Top 5 YA Fantasy Series

Hello everyone! 

This post is probably going to show my age, so let's kick things off with me saying that as a 24 year old woman I can sadly no longer class myself as a young adult. However, being a fully fledged adult does not mean I don't still enjoy reading YA as a genre. If you are old, like me, when you were a teen YA didn't really exist and all those books came under teen fiction. YA sprang to life when I had already passed into adulthood, so forgive me if some of these books blur into other age groups. 

Long intro aside, I am here today to give you a brief over-view of my top 5 YA fantasy series :-) They are in no particular order!

1. The Great Library by Rachel Caine

These books are for those of you who love books about libraries. They follow Jess as he integrates the Great Library of Alexandria on the orders of his book smuggler father. He was born into the brutal world of smuggling illegal books around the world, with no mercy shown to those who are caught by the library. Overtime the library has seized control of the world, rationing books and knowledge to only those deemed worthy. This provides and ideal environment for anarchy to grow. The anarchists like to burn: books, libraries, cities. They value human life above books. Now Jess is stuck somewhere between the two. His love of books makes him want to protect them, but his even fiercer love of his friends is tearing him in two. 

2. Abhorsen by Garth Nix

Sabriel is missing, I lent her to a friend :-)

The Abhorsen series has been going on for years, I read the first three books when I was still a teen! The book starts with Sabriel, the daughter of the Abhorsen crossing the wall into the Old Kingdom to find take up her heritage. As the Abhorsen-in-waiting she has to learn how to use the 7 bells to banish creatures returning from the rivers of death. This might sound a bit gruesome to some of my more squeamish readers, but I promise you these books are gripping. The next few books bring more main characters into play, creating a complex landscape of inter-woven stories. 

3. Inkheart by Cornelia Funke  

I love these books so much, Dustfinger was the first male character I ever truly fell in love with. This story follows Meggie and her father Mo as they run from the criminal Capricorn. Capricorn is no normal villain, he is the villain of a storybook, plucked out of his own story by Mo's silver tongue. Meggie has inherited Mo's gift, but she also has a gift of her own. Her written words can alter the story she is reading, but this comes with a price when she reads herself into a story she has rapidly lost control of. This series blurs the lines between the real and the written in the most fantastic ways :-) 

4. Tales Of The Otori by Lian Hearn 

Again, some books are missing! 

The Tales Of The Otori are loosely set in medieval Japan with elements of magic. Takeo was born in a remote village, worshiping a forbidden god. When his village and family are massacred he discovers he has mysterious skills, skills some may call magic. These skills mark him as a member of the Tribe, but his skills surpass even their levels of normal. He is the most powerful Tribe member for many generations, transforming him into a hunted man. Add to this his heritage as an Otori and a forbidden romance with the most beautiful woman in the empire and you have one hell of a good story! This book is for lovers of Game Of Thrones and The White Queen. 

5. The Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare

This series being on the list will not surprise anyone. Cassandra Clare is well known as the queen of YA fiction after her Mortal Instruments series shook the world. Don't get me wrong, I love that series, but this one struck me more. Tessa is such an interesting character fighting between her feelings for two different men and her own strong morals. For those of you unfamiliar with the story, it follows Tessa, a young american woman arriving in London to meet her brother. Her brother never shows and she is kidnapped by the terrible Dark Sisters who torture her into revealing her ability to change into any person she chooses as long as she has access to a personal item of theirs. If this wasn't enough, she is drawn into the world of the Shadow Hunters, sworn to fight demons invading our realm. Among these are Jem and Will, two men as different as night and day, but both quickly staking claims on her heart. She must join their ranks to fight not only demons, but The Magister's harsh destructive automatons which threaten to over-run the world. 

I hope this hasn't rambled on too much for all of you! Please let me know your favourite YA fantasy series in the comments below :-) I'm always looking for new recommendations! 

xoxo

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Q&A With Smiley Central

Hello everyone, 

Not so long back I saw a request for bloggers to do some Q&As over on Smiley Central :-) Smiley Central is run by the lovely Catherine and is filled with inspiration, motivation and the odd beauty post. She writes some really fabulous posts so you should all hop on over and check it out! 

I'm honestly so glad that I emailed her, we have become really good friends through this collaboration and regularly email each other with news :-) To see her post with the questions she sent me click here, but if you want to know a little more about Catherine then keep reading. Go on, you know you want to know more! 

What made you want to start up your blog?

There are so many reasons that I wanted to start blogging, I was really into YouTube before I started my blog and I wanted to be a YouTuber but I didn't have the knowledge or equipment to be a YouTuber, then I found out about blogging, I started reading some popular blogs like Sprinkle of Glitter and Zoella on and off and felt like blogging was for me. Once I found out how to start a blog, I was right into it!

If you had to pick one type of post to write forever, what would it be?

Oooh, this is a hard one! I would probably say inspiration/motivational posts because it so amazing when people tell you that you have helped them, even if it's in a small way. A lot of the time when I write inspiration/motivation posts, I take my own advice. When I'm writing those kinds of posts, it's like another force takes control of me and I end up reading back my posts in the editing stage and thinking "where did that come from???" and "I should really follow my own advice!". Inspiration/motivational posts are a positive experience on both sides of the screen!

If you could go back to the beginning of your blog, what would you say to yourself?

I wouldn't want to tell my past self to change my writing style or probably tragic blog template because in that case, I might not have the amazing opportunities that I do today. I would probably just tell myself that it's going to be okay. I will eventually find a blog template that isn't that horrible (I hope it isn't haha, we all have different opinions), I will eventually get some form of a writing style, I will eventually have amazing friends like Hattie from blogging alone and that I will eventually get a few regular readers.

What gets you most excited to write?

I would probably say the thing that gets me most excited to write is when I'm passionate about what I'm writing about. The feminism series - Let's Talk About Feminism for example, I am very passionate about feminism and I want to tell everybody about feminism and that means I'm excited to write and to share what I know with the world!

Where do you see your blog going?

I would love to see my blog have a few more regular readers, it's not that I care about the numbers, it's just that I really want to grow our small community. My ultimate blogging dream is to be a full-time blogger. I can honestly see myself blogging as a full-time job and I can't wait to see if that is what the future holds!

Quick Fire Round!

Favourite colour?

I don't have a favourite colour because in my mind, picking a favourite colour is not very nice to the other colours, I'm very right-brained, I know.

Favourite food?

Anything vegetarian. Meat tastes like guilt and emotional strain.

Favourite flavour haribo?

In New Zealand, we have Haribos but they aren't very well known and I think I might have tried one packet once. I can't really remember the flavours but I think I remember the clear-ish one being amazing.

Favourite movie?

The Fault In Our Stars, everything about this movie is beautiful and meaningful.

Tea or hot chocolate?

Tea. Hot chocolate is wonderful but tea feeds my soul.

Snow or sun?

I am definitely more of a winter person. In Rotorua, where I live, it snows very, very lightly about once every 10 years so I don't really know if I would find snow annoying or not.

Pinterest or Instagram?

I'm sorry Pinterest, but Instagram wins. I love Pinterest shopping every once in a while but Instagram is something that I check a lot more, plus Pinterest needs to lay off with the emails!

I hope you enjoyed this Q&A, we're thinking of doing some more collaborations in the near future so let us know what you think in the comments below :-) 

xoxo