Blog Post: Armchair BEA Day 2 - Genre Fiction: What a Girl Likes...

Photo Credit: Nina of Nina Reads

Today’s genre focus is on genre fiction!

If you’re a reader of genre fiction do you have a favourite author or series? And what keeps bringing you back for more fantasy/sci fi/horror etc? And if you don’t read one (or more) of these genres what is it that deters you from those sections of the bookstore? I’m also curious to hear why you think these genres often don’t get the recognition they deserve.

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I Love to read. Picking up a book and getting lost in it is one of my favorite past-times simply for the reason that with a book I can go anywhere and do anything. I'm sure a lot of people feel this way, but I have to point out I get super attached to my books.

No, really I do. It's like when people are really into a TV show and they yell at the screen, that's me with my books. That being said my genre picks are incredibly erratic. I used to think I was mostly a young adult paranormal romance girl, and while I love, love, love the genre, I've found myself branching out more and more lately.

My Top Four Favorite Genres of Fiction Are:

1. Paranormal Romance - I typically tend to stay in the young adult paranormal romance category, because I'm a 13-year-old girl at heart. I love the angst and innocence of falling in love with a vampire or finding out who you are while dealing with ghosts, witches, and or supernatural creatures. One of my all time favorite paranormal romance authors is Amelia Atwater Rhodes. I've been reading her books since I was 13, her books got me into reading in the first place. If you haven't Checked out any of her books, but you love YA paranormal romance I'd advise you to totally look into her. Another great author I recently discovered, or rather who recently found me is Bella Forrest. Her A Shade of Vampire series is amazing!

2. Dystopia - I love this genre because it's interesting to play with what-ifs. What if a crazy toxin got unleashed onto the world, would we all die? What if zombies attacked, would be survive? What if the world was somehow destroyed by war or whatever and we needed to put it back together, but everything as we know it was changed? There is so much you can do with a genre like this. You get a lot of fast paced action and creativity and that's what I love the most about it. There is no one author who I like the most, but there are several books that are absolutely worth the read. First and foremost Divergent by Veronica Roth, Delirium by Lauren Oliver, Glistening Haven by Jill Cooper, and Wisteria by Bisi Leyton.

3. Contemporary Romance - Who doesn't like a good contemporary romance story? I was never really into this genre, but this past year I was drawn in by a particular writer and now not only can't I put her books down, but I've been branching out into all kinds of romance novels. I think what draws me to this category is that pretty much anything goes. We don't just get a story about love we get books about redemption or finding oneself and I find that I really enjoy that. There are a great deal of good writers in this category, but out of all the ones I've read, Alyssa Rose Ivy takes the cake for best contemporary romance writer. Her Clayton Falls series is amazing and I just recently read the first book in her Hazards series, which was legit life changing. I loved it to death. She just has the ability to create these amazing characters that you can't help getting attached to. I don't think people realize what goes into creating a realistic, relatable, and interesting story. I don't think author's who write original and amazing books get enough credit and she is definitely one of them.

4. Memoirs/Realistic Fiction - I enjoy reading some pretty gritty stuff. Things that make you think or go, what the hell was that character thinking!? The more outrageous the better. I enjoy reading people overcome their addictions and work through the bad parts of their lives because it shows me that someone always has it worse than me. That sounds crazy, but reading what other people go through and come back from is inspiring. I love a good redemption story. Again I don't think I have an favorite authors, but two books that come to mind when I think of this genre are Life's The Way: A Memoir by Jim Beaver and my favorite, Memoirs Aren't Fairytales: A Story of Addiction by Marni Mann. Both books are powerful in their own way and very, very good.

What keeps me coming back is creativity and originality. There are so many books out there that have similar plotlines, it's unavoidable. But every once in a while you'll find an author that thinks completely outside the box and that is what draws me to new genres. The need for something new and unique. It's also what keeps me coming back. I've expanded my reading genres so much this year, I even read books without any romance at all (which totally isn't like me) because the actual plot and storyline was so original I couldn't pass it up and those books were amazing. Believe it or not, a lot of those books were written by Indie authors.

So, when is comes to genre fiction...I think I'm a little bit of a melting pot. I take bits and pieces from everything and from someone who reads a lot, the same thing over and over again gets boring, branching out keeps your brain and imagination fresh!

Check out the rest of the participants here!