So there’s a new category of books coming up, known as “new adult.” They are, let’s say, books aimed at older teens or early twenty-somethings who enjoy teen lit. and the defining characteristic may just be that they are a little steamier than your average teen lit. Here’s an example by an author who writes a lot along this line.
Breathe, by Abbi Glines
Simon Pulse, ISBN: 978 1 4424 8870 0
Sadie is awfully responsible for a 17-year-old. She’s had to be, with her mother being such a flake and utterly unable to keep a job (or a boyfriend) for very long. So with her mother newly pregnant and starting to beg off a well-paying job, Sadie steps up and asks to be allowed to take over for her mother, at least for the summer holidays, and once she proves herself, discovers that she is working as house staff for a teen idol. Luckily, she has no interest in him… at least, until she meets him.
Jax Stone, the home’s owner, is looking for a complete break from his public life – and from stupid teenaged girls, whose screaming and antics he is very tired of. But somehow, this gorgeous girl working in his house is different, and the fact that she doesn’t seem to care about his fame is intriguing. He tells himself to keep away, knowing he can only destroy her life by bringing the tabloids to her door, but it is incredibly difficult, especially with the jealousy that rises every time she talks to the house boy, who is so clearly into her.
And you can mostly guess the rest. She seems him and likes him for who he is, he is thrilled about that, they resist for many reasons, there are some bumps along the way, and so on. You’ve all seen rom-coms, it’s much the same stuff, but when they do decide to give in to their feelings, it gets pretty hot, pretty fast. I think it may be the kind of writing – a bit more romance novel than chicklit – or the level of detail that takes these up a little notch from your usual fluffy romantic fare, though not enough to catapult them out of the teen section.
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