Emily Franklin

Critically-acclaimed author for adults and young adults

EmilyFranklin

Labor of Love: The Principles of Love #6

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Love finally connects with her mother—and finds her whole world turned upside down

Big change is in the air for Love Bukowski. Just when she meets her half-sister in California, she gets a call from her long-lost mother and hops a plane back to Martha’s Vineyard. Love is ready to embrace the new and exciting steps toward her senior year—but in Massachusetts, she finds more than she bargained for. Her mom is still not there, her boyfriend Charlie has changed from a down-to-earth guy into someone she’s not sure she knows anymore, and her old flame Jacob is wearing his heart on his short-sleeved tee. She could use some advice, but her Dad doesn’t have all the answers. Arabella’s in California, and her best buddy Chris has distractions of his own. Only one woman can clear things up—one who’s never been a part of Love’s life.

Reviews

“Often funny, sometimes wise, a good read.”–Kirkus Reviews

“Love Bukowski is the perfect teen heroine, the girl you wish had been your best friend in high school. Love tells all in a voice that is alternately funny and heartwrenching.”–Sarah Dessen, Best-selling author of Just Listen

“Funny and poignant.”–ElleGirl

Summer of Love: The Principles of Love #5

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School’s out for summer, but Love’s got more to learn…

Senior year looms large for Love Bukowski after a tumultuous junior year of romance and heartbreak. But before senior fall, Love is ready for summer break on Martha’s Vineyard. Running her Aunt Mable’s café with her best friend Arabella may not be glamorous, but it will at least be fun and perhaps just the refresher she needs after the crazy year she’s had. Plus, Mable’s created a treasure map of clues that will bring her closer to the truth about her family.

The past is starting to look clearer, but her future is anything but. Love’s three months of freedom will end with big questions about college (and Jacob). But, for now, the boys of summer are more appealing than ever, and the Summer of Love is about to begin…

Reviews
“Often funny, sometimes wise, a good read.”–Kirkus Reviews
“Love Bukowski is the perfect teen heroine, the girl you wish had been your best friend in high school. Love tells all in a voice that is alternately funny and heartwrenching.”–Sarah Dessen, Best-selling author of Just Listen
“Funny and poignant.”–ElleGirl

All You Need is Love: The Principles of Love #4

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Springtime blooms, but for Love Bukowski, life back home is chilly

After an incredible semester at the London Academy of Drama and Music, Love Bukowski is back at Hadley Hall. Unfortunately, it feels as though her fabulous British life (and boyfriend) are on hold. Love wants only to be at Aunt Mable’s side, helping Mable during her fight with breast cancer. But why now Love’s Brit boyfriend Asher doesn’t seem to want to talk to her, and yet her ex-boyfriend Jacob has popped back into her life. Love’s dad is struggling with the way she’s changed (changed = grown up) and Aunt Mable has new information about Love’s mysterious mother. Love still longs for security—but maybe home is not the place to find it.

Reviews
“Often funny, sometimes wise, a good read.”–Kirkus Reviews
“Love Bukowski is the perfect teen heroine, the girl you wish had been your best friend in high school. Love tells all in a voice that is alternately funny and heartwrenching.”–Sarah Dessen, Best-selling author of Just Listen
“Funny and poignant.”–ElleGirl

Love From London: The Principles of Love #3

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There’s a new Love in the Old World

Love Bukowski is finally in London! Her term abroad at the London Academy of Drama and Music promises to be anything but average. After leaving Hadley Hall, her dad (who’s got a new girlfriend), and her beloved Aunt Mabel (who is fighting breast cancer), Love faces a new set of challenges across the pond: vocal lessons, keeping up with Arabella and her new friends, and falling for the a Brit who is completely off-limits. Will Love turn around and retreat to the world she’s left behind? Or choose to dig deep into all that London (and love) has to offer?

Reviews
“Often funny, sometimes wise, a good read.”-Kirkus Reviews
“Love Bukowski is the perfect teen heroine, the girl you wish had been your best friend in high school. Love tells all in a voice that is alternately funny and heartwrenching.”–Sarah Dessen, Best-selling author of Just Listen
“Funny and poignant.”–ElleGirl

Piece, Love, & Happiness: The Principles of Love #2

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Fall is in the air and Love is back at Hadley Hall

For Love Bukowski, summer’s over and school’s about to begin. But it seems like Love’s going it alone: her Aunt Mable has been acting weird, her Dad (who happens to be principal of her school) is preoccupied, her ex is pouting in Europe, and her former friend Cordelia has bonded with the evil Lindsay Parrish. Enter the new exchange student from London, Arabella Piece, who’s staying with Love and has some secrets of her own. Love’s summer may have called it a wrap, but her Fall semester dramas have just begun.

Reviews
“Often funny, sometimes wise, a good read.”–Kirkus Reviews
“Love Bukowski is the perfect teen heroine, the girl you wish had been your best friend in high school. Love tells all in a voice that is alternately funny and heartwrenching.”–Sarah Dessen, Best-selling author of Just Listen
“Funny and poignant.”–ElleGirl
“A fresh perspective on what really goes on at boarding school. I couldn’t help but get sucked in.”–Angie Day, producer of MTV’s “Made”
“It’s easy to fall in love with Love Bukowski.”–ME Rabb, author of The Rose Queen

The Principles of Love: The Principles of Love #1

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What do you really know about Love?

Love’s her real name, but it’s not her whole story…
Love Bukowski is about to start school at Hadley Hall, the posh prep school where her dad’s the new principal headmaster. Raised by her single dad (with more than a little help from her funky Aunt Mable), almost sixteen-year-old Love is strong-willed, with a wry sense of humor—but will she fit into the world of Hadley Hall? In the made-for-TV version of her life, she’s got cool friends and hot guys galore. But being a “fac brat” makes new friends hard to come by, and the guys—well, that remains to be seen. Now Love’s got to step it up if she’s going to overcome her less-than-glamorous reality and get that walk-on role in her own fantasies.

Reviews
“Whether you’re 16 and looking forward or 36 and looking back, the 1st book in The Principle of Love series will pull your heartstrings with comic, poignant, and perceptive takes on the teenage tribulations of lust, life, and long-lost mothers.”–Heather Swain, author of Josie Griffin in Not a Vampire and Chromosome 16
“Love Bukowski is the perfect teen heroine, the girl you wish had been your best friend in high school. Love tells all in a voice that is alternately funny and heartwrenching.”–Sarah Dessen, Best-selling author of Just Listen
“Often funny, sometimes wise, a good read.”–Kirkus Reviews
“So real, so true I feel like I’ve just spent a year at prep school with my wise and witty friend Love Bukowski, and I’m ready for another year!”–Julia DeVillers author of How My Private, Personal Journal Became a Bestseller
“Funny and poignant.”–ElleGirl

At Face Value

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Being yourself should be simple—as plain as the nose on your face…

In this modern retelling of the classic Cyrano de Bergerac, seventeen-year-old Cyrie is a brilliant, athletic, and funny girl with a witty retort for each of the endless big-nose jokes she endures. But despite her talents and charm, she is convinced that all anyone sees is her nose. No guy—especially Eddie “Rox” Roxanninoff—would find her appealing. When Rox shows interest in Cyrie’s shy friend Leyla, she soon finds herself writing Leyla’s emails back to him, expressing her own true feelings instead. But watching her crush fall for her best friend may be more than she bargained for. Will Cyrie find the courage to tell the truth and trust that Rox will accept her for who she is?

Reviews

“Emily Franklin uses a familiar story to create something fresh, modern, and genuinely sweet. At Face Value reminds us that the biggest challenge of high school might not be getting comfortable with yourself, but rather getting over yourself.

“Readers will fall in love with AT FACE VALUE, Franklin’s playful twist on Cyrano de Bergerac, and cheer for Cyrie when she dares to step out from behind her literary talents to claim the romance that awaits her and discover the beauty she truly is.”

“This enjoyable…adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac switches its genders and turns tragedy into comedy.”

“Delightful…a truly suspenseful, thoroughly witty, and altogether modern story.”

The Other Half of Me

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Jenny Fitzgerald has been outside the huddle, trying to fit in to her sports-obsessed family…

The only time she knows the score is when she’s holding an egg-carton palette and painting on a canvas, but even then she feels as though something is missing.

Unlike her three younger siblings, Jenny knows her biological father only as Donor #142.

As Jenny’s 16th summer draws to a close, she feels more alienated than ever. But then a chance meeting with gorgeous über-jock Tate leads Jenny to reach out to someone else who might know exactly how she feels. With Tate by her side, Jenny searches for a genetic relative in the Donor Sibling Registry and discovers that she has a half sister, Alexa. Jenny hopes their budding relationship will fill the gaps in her life, but when Alexa shows up on her doorstep for a surprise visit, the changes in Jenny’s world are much bigger than she could ever have imagined.

New York Public Library Pick for Books for the Teen Age

North Carolina School Library Media Association’s YA Book Award Master Listed

Reviews

“Franklin offers readers an engaging protagonist whose humor and unusual situation highlight the lonely and displaced feelings common to many teens. Resolution is not easy or smoothly achieved, and the painful encounters with parents and siblings, as well as with Tate and Alexa, gradually lead Jenny to use her art to express her new view of the world. The blend of romance, artistic expression, and angst about belonging in a family provides some depth, yet this is essentially a lighthearted tale.”- School Library Journal

“After reality takes over Jenny’s idealized vision of sisterly love, she begins to learn the true meaning of family and her own place in it. Franklin’s thoughtful story recognizes the questions and answers teens need, as today’s definition of family continues to evolve and expand.”- Kirkus

“Unlike the rest of her athletic family, 16-year-old Jenny Fitzgerald prefers painting to team sports. Feeling lost on the family sidelines, she wonders about her biological dad, an anonymous sperm donor she knows only as #142: “Mom had me when she was super work-focused and a single and thought she’d be alone forever.” Encouraged by Tate, a thoughtful jock who surprises Jenny with his interest, she logs on to the Donor Sibling Registry and discovers a sister, Alexa, a New York teen whose visit to the Fitzgeralds’ Connecticut home upends Jenny’s sense of family, her relationship with Tate, and her view of herself. With perceptive detail, Franklin skillfully folds the intriguing topic of donor-bank siblings into a larger story about a teen’s search for identity and love. Tate feels idealized; even Jenny wonders, “Is this guy for real?” But readers will easily relate to Jenny’s funny, questioning, first-person voice and the finely observed “small shifts…and currents of connection” that make up family dynamics. Suggest this with Brendan Halpin’s Alex-award winning adult title Donorboy (2004).”- Booklist