Until she meets Paul Strobe, the rich boy next door. People with a lot of money make Mariah uncomfortable. Instead of fulfilling her dream to become a writer, Mariah has to help her mother with a house-sitting job in very rich Palm Springs. I Love You, by Barbara Conklin (September 1981): “When her father left after the divorce, Mariah lost her sense of family. These were some of the first books that inspired me to write similar stories about love and relationships. I Love You), #22 (Secret Identity), and #170 (Rock n’ Roll Sweetheart). My personal best-three are books #1 (P.S. The stories tell of highschool drama and romance: first love, first dates, first heartbreaks. writers like Barbara Conklin, Janet Quin-Harkin, Laurie Lykken, and Yvonne Greene. However, what many teenage and young-adult booklovers might have been missing these days are those reality-based, true-to-life romance novels popular in the 1980s like Sweet Dreams and Sweet Valley High.Ī series of 233 numbered stand-alone young-adult romance novels, Sweet Dreams were published from 1981 through to 1996, written mostly by U.S.

In fact, being an eclectic bibliophile myself, I have also in my collection books in the vampire-themed genre-like Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series (Twilight, 2005 New Moon, 2006 Eclipse, 2007 and Breaking Dawn, 2008) and Anne Rice’s latest Vampire Chronicles (Merrick, 2000 Blood and Gold, 2001 Blackwood Farm, 2002 and Blood Canticle, 2003). Whatever detractors might have to say, they remain a part of literature. After all, books regardless of genre are all food for the brain. Instead, they are more interested in the so-called vampire-themed fantasy romance novels-those which have sexy and beautiful and handsome vampires (or other horror characters, for that matter) falling in love with equally alluring humans or vice versa. However, the type of romance books many current young adults are into is not those which involve puppy love, handsome boys next door, and cute girls in school and the neighborhood. However, based on what I’m learning from commercial media and from some teenagers I know, many if not most of them are as romantic as many people my age were 25 years ago meaning, they still read romance novels.

I may be really getting old, the reason I feel like I’m not that in touch anymore with what kind of romance novels teenagers in this generation are reading in the comforts of their bedrooms.

P. S. I Love You by Barbara Conklin