YA Highway is having a Blog Lovefest today: The Valentine blog posts can be a love note to anything---another blogger, a book, an author, a character, a bookstore, your beta readers...anything and anyone! Love it!
And it wouldn't be Valentine's Day if I weren't butchering an ode (on a worthy subject). Today I'm singing the praises of my favorite YA genre, contemporary. One of the many things I love about contemporary YA are realistic, authentic, yet still swoonworthy romances. So here goes, an ode to contemporary love:
In matters of the YA heart,
I love to read it real.
If this world fantasy or paranormal lovers ask us to depart,
Then their contemporaries ground us as we feel.
A musician found in a forest bedroom under a sky that is everywhere,
A girl and her genius Cricket next door perhaps,
Colby pining after Bev as they travel the coast, no longer friends platonic.
The struggles these couples face never involve a villain's lair
But still our hearts run vicarious laps.
Of all the genres, contemporary love sings most harmonic.
Which contemp romances/relationships are your favorites? Or if contemp isn't your thing, which genre makes you swoon?
19 comments:
A wonderful tribute to my fave genre as well :)
I LOVE this!! Over the last year I've fallen for YA Contemp hard---and THE SKY IS EVERYWHERE and LOLA were some of the major reasons why. Your poem is perfect :) Happy Valentine's Day!!
Hah, just saw your comment about your imaginary guinea pig - my husband started a FB account for our cat, using the cat's assumed persona of a snooty 17th century British gentleman. Our pets should be friends!
Love it! Yay contemp romance!
I esp like: "The struggles these couples face never involve a villain's lair."
I love the Contemporaries too :-) So glad I stepped away from the dystopians long enough to figure that out.
Contemporaries are starting to grow on me--ew, that sounds kind of icky for Valentine's Day. But when someone first recommended Anna and the French Kiss to me, I said, "Wait, so it's just a straight up romance? No vampires, demons, angels, or fairies? I don't know if I'd like that . . ." But I ended up loving Anna, and that made me go pick up a few more!
I love love on the run. I'll give into contemporary if it has another element that pulls me in - like a quest, a struggle, an exotic setting I want to visit. I like reading about a relationship blooming in adversity, when the couple doesn't really have time for mooning, but they make time anyway.
Hello and Happy Valentine's Day!
I love your ode to contemporary, too!
My personal swoon-worthy favorite genre is memoir. The love stories I find in memoir, to me, are the most amazing. Some are heartbreaking, too, which makes everything seem raw and real. It reminds me that we are all survivors!
xxoo
Christine
@thatgalkiki
Contemporaries are my jam, too :) Lola and Cricket just killed me--they're definitely my favorites.
Anna and the French Kiss! Perfect book to read on V-Day :)
I still have to read Anna (getting a lot of love this Valentine's), but I really liked the romance in the paranormal/urban fantasy series 'The Darkest Powers'. It was slow, grew from the two of them sharing their vulnerabilities and giving one another strength, and their growing feelings for one another (grudging respect> friendship> love that didn't need to be spoken) made both of them better people. Perhaps strangely, considering the genre, the relationship felt real.
so much contemp love! happy valentine's day!
Popping in to add that I don't not-love other genres! I just play favorites, I guess. :)
I'm not a huge contemporary fan, but there are some that I love - like Perfect Chemistry.
This is fAnTaStIc, Rebecca, and it features three of my very favorite contemporaries. Fabulous, fabulous job, and Happy Valentine's Day!
I will always love YA contemporary best, I think. Great post!
LOVE THIS! Yay Team Contemp! :-D
I love this! Contemp YA is my absolute favorite genre too. :)
Oh, how I LOVE your ode to contemporary romance! I think I would have to sing one to adventure or paranormal myself, but I loved this.
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