The novel I Hope This Doesn’t Find You by Ann Liang is one of my favorite books. This book follows the classic enemies to lover’s plot but with a little twist. The story is told from the point of view of Sadie wang, an overachieving girl in high school who is mortal enemies with Julius, the school's most popular guy. In this story we see how a sudden problem may bring these two closer or how it may make them hate each other more.
The Secret Year is a realistic fiction young adult novel that follows Colt through his junior year of high school. Labor day weekend, he lost the secret love of his life in a car accident. Although they were in love, no one was allowed to know. He was from the flats, and she was from one of the huge houses up on Black Mountain. Throughout his junior year, Colt faces his grief in secret, reading her journal entries written about their time together, allowing him to relive the best year of his life, the one with Julia.
The book Two-Minute Drill by Mike Lupica is a sports action story. The main character, Scott Parry, was the new kid at school. He is smart, but was used to being lonely. He always ate by himself, never talked to anybody and kept out of trouble. He decides to join the football team, but isn’t the best player. However, a new friend named Chris Conlan decides to help him out. Chris is the star quarterback, but is educationally challenged.
Dating in Dragons follows the shy new girl Quinn Norton as she starts at her new High School. Quinn is nervous about making new friends because her past friends weren’t kind to her, but she stumbles upon a group of kids on her first day and they happen to share a love of Dungeons and Dragons. However, Quinn soon finds out this friend group is also a very well-known group of D&D streamers, and they have strict rules for joining their campaign.
Thanks for Listening is a realistic fiction young adult novel that follows the high school senior, Mia, through her last high school musical. She finally got the position of stage manager, but no one will listen to her! That is, until she finds her voice as an anonymous help channel on social media. Through this journey, she falls in love with the mysterious new girl, and has to navigate the challenges of dating someone with lots of rumors swirling around them.
Frank Li is a Korean-American teenager who is very aware of the cultural gap between him and his parents. At the same time, he wants to be in a relationship with a girl who isn’t Korean, which doesn’t mesh well with Frank’s family. So, Frank plots a plan in which he and one of his childhood friends, Joy, can both make their lives somewhat easier. It follows the fake-dating trope mixed with unexpected outcomes and a wonderful navigation of cultural differences in new generations of teens.
Jonah and Dylan hate each other. No, really, they do. Dylan hates that Jonah can’t stand not being the center of attention for even five seconds and Jonah hates that Dylan is a perfect rich boy who sucks the fun out of everything. Their hatred for each other is not lessened by the fact that everyone thinks they’d be perfect for each other. When a circumstance presents itself, Dylan proposes a plan- if they fake date, they can stage a fake breakup, and everyone will stop expecting them to go out for real.
All Autumn Collins wanted to do this weekend was go on a nice weekend getaway with her friends and maybe confess to her longtime crus. While she was at it the crappiest luck possible got her stuck inside of a library alone instead. Well, maybe not fully alone. Instead, she is stuck with the school bad boy Dax Miller who she knows nothing about except that he might be trouble. She thought she would just be stuck for an hour or so until her friends realized she was missing but for some reason, no one is coming to get her.
In Kristy Boyce’s novel Dating and Dragons, Quinn Norton moved across Ohio to be closer to her eccentric grandma and to start a fresh chapter in her friendships, but now she has to face entering a brand-new school in the middle of her junior year. Things start looking up for Quinn when she meets and flirts with a cute guy named Logan Weber. Additionally, she is invited to join a D&D party at her new school, perfect since her last one utterly imploded.
Heart-shaped Lies is a young adult mystery novel that follows three girls through a hectic trip to Florida. These three girls : Navaeh, Kiara, and Priscilla are all intertwined through the viral prank star, Tommy. When Tommy mysteriously dies after a video that exposes Tommy cheating on his girlfriend, Kiara, with Priscilla and Navaeh, a full-fledged investigation breaks loose. Who saw Tommy closest to the time of death? Was it really an accident? Or maybe it was all the alcohol he had that night?
