Shameless Pleasures #1 - Young Adult Books
- tortolano5
- Mar 24
- 4 min read
The first “shameless pleasure” I’d like to share with you is my love of reading. What’s wrong with reading you say, well nothing really. It’s just that I LOVE Young Adult books! According to my very limited research, about half of all YA book buyers are adults between the ages of 30 to 44. My guess is its actually more than that because after 44, who really admits that they read YA all the time – ME! And I’m a tad older than that.
YA books are hugely popular among adults for all sorts of reasons, but I think we love them mostly because they are just fun to read. They are easy and quick to read, they bring us back to our younger days and allow us to enjoy some nostalgia thinking back to our own high school age years. To young love, friendships, and even enemies. And who doesn’t wanna escape adulthood for a few hours every now and then; or in my case every day! Gimme a break, it’s hard to put down my book sometimes and take the flight of stairs to my home office for my adult job!
Anyway, I used to be embarrassed by reading (and loving) YA books. For example, back in 2008, when the first Hunger Games book came out, I was traveling coast to coast for my very professional job. I’ll never forget the trip I took to Portland, Oregon with a copy of the Hunger Games. I read it cover to cover on that flight. All while hiding the cover.
You see, I thought as an IT professional, it would make me look a little silly reading a book for teens and one that was soon to come out as a movie aimed at young people. But that didn’t stop me from indulging in not just the first book but, every one in the series since.
I did the same thing with the Divergent series and, of course, the Twilight series. The Twilight books, while fun to read and argue whose “team” you were, Team Edward or Team Jacob, I did not jump on the movie series as those were just silly. Flying Vampires, really!
But The Hunger Games and Divergent, now those were worthy films! And I still argue with my daughter about Gale vs. Peeta – I am team Gale, she is team Peeta. She’s wrong.
In fact, my daughter is the reason my love for YA books has grown. I love dystopian stories, and she loves ROMANTASY! Have you ever heard of that term? It’s a romance story that takes place in fantasy worlds with characters who typically have some sort of power, magic, prophecy about them, etc. The worlds are always epic, and the heroines are often fated to save the worlds – human, fae, etc. And of course, there are amazingly handsome and beautiful characters. It’s my daughter who first introduced me to this genre. After I got over the embarrassment of imagining my daughter reading some of the spicier scenes, sharing book titles with each other is one of my favorite things to do.
Reading is a love passed down along the matriarchal lines in our family, so to speak. Every woman in our family was an avid reader, so when my daughter fought tooth and nail against reading in her early school days, it pained me. But thanks to a wonderful 9th grade English teacher and a genre that finally won her over – wallah – we have another reader in the family! YAY!
Ok back to my affliction. I thought I would share some of our favorite titles and series so you can check them out too. Perhaps Dystopian or Romantasy is the exact escape you need right now. It’s tough out there people.
While reading easy, entertaining books may seem a bit embarrassing, I give you permission to enjoy them SHAMELESSLY no matter how old you are. Own it, love it, read it!
Life is too short to feel guilty about the things we enjoy!
List of Shamelessly wonderful books/series:
This just scratches the surface of what’s on my kindle. You see, with a Kindle, I don’t have to hide the covers!
The Hunger Games, Suzzane Collins
Divergent, Veronica Roth
Red Queen, Victoria Aveyard
A Court of Thorns and Roses, Sarah J. Maas
Fourth Wing, Rebecca Yarros
Shadow and Bone, Leigh Bardugo
The Order – Kingdon of Fallen Ash, Katerina St. Clair
Shatter Me, Tahereh Mafi
There are too many to link so here are some titles you should look up!!
The Ever King Book 1, The Ever Queen Book 2, LJ Andrews
Of Dragons and Fae, Jasmine Walt
City of Gods and Monsters (House of Devils Book 1), Kayla Edwards
Tale of Eaglefriend, C.L. Murray
From Blood and Ash: A Blood and Ash Novel, Jennifer L. Armentrout
Powerful: A Powerless Story, Lauren Roberts
Crescent City, Sarah J. Maas
And some “Witchy” titles:
When the Moon Hatched, Sarah Parker
Divine and the Cursed, JE Reed
Court of Shadows – Shadow Fae Book, CN Crawford
A Discovery of Witches, Deborah Harkness (now a TV Series)
A Witch in Time: A Magical Time Travel Shapeshifter Paranormal Romance (The Magic of Wishes & Dreams Book 6), Allie McCormack
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