One of my new favorite books in Maybe Someday by Colleen Hoover. I love that Ridge and Sydney share such a close bond over music, I love the relationship between Ridge, Warren, and Sydney, I love that Ridge is so loyal to those close to him, I love how the book ends, and I LOVE LOVE LOVE that Ridge and Sydney don't fall into the same lack of communication crap that dominates so many characters in not only YA but Adult books as well, it's 90% of the attraction for me.
The ideal of a New Adult category (which Maybe Someday falls into) had so much appeal to me because I'm 27 (next week) years old. I want to read about characters who are beyond High School, but I don't have a husband (or even a serious boyfriend for that matter), I don't have kids, I've never been divorced, I can't always relate to the mindset the older characters are in. I can, however, relate to someone worried about finishing Grad School, second guessing career choices, finding a place to put down roots (because the world is mighty big), finding a close group of friends in the adult world when all of your college and high school friends have moved on... this list goes on and on. That is what it means to be a 20 something, and those are some of the things that Sydney struggles with, and yes, relationships, ugh, I could talk about that all freaking day. Romantic relationships also play a very key role in you mid to late 20's because typically that's the time people begin to make families of their own, so what does it mean if you're not there yet? All of these questions are what I want to see in NA novels, and alas, I have a hard time finding them. Maybe Someday hit the nail on the head, I'd even dare to say the the Sylvia Day books had a bit of what I was looking for under all of the sex and money, the main characters (including Carey) were just looking for their place in the world and trying to keep it from eating them alive. I even liked this book the I found on Facebook called Chasing Wishes and not just because it took place in the town where I grew up, the book was self published and could have used better beta readers (in my opinion) but again, it had some of what I was looking for.
Most of the NA books that I stumble across now... I'm not happy with (notice how I say most not all). There's lots of sex, flat characters, and it has nothing to do with a life that the majority of 20 somethings lead. Now you may be thinking, neither do the Sylvia Day books. I remind you that I said under the sex and money. There are real people in this world who have been hurt and abused and scared by the actions of others. They live a life that luckily I don't understand, and hope never to outside of the pages of a book, so yes actually, Sylvia Day. I wish more NA books were like Maybe Someday because otherwise it looks like once you hit 23, you can't think of anything but finding random people who hook with for random reasons. That's not what 23 or even 27 is about (I direction you attention to the paragraph above). I want to find more books that relate to my life (yes with some romance thrown in because I need to get it from somewhere.)
If anyone has any suggestion, throw them my way. it's going to be a long Winter and I need something to do.
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