Category: YA Fiction

Romance, YA Fiction

Love & Gelato by Jenna Evans Welch

Michelle

Grades 9-12

love and gelato.jpg

Lina’s mother’s dying wish is for her daughter to spend the summer in Tuscany so that she can get to know her father. The man that’s been absent from her life for 16 years. Even though it’s Italy, it’s the last place Lina wants to be right now. She doesn’t know anyone, doesn’t care to meet her father, and least of all, doesn’t care to live in the house in the cemetery that her father runs.

Then Lina receives her mother’s journal, where she reads all about her time in Italy as a photography student. It’s also where she became pregnant with Lina. The journal reveals a lot of things about Lina’s mother’s life, but it also leaves a huge question unanswered. Will Lina be able to find the answer while navigating her own love life?

Romance, YA Fiction

Slammed by Colleen Hoover

Michelle

Grades 9-12slammed.jpg

Layken Cohen’s father has just died and she, her mother and little brother move to Michigan from Texas. She quickly falls for her neighbor, Will, who also lives with his little brother. Will and Layken start hanging out, and he introduces her to a local club that hosts a poetry slam once a week, where he loves to perform. Read this book to experience all the feels!

Mystery, Netgalley Reviews, YA Fiction

The Girl I Used To Be by April Henry

Michelle

Grades 9-12
girl

Olivia Reinhardt is in her teens, but has been emancipated. Fourteen years ago, she was Ariel Benson, a three year old girl whose father killed her mother and then dropped her off at the nearest Walmart and disappeared from her life forever. Now, as Olivia Reinhardt, she learns the bitter truth about what really happened when the police show up at her door unexpectedly. They tell her that her father was actually murdered by the same person as her mother, and that person was most likely the one who dropped her off at Walmart that fateful day. Upon learning this, Olivia heads to Medford, where the heinous crimes were committed, in order to find out who the killer really is. She keeps her new name, so that everyone who knew her parents won’t figure out who she is. Will she find the man (or woman) she came to find? And if she does, what will she do if she comes face to face with her parents’ killer?

Thanks to Netgalley.com for a review copy of this book.

Romance, YA Fiction

You Are Here by Jennifer E. Smith

Michelle

Grades 9-12

you are

Emma Healy absolutely knew there was something in her life was missing. She finds out what that something, or rather, someone is when she finds a birth certificate with the name of her twin brother, and a death certificate for him two days later. Suddenly she realized why she’s felt so empty all her life. She and her neighbor Peter embark on a trip to find her brother’s grave, and when they do, learn more about each other and become closer than ever before.

Mystery, YA Fiction

No Such Person by Caroline B. Cooney

Michelle

Grades 9-12no such

From the author of The Face on the Milk Carton comes a mystery that readers will rip through. Miranda and Lander Allerdon are sisters who do what every girl does: fight with her sister. They are spending their summer in the family vacation home on the Connecticut River, and their sibling rivalry is taken to another level when they become involved in a tragedy that affects the entire town. Will Miranda and Lander be able to move on with their lives?

Thriller, YA Fiction

Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight

Michelle

Grades 9-12
amelia

Kate Baron is devastated and confused when she finds out that her daughter, Amelia, is dead. She had gotten a phone call from the school to come pick her up because she was being suspended for three days. The woman on the phone wouldn’t tell her why, though. Kate couldn’t understand why Amelia was being suspended, since she had never gotten in trouble before. When she got to the school, Kate found out that Amelia had jumped off the school’s roof and died. Why would she do that? And did she really jump or was she pushed? Follow Kate’s journey to find out what really happened to Amelia through her emails, posts and text messages and instant messages with her closest friends.

Netgalley Reviews, Sports, YA Fiction

The Flip Side by Shawn Johnson

Michelle

Grades 9-12

book cover

From Olympic gymnast Shawn Johnson comes a debut YA novel that everyone will enjoy. Charlotte, or Charlie, as she is known to family and friends, has a secret. She is training to win the gold in the Olympics. She spends all her time outside of school being the best gymnast she can be, until a certain someone throws her goal off – a guy who’s caught her eye. Can she balance her love life and her gymnastics career? Read The Flip Side by Shawn Johnson to find out.

Thanks to Netgalley.com for a review copy of this book.

Romance, YA Fiction

Starry Night by Isabel Gillies

Michelle

starry night

Grades 9-12

Starry Night by Isabel Gillies is a book about friendship, love, and life lessons. The main character, Wren, is attending a black tie event at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where her father curated a major exhibit. Then she meets a new friend of her brother Oliver’s. That friend’s name is Nolan. Wren finds herself in love with Nolan, and everything changes for her.

Of course, everything changes. That’s what love does to a person, especially a teenage person, like herself. Wren’s life is consumed by Nolan, her art, her schoolwork, and her three best friends, Farah, Vati and Reagan.

Wren has a chance to go to a specialized art program in France, and her whole future seems to be riding on her submission of the application. Does she follow her dream? Or follow her heart? Read Starry Night by Isabel Gillies and find out.

Romance, YA Fiction

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

Michelle
Grades 9-12
liars
This is a book about an upper class family named the Sinclairs who live on a private island. Well, at least they stay there during the summer. The book hooks you from the first sentence, and gets juicier by the page.
The liars are a group of kids—all the same age—who become best friends, and spend each summer together on Beechwood Island in Massachusetts. Their names are Johnny, Mirren, Gat, and Cady, the narrator.
Then Cady realizes she has romantic feelings for Gat, and the dynamic in the group of friends changes. They spend more and more time together and seem to be falling in love.
Things change forever for Cady when she has an accident and can’t spend summers on the island with her group of friends. She travels Europe and the rest of the world, but misses her friends terribly.
If you like books with a large family of characters interwoven to make a great story, read We Were Liars by E. Lockhart, but be careful because you never know which is the truth and which is a lie.
Fantasy, Mystery, YA Fiction

I Woke Up Dead at the Mall by Judy Sheehan

Michelle

Grades 9-12mall

Sixteen-year-old Sarah is dead. And she’s at the mall. The first person she meets is Bertha, who claims to be her Death Coach. She tells Sarah that she has been murdered; poisoned to be exact. Sarah is in a limbo of sorts, and Bertha tells her that her mission is not to get to heaven or hell, but to simply move on and finish her unfinished business. She is only sixteen, after all, and had her whole life ahead of her. Now she has no choice but to make the best of her situation. Readers are taken on a non-stop ride as Sarah becomes acquainted with the after-world and tries to figure out who murdered her, and why.