Showing titles in Coming of Age

Kabul, 1978: The daughter of a prominent family, Sitara Zamani lives a privileged life in Afghanistan’s thriving cosmopolitan capital. The 1970s are a time of remarkable promise under the leadership of people like Sardar Daoud, Afghanistan’s progressive president, and Sitara’s beloved father, his right-hand man. But the ten-year-old Sitara’s world is shattered when communists stage a coup, assassinating the president and Sitara’s entire family. Only she survives.

You always remember your first love. Don't you? It began with four words. "I love your laugh." But that was 12 years ago. It really began the day Georgina was fired from The Worst Restaurant in Sheffield (TripAdvisor) and found The Worst Boyfriend in the World (Georgina's best friends) in bed with someone else. So when her new boss, Lucas McCarthy, turns out to be the boy who wrote those words to her all that time ago, it feels like the start of something. The only problem? He doesn't seem to remember Georgina at all.

Loveday Cardew prefers books to people, and her job in a York bookshop is her refuge. If you look carefully, you might see the first lines of the novels she loves the most tattooed on her skin, but there are secrets Loveday will never share. Into the bookshop come a poet, a lover, a friend and three mysterious deliveries, each of which stirs unsettling memories she wants to forget. Turning the pages of her past will be the hardest thing Loveday has ever done. Can she trust those around her?

Polly Spencer is fine. She’s single, turning 30 and managed to have sex only twice last year (both times with a Swedish banker called Fred), but seriously, she’s fine. Even if she’s still stuck at Posh! magazine writing about royal babies and the chances of finding a plus one to her best friend’s summer wedding are looking worryingly slim. But it’s a New Year, a new leaf and all that. Polly’s determined that over the next 365 days she’ll remember to shave her legs, drink less wine and generally get her s--t together.

Shortly before Bel's marriage to Ellis Brownlee, her friend, Louise Armstrong, goes house hunting for them and discovers a charming but neglected old stone cottage in the Cotswolds. Bel adores the house, called Fletchers End. Ellis buys the place from the absentee-owner, Lieutenant Commander Lestrange, and, after a picture-book wedding, the happy couple move in. As she embarks on her new life as a devoted wife, Bel loyally guides Louise through her own romantic tribulations.

A chance encounter brings Nancy Sunday to the streets of London, where she finds herself amongst a band of street urchins. Her heart may have been broken by love but it’s big enough to help those less fortunate than herself, and Nancy takes these unloved orphans in—but when one of them is accused of a serious crime, the neighbourhood turns against her. The colder the cruel grip of winter grows, the more mouths she finds herself having to feed. Can Nancy’s good heart and strength bring them all through?

This cruel king won’t stop until he breaks me. Dutch Cross, lead singer of The Kings, is a monster. Don’t let his amber eyes, chiseled jaw line, and crooning voice fool you. He prowls the hallways of Redwood Prep like he owns every inch. Brutal. Untouchable. Beast. And when his golden eyes meet mine, I know I’m his next prey. The monster wants me out of Redwood. But the fancy private school is my last chance at a better life for my sister. No one has ever dared to go against Dutch and his equally gorgeous brothers. I’m honored to be the first.

Sixteen-year-old Billy and his brother Boyd are fascinated by an elusive wolf that has been marauding his family's ranch. Billy captures the animal - but rather than kill it, sets out impulsively for the mountains of Mexico to return it to where it came from. Billy returns, finding himself and his world have irrevocably changed. His loss of innocence has come at a price, and once again the border beckons with its desolate beauty and cruel promise.

Life is a cruel game where only the most ruthless survive. It’s a truth my mother rebelled against, and she paid for it with her life. Now, I play their game. Publicly accepting the destiny that lies in wait for me when I turn 18. But, behind closed doors, I plot my escape. Trent, Charlie, and my twin, Drew, rule the hallways of Rydeville High with arrogance and an iron fist. I execute my role perfectly, hating every second, but they never let me forget my place in this world. Everyone obeys the rules. Because our families have always been in control.

Winner of the Whitbread Prize for best first fiction. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit is a coming-out novel from Winterson, the acclaimed author of The Passion and Sexing the Cherry. The narrator, Jeanette, cuts her teeth on the knowledge that she is one of God’s elect, but as this budding evangelical comes of age and comes to terms with her preference for her own sex, the peculiar balance of her God-fearing household crumbles.

Heather Winterbottom has worked side by side with her husband as GPs in their idyllic rural practice for over forty years. But as the time comes to hang up their stethoscopes, the Winterbottoms discover that they have rather different visions of retirement. Heather dreams of exploring the Greek Islands, of escaping the shackles of her routine life and embracing an exciting new adventure. Alan dreams of growing his own vegetables. When things come to a head at a family lunch, Heather announces that she has decided to take a year off.

In 1966, Sook-Yin is exiled from Kowloon to London with orders to restore honour to her family. As she strives to fit into a world that does not understand her, she realises that survival will mean carving out a destiny of her own. Thirty years later, in London, her daughter Lily can barely remember the mother she lost as a small child. But when she is unexpectedly named in the will of a powerful Chinese stranger, she embarks on a secret pilgrimage to Hong Kong to discover the lost side of her identity and claim the reward.

It is London, 1970. Carmel McBain, in her first term at university, has cut free of her childhood roots in the north. Among the gossiping, flirtatious girls of Tonbridge Hall, she begins her experiments in life and love. But the year turns. The mini-skirt falls out of style and an era of concealment begins. Carmel's world darkens, and tragedy waits in the wings.

London, 1875. Taking one last look around her little room in Covent Garden, Nettie Carroll couldn’t believe she wouldn’t even be able to say good-bye to her friends. Her father had trusted the wrong man, and now they would have to go on the run. Once again.

"There’s nothing there." The words may as well have been a death sentence to young Declan. Without mana, there could be no studying at the sky-piercing Pinnacle Towers, there could be no great monster hunts, and there could be no following in his father’s legendary footsteps. He’d be a cripple. But when a terrible accident forces him to flee, Declan learns the true nature of his mana. Just because it doesn’t resonate at any known frequency doesn’t mean it isn’t magic. Just because he can’t cast the same spells as everyone else doesn’t mean he isn’t a mage.

The arrival of a dangerous sorcerer forces Gavin to confront his past. As Gavin works with the El’aras to master his connection to the ring, he learns of an El’aras prophecy that speaks of the Shard and a Champion. One must destroy the other. Though Gavin doesn’t believe in prophecy, he can’t deny that he’s caught up in something greater than he understands - and begins to suspect he’s been guided toward his fate. The arrival of a powerful sorcerer tests Gavin’s belief.

An unnamed young trans woman grows up in a working-class suburb that has no place for her. She discovers community and kinship in downtown Madrid, amid a dazzling party scene animated by charming junkies, glamorous pop divas, and fallen angels. With each step she takes forward in the city, she finds herself confronted by an antagonism she does not yet know how to counter. In this thrilling and yet often frightening place each decision can have the highest of stakes and yet she knows that only she can forge a path forward to the life she truly wants to live.

After the tragic death of her mother and a long period of isolation under the thumb of a cruel grandfather, young Caroline Bryer has little to hope for in her life in the foreboding Southerland mansion. Her only companion, her enigmatic cousin, Simon, may be a wolf in sheep’s clothing and is not to be trusted. But when Caroline’s estranged father suddenly resurfaces with news of a new wife and stepchildren in Hawaii that she’ll finally be allowed to visit, Caroline dares to hope for a new, normal life. Desperate for her father’s love, Caroline will do anything to stay in this new home.

Glory arrives back in Peckham, from her seemingly glamorous life in LA, to mourn the sudden death of her father and finds her previously close family has fallen apart in her absence. Her brother, Victor, has been jailed, her sister, Faith, appears to have lost her independence and ambition and their mother, Celeste, is headed towards a breakdown. Glory is thrown by their disarray, and rather than returning to America, she decides to stay and try to bring them all together again.

For the last 16 years, Eve has been a prisoner. Guarded by the Mothers. Trapped by her fate. Watched by the world. Until she took her chance, and escaped. Eve finally has the freedom she has wanted for so long and with Bram she has the love. But both come at a price. In this dangerous new world beyond the Tower, the regime are only ever one step behind. And together with the desperate rebel group fighting against them, Eve has found herself in more danger than she ever could have imagined.