YA Romance

Are you an adult that makes up the 74% of Young Adult Fiction readers? Do you look back fondly on things you read as a teen? Did you wait in line for Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Divergent, or Twilight? From romantasy to comtemporary there is bound to be a new YA romance read for you here. 

Transcript

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Welcome to Romance Wrecks, where three book besties explore the world of romance novels and encourage you to expand your TBR. Join us as we dive into the hottest releases and hidden gems of the genre. You can find us on Instagram and possibly TikTok if it's still a thing at Romance Wrecks Pod. I'm Jordan, and I am currently reading Meet Me in the Penalty Box by Callie Mellie. I'm Daphne, and I am currently reading an ARC by Tara DeWitt. The title is Savor It, and I think it comes out next month Hi guys, I'm Christina, and I'm reading First Meet Thou by Jaclyn Snow. So buckle up for some bookish banter. Woohoo! Yes, we love it here. Welcome back to another episode, lady. Thanks for joining us. Hi smut readers and or not smut. Romance. Today it's more about romance. I stand corrected. Yeah. Mm-Hmm?'cause today is our ya, which means young adult romance. Mm-Hmm. For those of you that are not aware, young adult romance is young adults. So there it's written for teenagers or about teenagers. So this, and there is some gray area lately in this genre where people think it's okay to have open door smut in YA, but I think that's the like like difference, right? It should be closed door, fade to black. You can have a lot of tension, you can even have insinuating, you can have implying, you can have a little bit of detail leading up, but it's not gonna be graphic, right? What do you all think? So here's I do agree, but here I think the only reason I'm gonna play devil's advocate is because Literally one of the books I'm recommended today was written in 1975. It is Classified as young adult. It is a young adult book. However, it mostly ends up on banned books lists and like controversial lists because of two reasons. One, it's graphic depiction of sexual scenes that happen. Between the male and female character and two because it mentions birth control. Ha ha ha, fun. Well no, it can mention it. I think it can mention sex and it can even have sex. But I'm saying, I think the deciding factor needs, it needs to be like, not as But this is graphic. Yeah. See, this is where it gets weird because It does. Sex is a normal part of like, a lot, not all, but teenage lives. So then that, that is part of the argument, right? Is that's a natural part of life, but also it's made for readers like 12 to 18. So, right. Maybe the distinction falls within the description then of like what's happening on page. Well, that's what I mean by graphic, yeah. Yeah if it's open. It's really hard, especially because as I think as time progresses, the waters for young adult and new adult, I feel like they kind of muddy. They, there's no like line between them. So it is very hard. But before we get into our recs for this particular genre, do we have any cutesy quotes or side quotes? That we want to share with our listeners from anything we've read. Okay, cool. I have a cutesy one kind of about growing up. I love that. It's from The Playlist by Morgan Elizabeth. I read this a while ago and I was looking through quotes because I didn't have one recently from this past week and I found this one which I thought was very apt for this episode. Trying out versions of you while you're young is normal. Trying to balance who you were as a kid, who you're going to be in the future. Who your parents want you to be, it's a process. But eventually, you're supposed to land on a version of you you can be happy with. You're not supposed to settle on that version. Oh, I love that. I think that is beautiful, actually. So true. And that can be applied to any age, right? That's really nice. Yeah, I just think it's beautiful. But especially in that teen, but do you remember like that teen Age, like, ugh. It's so confusing. you think you know who you are. You have no clue. Because you have opinions on everything. And everything is black and white. And the audacity. Look, I have a teenage daughter. I'm seeing it again. All over. Yeah. Does it hurt to see from, the outside perspective? Oh my gosh, yeah. And I'm just like, I'm not even a mean mom trying to be lovey and she's like, don't talk to me. I'm not a regular mom. I'm a cool mom. Yeah. Don't hate me. I'm a cool mom. Love me. So I feel like I have a quote as well. And This is from one of my favorite books. It's Out on a Limb by Hannah Bonham Young, which I've spoken about on the pod ad nauseum, like you guys are probably sick of me talking about this book, but it has vibes. So, this quote is, I think, just really sweet and cute, and I feel like it falls in line with, just a cute young adult romance, even though this book isn't particularly young adult. Okay. It's horribly cliche, but his smile is beaming, far brighter than the sun. I feel myself bloom with it as if it's my own personal version of photosynthesis.

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I love that. Yeah, it's totally giving young love, just that all consuming feeling. Right. Oh, And I love that you, quoted out on Olympic again. Christina, what do you have tonight?

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a quote from a book I'll be talking about. It's from The Elite by Kiera Cass. It's It's the most wonderful and terrible thing that can ever happen to you, she said simply. You know that you've found something amazing, and you want to hold on to it forever. And every second after you have it, you fear the moment you might lose it. I sighed softly. She was absolutely right. Love was beautiful fear. Aw, that's so tender. Aw, beautiful fear. Yeah. I think all of these, quotes are beautiful. Are really cute. Definitely something you could find in a young adult romance. Okay, mine was not young adult. Mine was definitely Mine either but it was referencing Growing up because they were friends to love this. So they definitely talked about that. My quote wasn't, it wasn't young adult either. It's definitely a spicy little read, but that's the thing. I don't typically read. A lot of young adult books, at least in the classical way, it's defined if we're thinking about fade to black, very low graphic detail in the sexual encounters. I don't read a lot of young adult books. I should say that feature romance as a plot point. I do find that I read young adult books that have a lot of fantasy or sci fi in them. But have no like real romance as the plot. So that it was actually difficult for me to, gather some books today, but I do have two that I want to share with you guys. I so I have two books, which actually technically could be considered four books because one of them is a series that has three books in them, but these are, when I think about Young adult. These are the series that just pop into my head immediately. The first one is a book that I mentioned a little bit ago, which is forever by Judy bloom. And this, I read this book, I think at the height of like puberty for me, like. When I was very curious about sex, but I was nowhere near ready to be having it, but I was just, I just wanted to know more and I don't remember exactly how I got. This book, I don't know if it was like suggested reading in class or something, but or most more than likely I was at the library and found it and just sat down and read it. Forever by Judy Blume follows our main, our 2 main characters, Michael and Catherine. I feel like that's their names. Oh, I hope i'm not wrong. So yeah, michael and catherine they are Seniors in high school They meet each other at like a new year's eve party get together They spend the next couple of months just in the process of falling in love and sex becomes a big theme in their relationship Because it's like catherine's not really ready. There are situations where it's like Michael is kind of teaching her how to touch him. And I think that's the, that's why this book is so controversial because those scenes are very, they explain a lot, but not in a way that I feel like is overly sexual. It's just a lot of information. Um, and he like nicknames his penis Ralph, which I think is also like a thing. Which I Is that what you remember about it? Yes! I just remember She may not remember the character's name, but she remembers the penis name. That's actually psychotic that you're right. Yes, I I And I know for a fact that it was called Ralph. I may not remember if his name is actually Michael, but I know Ralph. Anyway What a random And I can't remember why he named, I'm sure it's explained, but that was just one of those books that felt very coming of age, starting something new, falling in love, like really for the first time. And then of course the book kind of ends in heartbreak, unfortunately, it's not a happy ending. I'm sorry if that's like a spoiler or not, but it's, It is definitely one of those books that I think young adults should read. I think anyone at any age, but I think it's like the perfect age around maybe 16 to 19, you should be reading that book. Just, if you want more, objective, you know, Like looking at sex or viewing of sex and having maybe you're the female character not being ready. And also kind of have to work herself up to it and then deciding when she is ready and things are not smooth sailing because you always hear the first time is so beautiful and it's amazing and sometimes it freaking sucks. Okay. And sometimes you're disappointed because other things happen. So I think judy bloom did a really great job um with that book it's one of my favorites by her which is crazy for me to be saying I love judy bloom because that's wild i'm like 34 and i'm recommended a judy bloom book. Doesn't that sound? I love it Oh, no, one thing I will say though the rights to a movie deal was just optioned off, I think in 2022. So it will be coming out to Netflix, I think, and it'll be the producer showrunner is going to be Mara Brock Akil, who, I don't know if you guys are familiar, but she's behind girlfriends, the game, like the DC Arrowverse series, she is like a heavy hitter. And television and show running. So and ha and it's gonna be like a new twist on the book and I'm so excited about it. I think it's gonna make me fall in love with it all over again that I might actually have to reread it. So I definitely suggest that one, and that is just one of my favorites. It may be on some band book lists right now, so you may have to go digging for it, but I think you can buy it online. I know I love the abandoned book. Right. And it's just for those two reasons, because they mentioned Catherine has to get on the birth control pill because she decides she wants to start having sex. And so she has to get on the pill, right? Responsible woman. We love it. And literally the mention of the pill and the fact the graphic scenes of like them exploring each other is what has it controversial. So I love that. And then my next. Thanks. Sorry, I was just gonna say but that is so true to a lot of teenage experience like and right not all Not all right, but a lot Mm hmm. At the very least to say Teenagers don't even think about it and aren't curious about it. That's psychotic. It's just that's willfully ignorant. That's willfully Yeah, stupid. Yeah, because they are. They are thinking about it and they're having it. Lots of it. As a mom of a teenager, I try not to think about her thinking about it. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Delusional, but okay. That's a choice. Delusional, but that's a choice, babe. They literally have different fingertips. Just call me Delulu. Anyway, my second book is not as heavy. It is by Tomi Adeyemi, which I think I may have also mentioned. The first book is Children of Blood and Bone. The second book is Children of Virtue and Vengeance. And then the third book that comes out is Children of Anger and Anarchy. I feel like I'm messing up one of those, one of those, um, A's, but it's CAA. Um, I absolutely love Tomi Adeyemi. This is like, Her the series that has Launched her into the stratosphere of like fame. This book was being praised before she before it was even released It's already been optioned off for movie. The first one is already in pre production or yeah, like I think it's in pre production So this is off to a great start. I went to Her signing in San Diego when she released the second book to meet her and so I have two copies of her book both of them signed and she's just like the sweetest human being I learned so much about like dealing with no's as a writer and like still pushing through because the amount of no's or like just the fight that she had to go through to get these books published was so Inspiring, but this book specifically I picked it is because it has a lot of like West African themes in it and seeing magic and like West Africa combined together will always make my heart happy because I grew up on Harry Potter, of course, but none of the characters looked like me. I don't think there was one little black girl running around Hogwarts, like not a muggle, not a witch, not a nothing. So when I got this book as like an adult in her late twenties, it just satisfied something in me. Because the magic was there, the epic quest, everything. There is the tiniest sliver of romance, I think, but you get that at the end of book one. And I think it becomes more of a theme in book two. And then hopefully it's a bigger plot in book three. So it is still going to be romance, but it's definitely more about self discovery. This book is about Zelie. And basically magic has been sucked out of her land. It's gone. The monarchy has killed her mother. She is like barely surviving You know with her people and stuff and then the opportunity to stick it to the monarchy and also bring back magic Comes about and so we launch into this epic quest we bring in found family the friends We learn about ourselves and I think it's a beautiful coming of age story But also with themes of like oppression that I think need to be read about, you know So yeah, I love it. I absolutely loved I enjoyed it. I love me a little brown girl with white hair running through Launching magic and ripping souls out of people's bodies. I think that's amazing. Right. Literally. Yeah, those are my series has been on my to read list for so long. Dev, you just launched it up further. Please read it. Please, please, please. I actually took my son on a play date a couple weeks ago and I was, sitting there a lot, I type in on my little book. Type it on my computer while he was running around. And I saw a mom reading it and I was like this, ooh, I wanna talk to her. I like, I had to contain I had to contain myself because I was like, she doesn't wanna talk to you, Deb. She's reading her book. Just focus on your thing. And then she was like in the middle of the book, I'm like, oh girl, what part are you up to? I wanna come up to you. And then finally I had to say something like, I went to go do something with Deanna. Came back. I was like. I love your book. I love that book. I read that. That sounds so awkward, but I love seeing it in the wild and I love that more people are noticing it because I think it deserves all its flowers. And I think Tomi did just such a wonderful job with it. So yeah, book three comes out next month on my birthday, I think. So no, no, no, my birthday, my birthday is not next month. My birthday is not next month. My birthday is June 27th. I'm a month early. Yep. We'll get there. Not long now. Yeah, I'm really excited'cause I just got it from a half price books and so it's on my shelf, but Oh, that was beautifully in sync. I love that. I'm, I really don't mean to subject, but you guys look what just downloaded automatically. It's here you guys. Jordan's like, okay, we're logging out now. Hey, Zodiac Academy? Yep. It's Zodiac Academy. Academy. Turn on your fans. Restless stars. By Caroline Peckham and Suzanne Valenti, it is the final installment of this epic story. And it is not YA. But if you've listened to any of our other episodes, you know how much I love it. And I'm wearing my Zodiac Academy shirt right now. And I'm so excited. Wrap it up, ladies. Wrap. It. Up. Just tell it. Just tell it. Stop. I feel your excitement. So I'm so happy for you. This is what books do to us. This is podcast. I know you're gonna cry, you're so f in feelin Oh no, you're gonna cry. I know, because this is so beautiful. This is how we feel about books. And this is how happy they make us. it's gonna hurt. And this is the last one, there are no more books out after this, right? No, they promised that this series is done then. They've done so many novellas. Not promised, because they released like 50 books in the one series. Fifteen? Let me see. According to Kindle, 25 hours and 40 minutes left in the book. Oh, girl. Of reading? Of just reading. I'm just reading and it's probably longer than that because I have a slower reading pace, I'm, so sorry. I'm, so sorry Right don't apologize this is what this is for and we want to celebrate with you Christina and I have no idea why this is important. Like, we don't know yet because we have not met these characters. But we know it's important. We know it's important to you. Like, so we are, we are just as happy for you. Symbolically, we're with you. Yeah, exactly. We're like kicking our little feet too. So, we're happy for you. No apologies needed. This is real time stuff. But yeah, I know you want to finish this YA episode so you can get to it, so, uh No, this is really important. It's okay. Christina, why don't you go and I'll collect myself. Okay, here we go. So I also have two series I wanna talk about. So I am a ya girl. I love ya. But these are two of my favorite YA series. So the first one is the Selection Series by Kira Kass. Dev, I think you've read this one. Yes, I think so too. I'm gonna tell you that I picked this series up on a Friday. I was flying to Florida for a weekend with my husband. I picked it up on Friday out at airports. And we landed, I had already finished the first book. I, after we checked into the hotel, I took my husband straight to Barnes Noble and we bought the next three. And I had them done before Sunday when we flew home. And I was on vacation. I ate this series up. Oh my, I love that for you. Don't you love when a book, like series, gets you like that? Where you're like hooked? Exactly, I loved it. So this book series takes place in a Jordan goes, yeah. And then she un mutes herself to say, yeah. She's in her dreamy Zodiac Academy state. She's not even listening to me. She's not listening. I'm listening to you, Christina. This book series, takes place in a future Dicetopia, North America. It's like after World War III or World War IV has just destroyed the America we know. And it's a new country, I think it's called Illyria or something, based on it was like a really rich guy funded the war with his money. So then when the, when America won, he just renamed the country after himself and his fortune and renamed it a monarchy, it's a monarchy now. So there are caste systems, and people have to work and marry in their assigned caste. And eight is the lowest and one is the highest. So one is the royalty and the religious people and two is celebrities and the higher your casting, the more important you are and the more money you have and the better places you live. And then eights are the lowest jobs and live in the slums. And this girl, she, the main character, her name is America because her mom named her after the old country, America, and she's a seven, but she's in love with an eight. And if you marry A woman marries, she takes her husband's cast. So it's a, so it's a patriarchy still. It's very much a patriarchy. Which makes sense since it's all a caste system. It's usually led by men. Yes. So the boyfriend really doesn't want to marry her because he doesn't want to bring her down another level. He wants her to, live her life, cause she loves, music and stuff and so he doesn't really want to do it, but he's in love with her. So to make the people kind of feel good about this bad system, each generation holds a lottery. To marry off their, crown prince or princess to the normal people. So they draw a bunch of women's names to, yeah, marry a prince. So like one of these normal level five, six, seven, eight people can all of a sudden become a level one and make their whole, it's basically like hunger games, almost kind of thing. Right. But Bradzilla. So for 30, yeah, exactly. So 35 girls are chosen, and for them, it's like the chance of a lifetime, right? The opportunity to escape out the life that is laid out for them in their cast they don't get to pick. And to go live in a palace, and marry the gorgeous Prince Maxon. But for Merrick Seager Maxon? I'm sorry, I'm sorry, what's the name? Maxon. M A X O N. Okay. Maxon. America's singer does not want to do this because she wants to marry Aspen, her childhood love. So she ends up having to be put into this competition and she gets drawn, and is in the palace and trying her hardest to get the fuck kicked out of this program to go back home and marry Aspen. Love that for her. But then she meets the prince. Head over heels. Head over heels, literally. It's immediate, yeah, connection. She, starts telling him about what it's like to live in the lower caste, which she had no idea about. And then she decides, maybe. Maybe I could change some things about my life. Aspen who? Not in a bad way, but Exactly! Who? New phone, who dis? Bye Gail, bye! Definitely give it a bye, Gail. There are three books in the series, and then two books in a future selection and like her kids, her kid, and then there's novellas too. I didn't know that she had spinoffs, so that's interesting. I don't think I read that far. Yeah, it's pretty cool. So it's a really good series. I've always loved it. I just love that there's rebels in there that are fighting to re establish the kind of America that we have now where you get to vote and Is that such a good idea? And there's like, all these different countries, like Italy and the Russia Federation, so basically the world superpowers have shifted, and it's just, it's really futuristic, dystopian, traditional, the things that were hot in the 2010s. Say that word for me again. It's what kind of book? What kind of world? Dystopian? Dystopian? Dystopian. Dystopian. Oh, well, my husband also doesn't like how I say documentary, so Documentary? Oh, you said documentary! I was like, what's wrong with that? I was like, and then you said it, I was like, oh, that's what's wrong with it? Documentary. Cause you're documenting something. You know what? We're gonna go off. Nope. Nope. And it's also dystopian. Trust me. Peyton's obsessed with dystopian okay, so she lives in a dystopian world. Yeah. Mm hmm. Where they're making documentaries. Love that for you. It's super Hunger Games feeling because all these girls are being like interviewed by, the press and the media and all this and that. It's very similar. I loved Hunger Games. Hunger Games came out first, right? Did Hunger Games come out before Selection? Yeah, came out. I think so, yeah, because Selection I think was like 2015, so I think so, yeah. It was definitely after Hunger Games. So if you like Hunger Games, you'll definitely like this. I was a big Hunger Games fan growing up. Me too. I mean, it came out when we were in like high school, so. I was all about it. It's what we needed after Harry Potter, I feel like. We needed Hunger Games and Divergent. That was us like. Moving into, and also the delirium started on the ending of Divergent. Thank. No one likes were we the last divergent? No. Did past the first couple? No. I was reading delirium too. Ruin your life. You know what was actually good runner? You know what I liked? What? The host. I thought it was better than Twilight. the host. I, yeah, he said the host. Way better than Twilight. Yeah, the movie sucked because it, because it doesn't, it doesn't translate to movie well. Mm hmm. But the book, I loved the host. I'm pretty sure I read it. Yeah, my husband does too. I've never read it, but he said it's like the best. Really? The Twilight Grimmly? You've never read the Twilight Grimmly? You've never read her other work that's better written? Hand over your toilet card. Homework. Hand over your toilet card. Homework. Sparkly vampires. No, but there's aliens. You got, you need to read the host. You would like the host. You got to read it. You got to read it. Let me try to read it. Hey, I'll reread it with you. It can be a book club. The host. Let's go. YA book club. I think the host is really good. For sure. I think the host is really good. You should read that. Oh yeah, you had another series. What was your other YA series? Sorry. I keep doing this. Don't apologize, Jordan. You're right. I'm not sorry. Full disclosure. Is that the name of the book? Or are you starting something? No. Uh oh. Full disclosure, my son is named after a character in this book. That's how much I loved it. Is it a love interest though? That always freaks me out. It is. After Slightly, his name isn't the exact name, okay? Okay, I'll play on the name. Give it to us. I think I want the name before I want the book. Quickly. Okay, this man's name Why do you have to look it up? I'm gonna give you his full name because He goes by Ash, but it's Ashlyn Darkmere. Ashlyn Darkmere? Ashlyn Darkmere. He goes by Ash, and my son's name is Asher. Ashlyn Darkmere. I named him after this character. The Asher. Okay, that's not too bad. That's not too bad. I'll go for it. I'll go for it. It's not Renesmee. So we're good. Nothing will ever beat Renesmee. Disgusting. I don't know. Albus Severus. Jail. Leave Albus out of this, please. Okay? Leave Albus out of this. Scorpius. He's named after two great men. Two of the greatest wizards I ever know. Leave Albus out of this. Poor Ginny. Ginny was my favorite character in all of Harry Potter and, uh, she just got robbed at the end. Not robbed. Robbed at the end. Or just, how about a new name? Like, you're Harry fucking Potter. Like, you married Harry Potter. You're a legend. Have to have another James Potter. Justice for Ginny, y'all. Justice for Ginny. She's my favorite character and, just, they did her dirty in the movie too. In the movie. She's trash in the book. Beautiful woman. Anyway, but the actress is amazing. Yeah, it's Asher on the tangent. Ashlynn this series. Ashlyn. Ashlyn to Asher. No, no, not Ashlyn. Ashlyn. Ashlyn Lyn Ash. Spell it. It's another A-A-A-S-H. A-L-L-Y-N-D-A-R-K-M-Y-R. Ash and Dark Mirror. Okay, I'm gonna say Ashley. You right? Yeah. Okay, I'm gonna call it Ash. Yes, that's what he goes by. This series is called The Iron Fae by Julie Kagawa. Didn't even get the title yet. Iron Fae. Okay. The Iron Fae series. This is a series of four books. So there's like Iron Daughter, Iron Queen, Iron Throne, all these different ones, okay. So, this series, it actually follows the, Midsummer's Night Dream, William Shakespeare kind of fate, right? You have Mab, you have the Summer King, the Unseelie Court, the Seelie Court. Yes. And so this series follows Megan Chase, she's half human. And then on her 16th birthday, she finds out she's also the half born daughter of the summer king. And so she's half a, oh, dun dun. That's the Sealy court plot. Thickens Summer. Summer is Sealy. Yes. Mm-Hmm. Mm-Hmm. Mm-Hmm. Mm-Hmm. And so her brother, her little brother, Ethan, is taken and exchanged for like a fairy changeling, son of a bitch, a changeling. And her parents don't, like, her mom doesn't think anything of it, but the kid's a little wild, and she's This is obviously not my brother, but she's the only one that can tell, cause she can see the glamour between worlds, cause she's half baked. Oh! Kind of like, cruel prince. Oh, I didn't read that. Yes, kind of, sort of. They, yeah, exactly. They were both full human, the two sisters, but the one sister was half. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But anywho, regardless. Yes, the glamour. So, Megan decides to go to the Feyworld to get Ethan, her little brother, back, right? And so this takes place in a, the world is called Never Never, which is the fairy realm that has the Seelian, Unseelian courts, the Wildwood, and then there's a new realm because when this world was kind of imagined and brought into being, thought by William Shakespeare in humans imaginations. There was, of course, no technology, but as technology has changed, there's now an iron. Realm with that includes technology, but the rest of the fairies can't touch iron. So as this realm gets bigger, it's threatening to take over the fairy world so she goes there, to look for her, little brother, and she runs into the prince of the winter court, who works under Queen Mad, and his name is Ash. So they're enemies, because she's the daughter of the summer court, and he's the heir of the winter court, and so they're, you Sexual tension. Sorry, this is why I know. Oh my gosh. You know, you're telling the you're telling the story and I'm Like, Ooh, this is going to be good and spicy. And I literally forgot that it was YA. It's crazy. It's like, Ooh, can't wait to hear that. How this ends. So, um, he wants to take her back to the winter court because he's ordered by Queen Mab. But she convinces him to help her go look to help him go look for Ethan. And then she'll agree to go willingly to the winter court as long as they can find Ethan. So he helps her go find, Ethan. They'll go look around for Ethan. It's got all sorts of other characters. Puck and Grimalkin are in this book. They're awesome. And, um, I know Grim is the best. I never read this one. I just know the lore. Yeah, but Grim in this book is literally my favorite. I have no idea. It really reminds me of reminds me of like, um, what is it? Cheshire Cat. So, um, then there's after the four main books, there's three books from her brother's point of view when he's older. And that actually she just wrote the last one. Spoiler alert! It's YA, what do you think? Right, oh that's true. Everybody lives. Right, that's true, that's true, you can't expect. Exactly. This series has amazing characters I feel like and an amazing storyline. Because Ash is the main character who in the YA world, will do like nothing will stop him from getting to the woman he loves kind of thing, so like even though she's half human, so she can touch iron, and he can't, so she can go into the iron realm. And he has to come after her, even though he literally can't touch the ground or breathe in the air. You know, it's that kind of thing. It's pretty cool. A beautiful, devastating kind of love. Love that. Yeah. Nice. Cool. I think it sounds good. I think I would like that one better than Cruel Prince. Well, I just feel like I undersold this series that Iron facers, but it was such a big No, I really, I think it sounded really good when I was a young adult that I named son. Son. No, that sounded good because I read this series like five times. No, I would read this. You know, I'm not a white. That's, I'm, yeah, I'll read this. That's what I'm saying. I'm saying I think I would like this when I didn't care for Coran. It's, it sounds really good. It's really good. Yeah, it does. I am not a big ya anymore either. I of course grew up. I loved ya when I was ya. But you say we didn't grow up She said I grew up uh, so ya is that but what Jordan? No. I say growing up. No, I say growing up I like, I love, I read a lot. I read a lot of YA. Is that what she said, Christina? You said, uh, as I, you said I grew up and now I'm not YA. Yeah. That's not what I meant to say. I never grew up. I'm the grandma here, but I'm still living in 2010. The literal grandma. If you feel personally victimized by Jordan saying that she grew up and so she can't read YA anymore, please raise your hands. That's not what I meant to say. That's not even what I thought I said. Goddamn. I know that she's I know that's not what you meant to say, but literally watching it unfold was like yikes Guess what? It's my turn. Isn't this exciting? I'm ready. Hold on. Oh, wait. No, no, no. No too hard laughing. The c section, please. Oh, god. It's like I can't have joy in this life. I can't have joy. You could. And then you had a c section. Now you can't anymore. Oh, god. Okay. Anyways. I can't wait to hear what you have to say, Jordan. Thank you. Let's hope it all comes out in the correct order. Welcome to our YA episode everybody. Glad you're here. If you're still with us, thank you so much. How many fucks do you have in YA? No, no, no, if you're still with us. No, if you are still with us. Right now, in this episode, I would like you to go over to our Instagram and I want you to slide into our DMs and say, I stuck with you through it all and I will give you a shout out and I will read whatever book you ask me to read next. How about that? I will read whatever book you want me to read next I'm gonna slide into your DMs, Jordan, and I'm gonna make you You've already stuck with it, you don't count. I don't think you count. Yeah. Guys, YA, young adult, okay. Let's do it. Jordan's right. I actually, I only had one for tonight, and then I was like, About a month ago, I was like, Okay, I need, I feel like I haven't given it a shot for a while. This is a good opportunity for me to do some recon, you know, I'll see if this is something I want to get back into. And I don't think I'll stick with it. Um, I read two from start to finish. I DNF'd I think three additional ones because it was just too high school for me and maybe it's because I kept trying to do contemporary. And that's harder for me because it's like real. It's too close to home and I don't want to be in high school. I mean, it wouldn't be the end of the world for me. I could do it again, but it's just the angst. I'm like, just. Punch her in the face and move on or, you know, or just like walk away, who cares, you know, that thing. But there's one that I read then last month that I really felt like I really absolutely loved instant five stars. It was one of the most beautiful books I've ever read. So bright red fruit by Sophia. Hello. I listened to this on Libby and I would read it again in a physical copy because it is written in verse. So it's basically written as a poem but not in a way where you're like, okay, I need to sit and really think about all the deeper meaning. It's just the story flows really well and really naturally. It is, about a Sudanese family and it is about, Samira. She is a high school girl who just really struggles with, being a Sudanese immigrant in America, where she has the expectations of her mother and her whole community. That have different expectations of her than American culture, typical American culture. She has been labeled. These things, these rumors have followed her since she was just, coming out of her adolescence and everyone just believed these rumors. So she's been labeled what they call bad girl. And she has whole verses about this being a bad girl, but really she is It's completely innocent and just, people see her at the wrong moment and she could just be walking next to a boy and these rumors start and her mom and auntie believe don't believe her. And so it's just her struggling with that and trying to be a good daughter, but also trying to be a friend and trying to be a teenager. And she herself is an aspiring poet. So she uses poetry to work through a lot of her feelings. And she on this, but the problem comes when on this online forum, she meets this older man, really, named Horace, this older boy. She doesn't quite know how old he is when she meets. He's charismatic. He's a poet himself. He just heaps on the praise and, cheers her on from behind the keyboard. And for someone who hasn't felt like anyone has really seen her besides her two close friends, and that's very limiting bubble, especially at that right. She just gets sucked into this. Relationship, which is a very common story for a lot of, young women. She even brings up the parallels. To Persephone and in the very beginning, she, she talks about the original, Persephone and Hades relationship and Demeter, Persephone's mother and like what, but she brings up, it's always spoken about. What Hades thinks and what Demeter thinks, but no one actually talks about what Persephone wanted no one It's never about Persephone herself and her point of view or her feelings, right? And so that gets brought up a lot throughout the whole book and that's kind of like the premise Because it is basically a Persephone retelling. It sounds like it in sorts and it she has to decide and face who she is and who she wants to be because her position in her community is at risk, but her well being is at, like, everything is. And, but it's so beautiful and it's gut wrenching and I couldn't believe how beautiful it was. And I like found, I'd be like doing laundry and I find myself just like sitting there listening. After a while, do you know what I mean? Like yeah, yeah, so into what sucked into it. Mm hmm Yeah, so I highly recommend this even if you don't want contemporary YA, this is very much, go for it, please. Yeah, I still have to read this. And it was published this year. Yes, February of 2024, I just saw. It's new, it doesn't have that many reviews. So I have to go back and write a full out review. Yep, highly recommend. Definitely will be listening to that. That's awesome. My second and final recommendation is Bring Me Your Midnight by Rachel Griffin. When I downloaded this earlier, or like in the last year, I did not realize that it was YA. So I got like halfway through and I'm like, this better get spicy. It did not, but it was still good To be fair when I added it, I didn't know it was YA either. There's lots of tension It's Romanticy YA, by Rachel Griffin. So This is Tana. I believe I listened to this one too, but Tana Fairchild So I'm just gonna read the description because it's fantasy. So I like to stick to fantasy The facts, otherwise I can't tell it. Tana Fairchild's fate has never been in question. Her life has been planned out since the moment she was born. She is to marry the governor's son, Landon, and secure an unprecedented alliance between the witches on her island home and the mainlanders who see her very existence as a threat. So witches only live on their island. And they are very insular, people come over just to see and get special teas and stuff, but they are more, like, feared. Tana's coven has appeased those who fear their power for years by releasing most of their magic into the ocean during the full moon. But when Tana misses the midnight ritual, a fatal mistake, there is no one she can turn to for help. Until she meets Wolfie. Wolfie claims he is from a coven. that practices dark magic, making him one of the only people who can help her. So she knows everyone on this island. It's a small island, right? It's her coven. Her mom is the leader of this coven. And all of a sudden, this boy she's never seen pops up out of nowhere and is like, yeah, I wield dark magic. I live here on the island. How do you not like? She's like, what do you mean you live on the island? I know every inch of this island. Suspicious. Very much her discovering this new and maybe there are. I don't even want to read the rest of the description because I don't want to give any of it away. Give so much away, yeah. Yeah, but it's her learning truths. There's more to the island, there's more to her magic than is being told to her. And that's being told to her people. And there's just a lot of things that she doesn't know. And then she has to make some tough choices. Mm hmm. Like, will she help keep things the way they are? Or will she Say no, this has to stop. So right. It's interesting leaves on cliffhanger. We kind of Decisions are made at the end. So I just haven't seen how it plays out. So we're waiting for the sequel Are you gonna read the sequel? Oh, I will. Yeah That's why I recommended it because I actually read the sequel But there is a beautiful There's a relationship within it You A little budding romance. Mm hmm. That's very sweet. I love that. I do want to give a special honorable mention to a book that I did finish called Love in Winter Wonderland by Abuelo Bello. Abuelo, Abuelo Bello. It was a really fun read. It just was not, the love story was not for me. If that makes sense. He was dating someone else. He's like the apprentice. Yeah. He was dating someone else when they got to know each other and the male main character's girlfriend throughout most of the book was just horrible and mean and high school petty in the worst ways, even though it's technically college because it's set in but I didn't like that, but it was a fun read. Yeah. It was a fun read. And it's also, it's a lot of focus on, the black community in their town, helping his parents bookshop. It's a locally black owned bookshop and they're trying to get, stay afloat and everything like that. And it features, all characters of color. And it was, That was the main focus of the book. And so there's a lot of things I loved about it, it's just the romance side of it was not my thing. I picked that up at half price book, so yeah, I'm curious to read it. I have the physical copy and I've been wanting to read it Give it a shot. Let's see. The cover is very cute. I think that's what put me in. It's so cute. The cover is so cute. So yeah, I'll give it a shot. We'll see. Yep. The female main character is an artist. He's a, he sings, but he's afraid to sing in front of people. Oh, sweet baby. Yeah. We'll see. If you want some late teen drama, and also I feel like the European relationship or what's acceptable in a relationship is very different from what I'm used to over here or for other books, they're like all good, Getting up and grinding dirty and dancing with other people and they're just like dancing and they're like So you're dancing with them. It doesn't matter and i'm just like this is a new world Is this a young people thing is this is a I don't know what's happening They've been dating for years and this is what? And they're just dancing with other people but not just dancing but like Really in, really, I just, I was like, what is happening? maybe it European anyways, but it was fun. Just, yeah, it's on my list and those are my yare. I think we, we did it. We made it through the ya yeah. I think Christina's gonna be the one to keep us abreast of what's happening in the YA world and any new books and stuff. Anyway Do we have anything else to share with our listeners before we go? Just that, uh, stay tuned for our next episode where we talk sports romance. Stay tuned for next week's episode because we are going to be talking sports and we're back to our regularly scheduled smutty recommendations. Aren't you happy? But yeah, thanks for listening to us ramble about our favorite young adult books. If you're looking for more Romance Wrecks, be sure to follow us on Instagram and TikTok at romancewrecks. com. Pod you can find our favorite book res from tonight's episode, as well as behind the scenes content. Again, that's at Romance Rex Pod, so make sure to give us a follow. And again, we'll be back next week with another episode. Thanks for Jordan, us Cuties. Aw, bye. Thank you. Bye bye Bye.