10 Day You Challenge` Day Four: Four Books

DAY FOUR: FOUR BOOKS

The Boy Series | by Meg Cabot

Boy Next Door
Boy Meets Girl
Every Boy's Got One

I'm aware, this is kind of cheating, but whatever. The thing I love most about this series is the way that they're written. It's not a standard format. Most of the entire book is through e-mail or chat log format. MEG CABOT IS A GENIUS! The best part is, IT ALL MAKES SENSE. Even in the unusual format.

Paper Towns | by John Green

Addicted to his video blogs with his brother, I knew that I had to pick this book up. This book is phenomenal. A story of coming of age, of love, breaking laws, and adventure. It's fantastic.

Anna and the French Kiss | by Stephanie Perkins

I might be a little bias. Since it has my name in it. Stephanie Perkins' debut novel is nothing to scoff at. This book is funny with out being cheesy (though a small amount of cheese is okay), heartwarming, sweet and definitely sexy. Though, rumor has it that her companion novel to Anna, Lola and the Boy Next Door, is even better.

The Extraordinary Secrets of April, May, and June | by Robin Benway

I'm a sucker for superhero stories. Stories where a unsuspecting citizen gets magic powers. Or in this case, when a trio of sisters get magic powers. ♥

Apologies and Authors.

Lets start this post with an apology.

I've been a terrible blogger over here. I could blame Harry Potter and going through Post Potter Depression, but that'd be a lie. I could blame Comic-Con and all the AMAZING panels that I watched over the weekend instead of reading, but again, that'd be a lie. Okay, maybe they're not LIES, but they are excuses. So I'm sorry that I've been so terrible over here.

On the bright side, I revamped my TV Blog called The Weekly Enthusiast and I've been able to keep up with it pretty well if I do say so myself.

Anywho, today I come to this blog to tell you about the new authors I've discovered in the past few months. I give a lot of credit to my book pimp Helen for introducing me to these books and authors. She and I have pretty similar tastes in books, like almost identical. So here are five authors that I've discovered this year and now love.

Kiersten White:
Author of Paranormalcy and Supernaturally(that came out on tuesday... you should go buy it). Helen and I discovered her at the same time when we went to our local independent book store. I had seen Stephanie Perkins (another one of our favorite authors), tweet to her and she mentioned that Kiersten was one of her crit partners. Based purely on that, I bought Paranormalcy. Granted I normally love paranormal books, and this one shot it's way all the way up next to The Mediator series on my list.


Caprice Crane:
Helen had been telling me that I need to read these books for a long time, as someone who doesn't exactly like change I protested at first. I enjoyed staying in my wonderful YA bubble. One day at the library, on a whim, I picked up 'Forget About It'. This book, is fantastic. I'd be reading it at work and actually burst out laughing, only solidifying the fact that I was weird to my other co-workers, but I didn't care. Even as I type this, I have her new book "With a Little Luck" waiting for me at the library. YAY!!!!


John Green:
I know, I know. I'm late to the party. Better late than never, right?
Discovering him through the Vlogbrothers channel was definitely one of the more interesting ways of discovering an author. The thing I love the most about John's books, is how real they are. When I would read them, I would think "Yeah, that's probably how I would respond". Not only are they real in the conversational sense, but when it comes to real life occurrences, they are pretty spot on. Chances are that that girl that you have been in love with since you were little, is going to slowly slip from your mind when she leaves. It may take a while, it may hurt like hell, but eventually it'll take a minute to remember her and think "Where's Margo?"

On top of all that, John is signing ALL first editions of his new book "The Fault in Our Stars". This man is just so good to his readers.

Natalie Whipple:
Okay, technically she's not published... YET! She just announced that her new book Transparent has been sold. I found this blogger through both Kiersten White and Stephanie Perkins (if there were ever a gang of women that reminded me of my own soul sisters, it would be these ones). Natalie, a fellow Utah blogger and author, is not only hysterical and adorable, but offers some really great advice to those of us just getting into the writing biz. Anytime that I'm curious about something in the writing business, I go to her blog. Her posts are helpful, funny and sometimes contain awesome drawings.

Lastly (but most certainly not least of all), Stephanie Perkins:
Technically I discovered her last year, but I didn't read her book until the very beginning of this year, so I'm counting it! Stephanie has not only led me to a bunch of other amazing authors, but when I read her debut novel Anna and the French Kiss, it was one of those books that made me want to write. Almost to the point that I stopped reading (but I couldn't do that, Étienne is too pretty). When an author adds to that fire that already burning for you to write, they tend to hold a special place in your heart, Stephanie, is one of those people now. Right up there with Meg Cabot.

I'm going to try and be better with this blog... Anyone wanna offer some advice to help, or maybe some ideas?
Or...

Stupid Cupid, Stop Picking on me!

Depending on how you look at it, Valentine's Day can be a few different things.
` A day to show a loved one that you care about them.
` A holiday created by the greeting card compainies to make more money.
` Just another day that people seem to get a lot of presents for.
` A day that creates an excuse for you to eat a lot of calories and no one can yell at you for it.

No matter what way you look at it, it can be classified as an eventful day.

Don't worry, I'm not going to get all super mushy and tell you why I love my husband or anything like that (mainly because I hate when people do that and partly because I'm pretty sure no one wants to hear me gush), so instead, I'm going to recommend five of my all time favorite romance novels* (though some might be series), in alphabetical order (by author):


The Airhead Series : Meg Cabot

EM WATTS IS GONE.

Emerson Watts didn't even want to go to the new SoHo Stark Megastore grand opening. But someone needed to look out for her sister, Frida, whose crush, British heartthrob Gabriel Luna, would be singing and signing autographs there-along with the newly appointed Face of Stark, teen supermodel sensation Nikki Howard.

How was Em to know that disaster would strike, changing her-and life as she'd known it-forever? One bizarre accident later, and Em Watts, always the tomboy, never the party princess, is no longer herself. Literally.

Now getting her best friend, Christopher, to notice that she's actually a girl is the least of Em's problems.

But what Em's pretty sure she'll never be able to accept might just turn out to be the one thing that's going to make her dream come true . . . .

NIKKI HOWARD IS HERE TO STAY

Although Em and Christopher's relationship is kind of a sub-plot in the overall series, I love this relationship. Mostly because, Em is a total geek. She plays video games, is super smart, and has lengthy conversations about all things geeky with Christopher. Proving that being Geeky is awesome!

Boy Next Door : Meg Cabot

Gossip columnist and single New York City girl Mel lives lives in the most exciting place in the world, yet she's bored with her lovelife. But things get interesting fast when the old lady next door is nearly murdered. Mel starts paying closer attention to her neighbors—what exactly is going on with the cute boy next door? Has Mel found the love of her life—or a killer?

Meg's ability to write an entire story through e-mails and actually have it make sense, is one of the main reasons this book is on my top favorites.

The Heather Wells Mysteries : Meg Cabot

Heather Wells Rocks!

Or, at least, she did. That was before she left the pop-idol life behind after she gained a dress size or two — and lost a boyfriend, a recording contract, and her life savings (when Mom took the money and ran off to Argentina). Now that the glamour and glory days of endless mall appearances are in the past, Heather's perfectly happy with her new size 12 shape (the average for the American woman!) and her new job as an assistant dorm director at one of New York's top colleges. That is, until the dead body of a female student from Heather's residence hall is discovered at the bottom of an elevator shaft.

The cops and the college president are ready to chalk the death off as an accident, the result of reckless youthful mischief. But Heather knows teenage girls . . . and girls do not elevator surf. Yet no one wants to listen — not the police, her colleagues, or the P.I. who owns the brownstone where she lives — even when more students start turning up dead in equally ordinary and subtly sinister ways. So Heather makes the decision to take on yet another new career: as spunky girl detective!

But her new job comes with few benefits, no cheering crowds, and lots of liabilities, some of them potentially fatal. And nothing ticks off a killer more than a portly ex-pop star who's sticking her nose where it doesn't belong . . .

Again the relationship between Heather and Cooper is sort of a sub-plot, but still intense none the less. With Heather's insistence on getting involved in cases, and Cooper's annoyance to that fact, their chemistry is amazing. Through out the series you just want to slap Cooper upside the head hoping that it'll clue him in, too bad it doesn't exactly work.

The Jessica Darling Series : Megan McCafferty

“My parents suck ass. Banning me from the phone and restricting my computer privileges are the most tyrannical parental gestures I can think of. Don’t they realize that Hope’s the only one who keeps me sane? . . . I don’t see how things could get any worse.”

When her best friend, Hope Weaver, moves away from Pineville, New Jersey, hyperobservant sixteen-year-old Jessica Darling is devastated. A fish out of water at school and a stranger at home, Jessica feels more lost than ever now that the only person with whom she could really communicate has gone. How is she supposed to deal with the boy- and shopping-crazy girls at school, her dad’s obsession with her track meets, her mother salivating over big sister Bethany’s lavish wedding, and her nonexistent love life

Though truthfully, I have only read Books 1, 2 and half of 3, I still fully love the relationship between Jessica and Marcus. I've heard that as the series goes on, it just gets better and better, I'm pretty excited to delve into this relationship more.

Anna and the French Kiss : Stephaine Perkins

Anna is looking forward to her senior year in Atlanta, where she has a great job, a loyal best friend, and a crush on the verge of becoming more. Which is why she is less than thrilled about being shipped off to boarding school in Paris—until she meets Étienne St. Claire: perfect, Parisian (and English and American, which makes for a swoon-worthy accent), and utterly irresistible. The only problem is that he's taken, and Anna might be, too, if anything comes of her almost-relationship back home.
As winter melts into spring, will a year of romantic near-misses end with the French kiss Anna—and readers—have long awaited?

This is my new favorite book. I'm a little bias, because it uses my first name, so I could pretend that it was me on this fantastic adventure, but seriously, this book is so amazing. Anna and St. Clair's relationship is both endearing and believable, and to make a romance that takes place in France seem believable and not extremely cliche, takes amazing talent. I whole heartedly recommend this book to anyone who wants to read a story about a girl you wish could be your best friend.

Okay, so I really love Meg Cabot. To the point that this list seems a little Meg heavy, but I really love the way she writes her romances. Trust me, Narrowing it down to THREE was REALLY difficult for me.

All in all, these are the books that I would recommend to anyone who is looking for a nice, feel good romantic book. Ones that make you smile in the middle of work, ones that make you laugh out loud, these books are some of the best books (in general) that I've ever read.

*all summaries from Goodreads.com