Giving YA a try...

I have read just a few young adult novels, the first books in the Harry Potter and Twilight series... that's it.  So many people have been raving about YA and there are many websites/blogs dedicated ONLY to YA.  I needed to find out what this is all about. 

I have read two titles this year, one historical fiction and one fiction.  The conclusion I have drawn is that YA just isn't for me.  **Don't yell at me** :) - I did try and might try again.  I didn't hate either book but I really couldn't wait for them to be over so I could pick up something I really wanted to read.  I don't have a daughter or sisters so I'm not familiar with all things girls.  Might this be the explanation?

Here are the books and my reviews.  Have you read either? 

BEFORE I FALL

Synopsis:  What if you had only one day to live? What would you do? Who would you kiss? And how far would you go to save your own life?

Samantha Kingston has it all: the world's most crush-worthy boyfriend, three amazing best friends, and first pick of everything at Thomas Jefferson High—from the best table in the cafeteria to the choicest parking spot. Friday, February 12, should be just another day in her charmed life. Instead, it turns out to be her last. Then she gets a second chance.  Seven chances, in fact. Reliving her last day during one miraculous week, she will untangle the mystery surrounding her death-and discover the true value of everything she is in danger of losing.

Quick Take: I picked this up thinking I have fond memories of high school and my friends, this book is getting great reviews and bloggers seem to love it.  This was the perfect book for me to add to my YA personal challenge.  This will sound silly but it was a bit repeatitive, the story is told seven times.  That said I enjoyed the last telling of Feb 12 to the end of the novel. 

Hare you read this?  Did you like it? Did your daughter(s) love it?

LOVING WILL SHAKESPEARE

Synopsis: Anne Hathaway is the wife to William Shakespeare and a strong woman in her own right. Anne lives with her callous stepmother, a woman who, in word and deed, holds Anne in disregard, awaiting impatiently the day when her stepchild will marry and no longer live under her roof. In the meantime, Anne spends her time working in the fields, celebrating the rare visit by the Queen, losing her closest friend to marriage and motherhood, and seeking a beau of her own.

Anne meets and finds passion with a young man named Kit but refuses to run away with him knowing that they share lust rather than love. She is then promised to Ned, a kind schoolteacher who helps Anne learn to read and write but is taken from her when illness sweeps through town. Next in line is Henry Ingram, called Hob, nephew of Anne's stepmother, a lush who attempts to rape Anne when she refuses to sleep with him.

Underpinning each of these relationships, however, are Anne's intermittent meetings with Will Shakespeare, a man eight years younger who comes in and out of her life as his quest for poetic greatness brings him home and sends him away repeatedly. Readers are invited to imagine the courtship and marriage of Anne and Will and the accompanying trials and tribulations involved with loving a genius. Meyer's attention to historical detail strengthens the imagined narrative and gives readers a sense of the daily lives and rituals experienced by those living in this time and place.

Quick Take: A delightful book. This was a quick read for me which might be expected since it categorized Young Adult, but still very enjoyable. I knew little about Anne (Agnes) Hathaway and this story was historical in nature but a fictional tale of her life since we know so very little about her. Girls will love this, mothers will love it. A Cinderella story worth reading.

Source: both books are from the Library