Having completed my first year of college, I am ready to get back into my summer reading patterns (when I spend the day doing very little besides consuming books and food). You can also look forward to a new summer reading challenge (which I'll be posting about shortly), but part of it involves reading as many books that I already own but haven't read. So, I'm focusing on reading series (so that I can finally read the last book), as well as other recent releases - but eventually, I'm planning on shifting over to the massive amounts of stand-alone ARCs I own. Here are some of the books I've been reading since I came home a week ago, as well as the rest of my massive TBR stack (or, at least, just the part of my TBR stack that fits on my nightstand):
The Embassy Row series:
Ally Carter has long been adored for her YA series (starting with her Gallagher Girls series), but her latest series - Embassy Row - is probably my favorite yet. I reviewed the first two installments in the trilogy, All Fall Down and See How They Run, and am greatly looking forward to finishing off the series with the third and final book, Take The Key and Lock Her Up.
The Winner's Crime is one of those rare sequels that manages to outshine its predecessor (as I noted in my review), so I'm very intrigued to finally read The Winner's Kiss. However, the complicated politics and history (all a part of Rutkoski's intense world building) are so integral to the plot that I am definitely going back to the beginning and rereading The Winner's Curse.
The Rebel Belle series:
The premise of the Rebel Belle series is pure comedic gold - a Southern debutante turned ancient guardian/warrior of an oracle (who of course is her arch nemesis) - but Rachel Hawkins manages to build a lovable cast of characters, and it is the characters and their emotional development (amidst the crazy-yet-hysterically-funny circumstances) that carries the series.
Easily one of my favorite fairy-tale retellings, The Wrath & the Dawn sets up a captivating and complex story that is finished in The Rose & the Dagger. I love trilogies, but I also love duologies - while I always want more books in the series, I do appreciate authors who have a specific plan for their series and stick to it (even if it means less total books). But if two books aren't enough for you, Renée Ahdieh released three different short stories: The Moth & the Flame, The Crown & the Arrow, and The Mirror & the Maze (two prequels, and one short story set in between the two main books, respectively).
The Sky Fall series:
While I do adore Shannon Messenger's Keeper of the Lost Cities series, I tend to prefer young adult books (rather than middle grade); when she released a young adult fantasy series (The Sky Fall series), I was overjoyed. While that joy is now bittersweet, knowing that the trilogy has come to a close, I am very excited to finally finish the series.
Though Arthurian legend is always popular in pop culture (*cough* Merlin *cough*), it tends to be less prevalent in the YA fairy tale retelling genre than other classic stories. So I was thrilled to dive into the first two books of the Metal & Lace Trilogy a couple of summers ago, but I haven't been able to get my hands on a copy of the third and final book, Excalibur Reigning - until now. I've been looking forward to finishing this series for a while now (I have a soft spot for steampunk, especially steampunk fairy tale retellings - you can check out more details about the series in my review of Avalon Rising).
What are you reading this summer? Let me know in the comments, or tweet me your summer reads @YALitFrenzy on Twitter.
Carolyn is a teen blogger who shares her favorite YA reads and favorite book related finds with readers on Fridays.