Hey YA Fans!
We’re giving away a $250 gift card to Barnes & Noble for a shopping spree. Go here to enter.
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One of my favorite things is hearing about your favorite reads and the reads you think deserve more attention. It’s interesting not just because it means hearing about the books that you loved, but it’s interesting because what I see or have seen as a “big book” isn’t always the case with readers. I saw this play out a couple of times in your lists which is neat to see.
Since many of us are in a holiday seasonal quiet time, let’s get in and get out with this one. Here are your top 16 books from 2016. They are in no particular order, since I didn’t bother ranking and counting; the clear favorites were very clear. I’m linking straight to the Amazon descriptions so you can see what the books are about if you want more details — I don’t want to spoil any of the details for the books here that aren’t first in a series.
I hope some of these are surprise favorites, like they were to me! As much as I love seeing your top picks, it’s interesting to see what titles that did really well this last year didn’t end up on this list.
A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J Maas
Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo
Exit, Pursued By A Bear by EK Johnston (also scored high on the “deserves more attention” list)
The Girl From Everywhere by Heidi Heilig (also scored high on the “deserves more attention” list)
Heartless by Marissa Meyer
The Iron Cast by Destiny Soria
The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater
The Reader by Traci Chee
Salt To The Sea by Ruta Sepetys
The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner
Summer Days and Summer Nights edited by Stephanie Perkins
The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon
This Is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkamp (also scored high on the “deserves more attention” list — this one was and continues to be a big New York Times Bestseller, so that was surprising to see!)
This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab
A Torch Against The Night by Sabaa Tahir
When The Moon Was Ours by Anne Marie McLemore
I noted above some of the titles that also scored high on the “needs more attention” list. I’m keeping those titles above and not replicating them here, since we should see 16 fresh titles on this list. And, like above, links go to Amazon for description purposes.
This list is fascinating, from both the perspective of what titles made it, which titles I saw so many readers rave about over the last year, and more, how this list features more inclusive titles than the favorites list. That doesn’t surprise me, given how we know about publicity and marketing and how often it’s the diverse titles which fall under the radar.
But alas, this is a great reading list! Again, not in any order except alphabetical by title.
The Art of Holding On and Letting Go by Kristin Bartley Lenz
The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch, Volume 2 by Daniel Kraus
The First Time She Drowned by Kerry Kletter
The Geek’s Guide to Unrequited Love by Sarvenaz Tash
Girl In Pieces by Kathleen Glasgow
If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo
The Last True Love Story by Brendan Kiely
The Memory of Light by Francisco X. Stork
My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows
My Sister Rosa by Justine Larbalestier
The Passion of Dolssa by Julie Berry
The Smaller Evil by Stephanie Kuehn
The Steep and Thorny Way by Cat Winters
Still A Work in Progress by Jo Knowles
Up To This Pointe by Jennifer Longo
We Are The Ants by Shaun David Hutchinson
A few more under-the-radar picks from your newsletter editor: Emily Hainsworth’s Take The Fall (super Twin Peaks-like!), Meet Me Here by Bryan Bliss, Break Me Like A Promise by Tiffany Schmidt (start with the first book in the duology, Hold Me Like A Breath), Cherry by Lindsey Rosin, and A Fierce and Subtle Poison by Samantha Mabry.
Thanks for hanging out this year with “What’s Up in YA.” Hopefully, you’ve found some really great reading, and more, that you spend your next week curled up with a book that ends the year in the best way possible. We’ll be back next week with a special edition of the newsletter, featuring the most anticipated 2017 books from a variety of awesome YA authors (prepare your TBR, for real!).