Top Ten Tuesday is hosted over at the other blog I write for, The Broke and the Bookish.

I’ve been having a lot of trouble with contemporary YA right now. I don’t know if it’s because I’m getting older and not relating as easily as I used to, or if trends in the genre are shifting and I’m just not as happy with the new direction? I’m not sure. I keep holding out hope, though, and I continue trying books and adding them to my TBR because of hidden gems like these that I’ve loved over the years. And I couldn’t pick just 10, so here’s twelve for you!

Note: I’m defining hidden gem as a book that I don’t remember hearing much about when it came out, or a book that is so backlisted that nobody is really talking about it anymore.

Pizza, Love, and Other Stuff That Made Me Famous by Kathryn Williams
Reality TV and pizza. What more can a person ask for?

Instructions for a Broken Heart by Kim Culbertson
I was sold when I heard school trip to Italy.

The Summer I Became a Nerd by Leah Rae Miller
Popular cheerleader turns nerd over the summer and falls for a boy in a comic book store. It’s adorable.

Love, Lucy by April Lindner
Summer backpacking trip through Italy! Plus it’s a retelling of A Room With a View!

The Fine Art of Truth or Dare by Melissa Jensen
Artsy character! And a super cute romance that’s compared to Anna and the French Kiss.

Starry Nights by Daisy Whitney
This book was a gift to my inner art historian. It’s about a boy who falls in love with a girl in a Renoir painting, and dances and eats dessert with her on the museum floor each night. So fun!

From What I Remember… by Stacy Kramer
The entire story had a very “Grease” kind of feeling.  Kylie is the valedictorian of her graduating class. She’s smart, and liked by pretty much nobody except her hilarious gay friend named Will. She gets paired up for a last-minute class project with the jock of the school, Max. He’s extremely hard to work with, but she HAS to get a good grade. So she pushes him. In a conglomeration of crazy events, they both find themselves smuggled across the border in a van of stolen electronics. They are in Mexico with no passports, no way of getting home, and graduation day is closing in. Geeky girl turns hard core, and jock notices. So cute!

Unbreak My Heart by Melissa C. Walker
Clementine spends her summer on her parents’ sailboat nursing a broken heart. But it might not be the kind of heartbreak your mind just jumped to. She falls in love and spends a lot of time with her family eating disgusting meals made only from canned foods, eating s’mores by blow torch, star gazing, sunbathing, laughing, and bonding. I really loved this book!

Decked With Holly by Marni Bates
I have a big thing for books set on cruise ships… and cute Christmas stories… so this book won in two areas of my bookish heart. It was just as adorable and laugh-out-loud funny as I had hoped.

The Unlikely Romance of Kate Bjorkman by Louise Plummer
Adorably quirky heroine who is a self proclaimed writer, witty dialogue, mature word choices (I had to use a dictionary a time or two), tons of glorious 90’s references, a so sparkly and Christmasy story. Kate’s family has this huge traditional Swedish Christmas with lots of yummy food, decorations, great music playing all the time, a TON of snow, Christmas tree shopping and trimming, etc.

The Summer My Life Began by Shannon Greenland
This book warmed me inside and out, and had me smiling like an idiot while I read it. It takes place in a little Outer Banks town that I’d love to visit, the descriptions are dripping with summer, I fell in love with the characters, there’s an amazing family dynamic, and I love the messages of learning who you are and having fun while you do it.

Stolen: A Letter to My Captor by Lucy Christopher
This book shocked me so many times, but how I felt at the end of it shocked me more than anything else.

Did you read and love any of these, too?
Have you added any of these to your TBR?
Any recommendations for other contemporary YA gems that have slid past me?

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted over at the other blog I write for, The Broke and the Bookish.

Unfortunately, school made me hate reading. I loved it as a little girl, but as soon as I hit the age where teachers force you to read “awesome” books and answer packets full of essay questions I hated reading more than I hated eating my vegetables. Many of the books upset me or were just downright boring, and it took me until I was 19 and in college before I rekindled my love of reading. I decided to use today’s topic to share five of the required reads I’m glad I read in school, and five that I’m still upset by today.

I’m glad I read…

The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle
I read this in elementary school and thought it was both terrifying and very fun.

The Crucible by Arthur Miller
I read this in high school, and my classmates and I all had parts. I played the part of Elizabeth Proctor, and it was so much fun.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
This was required reading for my YA Lit class in grad school, and even though it took me two years to finish (because I was so scared of crying), I loved it a lot.

Night by Elie Wiesel
I had to read this for my Ethics and Values class in college, after which we sat in a big circle in our classroom and discussed it. There was no paper, no essays, no tests. We just sat and talked about it and that was our grade. Probably my favorite asignment outside of my major.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
This was also required reading for my YA Lit class, and it was probably going to be the only way I read this series. I’m so glad I did, though, and now I’m working my way through the rest of the series and having so much fun.

I wish I hadn’t read…

Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawl
Dog died. I think this was the beginning of my no tolerance policy regarding animal deaths in novels. I was in 4th grade when I read this, and it crushed me. I can still remember.

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
People died. I hate death a lot.

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
George. Killed. Lennie. I have a problem with death. I can still remember how upset I was.

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
This is a case of me having read this way too young. Instead of getting anything good out of it, I was very upset by most of it. I’d probably feel differently now, but I really wish I had not read this when I did.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
I was INSANELY bored by this.

What required reads did you enjoy in school?
Which ones did you hate?
Do we have any in common?

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted over at the other blog I write for, The Broke and the Bookish.

I love historical romance, and I’ve never really given myself the opportunity to share some of my favorites, to today’s Top Ten Tuesday topic was the perfect one for me. I’m not super well read in this genre, but I’m getting there and I’ve found some really great books in the process! I read some of these as a teenager and some as an adult, and I love all of them!

A Week to Be Wicked by Tessa Dare
Say Yes to the Marquess by Tessa Dare
What I Did for a Duke by Julie Anne Long
Honor Bound by Brenda Novak
A Dance Through Time by Lynn Kurland

By Love or By Sea by Rachel Rager
The Charm School by Susan Wiggs
Catherine and the Pirate by Karen Hawkins
Tess and the Highlander by May McGoldrick
Gwyneth and the Thief by Margaret Moore

So, do you have any recommendations for me?
Which historical romance novels do you love?