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Every now and again, I buy a bunch of YA books because I see them on sale, and then I promptly ignore them. Not because they look bad or I hear anything bad, but because I’m easily distracted and other things are shiny and life happens.
Recently, I’ve started digging into those books, because really, I’ve bought an absurd number considering how many I already own, and I stumbled upon one I really, really enjoyed. And I couldn’t understand how I hadn’t heard any raving about this book, not even because it’s the greatest masterpiece on the planet but just because when you have a unique main character and an extremely shippable romance, that’s the kind of thing you usually hear about, you know?
But I hadn’t. At all. I don’t even remember what made me buy it in the first place.
And it made me really sad about all the great YA out there that’s slipping under the radar, that nobody’s talking about even though they really enjoyed it. Hence the hashtag #undertheradarYA.
It was pretty awesome to watch it blow up, but because I fear it might’ve gotten so overwhelming that perhaps it might fail to serve its purpose, I figured I’d pick out a few of the titles I saw getting the most attention, to at least provide a starting point for people hoping to use it to increase their TBRs and get some new, awesome books. Please note that these aren’t necessarily my recommendations, nor have I read them all; they’re just recommendations I saw floating around/being agreed with a lot. Also, I’m not affiliated even a little with the discount site I link to a bunch. I just buy from them regularly and it allows me to buy five billion times as many books as I otherwise would. Feel free to buy whatever from wherever, obviously.
Also, if a book has almost 10,000 adds on Goodreads, or more, it’s not on here. No matter how much I love it. That kinda defeats the purpose.
First, the book that started it: WELCOME, CALLER, THIS IS CHLOE by Shelley Coriell
IF I LIE by Corrine Jackson (I’d venture to say this was the #1 most-frequently named, which is awesome for me because I’d already ordered it last week.)
TIGER LILY by Jodi Lynn Anderson (This book has been rec’d insanely hard. Also awesome for me, since I bought it last week.)
LOVESTRUCK SUMMER by Melissa C. Walker
Several calls for “everything by” Jessica Martinez, Courtney Summers, Amy Reed, and E. Lockhart (You can buy all of Courtney Summers’ books at a deep discount here and almost everything by E. Lockhart on the same site.)
DARK STAR by Bethany Frenette
LEFTOVERS by Laura Wiess (All of her books are available on above-mentioned discount site.)
SILVER PHOENIX by Cindy Pon
ADIOS NIRVANA by Conrad Wesselhoeft
FLORA SEGUNDA by Ysabeau S. Wilce
TOUCHING THE SURFACE by Kimberly Sabatini
THIN SPACE by Jody Casella
RECLAIMED by Sarah Guillory
MONSTROUS BEAUTY by Elizabeth Fama
MY LIFE AFTER NOW by Jessica Verdi
HOW TO SAY GOODBYE IN ROBOT by Natalie Standiford
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Heather@ The Flyleaf Review said:
I somehow missed this post but I’m glad I found it eventually Dahlia:) I love that you started #UndertheradarYA– I had fun jumping in with my rec’s and liked learning of the others that clearly SHOULD be on my radar:)
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Kristina Perez (@babelbabble) said:
I adore Tiger Lily and Monstrous Beauty!
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Shae/Shelver @ Shae Has Left The Room said:
*rolls around in the recs* I’m about to go back to the hashtag to pull out more recs for my TBR. Thanks again, Dahlia!
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eileendandashi said:
I feel the same way about books not getting noticed and are really very good reads. We as book reviewers have our work cut out for ourselves. Hopefully readers are listening and will reach for a book they haven’t heard of before based on one of our recommendations. Readers will be enriched and the writer will be gratified that their efforts are appreciated.
mkcooke said:
Loved all of Laura Wiess’ books! They were all phenomenal, but I think I have yet to physically meet another person who has read her books. Loving this focus on #undertheradarYA books. Definitely a topic that needs to get out there. I often wonder how many awesome books I am missing for some reason or another!
Kimberly Bower (gladeslibrarian) said:
Reblogged this on O2B heavenly minded and commented:
This hashtag #undertheradarYA went crazy last night! Check out Dahlia’s list of the”loudest” titles.