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Romance Booklist

Bagdasarian, Adam. First French Kiss and other traumas.
The author recounts humorous, sad, traumatic, romantic, and confusing episodes from his childhood.
Bauer, John. Hope Was Here.
When sixteen-year-old Hope and the aunt who has raised her move from Brooklyn to Mulhoney, Wisconsin, to work as waitress and cook in the Welcome Stairways diner, they become involved with the diner owner's political campaign to oust the town's corrupt mayor.
Thwonk.
A cupid doll comes to life and offers romantic assistance to A.J., a teenage photographer suffering from unrequited love.
Block, Francesca Lia. Baby Be-Bop.
Dirk MacDonald, a sixteen-year-old boy living in Los Angeles, comes to terms with being gay after he receives surreal storytelling visitations from his dead father and great-grandmother.
Blume, Judy. Forever...: a novel.
Katherine and Michael, along with various friends and acquaintances in suburban New Jersey, discover the possibilities and limitations of love and personal commitment
Brashares, Ann. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.
During summer break, longtime friends Lena, Tibby, Carmen, and Bridget each embark on adventures that they share with each other through a pair of jeans that they have decided will be worn by all and so will absorb all of their stories.
Cabot, Meg. Princess in Love.
In a series of humorous diary entries, a New York City ninth grader agonizes over her love life, final exams, and future role as the princess of Genovia
Additional Titles.
Cart, Michael. Editor. Love and Sex: ten stories of truth.
Covering an array of topics and situations, a collection of stories about love and sex includes works by Joan Bauer, Angela Johnson, Chris Lynch, Garth Nix, and Laurie Halse Anderson.
Clark, Catherine. Truth or Dairy.
When her boyfriend suddenly dumps her because he is going away to college, high school senior Courtney Von Dragen Smith is determined to stay single for her final year in order to concentrate on school, friends, and her cool job at the local vegetarian café, Truth or Dairy.
Wurst Case Scenario.
Courtney, a vegetarian animal-rights activist, records in her diary the events of the beginning of her freshman year at a Wisconsin college, far away from Colorado and her boyfriend Grant, surrounded by cheese- and meat-lovers.
Maine Squeeze.
Colleen Templeton spends a romantic summer before starting college working at Bobb's Lobster, sorting out her feelings for two possible boyfriends, and sharing a house with friends on the tiny Maine island she calls home.
Conford, Ellen. If This is Love I'll Take Spaghetti.
Nine short stories explore the trials and tribulations of teenage life.
Crew, Linda. Children of the River.
Having fled Cambodia four years earlier to escape the Khmer Rouge army, seventeen-year-old Sundara is torn between remaining faithful to her own people and enjoying life in her Oregon high school as a "regular" American.
Crutcher, Chris. Running Loose.
During his final year of high school, eighteen-year-old Louis Banks discovers the meaning of love, sportsmanship, and death as he grows into manhood.
Danziger, Paula. There's a Bat in Bunk Five.
On her own for the first time, fourteen-year-old Marcy tries to cope with the new people and situations she encounters while working as a counselor at an arts camp.
Deaver, Julie Reece. Say Goodnight, Gracie.
When a car accident kills her best friend Jimmy, with whom she has shared everything from childhood escapades to breaking into the professional theater scene in Chicago, seventeen-year-old Morgan must find her own way of coping with his death.
Dent, Grace. LBD Live and Fabulous.
Now fifteen years old, Ronnie, Fleur, and Claude, with Fleur's sister as their chaperone, are having the time of their lives at the Astlebury music festival when Fleur suddenly disappears while crowd surfing.
Dessen, Sarah. Dreamland.
After her older sister runs away, sixteen-year-old Caitlin decides that she needs to make a major change in her own life and begins an abusive relationship with a boy who is mysterious, brilliant, and dangerous.
Keeping the Moon
Fifteen-year-old Colie, a former fat girl, spends the summer working as a waitress in a beachside restaurant, staying with her overweight and eccentric Aunt Mira, and trying to explore her sense of self.
This Lullaby
Raised by a mother who's had five husbands, eighteen-year-old Remy believes in short-term, no-commitment relationships until she meets Dexter, a rock band musician.
That Summer. During the summer of her divorced father's remarriage and her sister's wedding, fifteen-year-old Haven comes into her own by letting go of the myths of the past.
Disher, Garry. The divine wind: a love story
On the eve of World War II, Hart, an Australian boy and Mitsy, a Japanese-Australian girl, fall in love but are driven apart.
Ferris, Jean. Love Among the Walnuts, or, How I saved my family from being poisoned.
Born and raised in isolation in a wealthy, eccentric family, Sandy is shocked when he, his parents, and their servants become victims of a vicious plot by his greedy uncles to incapacitate them and take their money.
Freymann-Weyr, Garret. My Heartbeat.
As she tries to understand the closeness between her older brother and his best friend, fourteen-year-old Ellen finds her relationship with each of them changing.
Garden, Nancy. Annie on my mind.
Liza puts aside her feelings for Annie after the disaster at school, but eventually she allows love to triumph over the ignorance of people.
Good moon rising.
Jan begins her senior year of high school not expecting that she will lose the starring part in the school play, take over as director when her beloved drama teacher becomes ill, and realize that she is a lesbian.
Goldman, William. The Princess Bride.
Return to a time when men were men and swamps were fire swamps, full of quicksand and rodents of unusual size. Lagoons were inhabited by shrieking eels, and the most beautiful woman in the world was named...Buttercup? Well, it's a bent fairy tale, complete with all the fencing, fighting, chases, escapes and silly accents you'd expect.
Haddix, Margaret Peterson. Just Ella.
In this continuation of the Cinderella story, fifteen-year-old Ella finds that accepting Prince Charming's proposal ensnares her in a suffocating tangle of palace rules and royal etiquette, so she plots to escape.
Hopkins, Cathy. Mates, Dates, and Sequin Smiles.
Embarrassed by her braces and displeased with her looks, Nesta decides to hide away in shame and live as a recluse, but after she meets Luke, Nesta's womanly confidence is returned and a new zest for living is revealed.
Jordan, Sherryl. The raging quiet.
Suspicious of sixteen-year-old Marnie, a newcomer to their village, the residents accuse her of witchcraft when she discovers that the village madman is not crazy but deaf and she begins to communicate with him through hand gestures.
Jukes, Mavis. Cinderella 2000.
Fourteen-year-old Ashley has her heart set on spending New Year's Eve 1999 at an exclusive country club party with an Almost Boyfriend, but her plan is endangered by her stepmother and two bratty stepsisters.
Kerr, M.E. "Hello," I Lied.
Summering in the Hamptons on the estate of a famous rock star, seventeen-year-old Lang tries to decide how to tell his longtime friends that he is gay, while struggling with an unexpected infatuation with a girl from France.
Klause, Annette Curtis. Blood and Chocolate.
Having fallen for a human boy, a beautiful teenage werewolf must battle both her packmates and the fear of the townspeople to decide where she belongs and with whom.
The Silver Kiss.
A mysterious teenage boy harboring a dark secret helps Zoë come to terms with her mother's terminal illness.
Koertge, Ron. The Arizona Kid.
Sixteen-year-old Billy spends the summer with his gay uncle in Tucson and works at a racetrack where he falls in love with an outspoken horse exerciser named Cara Mae.
Korman, Gordon. Son of the Mob.
Seventeen-year-old Vince's life is constantly complicated by the fact that he is the son of a powerful Mafia boss, a relationship that threatens to destroy his romance with the daughter of an FBI agent.
Levithan, David. Boy Meets Boy.
When Paul falls hard for Noah, he thinks he has found his one true love, but when Noah walks out of his life, Paul has to find a way to get him back and make everything right once more.
The Realm of Possibility.
A variety of students at the same high school describe their ideas, experiences, and relationships in a series of interconnected free verse stories.
Levine, Gail Carson. Ella enchanted.
In this novel based on the story of Cinderella, Ella struggles against the childhood curse that forces her to obey any order given to her.
McCafferty, Megan.Sloppy Firsts.
Devastated when her best friend moves away, sixteen-year-old Jessica Darling feels isolated at school and at home, as she struggles to deal with her father's obsession with her track meets, her boy-crazy peers, and her own nonexistent love life.
McKinley, Robin. Beauty : a retelling of the story of Beauty & the beast.
Kind Beauty grows to love the Beast at whose castle she is compelled to stay and through her love releases him from the spell which had turned him from a handsome prince into an ugly beast.
Rose Daughter.
Beauty grows to love the Beast at whose castle she is compelled to stay, and through her love he is released from the curse that had turned him from man to beast.
Moriarty, Jaclyn. Feeling Sorry for Celia.
An epistolary novel uses letters written between teenage friends, refrigerator notes from a crazy mother, and epistles that express the narrator's own internal feelings of self-doubt to weave this bittersweet coming of age story.
The Year of Secret Assignments.
Three female students from Ashbury High write to three male students from rival Brookfield High as part of a pen pal program, leading to romance, humiliation, revenge plots, and war between the schools.
Napoli, Donna Jo. Sirena.
The gods grant immortality to the mermaid Sirena when she rescues a human man from the sea and they fall in love, but his mortality creates great conflict between love and honor when he is called to defend Greece in the Trojan War.
Zel.
Based on the fairy tale Rapunzel, the story is told in alternating chapters from the point of view of Zel, her mother, and the nobleman who pursues her, and delves into the psychological motivations of each of the characters.
Pearson, Mary E. Scribbler of Dreams.
Despite her family's long feud with the Crutchfields, seventeen-year-old Kaitlin falls in love with Bram Crutchfield and weaves a tangled web of deception to conceal her identity from him.
Peck, Richard. Close Enough to Touch.
Plummer, Louise. The Unlikely Romance of Kate Bjorkman.
Seventeen-year-old Kate hopes for romance when her older brother's friend Richard comes to stay at their house during Christmas vacation.
Powell, Randy. Is Kissing a Girl who Smokes like Licking an Ashtray?
An eighteen-year-old pinball addict and a smart-mouthed girl who don't quite fit in with anyone else develop a special relationship
The Whistling Toilets.
While coaching tennis for a group of inner city "runts" as well as for his friend Ginny, a star player, sixteen-year-old Stan grows in understanding himself and others.
Randle, Kristin. Breaking Rank.
Seventeen-year-old Casey has some of her preconceived notions challenged when she begins to tutor Baby, a member of a ganglike non-conformist society called the Clan.
Rennison, Louise. Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging: Confessions of Georgia Nicholson.
Presents the humorous journal of a year in the life of a fourteen-year-old British girl who tries to reduce the size of her nose, stop her mad cat from terrorizing the neighborhood animals, and win the love of handsome hunk Robbie.
On the Bright Side, I'm Now the Girlfriend of a Sex God.
Fourteen-year-old Georgia continues her diary in which she records her misadventures trying to reclaim the attention of seventeen-year-old Robbie, while coping with her friends, family, and dog-like cat Angus at the same time.
Additional Titles.
Rylant, Cynthia. A couple of kooks and other stories about love.
A collection of eight short stories in which a variety of special characters experience the transfiguring power of love.
Thomas, Rob. Rats saw God.
In hopes of graduating, Steve York agrees to complete a hundred-page writing assignment which helps him to sort out his relationship with his famous astronaut father and the events that changed him from promising student to troubled teen.
Wersba, Barbara. Fat: A Love Story
Wild, Margaret. Jinx.
With the help of her understanding mother and a close friend, Jen eventually outgrows her nickname, Jinx, and deals with the deaths of two boys with whom she had been involved.
Wittlinger, Ellen. Hard Love.
After starting to publish a zine in which he writes his secret feelings about his lonely life and his parents' divorce, sixteen-year-old John meets an unusual girl and begins to develop a healthier personality.
Heart on My Sleeve.
From the end of high school to the beginning of college, Chloe and Julian deal with major changes in their families and friendships and explore their feelings for each other through emails, letters, and a visit.
Razzle.
When his retired parents buy a group of tourist cabins on Cape Cod, fifteen-year-old Kenyon Baker's days are filled with repair work until he becomes friends with an eccentric girl and makes her the subject of a series of photographs.
Wolff, Virginia Ewer. True Believer.
Living in the inner city amidst guns and poverty, fifteen-year-old LaVaughn learns from old and new friends, and inspiring mentors, that life is what you make it--an occasion to rise to.
Woodson, Jacqueline. If you come softly.
After meeting at their private school in New York, fifteen-year-old Jeremiah, who is black and whose parents are separated, and Ellie, who is white and whose mother has twice abandoned her, fall in love and then try to cope with people's reactions.
Young, Kathy. One Hot Second.
A collection of eleven stories by award-winning authors that explore the many varieties of teenage desire, including first crushes, first kisses, and first times
Zindel, Paul. My Darling, My Hamburger.
Four high school seniors struggle with the responsibilities of growing up, particularly the problems of an intimate relationship

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