If You Like The Summer I Turned Pretty…
Blog reader Lindsay B. asked me for recommendations for her 13-year-old who loves The Summer I Turned Pretty trilogy by Jenny Han (author of To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before). In those books, Belly spends her summers at the beach with her mother and her mom’s best friend and sons. The love triangle is inevitable!
Below are my suggestions for Lindsay’s kid to check out — other YA romances that also touch on the challenges that teens face, including prejudice, parental pressure, and mortality.
Looking for Alaska by John Green (2005)
Miles is part of a quartet of friends at boarding school. When one of their cohort dies, the surviving three struggle to cope. Miles collects the last words of famous people, including Rabelais and Bolívar, believing that understanding these words will help him understand life.
Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock (2006)
D.J. is a jock who lives in Wisconsin on her parents’ dairy farm. When her father is injured, she quits volleyball and basketball to help out at home. She gets to know Brian, who plays football for the rival high school. Sparks fly until she tells him she’s going to try out for her school’s football team.
Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell (2012)
Eleanor and Park are 10th graders in Omaha, Nebraska in the 1980s. Eleanor is bullied for her weight and clothing and lives with her mom, siblings, and an abusive step-father. Park is half-Korean, short, and into music and comics. The two meet on the school bus and slowly connect. A sweet love story.
Frankly in Love by David Yoon (2019)
Frank Sung-Min Li is caught between the expectations of his Korean parents and his American life. He pretends to date family friend and fellow Korean Joy to make his parents happy and allow both him and Joy to date the people they want.
Instructions for Dancing by Nicola Yoon (2021)
When Evie sees a couple in love, she can picture how their romance began and how it will end. So she’s not interested in putting herself through the same heartbreak. But when she meets X at a dance studio and enters a dance competition with him, she may end up following her heart toward love.