17 Great New Adult Novels That Explore Growing Up

"For anyone who has not heard the term "New Adult," it was coined in 2011 by Dan Weiss and his team at St. Martin's Press and intended to describe books that "bridge the gap" between YA and Adult fiction, books that explore what it means to come of age not as an adolescent but as an adult. They're books that explore newfound freedom and independence, and the choices and developments that go with them. Below are titles that exemplify that idea, whether or not they were actually published as New Adult. (And not many traditionally published books were published as such; the phrase ended up being primarily used as a descriptor for self-published college-set romance.) These books take on everything from losing faith and finding love to financial hardship and familial estrangement, running the gamut from literary to commercial, fantasy to romance and beyond."