International Love Stories perfect for Teen Readers

1. Life: An Exploded Diagram

By: Mal Peet

Can love survive a lifetime? When working-class Clem Ackroyd falls for Frankie Mortimer, the gorgeous daughter of a wealthy local landowner, he has no hope that it can. After all, the world teeters on the brink of war, and bombs could rain down any minute over the bleak English countryside–just as they did seventeen years ago as his mother, pregnant with him, tended her garden. This time, Clem may not survive.

Buy book for R150.00 here.

2. Dying to Know You

By: Aidan Chambers

In this Cyrano de Bergerac-like novel, Karl, a teenage boy, enlists a famous writer to help him impress his girlfriend, Fiorella. She’s asked him to write her a letter in which he reveals his true self. Convinced he’s not good enough with words to please her, Karl tracks down Fiorella’s favourite author and pleads with him to take on the task. The writer reluctantly agrees on the condition that Karl submits to a series of interviews, so the letter will be based on authentic feeling. Through these lively, intelligent discussions, award-winning author Aidan Chambers creates an indelible portrait of a teenage boy discovering his own voice in the world and constructs a love story that is as much about the mind as the heart.

Buy book for R149 here.

3. Paper Towns

By: John Green

With his trademark brilliant wit and heart-stopping emotional honesty, the Printz Medal-winning author of “Looking for Alaska” returns with a novel about a teenage girl who has mysteriously vanished, and the boy who looks for her by following the clues she has left behind just for him.

Two-time Printz Medalist John Greenas New York Times bestseller, now in paperback!

Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs back into his lifeadressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revengea he follows. After their all-nighter ends, and a new day breaks, Q arrives at school to discover that Margo, always an enigma, has now become a mystery. But Q soon learns that there are cluesa and theyare for him. Urged down a disconnected path, the closer he gets, the less Q sees the girl he thought he knew.

Buy book for R119 here.

5. Rich and Mad (eBook)

By: William Nicholson

Maddy Fisher has decided to fall in love. And not just any sort of love: can’t-eat can’t-sleep crazy in love. Rich Ross is after the same thing. He’s set his sights high. The problem is, in life’s messy whirlwind of friends and lies and sex and porn, the real thing can be hard to fine. But there’s always a first time for everything…

Buy book for R99 here.

6. The Sky is Everywhere

By: Jandy Nelson

Jandy Nelson’s beautiful, funny and heartfelt novel about grief, love and forgiveness. For fans of John Green, David Levithan and Rainbow Rowell.For fans of John Green, David Levithan and Rainbow Rowell, a novel from Jandy Nelson, the bestselling and award-winning author of I’ll Give You the Sun.
Beautiful, funny and heartfelt, The Sky Is Everywhere is about love and forgiveness. Seventeen-year-old Lennie Walker spends her time tucked safely and happily in the shadow of her fiery older sister, Bailey. But when Bailey dies abruptly, Lennie is catapulted to centre stage of her own life – and suddenly finds herself struggling to balance two boys. One boy takes Lennie out of her sorrow; the other comforts her in it. But the two can’t collide without Lennie’s world exploding…

Buy book for R116 here.

7. If I Stay

By: Gayle Forman

NOW A MAJOR FILM STARRING CHLOE GRACE MORETZ

‘Just listen,’ Adam says with a voice that sounds like shrapnel.’ I open my eyes wide now. I sit up as much as I can. And I listen.
‘Stay,’ he says.

Everybody has to make choices.

Some might break you.

For seventeen-year-old Mia, surrounded by a wonderful family, friends and a gorgeous boyfriend decisions might seem tough, but they’re all about a future full of music and love, a future that’s brimming with hope.

But life can change in an instant.

A cold February morning . . . a snowy road . . . and suddenly all of Mia’s choices are gone. Except one.

As alone as she’ll ever be, Mia must make the most difficult choice of all.

Buy book for R139 here.

8. Noughts And Crosses

By: Malorie Blackman

Noughts and Crosses is about a black girl called Sephy and a white boy called Callum and their friendship in a world that’s divided by the colour of your skin – and how their feelings for each other grow as they grow older and grow up. As Malorie Blackman herself says: ‘I wanted to turn society as we know it on its head, with new names for the major divisions, ie Noughts (the underclass) and Crosses (the majority, ruling society). I wanted to see this new world through the eyes of the main two characters, Callum (a nought) and Sephy (a Cross).’

Buy book for R149 here.

9. Exodus

By: Julie Bertagna

The fifteenth anniversary edition of Exodus, a startling, thrilling novel set in a dystopian future ravaged by global warming It is 2099 – and the world is gradually drowning, as mighty Arctic ice floes melt, the seas rise and land disappears forever beneath storm-tossed waves. For fifteen-year-old Mara, her family and community, huddled on the fast-disappearing island of Wing, the new century brings flight. Packed into tiny boats, a terrifying journey begins to a bizarre city that rises into the sky, built on the drowned remains of the ancient city of Glasgow. But even here there is no safety and, shut out of the city, Mara realizes they are asylum-seekers in a world torn between high-tech wizardry and the most primitive injustice. To save her people, Mara must not only find a way into the city, but also search for a new land and a new home . . . This new edition celebrates the 15th Anniversary of Exodus featuring a new foreword from the author.

See the Puku Review here.

Buy book for R149 here.