"In 2025 California, an eighteen-year-old African American woman, suffering from a hereditary trait that causes her to feel others' pain as well as her own, flees northward from her small community and its desperate savages." --

Recent immigrants from China and desperate for work and money, ten-year-old Mia Tang's parents take a job managing a rundown motel in Southern California, even though the owner, Mr. Yao is a nasty skinflint who exploits them; while her mother (who was an engineer in China) does the cleaning, Mia works the front desk and tries to cope with demanding customers and other recent immigrants--not to mention being only one of two Chinese in her fifth grade...

From bestselling author Luanne Rice—a captivating and sexy novel of love, both enduring and unexpected.
Year after year, Luanne Rice’s fans eagerly await her next book. Their enthusiasm is soon to be rewarded with The Lemon Orchard, Rice’s romantic new love story between two people from seemingly different worlds.
In the five years since Julia last visited her aunt and uncle’s home in Malibu, her life has...

"A dazzling debut novel from an exciting new voice, The Mothers is a surprising story about young love, a big secret in a small community--and the things that ultimately haunt us most"--

When her band's drummer and fellow guitarist start dating, life gets awkward for eighth-grader Bina, a talented musician and songwriter, whose discomfort only multiplies when her best friend Austin develops a crush on her.

Over the course of a single summer in 1976 Santa Barbara, California, fourteen-year-old Jamie gains new insights into the confusing world of adolescence, sex, friendship, love, and family, in a poignant coming-of-age tale.

Top surfer Dolphin Smoote gets more than he bargains for when he works up the nerve to ask out the brown eyed beauty on a date. The search of quick coin without having to work will always lead a surfer to precarious places, and Dolphin is no exception. With the help of his lovable surfer crew who often have more to say about stylishness than anything else, Dolphin finds himself between conmen, ghosts, an impending storm from the coast of Mexico...and...

"A hilarious, tough, and tender story collection pressurized by grief, sexual longing, the spectrum of gender, and girls with muscle."--

Alder has always lived in his cozy little house in Southern California. An old, reliable, comforting walnut tree has stood between his house and the one next door. When a new family--with a particularly annoying girl his age named Oak--moves into the neighboring house, they cut the tree down. As Oak and Alder start school together, they can't imagine ever becoming friends. But they soon discover a series of mysterious, possibly magical, connections...