If you like... YA Romance

If you like... is a feature in which I point you in the direction of more wonderful books that you're inclined to enjoy if you liked a certain kind of book or genre.

So this week, we're talking about romance!

Ah, romance, l'amour. Who doesn't love it? (Answer: robots) Most of the greatest novels ever written have romance in some shape or form. But YA romance is special, in that it's almost always that first love, the first kiss, the first time.... erm, knockin' boots, if you know what I mean. It's all about the thrill of young love, and all the angst and teenage hormones that comes with it.

I personally am a sucker for a good angst-y romance, because I like it when it's not so easy. A few nice tension-filled scenes are great to read. I also love sweet romances that make your toes curl in happiness, because what girl honestly doesn't dream of having that someday? I know I sure do!

If you like romance, then here are my recommendations to you.

Firstly, we have my favorite YA romance author ever, Veronica Blade!

All of Veronica's novels are absolutely bursting at the seams with great romance, but my personal favorite is From Fame to Shame. It's a novella, about 125 pages, and it's just pure romance with a guy that is smoking hot. Woo boy!

Here's the synopsis:

When good-girl Maddie switches places with her famous bad-girl twin Jackie, she has some pretty high stilettos to fill.
Despite the danger of tabloid drama if their identity swap is discovered, Maddie has to save her sister's butt. When Jackie’s ex-boyfriend shows up with a rekindled spark for “Jackie,” his deep gray eyes and sweet kisses make Maddie's heart thumpety thump. But dating the guy who dumped her sister is a no-no. Too bad Dallas isn’t used to girls saying no. What will happen when he discovers Maddie’s deception?

Let me tell you, this novella was fantastic! I couldn't stop reading, and Dallas was HOT HOT HOT!

Another favorite of mine from Veronica is Something Witchy This Way Comes.

It's a paranormal romance, but trust me, the emphasis is on the romance.

Synopsis:

Brainiac Tessa McClean’s newly discovered magical powers give her hope of an escape from her inadequate life. But the thrill of being a witch fades when she learns of a rival coven and begins to suspect her own coven’s objective. Evidence tells Tessa to trust one side, but instinct drives her toward the other. When Hayden Anders, the most delinquent kid in school — and the toughest — offers self-defense lessons in exchange for tutoring, the timing couldn’t be better. Though the idea of hanging out with a bad-boy that tempting is unnerving, staying alive amidst warring witches takes priority. She vows to hold onto her values and not surrender to the bad-boy she begins to secretly want. Together, Tessa and Hayden uncover the truth about the two factions — a truth that explains why the covens will stop at nothing to lure her to their side. Tessa has only a matter of weeks to form an alliance with one coven or the other, but the wrong decision could cost Tessa the lives of all those she loves — including Hayden.

Hayden is one of those deliciously infuriating kind of guys. He's a bad boy, a bit of a womanizer, and what I loved was that Tessa didn't give in automatically. That it so much better when they finally got together. If you want a sizzling hot romance, definitely pick up Something Witchy!

Another favorite of mine this year is Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi. It's a dystopian, kinda sci-fi romance novel that really caught me by surprise just how amazing it was!

Since she'd been on the outside, she'd survived an Aether storm, she'd had a knife held to her throat, and she'd seen men murdered. This was worse.
Exiled from her home, the enclosed city of Reverie, Aria knows her chances of surviving in the outer wasteland - known as The Death Shop - are slim. If the cannibals don't get her, the violent, electrified energy storms will. She's been taught that the very air she breathes can kill her. Then Aria meets an Outsider named Perry. He's wild - a savage - and her only hope of staying alive.
A hunter for his tribe in a merciless landscape, Perry views Aria as sheltered and fragile - everything he would expect from a Dweller. But he needs Aria's help too; she alone holds the key to his redemption. Opposites in nearly every way, Aria and Perry must accept each other to survive. Their unlikely alliance forges a bond that will determine the fate of all who live under the never sky.

The romance between Perry and Aria was slow-blossoming, but it was oh-so sweet and I absolutely loved it! Under the Never Sky is one of my favorite books of 2012, and such a great romance. Dying for book 2!

What are some other romance recommendations you'd give?
(Wow, I didn't notice until I after I finished that this post was a total Veronica post! Haha, spread the Veronica love!)

Review: Tempting the Best Man by J. Lynn

Just a reminder, For the Older Crowd reviews are meant, well... for the older crowd. Books reviewed under this feature are NOT YA, and contain mature themes that may not be suitable for younger readers. If you're not comfortable with this, please don't read this review.

Tempting the Best Man by J. Lynn 

Pages: 172
Publisher: Entangled Publishing
Genre: Adult Romance
#1 in Series

GOODREADS

Madison Daniels has worshipped her brother's best friend since they were kids. Everyone thinks she and Chase Gamble would make the perfect couple, but there are two major flaws in their logic. 1) Chase has sworn off relationships of any kind, and 2) after blurring the line between friends and lovers for one night four years ago, they can't stop bickering.

Forced together for her brother's wedding getaway, Chase and Madison decide to call a truce for the happy couple. Except all bets are off when they're forced to shack up in a tacky 70’s honeymoon suite and survive a multitude of "accidents" as the family tries to prove their "spark" can be used than for more than fighting. That is, if they don't strangle each other first…

Quick Thoughts

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Yep. Basically.

Review: Reincarnation by Suzanne Weyn

Author: Suzanne Weyn
Pages: 304
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Genre: YA Paranormal Romance
Source: Purchased

From prehistory to the present, theirs was a love for the ages. It starts with a fight in a cave over an elusive green jewel . . . and then travels over time and lives to include Egyptian slaves, Greek temples, Massachusetts witch trials, Civil War battlefields, Paris on the eve of World War II, America in the 1960s . . . and a pair of modern-day teenagers. For readers who believe that love is stronger than time or death, this is an unforgettable novel from a wonderful storyteller.

This is one of those books that I saw, thought the concept sounded interesting, and started reading without any expectations at all. I wasn't blown away by Reincarnation, but I thought the romance was very sweet and the way the story was executed was quite unique from other YA books out there.

Basically, the entire novel is comprised of shorter stories that take place at different times in history, spanning over several thousand years. It follows the lives of these two people that fall in love in their many reincarnations, but something always goes wrong and true happiness together evades them. How cool is that? You get like ten different stories all in one, but in reality it's just one story that's broken down into different parts with the same characters simply altered a bit in each reincarnation. I thought it was something completely different and interesting.

I found it a little difficult to connect to the characters themselves, seeing as every time they started to develop, something would happen and then we'd be in the next incarnation.

Overall, it was a good book. I liked it, I did, but I had wanted to like it more. Maybe if each of the incarnations were a bit longer, it would've been easier to connect to the characters and I think I really would've liked it more. But still, if you want a relatively quick read with a cute romance, definitely check out Reincarnation. I give it 3 out of 5 stars.

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Hardcover • Paperback

Out Today: The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michele Hodkin

Coming out is THE UNBECOMING OF MARA DYER! I love love loved it and YOU NEED TO GO BUY IT RIGHT NOW AND READ IT AND OMG.

Author: Michelle Hodkin
Pages: 450
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
Genre: YA Paranormal Thriller/Romance

Mara Dyer doesn't think life can get any stranger than waking up in a hospital with no memory of how she got there.
It can.

She believes there must be more to the accident she can't remember that killed her friends and left her mysteriously unharmed.

There is.

She doesn't believe that after everything she's been through, she can fall in love.

She's wrong.

Review: The Girl in the Steel Corset by Kady Cross

Author: Kady Cross
Pages: 336
Publisher: HarlequinTeen
Series or Standalone: 1st in the Steampunk Chronicles
Genre: YA Paranormal Steampunk
Reading Level: 14 years old+
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In 1897 England, sixteen-year-old Finley Jayne has no one…except the "thing" inside her.

When a young lord tries to take advantage of Finley, she fights back. And wins. But no normal Victorian girl has a darker side that makes her capable of knocking out a full-grown man with one punch…

Only Griffin King sees the magical darkness inside her that says she's special, says she's one of them. The orphaned duke takes her in from the gaslit streets against the wishes of his band of misfits: Emily, who has her own special abilities and an unrequited love for Sam, who is part robot; and Jasper, an American cowboy with a shadowy secret.

Griffin's investigating a criminal called The Machinist, the mastermind behind several recent crimes by automatons. Finley thinks she can help—and finally be a part of something, finally fit in.

But The Machinist wants to tear Griff's little company of strays apart, and it isn't long before trust is tested on all sides. At least Finley knows whose side she's on—even if it seems no one believes her.

LOVE. That is what I have for this book. Just mountains and mountains of love. Kady Cross answered all of my prayers to the book gods by writing this book. Steampunk is one of my favorite genres ever, but it’s very neglected in the YA market. The Girl in the Steel Corset is just the novel to change that. This novel will most certainly help YA Steampunk realize its full potential!

Set in a richly described steampunk London, the story starts off with a bang as we see Finley fighting her would-be-aggressor, a very rich and powerful—and dangerous—Lord Felix. This is where we first see her ‘dark side’, and I was immediately intrigued. Strong female heroines are the one thing that is an automatic like for me in a novel; but Finley redefined the word strong! She was both tough in character, and tough enough to take on even the biggest and strongest men. Of course, she’s frightened by this side of her that she isn’t able to control very well. It’s almost like a dual personality—very Dr. Jekkel and Mr. Hyde, which was actually mentioned in the novel. Finley must learn to unite the two halves of her before her dark side does something everyone will regret.

When Finley runs away after beating Lord Felix to an unconscious pulp… she gets hit my none other than the Duke of Greythorne, Griffin King. Griffin is eighteen years old, orphaned three years prior, and he takes Finley back to his house unconscious so that he can be sure she’s unharmed. It’s there that Finley meets the ragtag team of misfits that all seem to have special abilities as well. There’s Sam, Griffin’s best friend, who is unusually strong… and not entirely human. Emily, a sweet young Irish girl who has much more ingenuity and intelligence than almost everyone else, and who has a strange affinity for all things mechanical. Jasper, an American cowboy that can move faster than you can blink. Griffin himself seems the most gifted of all, with the ability to tap into the Aether, the  world of the dead which rests like a layer of unseen film over the living world. I thought Kady’s quirky cast of characters meshed well together, even those that didn’t get along very well, such as Sam and Finley. They each had a defining personality, and each had their time in the limelight.

The novel was told in the perspectives of several of the main characters, which is a good and bad thing. It gives different little pieces of the puzzle and leads you to make your own conclusions, which is great, but at the same time, it takes longer to become attached to characters. But overall, the narration flowed well. I enjoyed Griffin’s voice the most, he just had a way of thinking that made me enjoy his parts.

Romance wasn’t a main part in the novel, but the way has been paved for a romance in future books. Finley is definitely attracted to Griffin, ever the gentleman, but is also mighty attracted to Jack Dandy, the most notorious crime lord in all of England, and the polar opposite of Griffin. I personally loved both men, but I swayed a bit more towards Jack. Even though he wasn’t in the book too much compared to Griffin, he still had a distinct personality, not to mention his distinct style of talking. He spoke in an awesome Cockney accent, and honestly, Cockney accents are hot.

I am so, so excited to read the next book, I can’t wait to see what happens! Even though the story ended off with a new problem for these friends to face, I can’t help but get the feeling that their old problems haven’t gone away like they think. I can’t wait! I give this novel 5 out of 5 stars.