Interested in having your NA novel reviewed by BreathlessInk? Email Becca (at) BreathlessInk (dot) com and I will get with you as soon as possible!
What is New Adult?
The New Adult or NA genre focuses on characters between the ages of 18 and 26, who are transitioning from adolescence to adulthood. Until recently, most fiction was only separated between Young Adult or YA and Adult, leaving a wide chasm to fill. Finally, NA authors emerged, filling their fictional worlds with stories about characters thrust into the adult world to figure out their way.
I personally love NA, which is why I focus on the NA section of Breathess Ink, and also why I write New Adult in my writer life. It fills a void once present in fiction of a time in life when we venture out into the world on our own. Characters are moving away from home and making choices by themselves for the first time. In fact, that is another characteristic of NA that I love…all the many firsts: College, living without parents or curfews, first jobs, first loves and often first sexual experiences.
In NA Romance, stories focus on relationships between characters including the emotional drama of finding their independence. This always makes for a more dramatic read simply because most characters are leaving home and finding freedom of a life without borders only to struggle with new confines of confusing romantic relationships. New Adult protagonists grow and evolve in a way that characters in other genres do not. It’s what keeps me turning pages as well as writing them.
Now a little about the NA section at Breathless Ink:
I often choose the books I read based on their blurbs as well as recommendations of others whose views I respect. I find authors I end up loving and I go back, book after book. When a book request is made to me, I will read the blurb-did it grab my attention? I will look at the characters. I am all into character-driven stories. I want to see them struggle, grow, evolve, and move on to find their happily ever after. I look for couples who are, in the words of Meg Ryan from Sleepless in Seattle, “MFEO” Made For Each Other.
While there is no particular rhyme or reason to what I pick and choose, I do find myself returning to authors I love, which will explain a pattern of recurring authors in our NA section. But with that admission, I too like to grow and change. That means reading things outside of my usual menu, so I promise to make every effort to be diverse in the stories I read and review. And if I can’t wrangle myself in, I’m sure Becca and Steff will be up for the challenge!
SO thanks again for stopping by. I LOVE New Adult, and I hope you grow to love it as much as I do.
Laters, baby!
Interested in having your YA novel reviewed by BreathlessInk? Email Becca (at) BreathlessInk (dot) com and I will get with you as soon as possible!