Showing titles in Coming of Age

January, 1982. Thirteen-year-old Jason Taylor - covert stammerer and reluctant poet - anticipates a stultifying year in his backwater English village. But he hasn't reckoned with bullies, simmering family discord, the Falklands War, a threatened gypsy invasion and those mysterious entities known as girls. Charting 13 months in the black hole between childhood and adolescence, this is a captivating novel, wry, painful and vibrant with the stuff of life.

The city of Atrine lies in ruins. And now that Relos Var has revealed his plan to free the monstrous god, Vol Karoth, the end of the world is closer than ever. To buy time for humanity, Kihrin and his friends need to convince a king to perform an ancient ritual. The power released would imprison the god for an age to come. But this may come at too high a price for the King of the Vane, as the ritual would strip his people of their immortality. As a result, some will do anything to prevent this ritual - including assassinating those championing this solution....

One morning, Deming Guo's mother, an undocumented Chinese immigrant named Polly, goes to her job at the nail salon and never comes home. No one can find any trace of her. With his mother gone, 11-year-old Deming is left with no one to care for him. He is eventually adopted by two white college professors who move him from the Bronx to a small town upstate. They rename him Daniel Wilkinson in their efforts to make him over into their version of an "all-American boy".

Belle Simon was just 12 years old when she was one of six girls plucked from obscurity to star in reality TV sensation The Real Deal. Under the wing of dazzling star Donna Mayfair, she and the other five girls were meant to become world-famous actresses, singers and dancers. But at 26, Belle is trying to live anonymously, away from being loved or loathed. The public eye has never fully shut, however, and when a producer offers Belle a big paycheck to join a reunion special for The Real Deal, she finds it hard to say no.

Violet Ellis is living in the shadows of her father’s ruined reputation. So, when wealthy widower James Atherton offers her employment, she immediately begins the treacherous journey to his home on the remote Cornish island of Aoife’s Bay – despite the bone-chilling allegations surrounding his late wife Elizabeth’s death. In James’s company, Violet begins to feel the love that has been missing all her life. But when anonymous letters start to plague the bay’s residents, threatening to expose what really happened to Elizabeth, Violet feels the hostility towards her grow.

When watching a documentary on the average human experience, Emily realises she's the epitome of the typical woman. Her name, her height, her occupation…even her blood group. The only thing unusual about her is that she’s a twin. But her twin died when they were only 8 and Emily can't help but think maybe her sister was meant to live instead of her. Secretly she suspects her sister would have done a better job at life...better than average anyway. So Emily writes a list committing her to live a more extraordinary life…she’ll become a vegan, run a marathon and bungee jump.

All of my hard work has paid off and now I have a family to call my own - my best friend Avery and my three boyfriends; Harley, Ash, and Blaise. But with more people depending on me, the stakes have never been higher. I’ve stepped out from the shadow of the Jackal. I’ve laid claim on the men I want, and I’m not letting anything get in our way.

One week. No future. No past. No more. Alexandria Collins has one week to live carefree - no ghosts of her past or pressures of her future haunting her. Reinventing herself as "Charli", she is knocked off her feet by a sexy, mysterious man who brings her pleasure like she never imagined. With her heart at stake, she forgets that decisions made in the dark of night reappear in the bright light of day.

It has been four years since Darian saw his village sacked and burned by barbarians. Taking refuge with the Hawkbrothers, he soon finds his life's calling - as a Healing Adept. But even as he learns the mystical ways of this ancient race, Darian cannot escape the dangers threatening his future. Another tribe of barbarians is approaching. The time has come...to stand up and fight.

A Scottish new town in the 1970s is the playground for teenage sweethearts Lorna and Robert and their unforgettable band of friends – and foes. Among the concrete warrens, they discover loyalty and betrayal, booze and bullies, triumph and tragedy. And, like all youngsters growing up anytime, anywhere, they spend an awful lot of time inventing sex. But for Lorna and Robert, their lives are changed – perhaps forever – when they are torn apart by a deathbed promise and bitter sectarian divide. Fast forward 25 years to Blair’s Britain at the start of the new millennium.

I'm still trying to make the dream possible: still might finish my cleaning project, still might sign up for that yoga class, still might, still might. I step into the shower and almost faint, an image of taking the day by the throat and bashing its head against the wall floating in my mind. Thirty-year-old Millie just can't pull it together. Misanthropic and morose, she spends her days killing time at a thankless temp job until she can return home to her empty apartment, where she oscillates wildly between self-recrimination and mild delusion....

You’re a disappointment to everyone. You’re a far cry from beautiful - and your thoughts are ugly too. You seem bound to fail, bound to break. But you know what it is to laugh with your best friend, to feel the first tentative tingles of attraction, to take exquisite pleasure in the affront of your unruly body. You just need to find your place. From dead pets and crashed cars to family traumas and misguided love affairs, Susannah Dickey's revitalising debut novel plunges us into the private world of one young woman as she navigates her rocky way to adulthood.

Hero of Jutland, Kelly Maguire progresses rapidly through the ranks during the dangerous post-war years, despite the government’s decision to cut down the navy. He eventually finds himself in Russia during the civil war, when the navy manned armoured trains to rescue thousands of terrified White Army men, beset on all sides by disease and the rampaging Red Army.

Anuri's stepmother, Ophelia, is the ultimate 'mumfluencer'. Throughout Anuri's childhood, she catalogued every minute, milestone and carefully curated family outing on social media, cultivating a devoted—and sizable—following. Now twenty-five years old, life looks pretty perfect on the outside. Ophelia's fans could be forgiven for wondering why Anuri spends much of her time insulting men online for money, battling the call of alcohol, running from a PhD application, and reminding herself that she is now allowed to choose her own outfits.

Clinging tightly to the penny in her palm, Flora’s fortune was about to change… Flora is forever grateful for the day the Stewart family rescued her from her life of poverty on London’s streets. Adopted as one of their own, she shed her rags and was finally given a place to call home. When a twist of fate calls her back to the cobbles, Flora’s new life is torn apart. Flora must make her own way if she is ever to find where she truly belongs…

In 1950s Tehran, seven-year-old Ellie lives in grand comfort until the untimely death of her father, forcing Ellie and her mother to move to a tiny home downtown. Lonely and bearing the brunt of her mother’s endless grievances, Ellie dreams of a friend to alleviate her isolation. Luckily, on the first day of school, she meets Homa, a kind, passionate girl with a brave and irrepressible spirit. Together, the two girls play games, learn to cook in the stone kitchen of Homa’s warm home, wander through the colorful stalls of the Grand Bazaar, and share their ambitions for becoming 'lion women.'

Poverty-stricken Finn Jagger would give anything to heal his ailing mother. With his father imprisoned, Finn has joined a thieving crew to earn the money he needs to save her. When the latest heist turns to disaster and lands him on death row, Finn’s future seems to be tied up with a noose. Until the king’s executioner claims him as an apprentice.

Theo has been living in his parents' shed, nursing a broken heart and a wounded ego, convinced life can't get any worse. Then he gets evicted on his 30th birthday. Theo thinks he's done with the real world—until it shows up on his doorstep. Joel is a successful TV scriptwriter, still in love with his teenage sweetheart. A proper grown-up—and yet he's falling apart at the seams. He's headed home to reconnect with best friend Theo—except they haven't spoken since the summer they turned 16.

In the summer of 1877, Bridget is orphaned when her unreliable father succumbs to a snakebite as they're crossing the Kansas prairie. Arriving in Dodge City as a penniless orphan, she's quickly recruited for work at the Buffalo Queen brothel and befriends her bookish mentor Constance, securing her home and employment as the favorite of Sheriff's Deputy Jim Bonnie. As winter creeps in from the plains, female gunfighter Spartan Lee rides into town, and Bridget falls in love with her the moment their paths cross.

What would you do if you woke up 30 years older than you were yesterday? Brooklyn, 1982. Oona Lockhart and her boyfriend are about to ring in the New Year and Oona's 19th birthday. But seconds after the New Year begins, Oona is torn from her life and everyone she loves, finding herself in her 51-year-old body 33 years into the future. The life she had is gone, and all she is a letter from herself from the previous year to guide her. Each year on the stroke of midnight she finds herself resurfacing in a different year of her own adulthood.