My End of Year YA TBR | Twelve Days of Christmas!

I don't think I'd ever say I've grown out of YA because I don't think it's possible to grow out of a genre that isn't meant for just teenagers/young adults anyway. I'm 23 now. I might not be as young as I was when I was 17, but I certainly still think of myself as a young adult rather than an old one.

But I'm absolutely rubbish at keeping up with the latest trends and newest releases in YA, and over the past couple of years my tastes have simply meant that I've been reading more adult books anyway. There are YA releases from two years ago that I still haven't gotten around to reading - never mind the ones from this year! - so as the end of the year approaches, here are some pieces of YA I'd like to try and cross off my TBR before 2015!
 
The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater: This is the book I'm most eager to cross off my TBR. It feels as though every single book blogger I know has read and loved this series, and frankly I'm tired of feeling left out. I've actually already started this book, and enjoying what I've read so far, so with any luck I'll have it under my belt soon!

Half Bad by Sally Green: I love stories about witches, and I've owned my copy of Half Bad for a while now (though not as long as another book on this list) so it's really about time I read it, especially with the second book in the trilogy, Half Wild, being released in March!

Red Rising by Pierce Brown: In all honesty I initially had no intention of reading Red Rising when I first started seeing it popping up all over the blogosphere, but lately I've been hearing so many great things about it that I want to check it out for myself. Not only that, but lately I've also been getting into sci-fi - a genre that used to intimidate me hugely - so I'd love to expand my sci-fi knowledge just a little bit. I've seen a copy of this in my local library, so with any luck I'll be able to read it soon. Plus, like Half Bad, the second book in this trilogy, Golden Son, is due to be released in early 2015!

The Host by Stephenie Meyer: Behold, one of the longest unread books on my shelf. My sister bought me a copy of The Host when it first came out - I was still a Twilight fan then and I wanted Meyer's new book badly - then I got my wake up call that Twilight is actually a pretty dangerous series, because if you don't just laugh it off and decide to take it seriously what it's really saying is 'you are worth nothing without a boyfriend'. After that I felt less inclined to read Meyer's other book, but even friends of mine who despise Twilight have admitted that The Host isn't half bad (ha, see what I did there?). Ultimately I've owned this book for six years and I really need to read the poor thing.

Do you have any end of year reading goals?

What's Up Wednesday! | 10/12/14

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly feature created by Jaime Morrow and Erin L. Funk as a way for writers and readers to stay in touch!

What I'm Reading

After finishing Christmas at Rosie Hopkins' Sweet Shop I've been eagerly awaiting my copy of The Christmas Surprise in the mail, which is the latest Rosie Hopkins book and another Christmassy, contemporary read - just what I'm feeling right now!

In the mean time I've finally started The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater, and despite only being three chapters in I can tell I'm really going to enjoy this book.

What I'm Writing

Sadly, nothing this week. This week's pretty busy - I'm actually away from home until Friday night - and I feel a bit... creatively deflated. I was really into my SNI, but the more I wrote for it the more I realised there's just not enough of a story there right now for me to pursue it properly, and the characters still feel very much like ideas rather than people. It still needs a little more time to stew. I think that's one of the reasons I've been reading non-stop recently; it's like I'm stocking up on inspiration for future projects. I do feel guilty for not writing anything, though, and I hope something grabs me soon - even if it's just a short story!

What Works For Me

Me time. I need time alone to think and relax and just be. I love being surrounded by people, but just as I get very cranky if I'm lonely for too long I also get really cranky if I get no time alone at all.

What Else Is New

I'm graduating today! An entire year's worth of work has led up to today, where I'll at last be graduating with my MA in Creative Writing. I'm really looking forward to seeing campus again and catching up with a bunch of my friends.

After the ceremony my parents and I are travelling across to Yorkshire to visit my sister, so it's unlikely I'll be able to respond to any comments or comment on anyone else's WUW posts until the weekend. I hope you all have a great week!

What's Up Wednesday! | 12/11/14

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly blog hop created by Jaime Morrow and Erin L. Funk as a way for writers and readers to stay in touch!

What I'm Reading

At the weekend I started reading my very first Jenny Colgan book, Welcome to Rosie Hopkins' Sweet Shop of Dreams. I don't tend to read a lot of contemporary, but every now and then I'm in the mood for something light and fluffy where the world doesn't hang in the balance, and this book is just lovely. It's already made me smile and made me heartwrenchingly sad, and I'm glad I'm enjoying it because one of the main reasons I picked it up is so I could borrow the sequel from the library, Christmas at Rosie Hopkins' Sweet Shop, this Christmas.

What I'm Writing

I'm not gonna lie, I'm in a bit of a writing funk right now. I'm still writing, but I'm jotting down ideas rather than actually working on a project; I shouldn't complain too much, of course, because I've recently thought of a handful of new ideas, I just can't decide which one I want to work on and I'm hesitant to try to work on more than one at once as, in my experience, that leads me into a hot mess. Hopefully I'll be working on one project soon!

What Works For Me

Having time off. People say write every day, and I couldn't agree more. I do write every day, even if it's not necessarily writing that contributes to a longer project, but sometimes, like right now, I need to let myself just be in a writing funk. When you can't get into a new project I think one of the worst things you can do is make yourself feel guilty about it. Take a little time off; explore new places, read new books and watch new films/tv shows to gather inspiration, and return to your work refreshed.

What Else Is New

On Saturday my brother-in-law and I went to Cardiff Comic Con, and I met two of my friends there who I haven't seen in months which was really lovely. I got myself some goodies, including a snitch necklace, a Sirius Black poster, a skeleton hand hairclip, a pretty ring and some unicorn incense. I was a little disappointed, however, as Jason Momoa was supposed to be there and then he cancelled, but I still enjoyed the day. Once we'd been around all the stalls there we went around some of the shops in Cardiff, one of my favourite places to go shopping, and I finally picked up a copy of The Raven Boys. It's time for me to see what everyone loves so much about this series!

As I'm sure you all know Sunday was Remembrance Sunday, so for any of you interested I made a quick blog post with some recommendations for books set during WW1 and WW2 which you can find here.

And something I've been completely managing to forget to mention for the past few weeks is that I commissioned Ari, a lovely artist on tumblr, to draw one of my protagonists from Bloodroot and Bracken. So this is Thora!

What's new with you?