#QuietYA Guest Post with Jaclyn Dolamore

I am so excited to be part of my dear friends Julie and Rachael Allen's QuietYA posts today! In case you're not sure what this is all about, please check out Rachael's interview with Julie...which happens to be on Julie's blog, found here! 

I love Jackie Dolamore and her works for life, so I'm very pleased to be able to share her guest posts on what quiet YAs have her heart. Enjoy!

My favorite YA book is actually a quiet YA. Yes, my FAVORITE. As in, I love it more than Graceling or Seraphina or Eleanor and Park or a whole slew of other really wonderful, but really well-known books. I recommend it every chance I get. If you like historical fiction and you have never read A True and Faithful Narrative by Katharine Sturtevant, well—you MUST. It’s impressively accurate to the time period (17th century England) and deals with a heroine who wants to be a writer. (Sue me, I’m a sucker for those.) It also has a romance that I find exceedingly romantic, because it’s complex and real and develops slowly.

Basically, if you think intelligent people talking to each other with passion is sexy as all get out, then you will love Chapter 10, part 2.

In recent years, I haven’t had much reading time, and unwisely, I went to several book conferences in 2014 anyway and came home with a huge pile of advanced reader copies that I ended up having no time to read. But one I did read, and was pleasantly surprised by, was The Secret Side of Empty by Maria E. Andreu. M.T. is blonde and pale—but she’s also an illegal immigrant from South America, a secret she has managed to keep from her friends until college looms. If I had a book club I’d be begging them to discuss this one, because it is such an interesting take on illegal immigration. But M.T. is also a sympathetic, flawed and interesting heroine.

Tara Kelly’s books are worth a mention, as she finally has a new one coming out, The Foxglove Killings (love that title and cover), and for that matter I just read her 2011 book, Amplified. Both Amplified and her debut Harmonic Feedback deal with music and protagonists who can be a little prickly, a little messed up—but I identify with their flaws and want to see them succeed, and the side characters feel real. But the best thing about Tara’s books to me is just the solid writing—I know I’m going to get a good story, so I’m down for anything she writes!

Although not exactly a young adult NOVEL, I can never shut up about the graphic novel series Thieves and Kings by Mark Oakley, which has a YA sensibility and a Hayao Miyazaki vibe. The characters in this series are just so delightful, and the whole thing feels so richly imagined. The only problem is, I’m not sure he’ll ever write the ending, but you know what, I’m kind of okay with that! I don’t mind imagining these people living on without an ending. It’s one of my favorite story worlds to escape into again and again.
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Jaclyn Dolamore was homeschooled in a hippie sort of way and spent her childhood reading as many books as her skinny nerd-body could lug from the library and playing elaborate pretend games with her sister Kate. She skipped college and spent eight years drudging through retail jobs, developing her thrifty cooking skills and pursuing a lifelong writing dream. She has a passion for history, thrift stores, vintage dresses, David Bowie, drawing, and organic food. She lives with her partner and plot-sounding-board, Dade, and three weird cats.

 find jaclyn on twitter | visit jaclyn's website

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When you think of QuietYA titles, which come to mind as your favorites? Feel free to share in the comments, and don't forget to enter the giveaway!

"Waiting On" Wednesday: Magic Under Stone

Magic Under Stone (Magic Under, #2)
Jaclyn Dolamore
April 10, 2012

For star-crossed lovers Nimira and Erris, there can be no happily ever after until Erris is freed from the clockwork form in which his soul is trapped. And so they go in search of the sorcerer Ordorio Valdana, hoping he will know how to grant Erris real life again. 

When they learn that Valdana has mysteriously vanished, it's not long before Nimira decides to take matters into her own hands—and begins to study the sorcerer's spell books in secret. Yet even as she begins to understand the power and limitations of sorcery, it becomes clear that freeing Erris will bring danger—if not out-and-out war—as factions within the faerie world are prepared to stop at nothing to prevent him from regaining the throne.

I enjoyed Magic Under Glass just as much as I thought I would (and not only because Nimira is from a different race than the usual fare...diversity in YA for the win!), and I'm really looking forward to seeing what happens to Nimira and Erris. I probably might have to read the last book again to figure out if there's anything I forgot (argh...getting closer to twenty seems to have my memory slipping).

Also, did anyone else see the author's note that this is the last installment of the story? How do you feel about that? Do you think that two-book series can be carried out? Ms. Dolamore is a talented author, so I'm withholding judgment until I actually read it. You can be sure I'll let you know what I thought about it.

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine. For more information on participating, please check out the host blog.