Recommend to me! Contemporary YA

I haven't posted many reviews lately, and that's because my current reading looks like this:

There's nothing like a pile of books.

I am a huge, huge fan of George R. R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series, as a lot of you are probably aware by now. Yet I confess I have been struggling a little with A Feast For Crows. There are a lot of things I like about it, but the swathes of new characters are giving me a little bit of trouble, and I'm struggling to read more than a chapter a day, especially as the chapters seem to be getting longer!

My other book on the go at the moment is Mark Yarm's Everybody Loves Our Town: A History of Grunge, which is a great book detailing the inner workings of the Seattle scene in the 1980s and 1990s. It's a huge book, however, and one that I've been dipping in and out of since Christmas.

(The academic books in between are the current source of most of my frustration. Unfortunately they are also the source of my current thesis chapter.)

My library reservations have dried up and the only other book on my TBR pile at the moment is Patrick DeWitt's The Sisters Brothers, which I have no doubt will be excellent, but I'm looking for something a little lighter to balance out the epic politics of Westeros right now!

So I'm looking for some recommendations for some awesome contemporary YA fiction to brighten the "summer" (ha!) and lighten my reading a little. Let's all go and fall in love on a beach. :)

Leave me your recommendations in the comments! (Or tweet them at me here.)

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In My Mailbox #1

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren.

Although I have read lots of In My Mailbox posts in the past, this is my first time participating. So, here goes!

From the library:



Cinder (The Lunar Chronicles #1) by Marissa Meyer



(I requested this book a couple of weeks ago, and when I picked it up this weekend I was quite excited to see that I am the first borrower! Small things.)

Bought:



Twin Spirit (Domino Galaxy #1) by Matthew Thompson

(I am excited to read this book in particular, because I know the author, and read an early draft of the book a couple of years ago.)

Borrowed:



A Storm of Swords Part 2: Blood and Gold by George R. R. Martin

(I borrowed this book from my brother, who warns me - once again - to not get too attached to anyone. I made that mistake with the first book...)

These books have joined the others in my to read / currently reading pile. I am also dipping in and out of Mark Yarm's Everybody Loves Our Town: A History of Grunge. It is raining this weekend, and I plan to spend most of it with my head stuck in a book!