Tomboy - a coming-of-age romance between two girls growing up in the 1950s

Tomboy by Janelle Reston

Some kids’ heads are in the clouds. Harriet Little’s head is in outer space.

In 1950s America, everyone is expected to come out of a cookie-cutter mold. But Harriet prefers the people who don’t, like her communist-sympathizer father and her best friend Jackie, a tomboy who bucks the school dress code of skirts and blouses in favor of T-shirts and blue jeans. Harriet realizes she’s also different when she starts to swoon over Rosemary Clooney instead of Rock Hudson—and finds Sputnik and sci-fi more fascinating than sock hops.

Before long, Harriet is secretly dating the most popular girl in the school. But she soon learns that real love needs a stronger foundation than frilly dresses and feminine wiles.

Add your review of "Tomboy" in comments!

Secret City - A Teen Girl faces coming of age and coming out in a World War II-era Secret Town Where They're Building The Atomic Bomb

Secret City by Julia Watts

Ruby Pickett didn't have any say about the family move to Tennessee. Her daddy's new job will help the war effort, though no one has told her exactly how. Brand new, government-built Oak Ridge quickly proves a curious and intriguing place for the sixteen-year-old's rampant curiosity.
A voracious reader, Ruby wonders at mysteries in books and sees possible mysteries in the secrecy that surrounds Oak Ridge. She finds a kindred spirit in Iris, a young wife and mother who has moved to Oak Ridge with her scientist husband, and who chafes at the intellectual emptiness of her new home and life.
Faraway events don't seem likely to answer any of Ruby's questions, but as the war grows more destructive Ruby begins to realize that her curiosity--like her deepening feelings for Iris--may be more dangerous than she could possibly imagine.

A finalist for the Lambda Literary Award, you can add your review of "Secret City" in comments!

Honey Girl - Can Nani fit in with the girls who rule the surf beach (especially if she's falling for another girl?)

Honey Girl by Lisa Freeman

Welcome to State Beach in 1972, Santa Monica’s hottest surf spot in all of SoCal with gnarly breaks, smoking hot surfers, and even hotter girls who rule the beach.

Nani Nuuhiwa was raised on the shores of Oahu. But after her father dies of a heart attack, her mother trades in their life of aloha for the mainland — dropping Nani into the ultra-blonde world of State Beach.

Unlike in Hawaii, in California, girls don’t surf. Feeling homesick, Nani makes it her mission to do the next-best thing: join the lineup of the coolest girls on the beach, who sit like goddesses at the shoreline. But popularity comes at a price, and Nani is forced to hide a series of secrets that if revealed could ruin everything she’s worked so hard to achieve.

Nani’s beauty captures the attention of surf babe Nigel McBride making the lineup love her even more. During a party at Nigel’s Malibu estate, Nani’s status in the lineup becomes official, but her life becomes even more complicated when she realizes it’s not Nigel she’s into, it’s Rox, the leader of the lineup. But there are unwritten rules that govern this society, and liking girls is social suicide. Will Nani keep this secret to become the ultimate Honey Girl of State Beach or will she risk it all for a chance at true love?

Add your review of "Honey Girl" (the prequel to Riptide Summer) in comments!

The Persecution Of Mildred Dunlap - YA Historical Fiction that's been called "a Women's Brokeback Mountain"

The Persecution of Mildred Dunlap by Paulette Mahurin

The year 1895 was filled with memorable historical events: the Dreyfus Affair divided France; Booker T. Washington gave his Atlanta address; the United States expanded the effects of the Monroe Doctrine to cover South America; and Oscar Wilde was tried and convicted for gross indecency under Britain's recently passed law that made sex between males a criminal offense.

When news of Wilde's conviction went out over telegraphs worldwide, it threw a small Nevada town into chaos - in particular, Mildred and Edra, two women who lived together and loved each other.

As the author says, "This is the story of what happened when the lives of its citizens were impacted by the news of Oscar Wilde's imprisonment. It is a chronicle of hatred and prejudice with all its unintended and devastating consequences, and how love and friendship bring strength and healing."

"The Persecution of Mildred Dunlap" was nominated for the ALA's 2014 Rainbow List, and you can add your review in comments!

Lies We Tell Ourselves - Lesbian High School Romance and Desegregation in 1959 Virginia

Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley

1959 Virginia.

Sarah Dunbar is one of the first black students to attend the previously all-white Jefferson High School. An honors student at her old school, she is put into remedial classes, spit on and tormented daily.

Linda Hairston is the daughter of one of the town’s most vocal opponents of school integration. She has been taught all her life that the races should be kept “separate but equal.”

Forced to work together on a school project, Sarah and Linda must confront harsh truths about race, power and how they really feel about one another.

...And how they feel moves from focusing on the different colors of their skin to feelings of romance!

Add your review of "Lies We Tell Ourselves" in comments!

Silhouette of a Sparrow - A Teen Comes of Age (and Falls in love with Another Girl) in 1926

Silhouette of a Sparrow by Molly Beth Griffin

Sent to spend the summer with distant relatives at a resort hotel in Excelsior, Minnesota, sixteen-year-old Garnet Richardson—budding ornithologist; reluctant troublemaker; adventurous spirit—quickly compiles a list of all the things she wants to do: sneak into the new amusement park, wander the countryside looking for new birds, and somehow convince her mother to let her attend college. It’s 1926 and Garnet is well aware of the world’s expectations of her: after this summer with her relatives, she is to marry, settle down, and become a housewife. But what no one expects—least of all Garnet—is that she’ll fall in love with the beautiful and daring Isabella, a flapper at the local dance hall. It is she who will give Garnet the courage to take control of her own life and pursue her dreams.

This is the author's debut novel.  Add your review of "Silhouette of a Sparrow" in comments!

Wildthorn - Lesbian Historical Fiction

By Jane Eagland

It's the 19th century in Victorian England, and Louisa is seventeen when her carriage arrives NOT at her destination, but at a madhouse. She's called Lucy Childs and is imprisoned, and all her protests that they've got the wrong woman just prove to the staff at the insane asylum that she is indeed mad.

Louisa has to figure out how to escape... and at the same time, finds herself falling for one of the female guards!


Check out this review of Wildthorn by Daisy Porter at her amazing blog, Queer YA: Fiction for LGBTQ Teens. And add your review here in comments!