Bringing Sexy paperBack

These are the intelligent, charming, witty, and handsome men that write YA. We know in this genre women reign and we here at SBSR wanted to shine a little light on these fellas.

We decided to start off with our personal favorite.... Pierce Brown. The 26 year old author has been getting a lot of buzz lately. If you are into books at all then there's no doubt you've heard about his Red Rising series. At just our book store alone he is on at least 5 different favorites tables, it's insane... With just two books currently out and it even only being January people are already saying that Golden Son will probably be the best book out this year (I fully agree with this). Brown actually wrote 9 books before having Red Rising picked up. Red Rising is also set to become a movie, and we couldn't be more excited about it.With casting and dates still up in the air, well be waiting hand and foot for more details.
Pierce Brown is just oozing with talent, and we can't wait to continue too follow his career...
It also doesn't hurt that he has a super love for Harry Potter.

John Green. How can you have a YA list without this man not being mentioned?! Ya can't! Within the last few years he has became a house hold name. With a writing style all of his own, there's no questioning why so many love him. Green is the only man who can get away with killing off your favorite character and it just making you like him more. And books aren't the only thing he's ruling in... He has mastered the ranting YouTube video and has also brought so much attention to YA with his book to screen movie The Fault in Our Stars. With countless book awards under his belt and with Paper Towns and Looking for Alaska in the works to become movies, it's no surprise why he made this list. No one does teenage angst quite like this man. 

Ransom Riggs. He's debut novel Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children hasn't gone unnoticed. It's currently in production to become a movie, with both a bigger director and big actors set to star in it. He has brought something really interesting and new to this growing genre by incorporating pictures into his work. Creepy, Creepy pictures... He is the husband of one of our favorite authors Tahereh Mafi and they are without a doubt one of our favorite book couples. He is another author that post videos on YouTube, and is very active on his instagram.  With an amazing sense of humor, we can't get enough of Ransom Riggs... and Yes that is he's real name.

J.D Netto... What you haven't heard of him?.. Well you're about to be schooled. He is the author of the new-ish series Whispers of the Fallen. This Brazilian-born talented man is steadily rising up in the Ya book scene. During his senior year in High School, J.D.Netto had an idea "What if Lucifer had a Diary? What if the Diary was a secret? What if the secret was a reality", this idea and were sure many others are what brought you this series. This man isn't just a talented author he is also a talented graphic designer... You can get a small glimpse at that on his instagram page. One of the main reason were loving this man is because besides having interesting reads he is also super involved with his fans.. And nothing is more charming than being grateful. 
 

Theo Lawrence is a graduate of Columbia University and the Juilliard School. He is the writer of the Mystic City series, which is a series we recently started.  As all the other men on this post writing isn't his only gift... Ya boy can sing. He has performed at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and Off-Broadway. Lawrence is still and up and coming Ya author that we can't wait to watch and learn more about. Plus the covers of his books ARE AMAZING!

Mystic City: Theo Lawrence

Mystic City: Theo Lawrence 

"For fans of  Matched, The Hunger Games, X-Men, and Blade Runner comes a tale of a magical city divided, a political rebellion ignited, and a love that was meant to last forever. Book One of the Mystic City Novels."

Aria Rose, youngest child of one of Mystic City's two ruling rival families, is set to marry Thomas Foster, the son of her parents' sworn enemies. The union of the two will end the generations-long political feud. This marry will unite the Uppers of Aeries, and keep the banished mystics who dwell below in the Depths. The only problem is Aria doesn't remember falling in love with Thomas. She just wakes up one morning and is told she Over-dosed on mystic drugs and lost her memories. When Aria meets Hunter the rebel from the wrong side of the tracks, she start to have some recollection and Hunter might just know more than he leads on.

The description sounds awesome right? The cover is undoubtedly gorgeous! BUT! This book couldn't have been more predictable than if I wrote it myself. I once said that I set a new record by predicting an entire book by page 50... I did it in a total of 6 pages this time. I kid you not, I knew exactly where this book was going IN SIX PAGES!  There was not a single twist or turn that I didn't see coming. Not only did I find this book utterly predictable I found it lacking... Well everything. Mystic City to me had only a beautiful cover going for it.

My main problem with this book are the characters. They lack depth. I had no connection to Hunter or Aria. They were both *yawn* boring. Throughout the story I found myself giving no Fs about what happened to either of them.... At one point I had my fingers crossed that something tragic would happen to them. Aria is annoying!!!! Oh and has no brain. (Hunter isn't far behind her.) Also Aria is the most gullible character in all book history. Anytime anyone, even complete strangers, tells her something she believes them. She says at least ten times in this book "why would they lie to me"!!!! SERIOUSLY!!!! WHY WOULD THIS PERSON YOU'VE NEVER MET OR SPOKEN TO LIE TO YOU!!! Think about it for a second... But not too hard because we know how difficult thinking is for you. She's is so daft it's annoying!!!
It's clear from the get go that the person she is set to marry, Thomas, isn't who he is said to be... Trust me when I say I wont need to give out spoils you'll know in a few pages what's so "off" about him.

Hunter is pointless... And come to think of it for someone who is suppose to be so important in this book, I don't really remember him really even being that apart of it... Like I know he was there, and I know he was doing stuff, but I don't at the same time. Plus he's a mystic which means he has all these badass powers which he uses all the time; EXCEPT when it comes to saving his girl friend. He will defend her randomly in a dark alley but if someone tries to do real damage he just gives up and surrenders. He'll turn a stranger into a freaky fiery glow stick but someone points a gun at his girl and he throws his hands in the air like he just don't care. I seemed to have failed to also mention that he is a stalker who wants to be jack from the movie Titanic... Seriously there's a scene where she almost falls off a ledge and he saves her, and it was straight ripped off the big screen. This book relies so much on a relationship that doesn't play out well. When Lawrence is describing these characters I'm just gonna say that Thomas sounds smoking hot, his brother sounds hot, Aria's dad even sounds hot... Hunter however sounds like he suffers from a small case of butter-face... You think with how dumb Aria was she would have been fine with the lack of memories since she seemed to get an upgraded hottie. It's whatever though.
If you've read anything by me in the past you know I love sub characters and love to talk about them. There's only one in this book I want to touch base on and that's Kiki. I don't think I've ever disliked a character so much in my life. I DIDN'T GET THE POINT OF HER!!!! Plus she says idiotic b.s the whole book...  

I laughed "you always have to make a wild entrance. Remember at my birthday party    two years ago-" "when I dressed up like a baby"Kiki shrieks. "People nearly died. Or should have. No one else could have pulled off a high fashioned diaper" 

 

Seriously??! Like wtf, really? And this girl complains the whole book that she can't find a man... MMMM I WONDER WHY?!?!

The plot was lacking along with anything descriptive. I felt there was so many holes in this book and everything is so crammed together.  I don't even have the faintest idea of when this book is taking place except it's in the future. All I know is that there is all sorts of crazy global warming going on. Things are revealed in such odd and bland manner that it turned me off.  Her family is just evil but it mainly seems like it's for no reason. At least not one solidly given to us. Actually all the villains aren't really villain-y. The Mystics are riddled with super powers like healing, making themselves look like others, and walking through walls but yet they can't take down like five guys with a few guns. If this was like X-men like the description said then I think the people would have acted more like mystique and went all badass on their enemies. The whole thing just doesn't piece together. Oh and in this far far future people still tweet, text, and have iPods. Bet the makers of tweeter and apple products are super pumped about this. So in this magical, mystical future, we have technology that can erase very specific memories, but there's a surprisingly lack of technological advancements. Like Aria gets a job filing papers... Why not just store them in your super computers... You have scanners and pods that can take you around the city yet you don't have excel anymore?? I just can't.

It also seems frowned upon to travel but yet you can still go places like Bali... and that being said this craziness also seems to only be effecting New York. Or maybe I just missed something?!? Because Hunter is obsessed with just running away because the problem isn't outside of what seems like just Manhattan honestly.

Mystic City tried way to hard to be different and failed. It aimed to be like Black City but failed. It will also fail on being a book I recommend. Had high hopes for this series, but yes you guessed it, it failed.  I will fail to continue this series.

2/10 Stars 

-Angela