Before YA was YA

I didn't do much writing this weekend and I didn't catch up on reading/commenting on blogs, Facebook or Twitter like I planned. BUT I did get a lot of reading done. That's never a bad thing. I finished one book and should finish the other today.

So who's with me on the fond memories of junior high or high school memories of reading Christopher Pike books? Remember Me, Chain Letter? Everyone read them in my school. Among other authors it seems Christopher Pike was making YA hot before it was even YA. These days you can walk into any book store and find a section devoted to nothing but Teen and YA titles. And as anyone who isn't living under a rock knows it isn't just teens who are reading them. I'm thirty years old and I pretty much only read YA these days. I'm not sure I could've said that ten years ago because right now there is a huge, diverse and incredible offering of books out there in this genre. Personally, I love fantasy and the fact that I can go to the bookstore and be totally overwhelmed at the amount of titles to choose from makes me smile.

Back to the books I read. Thanks to our amazing friends at Simon & Schuster who have partnered with us at Fallenarchangel on our featured fiction each month, I read Christopher Pike's Thirst book No. 1 and have book No. 2 ready to go, and thank God because I HAVE to find out what happens next.

Here's the description from Simon & Schuster's site.

Alisa has been in control of her urges for the five thousand years she has been a vampire. She feeds but does not kill, and she lives her life on the fringe to maintain her secret. But when her creator returns to hunt her, she must break her own rules in order to survive.

Her quest leads her to Ray. He is the only person who can help her; he also has every reason to fear her. Alisa must get closer to him to ensure her immortality. But as she begins to fall in love with Ray, suddenly there is more at stake than her own life....

These tiles just came out this year but the stories aren't new, they're separate books that came out starting in 1994. How the heck did I miss them back then? A 5,000 year old vampire? Yes please. She is one bad ass chick. Check out more info here. (And if you like the sounds of it make sure you stop by our site next month when we get to give away five copies of both books.) There's something about knowing this vampire story was written before most other YA vampire books were created. This is not your run of the mill falling in love with a dangerous creature story. The romance is secondary and if they were made into a movie (would die to see that) it would be a skull crushing (I told you she kicks some serious butt), seductive, action blockbuster.

It's great to see authors like Pike and LJ Smith back in popularity with the vampire trend still going. Hello, need I say more then The Vampire Diaries TV show? Amazing.

Anyone else get thrown back to your teenage years when hearing the name Christopher Pike? What were your favorites? Thoughts on the old titles becoming new again?