Coming-of-Age Fiction for the Modern Era

Narrator Sylvie and her boyfriend, Gabe, meet at a boarding school run by a charismatic researcher believing that the dreaming mind has the power to unlock our fears and self-destructive tendencies. Over the next six years, Sylvie and Gabe become increasingly involved in the doctor’s work, following him from California, to the coast of New England. When Dr. Keller receives a commission from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the trio settles in Madison. There, Sylvie stumbles into a tangled, dangerous relationship with the young couple who live next door, and begins to doubt the ethics of Keller’s research and experiences a new sense of rebellion.

The new Abby Abernathy is a good girl. She doesn’t drink or swear, and she has the appropriate percentage of cardigans in her wardrobe. Abby believes she has enough distance between her and the darkness of her past, but when she arrives at college her path to a new beginning is quickly challenged by Eastern University’s Walking One-Night Stand. Travis Maddox, lean, cut, and covered in tattoos, is exactly what Abby needs—and wants—to avoid. He spends his nights winning money in a floating fight ring, and his days as the charming college co-ed. Intrigued by Abby’s resistance to his charms, Travis tricks her into his daily life with a simple bet. If he loses, he must remain abstinent for a month. If Abby loses, she must live in Travis’ apartment for the same amount of time. Either way, Travis has no idea that he has met his match.

Arriving alone for winter session at the New England College of Art and Design, Ellie finds the ideal opportunity to recreate herself and her art, in a provocative novel about independence, trust, and boys.

Mia is an aspiring filmmaker, Ethan has just played his last game as a collegiate soccer star. Last night, Ethan and Mia met at a bar, and, well...one thing led to another. Waking up the next morning, together, things turn awkward when they find themselves sharing a taxi . . . to the same place: Boomerang.com, the dating site for the millennial gen with its no-fuss, no-commitments matchups, and where work is steamier than any random hook-up. Boomerang has a strict policy against co-worker dating. Now what?

Annie and Kyle have been together FOREVER. So when Kyle proposes, and Annie says ‘no’, a huge fight ensues. Kyle and Annie are just getting back to talking when Kyle is killed and Annie believes it to be her fault. In order to honor his memory, non-athletic Annie starts to train for the marathon that Kyle was set on running. Practicing puts her endurance and health (mental and physical) to the test, as she starts to connect with Jeremiah, her coach’s younger brother. An emotional, heartfelt, and beautiful story about finding yourself after loss and learning to love again.

Funny, fresh and utterly relatable, first in a series about five twenty-something friends: Pia, Angie, Julia, Coco and Madeleine sharing a brownstone in hip, downtown Brooklyn, discovering the ups and downs of their "semi-adult" lives. What is a recent grad with an art history degree and an unfortunate history of Facebook topless photos to do? Start a food truck business of course! Follow Pia and her roommates as they explore hipster bees, one-night-stands, heartbreak, parental fury, wild parties, revenge, jail, loan sharks, playboys, karaoke, true love, and one adorable pink food truck: “SkinnyWheels.” Other titles in the series include: Love & Chaos, (2014) and The Wild One (2015)

Flawed but unsinkable Claudia Silver cuts a wide comic swath through 1990s New York City in her misguided attempts to find love and happiness.
Overwhelmed by her unemployment and estrangement from her bohemian Brooklyn family, Claudia spectacularly misjudges her younger sister's cry for help and lands in the middle of a disastrous love affair that disrupts three very different families.

A coming–of–age story of twins who grew up in the world of Internet fandom. Without a mother, Cath grows up to be an introverted girl, overly attached to her twin sister, Wren, who serves as her best friend and only link to a social life. When both girls decide to move away from home for university and decide not to share rooms, Cath must now face life of a freshman, dealing with anxiety, a rude roommate and her roommate's hyperactive 'boyfriend' who just won't leave her alone.

Logan "Kash" Ryan is working undercover in Austin, Texas, but when he develops an intense relationship with his neighbor, Rachel Masters, he worries about Rachel's reaction to the revelation of his true identity.

Sarah is a less-than-perfect debutante. She tries hard to follow the time-honored customs of the Charleston Camellia Society, as her mother and grandmother did, standing up straight in cotillion class and attending lectures about all the things that Camellias don’t do. (Like ride with boys in pickup trucks.) But Sarah can’t ignore the barbarism just beneath all that propriety, and as soon as she can she decamps South Carolina for a life in New York City. There, she and her fellow displaced Southern friends try to make sense of city sophistication and understand how much of their training applies to real life, and how much to the strange and rarefied world they have left behind. When life’s complications become overwhelming, Sarah returns home to confront the motto: “Once a Camellia, always a Camellia.”

Punk rock is in Emily’s blood. Her mother hit the road to follow the music scene when Emily was four months old and never came back. All grown up with a punk band of her own, Emily is determined to find the tune that will bring her mother home. A painfully honest, raw, heart-wrenching story about a mother who is running from guilt and a daughter who just wants to bring her home.

Bliss Edwards decides she needs to lose her virginity before she graduates from college, but she is unable to go through with a one-night stand and soon learns that the man she left naked in her bed is her new theater professor.

When she discovers that her boyfriend is cheating on her, Sydney, a college student, must decide what to do next. She becomes captivated by her mysterious neighbor Ridge, and can't stop listening to the passionate way he plays his guitar every evening out on his balcony.

Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus, both former nannies themselves, carry on P.L. Travers’ (“Mary Poppins”) esteemed tradition of ‘nanny lit,’ except you might say that a Kate Spade tote replaces the old carpetbag. The heroine is a 20-ish New York University student who has worked her way through college by taking care of rich people’s kids. She meets her biggest challenge when she takes on the job of looking after Grayer X, the 4-year-old son of Mrs. X (a vacant, Prada-wearing socialite), and Mr. X (a powerful investment banker who probably couldn’t pick his son out of a crowded sandbox).

In the aftermath of her famous academic father's death, Flora Dempsey quits her big-city magazine job and returns to her childhood home, where she discovers a cache of love poems written by her father to an unknown girlfriend.

Despite Andrea's concerns over her lover, Tanner, being a major player, the hunky firefighter always seems to be there for her; but when her life spirals out of control, only she can save herself.

Real life and love come with the risk of real loss, as Holly learns six months after her wedding. Now a 27-year-old widow and the owner of a bakery called Cake, Holly Jefferson gets an unexpected second chance at love when she meets Ciaran Argyll, a man who, surrounded by a superficial world of wealth and privilege, is battling his own ghosts.

A witty, charming and laugh-out-loud novel by the beloved star of Parenthood and Gilmore Girls, about an aspiring actress trying to make it in the mid-nineties in New York City. A story about hopes and dreams, being young in a city, and wanting something deeply, madly, desperately. It’s about finding love, finding yourself, and perhaps most difficult of all finding an acting job in New York City.

Jessica Sweet doesn’t want to go home to her ultra-religious parents for the summer. When she is unable to stay with a friend, the sexy Riley Mann offers her a place to stay with him. Jessica and Riley soon fall into a comfortable routine that develops into deeper feelings. While Jessica has never had a problem sleeping with a guy, she doesn’t know how to handle a relationship without sex forcing her to question what she’s hiding herself. (True Believers, Book 2)

When Tate meets airline pilot Miles, the only thing they have in common is an undeniable mutual attraction. They realize they have the perfect set-up: he doesn’t want love, she doesn’t have time for love, so that just leaves the sex. Their arrangement could be surprisingly seamless, as long as Tate can stick to the only two rules Miles has for her: Never ask about the past. Don’t expect a future.

The ups and downs of school for three very different, very close friends is told in the Internet-age style of text messages and tweets. It’s freshman year of college for the winsome threesome, and *everything* is different. Can the girls continue to embrace the free-spirited yolo (you only live once) philosophy as they grow into their young adulthood?