(Day 16) Guest Post: Kristi from The Story Siren

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Hey everyone!  Today we've got one of THE best bloggers out there.  She's like the queen of YA in my eyes, because her blog--which I'm sure pretty much all of you are familiar with--is just so up to date and organized.  Please give Kristi, The Story Siren, a warm welcome!  (oh, and PNR fans, don't let her get away with what she said about YA alpha boys and PNRs!)

Connect with Kristi:
Blog | Twitter | Goodreads

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Why don’t readers typically think of alpha males and YA in the same sentence?

I’d say it’s the most basic answer.... because when most people think of an alpha male, they think of a man. Most likely a man that is gracing the cover of a romance novel, embracing a scantly clad womanly form. A man that is confident, attractive... sometimes wealthy and who always gets there way. And as I mentioned before, they are usually gracing the pages of a romance novel, and not the pages within a young adult one.

Although, if you think about it, there are plenty characters in Young Adult literature that could be characterized as an ‘alpha male.’ I guess we don’t think of them as alpha males because they usually just get labeled as the asshole. It’s hard to balance an alpha male, to give him all the qualities that an alpha male should have, yet make sure he isn’t a big jerk that is going to turn the readers away. But I think YA readers enjoy a good alpha male in their stories just as much as the next person.

I mean, when I really think about it... I recently did a post on my blog... Top 10 Literary Crushes and asked people to mention theirs in the comments section as well. More than half of the characters I choose and that readers choose could be considered an Alpha Male... in all resemblances of the word... get their way... confident... attractive... a little on the jerk side. But then most of those characters also have a lighter more sensitive side. I think what we get in Young Adult literature is a hybrid. Sure we have the bad-ass hottie characters that could be considered the alpha males, but they have a little something extra that take away that edge... hence the hybrid.

It’s not that alpha males and YA don’t go together, it’s that YA has evolved beyond the alpha male.... we have something better!

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Want to win a signed copy of Siren by Tricia Rayburn? 
(Check out my review)

Seventeen-year-old Vanessa Sands is afraid of everything—the dark, heights, the ocean—but her fearless older sister, Justine, has always been there to coach her through every challenge. That is, until Justine goes cliff-diving one night near the family’s vacation house in Maine, and her lifeless body washes up on shore the next day.

Though her parents hope that they’ll be able to find closure back in Boston, Vanessa can’t help feeling that her sister’s death wasn’t an accident. After discovering that Justine was keeping a lot of secrets, Vanessa returns to Winter Harbor, hoping that Justine’s boyfriend might know more. But Caleb has been missing since Justine’s death.

Soon, it’s not just Vanessa who’s afraid. All of Winter Harbor is abuzz with anxiety when another body washes ashore, and panic sets in when the small town becomes host to a string of fatal, water-related accidents in which all the victims are found, horrifically, grinning from ear to ear.

Vanessa turns to Caleb’s brother, Simon, for help, and begins to find herself drawn to him. As the pair try to understand the sudden rash of creepy drownings, Vanessa uncovers a secret that threatens her new romance—and will change her life forever.

A seductive paranormal romance full of unexpected twists, Siren is certain to make a big summer splash.

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