New Adult Mondays #1

Hi guys!

I'm super excited to introduce you to a new feature today, New Adult Mondays! Credit goes to Danny from Bewitched Bookworms who not only come up with the brilliant idea of this feature, but she also designed a super cool button! We both share the love and enthusiasm for this genre and we're happy to talk about it, introduce you to new, very talented authors and to recommend you great reads. Fun stuff all around!:D

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I mentioned this genre on the blog before, but today I want to tell you a bit more about it. Basically, New Adult fills the gap between Young Adult and Adult books. In Rhemalda Publishing and JJ from St. Martin's words, it's "Coming of Age (18 to 25) fiction about young adulthood, when you are an adult but have not established your life as one (career and family)", it's about "the transition from teen to adult". You can read a detailed, very interesting article on this particular subject HERE. 

I love Young Adult lit, most of the books I read are YA, but I really like that this new genre brings something more to it. More romance, pain, angst, loss, hope, courage, intensity, passion. It's about college life,  love, challenges, insecurities, making mistakes and learning from them, making hard decisions, choosing paths, moving on;  it's about the moment when you realize something important is going to change. And, of course, it's sexy, hot and steamy. :D 

We don't have an official category for this genre yet (I still hope that one day soon, I'll be able to enter a bookstore, go to the NA section and buy a dozen books) - but it's growing. The traditional publishing houses have been skeptical about NA books (their stories and characters apparently are too old to fit with the YA books, but not old enough to fit with the Adult books), and that's why many authors took the self-publishing route. (I could hug each and everyone of them for making that decision. Those stories need to be told, no matter how!) 

But. Things are changing. We see NA authors on the bestseller lists, big publishers picking up their stories, we discover new talents and more and more readers enjoy reading stories about characters in their late teens and twenties. WIN!;)

And speaking of awesome NA authors, a group of them created the NA Alley, a blog where they talk about the genre and have all sorts of advice, information, inspiration, resources, chats, contests, recommendations and other fun stuff. You should follow them right now!;) 

I know I'm not alone in my love-fest; you can read what fellow bloggers Danya at A Tapestry of Words, Kelly at Radiant Shadows, Danny at Bewitched Bookworms and author Jessica Roberts recently said about all this. ;)

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Ok. That's enough talk for now.:) Because I'm only touching the basics today, I'll give you some lists with a few NA books I already read and loved (and recommended to EVERYONE) and books that I added to my TBR list (highly recommended by trusted fellow readers and bloggers). 

The NA Genre on Goodreads

Popular NA Books on Goodreads

My only regret at the moment is that I live in the middle of nowhere *includes dramatic sigh here* *Ok, just kidding* and most of these books are self published in e-book format, so it's really hard do get paperback copies for my favorites shelf (me and Amazon's international shipping are not on the best of terms right now, but I'm working on it.:P)

Anyway, feel free to leave your thoughts about this growing genre, to tell me if you read any NA books lately and what you thought about them or to recommend me new ones. I'm always open to recommendations!;) Oh, and do let me know if I missed something, I'm a little distracted today.:)) 

Have a great week!

xoxo