5 Favorites by Patty Blount

 Happy New Year! 

Throughout the month of January, we're blogging about our 5 favorite novels...the ones that made us WANT to be authors ourselves. 

I've got quite a few favorites and you've probably heard me say more than once that Judy Blume is my writing-hero. I adore her novels. 

She wrote a book called Deenie about a young girl diagnosed with scoliosis and had to wear an ugly back brace and potentially have surgery. I didn't know it at the time, but I would be diagnosed with the same disorder about a year after reading this book. 

When I was told I also had scoliosis, I wasn't afraid. I was 12 years old, but because I'd been with Deenie throughout her experience, fictional though it may be, mine was easier to handle. I'm happy to report I didn't need surgery or the back brace. 

That was the first time I can remember a novel preparing me for something that could happen in my life. And it HOOKED me. I wanted to do that, write the kind of content that readers would also identify with. 

As for other books, it's nearly impossible for me to remember titles now. I cut my romance-teeth on the drugstore Harlequins and before that, Barbara Cartlandt's series. 

Recently, I read Kendare Blake's ANNA DRESSED IN BLOOD. 

Y'all, I bought this book just for the TITLE. What a great hook! Urban legend about a ghost haunting a house and ghost-hunter Cas must investigate, only to fall for the ghost he's supposed to vanquish. 

Delicious. 

Spine-tingling. 

Also, sweet, in a way. 

This novel compelled me to switch genres from YA contemporary to horror. I'm currently writing my own ghost story, whose working title is THE SMELL OF SMOKE & ASH. 

One of my instant-buy authors is Katie McGarry. Her novels wreck me! The first one I read was PUSHING THE LIMITS. 

I adore the way Katie manages to weave in heavy situations for her teen protagonists to conquer and fall in REAL LOVE, too. I've read this series a dozen times now and it never gets old. 

Finally, and even though I know she's fallen out of favor because of her narrow-minded views on transgendered people, I have to add JK Rowling's Harry Potter to this list. I'd wanted to write my own books for decades, but I lacked an MFA. It wasn't until I'd learned Rowling did it without a degree that I finally decided to try. These books taught me about the Hero's and Heroine's Journeys. 

What are YOUR top 5 YA titles? Tell me, tell me, tell me!