11 Glamour-Filled Independent Reading Books for Teens

Story has been living in Rome as one of the “Dip Squad,” the kids of the American diplomatic corps stationed in Rome, and she’s soaking in her last summer in the city before starting at Princeton in the fall. One day, as she’s getting gelato on her way home, she gets caught up in Scottish celebrity Luca Kinnaird’s attempts to hide his personal life from the paparazzi. It’s supposed to be a one-time thing, but when the paparazzi assume Story is Luca’s “mystery girlfriend,” she finds herself agreeing to a summer-long fake dating scheme.

As Story and Luca spend the summer exploring Rome, however, they start to develop real feelings for one another (surprise, surprise). But their fake dating scheme is supposed to be hiding Luca’s real relationship with a celebrity who has a huge and loyal fan base, and Story’s future at Princeton could be on the line if she’s discovered to be part of a high-profile international scandal.

This book was a delight. The romance is sweet (and appropriate for a wide range of readers), the banter is fun, and the setting is perfect for an escape any time of year. There are also some subplots about family and addiction that give the novel some depth beyond just a fluffy romance (though we’re here for those, too).

Thank you NetGalley, Random House Children’s, and Delacorte Romance for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are our own.

This sequel to The Prince and the Apocalypse picks up 88 days after a comet didn’t hit Earth, ending life as we know it. Wren Wheeler, however, is secretly married to King Theo of England, who abandoned her on an island after their crazy adventures in Europe during “Comet Week.”

When Wren finds out King Theo is making an appearance in Canada, she sets out from Welcome Week at Northwestern University with her sister Brooke and her best friend Naomi to steal her dog, Comet, back from him. But when the paparazzi catch Wren and Theo together and someone leaks a photo of their marriage certificate to the press, Wren (along with Brooke and Naomi) has to fly to London with Theo and his siblings so she can have security protection while they work everything out.

But then! Their plane crashes on an island, and the six of them (plus the pilot) have to figure out how to stay alive, get rescued, and navigate all kinds of relationship drama (romantic and sibling).

McDowell’s sequel is a lot of fun and makes for perfect escapism: witty banter, romance, gorgeous setting, royal life. 

Due to some profanity and references to sex and drinking, we’d save this one for high school students.

Thank you NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Wednesday Books for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are our own.

Olivia used to be an heiress. After growing up in the Rhode Island mansion owned by her father, controversial podcaster-multimedia mogul Dashiell Owens, Olivia and her mother are on their own, trying to make ends meet after Olivia’s mother left Dashiell for cheating on her. But it’s okay because, several years later, Olivia has The Plan.

It’s her father’s third wedding, and along with a crew of fellow students (and one former teacher) who have goals bigger than their bank accounts, she’s going to steal her inheritance back from her father by obtaining the passphrase to his online offshore accounts from the safe in his office.

But pretty much everything that could go wrong does go wrong, including an obnoxious and nosy acquaintance who keeps getting in Oliva’s way, her ex-boyfriend who’s determined to get back together, and her former stepmother (the one Dashiell left her mother for) who’s set on a revenge plan of her own.

Olivia’s heist makes for a fun, fast-paced read, and we’re glad we got to come along for the ride. Between the ultra-glamourous setting, the unbelievable number of mishaps, and the love-to-hate-them characters, we think your students will have a hard time putting this one down. 

Some profanity and a couple mature situations make this more appropriate for high school students.

Thank you NetGalley and Little, Brown Books for Young Readers for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are our own.

Abel Miller has just landed a role in the highly anticipated Sunset High reboot, but the show has a reputation for being cursed, and it looks like trouble is brewing for the cast and crew once again.

Abel’s brother Adam fell to his death from a rooftop during the last reboot of the show, and Abel is certain there’s more to the story. He’s determined to figure out what it is while hiding his past from his new castmates.

But his new castmates have troubles of their own: Lucky Tate is grieving the loss of his mother and battling major substance abuse problems. He’s been seen recently with rising star Ella Winter, even though he was previously dating her best friend, Ryan Hudson, and both girls are in the reboot as well.

Things are about to get violent once again: will everyone survive?
Pure escapism, Dean’s novel will especially appeal to students who have been following the recent behind-the-scenes allegations at Nickelodeon or read Jeanette McCurdy’s memoir, I’m Glad My Mom Died. There’s plenty of faux-Hollywood gossip and scandal, and we see that being a young actor isn’t always all it’s cracked up to be.

Due to profanity, substance use and abuse, and mature situations, this is definitely one we’d save for high school students.

Thank you NetGalley and Little, Brown Books for Young Readers for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are our own.

We love a good book about royal drama, and Carter’s first book in the series, Royal Blood, was no exception.

In the sequel, Evan Bright, the newly discovered daughter of King Alexander II, is still being ripped to shreds in the press. It seems like she can’t do anything right, including an awkward stumble with the son of President Park from the United States. And she’s still navigating the awkward relationships with her new family and trying to keep the truth about events from the first novel from coming out.

Things go from bad to worse when there’s an assassination attempt that is much too close for Evan’s comfort, and she fears she’s in physical danger from someone within the royal family’s circle.

Evan continues to be a delight, and the royal drama continues to make for page-turning fun. Something is always happening, and we can’t help but root for the American princess to come out on top.

There is some profanity in the novel, and there are references to the sexual assault that played a key role in the first novel, both things to keep in mind when making recommendations to students.

In the latest entry from the author of bestseller One of Us Is Lying, we leave the high school campus setting and head for the glamour of real estate magnate Ross Sutherland’s family compound. Adding to the glamour? Kat and her mother are jewelry thieves, planning one last heist before going straight.

But things get complicated quickly. For starters, Kat and her mother run into Luke and Liam. Luke and Kat’s mother were married briefly, and they’re both still scarred from the time Luke left Kat and Liam alone to get lost in Vegas. Luke’s a con artist in his own right, and he’s playing his own game at the Sutherland compound.

And then Kat’s mom gets sick, leaving Kat to handle the jewelry heist on her own. The replacement jewels go missing, Kat witnesses a murder in the woods, an attacker breaks into Kat’s room, and it’s not long before Kat teams up with Liam and one of the younger Sutherlands in an effort to just stay alive.

This was another fast-paced ride, and we enjoyed both the glamour of the Sutherland compound and the twists and turns of the mystery as Kat and Luke worked to get to the bottom of things.

Profanity and references to mature situations do make this a more appropriate recommendation for high school students.

Thank you NetGalley, Random House Children’s, and Delacorte Press for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are our own.

Liv is illegally living in the Cove, an off-limits zone in a dystopian world where people struggle to survive, sifting through the e-waste generated by the “sharks,” the wealthy members of society who live in a highly technological world, increasingly reliant on virtual reality. But when her sister gets fatally sick and they can’t afford medicine, she gets an internship with Casper Palacios Lim Moiret, the 150-year-old founder of the Virch Empire, a giant corporation that essentially runs the modern world.

Liv is there to steal a vial of the medication her sister needs to survive; that is, if she can avoid anyone finding out who she really is and where she’s from. If they do, she’ll be sent to live in a refugee camp. But she immediately becomes connected with two of Casper’s Progeny, his genetically engineered and very famous children, and after a disturbing dream, she finds herself on a two-day deadline to save the world from complete destruction.

The island setting and the lives of the “sharks” (the body modifications remind us of the Capitol citizens in The Hunger Games) are high glamour escapism, and while there are some clunky parts, the action doesn’t let up, and we think many students will find it highly engaging (we constantly wanted to know what happened next). The novel’s exploration of what is really real and how we know isn’t our particular jam, but we’ve had enough conversations with students to know there’s definitely an audience for it.

Thank you NetGalley and Owl Hollow Press for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are our own.

Living with her Tia Lorena and her cousins Amaranta and Elvira in 1884 Buenos Aires, Inez is expected to behave like the young lady her upper-class social circles expect her to be. But Inez would much rather wear a practical pair of pants and travel to Egypt, where her parents spend six months out of each year on archaeological digs.

When Inez receives a letter from her Tio Ricardo telling her that her parents have been lost in the Egyptian desert and are presumed dead, she’s devastated, but she’s also determined to get answers. She takes a ship across the Atlantic Ocean to the wondrous world of Egypt, full of British officials, international tourists, archaeologists, and ancient glamour. Her uncle is not excited to see her; in fact, he arranges for his roguish British assistant, Whitford Hayes, to meet Inez at the dock and put her on a return ship to Argentina.

But Whitford has never met anyone like Inez before, and she easily escapes his company, intent on exploring the world of pharaohs and antiquities (with threads of ancient magic) in an effort to discover what, exactly, happened to her parents. The truth is far more complicated than Inez could ever have imagined, and her efforts put her in increasing danger while also offering her the adventures she’s longed for.

We loved this one and found ourselves eagerly anticipating the opportunity to pick it back up again. The world of ancient Egypt is fascinating and glamourous, the action is nonstop, Inez is the kind of feisty young woman we’d love to befriend, and the enemies-to-lovers romance is oh-so-swoony (while also appropriate for high school readers).

The novel does include some profanity, but it’s an engaging read that we’d feel excited about recommending to our high school students, and we can’t wait for the sequel.

Jackie Oh’s parents are overachievers—former straight A students at Ivy League schools who have high-paying jobs in law and private equity. Naturally, they expect Jackie to follow in their footsteps, attending hagwon in the afternoons, earning straight As at her private school so she can head to the Ivy League, and landing her own corporate job.

Jackie, however, is not interested in this path. She spends every free moment she has working at her grandparents’ New York deli Melty’s or watching Burn Off! with them and coming up with their own creative versions of the cooking show’s challenges.

When Jackie skips her world history final to audition for a teen version of Burn Off!, her parents are, let’s just say, not happy. But recognizing that a reality TV win could be the stuff of college application essays, they grudgingly allow her to head to LA to compete, where Jackie’s pitted against food influencers, child TV stars, and teens who are well-versed in the latest culinary trends.

We adored Jackie—her voice is an utter delight—and while there’s plenty of escapist fun behind the camera of a cooking reality show, there are also deeper threads. Jackie has the opportunity to reflect on her relationships with her family and friends as well as her insecurities and passions, understanding herself (and others) much more fully. And Park uses the narrative to explore important issues of Asian-American hate and the damage the model minority myth can cause, issues that are too infrequently discussed in the public arena yet all-too-real for many of our students.

Thank you NetGalley, Random House Children’s, and Crown Books for Young Readers for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are our own.

When Eden’s father is arrested for embezzlement, money laundering, and drug trafficking, her stepmother takes off, and she’s sent to live with her Uncle Jimmy. She decides to reinvent herself as Rhi, leaving behind the trauma of her old life (which we’ll catch glimpses of as the book unfolds).

Working part-time for her uncle at the Happy Valley Wilderness Preserve, Rhi is out on the trails when she discovers five girls, wild and feral, accompanied by two wolves. One of the girls is injured—she has a bear trap clamped onto her leg—and Rhi calls for help, becoming part of the viral news story about the Wild Girls of Happy Valley.

The nation is obsessed with the story of these four girls who lived for decades in the wilderness under the care of an old man they called Mother—after all, their story involves kidnapping, cannibalism, and four girls who insist they are princesses, gifted with magic and destined to return to a fairy-tale kingdom. As much as Rhi knows their story of magic can’t be true, she wants to believe it’s true, that she is the fifth princess they’ve been looking for, and their lives are destined for a safer world than this one.

As the four girls adjust to life in civilization, Rhi is right by their side, and it turns out that Rhi has a lot of healing of her own to do.

This novel was a surprisingly rich and gorgeous exploration of the dangers of growing up as a young woman. Franklin uses the story of the Wild Girls of Happy Valley to metaphorically highlight and contrast Rhi’s own trauma, and we think (sadly) many young women will see echoes of their own story in Rhi’s.

While telling an important story, there is quite a bit of mature and disturbing content (and some profanity), so this is a recommendation for older teens, and students may want to search out content warnings before diving in.

Thank you NetGalley and Zando Young Readers for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are our own.

Enore, her sister Esosa, and their mother moved from Nigeria to the United States after the girls’ father died. They’re living with their father’s brother while managing their grief, and the girls’ mother is studying to get her medical license in the United States. On top of it all, the girls have to figure out how to thrive in an American high school.

But Enore has a plan: she spends the weeks before school starts watching as many teen movies as she can, creating a list of ten rules to follow in order to be successful in high school. But when she meets the hazel-green-eyed Davi before class even starts on the first day, she’s well on her way to breaking Rule #1: Avoid interacting with or befriending anyone who is popular.

When Davi convinces Enore to try out for the school musical, Rule #3—Don’t do anything to draw attention to yourself—is demolished, and between Davi and the musical, the rest of the rules (especially the one about no boys) are quick to follow. But by being cast in the musical, Enore discovers a passion for musical theater that she’s desperate to follow, despite her mom’s determination that she become a doctor.

It’s not long before Enore’s hiding a lot of things from her mom, and it’s only a matter of time before it all catches up to her.

This was such a charming read full of teen movie tropes—it’s got romance, reflection on the concept of race in America, and a lot of encouragement to pursue your passions, even if you have to break some rules to do it.

There are a couple instances of profanity, but we’d feel comfortable recommending this breezy read to a wide range of students.

Thank you NetGalley, MacMillan Children’s Publishing Group, and Feiwel and Friends for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are our own.