Young Realistic Fiction

Raised by conservative parents, 18-year-old Meg Hennessey just found out her entire childhood was a lie. Instead of taking a gap year before college to find herself, she ends up traveling north to meet what’s left of the family she never knew existed. While there, she meets Micah Allen, a former pastor’s kid whose dad ended up in prison, leaving Micah with his own complicated relationship about the church. The clock is ticking on Pastor Allen’s probation hearing, and Micah, now 19, feels the pressure to forgive - even when he can’t possibly forget.

Within the walls of Wodebury Hall, an elite boarding school in the English countryside, reputation is everything. But aspiring photographer Iyanu is more comfortable observing things safely from behind her camera. For Iyanu’s estranged cousin, Kitan, life seems perfect. She has money, beauty, and friends like queen bee Heather. But as a Nigerian girl in a school as white and insular as Wodebury, Kitan struggles with the personal sacrifices needed to keep her place—and the protection she gets—within the exclusive popular crowd.

Re-election is looming and President Burlington must select a new VP nominee. All the while, he will have to deal with contentious political, social, and international issues as the progressive Democratic political machine attacks him and his policies with their litany of dirty tricks. The president’s re-election campaign counters with a series of policy proposals that change the way the Federal government taxes American workers, educates our children, and reforms entitlements, while reducing the size and scope of the Federal government. However, time is running out for his first term and...

Charlotte Kraus would follow Angelika Haas anywhere. Which is how she finds herself in an underground club one Friday night the summer before World War II, dancing to contraband American jazz and swing music, suddenly feeling that anything might be possible. Unable to resist the allure of sharing this secret with Geli, Charlie returns to the club again and again, despite the dangers of breaking the Nazi Party’s rules. Soon, terrified by the tightening vise of Hitler’s power, Charlie and the other Swingjugend are drawn to larger and larger acts of rebellion.

In Liz Coley's alarming and fascinating psychological mystery, 16-year-old Angie Chapman must piece together the story of her kidnapping and abuse. Pretty Girl-13 is a disturbing - and ultimately empowering - pause-resister about accepting our whole selves, and the healing power of courage, hope, and love.

On wealthy Commodore Island, Fern is watching and waiting - for summer, for college, for her childhood best friend to decide he loves her. Then Ivy Avila lands on the island like a falling star. When Ivy shines on her, Fern feels seen. When they're together, Fern has purpose. She glimpses the secrets Ivy hides behind her fame, her fortune, the lavish parties she throws at her great glass house, and understands that Ivy hurts in ways Fern can't fathom. And soon, it's clear Ivy wants someone Fern can help her get. But as the two pull closer, Fern's cozy life on Commodore unravels.

For a short time after his divorce, Donald Burlington was not only the President of the United States, but also the most eligible bachelor in the world, not a title he wanted to keep. At a much-needed weekend retreat at Camp David, things heat up between him and his trusted assistant, Nicole, even though they both know their relationship is a potential weakness and political nightmare for the administration. They hope to be able to hide their budding relationship from the White House staff, the media, and the American public—but will they be exposed and eaten alive? Back in DC, President ...

Digging for peat in the mountain with his Uncle Tally, Fergus finds the body of a child, and it looks like she’s been murdered. As Fergus tries to make sense of the mad world around him - his brother on hunger-strike in prison, his growing feelings for Cora, his parents arguing over the Troubles, and him in it up to the neck, blackmailed into acting as courier to God knows what - a little voice comes to him in his dreams, and the mystery of the bog child unfurls.

Atlas has lost her way. In a last-ditch effort to pull her life together, she’s working on a community service program rehabbing trails in the Western Sierras. The only plus is that the days are so exhausting that Atlas might just be tired enough to forget that this was one of her dad’s favorite places in the world. Before cancer stole him from her life, that is. Using real names is forbidden on the trail. So Atlas becomes Maps, and with her team—Books, Sugar, Junior, and King—she heads into the wilderness.

Can the president, a conservative ex-business executive with no political experience, navigate the shark-infested waters of Washington, DC? President Donald Burlington’s party doesn’t support him, his wife of 23 years has just filed for divorce, and his country is falling apart from within. Both parties and the entire political establishment are eager to take him down because he is trying to eliminate the way the Federal government caters to special interests and emboldens entrenched career politicians to gain and maintain their political power. Meanwhile, his trusted assistant, Nicole,...

The ups and downs mean you’re alive. Sometimes, life knocks you down and it gets harder to pick yourself back up. Whether it’s for family, friends or themselves, these realistic characters continue on. The rollercoaster of life is harsh to them, but they persevere in their own ways. Stories by Toni Mobley, Laura Ruth Loomis, Katie Kent, Douglas Allen Gohl, Deborah Henley, and J.E. Feldman.

WHAT SECRET HAS SIMON BEEN KEEPING? Hiding is no longer acceptable…she needed answers…but answers alone might not be enough…and they could prove deadly…there were no more secrets…they could be deadly too… Mick Johnson might be dead but his killer is unknown and the clues leading to them are non-existent. Completely non-existent…which according to Jackson never ever happens…then he finds one but how does he tell Simon… But Elijah Sullivan, the father she adored all her life left clues…she just has to unravel them even as she comes to terms with her feelings about Harper...

In her debut for younger listeners, Aya de León pits a teen spy against the ominous workings of a white nationalist. Fourteen-year-old Andréa Hernández-Baldoquín hails from a family of spies working for the Factory, an international organization dedicated to protecting people of color.

Time has stopped. It's been June 23, 2020, for nearly a year as far as anyone can tell. Frantic adults demand teenagers focus on finding practical solutions to the worldwide crisis. Not everyone is on board though. Javelin-throwing prodigy Truda Becker is pretty sure her "Solution Time" class won't solve the world's problems, but she does have a few ideas what might. Truda lives in a house with a switch that no one ever touches, a switch her father protects every day by nailing it into hundreds of progressively larger boxes.

Centuries ago Thomas Dyersen left behind the information needed to find Sanctuary…the safe refuge where he once took his family…Now hundreds of years later another Dyersen is in great need of the information that Thomas Dyersen left behind. In the twentieth century the danger is not from someone close as what his ancestor faced…but an unknown threat…still unnamed but dangerous to all he loves. Fury of the Storm continues the ongoing story of family, friends, and strangers who come together at a time when the unknown is their greatest enemy…and their hidden sanctuary is their ...

Lizzie is having second thoughts about the husband she tossed out years ago. Lizzie Patterson didn’t make personal decisions on a whim…she never had. No one knew that better than her former husband. So when Lizzie tossed out they should get married…almost like a dare…he’s determined not to waste any time…or take a chance on Lizzie changing her mind.Even as Lizzie and Harry continue their ongoing tap-dance around each other, Clay, the other resident celebrity of the canyon, has problems of his own…or at least he believes he does. Twila is coming to the canyon for a visit. ...

“Just do this one thing for me.” Drew's mother says it more often than good morning. Heidi Hill has been juggling shady side hustles for all of Drew’s seventeen years, and Drew knows that “one thing” really means all the tedious and necessary things her mother thinks are boring, including taking care of her fifteen-year-old sister and eight-year-old brother. In fact, Drew is the closest thing to a responsible adult they’ve ever known.

Sasha Johnson-Sun might not know everything—like how to fully heal after her dad’s passing or how many more Saturdays her mom can spend cleaning houses. But the one thing Sasha is certain of? She will graduate this year as Skyline High’s class valedictorian. At least, she was sure before the principal calls Sasha and her cute, effortlessly gifted ex–best friend, Ezra Davis-Goldberg, into his office to deliver earth-shattering news: they’re tied for valedictorian and the scholarship attached…

This wasn't the way it was supposed to go. You're just a typical 15-year-old sophomore, an average guy named Kyle Chase. This can't be happening to you. But then, how do you explain all the blood? How do you explain how you got here in the first place? There had to have been signs, had to have been some clues it was coming. Did you miss them, or ignore them? Maybe if you can figure out where it all went wrong, you can still make it right. Or is it already too late? Think fast, Kyle....

B’onca always knew how to get by. And then her daughter is born. She wouldn’t trade Mia for anything, but there is never enough cash to go around. When their gentrifying Memphis neighborhood results in higher prices and then an eviction notice, B’onca’s already fragile world spirals. Desperate to make things right, B’onca forges a risky plan to help pay the bills. But one wrong move could cost B’onca—and her family—everything.