Who Did You Love - Jones, Showalter or Cole?

In the past few weeks, there has been some books that I was majorly looking forward to getting my hands on.  Three of them came from highly successful, established PNR authors who branched out into young adult fiction with much anticipated new series.  Darynda Jones started Darklight,  Gena Showalter gave us The White Rabbit Chronicles, and Kresley Cole debuted the Arcana Chronicles.  Well, I was wondering what everyone thought of them?  I don’t review, but here is a quick comparison of how they shaped up  for me…

Darynda Jones‘ Death and the Girl Next Door.

Hm.  This one is a bit tricky.  It wasn’t bad, but I didn’t love it, either.  It was a quick, easy read with a few unexpected twists and turns along the way, but for the most part there just wasn’t much that stood out.  I liked the characters, the moments of humor, and the fact that this one really did have a different take on things, but there just seemed to be something missing.  Maybe I was expecting Charley Davidson Jr., maybe I was just in a reading slump, but I had a hard time getting involved in this one.  And the cover didn’t work for me, which is shallow but true.  I will be getting the next book, sure, but it won’t be something that I mug the mailman to get my hands on.

Gena Showalter‘s Alice in Zombieland.

For some reason, my interest in this one really spiked just before it was released.  I had been all about Poison Princess, but then this one sort of caught my attention and held on.  When I did finally get my hands on it, I was pleasantly surprised.  Like Gena’s trademark Lords of the Underworld, there was a lot of action, banter and humor mixed with danger and loss, and it did work.  I liked the originality of the storyline, the characters, and the potential directions the future books could take.  You could tell when you were reading that it was a Gena book.  Now, I can be hit or miss with the Lords, but this one worked well for me.  Looking forward to the next one.

Kresley Cole‘s Poison Princess.

Kresley is one of my two favorite authors, so to say I was excited for this is an understatement.  But then, I started to have doubts.  How can someone who writes the HOT so well tone things down for a YA book?  What would be lost in the translation?  Turns out that for me, nothing was lost, and she did a great job in crossing over.  It is not a light book – in fact, things are pretty much dire with no way to go but down, but Cole pulls it off beautifully.  I loved this one.  It was totally unique, with great characters and storyline and almost infinite possibilities.  I can honestly say I have no clue what will happen next, but it will be big.  Very big.  I did see reviews where some readers had a problem with the characters, especially Jackson, but I loved him.  I didn’t mind the whiskey flask or the hot temper – I figure he was exactly what was needed for them to survive.  I do wonder if there is more to him than just luck can explain, though.  By far my favorite of the three.

So, who else dove into these three new young adult series?  Did you have a favorite?  Did any of them miss the mark for you, or will you be first in line for the second book of them all?

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