Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Underrated Contemporary YA Books

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week's theme is: Top Ten Underrated Authors or Books in X Genre

I only really read contemporary YA - I don't know if these are even underrated. They're just books I've given four or five stars that I don't see mentioned very often but obviously I don't follow every blog, so maybe someone, somewhere has hyped these too!

Roomies by Sara Zarr & Tara Altebrando

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd

Format: Paperback
Source: Bookbridgr

Rating: 3/5

Goodreads

Synopsis from Goodreads:

It's time to meet your new roomie. When East Coast native Elizabeth receives her freshman-year roommate assignment, she shoots off an e-mail to coordinate the basics: television, microwave, mini-fridge. That first note to San Franciscan Lauren sparks a series of e-mails that alters the landscape of each girl's summer -- and raises questions about how two girls who are so different will ever share a dorm room. As the countdown to college begins, life at home becomes increasingly complex. With family relationships and childhood friendships strained by change, it suddenly seems that the only people Elizabeth and Lauren can rely on are the complicated new boys in their lives . . . and each other. Even though they've never met. National Book Award finalist Sara Zarr and acclaimed author Tara Altebrando join forces for a novel about growing up, leaving home, and getting that one fateful e-mail that assigns your college roommate.

I wouldn't say I was completely wowed by Roomies but I liked it. More importantly, it is exactly the kind of book I would actually give to a 16/17 year old and at the end of the day, that's what it's all about, right?

These Days Are Ours by Michelle Haimoff

Publisher: Penguin Books (UK)

Source: Netgalley

Rating: 3/5

Goodreads

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Six months after September 11th, New Yorkers are instructed to get on with their lives despite the terror advisories, streets filled with 9/11 merchandise, and mail that may contain Anthrax. But for Hailey, still jobless after college and living in her family's Fifth Avenue penthouse, getting on with life means getting closer to Michael Brenner, the Princeton graduate and future human rights lawyer who seems to have it all. The city feels as if it's on the brink of apocalypse, and seeking out any sort of future seems pointless. So Hailey and her friends - Katie, already working at Morgan Stanley; Randy, a trust-fund kid who wears sweaters with holes in them; and Jess, confident of her future success regardless of her present inertia - stay out all night, dream up get rich quick schemes and aspire to greatness while questioning how much that greatness really matters. But when Hailey meets Adrian, a transplanted Pennsylvanian and recent Brown graduate who doesn't belong to Hailey's privileged mileu, she begins to realize that her view of the world might not be the only one there is, and soon she is questioning everything she thought she knew.

I liked These Days Are Ours (and not just because it's set in my favourite city in the world but that helped). It is definitely more of a 3.5 than a 3 but I don’t give half ratings. The notes and Q&A with Michelle Haimoff at the end really helped put the whole thing into perspective and rounded it up nicely.

Top Ten Tuesday: My Lunch Table

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week's theme is: Top Ten Book Characters That Would Be Sitting At My Lunch Table

I will preface this by saying Harry Potter characters have been excluded otherwise they would occupy the whole list.

Final Summer Reading Check-In