Comments on: Which YA Series Were Worth Your Time?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 23:25:00 +0000

ya know when you hear so much about a book and peope tell you to read it cause it’s “soooo good”? And then you read it and you can’t get into it. That’s how i felt about “Beautiful Creatures”.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 22:37:00 +0000

The “Gone” series. The “I’d Tell You I’d Love You But Then I’d Have To Kill You” series by Ally Carter. “Heist Society” is also another fantastic series by Ally. And of course “The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer”. “Paranormalcy” was really good too. So was “Hex Hall”. “Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children” was pretty good. (I’m not good at choosing just one book. Sorry.)

By: Birdy1423

Birdy1423 — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 20:05:19 +0000

I'm with you, I love a good series! Here is my take

Uglies...decent. I agree with a previous comment that the first is pretty good and it just goes downhill from there

Mortal instruments is wonderful, you have to do it

If you liked Graceling, you'll love the study series by Maria Snyder. I'm surprised I didn't see it mentioned. It is poison study, magic study and fire study. Most definently worth your time.

Skip shiver

I saw readers post about the Heir series by Cinda Williams Chima which I thought was decent, not great though. However, they're missing out on the Seven realms series by Cinda Williams Chima. I cannot tell you how much I love this series. Only the first three are out and the next one is due to come out fall of 2012. This ranks up there with twilight, hunger games, Graceling and the study series. You CANNOT miss it!

By: Maryan N

Maryan N — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 04:52:47 +0000

Uglies personally sounded stupid to me. Never read it myself, but it sounded stupid, so I never picked it up for that reason.
Tithe was good. (From what I can remember) It has three different heroines and the modern faerie thing going on. Great, but beware of depression... I got strangely depressed while reading this series... perhaps because the pain the heroines had to go through were just so heart-wrenching.
MI, I never finished because of the erm... possible moral issues with this book. I couldn't go on. I was too afraid of a "not happy/perfect ending", so I chickened out.
I highly recommend The Darkest Powers trilogy by Kelley Armstrong. The only bad thing is that it leaves a lot, I mean A LOT of loose ends, but I loved it anyway.
The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting, it's only got 2 books out so far though.
NO to Diane Duane's books, the Wizard's series. I personally remember reading very far, but I honestly cannot, for the life of me, remember what was in those books... They are THAT forgettable.
YES to Silver Phoenix, Kingdom of Xia series! Cindy Pon is a GENIUS! The way she writes about the food makes me hungry all the time! The romance is wonderful and the plot is perfect too.
Definitely try Wake by Lisa McMann. Quick reads.
NOOOOOO to His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman!!! The action is perfect! The plot and romance are perfect! Everything is perfect!!! SO WHY THE HECK CAN'T THE ENDING BE PERFECT TOO!!!!!!!!!!!!! I cried for this ending. No lie. I was so sad.
No to Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater. I just didn't think it was that great. It should have stayed a novel.
Other series are:
Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer. His novel The Wish List was great too.
Into the Wild (Warriors #1) by Erin Hunter is great too. It goes into other series as well; Warriors: The New Prophecy, Warriors: Power of Three, all in the same world.
Septimus Heap series by Angie Sage. Not a favorite of mine, but people seem to like it well enough.
Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel by Michael Scott. EXCELLENT!!!! MUST READ! Very fast, action-packed, exciting, positively wonderful!
Evermore by Alyson Noel. It's ok. I don't care much for the prose, but it's an ok plot.
Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling. Ignore what everyone has to say about this series. Read it on your own and come up with your own opinion. Obviously, the woman didn't become a billionaire by writing trash! Give it a whirl!
The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. Wonderful. Highly recommend.
The Song of the Lioness quartet (Alanna is the heroine) and the Immortals quartet (Daine is the heroine) by Tamora Pierce. Setting is in the world of Tortall for both series.
Beka Cooper trilogy with Terrier, Bloodhound, and Mastiff by Tamora Pierce as well and also takes place in Tortall, but centuries earlier than Song of the Lioness. Regardless, read SotL first, then Daine's series, then Beka Cooper. Not necessary, but I recommend it that way.
Mediator series by Meg Cabot. Perfect. That's all I can say...
1-800-where-are-you series by Meg Cabot. If it's even possible, it's even more delicious than the Mediator series.
Airhead series by Meg Cabot. Perfecto, though not as much as the previous two series mentioned.
Inheritance series by Christopher Paolini. I never finished it. I had no idea whether there would be a love interest or not, so I abandoned it by Eldest.
The Children of the Red King series by Jenny Nimmo. Excellent! Absolutely excellent!
Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine. Fairest is a loose sequel. Both are wonderful books.
Maximum Ride series by James Patterson. They're pretty good. The prose is okay.
Fallen by Lauren Kate. It's alright. The heroine needs to loosen up a bit, but it's alright.
Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick. Excellent! Excellent! The second book is better than the first.

That's all I can remember right now. I hope I was able to help you. I realize that I have some things that have already been written, but I wanted to put in my opinion on them as well (i.e. His Dark Materials). I hope you enjoy the new series I have been able to provide for you! I am a true series addict! I hope you will become as addicted as I am!!!

By: Ashleigh

Ashleigh — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 17:22:21 +0000

cathy cassidy ( a bit young but still quite good)
paranormalcy (stand alone but still great)
fallen- lauren kate AMAZING!
vampire academy
every single meg cabot book
blue bloods
everynight series
clockwork angel
glimmerglass
halo
sarah mlynowski
Gossip girl
ally carter
withering tights - louise rennison
georgia nicolson series
house of night
dark secrets
night world
and thats about all the good books ive got.

By: zerodtkjoe

zerodtkjoe — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 09:20:21 +0000

Thanks for the info

By: Noemi

Noemi — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 03:50:44 +0000

What are your favorite adult series . . . besides the Sookie Stackhouse series?

By: Laurenkaye01

Laurenkaye01 — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 21:47:09 +0000

“recommendations”…need to stop typing so fast…

By: Laurenkaye01

Laurenkaye01 — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 21:46:11 +0000

as a former high school teacher and hard core YA devotee, i would second all the recommendation for Tamora Pierce's collection of series…”Song of the Lioness” is my favorite (probably bc it's the first one i read) but they are all fantastic…also, “Mortal Instruments” and “Tithe” are amazing series…”Ender's Game” and “Ender's Shadow” are books i recommend to everyone i know, even non-SF fans–i don't really read any SF and i loved them…also, i'll give a shout out to the “Marked” series–they are total fluff but lots of fun…

By: Nat

Nat — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 00:45:16 +0000

So, I’m pretty much a series nut, ever since I was actually in the YA age-range. Many of the series I recommend (Warrior Heir, Trickster duet) are ones where I went through the exact same agony you hate, as I waited for the second/third book. I’m gonna try to limit this to series which are now complete, and which I don’t see on your Library Thing list. We have middling compatibility; we disagree strongly on a few books but agree strongly on a lot more, and I seem to read a lot more SF&F (YA) and a lot less gen (YA) than you do. I hope this is at least a little helpful!

I’m going to come down in favor of the ‘Tithe’ (Holly Black) series, but with a YMMV clause. Ditto on the Cassandra Clare ‘Mortal Instruments’. On the other hand ‘Uglies’ (Scott Westerfeld) gets an unreserved yes.

My devotion to Tamora Pierce’s ‘Song of the Lioness Quartet’ is illogical; this series formed my reading habits. If you like it, I suggest both her ‘Daine’ books (quartet) and the ‘Trickster’ books (duet). Note: I heard Kristin Cashore speak last year, and she said she had read ‘Song of the Lioness’ while working on “Graceling”. I would recommend Graceling to anyone who liked SotL, and vice-versa!

Cinda William’s Chima “The Warrior Heir” and its two sequels (which form a complete, arcing trilogy) is always on my list of recommended books for people who like high fantasy, action, strong women, urban-fantasy, or YA in general. It is a little violent in the service of action, but I’m fine with that.

Diane Duane’s ‘Young Wizards’ is classed as both YA and middle-grade; it is a very, very long series, and it is not, technically, finished. However: I would recommend it because it is not as much of an arcing series. Each book can be read at any point in time, so long as they are read more or less in. It got recommended a lot as a ‘Harry Potter’-eqsue series, but the only thing they have in common is secret wizardry. There is a real-world setting surrounded by magical mysticism that some people love and some people hate, but I am definitely in the first category.

Lastly, Sherwood Smith’s “Crown Duel” was originally published as a duet, though now it is a single book. Additionally, she’s published “A Stranger to Command” which is a sort of prequel. Smith has done a lot of writing in this world, and I do love it- but these books stand alone successfully. Completely alternate universe magic-containing faux-medieval setting.