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Complicated Father Relationships: A YA Reading List

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Surely, someone in the book blogging world — maybe even multiple people — will share book lists featuring awesome dads this weekend. There have been a lot of really good dads, especially in contemporary YA lately. 

But, father’s day conjures up less-than-awesome feelings for those of us who didn’t grow up with cool dads or even present dads. Some of us like to read books where the relationship between the teen and his or her dad is complicated, troubled, or absent all together.

The following are recent releases — published in the last couple of years — which feature those fathers who aren’t winning dad of the year. And it’s not that they’re all villains (though some are). Some are just missing. Some are not good at developing relationships with their teens. Sometimes they become better in the end and sometimes they don’t. 

Because my reading tends toward contemporary, most of these books fall into the contemporary genre. I’d love to know about other “bad dads” in YA over the last two years, so feel free to dive in the comments. I take “bad dad” loosely, too. Feel free to include those dads who do come around to make strong relationships and feel free to include the worst offenders.

All descriptions are from WorldCat, with reviews linked where applicable.

The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen: During her last summer at home before leaving for college, Emaline begins a whirlwind romance with Theo, an assistant documentary filmmaker who is in town to make a movie.

Dessen’s book makes an important, IMPORTANT distinction between the idea of “dad” and the idea of “father.” For Emaline, she’s grown up knowing her dad. He’s the guy who adopted her and married her mother. He’s the one who has always been a part of her life. Her “father,” on the other hand, is the one who is only biological to her. And while he’s in and out of her life, he is in and out of her life. He contacts her when it’s best for him. 

The biggest thing of this father-daughter relationship is Emaline’s realization that her father is never going to change. He’s always going to be an idiot when it comes to her. But what is important is in a single line Emaline shares, and that’s that she hopes her father gives the love he never gave to her to his son, Benji. Because even if Emaline doesn’t get the love from her father she should, it’s almost more heartbreaking for her to think that her father can’t at least give it to Benji. This is one of the few YA books I’ve ever related to the father-daughter relationship in, and it is going to stick with me for a long time because of just how painfully true it is.

Black Helicopters by Blythe Woolston: In a day-after-tomorrow Montana, fifteen-year-old Valley (now Valkyrie) and her big brother leave their underground den to fight a government that will kill them like coyotes.

Dear old dad is the entire reason Val is a bomb. He’s got her believing in government conspiracy and he’s hiding his true “job” from her — he’s a trafficker (of humans, maybe of drugs, maybe both). He also raised Val by teaching her to live in an underground den and always be fearful because the world is out to get you. 

A Midsummer’s Nightmare by Kody Keplinger: Suffering a hangover from a graduation party, eighteen-year-old Whitley is blindsided by the news that her father has moved into a house with his fiancée, her thirteen-year-old daughter Bailey, and her son Nathan, in whose bed Whitley had awakened that morning.

What father doesn’t tell his own daughter he’s moving out of his killer loft and into a new home? Or that he’s gotten married? Or that he’s married the mother of someone she goes to school with and — surprise — there’s a new step brother now? 

I will give that Whitley’s dad makes a nice turn around in the end, but that sort of blindsiding isn’t going to win him a lot of favorite spots. 

Happy Families by Tanita S. Davis: In alternating chapters, sixteen-year-old twins Ysabel and Justin share their conflicted feelings as they struggle to come to terms with their father’s decision to dress as a woman.

I’m including the Davis book not because Ysabel and Justin’s father is bad. He’s not. He’s just a very conflicted character and his choices make a significant impact on his kids. Dad is trans and coming to terms with accepting himself while at the same time, his kids have to come to terms with the realization that their father isn’t the person they thought he was, either, and that extends far beyond his sexuality. He’s a complicated dad character because he no longer really wants the role of “dad.” 

Scowler by Daniel Kraus: In the midst of a 1981 meteor shower in Iowa, a homicidal maniac escapes from prison and returns to the farm where his nineteen-year-old son, Ry, must summon three childhood toys, including one called Scowler, to protect himself, his eleven-year-old sister, Sarah, and their mother.

Marvin is the worst father I have ever read in YA. He is out for nothing less than blood and destruction. I mean, there’s a reason he was locked up in jail. The things he does when he escapes are nothing short of gut twisting. 

This is Not a Test by Courtney Summers: Barricaded in Cortege High with five other teens while zombies try to get in, Sloane Price observes her fellow captives become more unpredictable and violent as time passes although they each have much more reason to live than she has.

So Marvin in Kraus’s book is terrible, just terrible, but Sloane’s abusive dad is up there on the list of awful dads you don’t want to have as your own, too. It’s toast. He loses his mind over TOAST. There’s a reason Sloane wants her life to end, and it ties back to dear old dad. 

First Day on Earth by Cecil Castellucci: A startling novel about the true meaning of being an alien in an equally alien world.

The WorldCat description for Castellucci’s book is pretty bad, since it doesn’t tell you this is really a book about a kid learning to come to grips with the father who ditched him in order to start a new, fresh life with a new family. And that poor kid has to make the hardest decision of his life: walking away from attempting to build a relationship with his father at all because he knows deep down it’s never going to happen. 

Through to You by Emily Hainsworth: When a teen boy loses the love of his life in a car accident, he’ll do anything to get her back–even travel to another universe.

One of the hardest things in Cam’s life — aside from working through the grief of losing his girlfriend Viv in the accident — is figuring out what his relationship is with his father. There’s a scene in the book where he’s on the phone with his father and that tension and sheer anger is completely and utterly palpable and crushing. 

This is Not a Drill by Beck McDowell: Two teens try to save a class of first-graders from a gun-wielding soldier suffering from PTSD. When high school seniors Emery and Jake are taken hostage in the classroom where they tutor, they must work together to calm both the terrified children and the psychotic gunman threatening them–a task made even more difficult by their recent break-up. Brian Stutts, a soldier suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder after serving in Iraq, uses deadly force when he’s denied access to his son because of a custody battle. The children’s fate is in the hands of the two teens, each recovering from great loss, who now must reestablish trust in a relationship damaged by betrayal. Told through Emery and Jake’s alternating viewpoints, this gripping novel features characters teens will identify with and explores the often-hidden damages of war. 

To be fair, Brian Strutts is suffering major mental illness here with PTSD, but seeing that he took his son’s classroom hostage doesn’t make him one of the best dads out there. I wanted to include this book in my list because it showcases how adults can sometimes be less-than-awesome parents because of their own challenges. In the case of Strutts, he’s not out for ill intent, even though he does absolutely terrible things. He’s in desperate need of help he’s not getting.

Charm & Strange by Stephanie Kuehn (out next week): A lonely teenager exiled to a remote Vermont boarding school in the wake of a family tragedy must either surrender his sanity to the wild wolves inside his mind or learn that surviving means more than not dying.

The dad in this book is the real monster. He’s an abusive and terrifying creature who leaves the worst possible impact on his kids. 

What other YA fathers would you include on this list? Genre doesn’t matter — just keep them to within the last couple of years. Others I’ve considered are the fathers in Bronxwood by Coe Booth and Amplified by Tara Kelly. There’s also the dad in Barry Lyga’s I Hunt Killers and the father in Swati Avasthi’s Split.  

Unlikable Female Characters in YA Fiction: A Reading List

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I love complicated characters, and I especially love a good unlikable female. It’s something that fascinates me from the perspective of a reader and sometimes even more because of the reaction those characters elicit from other readers. When you read reviews of books that feature unlikable females or females who make choices which aren’t always the prettiest, the nicest, or the most logical, people react with either surprise, disbelief or sometimes downright hatred for the character. 

This doesn’t really happen with unlikable male characters, especially in YA. In my mind, it has to do with our perceptions of gender roles and our society’s belief that all girls are good and make the right choices all the time. Whatever the “right” choices may be. Unlikable girls are not easy to read. If you’ve never spent time reading the reviews of books featuring these kinds of female characters, I highly recommend it. It’s not as a means to belittle readers who are put off by unlikable characters. Instead, I think reading those reviews makes you a better reader and better able to assess character and character arcs. Not everyone is good, not everyone is nice, and not everyone makes the likable choices. 

Unlikable characters are realistic because they are reflections of us. We aren’t always likable, no matter what face we like to put on. 

In thinking about the contemporary YA I’ve read, it was easy for me to draw together a number of books featuring an unlikable female character. But because I am always curious about other people’s thoughts and reactions to less-than-pleasant females (or those who make the less-popular choices), I solicited the insight of a number of other librarians with whom I regularly communicate. 

Thus, a list was born.

All of these YA books were published within the last five or so years and feature female characters who are unlikable or who make choices which are easily classified as unlikable. I find often in the reviews I read that the criticism is launched at the whole character, rather than her choices, thus casting her choices as who she is — unlikable. I’ve included descriptions from WorldCat, along with commentary, where possible, about what it is that makes that particular character unlikable. Some come from the wonderful librarians who played this thought game with me on the Code Name Awesome group.

I don’t think there are any right or wrong definitions of unlikable. Sometimes what’s unlikable to me is what’s appealing and powerful to another reader and vice versa. So chime in with anyone you think fits your definition and share why. I’d love to have a nice thick resource of books featuring the unlikable female character. Also included at the end of this post are a couple of links to other pieces written on this topic that are absolutely worth reading for anyone who finds this topic as fascinating as I do.

Maybe worth noting as a general observation — something maybe I’d love more insight from from readers — is this: many of these characters who are unlikable come from privilege of some sort. Either they’ve had it all or they can get it all and they choose instead to not. I wonder how much that impacts our reading of these girls if it matters at all. 

Amplified by Tara Kelly: When privileged seventeen-year-old Jasmine Kiss gets kicked out of her house by her father, she takes what is left of her meager savings and flees to Santa Cruz, California, to pursue her dream of becoming a rock musician.

So what’s not to like about Jasmine? She’s a liar. And she’s unapologetic about going after what it is she wants, even if it means defying her father and potentially hurting other people to get it. She doesn’t make great choices.

Send Me A Sign by Tiffany Schmidt: Superstitious before being diagnosed with leukemia, high school senior Mia becomes irrationally dependent on horoscopes, good luck charms, and the like when her life shifts from cheerleading and parties to chemotherapy and platelets, while her parents obsess and lifelong friend Gyver worries.

The reason Mia can be an unlikable character is that she hides her leukemia diagnoses from her best friends. She also lies to them about why she’s not around. At times, she’s downright prickly and she doesn’t always make popular choices. 

The Opposite of Hallelujah by Anna Jarzab: For eight of her sixteen years Carolina Mitchell’s older sister Hannah has been a nun in a convent, almost completely out of touch with her family–so when she suddenly abandons her vocation and comes home, nobody knows quite how to handle the situation, or guesses what explosive secrets she is hiding.

Caro’s grief about losing her independence and status as only child turns into being cold and mean toward her sister, who is battling a number of personal demons. In being that way, Caro’s choices don’t always put her in the best light.

Not That Kind of Girl by Siobhan Vivian: High school senior and student body president, Natalie likes to have everything under control, but when she becomes attracted to one of the senior boys and her best friend starts keeping secrets from her, Natalie does not know how to act.

Natalie knows how every girl should want to be, and she’s not afraid to push her agenda, even if it means hurting other people. 

Cracked Up to Be by Courtney Summers: High school senior Parker Fadley has quit the cheerleading squad, broken up with her popular boyfriend, and is in danger of not graduating with her class, but she refuses to tell anyone what has precipitated this sudden change in her attitude and behavior, insisting that she only wants to be left alone.

Parker’s bitchy. That’s really the nicest way to put it. But it’s her defense mechanism and her coping strategy with the things she’s fighting inside for something that she may have been responsible for. 

Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers: Regina, a high school senior in the popular–and feared–crowd, suddenly falls out of favor and becomes the object of the same sort of vicious bullying that she used to inflict on others, until she finds solace with one of her former victims.

Mean girl Regina loses her spot on the social ladder after her friends think she’s slept with one of their boyfriends (not the case). But who is to believe her when she’s the kind of girl who likes to make other people’s lives hell? 

Pairing these two books together it’s interesting to consider how Parker’s unlikability compares to Regina’s. Where Parker’s struggles are more internal and she chooses to pull away, Regina’s are more external and she chooses to lash out. 

The Girls of No Return by Erin Saldin: A troubled sixteen-year-old girl attending a wilderness school in the Idaho mountains must finally face the consequences of her complicated friendships with two of the other girls at the school.

None of these girls are good girls. That’s why they’re at Alice Marshall in the first place. But it might be Gia who takes the cake of most unlikable. 

How to Save a Life by Sara Zarr: Told from their own viewpoints, seventeen-year-old Jill, in grief over the loss of her father, and Mandy, nearly nineteen, are thrown together when Jill’s mother agrees to adopt Mandy’s unborn child but nothing turns out as they had anticipated.

Jill is so hard to like, even though it’s understandable why she is the way she is and why she behaves as she does. She’s grieving both the loss of her father and she’s not entirely eager to have a new baby join the family as a replacement. 

The Disenchantments by Nina LaCour: Colby’s post-high school plans have long been that he and his best friend Bev would tour with her band, then spend a year in Europe, but when she announces that she will start college just after the tour, Colby struggles to understand why she changed her mind and what losing her means for his future.

Bev is pretty terrible in what she does to Colby. What’s interesting about this book, though, is that one wonders whether she’s really unlikable or whether Colby is partially to blame for not reading her the right way. 

The Children and the Wolves by Adam Rapp: Abducted by teen genius Bounce and her drifter friends Wiggins and Orange, three-year-old Frog seems content to eat cereal and play a video game about wolves all day–a game that parallels the reality around her–until Wiggins is overcome by guilt and tension and takes action.

Bounce is arguably one of the most vile characters — not just female characters — in YA lit. She is out for revenge by playing one nasty game of life and death and she doesn’t care who she’s going to take down with her. 

Me, Him, Them, and It by Caela Carter: Playing the “bad girl” at school to get back at her feuding parents, sixteen-year-old Evelyn becomes pregnant and faces a difficult decision.

Evelyn’s game of playing bad girl might end up showing that she really is unlikable in how she chooses to handle her accidental (or maybe purposeful) pregnancy. She is an up and down character through and through who makes a lot of choices which aren’t easy to like. 

Uses for Boys by Erica Lorraine Scheidt: Anna remembers a time before boys, when she was little and everything made sense. When she and her mom were a family, it was just the two of them against the world. But now her mom’s gone most of the time, chasing the next marriage, the next stepfather. Anna gets used to being alone, until she discovers that she can make boys her family, from Desmond to Joey to Todd. But filling the void comes at a price.

I liked Anna a whole lot and found her quite sympathetic. However, so many other people have cited her as unlikable, I’m including her. She’s unlikable because she drops out of high school and spends her days sleeping with boys — which is her way of trying to make a life for herself, much like her mother. Her choices aren’t smart, nor are they easy to like. Anna is an incredibly complicated character. 

The DUFF by Kody Keplinger: Seventeen-year-old Bianca Piper starts sleeping with Wesley Rush, a notorious womanizer who disgusts her, in order to distract her from her personal problems, and to her surprise, the two of them find they have a lot in common and are able to help each other find more productive ways to deal with their difficulties.
Baggage! Bianca’s gotta work through it somehow, and her attitude isn’t always pretty. 
The Princesses of Iowa by M Molly Backes: After being involved in a drunk driving accident in the spring, Paige Sheridan spends the summer in Paris as an au-pair and then returns to her suburban Iowa existence for her senior year of high school, where she begins to wonder if she wants more out life than being popular, having a handsome boyfriend and all the latest clothes, and being a member of the social elite.
Paige is really a princess type, but more than that, Paige begins a rumor that has some pretty terrible consequences for one of her teachers. Not to mention the fact Paige played a role in a drunk driving accident that hurt her friends and gets out of having to face the consequences by working overseas for the summer. But even though she wants her friends back, she’s not going to apologize because, well, it’s beneath her. 
Everything Beautiful by Simmone Howell: When sixteen-year-old Riley unwillingly attends a religious summer camp, she forms a deep bond with another camper who happens to be wheelchair bound.
Riley is judgmental! She is unapologetic in her attitude! And she definitely doesn’t want to hang out with these nerdy religious weird kids all summer. 
The Difference Between You and Me by Madeline George: School outsider Jesse, a lesbian, is having secret trysts with Emily, the popular student council vice president, but when they find themselves on opposite sides of a major issue and Jesse becomes more involved with a student activist, they are forced to make a difficult decision.
This is one I haven’t read, but it was suggested to me because Emily can be quite unlikable. 

Beautiful by Amy Reed: Haunted by serious problems in her recent past, thirteen-year-old Cassie makes a fresh start at a Seattle school but is drawn by dangerous new friends into a world of sex, drugs, and violence, while her parents remain oblivious.

Cassie has so much potential, but she makes a lot of seriously poor decisions throughout the story. The worst part is because she’s so strung out and her mind so altered, she doesn’t even care what happens.

Over You by Amy Reed (out in June 2013): A novel about two girls on the run from their problems, their pasts, and themselves. Max and Sadie are escaping to Nebraska, but they’ll soon learn they can’t escape the truth. 

Sadie is an awfully unlikable character. But it’s interesting because the story is told through Max’s point of view, and it is Max who comes to realize this as the story progresses. As readers, we see how unlikable Sadie is, but as Max realizes it, she begins to wonder if she needs to dump her all together or find a way to keep Sadie part of her life but at a distance she that her unlikability doesn’t rub off any more than it already has. (For what it is worth, Max may be one of my favorite characters in a long time, too).

The Mockingbirds by Daisy Whitney: When Alex, a junior at an elite preparatory school, realizes that she may have been the victim of date rape, she confides in her roommates and sister who convince her to seek help from a secret society, the Mockingbirds.

The Rivals by Daisy Whitney: Alex’s role in the Mockingbirds, an underground student justice system at her elite boarding school, is challenged when she tries to stop a group of students using prescription drugs to help other students cheat, as school officials turn a blind eye to the wrongdoing.

I find it really interesting the number of reviews that call Alex unlikable because that thought never crossed my mind about her. I realize there’s a difference between being likable and being sympathetic, but I wonder how much those two things intertwine in these books. The books start following Alex’s rape, and she’s out for vigilante justice for herself in book one and then for others in book two. That she wants a world that’s just and fair and wants to fight for it anyway she can? I see where people find that unlikable (she’s hardheaded and goal-oriented and not always making great decisions to get there) but I liked Alex a lot. 

Confessions of an Angry Girl by Louise Rozett: After the death of her father, Rose Zarelli struggles to contol her feelings and manage her life as a freshman in high school.
Dead Girl Moon by Charlie Price: Grace, a scheming runaway, JJ, her fostercare sister, and Mick, the son of a petty thief, become entangled in the investigation of a teen prostitute’s murder in a small, corrupt Montana town.
I haven’t read either of these titles, but both were recommended to me. A quick browse of Goodreads reviews suggests that they both fit the charge. Readers do not find either Rose nor Grace to be likable in the least. 
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If you haven’t read Sarah’s fantastic post on challenging female characters, do so. Not only does she talk about some of the books above, but she offers up a few great adult genre examples, as well. There’s also a nice list of further reading at the end of her post. 
I know I’ve linked to this post before, but I’m relinking so you read Courtney Summers’s post on why it is she writes unlikable female characters. This wasn’t her first post on the topic, either. 
Melissa Walker has a nice blog post, too, on realistic characters, which touches on the notion of likability.
Care to add any other contemporary titles to the list where the main character or a significant secondary character are unlikable females? Agree or disagree with any of the ones above? Can you think of anything coming out later this year that might also fit the charge? I’d love your thoughts. 

YAlien Invasion

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With the popularity of science fiction on the rise in the YA world, Kelly and I have been on the lookout for titles featuring aliens. Since today is Alien Abduction Day, we thought we’d honor our alien soon-to-be-overlords with a booklist.
(Stumper assistance: I read a particularly memorable book as a teen that involved a teenage girl getting involved romantically with an alien boy, but he was secretly only romancing her so he could take her back to his planet where she’d be repeatedly impregnated with alien babies to help save their dwindling population. At the last moment, he decides to leave without her because you know, they are in love. What is the title of this book?!)
The titles below were all published within the last five years and all feature aliens in some way, whether it’s a starring role or an ancillary one. Did we miss any? Let us know in the comments. Descriptions come from either Worldcat or Goodreads.

The Fifth Wave by Rick Yancey (2013): Cassie Sullivan, the survivor of an alien invasion, must rescue her
young brother from the enemy with help from a boy who may be one of them.
Adaptation by Malinda Lo (2012): In the aftermath of a series of plane crashes caused by birds,
seventeen-year-old Reese and her debate-team partner, David, receive
medical treatment at a secret government facility and become tangled in a
conspiracy that is, according to Reese’s friend Julian, connected with
aliens and UFOs. Kelly’s review
I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore (2010): In rural Ohio, friendships and a beautiful girl prove distracting to a
fifteen-year-old who has hidden on Earth for ten years waiting to
develop the Legacies, or powers, he will need to rejoin the other six
surviving Garde members and fight the Mogadorians who destroyed their
planet, Lorien. Kelly’s review

 
Stuck on Earth by David Klass (2010): On a secret mission to evaluate whether the human race should be
annihilated, a space alien inhabits the body of a bullied
fourteen-year-old boy.
First Day on Earth by Cecil Castellucci (2011): Mal lives on the fringes of high school. Angry. Misunderstood. Yet loving the world — or, at least, an idea of the world. Then he meets Hooper. Who says he’s from another planet. And may be going home very soon. Kelly’s review
Neptune’s Tears by Susan Waggoner (2013): It’s 2218 and Zee McAdams is in her second year as a healing empath
at a busy London hospital. When a mysterious young man arrives for
treatment, Zee’s hard won calm is pierced. She will need all her courage
if she’s to follow her heart, especially when David reveals a
devastating secret.
(This one is spoilery. Highlight it to read it)Ultraviolet by R. J. Anderson (2011):  Almost seventeen-year-old Alison, who has synesthesia, finds herself in a
psychiatric facility accused of killing a classmate whose body cannot
be found. Kimberly’s review

 

Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout (2012): When seventeen-year-old Katy moves to West Virginia she expects to be
bored, until she meets her neighbor who just happens to be an alien.
Alien Invasion and Other Inconveniences by Brian Yansky (2010): When a race of aliens quickly takes over the earth, leaving most people
dead, high-schooler Jesse finds himself a slave to an inept alien
leader–a situation that brightens as Jesse develops telepathic powers
and attracts the attention of two beautiful girls. Kimberly’s review
The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness (2008): Pursued by power-hungry Prentiss and mad minister Aaron, young Todd and
Viola set out across New World searching for answers about his colony’s
true past and seeking a way to warn the ship bringing hopeful settlers
from Old World. Kimberly’s review
 
A Long, Long Sleep by Anna Sheehan (2011): Sixteen-year-old Rosalinda Fitzroy, heir to the multiplanetary
corporation UniCorp, is awakened after sixty years in stasis to find
that everyone she knew has died and as she tries to make a new life for
herself, learns she is the target of a robot assassin. Kelly’s review
How I Stole Johnny Depp’s Alien Girlfriend by Gary Ghislain (2011): Fourteen-year-old David, the son of a famous French psychologist, falls
in love with Zelda, a new patient who believes she is from outer space,
and soon they are tearing through Paris in search of her chosen one,
Johnny Depp, so that she can take him to her home planet, Vahalal.
Bonus Middle Grade Title
The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex (2007): In the chaotic turmoil that follows the Boov invasion of Earth,
eleven-year-old Gratuity Tucci finds herself driving her mother’s car to
Florida, where all of the humans are being relocated, with her cat and a
renegade extraterrestiral named J. Lo as her copilots. Kimberly’s review

Display This: The Heart of it All

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It’s that time of year: the cynics come out about how much they loathe the Hallmark holiday of Valentine’s Day and the romantics find themselves swooning with the idea of what the day should be. Then there are the realists who say it lands somewhere smack between the two and move on with their lives while enjoying bags and bags of chalk candy hearts. But rather than offer up a booklist that features traditional (or non-traditional) romance, I thought I’d go a little more literal this time. These books feature hearts on their covers. Some of these books are romances. Some are not what you’d consider romances. But they feature the aesthetic commonality of the heart. There are some that even feature the heart in both the title and in the cover image.

All descriptions come from WorldCat. I’ve limited myself to books published in the last few years, and I’d love any other suggested titles if you have them.

Love Drugged by James Klise: Fifteen-year-old Jamie is dismayed by his attraction to boys, and when a beautiful girl shows an interest in him, he is all the more intrigued by her father’s work developing a drug called Rehomoline.

Recovery Road by Blake Nelson: While she is in a rehabilitation facility for drug and alcohol abuse, seventeen-year-old Maddie meets Stewart, who is also in treatment, and they begin a relationship, which they try to maintain after they both get out.

What Happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dessen (paperback cover due out in April): Following her parents’ bitter divorce as she and her father move from town to town, seventeen-year-old Mclean reinvents herself at each school she attends until she is no longer sure she knows who she is or where she belongs.

Love and Other Perishable Items by Laura Buzo: A fifteen-year-old Australian girl gets her first job and first crush on her unattainable university-aged coworker, as both search for meaning in their lives.

Heaven by Alexandra Adornetto: Bethany, an angel sent to Earth, and her mortal boyfriend, Xavier, defy Heavenly law and marry–leading to a confrontation with the Sevens, rogue angels bent on keeping Beth and Xavier apart, destroying Gabriel and Ivy, and darkening angelic power in the heavens.

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E Smith: Hadley and Oliver fall in love on the flight from New York to London, but after a cinematic kiss they lose track of each other at the airport until fate brings them back together on a very momentous day.

Purity by Jackson Pearce: Sixteen-year-old Shelby finds it difficult to balance her mother’s dying request to live a life without restraint with her father’s plans for his “little princess,” which include attending a traditional father-daughter dance that culminates with a ceremonial vow to live “whole, pure lives.”

Bittersweet by Sarah Ockler: Hudson Avery gave up a promising competetive ice skating career after her parents divorced when she was fourteen years old and now spends her time baking cupcakes and helping out in her mother’s upstate New York diner, but when she gets a chance at a scholarship and starts coaching the boys’ hockey team, she realizes that she is not through with ice skating after all.

Shooting Stars by Allison Rushby: Sixteen-year-old paparazzo Jo forms an unexpected bond with teen idol Ned Hartnett after going undercover to sneak pictures of him.

The Boy on Cinnamon Street by Phoebe Stone: Since a tragedy she cannot remember, thirteen-year-old Louise has changed her name, given up gymnastics, moved in with her grandparents, and locked her feelings inside but through her friends Reni and Hen and notes from a secret admirer she begins to find herself again.

Love? Maybe by Heather Hepler: Wary of romance following her mother’s second divorce and resistering her friends’ attempts to fix her up with the hottest guy in school, Piper’s life gets complicated when she receives a series of Valentines from a secret admirer.

Starting From Here by Lisa Jenn Bigelow: Sixteen-year-old Colby is barely hanging on with her mother dead, her long-haul trucker father often away, her almost-girlfriend dumping her for a boy, and her failing grades, when a stray dog appears and helps her find hope.

Between You & Me by Marisa Calin: Phyre, sixteen, narrates her life as if it were a film, capturing her crush on Mia, a student teacher of theater and film studies, as well as her fast friendship with a classmate referred to only as “you.”

Drain You by M. Beth Bloom: Even after Quinn Lacey learns that the coast of Southern California is crawling with vampires, she still tries to keep her job at the video store, convince her parents that she is eating well, and rescue her best friend from a fate worse than death.

Being Friends with Boys by Terra Elan McVoy: Living with stepsisters and having a bad history with female friends, Charlotte enjoys the easy relationships that come with managing an all-male band but things get complicated when dating becomes an issue, and she is urged to sing in public.

All These Things I’ve Done by Gabrielle Zevin: In a future where chocolate and caffeine are contraband, teenage cellphone use is illegal, and water and paper are carefully rationed, sixteen-year-old Anya Balanchine finds herself thrust unwillingly into the spotlight as heir apparent to an important New York City crime family.

But I Love Him by Amanda Grace: Traces, through the course of a year, Ann’s transformation from a happy A-student, track star, and popular senior to a solitary, abused woman whose love for the emotionally-scarred Connor has taken away everything–even herself.

Small Town Sinners by Melissa Walker: High school junior Lacey finds herself questioning the evangelical Christian values she has been raised with when a new boy arrives in her small town.

The Lipstick Laws by Amy Holder: When Britney, the most popular girl at Penford High School, invites April Bowers to her lunch table April is thrilled with her sudden change in status, but soon finds that Britney’s friendship comes at a steep price.

Mad Love by Suzanne Selfors: When her famous romance-novelist mother is secretly hospitalized in an expensive mental facility, sixteen-year-old Alice tries to fulfill her mother’s contract with her publisher by writing a love story–with the help of Cupid.

Hooked by Catherine Greenman: After their relationship survives Will going to college, their love is tested again when Thea realizes she is pregnant.

The Sweetest Thing by Christina Mandelski: Fifteen-year-old Sheridan, a master cake-decorator like her mother, loves her small Michigan town so when her father announces they will move to New York City, where his dream of hosting a cooking show will come true, Sheridan fears for her budding romance and becomes desperate to contact her long-absent mother.

Jenna & Jonah’s Fauxmance by Emily Franklin & Brendan Halpin: Two popular television stars who dislike each other intensely must pretend to be a couple for publicity purposes, and when the truth is discovered their relationship goes through many changes.

The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson: In the months after her sister dies, seventeen-year-old Lennie falls into a love triangle and discovers the strength to follow her dream of becoming a musician.

And Then Things Fall Apart by Arlaina Tibensky: Devastated by her parents’ decision to split up, pressured by her boyfriend to have sex, and saddled with a case of chicken pox, fifteen-year-old Keek finds consolation in her beloved, well-worn copy of Sylvia Plath’s “The Bell Jar.”

What We Keep is Not Always What Will Stay by Amanda Cockrell: Fifteen-year-old Angela, distraught over her mother and stepfather’s separation, confides in a statue of St. Felix that suddenly seems to come alive, after which she befriends Jesse, a nineteen-year-old disabled veteran, although Felix, her family, and friends warn her to be wary of him.
Pure Red by Danielle Joseph: Rising high school junior Cassia Bernard, daughter of a painter, plans to spend the summer discovering her passion so she has something to put on her college applications, but when her single father starts dating and then agrees to mentor a handsome aspiring artist, Cassia becomes distracted from her goals.

Unbreak My Heart by Melissa Walker: Taking the family sailboat on a summer-long trip excites everyone except sixteen-year-old Clementine, who feels stranded with her parents and younger sister and guilty over a falling-out with her best friend.

Glass Heart by Amy Garvey: Wren Darby is struggling to keep her life in balance as she juggles her blossoming relationship with Gabriel, shocking revelations about her family’s past, and the darker side of the powers that have been passed down to her from her parents. 

My Beating Teenage Heart by CK Kelly Martin: Two unexpected and heartbreaking deaths cause the lives of two very different teenagers to become intertwined as one struggles to deal with his grief and stay in this world, and the other finds herself inexplicably caught between this world and the next.

Paper Valentine by Brenna Yovanoff: Followed everywhere by the ghost of her recently deceased best friend, Hannah investigates the serial murders of young girls in her community.

Bonus: here’s a short list of titles that don’t necessarily have hearts on the covers (the Ockler being an exception) but have a heart in the title.

  • Instructions for a Broken Heart by Kimberly Culbertson
  • Break My Heart 1000 Times by Daniel Waters
  • Red Heart Tattoo by Lurlene McDaniels
  • Cross My Heart by Sasha Gould
  • Book of Broken Hearts by Sarah Ockler (available in summer 2013)
  • I Heart You, You Haunt Me by Lisa Schroeder
  • Rebel Heart by Moira Young

Can you add anything to the list? 

Three in the Big Easy

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If I were a more organized blogger, I’d remember to check the monthly calendar before scheduling posts to see if there are holidays or celebrations worth thinking about in terms of YA books. 

But since I’m not, I’m going to instead put together a quick and simple post about one of my favorite things: Mardi Gras. I had the chance to go a few years back and it was a blast (I’m not a partier — I loved the parades and the cuisine). 

In celebration of Fat Tuesday and the kick off of the Mardi Gras celebration, here are three YA books set in the Big Easy. I’ve read two of the three below, and what I love is how the three of these titles sort of give a lot of insight into the lure and the culture of the city. If you have others set there, feel free to drop a comment! Descriptions are from WorldCat.

My Mother the Cheerleader by Robert Sharenow 

Thirteen-year-old Louise uncovers secrets about her family and her neighborhood during the violent protests over school desegregation in 1960 New Orleans.

Ruined by Paula Morris

Rebecca goes to New Orleans to stay with her aunt and sees the destruction of Hurricane Katrina and meets a ghost girl named Lisette. 

Bonus on this title is the weaving of Mardi Gras into the story. 

Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys

Josie, the seventeen-year-old daughter of a French Quarter prostitute, is striving to escape 1950 New Orleans and enroll at prestigious Smith College when she becomes entangled in a murder investigation.