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| Don't mess with the gingers! (source) |
My newest post on Heroes & Heartbreakers is about redheaded heroes. This was quite a difficult list to make because there aren’t that many. And when they do show up, they are either Scotsmen or don’t look like a redhead at all (no freckles, no pale skin). But I think I found a few good examples to show you how appealing redheads can be. I also want to say thanks to everyone on Twitter who recommended books to me.
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The Shameless Summer Giveaway Hop begins this Friday. Can you believe we’re already in June? Today is your last day to sign up and if you already did it, Jen sent an email yesterday explaining the process and with the linky tool code. If you didn’t get it, or if you have questions and doubts, feel free to email me.
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Yesterday was the release day of Tamara Morgan’s
The World is a Stage . I’m really excited to read it since I loved the first book (they stand alone well, so read them out of order if you want). She visited the blog last week to talk about the book, so if you missed the interview here’s the link.
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Remember the post about early reviews? The majority of the voters agreed that they liked early reviews, as long as they were posted close to release day. I still hate them, but it’s good to know that if I ever feel like talking about a book early you won’t get mad at me! Thank you to everyone who voted and commented, I really enjoy these opinion posts. If there’s any topic in particular you would like to see featured here let me know in the comments!
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Are you familiar with the term New Adult? It’s YA with College-age kids. To be honest I find the term a bit off. How many different types of adults are there? I thought adulthood was like pregnancy, you either are or aren’t, no conditions, no middle grounds. Granted, the moment someone becomes an adult depends on a lot of things (law, society, person experience, etc.), but I think YA and New Adult are just euphemisms for teenager. I guess teens don’t want to be called teens, and adults don’t want to admit they like teen fiction? Who knows?
The reason I’m telling you this is because I read a very good NA book called
Easy by Tammara Webber
. Really cute story about a girl who goes to college following her high school boyfriend and when the guy dumps her she realizes that she gave up her dreams for him. She’s about to fail a class and then someone almost rapes her. In the middle of all this, she meets two guys and finds some backbone and independence. And just because I know I hate them and I would like to know, there are no love triangles in the story, so don’t worry. The sensuality is higher than in your regular YA novel, so I guess that’s part of what makes this genre more mature. But otherwise this could pass for a YA or even a contemporary romance. If you’re curious about this genre I think Easy is a good place to start.
. Really cute story about a girl who goes to college following her high school boyfriend and when the guy dumps her she realizes that she gave up her dreams for him. She’s about to fail a class and then someone almost rapes her. In the middle of all this, she meets two guys and finds some backbone and independence. And just because I know I hate them and I would like to know, there are no love triangles in the story, so don’t worry. The sensuality is higher than in your regular YA novel, so I guess that’s part of what makes this genre more mature. But otherwise this could pass for a YA or even a contemporary romance. If you’re curious about this genre I think Easy is a good place to start.
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Right now I'm about to start another YA (I'm on a binge!) called
Keep Holding On
by Susane Colasanti. No opinion yet since I'm on page 1. I'll keep you posted!
by Susane Colasanti. No opinion yet since I'm on page 1. I'll keep you posted!
What are you reading?
I like the idea of having a 'New Adult' category. I just heard this term not but 2 days ago, and it was for a review on Easy! LOL I had to ask on Twitter what NA was and how it differed to YA. I ike that NA focuses on people is their early 20s (college bound perhaps), there's no focus on the parental units, and it's more 'mature' than YA yet not quite 'adult'. I used to love reading YA (I couldn't get enough of it) but lately I have found myself steering away from it. I think I'm pass the point of reading about teenagers/minors. It feels...limiting.
ReplyDeleteIMO, I think "YA" should be used to label the books that people are trying to consider NA. And "Teens" should be used to label the books that feature TEEN-aged characters. That would make the most sense to me. But we're so far off course that there's not fixing it now. LOL
Great post!
It's a good excuse to get rid of the parents (that are often absent in YA) and to have sex. Ha, this sounds a lot like college! LOL
DeleteI agree that NA applies to what we call YA now, and Teens should be used to describe a different type of book. This is all very confusing. I just think adding NA to the mix makes no sense when you already have YA.
I don't see a lot of these books, but I think they would be fun to read as college was the best time and experience of my life. The idea for a separate category is cool with me. Then I'll know what to expect as far as age and atmosphere.
ReplyDeleteI'll have to seek some of these books out and give them a go. I hope they are a real reflection of the college experience.
Easy is a good place to start, IMO. And the price is great ;-)
DeleteI found this 'List of NA Books' on Goodreads.
DeleteWater for Elephants? O.o Some of those books are clearly YA... See? Confusing!
DeleteYou know, I haven't even gone through that list nor have I read (or seen the movie) Water for Elephants. LOL
DeleteHi Brie! Sorry I haven't been around to comment lately ^_^;
ReplyDeleteI'm going to head over to read your post about red-head heroes :) I have to admit you're right, we don't often read about them. Perhaps because dark hair and blue eyes are more popular? LOL.
I'm getting all confused with Tamara Morgan and Tammara Webber. I've been seeing these two names a lot lately ^_^; Need to keep the straight.
I don't really like the term New Adult. Seriously, if you're a young adult, then how can you be a new adult afterwards? Plus, it sounds too much like New Age.
I hear you on being a YA binge. I was in one a few weeks ago. Incredible how easy we can gobble them up one after another :P
Talk, DARK and handsome... It's the norm. Not blond, definitively not ginger.
DeleteI had the same problem with the Tamaras, at least one has an extra M and their styles are quite different.
It does sound like New Age! LOL
One thing I don't like about YA is that, most of the time, it features no parents. The main characters conflict is either a dead parent or if else, the parents are usually never present which makes me scream "did this character come to life through pollination?!" the only mention is "mom is at work" which is hard to believe since I know most parents are a little bit more involved with in child's life and with that being said, every NA book I read involved parents since the main character is now on their own, there is usually the side conflict of them missing their parent or whatever... so "there's no focus on the parental units" is more true to YA than NA in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteI agree young adult books should be a label for what we call new adult while what is we now consider young adult should be labeled as 'teen'. But if adolescences or teenagers are people from 13-19 and a young adult is a person from 20-40, shouldn't adult books be called YA? since most of them feature 30-ish y/o characters? LOOOOOL. This is too confusing.
Personally, I would not read any YA book (I'm a teen by the way) because some feature 13-15 y/o which is waaay to young for me. I stopped reading when I was around 13 because I never enjoyed what was targeted for me. It was too immature so I went for books with older characters like 16 y/o and that's what I could relate too and now that I'm almost 17, I'm reading adult contemporary because I just can't get into young YA. But then with NA, I'll immediately add that book to read. My definition of NA would be a character who's out of high school and like me, you have people who graduate when they're 17 and that makes them a teenager but really how can they relate to YA set in high school anymore? They can enjoy it but that period of their life is over. I just enjoy the maturer atmosphere of NA and not just because it's sexier but the situation are maturer in general. Everything about it is maturer than YA but it's not yet an adult book. I do appreciate the label, because it makes it easier for me to add books and choose which books to read but you're 100% right, how many adults can there be?
What really gets me is how publishers can group together books meant for 13-15 y/o with the same books meant for 16-18 y/o (have you ever read about a 19 y/o? I guess that's not an important age which further proofs that publishers are labeling books wrong) they're so different to me!! Which means that: "Teens" should be used to label the books that feature TEEN-aged characters" still doesn't solve the problem. I just believe you cannot group together an age group that can't even drive and their biggest problems is getting a boyfriend/girlfriend with the age group who works, saves money for college and sometimes is already living on their own.
A perfect example would be Amplified by Tara Kelley. The main character is 17 but she graduated. The book involves 20+ y/o and drinking because it's legal for some of her friends and such. This is labeled YA but it's clearly for maturer teenagers. But then you have a book like Such a Rush by Jennifer Echols which is 100% new adult, the characters are still in high school (only a few months away from graduation though) but every situation they go though is mature. From paying the bills, to working and it's even sexier than any YA book and by calling it NA I'm contradicting myself since my definition of NA is characters out of high schools when it should be "teen aged characters who go through REAL problems".... man this is a mess!
Sorry for the long comment, it's just an interesting subject!
The absent parents are the biggest flaw in YA. And as you said, NA is a good way to get rid of the problem.
DeleteI think YA is a bit of an umbrella term to capture everything from early teens to early college-age. So I guess NA is a way to narrow down the selection so that readers know exactly what they’re getting, whereas with YA is a bit of a lottery, maybe the story is a fluffy nightmare, maybe has more serious topics like drugs and sex.
"What really gets me is how publishers can group together books meant for 13-15 y/o with the same books meant for 16-18 y/o (have you ever read about a 19 y/o?"
Maybe because anything older than 18 is considered adult, and even though the label is Young Adult, the target is younger than 18. I think the unwritten rule is that to be YA at least one of the main characters has to be in high school, right?
Thank you for such a great, insightful comment. You have given me much to think about!