Young Adult Recommended Books: Part 1 » Living Life with Meredith

Young Adult Recommended Books are (finally) here! I love young adult novels. Granted, I am technically still a young adult. Anyway, I’ve been reading Young Adult (YA) novels for years & have come across some amazing ones spanning across multiples genres.

I have a blog series titled “Meredith’s Recommended Books” that I do each month. Most of my readers are not young adults so I don’t share them in that series but I still read them. Since I do read them however, I wanted to share the ones that I have read so far this year and that I liked. I read a variety so hopefully there’s one that the YA reader in your life will like. 🙂

I’ll share a link to each book where you can read the description of the book & purchase it if you like (it’s not an affiliate link). I’m going to include a photo of the book & my thoughts on it! If you have any YA readers in your life, or like YA novels yourself, please share this with them!

Onto the Young Adult Recommended Books!

YA Recommended Book #1:

Since You’ve Been Gone by Morgan Matson

My Thoughts:

I love Morgan Matson. I’ve read almost all of her books. She has become a beach/pool book author for me. So this year when I went on vacation, I knew her book Since You’ve Been Gone was coming with me. This book is from 2018 and I have no idea how I haven’t read it until now but it was worth the wait. I would classify this book as the perfect beach read. Truly. I devoured every word & it was such a good book. It is 400-something pages but I read it in a day. I couldn’t put it down. That’s how I am with all of her books though.

This one is full of friendship, finding yourself and your voice, an unexpected romance, with a little mystery thrown in there (where did her best friend disappear to?!). I highly recommend this book for any time of year but especially for your next beach trip or pool day!

(Out of her two other books, Amy & Roger’s Epic Detour is the one that’s a great summer read. Second Chance Summer made me cry by the pool (it’s sweet but also sad in some parts) so if you’re wanting to avoid doing that, then I’d skip that one & make it a fall/winter book. :))

YA Recommended Book #2:

One of Us is Next by Karen M. McManus

My Thoughts:

“Well that was a plot twist”, I thought as I read the last page. Don’t worry. It doesn’t leave you hanging at all. Karen McManus has turned into one of those authors whose books I buy without even reading the synopsis. This is the 3^rd book of hers that I have read & it’s technically a sequel to her first book One of Us is Lying but you can easily read this book without reading the first if you prefer (but I highly recommend the first one just because it’s a good book). This book follows in the footsteps of the first but with its own twists & turns & it was quite good. It didn’t take me very long to read it because you just don’t want to put it down.

These kids are in high school so it’s definitely a YA novel but it’s not juvenile & child-like. It’s an entertaining thriller perfect for young adults.

YA Recommended Book #3:

Love & Luck by Jenna Evans Welch

My Thoughts:

I know that I said Since You’ve Been Gone is the perfect beach read & it is but so is this one. I knew when I saw this book on the shelf at Books-A-Million that I had to read it when I went to the beach next. I’ve been saving it for months & I’m so glad I did.

This one isn’t a love story & that’s a nice change of pace. The main character is traveling Ireland with her brother & his friend so you get to learn a little about Ireland and some great locations there but you also get to watch the main character grow and accept herself and make peace with choices she’s made. You get to read plenty of sibling arguments and read how they come together and work through things to be as close as they were before the summer began & there’s also friendships, new & old, that come to play in this novel. I’m telling you, it’s a great beach read that you’re gonna soak up.

YA Recommended Book #4:

Again, but Better by Christine Riccio

My Thoughts:

This book. I had this book on my to-read list for quite a while. It sounded so good & right up my alley. But woah, it was not what I was expecting. About halfway through, there’s going to be a major plot twist. And now that you know there’s going to be a plot twist, you’re gonna spend the entire first half of the book trying to prepare for & figure out what it’s going to be. I did (my sis read it before me & warned me of a plot twist) & I NEVER guessed it. I was blown away. It took a handful of chapters for me to wrap my mind around it & figure out what in the world was happening but don’t let that deter you. It was so good! I loved it & I loved the story line, the journey, all of it!

It is a YA novel but it didn’t scream YA novel to me, if that makes sense. It wasn’t necessarily juvenile but adults may not like it. I’m 24 & I loved it, if that helps. 🙂

YA Recommended Book #5:

Emergency Contact by Mary H.K. Choi

My Thoughts:

This book has been on my “to read” list for quite some time & I finally got around to reading it, thanks to my sister also having it on her list & buying it. And let me just tell you…I loved loved loved this book. Should I add another “loved” in there?! I really enjoyed it. I read it in less than 36 hours & had I started it earlier in the day, I could’ve finished it in one day. Actually, I wanted to finish it but it was so good that I didn’t want it to end. I seriously cannot recommend this book enough. It’s a 10/10 for me.

I enjoyed all of the books I’ve read so far in this post but this just might be one of my favorites. I really liked the characters themselves but also the dialogue and their rapport with each other. It made it fun to read and made you feel like you were sitting there with them listening to their conversations. It is so so so easy to see the story in your head. You’re there with the characters, you can see them, their room, them interacting with each other. At times you kinda forget that you’re reading a book. That’s how engrossed I got with this book. I couldn’t stop turning the pages & I didn’t want it to end. Definitely read this one!

That’s all the Young Adult Recommended Books for this first installment! Hopefully this post will help you or the YA reader in your life to pick their next book!

Tell me below: have you read any of the Young Adult Recommended Books in this post? What were your thoughts?

Love,