Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. Each week they will post a new Top Ten list that one of their bloggers over at The Broke and the Bookish will answer. Everyone is welcome to join.
The topic for this week is: : Top Ten Books I’d Give To Readers Who Have Never Read X
In this case – I’m choosing New Adult.
I wasn’t a fan of this genre when I first started reading books classified as New Adult. They seemed to be just an excuse to have young adult characters engaging in a lot of sex. And whilst I don’t mind the occasional more steamy read, I do need for there to be some kind of plot or substance with my romance.
For me New Adult is the kind of book which bridges the gap between teen and adult. Where characters are trying to work out their new role in the world and finding out who they are without parents etc. These books are often involving characters in college or straight out of high school and working out which direction their lives are going to go.
Here are my top 10 picks or people who are new to the genre:
Easy by Tammara Webber – Set in college. Deals with some rather sensitive issues regarding relationships, rape/victims, responsibility and friendship. I was not expecting to like this book but it really got to me.
Slammed by Colleen Hoover – I do not like teacher/student relationships but this one is handled well. It’s a great story about loss, love and inner strength.
Anything written by Abbi Glines – These books are a guilty pleasure of mine. After a while they all sort of start to feel the same but there is something charming about them. They’re quick and easy reads with a lot of romance and lots of gorgeous over protective brooding men. Typically this sort of things isn’t really something I enjoy but somehow Abbi Glines makes it work
True Believers series by Erin McCarthy – College girls falling in love with tattooed men. The premise is simple and fairly formulaic but Ms. McCarthy manages to convey an idea I’ve read many times before in a different way. There are topics like opposites attracting, cheating and unplanned pregnancies but they don’t unfold quite how I was expecting and that’s why this series worked for me.
Ten Tiny Breaths series by KA Tucker – I just finished reading Ten Tiny Breaths last night and had to put it on this week’s list. It’s about a 20-year-old woman who is trying to free herself from her past. She is the guardian to her younger sister and doing whatever she can to make ends meet whilst at the same time not letting her past ruin her future. Well written with some great characters.
Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell – Another college story but again with a difference.
Beautiful Oblivion by Jamie McGuire – Beautiful Disaster and Walking Disaster nearly turned me off New Adult but I really enjoyed Beautiful Oblivion. The reason why I didn’t like the other books is because it felt like the characters were making the same mistakes over and over and it frustrated me. This new series has a bit more energy and variety in terms of plot.
The Piper’s Son by Melina Marchetta – I loved Saving Francesca and it was amazing to see some of the characters reappear in this book.
The Messenger by Marcus Zusak – I first read this book a decade ago when I was in high school and it made a big impact on me. This is the kind of book about a teenager who needs some kind of direction in his life.
Where She Went by Gayle Foreman – the sequel to If I Stay, this book is a great continuation of Mia’s story and the decisions she now faces as she enters adulthood.
Which New Adult books did you love? Any you would recommend? Feel free to leave me a comment 🙂
I hear Abbi Glines, Colleen Hoover and Tammara Webber being thrown around a lot as awesome NA writers. Funnily enough, I didn’t really think of Fangirl and The Messenger being NA, although I have read them both (and loved them!). Same with Where She Went, I suppose because it just seems like a continuation of If I Stay (though Adam sooo annoyed me). I really do have to read more of Melina Marchetta, too…
Awesome list 🙂
I’ve read every book Melina Marchetta has published and still I want to read more! She’s amazing. I know many people didn’t class books like Fangirl as NA but I felt because it’s bridging the gap between YA and Adulthood then it counts. It’s okay if people don’t agree with me. I get why they don’t classit as NA.
I definitely need to give New Adult more of a try so I shall definitely look up some of these recommendations. I like Colleen Hoover though.
I love Easy, Slammed, Fangirl and The Piper’s Son. This is a great list! 🙂
I loved Fangirl! I was so happy to finally read something where the protagonist wasn’t in high school! Also the relationships wern’t first relationships as such and focused, as you said, on the development of character and where they are in the world. I have heard good things about Easy by Tammara Webber and it’s in my 160 books to be read!
YES! So glad to see someone else who agrees with me about Fangirl 😀 It kind of straddles the line between YA and NA, but I think it’s more NA, even though it doesn’t have the explicitness of some other NA I’ve read.
I really like the Ten Tiny Breaths series as well, but haven’t read past the first book 😛 I don’t even know why!
I’ve struggled a bit to find New Adult books I like. Tammara Webber’s Easy is by far the best I’ve come across for my own personal tastes. I like how she crafted an engaging romance with a deeper plot and a really accessible story about the effects of rape culture that don’t read like “an issue book.”
For me, Fangirl doesn’t fit so much in NA even if it’s set in college. Imagine that book was set in a boarding school and the characters are aged down a year or two. The writing, experiences, and construction of the book to me feel very much YA.
What I love is that the author, and Gayle Forman with Where She Went and Just One Day, were both able to take YA and set it in college. That’s the New Adult I like rather than what I most often see as NA which to me is another branch of contemporary romance. I also read contemp romance, though I tend to like those authors’ books better than what the NA writers are doing–personal preference I suppose.
It seems like everyone has Fangirl on their NA lists… I guess I didn’t realize it was considered NA. I am even more interested in reading it! Great list, btw! 🙂
I recently read Easy, and OH MY GOSH, WHY DID I WAIT SO LONG! That book was amazing!!! All the feels, right here.
I also loved Fangirl. That book makes me swoon – but not the typical swooning. I could relate to Cath no sooo many levels it was actually kind of scary.
Nice choices! I’m going to read Tammara Webber soon, I’ve got book 1 & 2 in the Easy series, so hopefully they are really good as you said. I just finished Fangirl, and I wasn’t a big fan of it….. Can’t wait to see what you think of it. Ohhh, I really loved Beautiful Disaster, but I’m going to read Beautiful Oblivion soon!