Coming of Age

Boychik

Boychik
Title: Boychik
ASIN: B09J43786C
Published: ‎ October 9, 2021
Author:
Author's Twitter: @laurieboris
Eli Abramowitz works in his parents’ deli in Williamsburg. His family is his whole world—almost. He spends every Sunday at the movies and hopes to hit it big as a Hollywood screenwriter. But how can he tell his parents that one day he’ll be leaving? Across town, Evelyn Rosenstein’s father works for the mob—undoubtedly the reason they’re doing so well. Definitely the reason she’s not allowed farther than their mailbox unescorted. Even though her parents have chosen a husband for her, a family tradition, she fantasizes about a life in service to the unfortunate. But for the moment, she dreams of escape, if only for a few hours.

Assessed for Awesome Indies Book Awards

 

Clad in Armour of Radiant White

Clad in Armour of Radiant White
Title: Clad in Armour of Radiant White
ASIN: B00YFAGM8U
Published: May 27, 2015
Author's Twitter: @RosalineARiley
This is a coming-of-age novel set in the 1950s and 60s in Lancashire. Its point-of-view protagonist is Ellen, a working class girl who becomes friends with middle class Erica when she goes to the convent school in the neighbouring town. Focussing on both Ellen’s home life and her school life (which she tries to keep separate), the novel explores the gains and the losses that education and religion provide over the course of her school years.   Thematically, it’s a novel about friendship, love, loss, and death. Social class is also dealt with lightly. There are dark passages in the novel, but also much humour. Each chapter is a month of the year – beginning with September to reflect the structure of the school year. This framework also allows for treatment of the seasons and the liturgical year. The months are sequential but the years are not. Between September 1959 and September 1966 the years go back and forth (with some flashbacks to earlier years).

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The Disenchanted Pet

The Disenchanted Pet
Title: The Disenchanted Pet
ASIN: B005OSZGW0
Published: September 18, 2011
Author's Twitter: @KatePolicani
Aliens called ShaZha rule future Earth and struggle with capricious humanity. Zarah wants to prove humans can be civilized, but discovers a hidden people and must acknowledge her true status. Far into the future, the Earth is ruled by the ShaZha, a hyper-intelligent race of alien beings who are plagued by the violence and volatility of the human race. Supposedly intending to repair the broken societies and polluted planet, they have found the Human problem to be much more complex than they ever imagined. Zarah is a Prodigy, an obedient human, with a caring ShaZha master. Zarah wants to prove all her master’s hopes that humans can be civilized and responsible. When she is lost by her master and exposed to the other side of humanity, she must confront the possibility she might be not a valued citizen, but a pet.

Assessed 

 

The Ribs and Thigh Bones of Desire

The Ribs and Thigh Bones of Desire
Title: The Ribs and Thigh Bones of Desire
ASIN: B00NZDOYP6
Published: December 9, 2014
Author's Twitter: @sheerhubris
Will they or won’t they? Should they or shouldn’t they? It’s the summer of 1977 in a small college town, and physics professor David Asken has just lost his young family in a plane crash he somehow survived. Sixteen-year-old neighbor Molly Carmichael used to be the babysitter, but now will be keeping house for him while he recuperates. David’s quietly planning to end his life just as soon as he can drive again. Molly’s trying to cope with being known as Tampon Girl, thanks to a sculpture by her notorious artist mother, but she will have to deal with much worse after a drunken teenage party. In this engrossing coming-of-age novel by the author of The Awful Mess, both man and girl must grow up the hard way, and it’s their unexpectedly tender connection, fraught with potential scandal, that may just help them do it. This provocative novel asks: Is there ever a time when doing the wrong thing might be exactly right? Warning: Offers adult themes, bad language, violence, and a blistering feminist critique of how men always leave that crap in the bottom of the sink. May also keep you reading way too late into the night.

Assessed for 

 

 

Pieces of Love

Pieces of Love
Title: Pieces of Love
ASIN: B00KVRESLY
Categories: ,
Published: June 8, 2014
Author:
Author's Twitter: @pjsharon
Sixteen year-old Alexis Hartman wants nothing more than to smoke pot and play guitar. Getting high and escaping into her music seems the perfect solution when her world is shattered by her sister’s death. But when she’s arrested for possession a second time, life couldn’t get any more complicated. Her mother’s breakdown is the final straw that forces Lexi to spend the summer on the West Coast with her grandmother, Maddie. When Lexi steps over the line one too many times, she’s certain that she’s destined for juvenile detention—until Maddie decides that desperate measures are called for. A three week Mediterranean cruise—for seniors. Eighteen year-old Ethan Kaswell, the poster child for good sons, is stranded on the cruise when his father, a famous heart surgeon, is called away. With his own life perfectly mapped out, Ethan finds Lexi’s unpredictability irresistible. Although he’s smart enough to see that there is no future in falling for a “vacation crush,” Lexi’s edgy dark side draws him like an anchor to the bottom of the sea. As the two embark on the journey of a lifetime, will Lexi finally learn to love someone—even when she has to let them go?

Assessed for Awesome Indies

The Clock Of Life

The Clock Of Life
Title: The Clock Of Life
ASIN: B00JX0YSVA
Publisher:
Published: April 23, 2014
Author's Twitter: @klanncy
To Kill a Mocking bird meets the Civil Rights Movement.  This southern tale is a coming-of-age story about doing right just because it's right. In the small town of Hadlee, Mississippi, during the 1980’s, Jason Lee Rainey struggles to find his way amongst the old, steadfast Southern attitudes about race, while his friendship with a black boy, Samson Johnson, deepens.    

Assessed for Awesome Indies

White Chalk

White Chalk
Title: White Chalk
ASIN: B00DTNV7B6
Published: 7 July 2013
Author's Twitter: @PavartiKTyler
Chelle isn’t what most people consider a typical 13-year-old girl — she doesn’t laugh with friends, play sports, or hang out at the mall after school. Instead, she navigates a world well beyond her years. Life in Dawson, ND spins on as she grasps at people, pleading for someone to save her—to return her to the simple childhood of unicorns on her bedroom wall and stories on her father’s knee. When Troy Christiansen walks into her life, Chelle is desperate to believe his arrival will be her salvation. So much so, she forgets to save herself. After experiencing a tragedy at school, her world begins to crack, causing a deeper scar in her already fragile psyche. Follow Chelle’s twisted tale of modern adolescence, as she travels down the rabbit hole into a reality none of us wants to admit actually exists.

Assessed for Awesome Indies

 

Don’t Judge A Book By Its Magic

Don’t Judge A Book By Its Magic
Title: Don’t Judge A Book By Its Magic
ASIN: B009VKE8IA
Published: October 10, 2012
Author's Twitter: @KatePolicani
Colleen is a normal girl. She loves shoes, chick flicks, and cute clothes. The only thing abnormal about her is that she’s just become a magician; not the disappearing bunny kind, but the power-shooting-out-of-your-hands kind of magician. Her problem now is that she doesn’t believe in magic. Well, she believes in it. She’s seen it shoot out of her own hands, but she opposes it in a moral sense; no hexes, no spells, no incantations, no potions, no amulets, no tomes, no casting circles, no eye of newt, none of that. She has to be very clear because people pressure her about it. Whatever they say about “how it’s done,” this is a morality issue for her and she will not cave in to their pressure. Join Colleen at Seattle Pacific Regional University, where she becomes a part of The Convergence. She’ll learn the freaky side of Work Study, Financial Aid, and Vyxhepiocht. Seriously, she’s never seen so many hot guys. It’s going to be wild!

Assessed for Awesome Indies

Lethal Inheritance

Lethal Inheritance
Title: Lethal Inheritance
ASIN: B009NPL1D8
Series:
Publisher:
Published: November 13, 2012
Author's Twitter: @TahliaNewland
A scream pierces the night. Ariel jolts awake and watches in horror as demons drag her mother into a hidden realm. She finds help and sets off on a rescue mission. But to defeat the demons, who feed on fear and seek to enslave the human race, she must learn a secret esoteric wisdom to awaken the dormant, but potentially explosive, power of her mind. Walnut, a quirky old wise man, guides her through treacherous inner and outer landscapes, and Nick, the powerful Warrior who travels with them, proves a dangerous attraction. Can Ariel defeat the sadistic demon lord before he kills her and enslaves her mother? The stakes are high, death a real possibility. Fail now, and she fails humanity.

Assessed 

October 18, 2013