Discussion: What are Your Favorite Sequels?

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There are a lot of sequels coming out this year, many of which I'm incredibly excited about. From Heidi Heilig's The Ship Beyond Time, to V.E. Schwab's A Conjuring of Light, to Emily Skrutskie's The Edge of the Abyss, to Roshani Chokshi's A Crown of Wishes and more, 2017 is jam-packed full of awesome-sounding sequels.

Between that and impending Into the Black revisions, I've been thinking a lot about sequels lately, specifically what makes a sequel successful. Part of it, I think, is every book should build on the previous book and continue to be better than the last—the author, after all, should be growing as they go along and should, in theory, be able to apply what they've learned from their last book into the next one.

Then of course every sequel should, for the most part at least, stand on its own with a full plot arc and character development and building on whatever the previous book established. Something I love about sequels—especially SFF sequels—is they allow the readers to learn more about the world the books have established, so there are more characters, more twists, more details and nuances to the initial setup. The world of the book can—and should—get bigger with every sequel, and it's something I never really tire of seeing when done well.

Some of my favorite sequels that have accomplished this include Beth Revis's A Million Suns, Sally Green's Half Wild, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Each of these books expanded on what readers knew from the previous books and gave us more—more powerful (and conflicted) characters, more problems built upon problems from prior books, more nuances to the world the author had established earlier in a way that doesn't feel contrived.

When done right, sequels can turn a book you liked into a series you love; they can make you question the way you felt about a particular character and have you cheer or cringe as they develop book to book. They can forge a connection that runs deeper and deeper with every sequel and leave you feeling like you know some of those characters better than you know yourself.

Sequels are pretty magical, and I look forward to enjoying many more this year.

What do you think makes a sequels successful? And what are some of your favorites?

Twitter-sized bite:

What makes a sequel successful? And what are some of your favorites? Join the discussion on @Ava_Jae's blog. (Click to tweet) 

Top 10 Favorite Reads of 2015 (So Far)

So I follow a lot of bloggers on Twitter (surprise! not) and I learned very quickly that yesterday was Top Ten Tuesday, a meme created by The Broke and Bookish. Yesterday's theme was top ten reads of the year, and that looked like a ton of fun, so I thought I'd join in a day late.

As it so happens, I've rated exactly ten books 4.5 or 5 stars, so choosing my top reads of the year so far was pretty easy. Yay!

So without further ado, here are the top ten books I've read in 2015 (which may or may not have actually been released this year) so far in no particular order:

Photo credit: Goodreads

1. I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson—This book actually jumped onto my favorites list, because wow, it was just so emotional, and beautifully written, and it really, truly made me feel so many things while I was reading. Also, bonus points for showcasing some diversity (one POV character is gay). (Full review)





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2. The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin—I know I'm way late to the party with this one, but I finally got around to reading it and whoa. It was so eerie and twisty, and totally left me wondering what the hell I just read in the best way possible. (Full review)







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3. OCD Love Story by Corey Ann Haydu—So this one was recommended to me by Dahlia Adler, and I'm so, so glad a very smart person picked it off my Christmas book list and gifted it to me. This is the first book I've read with explicit OCD representation, and I thought it was really respectfully done. So much so that I wrote a post about why books like this are so important to me.





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4. Made You Up by Francesca Zappia—Kind of similar to Mara Dyer, but not nearly as creepy, Made You Up really makes you stop and think about what's real and what's not. This is the first book I've read featuring a protagonist with paranoid schizophrenia, and not only does it have a brilliantly unreliable narrator, but the whole book was completely fascinating and a really, really unique read. (Full review)





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5. Unteachable by Leah Raeder—So this was my first glimpse at Leah Raeder's work, and now I'm 100% a fan because her work is everything I love about the sexier side of New Adult. Unteachable is swoony, very steamy and really explores the depths of a forbidden student/teacher relationship, punctuated with Raeder's really gorgeous prose.





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6. Black Iris by Leah Raeder—Another (really friggin' amazing) Leah Raeder book! Unlike Unteachable, Black Iris is a NA Thriller, and it is super, super dark (as well as sexy because, c'mon, this is a Raeder book). Once again I was really impressed by Raeder's prose, but more than that I loved seeing how she combined this super dark plot with incredibly layered, twisted characters and a hell of a lot of diversity. (Full review)





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7. Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli—This book was so cute. SO. CUTE. Unlike many on this list, Simon vs. is a really happy, adorable book with a super cutesy m/m romance and actually had me giggling and saying "aww" out loud while reading. (Full review)





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8. Half Wild by Sally Green—So Half Bad jumped onto my favorites list when I read it, which meant I had super high expectations for Half Wild, and boy, those expectations were 150% met. Half Wild is super dark and exciting and the series has my favorite depiction of witches since Harry Potter and as a bonus? The MC is bi and there is angst and stuff between boys. My heart. (Full review) 





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9. Trust the Focus by Megan Erickson—So this is one of my favorite NA romances, and I keep recommending it because it gave me all the warm fuzzies and a full spectrum of emotion while reading. Justin and Landry's journey together was a memorable one that I still think about, and the next book in the series, Focus on Me, comes out this month and I seriously can't wait. (Full review)





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10. Last Will and Testament by Dahlia Adler—This was another really great NA read; very swoony and sexy, and I loved the awkward flirting, and the student/TA relationship was A+. Furthermore, Last Will and Testament presented a situation rarely seen in NA—a college student who loses her parents in an accident and becomes the guardian of her two younger brothers.

What are some of your favorite reads of 2015 so far?

Twitter-sized bite: 

.@Ava_Jae shares her top 10 reads of 2015 so far. What books are on your list? (Click to tweet)

Discussion: When Do You Pre-Order?

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So I received a very nice B&N gift card for Christmas, which meant I basically went on a pre-ordering spree. In the last couple months, I’ve pre-ordered:

• Trust the Focus by Megan Erickson
• Focus on Me by Megan Erickson
• Made You Up by Francesca Zappia
• Half Wild by Sally Green
• Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli
• More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera
• Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

Which is to say I’ve done a lot of pre-ordering. At least for me.

I’ve found that there are two main scenarios that lead me to pre-order:

1. I absolutely love the author and/or the prequel and must have the next book. (This was the case for Trust the Focus, Focus on Me, Half Wild and Made You Up. This was also the case for just about every Harry Potter book after Azkaban and all of the Grisha books after Shadow and Bone.)



2. The book is getting a lot of buzz from people I trust and just sounds friggin’ amazing. (i.e.: Made You Up, Simon vs. and More Happy Than Not). 

I’m curious, however, about what gets other people to pre-order. Is that reserved only for your favorite authors? Are exceptions made for debuts that sound amazing? Something else? What gets you to pre-order? 

Twitter-sized bite: 

When do you pre-order books? Do you pre-order often? Rarely? Join the discussion on @Ava_Jae's blog. (Click to tweet)

Book Review: HALF WILD by Sally Green

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Once upon a time I read and reviewed Half Bad by Sally Green, then went on to tell a whole bunch of people about my favorite read of 2014 (which was, of course, the aforementioned dark YA Fantasy novel). So it’s probably little surprise that I pre-ordered Half Wild and was just a little excited to read it.

But before I go on, here’s the Goodreads summary:

“‘You will have a powerful Gift, but it’s how you use it that will show you to be good or bad.’ 

In a modern-day England where two warring factions of witches live amongst humans, seventeen-year-old Nathan is an abomination, the illegitimate son of the world's most powerful and violent witch. Nathan is hunted from all sides: nowhere is safe and no one can be trusted. Now, Nathan has come into his own unique magical Gift, and he's on the run--but the Hunters are close behind, and they will stop at nothing until they have captured Nathan and destroyed his father.”

It can be a little hard to know what to expect from a sequel. Sometimes an author hits it out of the park, and it’s amazing, and sometimes it’s a let down (which is especially sadmaking when you loved the first book).

Half Wild, however, was definitely the former.

I had pretty high expectations jumping into the Half Bad sequel, and I have to say, those expectations were totally met. Half Wild is dark, exciting, full of action and complicated characters (and character relationships) and I was racing through this book to find out what happened. Nathan/Gabriel are one of my favorite ships, and I really loved some of the new characters and magic introduced in this book.

Like Half Bad, the voice is raw and arresting and it was interesting to see Green play with different formats and stylistic choices. There isn’t nearly as much second person POV in Half Wild as there was in Half Bad, but even though I loved the second person POV in Half Bad, I didn’t mind the shift.

Nathan’s character development has been super fascinating to watch, and the ending was seriously awesome, and 2016 is too far away because I want the next book now. If you like dark, violent, gritty YA fantasy, I honestly cannot recommend this series more. It’s on my perma-favorites list for sure.

Have you read the Half Life series? 

Twitter-sized bites: 

.@Ava_Jae gives 5/5 stars to HALF WILD by @Sa11eGreen. Have you read this dark, gritty YA fantasy? (Click to tweet)
   
Looking for an intense, action-packed YA fantasy? Check out HALF WILD by Sally Green. (Click to tweet)