Romance

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A Very Large Expanse of Sea by Tahereh Mafi is a 2018 semi-autobiographical young adult novel set in America one year after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Sixteen-year-old Shirin, a Muslim girl born in America to Persian immigrant parents from Iran, experiences intolerance and hatred in her school and the outside world. Shirin tries to maintain emotional distance from peers to protect herself, but the hesitant romance that develops between Shirin and Ocean... Read A Very Large Expanse of Sea Summary

“A Very Short Story” is one of Ernest Hemingway’s earliest literary works. It originally appeared as one of 18 vignettes that made up the chapbook in our time, published in 1924. The story was later republished, along with the original vignettes and 14 additional short stories, in a new and expanded edition of In Our Time in 1925. This guide refers to that later edition.“A Very Short Story” is semi-autobiographical, based loosely upon Hemingway’s own... Read A Very Short Story Summary

A Voice in the Wind (originally published in 1993) by American author Francine Rivers is an amalgam of history, Christian allegory, and romance novel. Set in ancient Rome, the novel uses the decadence and cruelty of the Roman Empire as a backdrop for a tale of religious persecution, forbidden love, and the triumph of faith. Rivers has written extensively in the Christian fiction genre, producing four multi-book series and several stand-alone novels, including Redeeming Love... Read A Voice in the Wind Summary

A Walk to Remember is a 1999 novel by bestselling American romance writer Nicholas Sparks. It was adapted into a movie in 2002. The novel, set in 1958 in the coastal North Carolina town of Beaufort, builds on the brand Sparks established in his earlier bestselling 1996 novel, The Notebook, which is a historical romance set in a North Carolina coastal town during the 1940s. This North Carolina setting is also a locale of subsequent... Read A Walk to Remember Summary

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A New York Times bestselling novel, Bared to You by Sylvia Day chronicles the relationship between independent Eva Tramell and successful Gideon Cross. Published in 2012, Bared to You explores the impact of trauma as Eva and Gideon navigate their past experiences with childhood sexual abuse. The first book of the Crossfire Saga, Bared to You precedes four novels that document the turbulent relationship of Eva and Gideon. Classified as erotic fiction, Day’s novel features... Read Bared To You Summary

Barefoot in the Park is a 1963 play by Pulitzer Prize-winning American playwright Neil Simon. Born in the Bronx in 1927, Simon grew up during the Depression. Financial strains characteristic of the time caused tension in his parents’ marriage, and Simon sought escape at the movies, with comedic films in particular. Laughter and comedy served as emotional balms for him, as they do in his semi-autobiographical plays. His plays are often set in New York... Read Barefoot In The Park Summary

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Beautiful Creatures (2009) is a young adult paranormal romance novel written by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl. Garcia and Stohl combine their interest in Southern Gothic literature with supernatural romance. Beautiful Creatures is the first book in the four-part Caster Chronicles. The novel follows the romance between Ethan Wate and Lena Duchannes as Lena comes to terms with the supernatural powers that make her a Caster. Lena and Ethan struggle to find a way to... Read Beautiful Creatures Summary

Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire is a new adult romance first published in 2011. The book became an international bestseller and was made into a feature film released in 2023. The book is part of McGuire’s Beautiful Disaster series; several of the subsequent books also became New York Times bestsellers. This guide refers to the Atria paperback edition published in 2012.Content Warning: The novel depicts and romanticizes character traits that are often precursors of abusive... Read Beautiful Disaster Summary

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Beauty and the Beast by Gabrielle-Suzanna Barbot De Villeneuve first appeared in her collection of fairy tales La jeune américaine, et les contes marins (The Young American and Marine Tales) in 1740 and was abridged into a Christian moral tale by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont in 1756. As a fairy-tale classic, Beauty and the Beast has been retold around the globe and in several mediums, including books, film, theater, and opera. The most well-known adaptations... Read Beauty and the Beast Summary

Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast (1978) is author Robin McKinley’s debut novel. It’s an adaptation of the original Beauty and the Beast fairy tale written in 1740 by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve, with genre elements of fantasy and romance and marketed for a middle grade readership. McKinley’s version of the story maintains an 18th-century setting while modernizing thematic explorations of outer versus inner beauty, ideals of faithfulness and selflessness... Read Beauty Summary

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Before I Die is a young adult novel by Jenny Downham published in 2007. The narrator is Tessa, a 16-year-old British girl who has terminal leukemia. The novel’s title refers to the things that Tessa would like to experience and accomplish before she dies: having sex, taking drugs, and breaking the law.Plot SummaryTessa lives with her patient and devoted father and her younger brother Cal; her mother, who left the family when Tessa was twelve... Read Before I Die Summary