FIVE challenge: Five Great Miracles...

...That Occurred To Get Me Reading More Contemporary Fiction.
So. Day nine of the Persnickety Snark FIVE Challenge, and with that,  I present you the five novels I read this year that got me reading more contemporary novels.
I've probably mentioned once or twice how now and again that contemporary fiction holds few thrills for me.  However, as the year's gone on I've noticed that I've been reading and reviewing more and more of it; a  And these books are why.

LOCK AND KEY or basically ANYTHING ELSE BY SARAH DESSEN
I discovered Lock and Key in February, and since then I've been rapidly devouring Sarah Dessens, occasionally all in one sitting.  True, when you've read a few they all start to become slightly formulaic, but who cares when it's that well-written? When the romance is that sweet, but when the story still touches on serious issues?

FAR FROM YOU by Lisa Schroeder
Also a book that confirmed that I was completely obsessed with novels in verse. I could ramble on for a very very long time about how poetic and well-written the book is, but I need to touch on the contemporary part of it because that's what I'm here for. 
Anyway.  The main character, Alice, is one of the main reasons that I love this book so. Because she starts off irritating, and then by the end has changed into the sort of person that you'd want to be best friends with.  Her general outlook on the world was very...ordinary, and so as much as I wanted her to get a grip at the opening of the book, I guess it's no different from me if I had been in such a situation.

HOLD STILL by Nina LaCour
There are numerous books nowadays about suicide, death, and any other variation on the theme.  So it's hard to say what it is that makes Hold Still stand out. Well, to me, many things; the writing style seems to have a big impact.  And the main character, Caitlin, changes.  She doesn't just grieve and mope.  She makes friends.  She changes. She grows into someone who has lived through such a terrible event as the suicide of a best friend and come out the other end.

FORBIDDEN by Tabitha Suzuma
Because, seriously;  How many YA books are there about consensual sibling incest? And how many, of all those, are so well dealt with that something I imagine would make people all, "move awaaaay from the controversial topic" has been hugely well-recieved.  Hear hear, I should say.

LOOKING FOR ALASKA by John Green
The first John Green book I read, and for that I will always love it.  True, it's slightly bizarre; a boarding school in which students go to classes in their pyjamas and wander round quoting François Rabelais and García Márquez.  However, for all that everything about it seemed very real.  Miles' voice (yay for male narrators in YA!), the romance, and the devastating event that marks Before and After.