Upper YA Books Not About College

Noreen is grieving the loss of her aunt and deep into a post-high school slump when she decides to head to New Delhi with her mom for a gap year. There, she meets Kabir, who introduces her to all of the wonders the city possesses and starts to get her out of her slump…but then a scandal erupts and Noreen must figure out where they stand and what it means to love someone.

When Bea was 19, her parents died in a car accident and her little sister Lo barely survived. Bea joined The Project, and found solace and family within. But she never spoke to Lo again. Now, Lo is 19 and she’s hoping that she can find her sister. The rumors about The Project being a cult have her on edge, but she’d do anything to track down Bea and find out why her sister abandoned her…even if it means walking right into danger herself.

Pablo is working at a bodega, the overnight shift, when Leanna Smart, worldwide celebrity walks in. At first, he’s kind of stunned, but he plays it cool, and they even banter a bit. When she walks away, he thinks that’s that…but it’s just the start of a strange, electric connection between the two of them that can’t be denied. But she’s Leanna Smart, pop goddess, and he’s just a college dropout who doesn’t know what he wants to do with his life–they can’t possibly make it work, can they?

Mila has been alone for a long time now, and now that she’s aged out of the foster care system, she needs a place to go. So she accepts a job at a farm in Northern California, where she spends her days working with foster kids and her weekends at the farmer’s market at the closest place to a home she’s ever found. But she knows that she doesn’t quite belong here yet, and there are ghosts (literal and figurative) haunting her. Mira has to confront her past if she’s to find a home in her present.