Lately I've been enjoying stories about the season I'm sliding into, parenting teenagers. Teenagers are often portrayed in a fairly negative light but my young teen is delightful to do life with and I hope to find many more stories with a joyful parent-child teen relationship.
All She Ever Wanted (historical fiction, timeslip)... This book really touched my heart but will probably be too depressing for a lot of readers. This is about four generations of women in a family line and the pain and family dynamics that led to their paths. Our most midern-day character is raising a troubled teen, which is really what kicks off her examination of her own life and her family history.
Baxter Family books... These were very dramatic and had me very invested. The first of these books involve only the youngest Baxter child as an older teen. There's a few books only about young adults and then there are quite a few books about a family friend (Bailey Flanigan) as a teen before we start to see all the Baxter grandchildren as teenagers.
Christiansen Family books... I am still working my way through these ones and loving them. The youngest Christiansen, Amelia, is a teen at the start of the series. We don't see much of her in those books and really only see a lot of teen parenting in the Christmas novella Evergreen but I couldn't not include this series here.
Dark Justice (suspense)... in this high-speed suspense we have a woman on the Run from someone very sinister, while also trying to protect her 19-year-old daughter and her elderly mother with dementia. I read this book very quickly, sneaking in a chapter every chance I could get.
The Deep End of Love... This one is focused on a few different women but one is the mother of a pregnant teenager. This books was full of tough topics- infertility, grief, post-abortion hurt, and more- but so good. It made me tear up or cry multiple times.
Firstborn... In this one we have a woman who is raising a teenage son and then gets a shocking revelation- the young lady (whom I believe was also an older teen) she gave up for adoption as a teen would like to meet her biological mother. This is news to her husband and son so we see a lot of family dynamics worked through in this one.
Intervention (suspense)... This page-turner series was hard to put down but its focus on a teenage daughter with a drug addiction was also hard to read at times. The mother character also has a teenage son whom we see more of in the later books.
Ladies of the Lake (historical fiction, time slip)... This was such a delightful read for me! We essentially open with a teenage daughter begging her mother to come to her boarding school graduation, and mother refusing. Then, we examine her story and find out the why. I definitely see myself re-reading this one someday.
More Than We Remember... This is a story about three different women whose lives are tied together by one terrible accident. That is the primary focus here but one of them is also patenting a troubled teen while dealing with this other struggle, too. I got quite a lot out of this one.
One Perfect Day... I have to caution that few of you will be able to stomach this one. We're following two mothers- one whose teenage son just died, one whose teenage daughter was just saved by an organ transplant from that boy. I almost put this one down several times but was ultimately glad I'd finished it.
The Printed Letter Bookshop... This one, too, is from the perspective of multiple women, one of whom is the mother of a troubled teen. This one is focused on the employees of The Printed Letter Bookshop and I enjoyed it but still haven't read its sequel.
Though I Stumble... This one is about four different women at a Christian women's conference, all working through their own life circumstances and being moved by the speaking they hear at the conference. One of the women, Treva, is the mother of the 19-year-old character, Stephanie. They both have to work through Stephanie's story and this made for such a powerful read! I really loved this book but couldn't get my hands on the rest of the series at the time. Now I'm reminded that I really wanted to read the rest of it but it's been so long I'll probably need to start with this one again!
Twenty Something-Else... This story was about a woman who had a pretty negative view of her life and her children, then got a chance to re-do her twenties after a pickleball-related head injury. The mc made a lot of choices I disagreed with and I admittedly asked myself several times if I really wanted to this all play out. I again don't necessarily recommend this for everyone but I do think some of you will enjoy it.
