Twelfth Night by Alexene Farol Follmuth

 

“Viola Reyes is annoyed.

Her painstakingly crafted tabletop game campaign was shot down, her best friend is suggesting she try being more “likable,” and school running back Jack Orsino is the most lackadaisical Student Body President she’s ever seen, which makes her job as VP that much harder. Vi’s favorite escape from the world is the MMORPG Twelfth Knight, but online spaces aren’t exactly kind to girls like her―girls who are extremely competent and have the swagger to prove it. So Vi creates a masculine alter ego, choosing to play as a knight named Cesario to create a safe haven for herself.

But when a football injury leads Jack Orsino to the world of Twelfth Knight, Vi is alarmed to discover their online alter egos―Cesario and Duke Orsino―are surprisingly well-matched.

As the long nights of game-play turn into discussions about life and love, Vi and Jack soon realize they’ve become more than just weapon-wielding characters in an online game. But Vi has been concealing her true identity from Jack, and Jack might just be falling for her offline…” - taken from Goodreads.

Inspired by the Shakespeare play of the same name. Viola plays an online game where she poses as a boy to keep the harassment at bay. When Duke Orsino, the star quarterback, is sidelined with an injury, he spends his newfound time playing the same game as Viola. As the two grow closer online and in real life, what happens when Duke realizes that he's been duped by Viola?

Visit Alexene Farol Follmuth’s website.

The Anatomical Shape of a Heart by Jenn Bennett

 

“Beatrix Adams knows exactly how she’s spending the summer before her senior year. Determined to follow in Da Vinci’s footsteps, she’s ready to tackle the one thing that will give her an advantage in a museum-sponsored scholarship contest: drawing actual cadavers. But when she tries to sneak her way into the hospital’s Willed Body program and misses the last metro train home, she meets a boy who turns her summer plans upside down.

Jack is charming, wildly attractive, and possibly one of San Francisco’s most notorious graffiti artists. On midnight buses and city rooftops, Beatrix begins to see who Jack really is—and tries to uncover what he’s hiding that leaves him so wounded. But will these secrets come back to haunt him? Or will the skeletons in her family’s closet tear them apart?” - taken from Goodreads.

This was an incredible story about a chance meeting, first love, and of course some pretty serious family drama. Bex and Jack meet late one night on a city bus and are unable to stop thinking about the other. As they begin to see one another, the two of them begin to unravel the hurt they are both holding onto. When confronted by their parents, can Bex and Jack's relationship survive? Another awesome book that I've waited too long to pick up.

Visit Jenn Bennett's website.

Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

“I don’t believe in fashion. I believe in costume. Life is too short to be the same person every day.”

Seventeen-year-old Lola Nolan has three simple wishes in life. She wants to dress as Marie Antoinette for her winter formal, complete with the extra wide dress and elaborate wig. Beneath the dress will be platform combat boots “so everyone can see underneath the frills,” she is punk-rock tough. Lola wishes her parents would approve of her boyfriend. Twenty-two-year-old Max is in a band and has no aspirations of college. Lastly, she never wants to see her former neighbors, The Bell twins, ever again.

For Lola, life is good. She has a part-time job at a movie theater and she knows her boyfriend Max is the one. Life could be better. Her parents could accept Max instead of continuing their weekly Sunday brunch plans that involve an interrogation session. But things go quickly from good to bad when Lola’s birth mother comes back into her life. Just when she thinks things couldn’t get any worse, they do. The Bells move back into their house and the twins, Calliope and Cricket come with them. Calliope, a hopeful Olympic ice skater returns to her old coach and Cricket starts college at Berkeley. Lola still carries a grudge about the time Cricket, whom she had a huge crush on, rejects her and then moves away.

Running into the Bell twins is inevitable, especially since Lola’s bedroom window looks out at Cricket’s. Still hurt from his rejection two years earlier, Lola is shocked when Cricket asks her out for a date every night for the rest of their lives. It doesn’t help when Max overhears and becomes jealous. Lola soon finds her heart and mind pulled in two different directions; the boy she thinks is the one and the boy who was her first love. Join Lola on her heart wrenching journey of self-discovery as she learns just what it truly means to be in love.

Lola is a companion book to Anna and the French Kiss. Anna and Etienne make several appearances as Lola and Anna are coworkers at the movie theater and Etienne and Cricket live in the same dorm at Berkeley. Etienne imparts some of his relationship wisdom to a struggling Lola. Perkins gives a little insight into Anna and Etienne’s relationship for those readers who fell in love with these two characters as I did.

Isla and the Happily Ever After will be published in the Fall of 2012.

Visit Stephanie Perkins' website.