SOLVED. Title similar to Tess, NOT Tess of the D'Urbervilles [s]

[Rachel]

Sometime between 2002-2005 I read a YA book that I think was called "Tess". I don't remember the author or the plot, but it had a girl with red, wavy hair on the cover , and she was standing by a pond. The hairstyle makes me think it was published in the 1990s.

I do remember a scene where Tess went swimming with a guy. She was wearing a white shirt with no bra, and thought it would have been less revealing to just swim naked.

[Jesse]

Is this it ? It could also be... , ] or maybe .

[Rachel]

No, it's none of those. I've already searched on here and can't find any evidence that it exists.

[Bec]

Hm, perhaps you have the name wrong. Do you remember where you got this book? Presumably it was a paperback? Can you describe the hairstyle? (Could use a photo of a similar hairstyle from Google images to help.)

[Rachel]

I was wondering if I had the name wrong, but I remember my dad asked me if it had anything to do with Tess of the D'Urbervilles. (It didn't.) I got it from the young adult section of the library. I looked on their site and they don't seem to have it anymore.

[Rachel]

The best way to describe the hair is to call it Julia Roberts hair. It was long, wavy, and red. It wasn't bright red, more like auburn.

[Sophie]

This is a long shot but it has a girl named Tess with red hair and a body of water:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9...

[Bec]

Hmm. Well, if it was in the library, I think it can't have been too obscure a book, so I imagine it probably is in the Goodreads database somewhere. Have you tried searching for variations of the name Tess, like Tessa or Tessie?

Could you take a guess at the genres? You already said young adult, but do you have any memory whether it had fantasy or sci-fi elements, for example? Whether the setting was modern? How old do you tihnk she was? Was she at school? How clear is your memory of the cover? Is there any other details about it you could give, such as what she was wearing or what expression she had on her face? Since you can't remember the plot, any extra detail could help.

[Ayshe]

There's Tess for which I can't find description anywhere. Isn't this strange for book published in 1999?

[Tab]

There's Tessa by Barbara Steiner

The cover fits.

[Rachel]

Tessa looks very similar to what I remember, except the hair wasn't quite so big. The summary sounds vaguely familiar as well. This might be it!

[Rachel]

Many thanks to everyone who tried to find it! :)

[Kate]

Rachel, let us know if this is really the book, please. Are you sure enough that we should shelve this as solved?

[Rachel]

Yes, I'm certain this is the right book.