Friday Reading Journal #3

This week I finished 2 books that I had for review: The Sister Queen by Sophie Perinot (review coming March 5th) and The Book of Lost Fragrances by M.J. Rose (review coming March 8th).  Now, the book I picked up after those two has a little to do with a decision I made earlier this week and that is to stop ignoring YA novels and give them a fair chance. Ok, so the writing in Twilight wasn't spectacular but that didn't stop me from devouring all four of them.  I loved the Hunger Games trilogy and gobbled up all the Harry Potter books. I realized it was finally time to get over whatever my "deal" with YA was.  So, off to the library I went to start this little experiment and in addition to Night Birds' Reign by Holly Taylor (which I snatched up for a Goodreads Challenge I'm doing) and The Snow Child by Eoywn Ivey (because it looks awesome and I really want to read it) I also checked out Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater and Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor.

I read about half of Shiver last night and so far I like the main characters of Sam and Grace.  Grace is the high school girl who as a child was snatched by wolves and has been fascinated with them ever since. Sam is the wolf who turns human when the weather is warm and has always been fascinated with the little girl (now teenager) that his pack snatched six years ago.  Yes, a teenage star crossed lovers tale and you know what? It isn't half bad.  My only gripe so far is the story is going along swimmingly and then one of the secondary characters will say/do something juvenile that makes it seem a little "younger" than the age these people are supposed to be at.  I just keep thinking at these moments "I didn't act like that in high school" but THEN the I get past those parts and completely sucked in again.  I'm going to finish this tonight so final verdict next week.

Now since I am dipping my toe in the YA waters, does anyone have any must reads in this category?  I am trying to avoid anything too romancy and am not looking for anything else vampire related. I'm leaning more towards YA Dystopian or Fantasy.  Historical Fiction will still be my main choice but I'm hoping YA will end up being that genre I go to when all the Eleanors, Annes, Maries, Henrys and Edwards start running together and I need to take a wee break :)