So, I was pretty excited to learn about this meme, and I love the topic for this week - so obviously I had to participate!
Five Friday Favourites is a weekly event hosted by the Book Badger, where once a week, a five favourites subject will be posted by me and everyone is welcome to join in. You can find out more about Five Friday Favourites and the future subjects here.
This Week's Topic:
Favorite Underrated Books
Now since I had both YA and Chick Lit titles I was excited to talk about, I've decided to list five YA titles and five Chick Lit titles that I believe are underrated. Hopefully, I can help others learn about some titles that I think are great but are not as well known or advertised!
Five Underrated YA Titles
Cinders & Sapphires by Leila Rasheed
One house, two worlds...
Rose Cliffe has never met a young
lady like her new mistress. Clever, rich, and beautiful, Ada Averley treats
Rose as an equal. And Rose could use a friend. Especially now that she, at
barely sixteen, has risen to the position of ladies' maid. Rose knows she
should be grateful to have a place at a house like Somerton. Still, she can't
help but wonder what her life might have been had she been born a lady, like
Ada.
For the first time in a decade, the
Averleys have returned to Somerton, their majestic ancestral estate. But
terrible scandal has followed Ada's beloved father all the way from India. Now
Ada finds herself torn between her own happiness and her family's honor. Only
she has the power to restore the Averley name-but it would mean giving up her
one true love ... someone she could never persuade her father to accept.
Sumptuous
and enticing, the first novel in the At Somerton series introduces two worlds,
utterly different yet entangled, where ruthless ambition, forbidden attraction,
and unspoken dreams are hidden behind dutiful smiles and glittering jewels. All
those secrets are waiting ... at Somerton.
Secret Society Girl by Diana Peterfreund
In a fabulous blend of the
bestselling traditions of Prep and The Devil Wears Prada, Secret
Society Girl takes us into the heart of the Ivy League’s ultraexclusive
secret societies when a young woman is invited to join as one of their first
female members.
Elite Eli University junior Amy
Haskel never expected to be tapped into Rose & Grave, the country’s most
powerful—and notorious—secret society. She isn’t rich, politically connected,
or…well, male.
So when Amy receives the
distinctive black-lined invitation with the Rose & Grave seal, she’s blown
away. Could they really mean her?
Whisked off into an initiation rite
that’s a blend of Harry Potter and Alfred Hitchcock, Amy awakens the next day
to a new reality and a whole new set of “friends”—from the gorgeous son of a
conservative governor to an Afrocentric lesbian activist whose society name is
Thorndike. And that’s when Amy starts to discover the truth about getting what
you wish for. Because Rose & Grave is quickly taking her away from her
familiar world of classes and keggers, fueling a feud, and undermining a very
promising friendship with benefits. And that’s before Amy finds out that her first
duty as a member of Rose & Grave is to take on a conspiracy of money and
power that could, quite possibly, ruin her whole life.
A smart, sexy introduction to the
life and times of a young woman in way over her head, Secret Society Girl
is a charming and witty debut from a writer who knows her turf—and isn’t afraid
to tell all….
What Would Emma Do? by Eileen Cook
Thou
Shalt Not Kiss Thy Best Friend’s Boyfriend...again...
Someone Else's Life by Katie Dale
When 17-year-old Rosie's mother,
Trudie, dies from Huntington's Disease, her pain is intensified by the
knowledge that she has a fifty percent chance of inheriting the crippling
disease herself. Only when Rosie tells her mother's best friend, "Aunt
Sarah," that she is going to test for the disease does Sarah, a midwife,
reveal that Trudie wasn't her real mother after all. Rosie was swapped at birth
with a sickly baby who was destined to die.
Stork by Wendy Delsol
Thou
Shalt Not Kiss Thy Best Friend’s Boyfriend...again...
There
is no greater sin than kissing your best friend’s boyfriend. So when Emma
breaks that golden rule, she knows she’s messed up big-time...especially since
she lives in the smallest town ever, where everyone knows everything about
everyone else...and especially since she maybe kinda wants to do it again. Now
her best friend isn’t speaking to her, her best guy friend is making things
totally weird, and Emma is running full speed toward certain social disaster.
This is so not the way senior year was supposed to go.
Time
to pray for a minor miracle. Or maybe, just maybe, it’s time for Emma to stop
trying to please everyone around her, and figure out what she wants for
herself.
When 17-year-old Rosie's mother,
Trudie, dies from Huntington's Disease, her pain is intensified by the
knowledge that she has a fifty percent chance of inheriting the crippling
disease herself. Only when Rosie tells her mother's best friend, "Aunt
Sarah," that she is going to test for the disease does Sarah, a midwife,
reveal that Trudie wasn't her real mother after all. Rosie was swapped at birth
with a sickly baby who was destined to die.
Devastated,
Rosie decides to trace her real mother, joining her ex-boyfriend on his gap
year travels, to find her birth mother in California. But all does not go as
planned. As Rosie discovers yet more of her family's deeply buried secrets and
lies, she is left with an agonizing decision of her own, one which will be the
most heart breaking and far-reaching of all.
Family secrets.
Lost memories.
And
the arrival of an ancient magical ability that will reveal everything.
Sixteen-year-old
Katla LeBlanc has just moved from Los Angeles to Minnesota. As if it weren’t
enough that her trendy fashion sense draws stares, Katla soon finds out that
she’s a Stork, a member of a mysterious order of women tasked with a very
unique duty. But Katla’s biggest challenge may be finding her flock at a new
school. Between being ignored by Wade, the arrogant jock she stupidly fooled
around with, and constantly arguing with gorgeous farm boy and editor-in-chief
Jack, Katla is relieved when her assignment as the school paper’s fashion
columnist brings with it some much-needed friendship. But as Homecoming
approaches, Katla uncovers a shocking secret about her past — a secret that
binds her fate to Jack’s in a way neither could have ever anticipated. With a
nod to Hans Christian Andersen and inspired by Norse lore, Wendy Delsol’s debut
novel introduces a hip and witty heroine who finds herself tail-feathers deep
in small-town life.
Five Underrated Chick Lit Titles
Holly's Inbox by Holly Denham
Ever wanted a peek at someone
else's emails?
Meet
Holly Denham. It's her first day as a receptionist at a City investment bank
and, with no cooperate front-of-house experience, Holly is struggling to keep
up. Add to this her mad friends, dysfunctional family and gossipy colleagues,
and Holly's inbox is a daily source of drama, laughter, scandal and even
romance. But Holly's keeping a secret from everyone - and the past is about to
catch up with her...
Unpredictable by Eileen Cook
Sophie isn't crazy, she just wants
her guy back. And posing as a psychic to give his new girlfriend a fake reading
designed to break them up isn't going overboard, is it? Don't answer that.
Faking
psychic powers turns out to be fun, especially after a few lessons from Nick,
the cute skeptic, who teaches her all the tricks of the trade. But her readings
do a lot more than she could have predicted. Now she must decide whether to
accept her rising stardom in a less-than-honest line of work-and whether the best
option is trying to rekindle her old flame or finding romance with someone new.
And, most importantly, she needs to figure out whether the answers lie in the
stars-or in herself.
Adored by Tilly Bagshawe
Sienna
McMahon was born into glamour. The granddaughter of film legend (and ogre) Duke
McMahon, she grows up amid Hollywood scandal and opulence. Determined to forge
her own identity, she becomes first a successful supermodel, then an actress;
but unhappiness and tragedy keep breaking through. Then, in the time-honored
tradition of Jackie Collins and Danielle Steel, the love of a good man brings
her happiness and fulfillment.
The Runaway Princess by Hester Browne
If
Amy Wilde’s new boyfriend, Leo, treats her like a queen, that’s because he’s
secretly a prince himself: Leopold William Victor Wolfsburg of Nirona, the
ninth most eligible royal bachelor in the world. Amy soon discovers that dating
an heir to a throne has many charms—intimate dinners, glittering galas, and a
dazzling new wardrobe with tiaras to match. But there are also drawbacks:
imagine the anxiety of meeting your boyfriend’s parents multiplied by “riding
in a private jet,” “staying in a castle,” and “discussing the line of
succession over lunch.” Not to mention the sudden press interest in your very
un-royal family. Amy would do anything for Leo, but is finding her Prince
Charming worth the price of losing herself?
Sweet Love by Sarah Strohmeyer
An irresistibly delicious novel
about the power of love and dessert. Like other
well-meaning mothers, Julie Mueller believed she did the right thing when she
secretly ended her teenage daughter's crush on Michael Slayton, a wild older
neighborhood heartthrob with a penchant for Shakespeare and the pedigree of
trailer trash.
Twenty years later, Betty Mueller
has come to realize that was a big mistake. Her daughter Julie - divorced and
raising a teenage daughter alone - is a workaholic obsessed with her career.
And Michael, the one man who could make her happy, is the one man to whom she
won't speak.
Now dying and determined to make
amends, Betty stages her last great feat of motherhood by reuniting the couple
in a dessert class where she hopes the sweetness of a chocolate almond Torta
Caprese will erase the bitterness of a wretched misunderstanding.
Sweet love, renew thy force; be it
not said thy edge should blunter be than appetite, Shakespeare once pleaded
though it will require more than poetry and passion fruit for Julie and Michael
to renew their love.
It
will, in fact, require the sweetest sacrifice of all.
Well, that's it for my underrated titles. I tried to choose titles that on Goodreads had 3000 or fewer reviews, I believe the highest on these lists was Holly's Inbox (at 3778 reviews) and the lowest was Unpredictable (at 673 reviews). I hope you enjoyed my lists, and perhaps even found a new title to check out?
Please feel free to comment and tell me about some of your favorite underrated books - I'd love to find some new ones! (And if you too have chosen to do a list please leave a link, so I can come visit!)
- Jennie @ Tale of Two Doxies
If
Amy Wilde’s new boyfriend, Leo, treats her like a queen, that’s because he’s
secretly a prince himself: Leopold William Victor Wolfsburg of Nirona, the
ninth most eligible royal bachelor in the world. Amy soon discovers that dating
an heir to a throne has many charms—intimate dinners, glittering galas, and a
dazzling new wardrobe with tiaras to match. But there are also drawbacks:
imagine the anxiety of meeting your boyfriend’s parents multiplied by “riding
in a private jet,” “staying in a castle,” and “discussing the line of
succession over lunch.” Not to mention the sudden press interest in your very
un-royal family. Amy would do anything for Leo, but is finding her Prince
Charming worth the price of losing herself?
An irresistibly delicious novel
about the power of love and dessert. Like other
well-meaning mothers, Julie Mueller believed she did the right thing when she
secretly ended her teenage daughter's crush on Michael Slayton, a wild older
neighborhood heartthrob with a penchant for Shakespeare and the pedigree of
trailer trash.
Twenty years later, Betty Mueller
has come to realize that was a big mistake. Her daughter Julie - divorced and
raising a teenage daughter alone - is a workaholic obsessed with her career.
And Michael, the one man who could make her happy, is the one man to whom she
won't speak.
Now dying and determined to make
amends, Betty stages her last great feat of motherhood by reuniting the couple
in a dessert class where she hopes the sweetness of a chocolate almond Torta
Caprese will erase the bitterness of a wretched misunderstanding.
Sweet love, renew thy force; be it
not said thy edge should blunter be than appetite, Shakespeare once pleaded
though it will require more than poetry and passion fruit for Julie and Michael
to renew their love.
It
will, in fact, require the sweetest sacrifice of all.
Well, that's it for my underrated titles. I tried to choose titles that on Goodreads had 3000 or fewer reviews, I believe the highest on these lists was Holly's Inbox (at 3778 reviews) and the lowest was Unpredictable (at 673 reviews). I hope you enjoyed my lists, and perhaps even found a new title to check out?
Please feel free to comment and tell me about some of your favorite underrated books - I'd love to find some new ones! (And if you too have chosen to do a list please leave a link, so I can come visit!)
- Jennie @ Tale of Two Doxies
