Category Archives: 1990s-

360G: Rivalry Turns Into Romance

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The book I am searching for is a YA contemporary novel wherein the heroine has an ongoing academic rivalship with a male classmate, which eventually turns into something more even though she already has a boyfriend. I think the book was published in the range of 2017-now. The book cover is black, white, pink, and orange with illustrated faces on it, in a style that in my head is reminiscent of the cover of All Your Twisted Secrets by Diana Urban.

359U: Teenage Girl Summer Coming of Age YA Novel with Oral Sex Scene

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I have been wracking my brain trying to think of this YA novel I read as a young teenager. I’m now 30 so I probably read the book in 2004/2005, if I had to guess.
The story is about a girl whose parents were divorced and so she goes to live with one for the summer (I believe her father). She’s bored in this sleepy little town and she meets a guy and has a summer of romance and exploration. The most distinctive scene I remember is that this love interest guy gives her oral sex and there is some line in the book about how “his tongue did its little dance.”
I also remember that even though the protagonist was a teenage girl, the author was a man, which shocked me. One of the testimonial quotes on the book sleeve said something like, “So and so masterfully captures the mind of a teenage girl.”
I have tried Googling versions of YA cunnilingus, YA teenage girl receives oral sex, YA teenage girl summer novel written by male author — all to no avail.
I’m hoping you can help me solve this mystery! Many thanks for your help in this.

359S: Spoiled Girl Takes Out Frustrations on Poor Girl Nicknamed “Safety Pins”

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I am trying to find the title and/or author of a paperback book bought at a book fair from the late 80s early 90s.

Here is what I remember of the book:
It is about a girl named Patty or Patti whose parents were just divorced. She is living with her mother and because of the divorce, money is tight and her mom cannot afford a lot of basic things for the girl. The girl wears old clothes/an old bathing suit that is falling apart and gets teased by other girls who call her “Safety Pins” because she wears a bathing suit or clothes held up with safety pins. She volunteers or goes to some stables to help take care of horses, and cares for them, but cannot afford to ride them. There is another girl there named Stacey or Stacy who is rich, spoiled, and mean to Patty, and also treats her own horse badly. Stacey throws a tantrum because her horse doesn’t get a fancy twisted bit for her bridle, but a plain one, and screams at Patty for this oversight. I believe (this may not be correct) that Patty earns her lessons to ride a horse because she works hard at the stables and takes good care of the horses there.
The other thing I remember about this short paperback is that it had very simple black and white line drawings in it–maybe one in every other chapter or so.
It was written for kids in elementary school, I believe.

359O: Teen Romance on Spring Break Cruise

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This is an 80s, possibly early 90s, teen romance. A girl goes on a spring break cruise with her grandma. She has a crush on one of the ship’s workers. And also meets another passenger that is the “funny” boy. The ship’s worker leads her on a bit. One funny part is; she takes way too many tanning pills and turns orange trying to impress him. She ends up with the funny boy in the end. I thought his name was possibly Jace or something similar.

359L: Secret Twin With Gloves On Hands

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I have been trying to remember this book I read as a teen in the 90s for years now and it’s starting to drive me crazy.

All I can remember of the plot is that there was a guy and he had been dating the same girl basically his whole life. A new girl comes to town and somehow they end up together. I believe they were in high school or just graduating from high school. Then at some point it is discovered that the new girl has a secret twin and the secret twin tries to kill someone, I can’t remember who. The secret twin always wore gloves on her hands because there was something wrong with them, I believe they were burned but I’m not positive.
Again I know it isn’t much to go on. For some reason the movie Swim Fan always triggers me to try to find this book.

359J: Private Investigator Has Bad Luck With Pulp Fiction Publisher

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Looking for metafictional short story that’s an homage to classic noir (probably published in the last 10 years or so) in which a PI is hired by a pulp fiction publisher to write stories. I think the PI only deals with a woman (secretary?) at first, they pay him a lot of money for his writing, and then maybe he eventually meets the publisher and there’s a twist ending that goes poorly for the PI. The tone was winkingly hardboiled (first-person narrator like classic PI stories). I have exhausted every possible Google keyword variation I can think of, and am just hoping someone in your network may have read this! I seem to think it was in a short story collection with different authors doing takes on mystery stories (similar to an anthology called Tiny Crimes), but could be wrong about that.

359F: Early 90’s Humorous Horror Children’s Book

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I imagine this will be one of the more difficult ones for you simply due to my lack of information. This was a childhood book of mine that had to have been published in the late 80’s-early 90’s.  It was a series of 10-12 short stories accompanied by cartoon-ish illustrations focused around a punk kid getting into all sorts of spooky and weird situations.   Unfortunately, at the time I couldn’t read, so all I have are memories of the illustrations and some themes of one or two of the stories. The illustration of the kid was the early 90’s typical baggy jeans, backwards ball cap, long (I think) blonde hair. The cover of the book was of this kid spray painting some graffiti on a brick wall. I think whatever he was spray painting was the title of the book.
A few of the memories I have of the stories include one where the kid gets sucked down a drain and another where the kid has no bones. I’m pretty sure there were a few stories where he encounters monsters as well.
Thanks for your help! My brother and I have spent years trying to find this book!

359D: Fiction, long-lost sisters with celebrity dad, Ireland/USA

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This is a contemporary realistic fiction book. A celebrity man dies and is on the news, and somehow his daughter in the USA finds out he has another daughter in Ireland, or vice versa. The sisters meet. The Irish sister has a cheating husband who eventually seduces the American sister. The American sister later has a summer fling with a 17-year old, the ex-boyfriend of her niece (or something like that). I read it in 2010 and am guessing it was less than 10 years old at the time. The book is light green (or at least, the version I read was). I have a picture of me reading it, but when zoomed in it is way too grainy to decipher any info at all.