I decided to take a little break from my “Favorite book (insert genre) suggestions” and try this. These are books I couldn’t fit under one particular category nor do I love them them enough to write a paragraph of why one should give it try. Besides I a lot of them have overlapping themes/genres/ideas with another beloved book (series) so “If you like this, try. . .”

If you like Rachel Renee Russell’s Dork Diaries try Amy Ignatow’s Popularity Papers or Cheer! by Zoe Evens

Both utilize the fun diary form with doodles, drawings and freakouts from the sweet, but relatable protagonists. Yes, they have their freakouts and can be mean and irrational to their family and their friends, but they mean well at the end of the day. Ignatow’s PP series follows Julia and Lydia in their quest to make themselves popular, finding out some real life lessons about friendship along the way. While Madison fails her cheerleadering tryout (much to her humiliation as her mom was head cheerleader on the squad years before) and relegated to the B-team, she sucks it up to get this ragtag pile of misfits into cheer shape while also dealing with her crushes and her parents’ divorce. Fans of Nikk’s rambling diary entries and numerous dramas, will enjoy the hijinks (some of their own making) that befall these characters.

If you like Cathy Hopkins’ Mates, Dates series, try Veronica Chambers’ Amigas Inc.

If you enjoyed the tight friendship of as they grow, laugh and love, you’ll enjoy the tight knit friendship of Alicia, Carmen, Jaimie and Gaz. So tight, that they go on to make their own business, Amigas Inc. creating one of kind quinceneras for the Miami Latinas who want a personalized birthday bash. They also have their fights, and their own business romances, but as they grow on till graduation, they stick by each other till the end.

If you liked Melissa J. Morgan’s Camp Confidential, try Diane Muldrow’s Dish

While it doesn’t take place in summer camp, the Dish books follow a tight-knit group of friends much like the girls of Camp Lakeview. During a summer cooking class, sisters Amanda and Molly and their friends, Shawn and Peichi decide to put their cooking skills to good use when tragedy strikes the community, even as their arch-nemesis seeks to show them up. It shares the same friendship highlights and struggles that readers will like.

If you liked Coco Simon’s Cupcake Diaries, try Heather Hepler’s The Cupcake Queen or Confectionaly Yours by Lisa Papademetriou

If you liked the dream idea of creating and baking in your own pastry service like Katie, Alexis, Mia and Emma do in The Cupcake Diaries, try Confectionally Yours as the protagonist, Hayley uses baking to deal with the stress of moving, her parents’ divorce, sharing a room with a little sister, and a drifting friendship. While using her baked goods to drum up more revenue for her Gran’s tea shop. If you prefer the coming-of-age and life lessons the Cupcake Girls learn in their series, try Hepler’s novel where Penny learns about the importance of art for soul, falls in love and appreciating life despite its uphevals.

If you like Megan McDonald’s Judy Moody, try her 3 Sisters Club or Gooney Bird Greene by Lois Lowry

If you enjoy McDonald’s casual, relatable prose, try her middle grade series, the 3 Sisters Club where the titular sisters get into hijinks and adventures as they learn about growing up. Or if you just enjoy Judy’s wild antics and the hilarious stories that come out of them, try Gooney Bird Green. An imaginative girl who has a thousand of stories to tell and never out of adventure or creativity. She also shares the wild red hair.

If you like Annie Barrow’s Ivy + Bean, try Sara Pennypacker’s Clementine

Like Ivy and Bean’s mischevious streak, whether its expellig the ghost of the bathroom or annoying Bean’s older sister? You’ll enjoy the sweet albeit devious Clementine as she rolls into one thing after another in third grade. Often ending up in the principle’s office.

If you like Charise Mericle Harper’s Just Grace, try Anne Mazer’s The Amazing Days of Abby Hayes

Grace is an average girl whose super empathy emboldens to help out her friends, family and even the whole earth even if her methods sometimes get into trouble. Abby Hayes is also an average girl but she belongs to a super family of lawyers, geniuses and atheletic superstars and seeks to make her own place. Readers will enjoy the life lessons they glean and the relatbility of the protagonists as well as the doodles and imagine spots embedded in the pages.

If you like Laurie B. Friedman’s Mallory McDonald, try Laura Dower’s From the Files of Madison Finn

If you enjoyed the tales of Mallory growing up and all the big events of new grades and class trips and shifting friendships that come with it, but you’re looking for something older-From the Files of Madison Finn is a good bet. Madison is a computer savvy 12 year old who, like any kid, deals with the conflict of her parents’ divorce, worries about her friends an faces an ex-bff turned enemy, Poison Ivy (no relation to the DC villainess). It’s a little more mature in both writing and style and content since they are now in middle school, so it’s a good continuation if you like that sort of plot.

If you like Lauren Myracle’s Flower Power, try her ttyl series or Forever Four by Elizabeth Cody Kimmel

If you enjoy the text talking between the Flower Power girls, try Lauren Myracle’s ttyl series following three close friends as they go through high school with sex, drinking, relationships and more featuring Myracle’s brand of humor. If you just prefer the close friendship more than the internet style, try Forever Four as the titular four girls from three vastly different cliques come together to make a student newspaper.

If you like Lauren Myracle’s Winnie series, try her Peace, Love, and Baby Ducks novel

If you enjoy the travails of Winnie growing up, Myracle’s stand alone novel is sure to hit those same relatable feels of growing up, feeling insecure of your looks when your sister is much more gorgeous and dealing with toxic friendships. Plus there are cute little ducks.

If you like Cynthia Rylant’s Cobble Street Cousins, try Catherine Daley’s Petal Pushers or Teashop Girls by Laura Shaffer

If you’re looking for something older than Cobble Street Cousins but still want the plot of friends and family working in a specific field, try either one of these. Petal Pushers is lower grade series follows the Bloom sisters helping their grandparents’ closing flower shop to become a sucess again while also dealing with their personal lives. Teashop Girls is more middle grade as it deals with friends helping each other make a tea shop a sucess, it also deals with issues like cyber-bullying and eating disorders.

If you like Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games, try Sarah J. Maas’ Throne of Glass.

If you liked the high stakes dystopian world of The Hunger Games, you’ll enjoy the similarly high stakes Throne of Glass. While it doesn’t critique our need to watch violence onscreen and government oppression, this fantasy novel follows the assassin, Celanea entering a kingdom competition in order to gain her freedom after being thrown in the mines to die of hard labor. However, there’s more to it in this eight book series with revolution, fey, power ups and love triangles.

If you like Ally Condie’s Matched, try Meghan McCafferty Bumped duology

If you liked dystopian worlds where the “benevolent” government controls your love life, your job, birth, death etc. Welcome to this world where few teens have viable eggs and are so encouraged to become surrogates, seeing it as the highest honor especially if its to be a surrogete of a celebrity. However, things go wrong for the protagonists when they realize they are twins and they end up with the other’s man. It deals with such sensitive topics that are associated with birth and also brings to mind that this is The Handmaid’s Tale for teens.

If you like Jennifer Brown’s The Hate List, try Mindy McGinnis’ Heroine

If you enjoyed the sensitivity which Brown utilizes in writing about such topics like sexual assault and school shooting, you’ll appreciate McGinnis as she writes on the timely topic of opiod addiction through Mickey. A car crash sidelines her softball season, leaving her emotionally devestated and in extreme physical pain from the leg fractures. For which she is prescribed pain killers. They help, so she uses them and uses them more when she realizes that it can get her on her feet faster just as the pressure of college scholarships approch. It’s a deadly slope as one can see and gets dark, but it illustrates the descent that plagues many in this opiod epidemic.

If you like Just Juliet/Romeo Redeemed, try Melinda Taub’s Still Starcrossed or Exposure by Mal Peet

If you enjoyed the twist on Romeo and Juliet, try Still Starcrossed as it focuses on two side characters of the original play, Rosaline whom Romeo previously crushed on before he met Juliet and The Prince. They are urged to get together after Romeo and Juliet’s death, but their union isn’t easing the rivalry between Capulets and Montegues as they hoped. Exposure focuses on a modern retelling of Othello through soccer stardom and rivalries.

If you like Angela Darling’s Crush series, try Stephanie Perkins’ Anna and the French Kiss

You want to experience the tingly feelings of infatuation and the bliss of first love, Perkins’ books are a perfect antidote. Very sweet as it takes place in one of the most romantic cities with a slow burn between Etienne and Anna that makes the end all the more worth it.

If you like Crystal Velasquez’ Your Life But series, try Liz Ruckdeschel’s Choose Your Destiny series

If you like choosing your own adventure, Ruckdeschel takes you through high school foiables and pitfalls that test what you would do in certain situations like What if everyone was doing it? (You know what it is). And even the wish fufillment ones like What if. . . All the boys wanted you still yield realistic results if you choose unwisely.

If you like Marion Dane Buar’s Double Digit-Club, try Julie Bowe’s Friends for Keeps

If you enjoyed the coming of age, growing novel of friendship and exclusion by Baur, you’ll enjoy Bowe’s series that explores the theme of friendship further like the grief of one moving away, the lies of first impressions, exclusion and more as girls enter lower and middle school.

If you like Maria Padian’s Wrecked try Ashley Herring Blake’s Girl Made of Stars or Such a Pretty Girl by Laura Weiss

All deal with the difficult topic of rape. While A Girl Made of Stars is similar to Wrecked as it deals with the reaction of the community to a he said-she said rape. But in this case, it is the protagonist’s brother who is the defendent against his girlfriend who is her close friend. She must grapple with her torn loyalty as it also brings up her own painful experience. Such a Pretty Girl is deeper as Meredith’s father is the man who raped her. A convicted pedophile who is released early for good behavior, supposedly reformed. Though she knows better. They are hard books but they are necessary.

If you like The Maryrose Wood’s Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place, try Ransom Rigg’s Miss Peregrine’s Home for Perculiar Children

As the title suggests these books deal with perculiar children in the Victorian era, though Miss Peregine is a step up, meant for high schoolers and so includes those mature additions of gore, sex, etc and is much creepier with its accompanying pictures.

If you like Nicole Yoon’s The Sun is Also a Star, try Una LaMarche’s Like No Other

If you enjoyed the star crossed romance of two teens from a different world and the limited time they have together, you’ll love this book as Devorah, the good Hasidic Jewish girl ends up meeting Jaxon, a fun loving black nerd when they are trapped in an elevator together. It’s a brief meeting but their conversation sparks interest and they keep meeting in secret despite the Hasidic law that forbids such a thing and Devorah’s suspicious brother in law who threatens to ruin their romance. It’s all about love, family and tradition but don’t worry, there are happy endings after all.

If you prefer the angst and conflict of a relationship where one is an undocumented immigrant who might be deported, try Something in Between. Senior, Jasmine de Santos’ life is turned upside down during college applications when her question about social security reveals her family overstayed their visas. They’re technically illegal immigrants. The revelation shakes her sense of self to the core, brings fear of deportion and potential rejection from the prestigious universities she’s applying to and provides some conflict with the cute but rich, white and privileged Royce Blakely, son of a Congressman who could help her. Nuanced and thoughtful, De La Cruz explores what it means to be a citizen, identity and love in these times of borders and turmoil.

If you like Nicole McInnes’ 100 Days, try Cammie McGovern’s A Step Toward Falling

Like 100 Days, the focus is around three teens, one disabled, the other embarking on their own romance and the friendship that forms around the trio. Emily and Lucas are forced into community service when both fail to help Belinda, a classmate with developmental disabilities, from being almost assaulted by a footballer. While neither hated Belinda or wanted her hurt (they were more frozen with shock), their time with other developmental disabled individuals make them realize they could do better and try to help create a play to make Belinda’s dream come true.

If you like Polly Horvath’s The Trolls, try Eleanr Estes’ The Alley

If you like family stories and mysteries, try The Alley where a little girl and her gang of neighborhead friends figure out who is the thief breaking into all of their homes with some little kid ingenuity.

If you like Kieran Scott’s He’s So/She’s So trilogy, try Katherine Applegates’ Beach Blondes

Don’t you love it when teens go wild with their dramatic flings, Beach Blondes is literally a fun summer read in that vein. But also has some more depth than your typical juicy book as it deals with the topic of sexual assault. Or if you want a more realistic depiction of fading friendships, love triangles double standards and cheating try Lauren Barnholdt’s thoughtful, one memorable day, Sometimes it Happens.

If you like Gayle Forman’s I was Here, try Regina Sirois’ On Little Wings

If you like the journey to finding oneself while looking into the past of someone close to you, try On Little Wings. Forman’s book is heavier as it deals with the topic of depression and suicide, but it shares its themes of grief and how it can bring people or tear them apart. It also shares the loving desriptions of small towns and the people there that help the protagonist heal.

If you like Gayle Forman’s One Day, try Maureen Johnson’s/John Green’s/Lauren Myracle’s Let It Snow

If you like the focus on one day of a holiday vacation that ends up the day you meet your love, but don’t want the deep introspection; Let It Snow is a wonderful pick with humor, heart and a cute twist that ties it all up a la Love Actually style.

If you like Natasha Friend’s Perfect, try Carolyn Mackler’s The Earth, My Butt and Other Round Things

If you appreciated Friend’s thoughtful handling of body issues and other topical teen subjects, Mackler does the same with a little more humor with her Virginia. A plus size girl that feels like a black sheep in her own family, whose life is upended when a boy falls for her, she just doubts he’ll feel the same when she takes it off but that is soon forgotten when it turns out her older brother may not be so perfect after all and his actions will plunge their family’s perfection out the window.

If you like Melissa Kantor’s The Darlings, try Ann Branshere’s Sisters of the Travelling Pants

This is a classic series so I won’t waste my breath, but the themes of unyielding friendship while dealing with personal growth and mistakes are always resonant.

If you like Donna Freitas’ The Possibilities of Sainthood, try Jill Alexander’s Sweetheart of Prosper County

Both books share a sweet, every day stream of life for an average girl whether it’s an uber-Catholic trying to do her best to navigate the age of growing up in a nuanced world, or a girl deciding to take her life into her own hands. Not that there’s anything wrong with Austin’s life, it’s quite average, which is the problem. She doesn’t want to be on the sidelines anymore and signs up to be a Sweetheart for Prosper County, raising chickens and courting votes to win. Even though her mother’s overprotective streak threatens her chances as they both continue to deal with grief after her father’s untimely death years before.

If you like Adriana Trigiani’s Viola in Reel Life, try Una LeMarche’s You, in Five Acts

If you enjoy a performing arts school book filled with creativity and the romance it entails, LeMarche’s book takes an artsy approch alternating between first and second person as it alternates between five friends and their dreams of success with an ominous tragedy haunting them until the big climax.

If you like Nancy Springer’s Tales of Rowan Hood, try Tanith Lee’s Piratica

Do you enjoy gusty independent girls changing tale and history. Rowan butts heads with the infamous Robin, bringing new tales to Sherwood Forest and the Merry Men’s fight against Prince John. Lee’s Artemisia follows that same daring vein as she escapes boarding school to take up her mother’s old, infamous mantle as pirate queen.

If you like Maya Gold’s Cinderella Cleaners, try Zilpha Keatley Snyder’s Egypt Game/Gypsy Game

Are you a fan of dressing up transforming a person but want a little more mystery to it. Snyder’s book is one for you as the gang’s imaginative “Egypt” game immerses them into a new world with rituals and traditions that they believe will help solve the neighborhood murders before the killer strikes again.

If you like Jenni James’ The Jane Austen Diaries, try Jodi Picoult and Samantha van Leer’s Between the Lines

While James’ creatively adapts Jane Austen’s tales to the modern day, Picoult/Leer take it a step further by imagining a fairytale character come to life, talking to Delilah and growing a close connection. But he is on page and she is real, can they ever meet, can dreams really come true? It’s magical and romantic and such a treat to enjoy.

If you like Lisa Greenwald’s My Life in Pink and Green, try Aimee Freidman’s The Year My Sister Got Lucky

While Greenwald’s book deals with sister and friendship problems with a determined narrator at the helm, Freidman’s novel of sisterly distance has Katie, a girl totally lost when the family is transplanted to rural Fir Lake, Canada from NYC. While her sister thrives and hides secrets from her. The books about family really do hit the heart strings, but Friedman has a more thoughtful and balanced take.

If you want to try Steig Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, try Mindy McGinnis’ The Female of the Spieces or Au Revoir, Crazy European Chick by Joe Schrieber

If the idea of Lisabeth Salander kicking ass and killing rapists appeals to you but you’re not ready for its the length or darkness, these high school books may tide you over. Alex Craft is just as efficient and ruthless as Lisbeth when finishing off rapists, almost animal-like which ties to the novel’s themes of justice, corruption, instinct and humanity. If you prefer the European adventure, spy hopping and shooting guns at slave traffickers type of book, Schriber is the one to go with.

If you like Deb Caletti’s Stay, try S.M. Parker’s The Girl Who Fell

Both can be difficult books, but they are worth it as it illustrates the warning signs and slippery slopes of toxic, emotionally abusive relationships when the guy’s love turns to obsession and then stalking when their breakup doesn’t stop him. It provides happy endings and hotlines to call for more information, but it is tough going as you feel the intensity build.

If you like Meg Cabot’s Princess Diaries, try Lindsey Levitt’s Princess for Hire trilogy

Nothing can truly beat The Princess Diaries, it is beloved by a generation for its warmth, wish fufillment, relatability and pop culture references. Plus its movies helped boost Anne Hathway’s star power. However, if you want a little more teenage girl thrown into a princess lifestyle, try Lindsey Levitt’s series. Desi thought she was applying for a regular part time job, but it turns out the ad she answered leads her to world of magic, fairy bosses and princesses switches. Her job, she is to put on the magic makeup that will allow her to assume a princess’ identity temporarily and do whatever it is they want to skip out whether it be boring foreign meetings at Denmark or terrified of messing up their ceronominal dance in the Amazon. To be fair, Desi is terrified of the latter too. It is fun to see Desi try to assume these identities at a moments’ notice, and with her empathetic compassion, she is also able to help the princess too. But that’s not it, she’s dealing with her own friendship and boy issues at home, and her place of work seems to be hiding some secrets on their own. Secrets that inspire a revolution as you might guess from the third book. . . but I won’t give the what’s what away.

If you like Leslie Margolis’ Annabelle Unleashed series, try Flirt Club by Cathleen Daley

If you enjoyed Annabelle’s school conflicts and navigations of the mix between boys and girls, and the crushes and troubles that come from it in hormone-addled middle school, Flirt Club steps it up. Best friends, Annie and Izzy try to stop living in their musical fantasies and make 8th grade special by asking out their crushes. They start by forming Flirt Club where they can exchange tips and strategies to gather up courage to flirt. Contrary to what the title suggests, it’s not only about romance, friendship is the foundation to it. Especially as it gathers fellow theatre geekettes to their ranks. They’re quirky and very encouraging that everyone do what they’re comfortable with and sometimes the club meeting just devolve to musical karoke. It’s a sweet, fun book.

If you like Seth Grahame-Smith’s Pride, Prejudice and Zombies, try Lynn Shepherd’s Murder in Mansfield Park

While Smith’s story has copious amount of horrors and blood to the Regency romance, Shepherd makes a bloody mess in a mystery adaptation of Mansfield Park. Here, Fanny Price is revealed to a bitchy, backstabbing elitist, one who has made many enemies so when she is mysteriously murdered, everyone is a suspected. The infintely more interesting Mary Crawford gets to shine as the girl on the case and embarking on a relationship with Edmund as it should have been in the original novel.

If you like Louisa Alcott’s Little Women, try Bethany C. Morrow’s So Many Beginnings

This is part of a greater Classics Remix series that puts a diverse spin on so many classics. In this case, unlike modern adaptations of Little Women, this one still takes place during the Civil War. In fact it takes full advantage of the time period to reimagine the March family as freed slaves who are part of the new Freedman Colony in Roanoke Island. But even though they are in the North, they are still black and are reglated to little funds and little land. However, they still make a community and put down roots for a new life. It uses its position to add a distinct African-American spin, as to bring depth and new angles to the characters we adore. Meg is still the homebody but also wishes to be a teacher in order to teach freed slaves. Jo is ever the writer, agitating for equal rights. Beth is still sick (with sickle cell disease. Well it’s not named because it hasn’t been discovered yet but you can recognize what it is. And finally gives some idea of what Beth is suffering unlike the depression/wasting/TB/insert disease in the original), which makes it all more tragic as she wants to have a higher purpose. And Amy, the youngest who doesn’t remember her life in bondage seeks to be part of the artistic world in France where she may have more of a chance to pursue her dream than in the U.S. This remix has all the heart, sisterly bonds and overcoming difficulties, personal and external due to social positions to find their ways in life. It’s a worthy adaptation of a classic.

If you like Rosemary Graham’s Thou Shalt Not Dump the Skater Dude and Other Commandments I have Broken, try Graham’s Stalker Girl

If you enjoyed Graham’s breezy, casual writing that hits the sweet spot of being a teenage girl in a tumltuous relationship, you’ll like her other book, Stalker Girl. While Thou Shalt Not deals with a classic situation of the popular skate dude turning out to be an asshole that you must deal with as you find out who you are without a relationship, Carly’s ex was quite nice about their breakup. In fact he is everything Carly could want in a guy-kind, handsome, talented musician. She just can’t figure out what she did wrong that he’d dump her. She did everything for him as a roadie, and now he’s dating someone else. Now I know it does sound like she’s a crazy stalker, but Graham illustrates that slippery slope. Carly accepts that they’re broken up, she’s not going to try to win him back, she’s just curious about this new girlfriend, why is she better than her? But curiosity leads her to dangerous legal trouble and questions of her sanity, why can’t she let go?

If you like Sonya Mukherjee’s Gemini, try Akemi Dawn Bowman’s Starfish

While plot-wise, they couldn’t be more different. Gemini is about conjoined twins as they try to define their own paths while being stuck at the hip. Starfish is about a girl trying to escape the overbearing presence of her narcassistic mother. But they both emphasize the bonds of family whether they be loving or toxic and the struggles of trying to find your own path for the future that will fufill themselves. Additionally, Bowman’s thoughtful prose and inclusion of sensitive topics such as incest added an extra layer of depth to the novel as Kiko struggles with the added fear on her mind and body when her mom dismissess her concerns.

If you like Written in the Stars by Aisha Saeed, try This is Where it Ends by Marieke Nijkamp

Both deal with traumatic events, the former focusing on kidnapping, child marriage and rape in the context of archaic religion and the other on a school shooting. While they’re subjects are not the same, readers will enjoy the nuance the authors dedicate to ther subjects, exploring the causes, justifications and societal pressures that lead up to these horrific scenarios. Both also have a focus on family and romance tinged with tragedy considering the subject matter.

Does My Head look Big in This? by Randa Abdel-Fattah, try The Lines We Cross by Randa Abdel-Fattah

If you enjoyed the cross-cultural debate and generartion gaps of coming of age Muslim girls navigating love for the first time, these books are for you. Abdel-Fattah’s first book primarily deals with family drama and Amal trying to assert her independence while maintaining her hijab and her faith. But her latest novel gets into deeper territory by discussing racism and deep-seated Islamaphobia and xenaphobia in regards to Australian policy and politics and how two teens . The latter can get intense as online and physical hatred mainfests themselves in ugly ways. Even the fact that falls in love with a former supremecist or at least Islamaphobic can get uncomfortable at times but a good book forces you to see the truth and make you think.