Best Couples in YA / Best YA Contemporaries of 2013

Top 10 of 2013 is hosted by a group of fabulous bloggers and you can find more information here

Liza’s List

Couples

1.  Perry and Aria from the Under the NeverSky series by Veronica Rossi

2.  Josh and Nastya From The Sea ofTranquility by Katja Milay

3.  Cameron and Avery from Wait for You / Trust in Me by J. Lynn

4.  Willem and Allyson from Just One Day / Just One Year by Gayle Forman

Top Ten New-To-Me Authors I Read In 2013

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme created by The Broke and the Bookish

2013 was definitely one my best ever years for reading. I read so many great books and discovered so many fantastic stories. If 2014 is going to be just half as good,  I say roll on the New Year!

1. Katie McGarry

I finally read Pushing the Limits and loved it!

2. Huntley Fitzpatrick

I'd wanted to read My Life Next Door ever since I'd first heard about it, but I didn't get around to it until late this year - and now it's one of my all-time favourites.

3. Marie Lu

I absolutely ADORE the Legend trilogy. I read all three this year - in fact, I finished Champion just this week, and it was amazing!

4. Sarah Dessen

I don't know how I managed not to read Sarah Dessen for so long. She's the queen of contemporary romantic YA!

5. Elizabeth Wein

Elizabeth Wein sets out to rip out her readers' hearts with her fabulous and brutal books, so naturally I read both Code Name Verity and Rose Under Fire in the same year!

6. Robyn Schneider

The Beginning of Everything (or Severed Heads, Broken Hearts as it's titled in Europe) is Robyn's debut novel, but she's been a Youtube personality and vlogger for years - I don't know how I missed her!

7. Ruta Sepetys

Another author out to break my heart. Ruta writes incredible moving books, and her second novel, Out of the Easy, became one of my favourite reads of the year.

8. Sarra Manning

Sarra Manning's Adorkable made me laugh out the entire time I was reading it. I had no idea I'd love it so much!

9. Luisa Plaja

 

Luisa is a fabulous UK author who writes fun, girly books for teens, and after some very insistent recommendations, I finally gave in to reading her in 2013.

10. David Levithan

And representing the male authors I should have read way sooner, it's David Levithan! I can't wait to read his recently announced follow-up, Rhiannon - assuming he's started writing it!

What new authors did you discover this year?

Top Ten Books I'd Recommend To Someone Who Wants a Taste of Everything Young Adult!

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme created by The Broke and the Bookish

Sometimes it can seem like YA is completely ruled by one genre or another. When I'm recommending YA to my friends, though, I try to recommend something that will really mean something to them - and I'm not just talking about books everyone else is reading. We've all heard about John Green and JK Rowling. But for those who maybe don't read as much as we do, and might not have heard about all the great books that are out there? It's our duty as book bloggers to shed light on some of the YA favourites others could be missing out on.

So without further ado, here's my Top Ten Crash Course in All Things YA...

1. The One With The Happiness and the Families and All the Love: My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick

2. The Off-The-Beaten Track Contemporary: The Beginning ofEverything by Robyn Schneider

3. That One Undefinable Book Nobody Has Read but Really Really Should: Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer

4. The Best of the Rebels and the Leaders and the Realism: Legend by Marie Lu

Top Ten Covers I Wish I Could Redesign

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme created by The Broke and the Bookish

This week's TTT is really hard!  Although I love covers and it's the first thing that makes me want to read a book, I don't keep track of the ones I don't like.  Also, lately books in a series have the tendency of changing (like Shatter Me or the Immortal Rules) or the covers of the whole series gets changed (like Anna and the French Kiss or Dairy Queen).  Anyway, here's what I came up with:

1.  Harbinger by Sara Wilson Etienne - I don't know why (and I haven't read the book), but this one doesn't work for me.  I'm not sure what it is, but it may be the fame around the picture.

2.  The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling - Uninspiring. 

3.  Nameless by Lili St. Crow - I think it's the font on the title and the lack of contrast that ruins it for me.

4.  This Side of Salvation by Jeri Smith-Ready - Too plain?

5.  When the World was Flat by Ingrid Jonach - Besides the font and the ribbon, nothing else draws my eye to this cover. 

6.  The Fault in Our Stars by John Green - I adore this book, but not its cover.

7.  The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson - This is one of the best series I've ever read, but I didn't like any of the covers. 

8.  The Beginning of Everything by Robyn Schneider -  I don't find the cover relevant to the story or even pretty. 

9.  Sever by Lauren DeStefano - What's up with the weird green cover?  The previous ones are gorgeous!

That's all I could come up with guys.  What covers do you wish to redesign?

Review: The Beginning of Everything by Robyn Scheneider

Title: The Beginning of Everything by Robyn Scheneider

Published: August 27^th, 2013 by Katherine Tegen

Source: ARC from BEA

Format: Paperback

Age group: Young adult

Genre: Contemporary romance

Challenge(s): none

Grade rate: A-

Golden boy Ezra Faulkner believes everyone has a tragedy waiting for them—a single encounter after which everything that really matters will happen. His particular tragedy waited until he was primed to lose it all: in one spectacular night, a reckless driver shatters Ezra’s knee, his athletic career, and his social life. No longer a front-runner for Homecoming King, Ezra finds himself at the table of misfits, where he encounters new girl Cassidy Thorpe. Cassidy is unlike anyone Ezra’s ever met, achingly effortless, fiercely intelligent, and determined to bring Ezra along on her endless adventures. But as Ezra dives into his new studies, new friendships, and new love, he learns that some people, like books, are easy to misread. And now he must consider: if one’s singular tragedy has already hit and everything after it has mattered quite a bit, what happens when more misfortune strikes?
 Robyn Schneider’s The Beginning of Everything is a lyrical, witty, and heart-wrenching novel about how difficult it is to play the part that people expect, and how new beginnings can stem from abrupt and tragic endings.

My Review

I’m not going to lie and tell you that this is a cute romance with a happy ending.  If you want that type of story, this is not for you.  In contrast, The Beginning of Everything is a bittersweet story about tragedy, how to rise above it, friendship and love.

It has been difficult for me to seat down and write this review because I have ambivalent feelings about the book.  On one end I loved Ezra’s voice.  He is a bit lost at the beginning of the story.  He goes through a terrible tragedy and he feels abandoned by his group of popular friends.  He needs to learn how to adjust and come to terms with his new physical limits and how to act around his former friends and ex-girlfriend.  I think he makes some terrible decisions, both in the past and during the story; pretending to be someone else and adapting your personality just to fit is never sustainable.  True friends love you and accept you for who you are.

The overall characterization is done rather well.  Cassidy is very flighty and almost manic in her behavior.  She does help Ezra a lot in his road of self-discovery, but at the same time she was cagey, secretive, and distrustful, which is no way to behave with friends or in a relationship.  Of course, there is also the fact that she hurt Ezra rather badly.  My favorite character (after Ezra) is Toby; his childhood friend.  He is a true friend and is there when Ezra needs him the most; he forgives him for his prior abandonment and refuses to fade into the background when things go bad between Ezra and Cassidy.

On the other hand I didn’t particularly like the ending.  Yes, I know that The Beginning of Everything is about Ezra and his evolution and the beginning of his life AFTER.  I’m not so naïve that I expect a happily ever after in every young adult book that I read, but it felt incomplete and too open for me.

Scheneider’s writing style reminds me a lot of Sara Dessen’s; what is to say that it’s beautiful.  They are both full of self-discovery, introspection and unadulterated beauty.  The plot had plenty of conflict and a few unexpected turns.  Overall, I liked The Beginning of Everything

P.S. – I love all the Harry Potter references!

Some quotes for you:

“And that was when I saw what Cassidy had done to herself: the gold and red ribbing on her sweater-vest, the matching stripes on her tie, the gray uniform skirt, and the navy blazer draped over her arm...

"Is that a Gryffindor tie?" I asked.

"And an official Harry Potter Merchandise sweater-vest," she confirmed smugly.”

“There's a word for it," she told me, "in French, for when you have a lingering impression of something having passed by. Sillage. I always think of it when a firework explodes and lights up the smoke from the ones before it."

"That's a terrible word," I teased. "It's like an excuse for holding onto the past."

"Well, I think it's beautiful. A word for remembering small moments destined to be lost.”

“She tasted like buried treasure and swing sets and coffee. She tasted the way fireworks felt, like something you could get close to but never really have just for yourself.”

About the cover:  To be honest this cover is vaguely relevant to the story but I don’t really like it.

**About the UK cover and title: (see the cover below)  I’m not sure I like this cover either, but the title makes more sense to me that the US title.