My 5 Favorite YA Authors
Y’all know that I love YA (young adult) books so I thought today would be a perfect day to share with you my 5 Favorite YA Authors!
I have been reading some of these authors for YEARS. I mean, years! High school years actually.
At this point, I don’t even blink when one of these authors comes out with a book. I don’t even need to read the summary on the back of the book. It’s an “add-to-cart” moment for me, pretty much entirely automatic.
That’s how good these authors are & I am so excited to share them with you! You may recognize a couple of them because I’ve recommended one of their books before in one of my YA Recommended Books posts. If you do recognize them, take this as a little nudge that all of their books are great & need to be read. 🙂
If you click on the author’s name, it will take you to a list of their books. Specific books I mentioned are linked directly to Amazon. (None of the links are affiliate links.) 🙂
Let’s get to it!
My 5 Favorite YA Authors:
Sarah Dessen
My first of my 5 Favorite YA Authors HAS to go to one of my favorites of all time. Let me just scream this from the rooftops:
I LOVE SARAH DESSEN’S BOOKS!
I have literally been reading her books since early high school. I’ve loved them all but I do have a few favorites (of course!). The Truth About Forever, What Happened to Goodbye, Saint Anything and her most recent one, The Rest of the Story, are my favorites of hers.
The Rest of the Story was honestly one of the best books. I got completely lost in it and never wanted it to end. It could’ve gone on for another 400 pages and I would’ve been happy. Google describes her genre of books as “realistic fiction” & that totally works. But, I think the best way for me to describe Sarah’s books would be to say real-life situations + romance + hopeful + summertime. All of her books have got a little bit of everything.
Karen McManus
Need a little murder mystery/psychological thriller in your life? Karen McManus has got you covered! I shared one of her books in my YA Recommended Books post & she has since come out with a new one in January that I cannot wait to read! Her books will grab you & keep you turning the page.
Beware…some of her books are told from multiple point of views so make sure you’re paying attention & know who the individual characters are. Also, 2 of the books piggy-back off of each other (One of Us is Lying and One of Us is Next). You don’t have to read them back to back, that’s not the order they came out in, but if you don’t be prepared to play a little bit of character catch up to remember who everyone is/who’s connected to who from the first book.
Morgan Matson
The first book I read of Morgan’s was Amy & Roger’s Epic Detour. You felt like you were on the road trip with them and you couldn’t help but love the characters and their personalities. The second book I read of hers was Second Chance Summer. It may have resulted in me crying a little bit out by the pool. It was so good & got me hooked on Morgan’s books but man, it had a couple of really emotional parts. Any author who can truly get me to feel what the character is going through as though I’m going through it myself is a winner in my book.
To me, there was a difference in her first two books but both were so good. Her most recent one Save The Date was one of my absolute favorites from 2018 (how has it been that long?!?!). I think it read it in about a day. All of Morgan Matson’s books are perfect beach reads. Or just great when you need an escape. She has a new one coming out on May 4th (you can see the cover & read an excerpt at that link!).
Kara Thomas
To me, Kara Thomas just might be the queen of intense mysteries. Her books never disappoint. If Karen McManus isn’t intense enough for you, try Kara Thomas. Kara will keep you guessing up until the end. I have a review of her book The Cheerleaders right here but let me just say that it was one of those that left me just sitting there trying to process the entire book once it ended. Highly recommended Kara’s books for my mystery lovers out there! She has a new one coming out in June that I think is going to be so good!
Julie Buxbaum
Last but not least, #5 on my list of my 5 Favorite YA Authors. The sense of humor & personalities of these characters will grab you from the beginning. I fell in love with her characters and they kept me turning the page. Her first two books have her characters talking online so there’s plenty of short one-liners and text shorthand that hit the spot every time. I would describe Julie’s books as “rom-com mixed with real-life challenges”. Julie’s first 3 YA books (starting with Tell Me Three Things) are perfect for my YA rom-com lovers out there.
She has a new one that was published last year that I have yet to read but it seems like it’s going to be a little bit of a departure from her first 3 books. I’ll keep you posted once I’ve read it. 🙂
I hope you found an author here from one of my 5 Favorite YA Authors that you haven’t read yet or possibly even heard of before. These are such great authors & there’s so many more out there to discover.
So far, I have 2 posts here on Living Life With Meredith for my Recommended Young Adult Novels. There’s all different types of books in both of those recommendation posts so you’re sure to find one you like! You can find Part 1 right here & Part 2 is here.
Now I’m in the mood to curl up on the couch & read. 🙂
Happy reading to y’all!
Love,
If you have someone in your life who loves to read YA books, please share this blog post & the other two linked above with them. It would mean so much! 🙂
