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I have a confession to make. I used to read really good books. I wasn’t even embarrassed to share my reading list with people when they asked. Now? I’ve sort of turned into a 19 year old girl when it comes to reading. I don’t know what my deal is, but I can devour a cheap romance novel in the space of an hour. There are plenty of free and inexpensive reads that I would never recommend. Sometimes I just need to read for the sake of reading. There are plenty of others that I make sure to pass along to my fellow Kindle-addicts, like the ones below.I’m not going to do a full-on review or synopsis of each one {besides, all YA contemporary love stories end exactly the same anyway, right?}, but I am going to tell you what I loved about them. You can click on any of the images to be redirected to the Kindle version on Amazon’s website.
First up: Me Before You. I had seen plenty of mention about Jojo Moyes’ latest novel, but I hadn’t read it or anything else she has written. After reading Amber’s post about it, I was finally motivated to download it before our Thanksgiving vacation. It is kind of atypical for a love story, the ending isn’t quite what you expect going in, but I loved pretty much everything about it. My mom and Josh got tired of me giving them a daily report of what was going on with the story line, so I finally shut myself in the bedroom of our camper and devoured it in one fell swoop. It’s good, but come armed with a box of Kleenex.
Now on to light and bright. I loved Nicole Williams’ Crash series, so I figured I’d click over to her author page and see if there was anything new. I had read Lost & Found a year or more ago, but since then two separate follow up novels had been released. Lost & Found and Near & Far are about the same couple and Finders Keepers is about two other characters from the first books. Easy reads, no cliffhangers and nothing too dramatic. Perfect for day by the pool, or the campfire.
Dearest Clementine and Finding Dandelion are another young adult selection. They are both college-aged dramas and are two stories from the same circle of friends. P.S. There is a third book in this series now!
Do you love Colleen Hoover? Because I kind of do. Her Slammed series were some of the first books I ever read in a digital format, several years ago. I devoured them, but hadn’t read anything by her since. Hopeless and Losing Hope are the same story, told from two different perspectives. I loved Hope’s story, but Holder’s story was probably my favorite of the two.
Then there are these two. Maybe Someday and Ugly Love are probably my favorite of her books so far. I don’t want to spoil the plot lines for either of these, but they are definitely my top recommendations among the books in this post. They were harder to read and there were a lot of ugly tears in Ugly Love, but so worth the time. She has another book coming out in January that I can’t wait to download. These are also the most expensive of the books I read this month. I guess $8 isn’t terribly expensive, but when most of the books I download are free or under $5, that seems a little steep!
Did you watch the movie If I Stay? Did you know it was a book first? I made Josh watch it with me over the weekend because I never managed to get to the theater to see it. Of course, he hated the movie and pretty much laughed his way through it. I’m typically a guy when it comes to movies, but I since I favor romance in my books, I can never resist a book-turned-movie. The first one could definitely be a stand-alone and it seems kind of iffy whether the second book will make the big screen. In the first book, Mia loses her family quite traumatically and tells the story of her first love from her deathbed. There is a definite supernatural aspect that doesn’t quite carry over to the second volume. I think the first book is better written, but I liked the story in the second one better.
Okay, you can judge me now. Admitting the problem is half the battle, right? I, Kristin, am addicted to young/new adult romantic fiction. Can we still be friends?!
