Please help me find this 1990s teen/young adult book!

[RedLemon]

I can’t for the life of me remember the name!

I read it when I was maybe 14/15/16 I think so circa 1998. I remember very little of it (aside that I loved it) but it was about a girl who ends up getting pregnant and I think it ends with her and her baby living in a cottage that used to be owned by her grandmother. Maybe working as an artist? In my mind she has long wavy auburn hair but I don’t know if that was just in my imagination.

I’ve often thought of harnessing the power of the nest of vipers on this one so hopefully someone can help me find its name based on this pathetically inadequate amount of information 🙏🏻

A Little Love Song by Michelle Magorian?

No but I LOVED that one! Still have it on my bookshelf!

I thought of “dear nobody” I’ve not read it in years so not 100% on the ending.

The only teen pregnancy book I read around then was Dear Nobody by Berlie Doherty

Easy Connections?

www.amazon.com/Easy-Connections-Liz-Berry/dp/0954886402/ref=nodl_?tag=mumsnetforu03-21

Hardacres

My sweet Audrina, Virginia roberts?

Oooh Dear Nobody sounds like a runner. It’s definitely flicking some memory switches somewhere. I might see if I can get a copy and check it out. Thank you!!

I don’t think it was Easy Connections- doesn’t ring any bells. I am loving the billowing shirt and chest action going on on that cover though😂 Would have been too much for my teenage heart altogether.

Pennington’s heir by K M Peyton?

blue moon or baby blue by julia green?

I loved Dear Nobody too. The girl in that was musical rather than artistic IIRC.

The L shaped Room?

megan by mary hooper?

This is ringing bells for me too. Did it have an encounter at a party, and then she stayed with a kind man?

Blue Moon rings a bell too but I don’t think it’s the one I’m thinking of.

Dear Nobody is in the lead- she could have been musical rather than artistic- I just have a vague memory of arty/talenty.

You’re all so amazing. I thought no one would be up for this game at this hour if the night!

I may have invented the ending- I had to get help on here once after totally misremembering the end of Goodnight Mister Tom

God maybe there was a party involved. I’m now wondering if it was set in the 70s and then there was a follow up story in the 90s about her daughter…. But now that makes me circle back to Dear Nobody because the protagonists mum has her “out of wedlock” too doesn’t she?

This is the book I am thinking of
www.goodreads.com/book/show/6377459-this-is-me-speaking

Deffo sounds like Easy Connections. I lost my copy long ago and for years any copies were ridiculously expensive because it was out of print. I was so happy when I found the kindle version a couple of months ago. It hasn’t stood the test of time unfortunately. Almost 50 year old me doesn’t find it quite as romantic teenage me did!

Pretty sure it isn’t Dear Nobody.

Dear Nobody was Helen and Chris and the baby was Amy. They were doing A levels. Helen was a very talented musician. She tried to terminate the pregnancy using a galloping horse. The book alternates between Chris’s point of view and Helen’s letters to her baby. Chris went to Sheffield to study English. Helen’s mum was illegitimate.

It could be The Backward Shadow by Lynne Reid Banks - which is a sequel to the L-Shaped Room. Jane is a single mother who lives in a cottage left to her by her great aunt and sets up a craft business with her friend.

It might not be “dear nobody” just rang some bells for me is all.

I hope you find it! It definitely sounds familiar but I basically read my local library in the late 80s/early 90s so it could be any of a lot!!

Danielle steele's The Gift?

You lot are to blame for my middle of the night buying of Across The Barricades seried

The Turkey’s Nest?

In 'Dear Nobody' she was a dancer, wasn't she? I think you may have heard of it because it's pretty much the gold standard of books about teen pregnancy. I don't remember a cottage, but there was an aunt. They made it into a tv drama with Sean Maguire, I think.

I think the 'L Shaped Room' sequel is a better bet.