Book picks similar to
The Mural by Lauryn Brooks


lgbtq
ya
0-chemistry
suicide-and-attempted-suicide

Out on the Ice


Kelly Farmer - 2020
    These days, she keeps to herself. Her all-girls hockey camp is her life, and she hopes it’ll be her legacy. Sure, her new summer hire is charming and magnetic, but Caro keeps her work and personal life strictly separate.Amy Schwarzbach lives life out loud.Amy’s as bright and cheerful as her lavender hair, and she uses her high-profile position in women’s hockey to advocate for the things she believes in. Ten weeks in Chicago coaching a girls’ training camp is the perfect opportunity to mentor the next generation before she goes back to Boston.Letting love in means putting yourself out there.When the reticent head coach offers to help Amy get in shape for next season, her starstruck crush on Caro quickly blossoms into real chemistry. As summer comes to an end, neither of them can quite let go of this fling—but Amy can’t afford a distraction, and Caro can’t risk her relationship becoming public and jeopardizing the one thing that’s really hers.

If You Don't Have Anything Nice to Say


Leila Sales - 2018
    That all changes after she haphazardly writes an offensive tweet that she thought was a harmless joke. What unfolds is a barrage of Internet shaming and rejection from her community and closest friends. Winter seeks to redeem herself but first must come to terms with what she wrote and understand why there was so much backlash.

Forever Love


Abigail Taylor
    Blake's an ambitious skeptic who thinks true love doesn't exist. Will these two very different women find a spark between them, or will it be a passing glance?Leia is creative and thoughtful, and when a chance encounter with Blake, a stranger, stirs something deep inside her, she believes it is the universe speaking to her soul.Blake, despite her success, feels something is missing from her life but disguises her discontentment with a tough façade, which keeps her from opening her heart.Will Blake and Leia be each other's missing piece, or will it turn out to just be a dream?Join Blake and Leia as they are swept into a journey of self-analysis and soul-searching that could change their perception of love forever.This is lesbian author Abigail Taylor's debut novel and part of the Looking for Love lesfic series.

Second Chances


Eliza Lentzski - 2013
    Especially when you grow up in a small town where everyone knows your business and you can't avoid the gossip about your past. That's why, as soon as she graduated, Reagan Murphy moved to New York City to start again. Now in her junior year at NYU and with her childhood positioned in the rearview mirror, the future looks limitless. But when she unexpectedly runs into the one person responsible for the misery of her high school years, will she keep running or will she stick around long enough for a second chance?Allison Hoge, statuesque and beautiful, made sure she remained at the top of the social pyramid even if it meant stepping on a few heads to get there. But even she had her own secrets to evade after graduation. College can change a person - it can be a new start - an opportunity for reinvention. So when she unexpectedly runs into the one person for whom she made high school especially miserable, will history repeat itself or has she changed enough to be given a second chance?

Swipe Right


Mia Archer - 2017
    An impulsive swipe in a hot new dating app. A secret that will change their world! Eve played it safe. Keep quiet. Keep your head down. Graduate top of the class. That was the plan. Now if only she'd stuck with that plan. Because the plan didn't involve signing up for a hot new app for LGBT teens. It didn't involve discovering her former best friend on that app. It certainly didn't involve falling in love before she got to college where it was safer to come out! Lily was popular. Lily was high school royalty. Lily had it all, and she hated her life. More specifically she hated Lisa and the crowd of mean girls she called friends. Sure she was with the popular crowd, but it came at a price. Like being forced to play along when Lisa forced her to join some new gay dating app so they could find and out anyone using it. Only what started as a prank becomes a whole lot more as Lily realizes there are more important things than being popular. Even if she is risking the only life she knows for feelings that are strange, new, and more than a little scary! Two girls from different worlds. Two girls afraid of what they're feeling. Two girls who will have to risk it all for a chance at love!

Suddenly


M.E. Tudor - 2012
    J. Thomas.Jamie and P. J. have gone to the same school since grade school but, because they ran in different circles, Jamie had never really paid much attention to P. J. She only knew that P. J. had been in a lot of trouble over the past few years and had run with a rough crowd. After seeing P. J. working at McDonald’s, thoughts of P. J. fill Jamie’s mind and she realizes she is developing a crush on this girl.Fate intertwines the girls’ lives and they slowly become friends. Some of the other people in Jamie’s life are not happy about the budding friendship between the two girls, including Jamie’s ex-boyfriend, Todd; the leader of her cheerleading squad, Diane; and Jamie’s mother. The two girls have to deal with friends and family finding out about their relationship. Jamie’s mother is determined to keep the two girls apart. P. J. is determined not to lose Jamie. In the end, the two girls find they have allies in unexpected places. Allies who want to help the girls be together, hopefully forever.

Vivaldi in the Dark


Matthew J. Metzger - 2013
    How do you stop a dangerous depression rooted in the same thing that makes someone what they are? Dark moods, blank apathy, and the undertow of self-loathing all simmer beneath Darren's dry and beautiful veneer, and Jayden feels powerless to stop them.Then a mugging gone wrong takes the music forcibly away, and Jayden is finally given the chance to change Darren's life -- and, quite literally, his mind.

Making the Team


Lark Maren - 2019
    They think the fact that she retired and took a job coaching our college team is the greatest thing that ever happened to the Marchant State Hawks. They don't know the real Penelope Flynn. I've spent the last eight years of my life trying to erase the pain she caused me back in high school when she broke my heart and left me crying in the dugout. If she thinks she's going to ruin my senior year of college, she has another thing coming.All I need is to make it through the playoffs, keep my grades at a passable level, and hopefully sign a professional contract of my own, but whenever she's near me, I just can't think straight.Maybe it's because I simply hate her so much...or maybe, it's time to finish what we started. Making the Team is a steamy full length 55,000 word lesbian romance novel featuring an enemies to lovers theme, a ragtag women's college softball team, and a guaranteed HEA.

Head Above Water


Emma Chamberlain - 2020
    Blonde and unpolished, Zoe struggles to fit in with the high-caliber rich crowd at Brentwood High. A scholarship honey, her athletics carry her far. Ryan Astor, on the other hand, has all the money and all the brains, but she can't seem to overcome her emotional struggles after a brutal year of disappointments and a disastrous summer away.When a random party lands Ryan in Zoe's lap, Zoe can't seem to shake her new addiction to the somewhat shy and obviously beautiful girl.

How Many Letters Are In Goodbye?


Yvonne Cassidy - 2014
    That was the summer before the accident. The summer before Rhea began to keep her first secret.Now about to turn eighteen, Rhea finds herself alone on the streets of New York with nobody to talk to about the future, or the past. So, just like she used to do as a little girl, she begins a letter with the words 'Dear Mum' and tells her mother the things she can't tell anyone else.In the city where Allison Farrell was born, her daughter begins to delve into her past. And as she uncovers more about who her mother truly was, Rhea starts to figure out exactly who she herself wants to be. And that sometimes it takes longer than you think to say goodbye...

Finding Nevo


Nevo Zisin - 2017
    Nevo was not born in the wrong body. Nevo just wants everyone to catch up with all that Nevo is. Personal, political and passionate, Finding Nevo is an autobiography about gender and everything that comes with it.

My NFL Bad Boy and Me


Tayxwriter
    Sequel to The QB Bad Boy and Me.

Game of Hearts


Jea Hawkins - 2017
     The last thing Tori wants is to live her life by anyone else’s rules but her own. Ever since she left the world of country clubs and debutante balls behind, she has lived free of the standards imposed by others. But something is missing… …and that something is Madeleine, a carefree grad student from the same upper class social circles. The attraction is unexpected and, to Tori’s surprise, more liberating than the life she has cultivated for herself. Piece by piece, Madeleine takes down the wall that conflict and heartbreak have built around Tori’s emotions. Is loving Madeleine the key to Tori’s healing and happiness? And is Tori willing to step back into that world, even just a little, to take a chance on a love that could last?

Lessons in Falling


Diana Gallagher - 2017
    She won’t risk breaking her body—and heart—again.LESSON TWO: Catch your best friend when she falls—or regret it forever.Rules are meant to be broken, according to Savannah’s best friend, Cassie—and it’s more fun to break them together. But when Cassie attempts suicide, Savannah’s left wondering how well she really knows her.LESSON THREE: Leaping forward, not knowing where you’ll land, is the hardest of all.Falling for Marcos wasn’t part of the plan. Not only did he save Cassie’s life, he also believes Savannah can still achieve her dreams. Except Cassie thinks Marcos and gymnastics will only break Savannah’s heart.As Savannah tumbles and twists through toxic friendships and crushing parental expectations, she realizes you never know who will be there when you fall.

Love Blind


Christa Desir - 2016
    Stupid things really. Things that Hailey shouldn't worry about, wouldn’t worry about if she didn’t wake up every morning with the world a little more blurry. Unable to see her two moms clearly. Unable to read the music for her guitar. One step closer to losing the things she cares about the most. For a while, the only thing that keeps Hailey moving forward is the feeling she gets when she crosses something off the list. Then she meets Kyle. He mumbles—when he talks at all—and listens to music to drown out his thoughts. He’s loaded down with fears, too. So Hailey talks him into making his own list. Together, they stumble into an odd friendship, helping each other tackle one after another of their biggest fears. But fate and timing can change everything. And sometimes facing your worst fear makes you realize you had nothing to lose after all.