Bella Street Romance Goes Retro

Please welcome guest host YA Sci-Fi author Pippa Jay as she talks about world-building and her latest book GETHYON! World Building – Future Fashion World Building – Future Fashion I'm not one to follow fashions, and never have been. As a teenager I set my mind on bucking any trend, and now as a busy mum of three I just don’t have time. Comfort and practicality are my two main requisites when it comes to what I wear!  But for my characters, it’s a different story. While I might not spend a whole paragraph on their latest outfit, what they wear and how they dress is a small but important part of the world building. It helps define the society. Are they technologically advanced? Wealthy or poor? Is it a significant part of their culture, or something that depends purely on their age group? Do they wear little because there’s no social stigma, because the amount of flesh they show is either a statement or lack of concern, or because they’ve perfected c...

I've heard a lot about Meg Cabot, but have not actually read any of her books. While I love YA, I always figured her stuff would skew a bit young for me. I picked up Abandon because I love Greek mythology, especially about Persephone (see my upcoming book which also is given the Persephone treatment). The story follows 17 year-old Pierce Oliveria (Pierce because she pierces the Underworld? Oliveria because it sounds like an olive branch that she holds out to the Lord of the Underworld? Enquiring minds want to know) who lives on the Island of Bones (Isla Huesos) and has recently come back from the dead. She's left with strange memories of a dark, scarred guy who directs the dearly departed onto boats that most assuredly do not have a Lido deck. Pierce also returns with a diamond necklace that gives mood rings a run for their money, and a huge aversion for tassles. The book is written in a flashbacky stream-of-consciousness style, but you have to follow closely becau...

I just finished the first two books in the Caster Chronicles by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, Beautiful Creatures and Beautiful Darkness . As a newcomer to the South, I'm ever on the lookout for Southern Gothic fiction and these YA books did not disappoint. The stories are told from the perspective of 16 year old Ethan Wate and he's the droll, sensitive kind of boy teen girls dream about and mothers hope their daughters date. But he's not without conflict, especially when a new girl comes to town, intersecting his dreams and life, one rainy night on Route 9. I read both books back to back and enjoyed the brooding but genteel ambiance and the quirky yet dark characters who populate Gatlin, South Carolina. Amidst the fanciful yet grim Caster world, there were a few Southern cliches that seemed more suited to the 1950s than modern day, but these books captured my imagination and led me on a whimsically poignant journey that I'm eager to continue. The thir...

You think fairies are cute and fragile? Think again. Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr describes an unseen world of hauntingly beautiful horrors threatened by an eternal winter...unseen by all except to protagonist, Aislinn. She has the Sight and has endured a miserable life because of it. Things only get more complicated when she finally admits her feelings for a mortal while the Summer King plies for her hand with Summer Wine and the promise of passion and frivolity. The story pulls details from a wide variety of Celtic fairy lore and weaves together an intriguing story set in the present. What will Aislinn do when faced with an impossible choice?

The first pages of Halo by Alexandra Adornetto are telling. There's a quote by Shakespeare, followed by one from Beyonce and throughout the book the reader is treated to the old and the new, the heavenly and the physical, the sacred and the worldly. I've been going through a spate of YA reads lately and Halo ended up on my radar, probably by an Amazon suggestion, and I enjoyed it to the last page. It's refreshing to see purity--not just sexual-- presented in a positive light in a book. While the premise of Halo wasn't all that original, the author ( an 18 year old! ) put a fresh spin on it that resonated with all the angst of teen love. And after the grim, dystopian world of Katniss Everdeen , I was ready for some Bethany Rose Church.