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South of Sunshine

Dana Elmendorf · back to the book

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24 books with the same feel

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Her Name in the Sky

Kelly Quindlen

Hannah has big plans for senior year: football games, Mardi Gras parties, and spring break on the beach with her tight-knit group of friends. No drama, no detours. Just a year to remember. Falling for another girl—her best friend, Baker—was not part of the plan. Hannah knows she should date Wally, the earnest, dependable boy her sister is always teasing her about. She should be happy when Cl

Secret RelationshipSexual OrientationFirst LoveLGBTQ+ Protagonist
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Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda

Becky Albertalli · 336 pages

Sixteen-year-old and not-so-openly gay Simon Spier prefers to save his drama for the school musical. But when an email falls into the wrong hands, his secret is at risk of being thrust into the spotlight. Now Simon is actually being blackmailed: if he doesn’t play wingman for class clown Martin, his sexual identity will become everyone’s business. Worse, the privacy of Blue, the pen name of the bo

Sexual OrientationSecret RelationshipLGBTQ+ ProtagonistFirst Love
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Georgia Peaches and Other Forbidden Fruit

Jaye Robin Brown · 448 pages

Joanna Gordon has been out and proud for years, but when her popular radio evangelist father remarries and decides to move all three of them from Atlanta to the more conservative Rome, Georgia, he asks Jo to do the impossible: to lie low for the rest of her senior year. And Jo reluctantly agrees.

Sexual OrientationSecret RelationshipAmerican SouthLGBTQ+ Protagonist
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Every Day

David Levithan · 330 pages

Every morning A wakes in a different person's body, in a different person's life, learning over the years to never get too attached, until he wakes up in the body of Justin and falls in love with Justin's girlfriend, Rhiannon.

Secret RelationshipSexual OrientationLGBTQ+ ProtagonistFirst Love
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Autoboyography

Christina Lauren · 416 pages

Three years ago, Tanner Scott’s family relocated from California to Utah, a move that nudged the bisexual teen temporarily back into the closet. Now, with one semester of high school to go, and no obstacles between him and out-of-state college freedom, Tanner plans to coast through his remaining classes and clear out of Utah. But when his best friend Autumn dares him to take Provo High’s presti

Sexual OrientationSecret RelationshipLGBTQ+ ProtagonistFirst Love
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Keeping You a Secret

Julie Anne Peters · 250 pages

A fantastically written book that follows the life of student Holland Jaegar in her last year of high school. Holland begins her last semester of school by meeting CeCe Goddard, a transfer student from Washington Central. As the days progress Holland learn about CeCe and the fact that she is a lesbian. Holland is drawn to the charisma and strength of Cece and a friendship forms. When Holland suspe

Sexual OrientationSecret RelationshipLGBTQ+ ProtagonistSelf-Discovery
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The Summer I Wasn't Me

Jessica Verdi · 342 pages

"Ever since her mom found out she was in love with a girl, seventeen-year-old Lexi's afraid that what's left of her family is going to fall apart for good. New Horizons summer camp promises a new life for Lexi--she swears she can change. She can learn to like boys. But denying her feelings is harder than she thinks"--

Sexual OrientationLGBTQ+ ProtagonistFirst LoveSelf-Discovery
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If I Was Your Girl

Meredith Russo · 320 pages

Amanda Hardy is the new girl in school. Like anyone else, all she wants is to make friends and fit in. But Amanda is keeping a secret, and she’s determined not to get too close to anyone. But when she meets sweet, easygoing Grant, Amanda can’t help but start to let him into her life. As they spend more time together, she realizes just how much she is losing by guarding her heart. She finds hers

LGBTQ+ ProtagonistFirst LoveAmerican SouthSelf-Discovery
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Will Grayson, Will Grayson

John Green, David Levithan · 331 pages

One cold night, in a most unlikely corner of Chicago, two teens—both named Will Grayson—are about to cross paths. As their worlds collide and intertwine, the Will Graysons find their lives going in new and unexpected directions, building toward romantic turns-of-heart and the epic production of history’s most fabulous high school musical.Hilarious, poignant, and deeply insightful, John Green and D

Sexual OrientationFirst LoveLGBTQ+ ProtagonistSelf-Discovery
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Dumplin'

Julie Murphy · 400 pages

Sixteen-year-old Willowdean wants to prove to everyone in her small Texas town that she is more than just a fat girl, so, while grappling with her feelings for a co-worker who is clearly attracted to her, Will and some other misfits prepare to compete in the beauty pageant her mother runs.

American SouthFirst LoveSmall TownSelf-Discovery
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Ask the Passengers

A.S. King · 314 pages

"Astrid Jones copes with her small town's gossip and narrow-mindedness by staring at the sky and imagining that she's sending love to the passengers in the airplanes flying high over her backyard. Maybe they'll know what to do with it. Maybe it'll make them happy. Maybe they'll need it. Her mother doesn't want it, her father's always stoned, her perfect sister's too busy trying to fit in, and the

Sexual OrientationLGBTQ+ ProtagonistSelf-DiscoverySmall Town
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Between You & Me

Marisa Calin

Phyre, sixteen, narrates her life as if it were a film, capturing her crush on Mia, a student teacher of theater and film studies, as well as her fast friendship with a classmate referred to only as "you."

Sexual OrientationFirst LoveLGBTQ+ ProtagonistSelf-Discovery
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Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

Benjamin Alire Saenz · 368 pages

Fifteen-year-old Ari Mendoza is an angry loner with a brother in prison, but when he meets Dante and they become friends, Ari starts to ask questions about himself, his parents, and his family that he has never asked before.

Sexual OrientationLGBTQ+ ProtagonistFirst LoveYoung Adult
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A Walk to Remember

Nicholas Sparks · 240 pages

There was a time when the world was sweeter....when the women in Beaufort, North Carolina, wore dresses, and the men donned hats.... Every April, when the wind smells of both the sea and lilacs, Landon Carter remembers 1958, his last year at Beaufort High. Landon had dated a girl or two, and even once sworn that he'd been in love. Certainly the last person he thought he'd fall for was Jamie, the s

American SouthSmall TownSelf-DiscoveryFirst Love
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Empress of the World

Sara Ryan · 213 pages

Nicola Lancaster is spending eight weeks at the Siegel Institute Summer Program for Gifted Youth, a hothouse of smart, articulate, intense teenagers. She soon falls in with Katrina (Manic Computer Chick), Isaac (Nice-Guy-Despite-Himself), Kevin (Inarticulate Composer) . . . and Battle. Battle Hall Davies is a beautiful blonde dancer, and everything Nic isn't. The two become friends-and then, start

Sexual OrientationLGBTQ+ ProtagonistFirst LoveSelf-Discovery
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Annie on My Mind

Nancy Garden · 233 pages

This groundbreaking book is the story of two teenage girls whose friendship blossoms into love and who, despite pressures from family and school that threaten their relationship, promise to be true to each other and their feelings. This book is so truthful and honest, it has been banned from many school libraries and even publicly burned in Kansas City.

Sexual OrientationLGBTQ+ ProtagonistFirst LoveYoung Adult
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Silhouette of a Sparrow

Molly Beth Griffin

During the summer of 1926 in the lake resort town of Excelsior, Minnesota, sixteen-year-old Garnet, who dreams of indulging her passion for ornithology, is resigned to marrying a nice boy and settling into middle-class homemaking until she takes a liberating job in a hat shop and begins an intense, secret relationship with a daring and beautiful flapper.

Sexual OrientationLGBTQ+ ProtagonistSelf-DiscoveryTeen Protagonist
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Tipping the Velvet

Sarah Waters · 480 pages

Nan King, an oyster girl, is captivated by the music hall phenomenon Kitty Butler, a male impersonator extraordinaire treading the boards in Canterbury. Through a friend at the box office, Nan manages to visit all her shows and finally meet her heroine. Soon after, she becomes Kitty's dresser and the two head for the bright lights of Leicester Square where they begin a glittering career as music-h

Sexual OrientationSecret RelationshipLGBTQ+ ProtagonistFirst Love
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Boyfriends with Girlfriends

Alex Sanchez · 217 pages

When Lance begins to date Sergio, who's bisexual, he's not sure that it'll work out, and when his best friend Allie, who has a boyfriend, meets Sergio's lesbian friend, she has unexpected feelings which she struggles to understand.

Sexual OrientationLGBTQ+ ProtagonistFirst LoveSelf-Discovery
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Shine

Lauren Myracle · 359 pages

When her best friend falls victim to a vicious hate crime, sixteen-year-old Cat sets out to discover the culprits in her small North Carolina town.

Sexual OrientationAmerican SouthSmall TownTeen Protagonist
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True Letters from a Fictional Life

Kenneth Logan · 323 pages

If you asked anyone in his small Vermont town, they d tell you the facts: James Liddell, star athlete, decent student, and sort-of boyfriend to cute, peppy Theresa is a happy, funny, carefree guy. But whenever James sits down at his desk to write, he tells a different story. As he fills his drawers with letters to the people in his world letters he never intends to send he spills the truth: he s t

Sexual OrientationLGBTQ+ ProtagonistSelf-DiscoveryYoung Adult
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Honestly Ben

Bill Konigsberg · 339 pages

Ben Carver returns for the spring semester at the exclusive Natick School in Massachusetts determined to put his relationship with Rafe Goldberg behind him and concentrate on his grades and the award that will mean a full scholarship--but Rafe is still there, there is a girl named Hannah whom he meets in the library, and behind it all is his relationship with his distant, but demanding father.

Sexual OrientationLGBTQ+ ProtagonistSelf-DiscoveryTeen Protagonist
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I'll Give You the Sun

Jandy Nelson · 400 pages

A brilliant, luminous story of first love, family, loss, and betrayal for fans of John Green, David Levithan, and Rainbow Rowell Jude and her twin brother, Noah, are incredibly close. At thirteen, isolated Noah draws constantly and is falling in love with the charismatic boy next door, while daredevil Jude cliff-dives and wears red-red lipstick and does the talking for both of them. But three y

Sexual OrientationLGBTQ+ ProtagonistFirst LoveSelf-Discovery
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Cinnamon Toast and the End of the World

Janet E. Cameron · 375 pages

It's the spring of 1987 and 17-year-old Stephen Shulevitz has less than three months left in high school in the small town in rural Nova Scotia where he's spent most of his life. But as Stephen prepares to leave Riverside behind he falls in love with exactly the wrong person. And just like that everything changes. What follows is emotionally devastating but Stephen survives with his compassion and

Sexual OrientationFirst LoveLGBTQ+ ProtagonistTeen Protagonist
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