Books like 'Frankie'
Readers who enjoyed Frankie by Graham Norton also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
contemporary historical-fiction literary-fiction romantic-love lgbtq coming-of-age realistic urban female-mc
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Bad Habit by Alana S. Portero
Rated: 4.56 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsCombining the raw realism and vulnerability of Shuggie Bain and Detransition, Baby with the poignant sensibility of Pedro Almodóvar, a staggering coming-of-age novel deeply rooted in the class struggles of a trans woman growing up in Madrid in the last decades of the twentieth century."I saw a whole generation of boys fall like irredeemable angels...Categorized as:
lgbtq coming-of-age literary-fiction historical-fiction fiction feminism contemporary drama -
Have You Seen Luis Velez? by Catherine Ryan Hyde
Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsRaymond Jaffe feels like he doesn't belong. Not with his mother's new family. Not as a weekend guest with his father and his father's wife. Not at school, where he's an outcast...Categorized as:
coming-of-age historical-fiction lgbtq literary-fiction realistic urban audiobook book -
All I Want is that Hood Love by Mercedes G
Rated: 4.70 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsHaving the picture-perfect marriage seems rational when the only person you live, breathe, and love is your husband. Twenty-four year old NaTaysia is convinced the only man that is capable of loving her is her handsome, sophisticated husband JaMel Taylor. JaMel is the only man she has known emotionally, physically and mentally... -
Still the Baddest Bitch by Deja King
Rated: 4.63 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsAaliyah Mills Carter has to step up and watch the throne, to prove she has what it takes to be the Baddest Bitch. Chaos has always surrounded her family but now death may have hit too close to home. There are so many questions but not enough answers... -
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Next Door Nanny At The Cowboy Billionaire Ranch: A Sweet Clean Cowboy Billionaire Romance by Hanna Hart
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 10 ratings... -
In the End, It Was All About Love by Musa Okwonga
Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe narrator arrives in Berlin, a place famed for its hedonism, to find peace and maybe love; only to discover that the problems which have long haunted him have arrived there too, and are more present than ever...Categorized as:
literary-fiction lgbtq romantic-love fiction contemporary social-commentary family book -
From the Projects to a Rich Thug's Mansion by Sonovia Alexander
Rated: 4.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAngie “Swiss” Jones is not your typical female. She was born into a life of poverty that she never asked for. Her mother dropped her off at the local fire station as a newborn and her father could have been any of the local crackheads that she passed by on the daily. Jumping from foster home to foster home and living a life that gave her nothing, she was tired of it, she wanted more... -
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Jaded by Ela Lee
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA young lawyer wakes up the morning after a work gala with no memory of how she got home the previous night and must figure out what, exactly, happened—and how much she's willing to put up with to make her way to the top of the corporate ladder.Jade isn’t even my real name. Jade began as my Starbucks name, because all children of immigrants have a Starbucks name...Categorized as:
literary-fiction realistic urban coming-of-age female-mc fiction contemporary mystery -
The Hop by Diana Clarke
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsFrom the author of Thin Girls, a page-turning feminist novel that tells the story of how a poor girl coming of age in rural New Zealand grows to be a sex icon, the face of a movement, and a mother, all at the same time.Kate Burns grows up wanting attention from her Ma, but her Ma wants only money and Kate learns how to get both...Categorized as:
lgbtq literary-fiction female-mc coming-of-age fiction contemporary feminism audiobook -
Dandelion Daughter: A Novel by Gabrielle Boulianne-Tremblay
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWinner 2022, Prix des Libraires Rights for TV adaptation purchased by Zone 3 A runaway bestseller in Québec, where it has captured the hearts of readers and pushed trans-identity into the mainstream conversation, Dandelion Daughter is an intimate, courageous portrait of what it’s like to grow up having been assigned the wrong sex at birth...Categorized as:
lgbtq literary-fiction coming-of-age fiction trans-mc contemporary female-author book -
All The Colours In Between by Eva Jordan
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsEva Jordan's much-anticipated follow up to the bestselling 183 Times a Year It's not a life, it's an adventure! Lizzie is fast approaching 50. Her once angst ridden teenage daughters, now grown and in their twenties, have flown the nest, Cassie to London and Maisy to Australia... -
Christmas for the Halfpenny Orphans by Cathy Sharp
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA gritty and compelling drama from the bestselling author of The Orphans of Halfpenny Street. Perfect for fans of Nadine Dorries and Sheila Jeffries.Little twin sisters, Sarah and Samantha are all alone in the world. When their mother died giving birth to Sarah, she was blamed for the death by her father and her learning difficulties serve only to make him more angry and violent towards her... -
Idlewild by James Frankie Thomas
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsJames Frankie Thomas’s Idlewild is a darkly funny story of two adults looking back on their intense teenage friendship, in a queer, trans, and early-Internet twist on the Manhattan prep school novel.Idlewild is a tiny, artsy Quaker high school in lower Manhattan...Categorized as:
urban lgbtq literary-fiction coming-of-age historical-fiction romantic-love new-york-state fiction -
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Pleasantview by Celeste Mohammed
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsCoconut trees. Carnival. Rum and coke. To many outsiders, these idyllic images represent the supposed easy life in Caribbean nations such as Trinidad and Tobago. However, the reality is far different for those who live there—a society where poverty and patriarchy savagely rule, and where love and revenge often go hand in hand... -
Tell Me How to Be by Neel Patel
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsRenu Amin always seemed perfect: doting husband, beautiful house, healthy sons. But as the one-year anniversary of her husband's death approaches, Renu is binge-watching soap operas and simmering with old resentments. She can't stop wondering if, thirty-five years ago, she chose the wrong life...Categorized as:
coming-of-age historical-fiction lgbtq literary-fiction realistic adult audiobook book -
Amazing Grace by Lesley Crewe
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe new novel from bestselling author Lesley Crewe! Grace Willingdon has everything she needs. For fifteen years she’s lived in a trailer overlooking Bras d’Or Lakes in postcard-perfect Baddeck, Cape Breton, with Fletcher Parsons, a giant teddy bear who’s not even her husband... -
The Dishwasher by Stéphane Larue
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIt’s winter in Montreal, 2002, when a graphic design student’s gambling addiction starts to drag him under... -
Endpapers by Jennifer Savran Kelly
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 5 ratingsAn accessible, character-driven story set in 2003 New York City about a genderqueer book conservator who feels trapped by her gender presentation, her ill-fitting relationship, and her artistic block, as she discovers a decades-old hidden queer love letter and becomes obsessed with tracking down its author. It’s 2003, and artist Dawn Levit is stuck... -
Who Do I Run To? by Anna Black
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsJaniece Hawkins never thought she'd find herself facing a love triangle. More than that; a love triangle with a married man. KP, the man of her dreams swept her completely off her feet before telling her he was married with two kids. Too deep in love to let go, she became accustom to being KP's other woman and didn't have a problem with her role as KP's mistress until she met Isaiah... -
Margo's Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratings“An audacious, wildly funny, completely unpredictable novel by a writer so singular that it’s hard to compare her to anyone else . . . absolutely brilliant... -
3 stepbrothers by Animallover55
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsTori lived with her dad and little sister. She never expected to have a stepmother, much less a stepbrother. But whats worse is not only one stepbrother, not two either. No three stepbrothers. But it gets worse, the three boys just happen to be the three triplet sport stars of the school. The same three boys that have gone out with nearly all those girls that wear short short skirts... -
No Honour by Awais Khan
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA young woman defies convention in a small Pakistani village, with devastating results for her and her family. A stunning, immense beautiful novel about courage, family and the meaning of love, when everything seems lost… In sixteen-year-old Abida’s small Pakistani village, there are age-old rules to live by, and her family’s honour to protect...Categorized as:
female-mc historical-fiction literary-fiction adult book contemporary family fiction -
Deceit, Lies, & Alibi's by Shontaiye
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsHandsome and orphaned Noah grew up poor like most kids from North Philly. Refusing to accept poverty as his fate, he along with his childhood friend Hakim, jacked their way to the top. Years later, he’s on a legal path and building a future with his beloved fiancée Shaleea. However when slick talking Eve comes into the picture, love triangles form and everything that Noah has is threatened... -
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The Rachel Incident by Caroline O'Donoghue
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsWhere would I start, and how would it even make sense? How could you understand the year in Shandon Street unless you were there, with us, living it?Rachel Murray is twenty-one years old, platonically infatuated with her housemate James, and less-than-platonically infatuated with her enigmatic, married English professor Dr Byrne... -
The Marriage Rival by Kat T. Masen
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThe Office Rivals are back and have finally said ‘I Do.’ Presley Malone was the co-worker every guy wanted to get their hands on.Sexy, intelligent—and entirely off-limits.So, I knocked her up during a heated one-night stand.We fell in love, had a son, and I put a ring on her finger.Now, she’s mine.Marriage is supposed to be all bliss, right?For better, for worse... -
Girl Unmoored by Jennifer Gooch Hummer
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThirteen-year-old Apron Bramhall begins a summer job at her new friend Mike and his boyfriend Chad's flower shop, but she soon learns a secret about Chad that threatens to turn her peaceful world upside down...Categorized as:
realistic historical-fiction lgbtq coming-of-age young-adult fiction contemporary drama -
A Language of Limbs by Dylin Hardcastle
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe first love of a teenage girl is a powerful thing, particularly when the object of that desire is her best friend, also a girl. It's the kind of power that could implode a family, a friendship, a life...Categorized as:
lgbtq historical-fiction literary-fiction coming-of-age romantic-love fiction wlw contemporary -
Cómplices by Taibo
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsJulián ha luchado contra el aburrimiento de todas las maneras posibles. Desde que le diagnosticaron hepatitis, ha recreado en su cabeza conversaciones imaginarias entre ostras que no tienen nada que hacer, ha buscado formas fantasiosas en las manchas de la pared, ha lanzado mocos al aire. Pero es feliz porque no tiene que ir a la escuela... -
They're Going to Love You by Meg Howrey
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 17 ratingsA magnetic tale of betrayal, art, and ambition, set in the world of professional ballet, New York City during the AIDS crisis, and present-day Los AngelesCarlisle Martin dreams of becoming a professional ballet dancer just like her mother, Isabel, a former Balanchine ballerina...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction lgbtq coming-of-age urban female-mc fiction contemporary -
Pioneer Summer: A Novel by Elena Malisova, Katerina Silvanova
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThis star-crossed gay romance is a #1 bestselling TikTok sensation that took listeners by storm, made international news, and catalyzed one of Russia’s largest-ever crackdowns on LGBTQ representation The year is 1986, and Yurka Konev, 16, has been sent off for another summer at Pioneer Camp...Categorized as:
lgbtq historical-fiction coming-of-age literary-fiction romance fiction young-adult contemporary -
the truth about fragile things by Regina Sirois
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsBryon died fifty years before his time. Charlotte grew up angry. I grew up scared. And Phillip- well, he never grew up. And now we are all bound together into one painful heap of humanity. Broken, but bound. And maybe it is only the fact that we are tangled in one terrible knot that will hold us together until we heal. This is unfortunately, and miraculously, my story...Categorized as:
coming-of-age literary-fiction realistic book contemporary female-author fiction young-adult -
The Heart Listens by Helen Van Slyke
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsTHE HEART LISTENS is the rich, sweeping saga of a gallant and glamorous woman, whose joys, sorrows and crises you will soon be sharing. THE HEART LISTENS is the magnificent tale of one woman’s lifetime—ranging from Boston of the roaring 20’s through the deco-glamour of 30’s Manhattan to the glittering California of the 70’s—spanning decades of personal triumph and tragedy, crisis and ecstasy...Categorized as:
female-mc historical-fiction realistic adult book contemporary fiction womens-fiction -
The Woman in the Photograph by Stephanie Butland
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAn empowering, feminist and moving novel that will change the way you see the world. 1968. Veronica Moon, a junior photographer for a local newspaper, is frustrated by her (male) colleagues' failure to take her seriously. And then she meets Leonie on the picket line of the Ford factory at Dagenham. So begins a tumultuous, passionate and intoxicating friendship...Categorized as:
historical-fiction lgbtq literary-fiction female-mc romance contemporary fiction feminism -
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Paper Is White by Hilary Zaid
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWhen oral historian Ellen Margolis and her girlfriend decide to get married, Ellen realizes that she can't go through with a wedding until she tells her grandmother. There's only one problem: her grandmother is dead...Categorized as:
lgbtq historical-fiction literary-fiction female-mc romance fiction wlw contemporary -
Mrs. Quinn's Rise to Fame by Olivia Ford
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratings“One of those books you just want to hug to your chest. I loved it so much... -
Honeybees and Distant Thunder by Riku Onda
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsTender and intense, Honeybees and Distant Thunder is the unflinching story of love, courage and rivalry as three young people come to understand what it means to truly be a friend.In a small coastal town just a stone's throw from Tokyo, a prestigious piano competition is underway...Categorized as:
literary-fiction realistic coming-of-age fiction contemporary 21st-century book adult -
Last Things by Betta Ferrendelli
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsBridgette Connor is a woman on the edge. Her career is in tatters, her relationship is doomed, and after an ill-fated pregnancy and subsequent abortion, she does the one thing she’s always done best. She runs. Her car careens off the road leaving her battered, bruised and beaten. It is then that she meets the woman who will change her life. Alexis Parker is a woman in control...Categorized as:
romantic-love coming-of-age female-mc literary-fiction fiction contemporary family dark -
The Orchard by Kristina Gorcheva-Newberry
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsFour teenagers grow inseparable in the last days of the Soviet Union—but not all of them will live to see the new world arrive in this powerful debut novel, loosely based on Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard.Coming of age in the USSR in the 1980s, best friends Anya and Milka try to envision a free and joyful future for themselves... -
From the Streets to the Sheets: Urban Erotic Quickies by Noire
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIn this bold collection of hard-hitting urban erotic quickies, Noire, the undisputed Queen of Urban Erotica, brings you eleven authors who explore, without apology or restraint, street sagas of sexual pleasure... -
The Days of Anna Madrigal by Armistead Maupin
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsSuspenseful, comic, and touching, the ninth and final novel in Armistead Maupin's bestselling Tales of the City series follows one of modern literature's most unforgettable and enduring characters—Anna Madrigal, the legendary transgender landlady of 28 Barbary Lane—on a road trip that will take her deep in her past...Categorized as:
coming-of-age female-mc historical-fiction lgbtq literary-fiction realistic romantic-love adult -
Lessons by Ian McEwan
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsWhen the world is still counting the cost of the Second World War and the Iron Curtain has closed, eleven-year-old Roland Baines's life is turned upside down. Two thousand miles from his mother's protective love, stranded at an unusual boarding school, his vulnerability attracts piano teacher Miss Miriam Cornell, leaving scars as well as a memory of love that will never fade...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction coming-of-age fiction audiobook contemporary family book -
Barndommens gate by Tove Ditlevsen
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsRomanen handler om ungjenta Esters oppvekst i en arbeiderfamilie i København, om hennes forhold til familien, omgivelsene og en gryende seksualitet. Romanen er sterkt selvbiografisk... -
Skyscraping by Cordelia Jensen
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsA heartrending, bold novel in verse about family, identity, and forgiveness Mira is just beginning her senior year of high school when she discovers her father with his male lover. Her world–and everything she thought she knew about her family–is shattered instantly...Categorized as:
lgbtq realistic historical-fiction urban coming-of-age young-adult contemporary fiction -
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How High the Moon by Sandra Kring
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIn this tender novel set in 1955 Mill Town, Wisconsin, Sandra Kring explores the complicated bond between mothers and daughters, the pressure to conform, and the meaning of friendship and family. Ten-year-old Isabella “Teaspoon” Marlene has been a handful ever since her mother, Catty, dumped her with an old boyfriend and ran off to Hollywood...Categorized as:
coming-of-age historical-fiction realistic female-mc fiction womens-fiction young-adult family -
The Rise and Fall of Ava Arcana: A Novel by Jennifer Banash
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsAn electrifying novel about a woman in thrall to the exhilarating rhythms of Manhattan, lost in the dizzying promise of youth, and fatally naive to the dark pressures of fame.When Rolling Stone journalist Kayla McCray is assigned a cover story on pop icon Lexi Mayhem, Kayla stumbles across a startling new angle to the exposé... -
Secret Lives of Mothers & Daughters by Anita Kushwaha
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsFor readers of Shilpi Somaya Gowda’s "Secret Daughter" and Nancy Richler’s "The Imposter Bride", a breathtaking novel from Anita Kushwaha about the ties that bind mothers and daughters together and the secrets that tear them apartVeena, Mala and Nandini are three very different women with something in common...Categorized as:
literary-fiction realistic coming-of-age female-mc fiction contemporary family audiobook -
I Will Greet the Sun Again by Khashayar J. Khabushani
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA searing, heartbreaking debut about the powerful bonds that make and break an Iranian-American family Three young brothers leave Los Angeles in the dead of night for Iran, taken by their father from their mother to a country and an ancestral home they barely recognize. They return to the Valley months later, spit back into American life and changed in awful and inexorable ways...Categorized as:
lgbtq literary-fiction coming-of-age realistic historical-fiction fiction contemporary family -
Plays Well with Others by Allan Gurganus
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWith great narrative inventiveness and emotional amplitude, Allan Gurganus gives us artistic Manhattan in the wild 1980s, where young artists--refugees from the middle class--hurl themselves into playful work and serious fun. Our guide is Hartley Mims Jr., a Southerner whose native knack for happiness might thwart his literary ambitions...Categorized as:
lgbtq literary-fiction realistic historical-fiction fiction 20th-century friendship humor -
Good Job, Kanani by Lisa Yee
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsKanani enjoys working at her family's new shave ice stand to raise money to protect the Hawaiian monk seal. If only she hadn't promised her best friend Celina that she would take surfing lessons with her! When the girls' friendship starts to unravel, Kanani finds herself spending summer days alone--and loney...
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