Contemporary YA Romances heat up the dog days of summer, with (of course) plenty of  chilling paranormal novels when things get to steamy. Read on for cool July and August Picks from the Teen Shelves. CONTEMPORARY If you’ve been hankering for a delicious romance grounded in reality, here are some great books to check out. LOVE STORY by Jennifer Echols. When Erin Blackwell refuses to major in business so she can take over the family horse farm (a multi-million dollar enterprise), her grandmother takes her college fund and gives it to Hunter, the stable boy. Now Erin is living a starving-artist life in New York, and writing a book for her college creative writing class–about an heiress in love with a stable boy. Imagine her chagrin when Hunter shows up in the class. Romantic wrangling ensues, as the only way these two can communicate through their hurt and betrayal is via their writing. I love Echol’s romantic comedies (check out ENDLESS SUMMER for a perfect poolside read), and her longer romances are an expansion of everything delicious about the shorter books: The voice is still witty and sharp, but the broader canvas allows her always complex characters room to develop…

There are some authors I’m drawn to because of their smoking hot heroes. Yes, I like the heroines and secondary characters and I need a solid, entertaining plot but for some books, it’s the men that really draw me in. I don’t know what that says about me and I don’t plan on analyzing myself to figure it out either. I just know I love reading about hot, heroic, alpha men. So what makes a man heroic? In some cases it’s very easy to identify a hero and some characters’ professions have that heroic quality built right in. A firefighter for example. Men (and women) who run into burning buildings for strangers are definitely heroic, even if they don’t see themselves that way. People like cops or military men who put on a uniform every day and deal with less than savory people on a continuous basis so the rest of the public can feel safe at night—now those are my heroes. Aside from what I consider heroic professions, sometimes it’s the small things that make someone heroic. Even a hero who borders on being the anti-hero can have incredibly heroic moments. On the flip side, a normally heroic character…