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The Blue Star

Tony Earley · back to the book

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24 books with the same feel

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❤️

The Last Song

Nicholas Sparks · 390 pages

#1 bestselling author Nicholas Sparks's new novel is at once a compelling family drama and a heartrending tale of young love.Seventeen year old Veronica "Ronnie" Miller's life was turned upside-down when her parents divorced and her father moved from New York City to Wilmington, North Carolina. Three years later, she remains angry and alientated from her parents, especially her father...until her

First LoveComing of AgeAmerican SouthSmall Town
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Life: An Exploded Diagram

Mal Peet · 400 pages

In 1960s Norfolk, England, seventeen-year-old Clem Ackroyd lives with his mother and grandmother in a tiny cottage, but his life is transformed when he falls in love with the daughter of a wealthy farmer in this tale that flashes back through the stories of three generations.

First LoveComing of AgeCharacter-DrivenTeen Protagonist
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Cold Sassy Tree

Olive Ann Burns · 395 pages

Had difficulty with the unfamiliar language spoken by the characters, but once I was able to figure it out I enjoyed the family dynamics. Upon finishing this book, I immediately borrowed "Leaving Cold Sassy".

Coming of AgeAmerican SouthSmall TownCharacter-Driven
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The Jealous Kind

James Lee Burke · 383 pages

Intervening when he sees the beautiful and gifted Valerie Epstein fighting with her boyfriend, Aaron Holland Broussard inadvertently challenges the power of the Mob in his Korean War-era Texas community.

First LoveComing of AgeAmerican SouthTeen Protagonist
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All the Pretty Horses

Cormac McCarthy · 301 pages

*All the Pretty Horses* is a novel by American author Cormac McCarthy published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1992. Its romanticism (in contrast to the bleakness of McCarthy's earlier work) brought the writer much public attention. It was a bestseller, and it won both the U.S. National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Along with *The Crossing* (1994), and C*ities of the Plain* (19

First LoveComing of AgeCharacter-DrivenTeen Protagonist
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The Great Alone

Kristin Hannah · 504 pages

It is 1974 when Leni Allbright's impulsive father Ernt decides the family is moving to Alaska. But the Alaskan winter is just as unforgiving as Ernt, and life quickly becomes a struggle for survival.

First LoveComing of AgeTeen ProtagonistSmall Town
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My Sunshine Away

M.O. Walsh · 306 pages

A man reflects on the summer of his fourteenth year, where in Baton Rouge he fell in love with a golden-haired girl across the street before an unspeakable crime shattered illusions in his seemingly idyllic neighborhood. 1989. In a Baton Rouge neighborhood best known for cookouts on sweltering summer afternoons, Lindy Simpson-- track star, and belle of the block-- experiences a horrible crime. It

Coming of AgeFirst LoveAmerican SouthTeen Protagonist
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A Fine Dark Line

Joe R. Lansdale · 308 pages

Coming of AgeSmall TownAmerican SouthTeen Protagonist
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Where the Crawdads Sing

Delia Owens · 384 pages

For years, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons

First LoveComing of AgeSmall TownAmerican South
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Summer of '42

Herman Raucher · 251 pages

One summer in the life of a 15-year old boy.

First LoveComing of AgeTeen ProtagonistLiterary Fiction
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The Silver Star

Jeannette Walls · 304 pages

Two motherless sisters--Bean and Liz--are shuttled to Virginia, where their Uncle Tinsley lives in the decaying mansion that's been in their family for generations. When school starts in the fall, Bean easily adjusts and makes friends, and Liz becomes increasingly withdrawn. Then something happens to Liz and Bean is left to challenge the injustice of the adult world.

Coming of AgeAmerican SouthSmall TownTeen Protagonist
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This Side of Paradise

F. Scott Fitzgerald · 256 pages

This Side of Paradise, F. Scott Fitzgerald's romantic and witty first novel, was written when the author was only twenty-three years old. This semi-autobiographical story of the handsome, indulged, and idealistic Princeton student Amory Blaine received critical raves and catapulted Fitzgerald to instant fame. Now, readers can enjoy the newly edited, authorized version of this early classic of the

Coming of AgeFirst LoveCharacter-DrivenLiterary Fiction
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Circle of Friends

Maeve Binchy · 560 pages

It began with Benny Hogan and Eve Malone, growing up, inseparable, in the village of Knockglen. Benny--the only child, yearning to break free from her adoring parents...Eve--the orphaned offspring of a convent handyman and a rebellious blueblood, abandoned by her mother's wealthy family to be raised by nuns. Eve and Benny--they knew the sins and secrets behind every villager's lace curtains

First LoveComing of AgeSmall TownCharacter-Driven
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The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

Carson McCullers · 334 pages

Set in 1930s Georgia, the novel centers around a deaf and mute man, John Singer. Singer has been devastated by the loss of his dear friend, Antonapoulos, who was committed to an asylum for bad behavior

Coming of AgeSmall TownTeen ProtagonistAmerican South
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The Mothers

Brit Bennett · 288 pages

"A dazzling debut novel from an exciting new voice, The Mothers is a surprising story about young love, a big secret in a small community--and the things that ultimately haunt us most. Set within a contemporary black community in Southern California, Brit Bennett's mesmerizing first novel is an emotionally perceptive story about community, love, and ambition. It begins with a secret. "All good sec

First LoveComing of AgeTeen ProtagonistLiterary Fiction
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A Painted House

John Grisham · 465 pages

Using his own childhood for inspiration (and leaving the lawyers behind), bestselling author John Grisham sets A Painted House in 1950s rural Arkansas. During harvest time, together with hired Mexicans and hill people, seven-year-old Luke Chandler picks cotton on his family's rented 80 acres. But racial tension, a forbidden love affair, and murder cause Luke to grow up before he's ready.

Coming of AgeTeen ProtagonistAmerican SouthCharacter-Driven
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Where All Light Tends to Go

David Joy · 289 pages

"Set in North Carolina's Appalachian Mountains, eighteen-year-old Jacob McNeely is torn between appeasing his meth-dealing kingpin father and leaving the mountains forever with the girl he loves"--

First LoveComing of AgeAmerican SouthSmall Town
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Coming of AgeSmall TownCharacter-DrivenAmerican South
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The Learning Tree

Gordon Parks · 303 pages

Autobiographical novel about a boy entering his teens in a racially segregated Kansas town in the 1920s.

Coming of AgeSmall TownCharacter-DrivenTeen Protagonist
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An Unfinished Season

Ward Just · 256 pages

Coming of AgeFirst LoveCharacter-DrivenLiterary Fiction
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The Other Side of the Bridge

Mary Lawson · 296 pages

Coming of AgeSmall TownCharacter-DrivenLiterary Fiction
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These Happy Golden Years

Laura Ingalls Wilder · 294 pages

The Ingalls family homesteads on their claim in DeSmet, South Dakota. Fifteen-year-old Laura begins to take schoolteaching jobs to raise money for Mary's college. Laura is surprised when Almanzo Wilder begins to seek her company.

Coming of AgeFirst LoveTeen ProtagonistSmall Town
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The Tobacconist

Robert Seethaler · 234 pages

"Seventeen-year-old Franz Huchel journeys to Vienna to apprentice at a tobacco shop. There he meets Sigmund Freud, a regular customer, and over time the two very different men form a singular friendship. When Franz falls desperately in love with the music hall dancer Anezka, he seeks advice from the renowned psychoanalyst, who admits that the female sex is as big a mystery to him as it is to Franz

First LoveComing of AgeTeen ProtagonistLiterary Fiction
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Malas

Marcela Fuentes · 375 pages

Small TownComing of AgeAmerican SouthCharacter-Driven

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