YA Binge

A few weeks ago I found myself facing a dilemma. I’d just released Red Wolf Rising, and I was looking around for something to work on. Projects for revised editions of my first two Red Wolf novels loom on the horizon, but I’d been in editing mode for so long I felt I needed a break. Yet, I couldn’t seem to summon the Muse (usually conjured with coffee) to write anything new.

What to do?

Okay, it really wasn’t that hard a decision. I did what I always do when I have a number of choices I don’t want to take. I read! So, for the past several weeks I’ve indulged myself with a YA binge.

At my age, it’s a little embarrassing I read so many Young Adult novels. But, I do. In fact, if you examined the plethora of titles currently stored on my Kindle, you’d conclude that YA Paranormal is my preferred genre.

Although I like to tell myself my tastes in literature are more eclectic, I must admit I’m drawn to these stories where the protagonists are predominantly teenage girls. They make the best characters. They are crazy by definition, and when you add in supernatural powers and a clever writer, the entertainment possibilities are limitless.

Here are a few I devoured recently that I’d like to recommend.

Author Richelle Mead comprises by far the largest collection on my Kindle. I currently have twenty-one titles grouped under her name. The Ruby Circle, published last month, is the last book she’ll write featuring the Sydney Sage character. Sydney was one of my favorite characters in Mead’s wildly popular Vampire Academy series and a perfect protagonist to spinoff for Bloodlines.

Sadly, we’re not likely to see any more tales of the Moroi from Mead in the future. The good news, however, is that this prolific writer already has an interesting title soon to be released based on Chinese mythology. And, hopefully, she won’t keep us waiting too much longer for the third installment of her Age of X series, an adult sci-fi/dystopian tale that has the potential to be her best yet.

My on-line friend Maghon Thomas, the most prolific blogger I know, posts almost daily on the Happy Tails and Tales blog site. It was there I stumbled upon these Entangled Teen offerings by Chris Cannon, featuring young Bryn McKenna, who suddenly discovers on her sixteenth birthday that she is a shape-shifting dragon. Not only that, she is a hybrid, born of renegade parents whose marriage defied the secret, rigid, dystopian dragon society from whence they sprung. Some want to use her; some want to kill her; some want to bend her to their will. Almost no one wants to accept her for who she is.

I purchased the first in the series, Going Down in Flames. After reading it, I didn’t hesitate downloading the sequel, Bridges Burned. Unfortunately, the third book hasn’t been written yet. (sigh)

And now, although I can hear the Muse once again knocking on the door of my brain (I hope that’s what the noise is), there is one more title I just downloaded. My favorite Aussie author, Kristy Berridge, took, like, a hundred years, or something, to get the third installment of her Hunted series written and published, and my Kindle is quivering in anticipation to open up The Aligned and see what new entanglements Elena Manory is involved in.

As for working on my next novel, Rivers of Red…

I hear you knocking, Muse. But… just hang on a second, will ya?