Some reviews say the Diamond Rose is more YA, or New Adult, than Adult. Why don’t I think it’s YA?

My understanding is that YA is more applicable to teenagers. The themes in a YA novel revolve around establishing one’s identity. The Diamond Rose touches on the identity aspect, but the prospect of finding love and then seeing it shattered to pieces because the man is a psychopath and cannot help killing people, that doesn’t seem like a typical YA theme to me.

However, The Diamond Rose is indeed the lightest book of the series. Amanda is barely 25. In Book 2, she’s 26, same for Book 3 and 4.

However, by Book 7, she is 30 years old. Book 8 is even later, I don’t pin it in time but Amanda can be presumed to be anywhere between 31 and 33.

In Book 10, she is 34, she is pregnant and gives birth, and terrible things happen.

In Book 11 and 12, this is a whole different world, in many ways, and she has reached the end of her term as a Sentinel. She is 35 years old. The issues in the last four books are nowhere near YA level.

Yes, a 25 year old woman is still a young adult. But make no mistake: it only gets darker from there. Slowly, ever so slowly, then there’s a jump into further darkness in Book 8, 9, 10. It ends well though, I promise. I’m not into dystopian stuff: the real world has enough shit and bad endings, as is. I write to create an escape from it. I invite you to join me in this escape and come into my world.

We are following Amanda as she grows older. Every book is slightly older than the previous one. So no matter what the Diamond Rose is considered to be – New Adult, perhaps- this series is never going to remain there. It is evolving, and it is evolving into darker and grittier topics, before ending on a brighter note.

This series is a journey. It is a hero’s journey, not a collection of random adventures. There is an evolution of the character, from one book to the next, as she ages and matures. It is this series’ strength and also its weakness, as the literary agents don’t want to touch something that isn’t firmly pinned in a category or, as it turns out, a consistent age group, overall.