Books with category 🎓 University Life
Displaying 40 books

Deep End

2025

by Ali Hazelwood

A competitive diver and an ace swimmer jump into forbidden waters in this steamy college romance from the New York Times bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis.

Scarlett Vandermeer is swimming upstream. A Junior at Stanford and a student-athlete who specializes in platform diving, Scarlett prefers to keep her head down, concentrating on getting into med school and on recovering from the injury that almost ended her career. She has no time for relationships—at least, that’s what she tells herself.


Swim captain, world champion, all-around aquatics golden boy, Lukas Blomqvist thrives on discipline. It’s how he wins gold medals and breaks records: complete focus, with every stroke. On the surface, Lukas and Scarlett have nothing in common. Until a well-guarded secret slips out, and everything changes.


So they start an arrangement. And as the pressure leading to the Olympics heats up, so does their relationship. It was supposed to be just a temporary, mutually satisfying fling. But when staying away from Lukas becomes impossible, Scarlett realizes that her heart might be treading into dangerous water...

Society of Lies

How far would you go to belong?

Maya has returned to Princeton for her college reunion—it’s been a decade since she graduated, and she is looking forward to seeing old faces and reminiscing about her time there. This visit is special because Maya will also be attending the graduation of her little sister, Naomi.

But what should have been a dream weekend becomes Maya’s worst nightmare when she receives the news that Naomi is dead. The police are calling it an accident, but Maya suspects that there is more to the story than they are letting on.

As Maya pieces together what happened in the months leading up to her sister’s death, she begins to realize how much Naomi hid from her. Despite Maya’s warnings, Naomi had joined Sterling Club, the most exclusive social club on campus—the same one Maya belonged to. And if she had to guess, Naomi was likely tapped for the secret society within it.

The more Maya uncovers, the more terrified she becomes that Naomi’s decision to follow in her footsteps might have been what got her killed. Because Maya’s time at Princeton wasn’t as wonderful as she’d always made it seem—after all, her sister wasn’t the first young woman to turn up dead. Now every clue is leading Maya back to the past . . . and to the secret she’s kept all these years.

You Are The Snake

2024

by Juliet Escoria

You Are the Snake offers a glimpse into the lives of characters who straddle the line between conformity and rebellion. In this collection of previously unpublished stories, we are introduced to a range of individuals, from a community college student to an imaginative portrayal of an abusive grandmother, and a young woman discovering her passion for gardening.

The characters crafted by Juliet Escoria are complex—they either strive to meet society's expectations or defiantly turn away from them. These stories exploit the short story form, showcasing Escoria's unique voice that challenges conventional storytelling and resists the temptation for simple moral lessons.

Exploring themes such as girlhood and the transition into womanhood, Escoria does not shy away from the peculiar, the impulsive, and the desires that drive us. Each narrative is set in its own distinct environment, from the suburbs of California to the mountains of West Virginia, and together they form a tapestry that expands and defies preconceived notions of what women are capable of writing and being.

Juliet Escoria's prose has been lauded for its vividness and honesty, and You Are the Snake continues to deliver with its charged and eloquent storytelling. The maturity and style of the short story format are a perfect vessel for Escoria's electric narrative energy.

Only If You're Lucky

Only If You're Lucky is a sharp and twisty exploration of female friendship from the New York Times bestselling author Stacy Willingham. The story follows Lucy Sharpe, a character who is larger than life—magnetic, addictive, bold, and dangerous. Especially for Margot, the shy and careful one, who becomes Lucy's roommate during their freshman year at a liberal arts college in South Carolina.

Margot, previously always the sidekick and never the center of attention, is drawn into an off-campus house with three other girls: Lucy, the ringleader; Sloane, the sarcastic one; and Nicole, the nice one. These opposites but deeply intertwined characters lead Margot to finally break out of her shell, a shell she's been in since her best friend Eliza's death just after high school.

As Margot and Lucy grow close, a fraternity boy from the house next door is brutally murdered, and Lucy Sharpe goes missing without a trace. What ensues is a tantalizing thriller that delves into themes of friendship, belonging, loyalty, envy, and betrayal. Stacy Willingham delivers another gripping novel that cements her position as a standout author in psychological suspense.

Come & Get It

2024

by Kiley Reid

From the celebrated New York Times bestselling author of Such a Fun Age comes a fresh and provocative story about a residential assistant and her messy entanglement with a professor and three unruly students.

It's 2017 at the University of Arkansas. Millie Cousins, a senior resident assistant, wants to graduate, get a job, and buy a house. So when Agatha Paul, a visiting professor and writer, offers Millie an easy yet unusual opportunity, she jumps at the chance. But Millie's starry-eyed hustle becomes jeopardized by odd new friends, vengeful dorm pranks, and illicit intrigue. A fresh and intimate portrait of desire, consumption, and reckless abandon, Come & Get It is a tension-filled story about money, indiscretion, and bad behavior.

Unmasking AI

2023

by Joy Buolamwini

"Unmasking AI: My Mission to Protect What Is Human in a World of Machines" is a compelling exploration into the evolution of artificial intelligence and its implications on human rights and society. Penned by Dr. Joy Buolamwini, a leading figure in the field of AI research, this book is a call to action to mitigate the harms caused by unchecked technological development.

Starting from her early engagement with robotics in high school to her groundbreaking research at MIT, Buolamwini unfolds her journey of unmasking the "coded gaze"—a term she coined to describe the encoded discrimination within tech products. Through her work with the Algorithmic Justice League, she has been a pivotal force in the movement against AI-induced biases, advocating for a future where technology serves all of humanity equally.

"Unmasking AI" is not just a critique of the current state of artificial intelligence but a hopeful vision for a more inclusive and equitable technological future.

Roaming

Spring break, 2009. High school best friends Zoe and Dani are now freshman college students, meeting in a place they've wanted to visit forever: New York City. Tagging along is Dani's classmate Fiona, a mercurial art student with an opinion on everything.

Together, the three cram in as much of the city as possible, gleefully falling into tourist traps, pondering so-called great works of art, sidestepping creeps, and eating lots and lots of pizza (folded in half, of course). Roaming is a ground-breaking graphic novel from the authors behind New York Times bestseller and Caldecott Honor Book This One Summer.

The Rachel Incident

The Rachel Incident, brilliantly funny novel about friends, lovers, Ireland in chaos, and a young woman desperately trying to manage all three.

Rachel is a student working at a bookstore when she meets James, and it’s love at first sight. Effervescent and insistently heterosexual, James soon invites Rachel to be his roommate and the two begin a friendship that changes the course of both their lives forever. Together, they run riot through the streets of Cork city, trying to maintain a bohemian existence while the threat of the financial crash looms before them.

When Rachel falls in love with her married professor, Dr. Fred Byrne, James helps her devise a reading at their local bookstore, with the goal that she might seduce him afterwards. But Fred has other desires. So begins a series of secrets and compromises that intertwine the fates of James, Rachel, Fred, and Fred’s glamorous, well-connected, bourgeois wife. Aching with unrequited love, shot through with delicious, sparkling humor, The Rachel Incident is a triumph.

Losing It

2023

by Cora Carmack

Virginity. Bliss Edwards is about to graduate from college and still has hers. Sick of being the only virgin among her friends, she decides the best way to deal with the problem is to lose it as quickly and simply as possible--a one-night stand. But her plan turns out to be anything but simple when she freaks out and leaves a gorgeous guy alone and naked in her bed with an excuse that no one with half-a-brain would ever believe. And as if that weren't embarrassing enough, when she arrives for her first class of her last college semester, she recognizes her new theatre professor. She'd left him naked in her bed about eight hours earlier...

I Have Some Questions for You

2023

by Rebecca Makkai

A successful film professor and podcaster, Bodie Kane, is content to forget her past—the family tragedy that marred her adolescence, her four largely miserable years at a New Hampshire boarding school, and the murder of her former roommate, Thalia Keith, in the spring of their senior year. Though the circumstances surrounding Thalia's death and the conviction of the school's athletic trainer, Omar Evans, are hotly debated online, Bodie prefers—needs—to let sleeping dogs lie.

But when the Granby School invites her back to teach a course, Bodie is inexorably drawn to the case and its increasingly apparent flaws. In their rush to convict Omar, did the school and the police overlook other suspects? Is the real killer still out there? As she falls down the very rabbit hole she was so determined to avoid, Bodie begins to wonder if she wasn't as much of an outsider at Granby as she'd thought—if, perhaps, back in 1995, she knew something that might have held the key to solving the case.

In I Have Some Questions for You, award-winning author Rebecca Makkai has crafted her most irresistible novel yet: a stirring investigation into collective memory and a deeply felt examination of one woman's reckoning with her past, with a transfixing mystery at its heart. Timely, hypnotic, and populated with a cast of unforgettable characters, I Have Some Questions for You is at once a compulsive page-turner and a literary triumph.

Honey and Spice

2022

by Bolu Babalola

Introducing Bolu Babalola's dazzling debut novel, Honey and Spice, a story that brings together passion, humor, and heart, revolving around Kiki Banjo, a young Black British woman who has deliberately steered clear of love. However, she finds herself in an unexpected fake relationship with Malakai Korede, the very man she cautioned others about.

Sharp-tongued and secretly tender-hearted, Kiki is an expert in avoiding relationships. She's the voice behind the popular student radio show Brown Sugar, where she empowers the women of the African-Caribbean Society at Whitewell University to navigate away from the pitfalls of 'situationships', players, and heartbreak. But after a public mishap involving Malakai, dubbed 'The Wastemen of Whitewell', Kiki's show and reputation are at risk.

A novel that captures the essence of young love and self-discovery, Honey and Spice is a delightful blend of laughter, tension, and the thrill of romantic possibilities.

Disorientation

Disorientation by Elaine Hsieh Chou is an outrageously hilarious and startlingly tender debut novel that captures a Taiwanese American woman's coming-of-consciousness amid chaos on a college campus.

Twenty-nine-year-old PhD student Ingrid Yang is on a mission to finish her dissertation on the late canonical poet Xiao-Wen Chou and move away from reading about 'Chinese-y' things. However, years of grueling research have left her with nothing but a junk food addiction and stomach pain. When Ingrid stumbles upon a curious note in the Chou archives, she believes she's found her escape from academic hell. But she's about to discover she's in over her head. Her attempts to decipher the note's message lead to a shocking revelation that turns her academic life and her understanding of the world outside upside down.

Joined by her friend Eunice Kim and pursued by her rival Vivian Vo, Ingrid finds herself on a wild ride of mishaps and misadventures, ranging from book burnings and hallucinations to protests and propaganda. As Ingrid's life spirals out of control, she begins to question her relationships with white men and white institutions, and ultimately, she must confront herself.

Disorientation is a searing satire of privilege and power in America, a deep dive into personal complicity, and a compelling story of unspoken rage. Elaine Hsieh Chou presents a provocative question: Who gets to tell our stories, and how does the narrative shift when we take the reins?

Here for It

2020

by R. Eric Thomas

Here for It is a delightful and insightful memoir by R. Eric Thomas, filled with humor and heart. This book takes readers on a journey through the author's life, offering a unique perspective on the ups and downs of adulthood.

With a blend of wit and sincerity, Thomas shares personal stories that are both relatable and thought-provoking. Whether discussing the challenges of growing up, navigating the complexities of relationships, or finding one's place in the world, this memoir is sure to resonate with readers.

Here for It is an exploration of identity, belonging, and the search for joy in everyday life. It's a celebration of the human experience, told through the lens of a talented storyteller.

The Idiot

2017

by Elif Batuman

The Idiot, a novel by Elif Batuman, is a portrait of the artist as a young woman, exploring the themes of self-discovery and inventing oneself. Set in the year 1995, when email was a new phenomenon, we follow Selin, the daughter of Turkish immigrants, as she begins her freshman year at Harvard. Without any preconceived plans, she enrolls in classes on unfamiliar subjects, forges a friendship with the charismatic and worldly Serbian classmate Svetlana, and, almost by chance, starts corresponding with Ivan, a Hungarian mathematics student.

Despite their limited face-to-face interactions, Selin and Ivan develop a complex relationship through their email exchanges, with each message adding new and mysterious layers to the act of writing. As the school year concludes, Ivan departs for Budapest, and Selin embarks on a teaching assignment in the Hungarian countryside, a position arranged by one of Ivan's friends. Her journey also includes a two-week sojourn in Paris with Svetlana.

Unlike the typical narratives of American college students abroad, Selin's experiences in Europe lead her on an introspective journey. She confronts the bewildering and exhilarating turmoil of first love and comes to an important realization: she is destined to become a writer. The Idiot is a candid reflection on the complexities of becoming an adult, filled with exquisite emotional and intellectual sensitivity, mordant wit, and a writing style that captures the unpredictable nature of memory itself.

Bright Side

2014

by Kim Holden

Secrets. Everyone has one. Some are bigger than others. And when secrets are revealed, Some will heal you ... And some will end you. Kate Sedgwick’s life has been anything but typical. She’s endured hardship and tragedy, but throughout it all she remains happy and optimistic (there’s a reason her best friend Gus calls her Bright Side). Kate is strong-willed, funny, smart, and musically gifted. She’s also never believed in love. So when Kate leaves San Diego to attend college in the small town of Grant, Minnesota, the last thing she expects is to fall in love with Keller Banks. They both feel it. But they each have a reason to fight it. They each have a secret. And when secrets are revealed, Some will heal you … And some will end you.

Isn't She Lovely

2013

by Lauren Layne

The rules are clear—until they're broken. Lauren Layne puts a New Adult spin on Pygmalion, also the inspiration for Pretty Woman, and gives the classic love story its edgiest twist yet.

"Who knew that pretending you're not falling for someone would be so much more difficult than pretending that you are?"

Stephanie Kendrick gave up her whole summer to ace her NYU film school screenwriting course, so she's pissed to be stuck with a preppy, spoiled frat boy as her writing partner. Then again, with her piercings, black-rimmed eyes, and Goth wardrobe, Stephanie isn't exactly Ethan Price's type, either. He's probably got his eye on some leggy blonde with a trust fund... or does he?

As the summer scene kicks off in the Hamptons, Ethan is desperate to make his snobbish mother forget the pedigreed girl who broke his heart. While Stephanie's a stretch as a decoy, the right makeover and a pastel cardigan just might do the trick. She may not love the idea of playing Ethan's brainless Barbie girlfriend, but the free rent and luxurious digs make a tempting offer. So does the promise of a ready-made screenplay idea inspired by their charade.

But when Stephanie steps into Ethan's privileged world, the "acting" begins to feel all too real. The kissing and touching that were intended to fool the Hamptons crowd wind up manipulating "them." And Stephanie faces a question she's too afraid to ask: Is Ethan falling for the real her or for the dolled-up princess he wants to see?

Fangirl

2013

by Rainbow Rowell

A coming-of-age tale of fan fiction, family and first love. Cath is a Simon Snow fan.Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan..But for Cath, being a fan is her life—and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving. Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can’t let go. She doesn’t want to.Now that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn’t want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She’s got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words... And she can’t stop worrying about her dad, who’s loving and fragile and has never really been alone.For Cath, the question is: Can she do this? Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? Writing her own stories?And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?

The Coincidence of Callie & Kayden

From the bestselling author of The Secret of Ella and Micha comes a mesmerizing novel of fate, friendship, and the healing power of love...

THE COINCIDENCE OF CALLIE & KAYDEN
For Kayden, suffering in silence was the only way to survive. If he was lucky, he could keep his head down, do as he was told, and make it through the day. But one night it seemed like his luck -- and his life -- might finally end... until an angel named Callie appeared just in time to rescue him.

Callie has never believed in luck. Not since her twelfth birthday when everything was taken from her. After the worst was over, she locked up her feelings and vowed never to tell anyone what happened. Now, six years later, she continues to struggle with the painful secret that threatens to consume her.

When fate lands Kayden and Callie at the same college, Kayden is determined to get to know the beautiful girl who changed his destiny. Quiet and reserved, Callie still fears letting anyone else into her world. But Kayden is certain that Callie has come back into his life for a reason. And the more he tries to be a part of her life, the more he realizes that, this time, it's Callie who needs to be saved...

One Tiny Lie

2013

by K.A. Tucker

Livie has always been the stable one of the two Cleary sisters, handling her parents' tragic death and Kacey's self-destructive phase with strength and maturity. But underneath that exterior is a little girl hanging onto the last words her father ever spoke to her. Make me proud, he had said. She promised she would...and she’s done her best over the past seven years with every choice, with every word, with every action.

Livie walks into Princeton with a solid plan, and she’s dead set on delivering on it: Rock her classes, set herself up for medical school, and meet a good, respectable guy that she’s going to someday marry. What isn’t part of her plan are Jell-O shots, a lovable, party animal roommate she can’t say ‘no’ to, and Ashton, the gorgeous captain of the men’s rowing team. Definitely him. He’s an arrogant ass who makes Livie’s usually non-existent temper flare and everything she doesn’t want in a guy. Worse, he’s best friends and roommates with Connor, who happens to fit Livie’s criteria perfectly. So why does she keep thinking about Ashton?

As Livie finds herself facing mediocre grades, career aspirations she no longer thinks she can handle, and feelings for Ashton that she shouldn’t have, she’s forced to let go of her last promise to her father and, with it, the only identity that she knows.

From Ashes

2013

by Molly McAdams

Aside from her dad, who passed away when she was six, Cassidy Jameson has only ever trusted one man: her best friend, Tyler. So of course she follows him to Texas when he leaves for college. She just didn't expect to be so drawn to their new roommate, Gage, a gorgeous guy with a husky Southern drawl. The only problem? He's Tyler's cousin.

Gage Carson was excited to share an apartment off campus with his cousin. He didn't mind that Tyler was bringing the mysterious friend he'd heard about since they were kids... until the most beautiful girl he's ever seen jumps out of his cousin's Jeep. There's something about Cassi that makes Gage want to give her everything. Too bad Tyler has warned him that she's strictly off-limits.

Despite everything keeping them apart, Cassi and Gage dance dangerously close to the touch they've both been craving. But when disaster sends her running into Tyler's arms, Cassi will have to decide whether to face the demons of her past... or to burn her chance at a future with Gage.

Wait for You

Some things are worth waiting for... Traveling thousands of miles from home to enter college is the only way nineteen-year-old Avery Morgansten can escape what happened at the Halloween party five years ago--an event that forever changed her life. All she needs to do is make it to her classes on time, make sure the bracelet on her left wrist stays in place, not draw any attention to herself, and maybe—please God—make a few friends, because surely that would be a nice change of pace.

The one thing she didn’t need and never planned on was capturing the attention of the one guy who could shatter the precarious future she’s building for herself. Some things are worth experiencing... Cameron Hamilton is six feet and three inches of swoon-worthy hotness, complete with a pair of striking blue eyes and a remarkable ability to make her want things she believed were irrevocably stolen from her. She knows she needs to stay away from him, but Cam is everywhere, with his charm, his witty banter, and that damn dimple.... Getting involved with him is dangerous, but when ignoring their simmering tension becomes impossible, he brings out a side of her she never knew existed.

Some things should never be kept quiet... But when Avery starts receiving threatening emails and phone calls—forcing her to face a past she wants silenced—she has no other choice but to acknowledge that she will not be allowed to let go of that night when everything changed. When the devastating truth comes out, can she resurface this time with one less scar? And will Cam be there to help her or will he be dragged down with her?

Easy

2012

by Tammara Webber

Easy is the New York Times Bestseller by Tammara Webber and first novel in the Contours of the Heart series, for fans of Colleen Hoover! Rescued by a stranger. Haunted by a secret. Sometimes, love isn’t easy… He watched her, but never knew her. Until thanks to a chance encounter, he became her savior… The attraction between them was undeniable. Yet the past he’d worked so hard to overcome, and the future she’d put so much faith in, threatened to tear them apart. Only together could they fight the pain and guilt, face the truth—and find the unexpected power of love. A groundbreaking novel in the New Adult genre, Easy faces one girl's struggle to regain the trust she's lost, find the inner strength to fight back against an attacker, and accept the peace she finds in the arms of a secretive boy.

My Favorite Mistake

Two secrets. One bet. Who will break first?

Taylor Caldwell can't decide if she wants to kiss her new college roommate or punch him. On the one hand, Hunter Zaccadelli is a handsome, blue-eyed bundle of charm. On the other, he's a tattooed, guitar-playing bad boy. Maybe that's why Taylor's afraid of falling in love with him, or anyone else. She doesn't want to get burned, so she needs him gone before it's too late.

Hunter himself has been burned before, but Taylor's sexy laugh and refusal to let him get away with anything make her irresistible. Determined not to be kicked out of her life without a fight, Hunter proposes a bet: if she can convince him she either truly loves or hates him, he'll leave the apartment—and leave her alone.

But when the man behind Taylor's fear of giving up her heart resurfaces, she has to decide: trust Hunter with her greatest secret, or do everything in her power to win that bet and drive him away forever.

The Marriage Plot

It's the early 1980s - the country is in a deep recession, and life after college is harder than ever. In the cafés on College Hill, the wised-up kids are inhaling Derrida and listening to the Talking Heads. But Madeleine Hanna, dutiful English major, is writing her senior thesis on Jane Austen and George Eliot, purveyors of the marriage plot that lies at the heart of the greatest English novels.


As Madeleine tries to understand why it became laughable to read writers like Cheever and Updike, who wrote about the suburbia Madeleine and most of her friends had grown up in, in favor of reading the Marquis de Sade, who wrote about deflowering virgins in eighteenth century France, real life, in the form of two very different guys, intervenes.


Leonard Bankhead - charismatic loner, college Darwinist, and lost Portland boy - suddenly turns up in a semiotics seminar, and soon Madeleine finds herself in a highly charged erotic and intellectual relationship with him.


At the same time, her old "friend" Mitchell Grammaticus - who's been reading Christian mysticism and generally acting strange - resurfaces, obsessed with the idea that Madeleine is destined to be his mate.


Over the next year, as the members of the triangle in this amazing, spellbinding novel graduate from college and enter the real world, events force them to reevaluate everything they learned in school. Leonard and Madeleine move to a biology laboratory on Cape Cod, but can't escape the secret responsible for Leonard's seemingly inexhaustible energy and plunging moods. Mitchell, traveling around the world to get Madeleine out of his mind, finds himself face-to-face with ultimate questions about the meaning of life, the existence of God, and the true nature of love.


Are the great love stories of the nineteenth century dead? Or can there be a new story, written for today and alive to the realities of feminism, sexual freedom, prenups, and divorce?


With devastating wit and an abiding understanding of and affection for his characters, Jeffrey Eugenides revives the motivating energies of the Novel, while creating a story so contemporary and fresh that it reads like the intimate journal of our own lives.

Beautiful Disaster

2011

by Jamie McGuire

The new Abby Abernathy is a good girl. She doesn't drink or swear, and she has the appropriate number of cardigans in her wardrobe. Abby believes she has enough distance from the darkness of her past, but when she arrives at college with her best friend, her path to a new beginning is quickly challenged by Eastern University's Walking One-Night Stand.

Travis Maddox, lean, cut, and covered in tattoos, is exactly what Abby needs—and wants—to avoid. He spends his nights winning money in a floating fight ring, and his days as the ultimate college campus charmer. Intrigued by Abby's resistance to his appeal, Travis tricks her into his daily life with a simple bet. If he loses, he must remain abstinent for a month. If Abby loses, she must live in Travis's apartment for the same amount of time. Either way, Travis has no idea that he has met his match.

The Art of Fielding

2011

by Chad Harbach

At Westish College, a small school on the shore of Lake Michigan, baseball star Henry Skrimshander seems destined for big league stardom. But when a routine throw goes disastrously off course, the fates of five people are upended. Henry's fight against self-doubt threatens to ruin his future. College president Guert Affenlight, a longtime bachelor, has fallen unexpectedly and helplessly in love. Owen Dunne, Henry's gay roommate and teammate, becomes caught up in a dangerous affair. Mike Schwartz, the Harpooners' team captain and Henry's best friend, realizes he has guided Henry's career at the expense of his own. And Pella Affenlight, Guert's daughter, returns to Westish after escaping an ill-fated marriage, determined to start a new life.

As the season counts down to its climactic final game, these five are forced to confront their deepest hopes, anxieties, and secrets. In the process, they forge new bonds, and help one another find their true paths. Written with boundless intelligence and filled with the tenderness of youth, The Art of Fielding is an expansive, warmhearted novel about ambition and its limits, about family and friendship and love, and about commitment to oneself and to others.

Inescapable

2011

by Amy A. Bartol

My name is Evie Claremont and this was to be the making of me–my freshman year of college. I'd been hoping that once I'd arrived on Crestwood's campus, the nightmare that I've been having would go away. It hasn't.

I may be an inexperienced seventeen-year-old, but I'm grounded…sane. I look for rational explanations to even the strangest circumstances. Since meeting sophomore Reed Wellington, however, nothing makes any sense. Whenever he's near, I feel an attraction to him–a magnetic kind of force pulling me towards him. I know what you're thinking…that sounds fairly awesome. Yeah, it would be…if he liked me, but Reed acts as if I'm the worst thing that has ever happened to Crestwood…or him. But get this, for some reason every time I turn around he's there, barging into my life.

What is the secret that he's keeping from me? I'm hoping that it's anything but what I suspect: that he's not exactly normal…and neither am I. So, maybe Crestwood won't be the making of me, but it could be the breaking of me. I've been left to wonder if the dark future my dream is foretelling is…inescapable.

Ghost Town

2011

by Rachel Caine

Deep in the heart of Texas, Morganville is a small college town full of laid-back students and eccentric townies, not to mention the sort of creatures you wouldn't want to run into after dark. Despite their obvious differences, the human and vampire residents of Morganville have learned to coexist, but that doesn't stop genius student Claire Danvers from keeping up her guard. Because in Morganville, nothing is as it seems...

While developing a new system to maintain the town's defenses, Claire discovers a way to use the vampires' powers to help keep outsiders from spreading news of Morganville's unique situation once they've crossed the city limits.

But the new system has an unexpected and possibly deadly consequence: People inside the town start forgetting who and what they are - even the vampires. And when Claire's boyfriend, Shane, and her best friend, Eve, start treating her like a perfect stranger, Claire realizes she has to figure out a way to pull the plug on her experiment - before she forgets how to save herself... and Morganville.

Perfect Fifths

Old flames are reignited in the fifth and final book in the New York Times bestselling Jessica Darling series. Captivated readers have followed Jessica through every step and misstep: from her life as a tormented, tart-tongued teenager to her years as a college grad stumbling toward adulthood. Now a young professional in her mid-twenties, Jess is off to a Caribbean wedding. As she rushes to her gate at the airport, she literally runs into her former boyfriend, Marcus Flutie.

It's the first time she's seen him since she reluctantly turned down his marriage proposal three years earlier—and emotions run high. Marcus and Jessica have both changed dramatically, yet their connection feels as familiar as ever. Is their reunion just a fluke or has fate orchestrated this collision of their lives once again?

Told partly from Marcus's point of view, Perfect Fifths finally lets readers inside the mind of the one person who's both troubled and titillated Jessica Darling for years. Expect nothing less than the satisfying conclusion fans have been waiting for, one perfect in its imperfection.

The Magicians

2009

by Lev Grossman

The Magicians is a thrilling and original coming-of-age novel about a young man, Quentin Coldwater, who is brilliant but miserable. As a senior in high school, Quentin is still secretly preoccupied with a series of fantasy novels he read as a child, set in a magical land called Fillory. Imagine his surprise when he finds himself unexpectedly admitted to a very secret, very exclusive college of magic in upstate New York, where he receives a thorough and rigorous education in the craft of modern sorcery.

Quentin discovers all the other things people learn in college: friendship, love, sex, booze, and boredom. However, something is missing. Magic doesn’t bring Quentin the happiness and adventure he dreamed it would. After graduation, he and his friends make a stunning discovery: Fillory is real. But the land of Quentin’s fantasies turns out to be much darker and more dangerous than he could have imagined. His childhood dream becomes a nightmare with a shocking truth at its heart.

Lev Grossman boldly moves into uncharted literary territory, imagining magic as practiced by real people, with their capricious desires and volatile emotions. He creates an utterly original world in which good and evil aren’t black and white, love and sex aren’t simple or innocent, and power comes at a terrible price.

Charmed Thirds

Jessica Darling is in college and life is looking up. She has finally escaped her New Jersey hometown for Columbia University in New York City. Her relationship with her boyfriend, Marcus Flutie, is stronger than ever, even though he's attending college across the country. Jessica is making new friends, who might not quite replace her best friend, Hope, but they come close.

However, Jessica quickly realizes that her college bliss might be short-lived. She secures an internship at a snarky Brooklyn-based magazine, but fitting in with the staff poses its own challenges. Her love life becomes complicated as she and Marcus face difficulties, leading Jessica to question if she might fall for other intriguing figures in her life. Financial struggles arise when her parents cut her off, and she's left deciphering cryptic postcards from Marcus.

With her signature wit, cynicism, and candor, Jessica navigates through her tumultuous college years and the summers in between. Charmed Thirds takes readers on a memorable journey filled with laughter, heartache, and growth.

The Dead Girls' Dance

2007

by Rachel Caine

Claire Danvers has her share of challenges. Like being a genius in a school that favors beauty over brains; homicidal girls in her dorm, and finding out that her college town is overrun with the living dead. On the up side, she has a new boyfriend with a vampire-hunting dad. But when a local fraternity throws the Dead Girls' Dance, hell is really going to break loose.

Tam Lin

2006

by Pamela Dean

In the ancient Scottish ballad Tam Lin, headstrong Janet defies Tam Lin to walk in her own land of Carterhaugh... and then must battle the Queen of Faery for possession of her lover’s body and soul.

In this version of Tam Lin, Janet is a college student, "Carterhaugh" is Carter Hall at the university where her father teaches, and Tam Lin is a boy named Thomas Lane. The book is set against the backdrop of the early 1970s and is imbued with wit, poetry, romance, and magic.

Size 12 Is Not Fat

2005

by Meg Cabot

Heather Wells Rocks! Or, at least, she did. That was before she left the pop-idol life behind after she gained a dress size or two—and lost a boyfriend, a recording contract, and her life savings (when Mom took the money and ran off to Argentina).

Now that the glamour and glory days of endless mall appearances are in the past, Heather's perfectly happy with her new size 12 shape (the average for the American woman!) and her new job as an assistant dorm director at one of New York's top colleges.

That is, until the dead body of a female student from Heather's residence hall is discovered at the bottom of an elevator shaft. The cops and the college president are ready to chalk the death off as an accident, the result of reckless youthful mischief. But Heather knows teenage girls . . . and girls do not elevator surf.

Yet no one wants to listen—not the police, her colleagues, or the P.I. who owns the brownstone where she lives—even when more students start turning up dead in equally ordinary and subtly sinister ways.

So Heather makes the decision to take on yet another new career: as spunky girl detective! But her new job comes with few benefits, no cheering crowds, and lots of liabilities, some of them potentially fatal. And nothing ticks off a killer more than a portly ex-pop star who's sticking her nose where it doesn't belong . . .

The House of Sleep

1999

by Jonathan Coe

Like a surreal and highly caffeinated version of The Big Chill, Jonathan Coe's new novel follows four students who knew each other in college in the eighties. Sarah is a narcoleptic who has dreams so vivid she mistakes them for real events. Robert has his life changed forever by the misunderstandings that arise from her condition. Terry spends his wakeful nights fueling his obsession with movies. And an increasingly unstable doctor, Gregory, sees sleep as a life-shortening disease which he must eradicate.

But after ten years of fretful slumber and dreams gone bad, the four reunite in their college town to confront their disorders. In a Gothic cliffside manor being used as a clinic for sleep disorders, they discover that neither love, nor lunacy, nor obsession ever rests.

Circle of Friends

1990

by Maeve Binchy

Big, generous-hearted Benny and the elfin Eve Malone have been best friends growing up in sleepy Knockglen. Their one thought is to get to Dublin, to university and to freedom...

On their first day at University College, Dublin, the inseparable pair are thrown together with fellow students Nan Mahon, beautiful but selfish, and handsome Jack Foley. But trouble is brewing for Benny and Eve's new circle of friends, and before long, they find passion, tragedy - and the independence they yearned for.

Charly

1987

by Jack Weyland

Meet Sam, the straitlaced computer-science major from Brigham Young University. And then meet Charly, the sparkling, quick-witted girl who steps into his world and turns it upside down.

Their courtship is a never-ending round of ups and downs - literally. On their first date, Charly tricks Sam into taking a Ferris wheel ride, then tells the operator they're engaged! All of this seems to be a little more than Sam can cope with. But he gradually comes to appreciate Charly's point of view.

From the girl who loves to laugh, he learns to do the same. He finds out for the first time what it's like to be really alive. Charly is a story of joy and spontaneity, learning and loving, and, most of all, growing.

Charade

Nineteen-year-old Cheyenne tries to portray the perfect life to mask the memories of her past. Walking in on her boyfriend with another woman her freshman year in college threatens that picture of perfection.

Twenty-one-year-old Colt never wanted college and never expected to amount to anything, but when his mom's dying wish is for him to get his degree, he has no choice but to pretend it's what he wants too.

Cheyenne needs a fake boyfriend to get back at her ex and Colt needs cash to take care of his mom, so they strike a deal that helps them both. But what if Cheyenne’s past isn’t what she thought?

Soon they’re trading one charade for another—losing themselves in each other to forget about their pain. The more they play their game, the more it becomes the only thing they have that feels real.

Both Cheyenne and Colt know life is never easy, but neither of them expect the tragedy that threatens to end their charade and rip them apart forever.

Down to You

The scorching tale of one girl, two brothers, and a love triangle…that’s not.

Olivia Townsend is nothing special. She’s just a girl working her way through college so she can return home to help her father run his business. She’s determined not to be the second woman in his life to abandon him, even if it means putting her own life on hold. To Olivia, it’s clear what she must do. Plain and simple. Black and white.

But clear becomes complicated when she meets Cash and Nash Davenport. They’re brothers. Twins. Cash is everything she’s always wanted in a guy. He’s a dangerous, sexy bad boy who wants her in his bed at any cost. He turns her insides to mush and, with just one kiss, makes her forget why he’s no good for her.

Nash is everything she’s ever needed in a guy. He’s successful, responsible, and intensely passionate. But he’s taken. Very taken, by none other than Marissa, Liv’s rich, beautiful cousin. That doesn’t stop Olivia from melting every time he looks at her, though. With just one touch, he makes her forget why they can never be together.

Black and white turns to shades of gray when Olivia discovers the boys are hiding something, something that should make her run as far and as fast as she can. But it’s too late to run. Olivia’s already involved. And in love. With both of them. Both brothers make her heart tremble. Both brothers set her body on fire. She wants them both. And they want her. How will she ever choose between them?

The Change in the Mirror

He thought he had it all. Everything was exactly how he wanted it to be. Until he found him.

Brian Weber is almost like any other college student at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. He’s an English major hoping to become a journalist or a writer. Once his dorm roommate Andrew Engel moves in, his world changes completely. He’s the man he’s instantly hooked on. He admires everything about him from his athletic style to his varying interests. He’s drawn to be like him, overpowering everything else in his life. But there’s one surprise…Andrew is also gay.

Their first date goes smoothly. Maybe a little too smoothly. Brian’s constantly worried he will say something awkward and ruin their relationship. Is it because he placed a sexual bet during a soccer match? Is it because he literally wants to be just like him? Maybe. Andrew’s quick to notice his desire to copy him, and he confronts him about it. Will their relationship last under this tight tension?

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