Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares http://bit.ly/rcdl-dares

Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac http://bit.ly/gz-amnesiac

My Most Excellent Year http://bit.ly/sk-excellent-year

Every Day http://bit.ly/dl-every-day

Almost Perfect http://bit.ly/bk-perfect

There are five books this week, most of which are realistic fiction. I chose not to include any paranormal romance because I can do a shelf on that all by itself.

So first on the list this week is Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares by David Levithan and Rachel Cohn. While perusing his favorite used bookstore, Dash finds a notebook among the books.  Intrigued, he pulls the book off the shelf and follows the instructions inside. What follows is an amusing scavenger hunt for both Dash and Lily, as they get to know each other through the dares they set for each other. But will their in-person selves be as compatible as the ones in print?

The second book on the shelf is Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin. I wanted to finish it before I talked about it.  Naomi lost the coin toss that sent her back to school to retrieve the camera for yearbook. On her way back to her friend Will, she falls down the stairs, hitting her head but saving the camera. As a result, she can’t remember anything after being 12 years old. She doesn’t remember her best friend or her boyfriend, Ace. But she’s intrigued by James, the boy who came to her rescue.

The next one is one of my favorites, and I actually finished relistening to the audiobook recently. It’s My Most Excellent Year by Steve Kluger. My Most Excellent Year is a character driven story that follows three teens: T. C., Ale and Augie through their freshman year of high school.  This text combines assignments for class, chat logs and emails to tell the story, which is a format that I, personally, find interesting.  Ale’s new in school and T.C. likes her.  Except that she won’t give him the time of day. Augie, who is T.C.’s brother, is gay, which is something that everyone in his family knows, but he hasn’t figured out yet.  It’s a story about love, Mary Poppins, and Fenway Park, and it’s one of my favorites.

Third up is Every Day by David Levithan. It was my birthday book a few years ago: I was so involved in the story that I had to get to the end before I left for work, which was part of my present to myself. This one is a little different, in terms of how the romance plays out, because of the nature of the protagonist.  See, A doesn’t stay in the same body every day. It doesn’t bother A too much — a point is made to try not to destroy anyone’s life while inhabiting their body. Minimal damage.  But when A meets Rhiannon, A doesn’t want to move bodies anymore, not that it can be stopped.  What follows is an unconventional love story, as A courts Rhiannon from a different body every day. It makes their relationship rather complicated.

Last on this week’s shelf is Almost Perfect by Brian Katcher. Logan’s girlfriend cheated on him and he’s having a hard time trusting people. Sage is new in school and is in need of a friend. Logan falls for Sage, but he doesn’t know that Sage is biologically a boy. Logan is livid when he finds out, but once he gets over his anger, he tries to make amends. Their relationship has not only the issues that accompany teenage love, but also issues that only relationships involving people who are transgender can have.

So five books that deal with romance stuff in some way: Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares, Memiors of a Teenage Amnesiac, My Most Excellent Year, Every Day and Almost Perfect.