Alexandra Coutts Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Alexandra Coutts is American author specializing in writing Young Adult novels. She is famously known as the author of Tumble & Fall a critically acclaimed Young Adult novel about three teenagers who are aware that the world would end in less than a week set out to live their lives to the fullest. The author’s Young Adult debut novel Wish was published under her maiden name Alexandra Bullen.

Coutts was born in Boston, Massachusetts and spent her childhood years in a near suburb. After completing her high school studies, which for sure she survived by mostly reading and writing, Coutts relocated to New York City where she joined Gallatin School of Individualized Study at New York University. It’s awkwardly that she chose Gallatin just because of its long name and because there were no science or math requirements. She was able to excel reading the things that she loved the most: reading and writing about books.

While in college, Coutts wrote a play titled Wordsworth- that tells the story of a mother and her dear son, a spelling bee competition. The play was performed at The Cherry Lane Theater based in Manhattan. The play received positive critical acclaim, and as a result, Coutts joined MFA Dramatic Writing Program at New York University Tisch School of the Arts where she majored in screenwriting, playwriting and television writing. After almost ten years of city slicking, Coutts now resides in Martha’s Vineyard an island located off the coast of Massachusetts where you will find her writing her next novel.

When not writing or either reading, you will find her trying to catch up with great trendy television shows that her friends tell her to watch. She also enjoys chasing down her puppies, doing specific yoga styles and reading cookbooks with pictures. During the summer days of the year, you will find her skateboarding with her husband despite the fact that she doesn’t know how to skateboard herself.

Young Widows Club

Young Widows Club is a touching exploration of grief and self-finding, especially after a tragedy. The story introduces to the readers Tam Baird, a young girl who dropped out of school to get married to his musician boyfriend and also act as the manager of his band. The two began their dating adventures when Tam was only in the 8th grade, and Noah was a sophomore. The couple just spends little to almost no time together as soon as they got married because Tam’s husband died in his sleep one and half months later.

Since the death of her beloved husband, Tam has then been camping in the house that Noah and his dad where building for them and just living day by day with no plans and no goals. When Tam and another of Noah’s friends break into a summer home, they are caught by the cops and arrested. After attending a juvenile court presided by a good friend of Tam’s late mother, Tam is ordered to return to high school and also attend a young widows group.

Thankfully, going back to high school lets Tam connect with her excellent childhood friend Lula Bee and the widow support group also introduces her to some other widows and widowers, and surprisingly none of them are really young.

The closest member to Tam is Colin, a 26-year-old lawyer living in his parent’s summer home after the love of his life died from ovarian cancer. Tam thinks that the activities organized by the group leader of weird, having been through a therapy after her mom died in a hit and ran accident when she was only ten years of age- she knows how to tune the system and say what the leader of the group wants to hear.

This narrative works its way through the stages of mourning as Tam has both good and bad days. Like the Bunny, the head of the support group says, distinct stages do not come in order, and they don’t end. Collin and Tam become close, and this makes Tam feel guilty. She also begins to explore thing for her future, things that would not have been part of her especially if Noah had lived which also makes her feel uncertain and guilty.

Young Widows Club is a touching story. You will love the support that Tam receives from Lula Bee and other people on the island. You will like how she manages to connect with her dad about how he moved on from her mother’s death.

The author manages to paint a sympathetic portrait of the heroine as a girl who is caught in between two worlds: she has once tasted the marriage life, but now she is expected to resume the life of a 17-year-old teenager. It’s evident that these expectations her towards bursts of rebellion including one that almost results in her being sent back to school and into therapy. As Tam struggles with the idea of confiding in fellow therapy attendees and friends, Coutts does a fantastic job of showcasing how depression and the recovery journey are quite much individual to the person experiencing it. There is no easy fix, but it’s the person experiencing it to find out what can help them move on. There is no shame in experiencing setbacks something that the main character in this book experiences several times.

The Young Widows Club is a good read that provides a unique approach to grief and the courage that it takes to adjust to a life where everything that you ever wished for is no longer an option. Tam’s journey is not a perfect one, it’s full of repeated setbacks and misunderstandings- but that’s what makes the narrative much compelling.

Tumble & Fall

The world is living in the looming shadow of oncoming disaster. An asteroid is set to bring an end to the world we’ve known in one weeks’ time- and the strike is unavoidable. The big question is not how to save the world or survive the attack but what to do with the time that is left.

Against this backdrop, three teenagers wrestle with interconnected stories of friendship, love, and family all with the ultimate stakes at hand. Alexander Coutt’s novel Tumble & Fall is an intriguing story of love, courage, and hope at doomsday.