Top Ten Contemporary YA Authors

This week's Top Ten Tuesday is a toughie for me because I'm not a big genre reader, but I have been gravitating towards contemporary YA a lot lately so I thought I'd list some of the awesome authors I've come across...

Sure, it may look completely random and irrelevant, but contemporary YA makes me happy and so does this gif. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

1. Stephanie Perkins. Anna and the French Kiss completely blew me away, and although I didn't enjoy Lola and the Boy Next Door quite as much, it was still great. I can't wait for Perkins' next novel, Isla and the Happily Ever After, to come out.

2. Melina Marchetta. One of my favourite authors of all time. I love the way Marchetta captures authentic emotions and experiences and creates such wonderful, well-rounded and realistic characters. All of her contemporary fiction is fantastic, but On the Jellicoe Road is probably my favourite.

3. Ann Brashares. I've mentioned before that it was The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants series that introduced me to YA and made me rethink my previous (judgmental) stance on it. It was such a fun and touching read. I've been meaning to reread the series for awhile, especially with the last installment that's come out, but I've heard some spoilers so I'm kinda scared.

4. Gayle Forman. If I Stay is kinda supernatural, but its sequel, Where She Went is more contemporary. I adored both books and their characters, but I especially appreciated Adam's point of view in Where She Went.

5. Libba Bray. I have a ridiculous amount of love for Beauty Queens. I thought it was clever, hilarious and so much fun. I've wanted to read more of Bray's books every since I read it, but sadly for me I haven't gotten around to it yet.

6. Morgan Matson. I loved Amy and Roger's Epic Detour; the characters were likable and the story was so much fun, while still maintaining some serious aspects. It made me totally want to take a road trip around the US and eat lots of hamburgers. Second Chance Summer was also a great read, and utterly heartbreaking.

7. Simone Elkeles. I wasn't sure whether I should put Simone on the list given the recent hullabaloo around the way she responded to one of her reviews, but the truth is I absolutely loved her Perfect Chemistry series so she deserves a spot here. Sure, it's totally cheesy and predictable, but it's also completely addictive and fun.

8. Judy Blume. 'Nuff said.

OK, I'm out. Unfortunately I haven't read enough contemporary YA to have a complete top ten (though it's probably the genre I've read the most!). Because I'm kinda OCD and can't have an incomplete list, here are two contemporary YA authors I want to read.

1. John Green. I know. I haven't read any John Green. Yes, I'm hanging my head in shame.

2. Sarah Dessen. Now my whole body is hanging in shame.

Who are your favourite contemporary YA authors?

Pash, Pick or Pass: The Fuentes Brothers

Pash, Pick or Pass is back! I haven't had much time for blogging so far this year, but I'm hoping to get back into the swing of things from here on out. What better way to celebrate the return of Pash, Pick or Pass than with the Fuentes brothers?!

A refresher: Pash, Pick or Pass is a game where we pick from a random book trio and say who we'd pash (and dash), who we'd pick for a relationship and who we'd pass on all together.

The Contenders
From Simone Elkeles' Perfect Chemistry trilogy (as played in my imagination)...

Alex "I'm in a gang to protect my family" Fuentes

Carlos "I'm in a gang coz I'm hard core" Fuentes

Luis "I'm in a gang due to illogical plotting" Fuentes

My Choices

Pash: Carlos. He's a bit too douchey for my tastes, but he's hot, so I wouldn't mind a bit of alone time with him. 

Pick: Alex, all the way. He's just so adorable and sweet and awesome and smart and... yeah, I adore him.

Pass: Luis. He's kinda cute but I first met him when he was 11, so I'd definitely have to pass or things would get real awkward.

Who would you pash/pick/pass out of these bad boys? 

My Book Boyfriend: Luis Fuentes

 

My Book Boyfriend, hosted by the lovely Missie at The Unread Reader, is a weekly meme that allows book bloggers to showcase our fictional crushes (and drool over each other's). This week I'm rounding out the Fuentes trifecta with Luis, who follows his brothers Alex and Carlos in Simone Elkeles' Perfect Chemistry series. Luis is the youngest, most sensitive and innocent Fuentes brother, but he's also a confident, cocky womaniser (in a cute, non-creepy way). Until he meets the right girl, naturally. I pictured him as Diego Boneta.

Swoon-Worthy Quotes

"I reach out for her waist and gently urge her toward me. We're face-to-face now. She looks up at me with long eyelashes that almost touch her eyebrows and eyes that I could melt into if she'd let me. There's no mistaking the electricity pulsing through the air between us. If we got together, it would be explosive... in a really good way. She's intimidating, which is sexy as all hell. I don't get intimidated easily. 'Hola, corazon,' I say, and wiggle my eyebrows at her. I expect her to smile. Or laugh. I don't expect her to knee me in the nuts and say 'Fuck you'. Which is exactly what Nikki Cruz does."

"'I'm fallin' in love with you,' I blurt out. Oh, shit. Did that really just come out of my mouth? I've never said that to a girl before, and promised myself that I'd never say it if I didn't mean it. The scariest part is that I did."

"He kisses me again. And again. And again. 'Your pulse is racin',' he whispers against my skin."

"'Want me to list all the reasons I love you?' he asks me. 'I wrote a poem about it for English class... I called you my forever and always.'"

My Book Boyfriend: Carlos Fuentes

 

My Book Boyfriend, hosted by the lovely Missie at The Unread Reader, is a weekly meme that allows book bloggers to showcase our fictional crushes (and drool over each other's). After giving a lot of love to Alex Fuentes a few weeks ago, I'm now devoting my attention to his younger brother, Carlos (don't worry, Alex is still MINE too). Carlos is one of the main characters in Simone Elkeles' Rules of Attraction, and he starts off as a total smart-ass rebel who's angry at the world and hates on pretty much everything and everyone. As the book progresses, he stays a smart-ass, but allows his sweet side to come out as he falls for Kiara, the daughter of the man who has taken him in. Described as having dark hair and dark eyes, plus "a hot bod and a face that could make angels weep" (according to himself, anyway), I pictured Carlos looking like Tyler Posey, because I'm a little bit in love with him and think he's got just the right mix of cheeky adorableness and smokin' hotness.

Swoon-Worthy Quotes

“While my mind is telling me I'm flirting with her just to prove a point, my body wants to play 'you show me your perky privates and I'll show you mine.'”

“'I'm in deep shit Alex, 'cause I think I'd like nothin' better than to wake up with her every mornin'.'”

"'Tonight was . . . well, it was perfect for me, too. You’ve turned my world upside down. I’ve fallen in love with you, chica, and it scares the fuckin’ shit outta me. I’ve been shakin’ all night, because I knew it.'"

"The lady at the store said yellow means friendship and red means love. The rosary is the only thing I own that has value to me. It's yours. I'm yours.” 

Review: Chain Reaction by Simone Elkeles

Chain Reaction is the final installment in Simone Elkeles' Perfect Chemistry series. After following the exploits of his two older brothers, this book focuses on Luis, who we first met in Perfect Chemistry when he was 11. At first I didn't think I'd be that interested in Luis because, well, he was a kid like, five minutes ago, and that is so not hot. But he's all grown up in Chain Reaction and, like his brothers before him, he is smokin'. But unlike Carlos and Alex, he's a good boy on the outside as well as the inside. As the book opens, the closest Luis ever gets to danger is rock climbing and the other extreme sports that give him the adrenaline hit he craves. That is, until his mother decides to up and move him back to Fairfield.

Yeah, that's right, the woman chooses the town where her husband was murdered and her eldest son was nearly killed as the ideal place to move to, with her 17-year-old son in tow.

OK, OK, so the Latino Blood have supposedly fallen apart and the cops have literally moved in to the neighbourhood, but seriously?! It doesn't take long for the shit to hit the fan. This mother fails at, well, being a mother. She made me So. Freaking. Mad. And her excuse for moving back to Fairfield? She wants to be closer to her grandchildren (that'd be Alex and Brittany's kids - but that's a whole 'nother rant), coz she cares about them... apparently more than the safety of her teenage son. Her actions are even less excusable when a family secret connected to Fairfield is revealed later in the book. Argh!

But enough of my ranting. At least on the topic of Mama Fuentes, anyway. Because I do have another one to get out of the way, as I alluded to above. That is... WTF happened to Alex and Brittany in this book?! It opens with their wedding, something you'd think would be a lovely, romantic, emotional event, given everything they've been through and how much they love each other... and it's a freaking circus. Mainly because Alex decided that they'd be living in Fairfield again after the wedding, because he's been accepted into graduate school there and Shelley is being moved to a facility nearby. None of which he's told Brittany about, let alone consulted her on. She finds out at the altar because Luis objects, refusing to let Alex start his marriage on lies.

10 points to Luis. Minus eleventy-billion for Alex. He didn't even feel like the same character at that point. What makes the whole thing worse is that it makes zero sense - surely he and Brittany had discussed their future plans?! And what about her graduate school? I'm assuming she furthers her education as well, because apparently together they're a hot-shot team who discover a miracle cure, if the Perfect Chemistry epilogue is anything to go by. Then again, according to an interview with Elkeles, Brittany pops out six kids in quick succession, so maybe she's too busy for a career, or anything else - an issue that's unfortunately not touched upon in the books. Then there's the curious fact that Alex knows that Shelley is being transferred, but Brittany doesn't - Alex, who Brittany's parents think so little of, they don't even show up to their wedding. Yeah, that makes total sense.

Obviously, I had a few issues with this book. But now that I've gotten them out of my system (are you still with me? Thank you kindly for your patience), I will say that, believe it or not, I did enjoy Chain Reaction. Luis is quite lovely, and takes after Alex, which was definitely attractive. I also liked Nikki, the girl he's drawn to, though I found her a little hard to connect with. But this was part of her character - due to certain painful events in her past, she puts up a wall between herself and everyone around her. So, while I couldn't exactly get under her skin, I could understand where she was coming from and sympathise with her.

Still, I have to say, I was a little disappointed that, seeing as Luis was supposed to be the "good" Fuentes brother, the tables weren't turned in this book and it wasn't the girl who was the "bad" one in the relationship, as I'd kinda been hoping. Alas, Nikki is still the good girl from the right side of the tracks, and poor Luis is forced to retrace the destructive path his family had trod before him. That said, I was glad to see Chain Reaction did have a different tone to its predecessors, and even the narrative pace was altered from the one that was set in both Perfect Chemistry and Rules of Attraction. It was also nice - aside from the crapness that was the wedding - to see Alex and Brittany and Carlos and Kiara again, all loved up and happy. So, even with a few hiccups, Chain Reaction was a great end to an addictive series. Though my ranting might have you believe otherwise, I came away pretty damn satisfied.

Rating: 2.5/5

Eye Candy
I pictured Diego Boneta as Luis and Selena Gomez as Nikki.

Fine Print

Genre: Young Adult

Published: 2011

Publisher: Walker Books

Get It: Book Depository

Review: Rules of Attraction by Simone Elkeles

I have never been so excited to get a book. After finishing Perfect Chemistry, the first in Simone Elkeles' series, I cursed myself for not having ordered the whole thing, and immediately went online to remedy my mistake. Then I waited. And waited. Everyone in my office was on book watch. Each day a book didn't come (or the wrong one did) was a disappointment. Then, when Rules of Attraction finally appeared on my desk...

Yep. I squealed. Then went home and DEVOURED it. I'm talking staying up 'til 2am even though I had to work the next day. I could not put it down. I sped through the pages, anxious for the next appearance of Alex and Brittany, plus excited to watch the developing relationship between Alex's little bro, Carlos, and Kiara, the girl whose family had taken him in.

Squealing aside, I was initially a little concerned that Rules of Attraction would feel like copypasta of Perfect Chemistry, but I needn't have worried. Sure, the two books are structurally and thematically similar, but the characters are completely unique. Carlos may be related to Alex, but the two are quite different. Carlos is even angrier at the world than Alex was, and takes his emotions out on those around him. As a result, he comes off as quite, well, douchey for a big chunk of the book. Of course, he's a good guy deep down; his sweetness just takes a little longer to surface than it did in Alex's case. Which makes him pretty amusing, but also incredibly frustrating and hard to warm to at first. It's OK though, coz his hotness in the second half of the book more than makes up for it.

What I liked most about Rules of Attraction, though, was not actually Carlos - it was Kiara. She was a bit of a dag, but I loved that she was smart, had unique interests, an awesome gay best friend, didn't care what other people thought of her and took no crap - especially from Carlos. She gave as good as she got, and it was totally hot. Plus she has an incredibly amazing family who were so fun to read about. At first I was like, are these people for real?! Taking in a gang member the same age as your teenage daughter is not exactly a smart move, when you think about it. But when Kiara's dad's background is revealed, it all makes sense. I loved the way they all looked after each other and enjoyed spending time together. Hello, Family Fun Night? Adorable!

The chemistry between Carlos and Kiara wasn't quite as explosive as it was between Alex and Brittany (for me, at least), but it was still pretty fiery. I loved the glimpses we got of the older couple, too; they're so loved-up for most of the book and it's great to see them going strong. There was one plot twist that kinda threw me off, but thanks to the cheesetastic epilogue in Perfect Chemistry I knew everything would be OK. There's another extra cheesy epilogue in this installment, and I gotta admit I enjoyed it. I do love me a happily ever after.

Rating: 3/5

Eye Candy
I pictured Tyler Posey as Carlos because a) he's hot, b) he has Mexican heritage, c) he's hot, d) he looked hot doing the whole (highly stylised) gang thing in Best Coast's Our Deal film clip, and e) he's hot.

I pictured Tyler's Teen Wolf co-star Crystal Reed as Kiara, because I'm just THAT imaginative. In my defense, she does look kinda how I thought Kiara would - brunette, athletic...

Also? They're totally adorable together.

Related
The aforementioned Best Coast clip, which I watch at least twice a day. I'm obsessed.

Fine Print
Genre: Young Adult
Published: 2010
Publisher: Walker Books
Get It: Book Depository

Images via Tyler Posey Online and Ultimate Crystal Reed

My Book Boyfriend: Alejandro "Alex" Fuentes

 

My Book Boyfriend, hosted by Missie at The Unread Reader, is my favourite meme ever, allowing book bloggers to showcase our fictional crushes (and drool over each other's). I've seen my pick this week (from Simone Elkeles' Perfect Chemistry) pop up in My Book Boyfriend a few times in the past, so I'd just like to preface this post by saying:

Yep, y'all can back off Alex Fuentes coz I'm claiming him as mine. Mwahaha. 

What's so great about him, you ask (if you don't already know)? For starters, he's super hot. He's a bad boy (on the outside, at least), with dark hair, dark eyes, tattoos and a motorbike named Julio. Definitely not my usual type, but he's just that freaking hot I couldn't help but love him anyway. Of course, the best thing about Alex is his inner goodness. Yeah, he's in a gang, but it's only because he has to be to protect his family. He has ambitions that go far beyond that, and the smarts to follow through. Plus he's so caring and sweet... and did I mention hot?! I pictured him as Alexander F. Rodriguez thanks to Elkeles' book trailers.

Swoon-Worthy Quotes

"Alex pulls me close and whispers in my ear, 'You only live once, isn't that what you said? Dance with me again.'
'But-'
He cuts me off with a kiss so powerful I forgot what I was supposed to be upset about."

"'Mujer, you own my soul.'"

 "'Hold it...,' he says. 'Feel the sweet spot. Linger there.'" [He's talking about the clutch in a car, of course... What were you thinking?! Get your minds out of the gutter!]

“I don't belong here. It doesn't matter, because even if I don't belong in this place, she's here and I want to be where she is... I want to know how to make this girl laugh. I want to know what makes her cry. I want to know what it feels like to have her look at me as if I'm her knight in shining armor.” 

Related
Guess what song I had in my head the whole time I was putting this post together?

Review: Perfect Chemistry By Simone Elkeles

I can't get this book off my mind.

Before reading it, I wasn't sure if it would be my cup of tea. The story of a gang member and a rich girl falling in love didn't really catch my fancy - mainly because it sounded super angsty, and I had my doubts about falling for a gang member. But then the Fuentes brothers kept popping up on My Book Boyfriend posts all over the blogosphere, and Abbey from Abbey's Bookshelf said the Perfect Chemistry series was one of her all-time faves - so I thought I should give it a go. I devoured it in a day and loved every second of it. Sure, it was a tad melodramatic and pretty damn cheesy, but I loved it all. And I really freaking loved Alex Fuentes.

One of my favourite things about Perfect Chemistry was the fact that it's told from the alternating perpectives of Alex and Brittany. It was awesome to be able to get inside both their heads and see what was really going on with them before switching to how they're seen by each other. I especially enjoyed reading about the developing feelings on both sides of the relationship. I was able to sympathise with each of the characters and their situations, which was surprising. On the surface, they're not characters you'd expect to like (just as they don't expect to like each other), but scratch a bit deeper and they're both not just likable, but lovable. Especially Alex - I really admired the fact that everything he did was to protect his family (no thanks to his mum, who basically encourages him to sacrifice himself, grrr). Plus, y'know, he's totally hot.

But, with a name like Perfect Chemistry, does Alex and Brittany's relationship live up to the book's title? The answer is yes. Hell. Yes. From the very beginning, you can feel the sparks flying, even as they (try to) hate each other. Thanks to the different viewpoints, it wasn't hard to see why they were drawn to one another. Their banter was a lot of fun to read, and with the exception of a few cringe-worthy lines, the dialogue felt quite natural. The sexual tension made the slow build to Alex and Brittany's inevitable hookup excruciating (in the best possible way). When they finally did get together, there were quite a few steamy scenes, but it was the emotions behind the passion that really made them stand out. I enjoyed Elkeles' writing so much I instantly regretted having only bought Perfect Chemistry, and went online to order the rest of the series straight away. Now I'm eagerly awaiting their arrival in the mail while avoiding other books, because I so want to stay in the world of Alex and Brittany. It's a pretty awesome place to be.

Rating: 4/5

Eye Candy
I imagined Dianna Agron as Brittany and Alexander F. Rodriguez as Alex (he plays him in Elkeles' book trailers).

Source

Source

Fine Print
Genre: Young Adult
Published: 2008
Publisher: Walker Books
Get It: Book Depository

Related
Elkeles listed this song on her Perfect Chemistry playlist to go with a certain love scene, which is incredibly cheesy, but also totally appropriate. Plus it reminded me of how much I used to obsess over this film clip. Ah, nostalgia...