It's not always easy to decipher what exactly that means, but I've come to realize that in this case they're usually asking me for a more mature/edgy, realistic contemporary romance book. This year in particular, I've had to expand my book knowledge in this subset because I have a core group of girls who are reading tons of books and keep asking for more like these. I can always guide them toward other non-realistic genres for read alikes later, but for now they want the contemps, so here's my go-to list of next read alikes for this specific request.

...and what they can handle and what their parents would (not) be okay with them reading about before recommending these definitively YA titles. I did not recommend any of these until I had read them first and knew that the particular student reading it would be able to handle the mature content (and it I would rarely recommend to a 7th grader), but there is a reason for each one of these being on this list because they each have valuable messages to offer teen girls along with being engaging reads