Book picks similar to
Saving Grace by Katherine Spencer
young-adult
ya
realistic-fiction
realistic
Our Chemical Hearts
Krystal Sutherland - 2016
He fancies himself a hopeless romantic, but the slo-mo, heart palpitating, can't-eat-can't-sleep kind of love that he's been hoping for just hasn't been in the cards for him-at least not yet. Instead, he's been happy to focus on his grades, on getting into a semi-decent college and finally becoming editor of his school newspaper. Then Grace Town walks into his first period class on the third Tuesday of senior year and he knows everything's about to change.Grace isn't who Henry pictured as his dream girl-she walks with a cane, wears oversized boys' clothes, and rarely seems to shower. But when Grace and Henry are both chosen to edit the school paper, he quickly finds himself falling for her. It's obvious there's something broken about Grace, but it seems to make her even more beautiful to Henry, and he wants nothing more than to help her put the pieces back together again. And yet, this isn't your average story of boy meets girl. Krystal Sutherland's brilliant debut is equal parts wit and heartbreak, a potent reminder of the bittersweet bliss that is first love.
The Distance from Me to You
Marina Gessner - 2015
She has a loving family and has been accepted to college for the fall. But McKenna has a different goal in mind: much to the chagrin of her parents, she defers her college acceptance to hike the Appalachian Trail from Maine to Georgia with her best friend. And when her friend backs out, McKenna is determined to go through with the dangerous trip on her own. While on the Trail, she meets Sam. Having skipped out on an abusive dad and quit school, Sam has found a brief respite on the Trail, where everyone’s a drifter, at least temporarily.Despite lives headed in opposite directions, McKenna and Sam fall in love on an emotionally charged journey of dizzying highs and devastating lows. When their punch-drunk love leads them off the trail, McKenna has to persevere in a way she never thought possible to beat the odds or risk both their lives.
Nothing but Ghosts
Beth Kephart - 2009
Katie takes a summer job at a garden estate, where, with the help of two brothers and a glamorous librarian, she soon becomes embroiled in decoding a mystery. There are secrets and shadows at the heart of Nothing but Ghosts: symbols hidden in a time-darkened painting, and surprises behind a locked bedroom door. But most of all, this is a love story—the story of a girl who learns about love while also learning to live with her own ghosts.This is a heartfelt, lyrical tale from the National Book Award-nominated author of Undercover and House of Dance.
Prom
Ellie O'Ryan - 2011
For others, it's dreaded like the SATs. For Nova Prescott, it's a night she's been planning for months. It's prom. And all Nova wants is for Brandon to ask her to be his date. It looks as though all her organization will pay off, but then Brandon asks her to "carpool" so they can lower their "carbon imprint" and to make matters worse, an accidental fire causes the prom decorations to go up in smoke! By a funny twist of fate, the school rebel, Jesse Richter, is forced to take time after school to help Nova repair the damage. At first this seems like torture for both of them, but slowly Nova begins to see that there is something kind and warm beneath Jesse's motorcycle-riding, brooding exterior. Should she take the safe route and carpool with Brandon, or should she follow her heart and put her trust in Jesse?
Pants on Fire
Meg Cabot - 2007
But she can't exactly tell the truth, either--not when she's juggling two boyfriends, secretly hating the high school football team everyone else worships, and trying to have the best summer ever. At least Katie has it all under control (sort of). Her biggest secret, what really happened the night Tommy Sullivan is a freak was spray-painted on the junior high gymnasium wall, is safe.That is, until Tommy comes back to town. Katie is sure he's going to ruin all her plans, and she'll do anything to hang on to her perfect existence. Even if it means telling more lies. Even if, now that Tommy's around, she's actually--truthfully--having the time of her life.
Gone Too Far
Natalie D. Richards - 2015
Richards, the New York Times bestselling author of mystery books for teens, comes a YA psychological thriller book about a girl pulled into a dangerous revenge plot she can't escape, perfect for fans of Karen McManus and Natasha Preston.Piper Woods can't wait to graduate and leave high school—and all its annoying cliques—behind. But when she finds a mysterious notebook filled with the sins of her fellow students, Piper is suddenly drowning in their secrets.And she's not the only one who knows them. An anonymous text invites Piper to choose to punish the cheater, the bully, or the shoplifter. The popular kids with their dirty little secrets. With one text, Piper can make them pay.But the truth can be dangerous…A great buy for readers who want:Teen fiction with romance and suspensePulse-pounding twists and turnsShocking mysteriesPraise for Natalie D. Richards:"As addictive as it is unpredictable. Natalie will keep you second guessing until the nail-biting end."—NATASHA PRESTON, New York Times bestselling author of The Cabin on My Secret to Tell"Brimming with suspense and intrigue."—MEGAN MIRANDA, New York Times bestselling author of All the Missing Girls on My Secret to TellAlso by Natalie D. Richards:Five Total StrangersSix Months LaterMy Secret to TellOne Was LostWe All Fall DownWhat You Hide
How I Fall
Anne Eliot - 2014
The beautiful, smart, and possibly fragile photography-girl. You’re Cam Campbell. The guy who plays football 24/7 with no life. But what if during junior year, you decide to finally try for her phone number—until this glitter-crazed new girl ruins your plan. Worse, the girl is Irish, awkward, and insists you and Ellen should become best friends—with her! Only, you don’t want to be friends with a human tornado, and you think Ellen might need to stay a crush. This is because after one interaction you’ve discovered Ellen Foster really is fragile. Your problems and secrets are too big for anyone to understand.*WHAT IF YOU COULDN’T RESIST?*But what if the three of you wind up assigned to a group photography project, where rumors are already circling about the new girl being ridiculous? You know she’s nice but very alone, so you convince your crush to help protect the new girl. Suddenly, working on the project makes hanging out, texting, talking—and even high school—seem fun and completely normal when it’s anything but normal. *WHAT IF YOU KISS* What if you kiss Ellen Foster and it’s perfect enough to make you believe in things you shouldn’t. You tell her secrets and share your dreams. You make the kinds of promises and create plans to be together that might be impossible to keep when you’re only sixteen and your parents control your entire future, but...*WHAT IF YOU HURT HER...*High School Romance, Sweet young adult.Book one in the two-book How I Fall series, ending with How I Fly
This is How it Happened
Paula Stokes - 2017
A coward. Here’s how it happened.
When Genevieve Grace wakes up from a coma, she can’t remember the car crash that injured her and killed her boyfriend Dallas, a YouTube star who had just released his first album. Genevieve knows she was there, and that there was another driver, a man named Brad Freeman, who everyone assumes is guilty. But as she slowly pieces together the night of the accident, Genevieve is hit with a sickening sense of dread—that maybe she had something to do with what happened.As the internet rages against Brad Freeman, condemning him in a brutal trial by social media, Genevieve escapes to her father’s house, where she can hide from reporters and spend the summer volunteering in beautiful Zion National Park. But she quickly realizes that she can’t run away from the accident, or the terrible aftermath of it all.Incredibly thought-provoking and beautifully told, Paula Stokes’s story will compel readers to examine the consequences of making mistakes in a world where the internet is always watching…and judging.
Just Like That
Marsha Qualey - 2005
Liberated, maybe? Sad? Instead, there's only one thing she feels for certain: She's in for a pretty dull winter. Well, there is her job in the swimwear department. What better way to spend her time than watching strangers squeeze into bikinis?But then, in an instant, everything changes. Hanna finds herself the bearer of a major secret. She can't possibly tell her mother or her two best friends. She can't tell anyone. Even drawing and painting—always her therapy in the past—even these things aren't the recipe for the calm they once were. So when Hanna finds herself drawn to Will, the elusive boy she's noticed around town, the kind of boy who'd increase any girl's pulse, she doesn't hold back. Anything. What she learns about him will astonish her. But what she learns about herself—her friendships, her family, her life—will affect her far more.Acclaimed author Marsha Qualey explores, with honesty and wit, the heart of a young woman coming to grips with her life and the people in it—and getting used to the fact that everything can, and will, change. Just like that.
Playlist for the Dead
Michelle Falkoff - 2015
There was a fight. The next morning, Sam’s best friend, Hayden, was dead. All he left Sam was a playlist of songs—and a note, saying that he took his own life. But what Sam doesn’t know is: Why?To figure out what happened, Sam has to rely on the playlist and his own memory. But the more he listens, the more he realizes that his memory isn’t as reliable as he thought. Especially when someone claiming to be Hayden starts sending him cryptic messages, and a series of violent attacks begins on the bullies who made Hayden’s life hell.Sam knows he has to face up to what happened the night. But it’s only by taking out his earbuds and opening his eyes to the people around him—including an eccentric, unpredictable girl who’s got secrets, too—that Sam will finally be able to piece together his best friend’s story.And maybe have a chance to change his own.
Someone Else's Life
Katie Dale - 2012
Only when Rosie tells her mother's best friend, "Aunt Sarah," that she is going to be tested for the disease does Sarah, a midwife, reveal that Trudie wasn't Rosie's mother after all. Rosie was swapped at birth with a sickly baby who was certain to die. Devastated, Rosie decides to join her ex-boyfriend on his gap-year travels, leaving England to find her birth mother in America. But all does not go as planned. After Rosie discovers yet more of her family's deeply buried secrets and lies, she is left with an agonizing decision, one with heartbreaking and far-reaching consequences.Readers will be gripped by this thrilling emotional roller-coaster ride as a web of family secrets is ripped apart, profoundly affecting lives on both sides of the Atlantic.
Speak of Me as I Am
Sonia Belasco - 2017
For Melanie, it's the loss of her larger-than-life artist mother, taken by cancer well before her time. For Damon, it’s the loss of his best friend, Carlos, who took his own life. As they struggle to fill the empty spaces their loved ones left behind, fate conspires to bring them together. Damon takes pictures with Carlos’s camera to try to understand his choices, and Melanie begins painting as a way of feeling closer to her mother. But when the two join their school’s production of Othello, the play they both hoped would be a distraction becomes a test of who they truly are, both together and on their own. And more than anything else, they discover that it just might be possible to live their lives without completely letting go of their sadness.
Me Since You
Laura Wiess - 2014
That's how Rowan Areno sees her life now. Before: she was a normal sixteen-year-old--a little too sheltered by her police officer father and her mother. After: everything she once believed has been destroyed in the wake of a shattering tragedy, and every day is there to be survived.If she had known, on that Friday in March when she cut school, that a random stranger's shocking crime would have traumatic consequences, she never would have left campus. If the crime video never went viral, maybe she could have saved her mother, grandmother--and herself--from the endless replay of heartache and grief.Finding a soul mate in Eli, a witness to the crime who is haunted by losses of his own, Rowan begins to see there is no simple, straightforward path to healing wounded hearts. Can she learn to trust, hope, and believe in happiness again?
Spotting for Nellie
Pamela Lowell - 2009
It can be the difference between sticking a perfect landing or falling off the beam. It can be the difference between a really fun party or a totally messed up one. Or sometimes, as Claire finds out, it can even be the difference between life . . . or death. For Claire’s younger sister, Nellie, an elite gymnast who is "destined for gold," things have always come easy. A split second is usually all it takes to capture the attention of a boy at a party, and the judges at a meet, or their critical father — everyone. Then one night, one decision, one split second — changes their world forever. The two sisters get into a car accident that leaves one of them with a traumatic brain injury. Now, the sisters will have to figure out what’s worth fighting for and what are the limits of guilt, forgiveness, and sisterhood. Memories will come crashing back and secrets will come to light — whether they’re ready for them . . . or not.
Angel's Choice
Lauren Baratz-Logsted - 2006
Not that she remembers the act itself -- not the pain or the pleasure. But she is left with something that will never let her forget it: an unplanned pregnancy. Angel must make a choice. Abortion? Adoption? Keep it? None of these choices are easy and none of them are perfect. But there is one thing Angel is sure of. Whatever choice she makes, it must be the right one for her. Braced with that knowledge, Angel faces the toughest decision of her life.