Author: Veronica Porras (TTB)

I am a thirty-something living in Southern California. I blog about books, read, and live life as best as I can.
Contemporary Conversations, Guest Post

“Bad” Romance: In Defense of Love Triangles and Insta-Love (ContempConvos)

Veronica Porras (TTB)

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Two incredibly common and much-maligned conceits in YA are love triangles and insta-love.

One of my favorite quotes about romance in YA comes from author Ally Carter:

“Being a teen isn’t about figuring out who you should be with. It’s about figuring out who you should BE.”

Love triangles and insta-love can both be big parts of that search for identity.

Teens have parents telling them where to go, teachers prescribing what they read or write in school, and demands coming from tons of other places as they get ready to face “real” life in college and beyond. It is very rare for a teen to be in a position where they can truly make a choice (much less one that involves saying “no”) entirely on their own. One way to show teens in that power position–taking ownership of their life in a very literal sense–is with a love triangle.

Teenagers are fickle creatures. They have years and years ahead of them to settle down. Why not have a book with multiple love interests? Why not let them explore their options with two or even more love interests?

As for insta-love, well, isn’t that just shorthand for love at first sight?

There are a lot of instances where both of these things can be handled badly. There is the potential for a forced relationship or one with insufficient stakes. Underdeveloped characters or thin plots can be especially disastrous for love triangles or insta-love as making either trope seem contrived or as if it came without the proper foundation.

But as with any literary device if a love triangle or insta-love is handled well it doesn’t detract from a story. Instead, it can complicate and depth to an already rich story or even a new facet to a character’s personality.

Now that I’ve told you why I’m all for love triangles and insta-love (done well) here are some recommended books:

Love Triangles:

  1. The Selection by Kiera Cass
  2. To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han
  3. Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan
  4. The Unwritten Rule by Elizabeth Scott
  5. The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

Insta-Love:

  1. The Jewel by Amy Ewing
  2. Hold Me Like a Breath by Tiffany Schmidt
  3. Famous in Love by Rebecca Serle
  4. Rebel Mechanics by Shanna Swendson
  5. Paranormalcy by Kiersten White

 

—
Emma
“Miss Print”
missprint.wordpress.com

Contemporary Conversations, Reviews, ya contemporary

ContempConvos: Jesse’s Girl by Miranda Kenneally

Veronica Porras (TTB)

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Goodreads Summary:

Everyone at Hundred Oaks High knows that career mentoring day is a joke. So when Maya Henry said she wanted to be a rock star, she never imagined she’d get to shadow *the* Jesse Scott, Nashville’s teen idol.

But spending the day with Jesse is far from a dream come true. He’s as gorgeous as his music, but seeing all that he’s accomplished is just a reminder of everything Maya’s lost: her trust, her boyfriend, their band, and any chance to play the music she craves. Not to mention that Jesse’s pushy and opinionated. He made it on his own, and he thinks Maya’s playing back up to other people’s dreams. Does she have what it takes to follow her heart—and go solo?

Review:

Sigh

Absolutely adorable. I feel like Kenneally’s books are only getting better and better as time passes by. They are like fine wine. You feel good on the inside after you’ve read one.

Jesse’s Girl is about Maya and Jesse. Maya goes to Hundreds Oaks just like the rest of the characters in the Hundred Oaks series. Maya is Sam Henry’s little sister, Jordan’s boyfriend. We saw their story in Catching Jordan, the first book in the Hundred’s Oak series. I love that I get to see how my beloved characters are doing as time passes by. It makes my heart happy.

Anyways back to the main characters. Maya is the spunky girl who is on love with music of the eighties. She loves her Madonna and Prince. She dreams of making it in the music business so when shadow day comes up as Hundred Oaks High, she is paired with none other than Jesse Scott, the famous country artist that has taken over America’s teenage hearts, and also happens to be the principal’s nephew. You can only imagine how cocky Jesse is being used to getting all the attention, fame, and glory. But we all know deep inside he is a kinda southern gentleman.

Their story unfolds differently than other YA romance novels. No insta-love. Their relationship moves steadily forward throughout the course of the entire novel. We get to see the entire story from beginning to end.

Jesse’s Girl is like an ice cold lemonade on a hot summer day, a sweet melody that you unconsciously hum when you’re having a good day. I have all the praises for this book and I cannot recommend it enough.

Review: 5 out of 5

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Reviews, ya contemporary, ya romance

ContempConvos: Under The Spotlight (The Jamieson Brothers #3) by Angie Stanton

Veronica Porras (TTB)

Goodreads Summary:

After an embarrassing stint on a reality-TV music competition years ago, Riley vowed never to sing again. Now she’s behind the scenes, working at the prestigious Sound Sync recording studio, and life is looking up. But then Garrett Jamieson, the oldest brother in the famous Jamieson brothers band, crashes into her world.

Garrett has hit rock bottom, and he is desperate to reinvent himself. After calling in a few favors, he ends up working at Sound Sync to learn the ropes of record producing from the industry’s best. And he can’t believe his luck when he discovers that Riley has been keeping a secret—she is an amazing singer. By producing her album, he’s sure to top the record charts again. But Garrett is forced to use every trick in his arsenal to persuade the sassy girl to record.

Riley refuses to sing—or even entertain the thought of it—and sparks fly as Garrett finally meets his match. But in the heat of the moment, one stolen kiss changes everything. Will Riley be the first person to finally rein Garrett in, or will Garrett succeed in getting Riley back under the spotlight?

Review:

I picked this up on a wing. I didn’t even know that it was the third book in a companion series until I was halfway through. I loved that I could pick up any book in the series and I would not be lost whatsoever. (Great writing Ms. Stanton!!)

Alright, let’s get down to business.

I really really liked Riley. She is a great character. I was worried she would act a little too mature because of her life experiences, but nope. She was just a little bit more mature than a normal 18 year old and it was believable. Riley was the perfect person to pair with Garrett. Where he was fire, she was ice. They complimented each other and when Garrett needed to be put in his place, Riley was there to do the job and gladly.

And Garrett. Gosh that hunk of a man. Anybody know a Garrett they would like to introduce me to?  No. Okay. Fine. Anyways, I know that he is not perfect, but what makes a cocky, controlling, know-it-all hunk of a man attractive is that he sees he is wrong and chooses to CHANGE. A+ for that Ms. Stanton.

I wasn’t really expecting much to come from this book. I had set my expectations low as to not be disappointed, and let me tell you I was not. Now I want to pick up the first two books in the companion series to get more of Garrett. Can’t get enough of that man.

PSA: For those of you that stay away from insta-love, you can rest in peace. No insta-love in this book. Read Away.

Rating: 5 out of 5

Contemporary Conversations

ContempConvos: Romance Intro (and Week 2 Wrap Up)

Veronica Porras (TTB)

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The second week has passed! Like I’ve said previously, this is going by much quicker than I anticipated. Liz has been a reading machine while I have not. But I’m trudging along this week and we also have a special guest post from Miss Print (and for those who know her personally Emma). She will be discussing in favor of instal-love and love triangles. You won’t want to miss it!

For this week, if you haven’t guessed by now, we shall be reading and celebrating all things Romance. 

Let our hearts be filled with feels!

Week 2 – coming of age – Wrap Up

Let’s have a great week 3!

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Contemporary Conversations, Reviews, ya contemporary

ContempConvos: I’ll Meet You There by Heather Demetrios

Veronica Porras (TTB)

Red, vintage, neon motel sign on blue sky; Shutterstock ID 95002717

Goodreads Summary:

If seventeen-year-old Skylar Evans were a typical Creek View girl, her future would involve a double-wide trailer, a baby on her hip, and the graveyard shift at Taco Bell. But after graduation, the only thing standing between straightedge Skylar and art school are three minimum-wage months of summer. Skylar can taste the freedom—that is, until her mother loses her job and everything starts coming apart. Torn between her dreams and the people she loves, Skylar realizes everything she’s ever worked for is on the line.

Nineteen-year-old Josh Mitchell had a different ticket out of Creek View: the Marines. But after his leg is blown off in Afghanistan, he returns home, a shell of the cocksure boy he used to be. What brings Skylar and Josh together is working at the Paradise—a quirky motel off California’s dusty Highway 99. Despite their differences, their shared isolation turns into an unexpected friendship and soon, something deeper.

Review:

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That’s exactly how I feel right now after just finishing I’ll Meet You There. I am floating in the stars happy. Gahhhhhhh I can’t seem to form coherent thoughts, but I shall try!

Skylar and Josh. They are both the perfect match for each other if there is such a thing. When Josh needed someone to put him in his place, Skylar was able to do it, when Skylar needed someone to be her friend, Josh was there. The other was always what the other needed. It is amazing to see such a perfect balance. Of course there were some issues Josh had to work through and Skylar as well, but at the end of the day, I really loved their relationship from friendship to something more.

What I really appreciated was the fact that a YA novel was able to marry a coming of age story with the aftermath of war for the soldiers that are lucky enough to come home. The difficulty to be a civilian again after seeing horrendous things. Reading stories like this make you appreciate even more the freedom that we experience in our day-to-day lives and the sacrifice the brave men and women who serve our country have done so we can be safe and sane. Please read the Author’s note at the end. You won’t regret it.

I will leave you with this quote which summarizes Skylar and Josh’s relationship.

“I had to tell him we were like a collage. Pieces that could be put back together in a new way, a better way. If I didn’t say it now, I never would.”

Rating: 5 out of 5

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Contemporary Conversations

ContempConvos: Coming of Age Intro (and Week 1 Wrap Up)

Veronica Porras (TTB)

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And the first week is done with! This is going by much faster than I anticipated it to. I don’t know about you, but I certainly thought I had much more time to read all the books. Gah!

For this week, we shall be reading and celebrating all things Coming of Age. 

If you aren’t sure what classifies as Coming of Age, think  along the lines of Sarah Dessen, Morgan Matson, Heather Demetrios, Abby McDonald, etc. You get the picture.

Week 1 – Thriller/Spy – Wrap Up

Let’s have a great week 2!

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Contemporary Conversations

ContempConvos: Why is the YA Thriller/Spy genre underrated and underdeveloped?

Veronica Porras (TTB)

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Disclaimer: So this past weekend was my birthday and I may have taken a day or two off. Sorry guys! But here is a discussion post that will make up for my silence this weekend! And yes, I am now 25. SAY WHAT?!

It is time I talk about a very important topic… and that important topic is Why is the YA Thriller/Spy genre underrated and underdeveloped? In other words, Why is it not as BIG as other YA sub-genres?

Think about this. You walk into a bookstore and beeline directly to the YA section. You see YA fantasy, YA paranormal, YA contemporary, YA dystopian, etc., but you don’t see a special section dedicated to the YA thriller/spy novels. Why is that?

First, we all know that there aren’t many YA spy/thriller novels out there to begin with. If we think long and hard about YA authors writing books for this specific sub-genre, there aren’t many. We have Jennifer Lynn Barnes, Ally Carter, Abby McDonald, and Lauren Oliver. But if you try to think even harder, you may come up empty-handed like I do.

I’m a big fan of the spy/thriller genre. I love me a good spy/con-man story that has you constantly at the edge of your seat. And the thing is those novels are not badly written, they are good, but why are they not as big as others from other sub-genres?

It just makes me sad that not many authors explore this sub-genre as much and that might be part of the problem. There are only a few household names when we think of the Thriller/Spy sub-genre.

I personally think it is because not many people want to take the risk of writing a thriller/spy/con man novel without the paranormal or fantasy element. It is much easier to go down the route many have gone than one that many have not passed through.

What are your thoughts? Do you agree or disagree with me? Are there more YA thriller/spy novels out there that I haven’t discovered yet?

Talk to me! I want to know what you guys think!

Contemporary Conversations, Reviews, YA Mystery, YA Thriller

ContempConvos: Killer Instinct (The Naturals #2) by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Veronica Porras (TTB)

Killer Instinct (Naturals Series #2) by Jennifer Lynn Barnes, Paperback | Barnes & Noble®

Goodreads Summary:

Seventeen-year-old Cassie Hobbes has a gift for profiling people. Her talent has landed her a spot in an elite FBI program for teens with innate crime-solving abilities, and into some harrowing situations. After barely escaping a confrontation with an unbalanced killer obsessed with her mother’s murder, Cassie hopes she and the rest of the team can stick to solving cold cases from a distance.

But when victims of a brutal new serial killer start turning up, the Naturals are pulled into an active case that strikes too close to home: the killer is a perfect copycat of Dean’s incarcerated father—a man he’d do anything to forget. Forced deeper into a murderer’s psyche than ever before, will the Naturals be able to outsmart the enigmatic killer’s brutal mind games before this copycat twists them into his web for good?

Review:

Oh my gosh.

I am dead. No pun intended.

I was a huge fan of The Naturals, but Barnes just went ahead and blew me away with the sequel.

Killer Instinct is everything you’ve wanted. It’s dark, it’s gritty, and addicting. You have the action, the sick twisted mindset of the killer, and the relationships between the naturals. I wish this were a tv show.

In Killer Instinct we have the gang in the aftermath of what happened with Cassie and “agent” Locke. As Cassie deals with the aftermath, a copycat shows up, but it’s not just any killer he is copying, but Dean’s dad. MO right to the t. The entire time we are dealing with the team trying to solve who is the copycat, if the naturals program will be dismantled with Agent Sterlings presence now in the mix, and Cassie’s inner turmoil of Michael or Dean.

Now don’t be turned away because we have love in the mix. Ms. Barnes does it in a very tasteful way which actually adds to the story and doesn’t take away from it.

At the end of the day, if you haven’t read Killer Instinct (or The Naturals) please do so. You will not regret that decision.

Rating: 5 out of 5

Contemporary Conversations

The Beginning of Contemporary Convos Round 2 – Week 1 – Thrillers (& Spies)

Veronica Porras (TTB)

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EEEEEEKKKKKK! IT HAS BEGUN! *hits gong*

First of all, add your name and a link to your blog to our linky at the bottom of this post. We would also be forever grateful if you made a post that announced your intention to participate, and spread the word! The more the merrier!

Second, plan your books! Liz and I will be previewing the books we will be reviewing at the beginning of each new week if you would like to read and discuss them with us!

Third, have fun! We’ll be reviewing and writing discussions, but anything and everything goes.

Last, but not least, use #contempconvos on Twitter. It will help everyone find your posts from the month!

*drum roll*

This week’s theme is thrillers/spies

I feel like this subgenre of YA Contemporary is overlooked most of the time, so we must bring light to it!

Posts to come this week:

  • Review of We’ll Never Be Apart by Emiko Jean
  • Review of This Is Where IT Ends by Marieke Nijkamp
  • Review of Killer Instinct (The Naturals #2) by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
  • Review of Holding Court by K.C. Held
  • Discussing why the thriller/spy/con-man genre is not BIG in the YA contemporary world?

Don’t forget to link your initial participating post down below and let the fun begin!

 

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Contemporary Conversations

Contemporary Conversations #2

Veronica Porras (TTB)

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The time has come to start preparing for the 2nd Contemporary Conversations!

This year things will be the same for the most part except for one major thing, it will only be hosted at The Talking Bookworm. You can expect to see posts both from myself (Veronica) and Liz throughout the entire month of March.

Start making the reading lists and coming up with ideas you want to discuss with your fellow book-loving peers.

The following is to refresh the minds of those who participated last year [and probably forgot everything there is to Contemporary Conversations] and also if this is your first time seeing this *waves* you can learn what Contemporary Conversations is all about.

The Down Low

For the entire month of March (2016), starting Tuesday the 1st and going through Thursday the 31st, we will be reviewing, discussing, and talking about all things contemporary. Our goal is to saturate the web with all things Contemporary!

The young adult contemporary genre has quite a range of sub-genres, so we are here to make things a little bit easier for you. We have attached a sub-genre to each week to help book planning a bit smoother.

  • Week One (1st-7th): Spy/Thriller
  • Week Two (8th-14th): Coming of Age
  • Week Three (15th-21st): Romance
  • Week Four (22nd-28th): Re-Reads
  • Week Five (29th-31st): Wrap-Up Posts, and Announcement of Giveaway Winner

And just as last year, we will be doing a giveaway and all participants will be able to enter for up to $15 to either Amazon or The Book Depository. To answer everybody’s question… it will be international!

The How

If you will be participating in Contemporary Conversations in March of 2016, this is what you must do.

First, add your name and a link to your blog to our linky at the bottom of this post.

Second, plan your books! We will be posting our reading lists in the next week or two so you can join into the discussion if you may like so come March!

Third, have fun! We are mostly focusing on reviews and discussions, but one of us may or may not be hosting a 24-hour ready-a-thon! If you would like to host one yourself, be our guests!

Last, but not least, use #contempconvos on Twitter. It will help everyone find your posts from the month!

We would love it if you wrote a post on your blog announcing your participation this year and helped spread the word.

 

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