Happy Valentine’s Day!

Rather than focusing on romantic love, my blog post centers on friendship first. While “insta-love” and “insta-hate turns to love” are both prevalent in fiction, I have asked for submissions of titles that focus on friendship (either before love, or remaining as friends.) The idea of instant attraction or chemistry leading to a happily-ever-after is popular and I think leads to disappointment in real life relationships when Cinderella fairy tales turn out to be just that.

So here is a selection of books, a couple of mine and some others, that focus on friendship rather than romance, for your Valentine’s Day reading!

Covers and titles are linked.

Mito, Medical Kidnap Files #1

Gabriel’s and Renata’s friendship begins in the psych ward in book one, and continues throughout the series as they help and support each other.

Synopsis:

Gabriel has dealt with mysterious medical issues his whole life. Just when he finally thought that they had all of the answers and he was on the road to good health, he is apprehended by DFS on the grounds of medical neglect.

At first, he thought that he would be back home in a few days, once the misunderstanding was cleared up. But when Renata tells Gabriel her crazy conspiracy theories, Gabriel feels the first pangs of doubt. Is there really a conspiracy? Will he ever be able to get well and go back to his mother, or is he doomed to be another guinea pig for Doctor De Klerk?

Don’t Forget Steven

Steven lives in desperate circumstances, with few opportunities for happiness. Without his friends Sasha and Leo, he would have little to live for. These friends truly save his life.

Synopsis:

Things never have been easy for Steven. He accepts that, and just makes the best of things. He might not have parents or a happy home. Or enough to eat most days. But at least he has a couple of loyal friends who stand by him and help out when they can. At least he has school, someplace he can go to escape the abuse.

But just when he thought things couldn’t get much worse, they did.

Steven is accused of murder. But that isn’t the worst part. The really bad part is not even knowing if he did it.

Beneath the Skin, by Kyla Stone

Free for a limited time

For 18-year-old Sidney Shaw, life pretty much sucks. Her mom’s a drunk. Her dad’s worse. At school, she’s bullied by her ex-best friend. And cutting no longer brings the relief she craves. 

When Sidney is forced into group counseling, she meets perfect, popular Arianna, the type of girl who grieves over a broken nail. But Arianna has secrets of her own. She might prove herself a friend–if Sidney can let her guard down. Then there’s Lucas, the sweet and funny new guy who sees straight through her tough, snarky façade. 

But Sidney’s wounds go deeper than anyone knows.

White Knights, by Julie Moffett

My name is Angel Sinclair. I’m the youngest senior at Excalibur Academy for the Technologically Gifted and Talented in Washington, DC. I was pushed ahead a year because of my high IQ and considerable prowess behind the keyboard, making me an outcast even among my own peers. I’ve been looking for my dad all my life. A brilliant mathematician and cryptographer, he disappeared under mysterious circumstances when I was eighteen months old.

Although my mom tells me I must put him in my past, it only makes me more determined to find out what happened to him. When weird accidents start happening at my school and the vice principal is involved in a deadly incident, I don’t see it as a coincidence. After launching my own investigation, with the aid of an unexpected set of allies calling themselves the White Knights, I discover a threat far greater than I ever could have imagined.

I could take my discoveries to the authorities, but my own investigative methods would be at risk. Can anyone say hacking? No, it’s up to me to set things right. My objectives are straightforward: clear the name of the vice principal, learn the truth about my father, and stay alive. In other words, save the day and try not to look too much like a dork while doing it.

On a Larp, by Stefan Deoul

On a LARP introduces readers to teen coder, Sid Rubin, a smartass—and super-smart—high school kid with a strong conscience and a knack for solving problems. This high concept, frenetic ride dives into the fascinating world of interactive role-playing when Sid recognizes the photo of a murder victim during an AP field trip to a police station. What starts out as an Aha! moment soon finds Sid and her unlikely posse of friends chasing a dark web killer through the middle of a live action role playing game. Sid and the gang work to unravel a deeply encrypted mystery while simultaneously enduring pop quizzes, endless Ted Talks, teenage heartbreak, suspicious parents, cosplay, and the irresistible lure of the NYC Public Library.

Malignant, by Emily Kazmierski

$0.99 this week

Reese Lane is a high school sophomore when her mother is diagnosed with terminal cancer. Her father pulls away from the family, overwhelmed by grief as he watches his beloved wife die. Reese must find the strength to hold her fraying family together, or else risk losing both of her parents to the effects of cancer. Heartbreak, hope, and healing are the themes of this raw Young Adult novel about finding peace and perseverance in the face of crisis.

Fake, by Lori Saetis

$0.99

Penny Sparrow is trapped in a lie. She’s a Strowler, a wanderer, forced to live as a Bleater, an ordinary person, for the sake of her family. Rebellion against her fake life leads to more misery as she’s bullied at school and suppressed at home. She makes an ally when she meets Lennon Lau. This ragged street hustler is the heir of the Two Dragon Clan and the descendant of a powerful dragon. Murderous relatives have forced him into hiding. The two teens become friends, and perhaps something more, but will the laws of the Crossroads and the demands of a dragon tear them apart?

Emma Beware, by Michelle A. Iden

$0.99

Fourteen-year-old standout athlete and student, Emma Mae Davenport, previously stalked through mysterious texts-vanishes-time’s ticking. Four of her friends dubbed, “Warriors for Emma,” armed with cyber-techno skills unravel clues and discover the unthinkable.

Will she be in attendance at her 15th birthday celebration, or her funeral, or will she remain missing?

The Way We Fall, by Megan Crewe

On sale for $0.99 until Saturday!

When sixteen-year-old Kaelyn lets her best friend leave for school without saying goodbye, she never dreams that she might not see him again. Then a strange virus begins to sweep through her small island community, infecting young and old alike. As the dead pile up, the government quarantines the island: no one can leave, and no one can come back.

Cut off from the world, the remaining islanders must fend for themselves. Supplies are dwindling, fatalities rising, and panic is turning into violence. With no cure in sight, Kaelyn knows their only hope of survival is to band together. Desperate to save her home, she joins forces with a former rival and opens her heart to a boy she once feared.

Heiress to Waitress, by Ginny Clyde

$0.99

When sixteen-year-old Olivia Buchannan’s father dies suddenly, her life is thrown into chaos. She is torn from the high society world of Edinburgh and her beloved Academy to go live in a small town in Pennsylvania where her mother grew up. Life is not the same anymore, but it’s turning into one heck of an adventure.

As if there wasn’t enough struggle in Olivia’s riches-to-rags life already, a mysterious boy has taken up stalking her. Even though she tries to avoid him, he is always there to save the day. It wouldn’t be as bad if he didn’t make her heart race every time she was near him.

Through Your Eyes, by Avril Sabine

A girl, a boy in a coma and a diary. How far would you be willing to go to save the life of a stranger?

Life seems determined to throw one problem after another at sixteen-year-old Brenna. She feels like her life is disintegrating before her eyes and has no idea how to sort it out. Her best friend lives in another state, her parents are constantly arguing, her younger sister keeps prying into her things and she wants to break up with her boyfriend without it causing her more problems at school. The only person she has to talk to about everything is a boy in a coma. And she’s terrified he might never wake.

Outbreak, by Joshua C. Chadd

Two brothers learn of the apocalypse after being out of touch for a few days. Returning to town, they learn first-hand, the dead are coming back to life with a taste for flesh. With their parents in Nebraska, they must embark on a journey to rescue them as they set into motion their zombie apocalypse plan. But they’ll see not all is fun and games as they realize it is nothing like they imagined it would be.

Can they make it in time to save their parents from a fate worse than death?