my latest YA book recommendations

For most of the time that I lived in Buffalo I had a (friend and) coworker with whom I traded YA books and book recommendations.  We still keep in touch (mostly, intentionally, by hand-written letters), but we hadn't traded recommendations in quite a while.  Here is a very slightly edited version of what I emailed her yesterday about the YA fiction recently.¹

Recommended:

• Agatha H. and the Airship City by Phil and Kaja Foglio
  Novelization of graphic novel; not strictly YA (post) 
• Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver
  Realistic fiction with a bit of Groundhog Day-type abnormailty; I had the audio and hated it at the beginning, but really liked it by the end 
• Camilla by Madeleine L'Engle
  Old school realistic fiction 
• Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
  WWII spy; very, very good (post)
• Cinder by Marissa Meyer
  SciFi dystopian with fairy tale inspiration; very good (post)
• The Culling by Steven Dos Santos
  Hunger Games-y, though not as good as
• Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
  (post)  
• Feed by M.T. Anderson
  not the best dystopian ever, but worth the read (post)
• Matched by Ally Condie
  Dystopian series (post)
• The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater
  Paranormal with inspiration in Celtic legends; very good (post)
• The Seven Markets by David Hoffman
  Not strictly YA; SciFi/fantasy novel written by a friend of ours (post)
• Summerset Abbey by T.J. Brown
  Historical fiction, which they are marketed toward fans of Downton Abbey
• The Tragedy Paper by Elizabeth Laban
  Realistic fiction set in a (local to me) boarding school, very good
  

Other YA books I read in the last year that I wasn't so crazy about:
See also this post.
n.b. I do love dystopian fiction, but I think I have (and continue to) over do it.  I'm sure some of these books are on this list (and not above) purely because of overstaturation.

• Beta by Rachel Cohn
  Science fictiony dystopian
• Because It Is My Blood by Gabrielle Zevin
  2nd in a series (after All These Things I've Done) that I want to be better than it actually is
• Blood Red Road by Moira Young
  Dystopian
• Daughter of the Sea by Mira Zamin
  Ancient historical
• Enclave by Ann Aguirre
  Dystopian
• Foreshadowing by Marcus Sedgwick
  Unexpectedly forgettable 
• God Save the Queen by Kate Locke
  Not strictly YA; I wanted this to be better than it actually was
• I am Number Four by Pittacus Lore
  Fine 
• I am the Messenger by Markus Zusak
  Fine² (post)
• The Iron King by Julie Kagawa
  Features crossing over into Faerie, which I hate
• Legend by Marie Lu
  Dystopian
• Moonstone by Marilee Brothers
  First in a series (post)  
• Platinum by Jennifer Lyn Barnes
  I wasn't crazy about the first book (Golden), I just read the 2nd b/c it was around 
• The Peculiars by Maureen Doyle McQuerry
  Ok, but could have been better (post) 
• The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
  Too supernatural for me
• Safekeeping by Karen Hesse
  Dystopian light (post)

1. Recently in this case means all of 2012 and what I've read so far in 2013.
2. My original comment was "meh," but Jess' response made me sufficiently embarrassed to change it.