An Anonymous Librarian sent me the following query, and asked for your help:
I work in a high school library—my alma mater’s, no less—and my responsibilities include selecting and purchasing books (when we have a budget). While most of our fiction purchases are either YA or supportive of the curriculum, we definitely have an audience for grown up romance novels. Kids who devour Cabot or Brashares are entitled to explore more mature options. Our collection still includes a few Mary Stewarts, some Victoria Holt, some Danielle Steel, and, of course, DuMaurier, but when it comes to current romance authors, I am at a loss. Some of the library ladies still read romances, but personal taste alone is not an adequate criteria for choosing books for a library collection.
So here’s my question for you and your readers: Can you suggest a couple of newer romance authors and/or titles that would be appealing for teens and appropriate for a high school library? It isn’t helpful just to suggest an author like Nora Roberts who is incredibly prolific; a few titles or series’ would be more useful.
I really need some titles that would interest teens specifically, but not scandalize their mothers. Please think back to your own teen years and consider which of your current favorites would have appealed to you then. Ideally, I would also need to be able to back up choices with reviews. Any feedback on this would be much appreciated.
There are so many kickass YA romances on the market today, especially those by Jennifer Echols (Major Crush and Going Too Far)and Barb Ferrer’s Adios for My Old Life. I have a major weakness for YA romance in general, and I love that so much of it is smart and kickass.
Candy and I also both reviewed Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist – which, since it was made into a film, could also be part of your DVD collection, and I also found Elizabeth Scott’s Stealing Heaven compulsively readable – though not a romance by the traditional sense.
What do you suggest would make a good YA romance selection at a library? Bringeth your suggestions, pleasth!
Thank you all for your great recommendations. Georgette Heyer and Barbara Mertz in all her incarnations have long been favorites of mine and major comfort re-reads, but I wasn’t sure if they would still resonate with kids. Although I was asking for adult romance titles and authors suitable for teens, I appreciate the many YA recs as well. While we have many of these authors, a number of them are new to me and I’ll have to seek them out—Scott, Ibbotson and Snyder in particular. We have Evanovich, but I was debating the appropriateness of Harris’s Sookie Stackhouse novels—which I love.
These days any novel written for an adult audience is a potential problem in a school library, yet, ironically, young adult literature is getting more graphic in violence and sexual content. Our whole school is reading City of Thieves this summer; it’s a good read, but I’m glad my tush won’t be on the line for that choice. Times have changed since my mom (God rest her soul) hid Wuthering Heights, Gone with the Wind, and Forever Amber under her bed. If we stick to standard review sources and YA award lists, we have a little insulation from angry parents, but such lists don’t guarantee either “appropriateness” or a great read. I think that the input from all of you passionate readers is far more helpful, because libraries—school or public—need to have a commitment to passionate readers. Scanning your comments, I alternated between Yes! We got that one right! and Wow! We’ll have to check that out! Thank you again for all your wonderful suggestions and reflections. This blog is the bomb!
Colleen Gleason’s Gardella Vampire Chronicles.
Carla Kelly’s two latest; The Surgeon’s Lady and Marrying the Captain. Any of her’s really.
Megan Whelan Turner; The Thief, The Queen of Attolia and The King of Attolia. There’s a fourth one coming out next March The Conspiracy of Kings
If you wish to attract teenage boys to the library, I have to recommend Jim Butcher and his “Codex Alera” series.
The series will appeal both to girls and boys as there is a romantic element growing in each installment as the main character, Tavi, grows older.
I would also recommend Butcher’s more contemporary “Dresden Files” but to older audiences as it is more violent in context.
I know parents are leery of TMI but I when I was a teen I was reading spicy authors like Jennifer Blake and loving them. In fact, I probably read them precisely *because* they were so… ahem… informative 🙂 With that in mind, my recommendations are based on what I think are the really great books, with a nod towards stories and themes teens might identify with.
Carrie Lofty, “What A Scoundrel Wants” An awesome take on the Robin Hood legend, focusing on Will Scarlett and a blind heroine. It’s a load of fun and the heroine and hero are wonderfully flawed – the story starts with Will trying to decide whether or not to sneak away from a fight 😀
Meredith Duran, “The Duke of Shadows” The writer’s first book but still one of my favorites. Both the heroine and hero struggle with issues of social acceptance and finding their own path. Plus, the hero is *to die for* wonderful!
Laura Kinsale, “The Shadow and the Star” Naïve miss goes from struggling seamstress to wife of mysterious shipping magnate. Excitement and international hijinks ensue! With ninjas?
Laura Kinsale, “Midsummer Moon” What happens when a starchy duke meets a brilliant but scatterbrained inventor? Romance… And more international hijinks, of course!
Basically, anything by Kinsale is gold, but these two are both exciting (with all those hijinks and ninjas and such) but they’re also stories of the heroines growth as adults, something I’d imagine kids are thinking about. Also, I love, love, *love* anything by Elizabeth Hoyt, Sherry Thomas and Julie Anne Long, three brilliant, relatively new authors in Romance. I don’t think any of them have written a bad book but here are some specific recommendations:
“Private Arrangements” and “Not Quite a Husband” by Sherry Thomas are both passionate, emotional and loads of fun. NQAH in particular is an exciting road romance (with international hijinks set in the Swat Valley – how’s that for educational? You get romance *and* current events!)
Julie Anne Long’s Holt Sister trilogy (“Beauty and the Spy”, “Ways To Be Wicked” and “The Secret to Seduction”) is a lot of fun and her “Like No Other Lover” is a laugh-out-loud funny Becky Sharp type story. I didn’t like the gold-digging heroine at first but you come to understand and even love her.
It’s really hard to find any paranormals that don’t straddle the romantica line (“paranormal” seems to be a synonym for “lots and lots of raunchy vampire/ demon/ werewolf/ weredolphin/whatever sex) but Ilona Andrews’ Kate Daniels series (“Magic Bites”, “Magic Burns”, “Magic Strikes”) and Meljean Brook’s Guardian series (“Demon Angel”, “Demon Moon”, “Demon Night” and “Demon Bound”) are two of the better written ones.
Shannon Hale writes YA fantasy, but she has a couple of adult romances that should appeal to both adults and teens and be appropriate for a school library. Austenland and The Actor & the Housewife
also check out:
The Possibilities of Sainthood by Donna Freitas – a fun and different YA book with very rewarding romance and strong heroine.
Sweethearts by Sara Zarr is not technically a romance, but it’s a YA book with some great romantic tension.
I graduated high school a few years ago and I remember reading Once a Scoundrel by Candice Hern and Worth any Price by Lisa Kleypas during study hall. Once a Scoundrel is one of the books that got me hooked on Romances. Also, Mercedes Lacky’s books have romantic undertones to them, especially the Valdemar series; fantasy lovers will enjoy her books. Arrow’s of the Queen, Arrow’s Flight, and Arrow’s Fall are the first and are overall light books. For a darker romance readers could go for Magic’s Pawn, Magic’s Price, and Magic’s Price. These six are the first six Valdemar books published.
Several authors I often recommend to those seeking YA romance have already been mentioned, so these are new names to add to the list. These authors write books that are specifically marketed to teens:
Carolyn Mackler (The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things)
Catherine Clark (Icing on the Lake, Truth or Dairy)
Rachel Hawthorne (Thrill Ride, Snowed In)
Lauren Myracle (TTFN series and many other books)
Aimee Friedman (Sea Change)
Alyson Noel (Evermore, Art Geeks & Prom Queens)
Lynda Sandoval (Chicks Ahoy, Who’s Your Daddy)
Terri Clark (Sleepless)
Jaclyn Moriarty (Feeling Sorry for Celia)
I think McKinley’s ‘Sunshine’ is less violent than the Twilight lot, to be honest. I told my mother – a librarian – about teenage Bella’s vampire baby having to be eaten out, and she nearly passed out.
Pamela Dean’s ‘Tam Lin’? It starts at the beginning of college, so might appeal to high schoolers – no graphic sex scenes to upset the parents, but a good description of the ways you muddle through relationships with roommates AND boys! With any luck, it’ll set some of them off on BAs…
Sarah, thanks so much for the shout out! Glad to see Adios and Nick & Norah recommended. Loved both of those.
Rosemary Clement-Moore’s Prom Dates from Hell, a hilarious paranormal, won the Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence and finaled in the RITA last year. The sequel also won the GWAoE and has finaled in the RITA this year. Rosemary is taking a darker path with Splendor Falls, coming in September. I can’t wait for that one.
Marley Gibson’s Ghosthuntress series is lots of fun and is appropriate for younger teens. The first one is out, with more coming.
R. A. Nelson’s Breathe My Name is wonderful. It looks like he’s doing something really different with Days of Little Texas, out in July.
Seconding Hannah’s rec of Sara Zarr, I haven’t read Sweethearts, but Story of a Girl is quite something. Again, romance involved but not a HEA.
My absolute favorite teen books are Violet Eyes and its sequel, Silver Eyes by Nicole Luiken. They are romance/adventure and very captivating!
I also loved Tamora Pierce’s Song of the Lioness and Immortals quartets, and Sharonn Shinn has some great books too (Heart of Gold, Summers at Castle Auburn)
Some great suggestions so far, but two that made me swoon at that age were The Lark and the Laurel (historical romance, don’t remember the author) and Patricial McKillip’s Forgotten Beasts of Eld. There’s also the Flambards series by Peyton. Nothing wrong with getting a little history at the same time! 🙂
Speaking as a high school teacher librarian, I’d say there is an important distinction between what one can stock in a high school library and what one might mention in passing or indeed discuss with the kids. I’ve had Sherrilyn Kenyon/Sookie Stackhouse discussions, for example, but couldn’t justify stocking either series in the library – too much adult content. Ditto the Time Traveler’s Wife, much as I love it myself. Ditto Lord of Scoundrels.
So what you may recommend, as an adult, to a kid you know, isn’t necessarily a match for what a TL can add to a school library collection. The latter depends on your community, and its sensitivities, and your library’s collection development policy and guidelines. There is, however, always the local library to which you can point the kids for books outside your own scope…
Also speaking from experience, while I know lots of people may be sick to death of Twilight, by golly by gum it’s been HUGELY influential in getting kids into reading: kids who read anyway, but also very much kids who didn’t. And they come back and want something else, because they’ve discovered the ‘hit’ that reading can be. Not all of them, but enough of them. I’m therefore a big fan of the Twilight effect (mind you, it’s a tad offputting/challenging when they have to borrow a nonfiction book for a class reading assignment, and ask for one ‘just like Twilight’. Had to think about that one!).
It’s great to read this thread, though, and see some familiar titles and some less familiar ones to follow up. Thank you!
A few suggestions, some echoing earlier ones:
Gemma Bray’s A Great and Terrible Beauty series
Robin McKinley, esp. Sunshine, The Blue Sword, The Hero and the Crown, Beauty
Melina Marchetta: Looking for Alibrandi, Saving Francesca (a particular favourite of mine)
Popular series include Maximum Ride, House of Night, Vampire Academy, Evernight etc, Wicked Lovely etc, City of Bones etc (some of the gels get quite flustered at the manly chests on the cover of that series).
I’d second the recommendation of Lauren Willig’s Pink Carnation series.
As regards Sharon Shinn, I think I’d be selective for a high school collection. The “Twelve Houses” books are mostly safe enough, as are any of her YAs, but the “Samaria” novels could cause problems. Sexuality isn’t the issue, though—I’m thinking of the explicitly religious themes combined with the political power dynamics, which are more or less guaranteed to cause the wrong kind of conservative Christian to rise up in self-righteous book-burning wrath.
Anything of Judith Tarr’s that you can find in print would be a good bet; her most current series is a fantasy/romance trilogy under the byline “Kathleen Bryan”, but her historicals and fantasies under her own name are uniformly well characterized and impeccably researched.
Pretty much anything by Lynn Kurland would fit the bill for a y/a Romance section. Her Romances are all PG (closed bedroom door).
If the sex isn’t an issue , I’d try them on Bertrice Small’s Early Historicals. I read the Skye O’Malley books while I was in my teens and loved them!
I came across this website that reviews “clean reads”. Some of her recommendations are Meyer (not sure if that’s a plus or minus), Scott Westerfield, and Jessica Day George.
Oo, I missed this thread first time around!
Just wanted to add: I spent middle school and high school reading and re-reading all of L.M. Montgomery’s books and stories (author of the Anne of Green Gables series). A Tangled Web and The Blue Castle are good as stand-alone romances (the former follows many couples), and the Emily of New Moon series gets romantic by the third book, when the characters are grown.
I recently gave a copy of The Blue Castle to a middle school girl I know whose favorite book is Twilight—I wanted her to read a romance with entirely different power dynamics, and one that I had loved as a teen. It’s just lovely: an unmarried “spinster” (she’s 30 – horrors!) is diagnosed with a heart defect that gives her a year to live, at most. She decides she’s going to do exactly as she pleases for the rest of her life and begins speaking her mind and scandalizing her family—it’s also a get-married-and-then-fall-in-love romance. I actually re-read it again after buying it. Still good. 🙂
As a historical romance lover, I started off with Jean Ferris’ trilogy; Into the Wind, Song of the Sea and Weather the Storm. I read this series over and over and recently got my fifteen year old cousin hooked on it. A bold heroine, a dashing hero and some light canoodling (haha).
I love Lynn Kurland and would recommend all her books. They are heavy on the story, sweet, and no sex. Specifically a couple of good ones If I Had You and This is All I ask.
Someone above mentioned Elizabeth Peters… I’ve read and loved all her books. Most combine history (or archaeology!) with mystery and light/innocent romance. Personally, I enjoyed the non-series here more than her series. My favorites: Summer of the Dragon and the Dead Sea Cipher.