can't do Vampire Academy (even though its good), and DEFINITELY not House of Night series. So no sex talk. LOL. It's so difficult because while I do read young adult. I don't read That young of books often.

I really appreciate it. I don't want my mom to beat my ass for introducing my baby sister to the wonderful world of sex.... >.< I figured crushes and kisses is ok right?

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My brother is 16 and said he hasn't read a good book in a while. He's like me and actually reads when he's not on the xbox. So any books y'all know for a 16 yr old boy. Throw em this way. I'm making lists for em'!

LOL Thx again

The Mortal Instruments is amazing. I would suggest the Hunger games, but there's a lot of murder. It's not graphic, but ou may not appreciate it. I really enjoyed the percy Jackson series, and the Red Pyramid too. I think she'd like that. She may like Wings, I didn't personally, but It's a little too young for me.
Beautiful Creatures is great too.

I would also second the Hunger Games books - they're outstanding.



And how about Kelley Armstrong's Darkest Powers trilogy? Those are really good and there is no sex.

Yes, the darkest powers series is amazing!
The Looking Glass wars by Frank Beddor is incredible!

Def. NOT Hush, Hush!

How about these:
The Seventh Tower series by Garth Nix
The Giver by Lois Lowry
Among the hidden series by Margaret Peterson Haddix

His Dark Materials Trilogy by Philip Pullman is excellent for everyone.
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry is a must read.
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes is an excellent story that every youth should read.
Piers Anthony's Xanth series is good and light for a younger reader. No sex whatsoever. Starts with A Spell for Chameleon.
Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach is one of those books that you read when you're 10, 18, and 25 and get something different each time.

*buttons lip on 'age appropriate' rant.*

Thank god someone agrees! Hush, Hush was not good, at all!

there is an older series of YA books called the Sunfire series (I think) - each title was a girl's name and they were about young women during various periods of history having to choice the path they would take - they were pseudo intro to romances, but no sex, normally, one of the guys was the rich well-to-do and the other not so much...unfortunately, they are likely hard to find now, since I read them like 15 years ago

I agree that the Mortal Instruments is good for your sister. I don't think they talk about sex at all. What about Rick Roirdan's Percy Jackson series? It's in the Harry Potter category so it's appropriate for that age and it's actually an exciting read.

The series is really tame and I don't recall any sex at all.

Okay...so YA mystery? I can suggest a few...

http://tracylcarbone.com/Tracy_L._Car...
Abby McNabb paranormal mysteries

If you can find Lynne Hansen's old paranormal and paranormal mystery books, grab them...

The Change
The Return
AltDeath.com (This one is really dark.)

http://www.mundania.com/book.php?titl... Sweet
This is a great twisted fairy tale sort of story.

http://www.mundania.com/book.php?titl... Reform
Since it's for a girl, I highly suggest this fantasy.

http://www.gloriaoliver.com/
I HIGHLY suggest Vassal of El. It has been both my favorite and my daughter's favorite, since she was 10 or 11. It's dark, and there are grusome battle scenes, but no sex.

Kathryn Sullivan writes a lot of great fantasy and sci fi YA. Some of Sheri McGathy's are also great.

Vicki Taylor (IIRC) is appropriate, but check with her first for particular books.
http://www.mundania.com/book.php?titl... Without Anna

If she likes any historical at all, have her try A Partner's Promise by Fran Shaff.

Brenna Lyons

Vampire Diaries is a YA, I wasn't a fan of the book series at all, but there isn't sex in those either.

Why does it do that to links?

The books I mentioned are...

Tracy L. Carbone's The Man of Mystery Hill: An Abby McNabb Mystery

Lynne Hansen's books

Bitter Sweet by Michelle Levigne

Anything by Gloria Oliver...especially Vassal of El.

Turtle Reform by Piers Anthony

Most anything by Kathryn Sullivan

Many things by Sheri McGathy

Not Without Anna by Vicki Taylor (check with Vicki first on this one)

A Partner's Promise by Fran Shaff

Brenna

For the boy I would suggest Gone, Hunger and Lies

The Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld is a good one for a girl. No sex but drinking and boyfriends. It's science fiction.

There are brief scenes of sex in Jumper series by Steven Gould, but it's an excellent series, much better than the movie.

Brenna

There's a great mystery written for about that age that I still read every now and then, The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin.

There is also the Pandora series by Carolyn Hennesy which has 3 13 year old girls searching for the bad vices Pandora let out of the box, in ancient times.

Another great stand alone title is Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones.

For your brother (and just about anyone) a great read is Phule's Company by Robert Asprin. It is a bit silly looking, but gives a great lesson in what belief in self can accomplish and is a fun read about life in the Space Legion. Actually, speaking of Asprin, both your siblings might enjoy his Myth books.

If he likes fantasy at all, check out The Belgariad series by David Eddings. He might also enjoy The Incarnations of Immortality series by Piers Anthony.

I LOVED The Westing Game when I was a kid, and I devoured tons of those Sunfire romances.

At age 11, I'd be doing Anne of Green Gables, Alice in Wonderland, Judy Blume's YA books (not to be confused with her adult books, which are very adult), Little House on the Prairie, Sweet Valley High, Nancy Drew, that sort of thing.


For the boy, try such fantasy works as Terry Brooks Shanarrah series, The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan, or even some Dungeons and Dragons books, Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance being the worlds. My son hates to read, but he's read some of the Dragonlance books. There are tons in both series, they usually go in Trilogies.

For the 16 year old - it would be safe enough to introduce him into the wonderful world of early S. King. Christine should be right up his street right now.

For the 11 year old - start her on the Hobbit, and see how it goes from there.

Smut Bitch wrote: "For the boy, try such fantasy works as Terry Brooks Shanarrah series, The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan, or even some Dungeons and Dragons books, Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance being the worlds. My son hates to read, but he's read some of the Dragonlance books. There are tons in both series, they usually go in Trilogies. "

All of these are excellent suggestions.

But let's see, when I was 11 I was reading the Lord of the Rings for the second time through, Puzo, Heinlein, and Piers Anthony.

And if you can find them, Andre Norton wrote a "ton" of books-some fantasy and some sci-fi. Many of them feature young protagonists trying to fit in somewhere. She also wrote a few books for younger children. But none of the books contain graphic violence or sex scenes. The Witch World series is her best known series.

Thx everybody :P

I second His Dark Materials. Very suspenseful. :)

Sandra, I almost mentioned Andre Norton but didn't remember any specific titles to suggest. Good call.

I would also recommend Voices of Dragons by Carrie Vaughn. And Ann Mcaffrey has a young adult trilogy. Two of the titles are Dragon Singer and Dragon Drums.

For the boy I would suggest Robert Heinlein or Ray Bradbury. Also Strange Angels by Lili St Crow.

My choices:

Photojim wrote: "Sandra, I almost mentioned Andre Norton but didn't remember any specific titles to suggest. Good call."

If you google her name, you should be able to find a list easily enough. If anyone really wants some titles, I can start you out. I have over 80 of her books. She was very prolific.

PS I've always loved Heinlein, but be careful. Some of his stuff is definitely for adults. Some is suitable for young adults.

James Patterson has a lot of YA books out for teens. I think the first book in one of the series is "Maximum Ride" the Angel Experiment or something. My God daughter has read them all and loves them.
My mom has read them all and she enjoyed them. She gave them to me and they're sitting on my shelf for my son to read when he's a bit older. She said there's no sex in these books and she's read the whole series.

The Mortal Instruments series (City of Bones 1st book) is very good. Probably my favorite YA one at the moment. There's a bit of swearing, but no sex. It's sort of like a UF for teens with a decent amount of action and a forbidden love story.

If you want to keep the story to more Twilight type innocent books, try Rachel Hawthorne's Dark Guardians (werewolves) series. It's sort of a teen version of truemating/imprinting. First book is Moonlight.

For the age range, I'd still recommend the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. It's a fun read, nothing offensive in them. First book is The Lightning Thief.

You mentioned teen boys as well. My 15 year old son loves The Hunger Games books (as do I), and he also recommends the Gone series by Michael Grant (kids are left behind when the adults disappear). Any person that likes Hunger Games might also like The Maze Runner by James Dashner.