coming of age

"[Shiloh and Cary] were best friends. Allies. They spent entire summers sitting on Shiloh's porch steps, dreaming about the future. They were both going to get out of north Omaha--Shiloh would go to college and become an actress, and Cary would join the Navy. They promised each other that their friendship would never change. Well, Shiloh did go to college, and Cary did join the Navy. And yet, somehow, everything changed. Now Shiloh's thirty-three, and it's been fourteen years since she talked to Cary. She's been married and divorced. She has two kids. And she's back living in the same house she grew up in. . . . When she's invited to an old friend's wedding, all Shiloh can think about is whether Cary will be there--and whether she hopes he will be. Would Cary even want to talk to her? After everything? The answer is yes. And yes. And yes. 'Slow Dance' is the story of two kids who fell in love before they knew enough about love to recognize it. Two friends who lost everything. Two adults who just feel lost. It's the story of Shiloh and Cary, who everyone thought would end up together, trying to find their way back to the start"--Provided by publisher.

"The end of Daya Keane's junior year in Escondido, Arizona, is anything but expected. And it starts when her longtime, swoon-worthy crush, Beckett Wild, actually talks to her at a party neither of them should've been at. But as Daya's best friends, Stella and B'Rad, are quick to point out, smart, cute, artistic Beckett is also the poster girl for the wildly popular youth group at Grace Redeemer, the megachurch Daya's mom prays at and pushes her daughter to attend. Amid the concert-worthy light shows, high-energy live band, and pastor preaching to love thy neighbor so long as thy neighbor 'gets right with God' first, Daya struggles to find her place in a house of worship that doesn't seem to create space for someone like her. Then again, she never planned to fall this hard for a girl like Beckett Wild. Now Daya has to decide how far she's willing to surrender to Beckett's world of Grace Redeemer, and who she's willing to become to be with her"--Provided by publisher.

Castillo Torres, Student Body Association event chair and serial planner, could use a fairy godmother. After a disastrous mishap at her sister?s quincea?era and her mother's unexpected passing, all of Cas?s plans are crumbling. So when a local lifestyle-guru-slash-party-planner opens up applications for the internship of her dreams, Cas sees it as the perfect opportunity to learn every trick in the book so that things never go wrong again. The only catch is that she needs more party planning experience before she can apply. When she books a quincea?era for a teen Disneyland vlogger, Cas thinks her plan is taking off? until she discovers that the party is just a publicity stunt?and she begins catching feelings for the chambel?n. As her agenda starts to go way off-script Cas finds that real life may be more complicated than a fairy tale. But maybe Happily Ever Afters aren?t just for the movies. Can Cas go from planner to participant in her own life? Or will this would-be princess turn into a pumpkin at the end of the ball?.

"After high school graduation, Mia Peters faces a summer full of painful goodbyes. Songwriting is her only solace. Everyone she knows is moving on, including Britt, her biggest supporter . . . and kind-of-sort-of girlfriend. Britt keeps pushing Mia to go bigger and do better than their small town, but Mia can't imagine a life beyond Sunset Cove. Besides, she refuses to follow in the footsteps of her late mother--country music star Tori Rose--who abandoned her family to pursue her dream, leaving Mia and her two grandmothers alone. Desperate for a sign of what might lie ahead, Mia finds the opposite--a mysterious letter from the past, addressed to her in her mother's handwriting. It turns out to be the first of many. One by one, they lead Mia on a wild scavenger hunt through a Sunset Cove she never knew, buried under the memorializing that has frozen her mother in time. Each new discovery brings Mia closer to the real Tori Rose, but with the clock ticking on Britt's departure, Mia knows she is running out of time. With the summer winding down, Mia must decide if she is ready to face the present, confront her feelings, and forge the destiny she truly wants"--Provided by publisher.

Belly spends the summer she turns sixteen at the beach just like every other summer of her life, but this time things are very different.

When college freshman Grace Mendes reluctantly attends her first pillow fight match, she falls in love with the surprisingly gritty sport. Despite her usually shy, introverted, and reserved nature, Grace decides to try out for the Pillow Fight Federation (PFF), a locally famous league of fighters with larger-than-life personas like Pain Eyre, Miss Fortune, and champion Kat Atonic. They may battle with pillows, but there is nothing soft about these fighters. The first and only rule to pillow fighting is that the pillow needs to be the first point of contact; after that, everything else goes. Grace struggles with deep-seated body image issues, so she is especially shocked when she makes the competitive league and is welcomed into the fold of close knit, confident fighters. As her first official fight performing as newly crafted alter-ego/ring persona Cinderhella looms on the horizon, the real battle taking place is between Grace and her growing insecurities. What if people laugh or make fun of her? Why did she think she could pillow fight in the first place when she doesn't look like your "typical" athlete? Turns out, no one is laughing when Cinderhella dominates her first match in the ring. And as her alter-ego rises through the ranks of the PFF, gaining traction and online fame (and online trolls), can Grace use the spotlight to become an icon for not just others, but most importantly, for herself?.

"Bear boy is a coming-of-age story of how two bears inspire one boy to stand up, question authority, fight for animals and discover the power of activism"--.

"Katie turns 12 and finally has her first crush, but growing up is much more complicated than Katie thought it would be"--Provided by publisher.

"It is the winter of 1705, and the tenth Guru of the Sikhs is under attack by the armies of the mighty Mughal Emperor, Aurangzeb. Under siege and isolated, Guru Gobind Singh Ji's men are exhausted beyond measure, and forty soldiers decide to head home. Back in the villages of Punjab, these forty men are met by a fiery Sikh woman-a warrior who has been preparing all her life for this very moment-who leads the deserters back to the Guru. This is the story of that warrior, the fierce Mai Bhago, who chose the sword to symbolize her unwavering loyalty and devotion to her people and her faith"--Provided by publisher.

"Yaminah Okar left Obsidian and the wreckage of her family years ago. She and her father have made lives for themselves in Brooklyn. She thinks she's moved on to bigger and better things. She thinks she's finally left behind that city she would rather forget. But when a Facebook message about her estranged mother pierces Yaminah's new bubble, memories of everything that happened before her parents' divorce come roaring back. Now, Yaminah must finally reckon with the truth about her mother and the growing collapse of a place she once called home"--.