Technically speaking, I am neither a YA author, nor a Steampunk author. I mean, the genres both interest me in a "ooh, that's cool" sorta way, but I'm reading this series ("The Leviathan Series" by Scott Westerfeld) on the recommendation of an artist friend.
They're fun! Not super deep, but good action, some really interesting fusion of bio-tech and steampunk ("Darwinists" vs "Clankers" in the parlance of the book). It's a neat spin on an alternate-world WWI, and the lead characters are both interesting and fun.
They were certainly good enough to push me through reading the first two in a couple days... I'm languishing a little on the last one just because I hate saying goodbye to cool characters, and this is the last book they're in (for now, at least).
Anyway! Thoroughly enjoyable read, and I'm looking forward to incorporating some of the better aspects into my own work.
I'm also past the 9,000 word mark on my first draft of the new Tintian book (again? I think I was up past 10,000 a little while ago, before cutting an entire chapter). Slow, but happy progress.