Friendship/Relationship Problems
*
Bitter End
Brown, Jennifer
When seventeen-year-old Alex starts dating Cole, a new boy at her
high school, her two closest friends increasingly mistrust him as the
relationship grows more serious.
Stay
Caletti, Deb
Clara and her father travel to a remote region of Washington State
when she notices that her boyfriend, Christian, is developing obsessive
behaviors, and after arriving, Clara meets two brothers who captain a
sailboat, a lighthouse keeper who is hiding something, and a friend of
her father who knows the lighthouse keeper's secret.
Undone
Clarke, Cat
After the suicide of her gay best friend Kai, Jem Halliday reads letters
he left her encouraging her to come out of her shell and Jem does just
that, but only to infiltrate the group of popular students who released a
video that "outed" Kai so that she can take revenge.
Some Like it Hot: An A List Novel
Dean, Zoey
As prom approaches, Anna, Cammie, Sam, and their friends try to deal
with their insecurities about their bodies and their relationships, and
one of them discovers a shocking secret about her mother's death.
Born Confused
Desai Hidier, Tanuja
As Dimple Lala turns seventeen, she realizes that life is about to
become more complex as her best friend starts pulling away and her
parents try to find a suitable boyfriend for Dimple, despite the fact that
she is not interested.
Dreamland
Dessen, Sarah
After her older sister runs away, sixteen-year-old Caitlin decides that
she needs to make a major change in her own life and begins an
abusive relationship with a boy who is mysterious, brilliant, and
dangerous.
Down to the Bone
Doyle, Mayra Lazara
Laura, a Miami high school student, gets caught kissing her lesbian
lover which marks the start of big changes in her life, including getting
kicked out of her Catholic school, thrown out of her home by her
mother, and forced to build a new kind of family with the help of
friends and supporters.
Eight Seconds
Ferris, Jean
Eighteen-year-old John must confront his own sexuality when he goes
to rodeo school and finds himself strangely attracted to an older boy
who is smart, tough, complicated, gorgeous, and gay.
The Sweet Revenge of Celia Door
Finneyfrock, Karen
Fourteen-year-old Celia, hurt by her parents' separation, the loss of her
only friend, and a classmate's cruelty, has only her poetry for solace
until newcomer Drake Berlin befriends her, comes out to her, and
seeks her help in connecting with the boy he left behind.
Letters from the Mountain
Garland, Sherry
A teenage boy, sent for the summer to relatives in the mountains in
order to remove him from gang influences, discovers life's really
important values through his unlikely friendship with an economically
challenged boy.
An Abundance of Katherines
Green, John
Having been recently dumped for the nineteenth time by a girl named
Katherine, recent high school graduate and former child prodigy Colin
sets off on a road trip with his best friend to try to find some new
direction in life while also trying to create a mathematical formula to
explain his relationships.
Will Grayson, Will Grayson
Green, John, and David Levithan
When two teens, one gay and one straight, meet accidentally and
discover that they share the same name, their lives become intertwined
as one begins dating the other's best friend, who produces a play
revealing his relationship with them both.
Orange Houses
Griffin, Paul
Tamika, a fifteen-year-old hearing-impaired girl, Jimmi, an eighteenyear-old veteran who stopped taking his antipsychotic medication, and
sixteen-year-old Fatima, an illegal immigrant from Africa, meet and
connect in their Bronx, New York, neighborhood, with devastating
results.
Anything But Ordinary
Hobbs, Valerie
High school sweethearts Bernie and Winifred face the difficulties of a
long distance relationship when their plans to attend college together
are ruined by the death of Bernie's mother, and Winifred decides to
attend the University of California at Santa Barbara, where she
changes her identity in order to fit in, while he stays in New Jersey.
Slam
Hornby, Nick
At the age of fifteen, Sam Jones's girlfriend gets pregnant and Sam's
life of skateboarding and daydreaming about Tony Hawk changes
drastically.
The Bermudez Triangle: a novel
Johnson, Maureen
The friendship of three high school girls and their relationships with
their friends and families are tested when two of them fall in love with
each other
Stolen Car
Jones, Patrick
British teen Izzy tries to spread her wings but soon finds herself
thwarted by her mother, shunned by her friends, and confused and a bit
frightened by her older, somewhat wild boyfriend, Josh.
Deliver Us from Evie
Kerr, M.E.
Sixteen-year-old Parr Burrman and his family face some difficult times
when word spreads through their rural Missouri town that his older
sister is a lesbian, and she leaves the family farm to live with the
daughter of the town's banker.
Buddha Boy
Koja, Kathe
Justin spends time with Jinsen, the unusual and artistic new student
whom the school bullies torment and call Buddha Boy, and ends up
making choices that impact Jinsen, himself, and the entire school.
Poison Ivy
Koss, Amy Goldman
In a government class three popular girls undergo a mock trial for their
ruthless bullying of a classmate.
Boy Meets Boy
Levithan, David
Paul's simple high-school life is confused by his desire for another boy
who seems unattainable, until Paul's friends help him find the courage
to pursue the object of his affections.
Crush
Mac, Carrie
During a summer in New York, Hope falls in love with another girl
and must decide whether she is gay.
Tangled
Mackler, Carolyn
The lives of four very different teenagers become entangled in ways
that none of them could have imagined after a short stay at a Caribbean
resort.
Letters From the Inside
Marsden, John
The relationship between two teenage girls who become acquainted
through letters intensifies as their correspondence reveals some of the
terrible problems of their lives.
Breathless
McDaniel, Lurlene
A high school diving champion's diagnosis of bone cancer affects not
only his life, but those of his best friend, his sister, and his girlfriend.
Heart to Heart
McDaniel, Lurlene
Relates the complicated friendship of a teenaged girl, her best friend,
her best friend's boyfriend, and a young heart transplant recipient.
Kiss and Blog
Noel, Alyson
Best friends Winter and Sloane make a pact to do whatever it takes to
get noticed in their sophomore year, but once Sloane is taken up by the
"popular" crowd, she quickly leaves Winter behind, and Winter must
consider the consequences when she decides to take revenge by airing
all of Sloane's secrets on an anonymous blog.
Conditions of Love
Pennebaker, Ruth
During her freshman year at an elite high school in Dallas, Sarah tries
to come to terms with her own volatile emotions, her changing
relationship with her best friend, feelings about her mother, and new
insights into her dead father whom she idolized.
Far From Xanadu
Peters, Julie Ann
Sixteen-year-old Mary-Elizabeth "Mike" Szabo, struggling to
understand her father's suicide and her own homosexuality, reaches the
breaking point when she falls in love with Xanadu, an exotic girl who
has moved to small Coalton, Kansas, from the big city.
On the Bright Side, I’m Now the Girlfriend of a Sex God: further
confessions of Georgia Nicolson
Rennison, Louise
Fourteen-year-old Georgia continues her diary in which she records
her misadventures trying to reclaim the attention of seventeen-year-old
Robbie, while coping with her friends, family, and dog-like cat Angus
at the same time.
What My Mother Doesn’t Know
Sones, Sonya
Sophie describes her relationships with a series of boys as she searches
for Mr. Right.
Freak Show
St. James, James
Having faced teasing that turned into a brutal attack, Christianity
expressed as persecution, and the loss of his only real friend when he
could no longer keep his crush under wraps, seventeen-year-old Billy
Bloom, a drag queen, decides the only to become fabulous again is to
run for Homecoming Queen at his elite, private school near Fort
Lauderdale, Florida.
Some Girls Are
Summers, Courtney
Regina, a high school senior in the popular--and feared--crowd,
suddenly falls out of favor and becomes the object of the same sort of
vicious bullying that she used to inflict on others, until she finds solace
with one of her former victims.
7 Days at the Hot Corner
Trueman, Terry
Varsity baseball player Scott Latimer struggles with his own prejudices
and those of others when his best friend reveals that he is gay.
Hard Love
Wittlinger, Ellen
After starting to publish a zine in which he writes his secret feelings
about his lonely life and his parents' divorce, sixteen-year-old John
meets an unusual girl and begins to develop a healthier personality.
Heart on My
Sleeve
Wittlinger, Ellen
From the end of high school to the beginning of college, Chloe and
Julian deal with major changes in their families and friendships and
explore their feelings for each other through emails, letters, and a visit.
The Sweet Life of Stella Madison
Zeises, Lara M.
Seventeen-year-old Stella struggles with the separation of her
renowned chef parents, writing a food column for the local paper even
though she is a junk food addict, and having a boyfriend but being
attracted to another.
*Plot summaries and images provided by Follett.