Best of
Young-Adult-Contemporary

2013

A Kiss In The Rain


J.C. Quin - 2013
    He walked towards her, took off his jacket and wrapped it around her shivering body. "Miss are you lost? Do you need help?" he asked her. She looked at him, and for the first time he saw her face. She looked so beautiful, yet looked so fragile. She moved towards him, cutting the distance between them. Then suddenly, she kissed him on his lips. He felt her hands run through his hair. She held him at the nape of his head, pulling him closer, deepening their kiss. He doesn’t know why, but he kissed her back, wanting more. But then suddenly she pulled out of the kiss, looked at him and gave him her sweetest smile. And at that very moment, he fell in love. He doesn’t know what to say, and before he could utter a word, she ran away. "Wait!" he shouted while looking at the direction she was heading. But he didn't saw her. He started to walk and he pushed himself through the crowd, but still he couldn't see her. He lost her. His name is Jared and this is the story on how he fell in love with a stranger which started with A KISS IN THE RAIN.

Missing Pieces


Nicola Haken - 2013
    With an unstable mother who has a knack for making bad decisions, she’s never stayed in one place long enough to remember its postcode. But this time is different. This time, she has been dragged half way across the world. Arriving in California and being forced to go back to school feels like stepping back in time. She wants to go home…Until she meets Blaine Elwood – the stepson of an old family friend.Blaine appears to have it all. To the outside world, quarterback Blaine is rich, confident, and rocks the ‘arrogant bad boy’ image down to a tee. But nobody knows the demons that lurk beneath the façade. Nobody ever can. He has vowed never to let anyone get too close, let anyone discover how weak he really is. So when new girl Maddie starts tugging at strings he didn’t know existed in his heart, his only option is to push her away…Until he realises how much he needs her.When shattered secrets and splintered lies start unravelling around them, will the trust they’ve worked so hard to build be irreparably destroyed? Or will they realise they are two pieces of the same broken puzzle?* Missing Pieces is a revised version of a story previously published under the title Inevitable. Contains some strong language and sexual references. Also, please note the foreword regarding a subject which some readers may find uncomfortable, if certain reads can prove difficult for you.*

Invisible


Cecily Anne Paterson - 2013
    She doesn't make choices. She doesn't make friends. Jazmine Crawford only wants one thing: to be invisible. For Jazmine, it's a lot easier to take out her hearing aid and drift along pretending that nothing's wrong than it is to admit that she's heartbroken. She starts to come out of her shell when she's forced to be in the school play and even makes friends with bouncy Gabby and chocolate-loving Liam. But can she stand up to the school bully, and is she strong enough to face the truth about what really happened to her dad?

The Revised Life of Ellie Sweet


Stephanie Morrill - 2013
    But when “outcast” gets added to the list, she decides it’s time to take reality into her own hands … and tweak it as needed.In the pages of her book, she’s Lady Gabrielle, favorite of the medieval Italian court. Her once-friends are reduced to catty ladies-in-waiting, and the too-charming Palmer—who in real life never spares her a second word—gets to be nothing more than a rake wracked by unrequited love for her. She even has a perfect real-life villain in the brooding Chase, who hails from the wrong side of town.But just when she’s getting along great in her fictional world, the real one throws her a few curves. With Chase pursuing her, Palmer wanting to date her—but in secret—and the details of her manuscript going public, Ellie suddenly receives more attention than she ever really wanted. And when her former-friends discover what she’s been writing, they’re determined to teach Ellie a lesson about the severe consequences of using her pen as her sword.

Love Letters to the Dead: Chapters 1-5


Ava Dellaira - 2013
    Laurel chooses Kurt Cobain because her sister, May, loved him. And he died young, just like May did. Soon, Laurel has a notebook full of letters to people like Janis Joplin, Amy Winehouse, Amelia Earhart, Heath Ledger, and more—though she never gives a single one of them to her teacher. She writes about starting high school, navigating new friendships, falling in love for the first time, learning to live with her splintering family. And, finally, about the abuse she suffered while May was supposed to be looking out for her. This luminous debut novel has garnered exhuberant pre-publication praise from Laurie Halse Anderson, Jay Asher, Gayle Forman, and Lauren Myracle, and foreign rights have sold to six countries.

Summer Unplugged


Amy Sparling - 2013
    After catching her sending a less than lady-like photo to a boy who barely knows her, Bayleigh's mom sends her away to her grandparent's house for the summer--sans cell phone, laptop and Ipod. Bayleigh thinks the summer will be torture without social media...that is until she meets the boy next door.

Drama Geek


S.M. Dritschilo - 2013
    Katie O'Connell does--a Wish List actually. Because she longs to be someone new, the kind of girl you take notice of and remember. Someone who isn't just a part of the background. Unfortunately, Katie has no idea how to make that happen, but her outspoken best friend does: a Junior Year Wish List of goals, starting with earning a role in the senior play, and bookish Katie reluctantly agrees. Now she has barely ten months to meet all five goals that will transform her from a bookworm to a butterfly. Wish List in hand, Katie draws her motley crew of dramatic friends closer for support to launch her Junior Year with a fresh (somewhat anxious) attitude. Until the boy who was her first childhood friend, the boy who disappeared right before her tenth birthday, shows up on the first day of school pulling her quiet life into an emotional tailspin. His reappearance will start Katie's junior year with more questions than answers. Why did he leave? Where has he been all this time? Can friendships last after a seven-year break? Is achieving her Wish List possible now? Most importantly, will he be the one to make Wish Number Five a reality?Author's NoteFeminism is about equality and the freedom of choice. The choice to: wear makeup or not, to wear loose fitting clothes or tight fitting clothes or not give a damn about my clothes at all, to like boys or girls or both or neither. It’s about women having choices based on equality of the sexes. There’s no wrong way or right way to be a woman. Just like men, women can care about their appearance or not care, women can be thin or curvy, short or tall, women can be smart or ignorant, women have the freedom to be whatever type of human they want to be at every stage of their life.High school is the next step in a teenager’s life that allows them the time to explore those choices in greater detail just like college, or trade school, or their first paying job, or their fifth, or their 20th will. High school students are dealing with real life adult issues but with little autonomy—stress of home life, relationships, figuring out who we are, what we want to do, who we want to be, how we’ll change, how we deal with change, our sexual identity. High school is all about self-discovery, and, unfortunately, having to do it all weighed down by society’s pre-conceived notions and subjective judgments about our choices and the tiny cramped boxes they think we belong in.If you think it will make you happy, try being a drama geek, try being a cheerleader, student government, a mathlete, an athlete, a bookworm, a scientist, a journalist, a singer, a dancer, an artist, or an observer of life. Dress up, dress down, dress comfy…just be safe and be happy.Please, please, please don’t let anyone tell you who or what you should be, or how you should act, but also please listen to advice from others that's given respectfully with the hope that your path will be a little less bumpy than theirs was. Be and do what makes you happy, dip your toes into the waters of our beautiful diverse world, or cannonball in and explore every nook and cranny you want to until you find the perfect fit, and don’t be afraid if you outgrow what fits and want to try something new. That’s the beauty of life, we don’t have to be stagnant. We have the freedom to change.Katie wanted to explore and try something new, be someone different for a while to see how it fit, but she never lost her true self, she was-and always will be-a book-loving artist devoted to her family and friends.

How My Summer Went Up in Flames


Jennifer Salvato Doktorski - 2013
    She didn’t intend to set her cheating ex-boyfriend’s car on fire. And she never thought her attempts to make amends could be considered stalking. So when she’s served with a temporary restraining order on the first day of summer vacation, she’s heartbroken—and furious.To put distance between Rosie and her ex, Rosie’s parents send her on a cross-country road trip with responsible, reliable neighbor Matty and his two friends. Forget freedom of the road, Rosie wants to hitchhike home and win back her ex. But her determination starts to dwindle with each passing mile. Because Rosie’s spark of anger? It may have just ignited a romance with someone new…

Beyond


Melissa Pearl - 2013
    She loves her boyfriend Dale, but fearing rejection, keeps her feelings buried deep. She can’t even let on how heartbroken she is when Dale begins applying for colleges thousands of miles away from her; never even whispering a word about how much she wishes he would stay close.But, when Dale is rejected from Columbia University in NYC, due to a police record that follows him wherever he goes, Nicole soon discovers that love can drive her to do things she never thought possible.There's more than one way to say, I love you and Nicole Tepper is about to prove to Dale that she loves him beyond all common sense.

Pocket Forest


Kimberly Karalius - 2013
    Years later, in the wake of losing her mother, Harriet finally meets Stig only to discover a frightened young man clawing to regain a life no longer his. The darker parts of the forest beckon, where ghost-dogs patrol a crumbling boarding school and treasure, once lost, must be snatched back with bravery. This contemporary original fairy tale, complete with all the attendant comforts and threats, will pull you into the woodlands of the heart. After a limited edition print run from Deathless Press, this chapbook is now available in ebook form.