The story of a deep friendship between two girls and the concern of one that it might become a physical relationship.

The history of the sex guide for adolescents documents the quite unconscious movement of Western culture’s ideas about sex and youth, revealing the heritage of our own sexual beliefs and codes of behaviour. The first section of this book, first published in 1986, traces the development of the sex guide, examining 400 books from 1892 to the 1980s. The second section comprises a detailed analysis of the patterns, content and usefulness of all the contemporary manifestations of the genre. The history of the teen sex manual is a fascinating revelation of American attitudes towards adolescent sexuality.

My name is Rebecca Rafferty, and my mother has ruined my life. Again. I didn't mind her writing boring books for grown-ups. But now she's written one about an awful girl my age and everyone thinks it's me! Including the boy who delivers our newspapers, aka Paperboy, aka the most gorgeous boy in the whole world. Oh, the shame! And if that wasn't awful enough, the biggest pain in my class wants to use my 'fame' to get herself on the reality show 'My Big Birthday Bash'. I've just got to show everyone the REAL Rebecca. But how?

A woman is incomplete without a man, motherhood is a woman’s destiny, and a woman’s place is in the home. These conservative political themes are woven throughout teen romance fiction’s sagas of hearts and flowers. Using the theory and interpretive methods of feminism and cultural studies, Christian-Smith explores the contradictory role that popular culture plays in constructing gender, class, race, age and sexual meanings. Originally published in 1990, Becoming a Woman through Romance combines close textual analyses of thirty-four teen romance novels (written in the United States from 1942-1982) with a school study in three midwestern American schools. Christian-Smith situates teen romance fiction within the rapidly changing publishing industry and the important political and economic changes in the United States surrounding the rise of the New Right. By analysing the structure of the novels in terms of the themes of romance, sexuality and beautification, and the Good/Bad and Strong/Weak dichotomies, she demonstrates how each has shaped the novels’ versions of femininity over forty years. She also shows that although romance fiction is presented as a universal model, it is actually an expression of white middle class gender ideology and tension within this class. This high readable, comprehensive and coherent work was the first to combine in one volume three vital areas of cultural studies research: the political economy of publishing, textual analysis, and a study of readers. The first full-scale study of teen romance fiction, Becoming a Woman through Romance establishes the importance of the study of popular culture forms found in school for understanding the process of school materials in identity formation.

Big beautiful―and in some cases mature―heroines grace the pages of this collection of romantic short stories by Judy Bagshaw. Among the offerings: Jen believes fat girls like her don't find love—but at her best friend's wedding her beliefs are put to the test. Middle-aged widow Tricia thought she had to be content living solo. Then she met Harry. Bev ran away with the "bad boy" as a teenager, only to find out that fantasy and reality are vastly different. Twenty years later, can she recapture the love she threw away? Lori has long fantasized about meeting sexy-voiced Dan, one of her clients at the answering service. Will she break the rules and find true love? Karen has kissed a lot of frogs, but not yet met her prince. A chance encounter might change her life―if she's willing to throw caution to the wind. "These are heroines you'll recognize because they are real women like you and me," Bagshaw says. "They have busy lives and character flaws. They make mistakes and have regrets. They long for long and have suffered hurts. But they persevere. And in the stories in this collection they find the love they've been looking for, sometimes where they least expect it."

For fans of Nora Roberts and Danielle Steel, beloved storyteller Fern Michaels blends mystery, drama, and a touch of romance for the fourth in her #1 bestselling Lost & Found series, as a shoebox of mementoes found in a childhood dresser becomes the catalyst for a search into Luna’s own past… Even though Luna and her brother Cullen seem like complete opposites, they’re identical in two ways: they’ll never let injustice stand and they always have each other’s back... Sometimes, two very different pieces of furniture just pair perfectly together. Brother and sister Cullen and Luna Bodman work much the same way. While practical-minded Cullen Bodman focuses on their family’s antiques restoration business, his sister Luna’s next-door Namaste Café brings in new clientele. As a thank you to his sister, Cullen retrieves Luna’s childhood dresser from storage and refinishes it. A delighted Luna rummages through the drawers and discovers a shoebox full of mementos of her friend Brendan, reviving memories of love and a broken heart. But a flurry of emails and texts leads to a very brief death notice: Born. Died. Nothing else. Beyond Luna’s sadness is her uncanny intuition that something about the announcement is off, a feeling that intensifies when she later glimpses a person who seems to be Brendan’s doppelganger. His laugh, his walk—Luna remembers both so well. Is her old friend really alive? And if so, who faked his death, and why? It’s not the first time an item of furniture has spurred Luna to solve a fascinating puzzle. But this time, the mystery is much more personal, and the stakes infinitely higher . . .