Top 5 Contemporary Fiction | T5T

Hello bookworms! I’m Nia and today I’m going to be talking about my favorite contemporary books!

Now I have to say that though contemporary isn’t my most read genre, there are a ton of contemporary books that I’ve read in the past, and some of them have become some of my favorite books of all time, and I haven’t shut up talking about them, so probably I’ve already talked about most of these in my blog. Also I haven’t read many adult fiction, so I’m not going to be mentioning books of that genre and mainly focus on YA books.

If you aren’t familiar with Top 5 Tuesday, it is a group here on WordPress now currently run by Shanah over at BionicBookWorm, where each week they give you a topic and you talk about 5 books that fit that category.

Without any further ado, let’s start with this week’s topic!

The Naturals | Jennifer Lynn Barnes

My thoughts: I’ve already talked about how much I love these books in this blog, but if you haven’t read about that yet, I’ll do it again. I’ve discovered this series last year, and I completely fell in love with it since then. Not only it was actually YA Criminal Minds, but the story became more complex as you continue with the quartet. I adored the characters so much, they have become my babies and I want to protect them at all costs. Honestly, if you like mysteries or crime books, or maybe if you’re a Criminal Minds lover like myself, I highly recommend these books, because they are SO good!

I have a review of The Naturals, Killer Instinct, All In and Bad Blood, in case you want to check them out!

Seventeen-year-old Cassie is a natural at reading people. Piecing together the tiniest details, she can tell you who you are and what you want. But it’s not a skill that she’s ever taken seriously. That is, until the FBI come knocking: they’ve begun a classified program that uses exceptional teenagers to crack infamous cold cases, and they need Cassie.

What Cassie doesn’t realize is that there’s more at risk than a few unsolved homicides—especially when she’s sent to live with a group of teens whose gifts are as unusual as her own. Sarcastic, privileged Michael has a knack for reading emotions, which he uses to get inside Cassie’s head—and under her skin. Brooding Dean shares Cassie’s gift for profiling, but keeps her at arm’s length.

Soon, it becomes clear that no one in the Naturals program is what they seem. And when a new killer strikes, danger looms closer than Cassie could ever have imagined. Caught in a lethal game of cat and mouse with a killer, the Naturals are going to have to use all of their gifts just to survive.

What I Lost | Alexandra Ballard

My thoughts: This is one of my recent reads as well. It was released last year, but I’m not surprised it made it to this list. What I Lost was one of my favorite reads of last year, and it still really close to my heart because of what it meant to me. It was a very raw and powerful story that dealt with eating disorders, recovery and mental health, and I absolutely adored it.

I have a review of this book here in case you want to check it out!

What sixteen-year-old Elizabeth has lost so far: forty pounds, four jean sizes, a boyfriend, and her peace of mind. As a result, she’s finally a size zero. She’s also the newest resident at Wallingfield, a treatment center for girls like her—girls with eating disorders. Elizabeth is determined to endure the program so she can go back home, where she plans to start restricting her food intake again. She’s pretty sure her mom, who has her own size 0 obsession, needs treatment as much as she does. Maybe even more. Then Elizabeth begins receiving mysterious packages. Are they from her ex-boyfriend, a secret admirer, or someone playing a cruel trick?

The Female of The Species | Mindy McGinnis

My thoughts: Oh, I know you’re not surprised. I’ve already said how much I love The Female of The Species. In fact, it’s one of my all-time favorite books. I’ve only read it once, but I’m planning on re-reading it later this year, because I can’t stop thinking about it, and it’s been more than one year. The story, the message, the characters… they are all so amazing and I absolutely adore them. Also it had a very powerful ending, and it talks about many important things.

Alex Craft knows how to kill someone. And she doesn’t feel bad about it.

Three years ago, when her older sister, Anna, was murdered and the killer walked free, Alex uncaged the language she knows best—the language of violence. While her own crime goes unpunished, Alex knows she can’t be trusted among other people. Not with Jack, the star athlete who wants to really know her but still feels guilty over the role he played the night Anna’s body was discovered. And not with Peekay, the preacher’s kid with a defiant streak who befriends Alex while they volunteer at an animal shelter. Not anyone.

As their senior year unfolds, Alex’s darker nature breaks out, setting these three teens on a collision course that will change their lives forever.

Making Faces | Amy Harmon

My thoughts: I feel I cannot read this book again because I was devastated when I finished it. It was such a beautiful and sad story at the same time, and the writing was absolutely gorgeous. Amy Harmon has an ethereal way to tell a story, with flawed characters that somehow click with each other and shared a beautiful story, and I love her books because of that. This book was the first I read from her, but so far all her stories have the same whimsical feeling that leaves me speechless and wanting more.

Ambrose Young was beautiful. He was tall and muscular, with hair that touched his shoulders and eyes that burned right through you. The kind of beautiful that graced the covers of romance novels, and Fern Taylor would know. She’d been reading them since she was thirteen. But maybe because he was so beautiful he was never someone Fern thought she could have…until he wasn’t beautiful anymore.

Making Faces is the story of a small town where five young men go off to war, and only one comes back. It is the story of loss. Collective loss, individual loss, loss of beauty, loss of life, loss of identity. It is the tale of one girl’s love for a broken boy, and a wounded warrior’s love for an unremarkable girl. This is a story of friendship that overcomes heartache, heroism that defies the common definitions, and a modern tale of Beauty and the Beast where we discover that there is little beauty and a little beast in all of us.

The First Time She Drowned | Kerry Kletter

My thoughts: Now this was a very recent favorite book for me, because I read it last month, but I completely fell in love with it. Don’t get me wrong, it was a very tough and hard story to read sometimes, but I think the overall journey was so worth it. I really liked the characters and the symbolism between the sea and our protagonist Cassie, and most of all, I loved her development.

I have a review of this book here in case you want to check it out!

Cassie O’Malley has been trying to keep her head above water—literally and metaphorically—since birth. It’s been two and a half years since Cassie’s mother dumped her in a mental institution against her will, and now, at eighteen, Cassie is finally able to reclaim her life and enter the world on her own terms.

But freedom is a poor match against a lifetime of psychological damage. As Cassie plumbs the depths of her new surroundings, the startling truths she uncovers about her own family narrative make it impossible to cut the tethers of a tumultuous past. And when the unhealthy mother-daughter relationship that defined Cassie’s childhood and adolescence threatens to pull her under once again, Cassie must decide: whose version of history is real? And more important, whose life must she save?

What are your favorite contemporary books? Do you have any of these ones on your list? Please feel free to recommend me your favorite stories, because I’m always down for a contemporary novel!

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