Book picks similar to
Love Is Not Enough by Marilyn Levy


80s
african-american
can-never-remember-elusive-title
novel

Sunshine & Rain


Dawn Desiree - 2003
    With their families torn apart from the vicious life of the streets, Sunshine & Rain find each other living with the same foster mother, Cathy, who has a secret life of her own.

Chernowitz


Fran Arrick - 1981
    A boy who suffers anti-Semitic abuse at the hands of a classmate during his ninth and tenth grade years plots revenge against his tormentor.

Only the Pretty Lies


Rebekah Crane - 2021
    It doesn’t in Amoris Westmore’s family either. Daughter of a massage therapist and a pothead artist, inheritor of her grandmother’s vinyl collection, and blissfully entering her senior year in high school, Amoris never wants to leave her progressive hometown. Why should she?Everything changes when Jamison Rush moves in next door. Jamison was Amoris’s first crush, and their last goodbye still stings. But Jamison stirs more than bittersweet memories. One of the few Black students in Alder Creek, Jamison sees Amoris’s idyllic town through different eyes. He encourages Amoris to look a little closer, too. When Jamison discovers a racist mural at Alder Creek High, Amoris’s worldview is turned upside down.Now Amoris must decide where she stands and whom she stands by, threatening her love for the boy who stole her heart years ago. Maybe Alder Creek isn’t the town Amoris thinks it is. She’s certainly no longer the girl she used to be.

The Child Wore Pearls


Morgan Matthews - 2020
    While the pair have always maintained a close relationship, the dynamic she shares with her mother has proven much more challenging throughout the years. Now at seventeen years old, June has found herself contemplating life beyond working at her father’s shop. Though it isn’t until she is befriended by a ritzy, older customer that June begins to come out of her shell. The woman’s kindness and infectious energy are a welcome addition to her young life the summer before her senior year of high school. However, secrets from her mother’s past begin to threaten June’s newfound happiness - calling into question all that she has ever known. Confronted with the often-perverse intentions of the human heart, the teen must uncover the truth which has been concealed by years of deceit.

Shattered (The Illusion of Truth #2)


Jenetta Penner - 2021
    

Firekeeper's Daughter Sneak Peek


Angeline Boulley - 2021
    In Firekeeper's Daughter, debut author Angeline Boulley crafts a groundbreaking YA thriller about a Native teen who must root out the corruption in her community, for readers of Angie Thomas and Tommy Orange. As a biracial, unenrolled tribal member and the product of a scandal, eighteen-year-old Daunis Fontaine has never quite fit in, both in her hometown and on the nearby Ojibwe reservation. Daunis dreams of studying medicine, but when her family is struck by tragedy, she puts her future on hold to care for her fragile mother. The only bright spot is meeting Jamie, the charming new recruit on her brother Levi’s hockey team. Yet even as Daunis falls for Jamie, certain details don’t add up and she senses the dashing hockey star is hiding something. Everything comes to light when Daunis witnesses a shocking murder, thrusting her into the heart of a criminal investigation. Reluctantly, Daunis agrees to go undercover, but secretly pursues her own investigation, tracking down the criminals with her knowledge of chemistry and Ojibwe traditional medicine. But the deceptions—and deaths—keep piling up and soon the threat strikes too close to home. Now, Daunis must learn what it means to be a strong Anishinaabe kwe (Ojibwe woman) and how far she'll go to protect her community, even if it tears apart the only world she’s ever known.

Kim/Kimi


Hadley Irwin - 1987
    Half the time she is Kim Andrews, living in her all-white Iowa community-the other half she is Kimi Yogushi, searching for her true identity. She must find out more about her Japanese-American father, who died before she was born, and his family, if there is any. Perhaps then she can solve her inner conflict.

Simply Divine


Jacquelin Thomas - 2006
    . . The daughter of two Hollywood superstars, Divine Matthews-Hardison lives the privileged life most fifteen-year-olds only dream of: she's all about designer clothes, awards ceremonies, parties, and having a name that opens doors. Divine could be a model, an actress, anything she wants. But when you live in the spotlight, there's nowhere to hide when your family falls apart. Her father is in trouble with the law, her mother has her own demons, and no one has room for Divine -- no one except her uncle, a Georgia pastor with a modest country home and a big heart. . . . but can Divine ever forgive? Divine can't believe she's been sent to live with her mom's family in the sticks. Doing chores, getting an allowance, and church-going are hardly what she's used to, and she lets everyone -- from her patient Uncle Reed and Aunt Phoebe to her cousins, Alyssa and Chance -- know she's not trading in her Gucci bags for a feedbag any time soon. But as the love and faith of a good family take hold in her heart, miraculous changes start to occur. And when the chance comes to return to her high-flying life, Divine is faced with her toughest decision: Now that she's found the one thing she's never had, could she ever leave it behind?

The Outside Shot


Walter Dean Myers - 1984
    That's the only way he'll have a chance of making it to the pros someday.But his street smarts haven't prepared him for the pressures of tough classes, high-stakes college ball, and the temptation to fix games for local gamblers. Everyone plays by a whole new set of rules -- including Sherry, who's determined to be a track star. Her independence attracts Lonnie, but their on-again, off-again relationship is driving him crazy.Lonnie has one year to learn how to make it as a "college man." It's his outside shot at a bright future. Does he have what it takes?

Divine Blessings


Norhafsah Hamid - 2020
    Their friends – Jaws, Linda, and Mat Bond are all leading happy lives despite adjusting to the commitments of adulthood. Through ups dan downs, their friendship remained strong.But in life, love and happiness require hard work and sacrifice.For some, life will come to a beautiful full circle – proving that eternal happiness is for everyone, even if one was once, so far away from God.*** It is easy to give up on everything when one is drowning in hardships. But there are divine blessings in life, if one seek them with eyes of mercy and gratitude.

Stonebriar Academy: School for Dragon Riders


Tom Boyhan - 2016
    Jamie and his mother have returned to his mother’s home, Aurellius—a world where dragons, dwarves, elves, and other so-called mythological creatures actually exist. It is a world created by the leader of the Dragons, Dragonith, and his mate, Gwenith. Even though life on Aurellius is not the ideal that Dragonith and Gwenith had envisioned, it is still far better than Earth, where the nine races have wreaked havoc and exploited Earth’s people. But now a movement, led by a group called The Sisterhood, would seize the powerful “Dragon’s Heart” in order to gain total control of Aurellius. Jamie is unwittingly being drawn into this struggle, with his very life at stake. In order to survive, he must learn many skills that he can only learn in Stonebriar Academy. However, competition to enter Stonebriar Academy is grueling, and only one hundred students will be granted admission. And gaining admission is Jamie’s only hope if he is to survive against the Sisterhood. Jamie desperately wants to be admitted to Stonebriar, not only to give himself a fighting chance against the Sisterhood but also so that he might learn something that a few short months ago he didn’t even know existed—how to fly with a Dragon.

Mrs. Fish, Ape, and Me, the Dump Queen


Norma Fox Mazer - 1980
    Fish, the school custodian, and gradually life becomes more bearable.

She Said, She Said


Celeste O. Norfleet - 2008
    She can barely handle one minute with her controlling, critical mom. But when they arrive, her life gets even worse! Her mother is suddenly acting like she's trying out for Moms Gone Wild, partying with her old high school crowd. Now Tamika's the responsible one: taking care of business and stuck on a nice guy instead of a player. She wouldn't mind a little bit of her old mom back. Wait a minute, did she really say that?

Vulcan's Kittens


Cedar Sanderson - 2013
    That all goes out the window the night Mars, god of war, demands her grandfather abandon her and return to Olympus for the brewing war. Now Old Vulcan is racing around the world and across higher planes with Sehkmet to gather allies, leaving Linn and an old immortal friend to protect the farm and the very special litter. But even the best wards won't last forever, and when the farm goes up in flames, she is on the run with a daypack, a strange horse, a sword, and an armful of kittens. Linn needs to grow up fast and master her powers, before the war finds the unlikely refugees...

Payback


James Heneghan - 2007
    His family has recently moved to Vancouver from Ireland, and his mother has died of cancer. Now he is desperately trying to fit in — in a new school, a new city, a new country — while holding a part-time job and keeping an eye on his little sister, Annie. Charley’s red hair and Irish accent at first make him a target of the class bullies, but he is tough enough — just — to keep them at bay. So it is almost a relief to him when the bullies find a new target, Benny Mason. Charley keeps hoping that Benny will defend himself, but he fails to intervene. When Benny commits suicide, Charley is overcome with remorse and guilt. He visits Benny’s single mom, Joanna, but instead of confessing, finds himself trying to make amends by doing chores, running errands, and befriending Benny’s little brother. Can Charley find atonement for failing to act? James Heneghan's trademark narrative drive, vivid characters, and strong social message make this a striking study of loss and renewal.