June 1st
We Mostly Come Out at Night by Various YA Authors (Running Press Kids) - moved from May 2024, previously titled Queer Beasties, release date not completely clear.
From Grendel and the Big Bad Wolf to Godzilla
and Pennywise the Clown, monsters have served as projections of what
society fears, misunderstands, and rejects.
They are the quintessential metaphors for the other.
But in QUEER BEASTIES: 15 Weird & Wondrous Monster Tales, we present stories that proudly embrace monsters as an emblem for queerness. Stories that subvert the concept of “normal” and flip it on its head. Stories that celebrate monsters in all of their glorious strangeness, while reveling in what makes them fascinating, unusual, and powerful. Stories that affirm the beauty, strength, individuality, and worth of what society too often considers monstrous and unwanted.
Stories that queer the very notion of what it means to be a monster.
With contributions from both established and emerging voices in young adult and speculative fiction, QUEER BEASTIES: 15 Weird & Wondrous Monster Tales rehabilitates the image of the monster as a heroic symbol of difference.
June 4th
There Is A Door In This Darkness by Kristin Cashore (Dutton) - moved from May 2024, release date and description not yet updated on Goodreads.
A
magic-tinged contemporary YA about grief and hope from the acclaimed
New York Times bestselling author of the Graceling Realm novels.
Wilhelmina Hart is part of the infamous class of 2020. Her high school years began with the election of Donald Trump and they ended with COVID. Now Wilhelmina, like so many of her peers, is in limbo, having deferred college because of the pandemic. Compounding the national trauma of 2016 to 2020, Wilhelmina has wrestled with the devastating loss of one of her three beloved aunts shortly after the 2016 election. This is a loss she felt so keenly that she’s spent the last years deep in her personal depression, only obscured by the seemingly endless waves of national trauma. Now on the cusp on the most consequential election in living memory, Wilhelmina may have found a door in her darkness and perhaps the courage to pass through it, if she can decipher the bizarre messages that keep appearing in her life.
Hearts That Cut by Kika Hatzopoulou (Razorbill)
In this heart-pounding, much-anticipated sequel to Threads That Bind,
Io will face threats even more dangerous and players even more powerful
as she discovers what it will mean to follow—or defy—her fate.
Every ten years in the strange little town of Lennon, California, one person is chosen to return from the dead…
Wilson Moss entered the town’s top-secret contest in the hopes of resurrecting her ex-best friend Annie LeBlanc, but that doesn’t mean she thought she’d actually win. Now Annie’s back and Wil’s ecstatic—does it even really matter that Annie ghosted her a year before she died…?
But like any contest, there are rules, and the town’s resurrected dead can only return for thirty days. When Wil discovers a loophole that means Annie might be able to stay for good, she’s desperate to keep her alive. The potential key? Their third best friend, Ryan. Forget the fact that Ryan openly hates them both, or that she and Wilson have barely spoken since that awkward time they kissed. Wil can put it aside for one month; she just needs to stop thinking about it first.
Because Wil has one summer to permanently put an end to her loneliness—it’s that, or lose her only friends…again. But along the way, she might have to face some difficult truths about Annie’s past and their friendship that, so far, she’s left buried.
Four Eids and a Funeral by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé and Adiba Jaigirdar (Feiwel and Friends)
Ex-best friends, Tiwa and Said, must work
together to save their Islamic Center from demolition, in this romantic
story of rekindling and rebuilding by award-winning authors Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé & Adiba Jaigirdar!
Let’s get one thing straight, this is a love story.
These days, Said Hossain spends most of his time away at boarding school. But when his favorite hometown librarian Ms. Barnes dies, he must return home to New Crosshaven for her funeral and for the summer. Too bad being home makes it a lot harder to avoid facing his ex-best friend, Tiwa Olatunji, or facing the daunting task of telling his Bangladeshi parents that he would rather be an artist than a doctor.
Tiwa doesn’t understand what made Said start ignoring her, but it’s probably that fancy boarding school of his. Though he’s unexpectedly staying through the summer, she’s determined to take a page from him and pretend he doesn’t exist. Besides, she has more than enough going on, between grieving her broken family and helping her mother throw the upcoming Eid celebration at the Islamic Center—a place that means so much to Tiwa.
But when the Islamic Center accidentally catches fire, it turns out the mayor plans to demolish the center entirely. Things are still tense between the ex-friends but Tiwa needs Said’s help if there’s any hope of changing the mayor’s mind, and Said needs a project to submit to art school (unbeknownst to anyone). Will all their efforts be enough to save the Islamic Center, save Eid, and maybe save their relationship?
Heiress Takes All by Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka (Little, Brown)The
Inheritance Games meets Ocean's 11 in this
thrilling YA adventure about a teenager determined to pull off the
perfect heist in the midst of her father’s wedding.
Seventeen-year-old Olivia Owens isn't thrilled that her dad's getting remarried...again. She's especially not thrilled that he cheated on her mom, kicked them out of their Rhode Island home, and cut Olivia out of her rightful inheritance.
But this former heiress has a plan for revenge. While hundreds of guests gather on the grounds of the gorgeous estate where she grew up, everyone will be thinking romance—not robbery. She’ll play the part of dutiful daughter, but in reality she’ll be redistributing millions from her father’s online accounts. She only needs the handwritten pass code he keeps in the estate's safe.
With the help of an eclectic crew of high school students and one former teacher, Olivia has plotted her mid-nuptial heist down to the second. But she didn't plan for an obnoxiously nosy wedding guest, an interfering ex-boyfriend intent on winning her back, greedy European cousins with their own agenda, or a vengeful second wife. When everything seems like it's going wrong, Olivia has to keep her eyes on what really matters: getting rich. And when she’s done, “something borrowed” will be the understatement of the year.
Six of Sorrow by Amanda Linsmeier (Delacorte)
Sixteen years ago, six girls were born on the
same day—and now, on their birthday, one of them is missing. From the
author of Starlings comes a story about small-towns, friendships, and
the terrifying things your parents don't tell you, that's perfect for
fans of Yellowjackets.
For most of her life, Isabeau and her five best friends were inseparable—amazingly enough, the six girls even shared a birthday. Then a rift caused their friendships to fracture, and Iz lost everyone except Reuel, the only one who didn’t abandon her.
Until now. The night of their sixteenth birthday, Isabeau leaves Reuel sitting on her front porch and heads home—and in the morning, Reuel is missing. She’s gone for three days, and when she reappears, there’s something wrong with her. She’s sick. Really sick. And she doesn’t remember anything that happened while she was gone.
If there’s any bright side to the situation, it’s that Reuel’s peculiar disappearance brings the six girls back together. Their sisterhood feels as strong as it was years ago, but when another one of them disappears, they all agree that they must have more in common than simply their birthday. They all feel it. Something’s been waiting for them, and that something has come to claim them one by one.
Deep in their bones, they know—it’s just a matter of time until they they’re all taken. And if they don’t save themselves, no one will.
Moonstorm by Yoon Ha Lee (Delacorte) - previously titled Winter's Axiom and Lancers, moved from 2023.
In a society where conformity is valued above
all else, a teen girl training to become an Imperial pilot is forced to
return to her rebel roots to save her world in this adrenaline-fueled
sci-fi adventure—perfect for fans of Iron Widow and Skyward !
Hwa Young was just ten years old when imperial forces destroyed her rebel moon home. Now, six years later, she is a citizen of the very empire that made her an orphan.
Desperate to shake her rebel past, Hwa Young dreams of one day becoming a lancer pilot, an elite group of warriors who fly into battle using the empire’s most advanced tech—giant martial robots. Lancers are powerful, and Hwa Young would do anything to be the strong one for once in her life.
When an attack on their boarding school leaves Hwa Young and her classmates stranded on an imperial space fleet, her dreams quickly become a reality. As it turns out, the fleet is in dire need of pilot candidates, and Hwa Young—along with her brainy best friend Geum, rival Bae, and class clown Seong Su—are quick to volunteer.
But training is nothing like what they expected, and secrets—like the fate of the fleet’s previous lancer squad and hidden truths about the rebellion itself—are stacking up. And when Hwa Young uncovers a conspiracy that puts their entire world at risk, she’s forced to make a choice between her rebel past and an empire she’s no longer sure she can trust.
Lockjaw by Matteo L. Cerilli (Tundra)
Death is neither the beginning nor the end for the children of Bridlington in this debut trans YA horror book for fans of Rory Power and Danielle Vega.
Chuck Warren died tragically at the old abandoned mill, but Paz Espino knows it was no accident — there's a monster under the town, and she's determined to kill it before anyone else gets hurt. She'll need the help of her crew — inseparable friends, bound by a childhood pact stronger than diamonds, distance or death — to hunt it down. But she's up against a greater force of evil than she ever could have imagined.
With shifting timeframes and multiple perspectives, Lockjaw is a small-town ghost story, where monsters living and dead haunt the streets, the homes and the minds of the inhabitants. For readers of Wilder Girls and The Haunted, this trans YA horror book by an incredible debut author will grab you and never let you go.
Past, Present, Future by Rachel Lynn Solomon (Simon and Schuster) - moved from 2023.
They fell for each other in just twenty-four
hours. Now Rowan and Neil embark on a long-distance relationship during
their first year of college in this romantic, dual points of view sequel
to Today Tonight Tomorrow .
When longtime rivals Rowan Roth and Neil McNair confessed their feelings on the last day of senior year, they knew they’d only have a couple months together before they left for college. Now summer is over, and they’re determined to make their relationship work as they begin school in different states.
In Boston, Rowan is eager to be among other aspiring novelists, learning from a creative writing professor she adores. She’s just not sure why she suddenly can’t seem to find her voice.
In New York, Neil embraces the chaos of the city, clicking with a new friend group more easily than he anticipated. But when his past refuses to leave him alone, he doesn’t know how to handle his rapidly changing mental health—or how to talk about it with the girl he loves.
Over a year of late-night phone calls, weekend visits, and East Coast adventures, Rowan and Neil fall for each other again and again as they grapple with the uncertainty of their new lives. They’ve spent so many years at odds with each other—now that they’re finally on the same team, what does the future hold for them?
She Gets the Girl meets Cool for the Summer in this fresh and breezy, queer YA rom-com debut that is set at summer camp.Rising
seniors Juliette Barrera-Wright and Priya Pendley have always tolerated
each other. Ever since elementary school, the girls have mutually
agreed to endure each other's presence in the overlapping parts of their
lives, and once a year, Juliette attends Priyatopia--Priya's
over-the-top birthday party that seems to get more and more lavish with
every passing year--with the rest of their high school class and even
brings her a gift.
Juliette acquiesces the spotlight to Priya all year long in exchange for her moment in the sun at Fogridge Sleepaway Camp--the place where no one is "too much." Entering her final year as a camper at Fogridge with the prestigious title of North Star, Juliette's ready to forget about Priya and enjoy the outdoors, her fellow campers, and an environment where she gets to be more than a side character. But her hopes for a Priya-free summer are shattered when her rival shows up at Fogridge on move-in day and is assigned to be her roommate.
Juliette's perfect summer continues to spiral out of control when everything that could possibly go wrong does and she is forced to spend even more time with the person she thought she couldn’t stand. But as she begins to see a new side of Priya, she’s forced to grapple with a new and unexpected feeling…love?
Two Sides To Every Murder by Danielle Valentine (Razorbill)
From the author of How to Survive Your Murder
comes another twisty, meta thriller about two teens returning to the
site of the Camp Lost Lake murders to uncover long-buried family
secrets.
Most peoples' births aren't immortalized in a police report. Unlike Olivia, who was born in the middle of a massacre. Literally. Despite such an auspicious start, Olivia’s life has been pretty perfect. Until she discovers the man she calls dad is not her biological father. And the only place she knows to seek answers about her paternity is the site of the murders, Camp Lost Lake, where her mom worked until that deadly night.
Most people don’t spend their formative years on the run with an alleged murderer. Reagan did, and she’s had enough. In the court of public opinion, her mom has been tried and found guilty of the deaths at Camp Lost Lake 17 years ago. Since that night, Reagan and her mom have been in hiding, and she’s determined to find evidence to exonerate her mom once and for all.
Luckily for Olivia and Reagan, Camp Lost Lake is finally reopening. Providing the perfect opportunity to find answers. As Olivia and Reagan delve deeper into the camp's history, they uncover a tangled web of family secrets. But someone else is desperate to keep the past hidden, even if it means committing murder— again .
As darkness falls, the only way to uncover the truth of what occurred all those years back is to unmask the killer. If they can survive.
One Killer Problem by Justine Pucella Winans (HarperTeen)
A
darkly funny and thoroughly queer mystery thriller with a touch of
camp, for fans of Kara Thomas and Kit Frick by way of Only Murders in
the Building.
When Gianna "Gigi" Ricci lands in detention again, she doesn't expect the glorified study hall to be her alibi.
But when she and her friends receive a mysterious email directing them to her favorite teacher, Mr. Ford's room, they find him lying in a pool of blood. But calling the math teacher's death an accident doesn't add up, and Gigi needs all the help she can get to find the truth. Luckily, she's friends with her high school's "mystery club," and so with her best friend, Sean, and longtime crush, Mari, Gigi sets out to solve a murder.
But it turns out, murderers are extremely unwilling to be caught, and the deeper Gigi gets in this mystery, the more dangerous things become. Between fending off a murderer, continual flare-ups of her IBS, and her archnemesis turning flirtatious... making it out of junior year is going to be one killer problem.
With a wry, hilarious voice and a main character who is the walking definition of a disaster bi, this book is an ode to cozy mysteries, queer found families, and fighting for the people you love, no matter what.
The Breakup Artists by Adriana Mather (Blackstone) - moved from 2025.
Adriana Mather, New York Times bestselling
author of How to Hang a Witch, brings her signature wit, wild
imagination, and all the feels to her new YA novel, The Breakup
Artists--perfect for fans of Jennifer E. Smith's The Statistical
Probabilities of Love at First Sight.
August and Valentine, seventeen-year-old best friends, run a business called Summer Love, Inc. They hire themselves out to unhappy parents whose kids are in bad relationships, adopting fake identities and going undercover to break up these relationships by any means necessary.
Valentine, the brains of the operation, believes that they're making the world a better place by steering people away from a relationship precipice so they can someday find true love. But for August, every case is personal--another chance to prove that true love doesn't exist. He blames his sister's manipulative boyfriend for her death, and--unlike Valentine--he doesn't believe in soul mates. No, he thinks the idea of falling head over heels is ridiculous at any age.
But then August meets Ella, who suddenly turns everything he thought he believed about love upside down. The problem is that she's their new case, which means that everything he's told her about himself is a lie--including his name
Everything We Never Said by Sloan Harrow (Putnam)
Dark romance, high stakes, and plot twists abound
in this paperback original YA thriller that's perfect for fans of
Colleen Hoover.
It's been months since accident that killed Ella's best friend Hayley, and Ella can't stop blaming herself. Now Ella is starting back at school and everywhere she looks is a reminder of her best friend, including Sawyer, Hayley’s boyfriend. When Sawyer offers an olive branch, Ella is shocked, but knows she doesn't deserve his kindness.
Then the school psychologist requires that Hayley’s closest friends join him for a grief counseling group, and Ella and Sawyer are forced together. After a few sessions, they start to grow closer, until Ella realizes something horrifying...
She’s in love with her dead best friend’s boyfriend.
As Ella discovers that nothing Hayley told her about Sawyer was true, she also sees something in him she finds irresistible. Perhaps it's his grief. Or maybe his desires, cut short by tragedy. Or could it be something dark and twisted Ella can't turn away from?
This dark, romantic thriller is perfect for fans of Colleen Hoover and Laura Nowlin.
Sunrise Nights by Brittany Cavallaro and Jeff Zentner (Quill Tree Books)
In this YA Before Sunrise from acclaimed coauthors Jeff
Zentner and Brittany Cavallaro—in their first collaboration—two teens
have a chance encounter on the last night of sleepaway camp.
A YA unbury-your-gays horror in which an undead teen must find the boy he loves before he loses his mind and body.
Five years ago, a parasite poisoned the water of Ian’s West Virginia hometown, turning dozens of locals into dark-eyed, oil-dripping shells of their former selves. With chronic migraines and seizures limiting his physical abilities, Ian relies on his best friend and secret crush Eric to mercy-kill any infected people they come across.
Until a new health report about the contamination triggers a mandatory government evacuation, and Ian cracks his head in the rush. Used to hospitals and health scares, Ian always thought he'd die young... but he wasn’t planning on coming back. Much less facing the slow, painful realization that Eric left him behind to die.
Desperate to confront Eric before the parasite takes over, Ian joins two others left behind—his childhood rival Monica and the jaded prepper Angel—on a journey across town. What they don't know is that Eric is also looking for Ian, and he's determined to mercy-kill him.
Louder Than Words by Ashley Woodfolk and Lexi Underwood (Scholastic)
This amazing collaboration brings together two
inspirational Black artists, NYT bestselling author Ashley Woodfolk and
actress Lexi Underwood, for a story about the transformative power of
art as protest and its capacity to change the world.
When Jordyn Jones transfers to Edgewood High, it's her opportunity to forget everything that happened at her old school. To forget what she and her friends did. To forget who she used to be. That was a different person — this is a fresh start. Now she's someone new, someone better. Except it's the very first day of school, and somehow everyone already seems to know who she is. But Jordyn soon finds a group of friends, and she even starts talking to Izaiah, a soccer star who shares her love of art. Life is good.
That's until an anonymous podcast called Tomcat Tea begins revealing humiliating secrets about Edgewood students, ruining their reputations and in some cases their futures. Jordyn and her friends know they have to do something—and this is Jordyn's chance to prove to herself that she's changed. Jordyn's plan to take down the podcast throws her into the spotlight, and as the momentum builds, so do the risks—because Jordyn has a secret of her own, one that could ruin everything . . . and that a mysterious harasser online is threatening to expose.
With riveting prose, New York Times bestselling author Ashley Woodfolk and acclaimed actress Lexi Underwood balance an insightful depiction of the power of art as protest with asking some of the biggest questions facing teenagers today—in an era where mistakes can be picked over endlessly online, who is worthy of forgiveness? Can someone ever really change?
Tristan and Lancelot: A Tale of Two Knights by James Percichetti and L.S. Biehler (HarperAlley) - YA graphic novel, moved from 2023, previously titled The Sapling's Curse.
In this queer reimagining of an Arthurian
legend, Knights of the Round Table Lancelot and Tristan set out on a
quest to find the missing magician Merlin but instead discover an
unexpected romance perfect for fans of The Prince and the
Dressmaker and Squire.
When Merlin goes missing and Camelot falls under attack, King Arthur sends his estranged half-sister, Morgan le Fay, and esteemed Knights of the Round Table, Tristan and Lancelot, to find him. As the reluctant trio travels through Albion saving towns from treacherous foes and battling fae, their bonds deepen, and sparks fly between the two knights. Before they can sort through their complicated feelings, an unexpected dark force appears, bringing what just might be the end of Camelot.
From debut author James Persichetti and new talent L.S. Biehler, Tristan and A Tale of Two Knights will sweep readers away with an epic quest and a love story for the ages.
Markless by CG Malburi (Levine Querido) - moved from March 2024.
Ruti is Markless. In a society where worth is
determined by the mark on your palm and the magic it grants you, this
also deems her worthless. Except she’s also a hardened survivor, a
protector of the Markless…and the most powerful witch in Somanchi. With a
single song, she can pray to the many gods for unimaginable powers.
Dekala’s Mark is strong, a Mark fit for the future queen of Somanchi, but it’s also unstable. She knows the only solution is to be bonded, but she also knows that this would mean relinquishing control over her throne and kingdom. So when she is witness to Ruti’s power, Dekala offers the witch a She can be prosecuted for her crimes…or she can help Dekala ascend to the throne, unbonded.
Dekala is cold and brutal and cares only about getting her way. She is also determined, intelligent, and compassionate. Ruti is torn between wanting her to fail or to emerge victorious. But as the gods are defied, new alliances are forged, and unexpected feelings are unearthed, Ruti realizes the fate of the kingdom––and the survival of the Markless–– lies in her unmarked hands.
Furious by Jamie Pacton and Rebecca Podos (Page Street YA)
After years racing go-karts and looking up to
her mother, a celebrity Formula 1 racer, Jojo Emerson-Boyd should be
starting her own racing career. But when she loses her mom in a tragic
crash, Jojo’s future comes to a screeching halt. Now her dad won’t let
her get a license, much less race. Instead, she’s stuck working at her
grandmother’s mechanic shop in the sleepy small town of Dell’s Hollow.
But Jojo’s heart quickens when Motorcyle Girl Eliana “El” Blum shows up at the shop. El grew up on the motocross circuit sidelines, watching her sister and idol Maxine compete. When El mysteriously loses all contact with Max, she’s determined to find her, with her first clue leading straight to the mechanic shop, and to Jojo.
United by fate, the two quickly bond over Mario Kart showdowns and the Fast & Furious films. As their friendship shifts into something more, they’ll have to confront both their growing romance and the grief woven into their complicated families if they hope to chase down their dreams and make it across the finish line.
Shift Happens: The History of Labor in the United States by J. Albert Mann (HarperTeen) - YA non-fiction.
For readers of Stamped and America Redux, Shift Happens is
an accessible and comprehensive YA history of the way the labor
movement has shaped America and how it intersects with many of the major
issues facing modern teens.
A gripping tale of paranoia at its worst, An
Outbreak of Witchcraft visually imagines the haunting details behind the
Salem witch trials in this bewitching narrative nonfiction graphic
novel.
From 1692 to 1693, fear reigned in the small village of Salem, Massachusetts. The night Abigail Williams and Betty Paris first accused their servant of witchcraft was only the beginning.
Several more accusations would follow suit, sparking a widespread panic that consumed Salem in one of the longest cases of witch trials in America, where more than twenty innocent lives were lost, and mistrust ran amok.
The community was in ruins, from the afflicted who fanned the flames of superstition to the judges who used their power unjustly to the accused who were falsely charged and hanged in consequence. With no due process and hysteria abounding, no one in Salem was safe.
Journey into how it all began in this arresting, true-to-life look at how lies became facts, friends turned to foes, and loved ones turned to enemies.
Storm: Dawn of a Goddess by Tiffany D. Jackson (Random House)
Before she was the super hero Storm of Marvel's
X-Men, she was Ororo of Cairo—a teenaged thief on the streets of Egypt,
until her growing powers catch the eye of a villain who steals people's
souls. An epic origin story that will blow you away, from the New York
Times bestselling author of Monday's Not Coming .
Few can weather the storm.
As a thief on the streets of Cairo, Ororo Munroe is an expert at blending in—keeping her blue eyes low and her white hair beneath a scarf. Stealth is her specialty . . . especially since strange things happen when she loses control.
Lately, Ororo has been losing control more often, setting off sudden rainstorms and mysterious winds . . . and attracting dangerous attention. When she is forced to run from the Shadow King, a villain who steals people's souls, she has nowhere to turn to but herself. There is something inside her, calling her across Africa, and the hidden truth of her heritage is close enough to taste.
But as Ororo nears the secrets of her past, her powers grow stronger and the Shadow King veers closer and closer. Can she outrun the shadows that chase her? Or can she step into the spotlight and embrace the coming storm?
In her first speculative novel, New York Times bestselling author Tiffany D. Jackson casts a breathtaking spell with one of Marvel's most beloved characters, and brings the superhero Storm to life as you've never seen her before.
Now, Conjurers by Freddie Kölsch (Union Square Kids)
NOW PAY ATTENTION, BECAUSE ALL THE DETAILS MATTER.
November 1999. North Dana, Massachusetts.
Nesbit Nuñez discovers the partially devoured body of Bastion star quarterback, secret witch, and Nesbit’s even-more-secret boyfriend. No one knew why brilliant, gentle Bastion lived his life by a seemingly arcane set of rules, including a strange manner of speech and an inability to say his own name.
Now the remaining members of North Coven—Nesbit, Dove, Drea, and Brandy—vow to get answers. Nothing can prepare them for what they Bastion had been locked in a terrifying battle of wits and wills with something living deep beneath an ancient mausoleum in the local cemetery. North Coven must confront the red-gloved monster that took piece after piece of Bastion, that he fought until his last breath. Not knowing that Bastion left behind the key to its destruction...
Now, Conjurers is a wildly original, spine-chilling YA debut about queer found family and a love that outlasts death.
Looking for Smoke by K.A. Cobell (Heartdrum)
Since moving to the Blackfeet Reservation with
her parents, Mara Racette has felt like an outsider, taunted by her
tight-knit classmates for growing up far away. So, when a local girl
includes Mara in a traditional Blackfeet Giveaway to honor her missing
sister, Mara thinks she’ll finally make some friends.
Instead, a girl from the Giveaway, Samantha White Tail, is found murdered.
Because the members of the Giveaway group were the last to see Samantha alive, each becomes a person of interest in the investigation:
New-girl Mara, who hated Samantha for being particularly cruel.
Grief-stricken Loren Arnoux, who was Samantha’s best friend until her sister’s disappearance drove a wedge between them.
Class-clown Brody Clark, whose unreciprocated crush on Samantha is an open secret.
And tough-guy Eli First Kill, who has his own complicated history with Samantha.
Despite deep mistrust, the four must now take matters into their own hands and clear their names. Even though one of them may be the murderer.
In her powerful debut novel, Looking for Smoke, author K. A. Cobell (Blackfeet) weaves loss, betrayal, and complex characters into a mystery that will illuminate, surprise, and engage readers until the final word.
Rapunzella, or Don't Touch My Hair by Ella McLeod (Little Bee Books) - previously published in the UK.
Rapunzella is a genre-bending novel that weaves
together a young girl's ordinary life and a wildly dangerous fairytale
universe, celebrating Black hair and the power of coming into your
identity.
Zella is imprisoned in an enchanted forest made of her own Afro, and the might of the evil King Charming seems unstoppable. But is it? Can she use her power to change the future?
You're fifteen. You spend your time at school and at Val's hair salon with Baker, Val's son, who has eyes that are like falling off a cliff into space. The salon is a space of safety, but also of possibility and dreams. When you dream, you visit an enchanted forest full of friends and wonder. You dream of witches and magic, of hair so rich and alive that it grow upwards and outwards into a wild landscape, becomes trees and leaves, and houses birds and butterflies and all the secret creatures that belong in such a forest. But when you wake, your memories vanish, and you are just you, trying to navigate relationships and learning who you will grow up to be.
Is there a future where your dreams are more than just dreams?
Ella McLeod's debut merges poetry, prose, and second person point of view in a stunningly lyrical, heart-piercingly honest exploration of a teenager coming into her power as a young woman.Lady of Steel and Straw by Erica Ivy Rodgers (Peachtree Teen)
In this YA fantasy debut, a tenacious heroine with a dark gift must defend her family's legacy and faith from a handsome enemy.
Lady Charlotte Sand was born to calm the restless dead, but her power has grown unpopular thanks to the newly ascendant religion of the Silent Gods. Worse, her family’s ancestral Guardian, a lavender scarecrow who was once a defender of the crown, hasn’t woken for a new heir since her father’s sordid death. With other Guardians also reduced to pitiful bags of herbs on distant farms, the Order of the Old Gods is a struggling remnant filled with political exiles. But darkness stirs in Niveaux, and the spirits of the dead are turning into vengeful wraiths with alarming frequency.
Captain Luc de Montaigne is a pious follower of the Silent Gods, and he comes calling on Sand Manor with orders to collect the magic hearts of every sleeping Guardian. His success would purge the kingdom of the Old Gods once and for all, but Charlotte proves defiant and triggers a faction war. As an army of the dead amasses and dormant warriors stir from slumber, Luc and Charlotte grapple with a forbidden kill the other and step closer to victory—or yield to the electricity between them. The hearts they stand to lose may, in fact, be their own.
June 6th
Of Jade and Dragons by Amber Chen (Viking)
IRON WIDOW meets SIX CRIMSON CRANES in this immersive silkpunk fantasy, perfect for fans of Leigh Bardugo and Chloe Gong.
Eighteen-year-old Aihui Ying dreams of becoming a brilliant engineer just like her beloved father - but her life is torn apart when she arrives a moment too late to stop his murder, and worse, lets the killer slip out of reach. Left with only a journal containing his greatest engineering secrets and a jade pendant snatched from the assassin, Ying vows to take revenge into her own hands.
Disguised as her brother, Ying heads to the capital city, and discovers that the answer to finding who killed her father lies behind the walls of the prestigious Engineers Guild - the home of a past her father never wanted to talk about. With the help of an unlikely ally - Aogiya Ye-yang, a taciturn (but very handsome) young prince - Ying must navigate a world fraught with rules, challenges and politics she can barely grasp, let alone understand.
But to survive, she must fight to stay one step ahead of everyone. And when faced with the choice between doing what's right and what's necessary, Ying will have to decide if her revenge is truly worthwhile, if it means going against everything her father stood for...
Spilled Ink by Nadine Hashimi (Quill Tree Books)
An Afghan American teenager’s small town is thrown into controversy
and violence when her brother, taking a stand against hatred, plays a
prank that some think went too far. An insightful and affecting debut YA
novel by Nadia Hashimi, the Afghan American author of well-regarded
novels for middle graders and adults.
Yellowjackets meets House of Hollow in
award-winning author Kyrie McCauley’s gripping and magical YA thriller
following a group of young women as they face the stress of harsh
elements, a mysterious monster, and an unraveling of secrets after their
yacht is wrecked off the coast of North America.
June 10th
Where Wolves Don't Die by Anton Treuer (Levine Querido)
Ezra
Cloud hates living in Northeast Minneapolis. His father is a professor
of their language, Ojibwe, at a local college, so they have to be there.
But Ezra hates the dirty, polluted snow around them. He hates being
away from the rez at Nigigoonsiminikaaning First Nation. And he hates
the local bully in his neighborhood, Matt Schroeder, who terrorizes Ezra
and his friend Nora George.
Ezra gets into a terrible fight with Matt at school defending Nora, and that same night, Matt's house burns down. Instantly, Ezra becomes a prime suspect. Knowing he won't get a fair deal, and knowing his innocence, Ezra's family sends him away to run traplines with his grandfather in a remote part of Canada, while the investigation is ongoing. But the Schroeders are looking for him. . .
From acclaimed author Anton Treuer comes a novel that's both taut thriller and a raw, tender coming-of-age story, about one Ojibwe boy learning to love himself through the love of his family around him.
June 11th
The Ghost of Us by James L. Sutter (Wednesday Books)
One Last Stop meets Cemetery Boys in this swoony YA romance from beloved author James L. Sutter.
Eighteen-year-old ghost hunter Cara is determined to escape life as a high school outcast by finding proof of the supernatural. Yet when she stumbles upon the spirit of Aiden, a popular upperclassman who died the previous year, she learns that ghosts have goals of their own. In the wake of his death, Aiden’s little sister, Meredith, has become a depressed recluse, and Aiden can’t pass on into the afterlife until he knows she’ll be okay. Believing that nothing pulls someone out of a slump like romance, he makes Cara a deal: seduce Meredith out of her shell and take her to prom, and Aiden will give Cara all the evidence she needs for fame. If not, well—no dates, no ghost.
Wooing the standoffish Meredith isn’t going to be easy, however. With Aiden’s coaching, Cara slowly manages to win Meredith over—but finds herself accidentally falling for her in the process. Worse yet: as Meredith gets happier and Aiden’s mission nears completion, his ghost begins to fade. Can Cara continue to date Meredith under false pretenses, especially if it means Aiden will vanish forever? Or should she tell Meredith the truth, and risk both of them hating her? And either way, will she lose her only shot at proving ghosts are real?
Love, Off the Record by Samantha Markum (Margaret K. McElderry Books)
The Hating Game meets Alex, Approximately in
this smart, chemistry-filled teen rom-com about two rival journalism
students competing for the same position on their university newspaper.
Wyn is going to beat Three even if it kills her—or, preferably, him. Being freshmen staffers on the university newspaper puts them at the bottom of the pecking order—until a rare reporter spot opens up. Wyn and Three are both determined to get the position, starting a game of sabotage that pushes them to do their worst, from stealing each other’s ideas to playing twisted mind games. No road is too low when it comes to winning.
As Wyn’s search for the perfect story leads her to an anonymous, campus-wide dating app, she hits it off with a mystery man she thinks might be the cute RA from her dorm. But Wyn is all too familiar with being rejected because of her weight, and she’s hesitant to reveal her identity, even as she grows closer with someone who might be the guy of her dreams.
When Three breaks a story that’s closer to home than he or Wyn expects, the two must put aside their differences to expose the truth—and face their real feelings for each other, which threaten everything Wyn has built with her anonymous match.
Seasick by Kristin Cast and Pintip Dunn (Delacorte) - moved from July 2024.
There's a killer on board a luxury yacht, and
two former friends must team up to figure out which of their privileged
classmates has a penchant for murder before they become victims
themselves. Don't miss out on this gripping thriller from New York Times
bestselling authors Kristin Cast and Pintip Dunn!
Ex–best friends Naya Morgan and Yana Bunpraserit have always felt like outsiders in their small Oklahoma town. But this year, everything changes when they’re inducted into an exclusive society of Yatesville High’s top recent graduates. Unimaginable opportunities await them, starting with a celebratory yacht trip to Bermuda. Despite the likely onslaught of microaggressions and backhanded compliments from their peers—in addition to their own rocky past—Yana and Naya are ready for an epic voyage.
Then one of their classmates is brutally murdered, leaving them stuck at sea with a killer. Yana and Naya may have avoided each other for years, yet as the body count rises, rekindling their friendship might be the only way they’ll both survive.
Brownstone by Samuel Teer and Mariana Julia (Versify) - YA graphic novel, moved from 2022.
Won in a seven-house auction, this standalone YA graphic novel
chronicles a biracial Latinx teen’s summer with her estranged Guatemalan
American father and her struggles with language and cultural barriers
between them as they fix up his old building with his Latinx neighbors,
each with their own ideas about her identity.
Icon and Inferno by Marie Lu (Roaring Brook Press) - moved from April 2024.
Spies meet romance meet popstars in this thrilling follow up to Stars and Smoke by bestselling author Marie Lu.
A year has passed since superstar Winter and secret agent Sydney Cossette went undercover - on a dangerous mission to bring down the baddest man in London.
Winter hasn't stopped thinking about Sydney since, and she's been trying not to think about him
Family secrets and nasty newspapers has Winter desperate to re-enter the secret world. And it's not long before he gets his chance.
Sydney is back, and this time the mission goes right to the heart of the United States of America. A rescue gone wrong, an assassination attempt - and the return of an old flame - puts Winter right back into the action . . . and into a country on the brink of chaos.
And when a murder accusation has Sydney on the run, suddenly it's not just a life at stake, but all-out war.
The Wilderness of Girls by Madeline Claire Franklin (Zando)
An unflinching YA debut about a troubled teen
who discovers a pack of feral girls in the woods and is swept up in the
ensuing Are the Wild Girls of Happy Valley lost princesses from a
faraway land, as they believe, or are they brainwashed victims of a
deranged kidnapper?
In her ambitious debut perfect for fans of Sadie and The Hazel Wood , Madeline Claire Franklin crafts a gripping exploration of how the world teaches young girls to cage their wildness―and what happens when they claw themselves free.
After being placed in foster care, Rhi is hungry for a fresh start and begins working at the Happy Valley Wildlife Preserve. While in the woods, she stumbles upon a surreal a pack of wolves guarding four feral and majestic girls. After Rhi gains their trust, they reveal that they’re princesses from another land, raised by a magical prophet they call Mother―and they're convinced Rhi is their lost fifth sister.
Unsure what to believe, Rhi ushers the girls to civilization, where they’re met with societal uproar and scrutiny, dubbed by the ravenous media and true crime junkies as “The Wild Girls of Happy Valley.” Desperate to return to their kingdom, the girls look to Rhi for help. Rhi knows the girls are deluded, but at the same time she’s drawn in by their boldness and authenticity―traits she is afraid she has lost within herself. And when Rhi witnesses strange phenomena she can’t quite explain, the line between fantasy and reality grows blurry.
As the hunt for answers intensifies, Rhi must make a decision that will change the course of her lives and the lives of her Wild Girls forever.
Hearts of Fire and Snow by Guadalupe Garcia McCall and David Bowles (Bloomsbury) - YA graphic novel.
Award-winning authors David Bowles and Guadalupe García McCall
reimagine a beloved Aztec tale of star-crossed lovers with one last
chance to reunite.
Blanca Montes wants to make a difference in the world, to do more than her wealthy godfather and spoiled boyfriend think her capable of. So when Greg Chan shows up as a new student at her Nevada school, she is more than intrigued by this handsome, brilliant stranger.
But Greg and Blanca are drawn to each other by something stronger--their fates entwined centuries ago. In his first life, Greg was Captain Popoca, and Blanca is the reincarnation of Princess Iztac, who took her own life after believing her beloved Popoca was sent to his death in battle. Greg has spent a thousand years searching for his lost love, and now the fates have given them one more chance to reunite. Will their hearts finally beat as one?
This swoony contemporary fantasy is perfect for fans of These Violent Delights and This Poison Heart.
Dead Girls Talking by Megan Cooley Peterson (Holiday House) - some editions titled Pretty Dead Girls.
The town of Wolf Ridge calls him The Smiley Face Killer. Bettina Holland calls him her father.
Everyone knows Bettina’s father was the one who murdered her mother a decade ago. It’s the subject of podcasts, murder tours, and even a highly anticipated docuseries. But after growing up grappling with what that means, a string of copycat murders forces Bett to answer a harder What if he didn’t ?
Old-money Bett must team up with the only person willing to investigate alongside bookish goth girl Eugenia, the mortician’s daughter, who everyone says puts the makeup on corpses. Can this “true crime princess” unmask a murderer who’s much closer to home than she ever imagined?
Gritty, gripping, and propulsive from page one, Pretty Dead Girls is a ride for readers who love to see girls get their hands dirty as they claw their way to the truth. Peterson’s knife-sharp thriller cuts deep, with a wicked sense of humor, a wire-taut atmosphere, and a deadly serious approach to bigger transparency, justice, and female anger.
June 18th
Twelth Knight by Alexene Farol Follmuth (Tor Teen)
From the New York Times bestselling author of
The Atlas Six (under the penname Olivie Blake) comes Twelfth Knight , a
YA romantic comedy and coming of age story about taking up space in the
world and learning what it means to let others in.
Viola Reyes is annoyed.
Her painstakingly crafted tabletop game campaign was shot down, her best friend is suggesting she try being more “likable,” and school quarterback Jack Orsino is the most lackadaisical Student Body President she’s ever seen, which makes her job as VP that much harder. Vi’s favorite escape from the world is the MMORPG Twelfth Knight, but online spaces aren’t exactly kind to girls like her―girls who are extremely competent and have the swagger to prove it. So Vi creates a masculine alter ego, choosing to play as a knight named Cesario to create a safe haven for herself.
But when a football injury leads Jack Orsino to the world of Twelfth Knight, Vi is alarmed to discover their online alter egos―Cesario and Duke Orsino―are surprisingly well-matched.
As the long nights of game-play turn into discussions about life and love, Vi and Jack soon realise they’ve become more than just weapon-wielding characters in an online game. But Vi has been concealing her true identity from Jack, and Jack might just be falling for her offline…
The Calculation of You + Me by Serena Kaylor (Wednesday Books)
A calculus nerd enlists her surly classmate’s
help to win back her ex-boyfriend, but when sparks start to fly, she
realizes there’s no algorithm for falling in love.
Marlowe Thompson understands a lot of things. She understands that calculus isn’t overwhelmingly beautiful to everyone, and that it typically kills the mood when you try to talk Python coding over beer pong. She understands people were surprised when golden boy Josh asked her out and she went from weird, math-obsessed Marlowe to half of their school’s couple goals. Unfortunately, Marlowe was surprised when Josh dumped her because he’d prefer a girlfriend who was more romantic. One with emotional depth.
But Marlowe has never failed anything in her life, and she isn’t about to start now. When she’s paired with Ashton Hayes for an English project, his black clothing and moody eyeliner cause a bit of a systems overload, and the dissonant sounds of his rock band make her brain itch. But when she discovers Ash's hidden stash of love songs, Marlowe makes a desperate deal to unleash her inner romantic heroine: if Ash will agree to help her write some love letters, she’ll calculate the perfect data analytics formula to make Ash's band go viral.
As the semester heats up with yearning love notes and late nights spent with a boy who escapes any box her brain tries to put him in, Marlowe starts to question if there’s really a set solution to love. Could a girl who has never met a problem she couldn’t solve have gotten the math so massively wrong?
Masquerade of the Heart by Katy Rose Pool (Henry Holt) - previously titled Mask of the Ruthless.
Cursebreaker Marlow Briggs must deal with the
aftermath of her fake romance with one of the most powerful nobles in
the illustrious—and deadly—Evergarden society , all while uncovering the
mystery behind her mother's disappearance. T his edge-of-your-seat
duology finale is perfect for fans of Veronica Mars , These Violent
Delights, and Chain of Iron .
Caraza sits poised on the edge of chaos. Tensions rise between the Five Families and trouble brews in the Marshes—and Marlow is at the center of it all. In the tragic aftermath of the Vale-Falcrest wedding, Adrius refuses to speak to her, publicly vowing to find a wife before the year is out. Despite her heartbreak, Marlow is still intent on breaking his curse. To do so, she’ll have to play loving daughter to the man who cast it. But the closer she gets to her father, the more she starts to question if he’s really the villain she’s made him out to be.
Marlow has learned by now that in a city steeped in secrets and lies, not everything is as it seems. As the lines between enemy and ally blur, Marlow must decide who to trust—and how high a price she’s willing to pay for the truth.
With Love, Miss Americanah by Jane Igaharo (Feiwel and Friends) - moved from 2023, previously titled Sisi Americanah.
With Love, Miss Americanah—the Young Adult contemporary
romance debut from Jane Igharo—sees a teenager move from Nigeria to
America and navigate her senior year with the help of classic teen
movies and a new crush, all while working through grief and the rigid
expectations of her mother.
17-year-old Enore Adesuwa doesn’t dive into things, she wades in very carefully. So when she, her mother, and her sister move from Nigeria to America shortly after her father’s death, she wants to be as prepared as possible for attending American high school. Her cousin, Adrian, doesn’t have time to explain the ins and outs to her but, luckily, he recommends the perfect research tool: teen movies.
Still dealing with grief but armed with a list of rules of survival (including no drawing attention to herself) gathered from these beloved movies, Enore is ready as she’ll ever be for senior year. But when she meets Davi Santiago, it may be much harder than she thought to keep to her rules. Because not only is he super thoughtful (and okay, very good looking), he constantly encourages her to share her incredible singing voice. Enore prefers the background but it just might be time for her to take center stage, even in spite of her mother’s own strict rules and desires for her.
With help from her rules, her crush, her younger sister, and some new friends who don’t quite fit the roles she expects them to play, Enore just might make it through, and even enjoy, senior year.
All Roads Lead to Rome by Sabrina Fedel (Delacorte)
When the daughter of a diplomat fake dates a
Scottish celebrity in Italy, she soon finds herself living her own Roman
Holiday until the feelings get real and the paparazzi's knives come
out.
Introverted, slightly anxious Astoria “Story” Herriot knows everything about Rome—her mom’s an attorney here and the two of them are living la dolce vita… at least until Story’s off to college in the fall.
But when Story is in the wrong gelato shop at the right time, she’s swept up in a fake dating scheme with Scottish heartthrob, Luca Kinnaird, to protect his relationship with a pop princess. There’s something in it for her, too—Luca promises to help fund a scholarship in her dad’s memory. Soon she’s showing Luca the best cafés, sightseeing at the Mouth of Truth, and picnicking at the ruins of the Abbey of Santa Maria del Piano. Story’s travel guide skills are 10/10, but what she knows about being a celebrity—or having feelings for one? Zero.
Pretending to be Luca’s guide—then his girlfriend—gets the paparazzi’s attention . . . and what’s true and what’s fake gets blurry as their different worlds crash together. Sophisticated, hot, rich, and with the most charming accent ever, Luca is full of surprises. And maybe, too, is Story’s perfectly planned future.
It’s a fairy-tale romance in the Eternal City…will it have a fairy tale ending?
If You Can't Take the Heat by Michael Ruhlman (Penguin Workshop) - details not yet updated on Goodreads.
From James Beard award-winning
author Michael Ruhlman, a coming-of-age story about finding a new life
and love in the kitchen…and trying not to get burned along the way.
Immerse yourself in the final book in the epic
fantasy trilogy from the author of the New York Times bestselling Ash
Pricess series. Follow three princesses and the destiny they were born
for: seduction, conquest, and the crown.
They were promised for marriage since birth, and raised to bring down kingdoms, but the triplet princesses of Bessemia’s true destiny has always been to die—and one already has. Since Sophronia’s murder Princesses Daphne and Beatriz have discovered the truth: that they are pawns in their mother’s game. A scheme that will see her empress not just of Bessemia, but the entire continent of Vesteria. But the princesses have their own plans.
Beatriz and Daphne are still separated by a continent, and there are enemies everywhere, but now they have allies, and they stretch across the borders of Vesteria. Sophronia’s husband, the deposed King Leopold; Violie, a former spy for Empress Margaraux; and Beatriz’s missing husband, Pasquale and his lover, Ambrose. Now, with their help and the magic of the stars above, the princesses are ready to make their final stand.
But whispers of an ancient prophecy follow them--there are secrets from the their past that have yet to be revealed—and every move they make, the empress seems to always be one step ahead them. If there’s any hope for the princesses, the girls will need to use every skill their mother taught them, trust in the magic in their veins, and defy fate, itself—or all is lost for the people of Vesteria.
Rules for Camouflage by Kirstin Cronn-Mills (Little, Brown)
Atypical
meets Eleanor and Park in this relatable and heartfelt coming of age
story about a neurodivergent teen navigating school, friendships and
first love.
Evvie Chambers is doing her best to skate through the last month of high school to graduation. The only thing standing in her way is a biology report on foxes—and her teacher, Mrs. Audrey Dearborn. The same Mrs. Dearborn who’s been a thorn in Evvie’s side for years, refusing to acknowledge or accommodate her neurodiversity. Evvie would much rather be doing her report on Aretha, the octopus she cares for when she volunteers at the Minnesota Zoo but deviating from the exact assignment isn’t allowed—and Mrs. Dearborn isn’t going to make following the rules easy.
Evvie’s only escape from high school hell is the a safe haven for kids whose brains need some time away. But when Mrs. Dearborn refuses Evvie’s pleas to finesse the final report assignment to her strengths, and persistent bully Vandal McDaniel directs his harassment toward Lair members, Evvie finds herself more desperate than ever for stability and support.
When a shocking act of violence pushes the whole mess over the edge, Evvie, with the help of her friends and the others who love her, will have to figure out how to find her place in the wide world, while remaining true to herself.
A Game Most Foul by Alison Gervais (Blink)
A mystery about a teen writer determined to discover what happened to a missing classmate, who finds herself caught up with a pair of very familiar detectives named Watson and Holmes. All her awakening powers of observation will be put to the test as she finds that the thing she thought was holding her back just might be her greatest strength.
Attending the prestigious Ashford College’s writing seminar is a dream come true for Jules Montgomery, but the summer isn’t unfolding as she hoped. Navigating London with her gradual hearing loss is difficult, and hiding it from her classmates is a challenge. Even worse, she can’t seem to shake a case of writer’s block. When a fellow student goes missing, neither the police nor their teacher, Professor Watson, seem that concerned. Jules and her new friends Percy and Suruthi are determined to get to the bottom of the case and they’re not the strange man who frequents Jules’ aunt’s antique shop is eager to help—and his name is none other than Sherlock Holmes.
Now there are two mysteries to solve. What happened to their missing classmate? And how can it be that Watson and Holmes—two fictional characters from the Victorian era—are alive and well in the 21st century? The only way to find answers might lie in a quote from one of Watson’s old “You see, but you do not observe.” Jules may not be able to hear all that well, but without her hearing aids, she can certainly see more than the average person. And nothing about this is case is average.
June 25th
Crashing Into You by Rocky Callen (Henry Holt) - previously titled Juramento.
In this fiercely moving YA romance novel, Leti
Rivera's love of street racing is put to the test when tragedy strikes
her family and threatens to tear her apart from the boy she's falling
for―perfect for fans of Netflix's Atypical , The Fast and The Furious ,
and I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter .
Leti dreams of becoming a famous female street racer. But while she's at ease behind the wheel, she feels out of place in the stifling halls of fancy Philmore Academy. Her only daily refuge is listening to the rhythmic tapping of the shy classmate she's never spoken to―Jacob, a boy on the autism spectrum. Curious to know more about this gentle, quiet boy, Leti invites Jacob to join her on a car ride, and as they experience the thrill of the wind racing through their hair, they start to fall for each other.
But when tragedy soon strikes following a race, Leti blames herself and swears an oath to give up driving. But will she be able to keep her promise when racing could be the very thing that saves Jacob... and herself?
Children of Anguish and Ancarchy by Tomi Adeyemi (Henry Holt) - moved from 2020, then from 2021, then from 2023.
Featuring gorgeous spray-painted and stenciled
edges, dazzling metallic foil designs on the jacket and case, and an
exclusive endpaper map that reveals new unexplored territories, Tomi
Adeyemi’s #1 New York Times -bestselling Legacy of Orïsha series comes
to an earth-shaking conclusion.
New allies rise.
The Blood Moon nears.
Zélie faces her final enemy.
The king who hunts her heart.
When Zelie seized the royal palace that fateful night, she thought her battles had come to an end. The monarchy had finally fallen. The maji had risen again. Zélie never expected to find herself locked in a cage and trapped on a foreign ship. Now warriors with iron skulls traffic her and her people across the seas, far from their homeland.
Then everything changes when Zélie meets King Baldyr, her true captor, the ruler of the Skulls, and the man who has ravaged entire civilizations to find her. Baldyr’s quest to harness Zélie’s strength sends Zélie, Amari, and Tzain searching for allies in unknown lands.
But as Baldyr closes in, catastrophe charges Orïsha’s shores. It will take everything Zélie has to face her final enemy and save her people before the Skulls annihilate them for good.
We Shall Be Monsters by Tara Sim (Nancy Paulsen Books) - moved from 2023.
Frankenstein meets Indian
mythology in this twisty, darkly atmospheric fantasy where the horror is
not the monsters you face but the ones you create.
A wealthy businessman is dead, and fifteen-year-old Ruby Monroe is in
a Dallas jail awaiting trial for his murder. Ruby has no one she can
count on—no one, except her state-appointed caseworker, a woman named
Cadence Ware. In Ruby’s experience, that’s not anyone she can trust.
New York Times bestselling author and
TikTok sensation Kalynn Bayron returns to fairytales with a lush,
thrilling and original YA Snow White retelling that brings a new and
exciting voice to this familiar tale. Perfect for fans of Cinderella Is Dead.
Only the truly desperate - and foolish - seek out the Knight, an ancient monster who twists wishes into curses. Eve knows this first-hand: one of her mothers was cursed by the Knight and trapped in the body of a songbird. With the unique abilities to communicate with animals and conjure weapons from nature, Eve has trained all her life to defeat him.
With more and more villagers harmed by the Knight's corrupt deals, Eve believes she's finally ready to face him. But when Queen Regina begins acting strangely - talking to seemingly no one, isolating herself, and lashing out at the slightest provocation - Eve must question if her powers are enough to save her family and her kingdom.
Six More Months of June by Daisy Garrison (Flatiron Books)
A romantic debut about the exhilarating highs
and messy lows that swirl together when high school comes to an end,
perfect for fans of Carley Fortune and Jenny Han
Golden boy Caplan and bookish Mina have been unlikely soulmates since third grade. Bound by growing up in single-mother households on the same cul-de-sac in Two Docks, Michigan, their friendship exists miraculously outside their high school's social order. Mina is class valedictorian, expected by her late father's parents to attend his Ivy alma mater; Caplan is laughing off prom-king predictions and the fear that he's peaking too soon. When Cap's skateboard-toting, detention-dodging best friend confesses his feelings for Mina, she is whisked into a social life she never imagined, bumping shoulders with the likes of Caplan's queen-bee girlfriend. Caplan is determined that things stay just as they've always been, while Mina faces the perils and privileges of opening her heart just in time to say goodbye. As the sun sets on senior year, everything glows. What will Cap and Mina discover in the last-chance light?
We Mostly Come Out at Night by Various YA Authors (Running Press Kids) - moved from May 2024, previously titled Queer Beasties, release date not completely clear.
They are the quintessential metaphors for the other.
But in QUEER BEASTIES: 15 Weird & Wondrous Monster Tales, we present stories that proudly embrace monsters as an emblem for queerness. Stories that subvert the concept of “normal” and flip it on its head. Stories that celebrate monsters in all of their glorious strangeness, while reveling in what makes them fascinating, unusual, and powerful. Stories that affirm the beauty, strength, individuality, and worth of what society too often considers monstrous and unwanted.
Stories that queer the very notion of what it means to be a monster.
With contributions from both established and emerging voices in young adult and speculative fiction, QUEER BEASTIES: 15 Weird & Wondrous Monster Tales rehabilitates the image of the monster as a heroic symbol of difference.
June 4th
There Is A Door In This Darkness by Kristin Cashore (Dutton) - moved from May 2024, release date and description not yet updated on Goodreads.
Wilhelmina Hart is part of the infamous class of 2020. Her high school years began with the election of Donald Trump and they ended with COVID. Now Wilhelmina, like so many of her peers, is in limbo, having deferred college because of the pandemic. Compounding the national trauma of 2016 to 2020, Wilhelmina has wrestled with the devastating loss of one of her three beloved aunts shortly after the 2016 election. This is a loss she felt so keenly that she’s spent the last years deep in her personal depression, only obscured by the seemingly endless waves of national trauma. Now on the cusp on the most consequential election in living memory, Wilhelmina may have found a door in her darkness and perhaps the courage to pass through it, if she can decipher the bizarre messages that keep appearing in her life.
Hearts That Cut by Kika Hatzopoulou (Razorbill)
It’s
been five weeks since Io left Alante to follow the golden thread, and
she’s no closer to finding the god on the other end. She spends her days
in constant, grueling travel and her nights worrying over the
fate-thread she shares with Edei—which seems to be fraying. Making
matters worse, she and Bianca soon realize that their only lead has
shaken them off, snapped the golden thread, and disappeared.
But
not before Io gathers some crucial clues. Her investigation leads her to
a new mystery, a rash of sibling disappearances across the Wastelands
that seems to be connected to the murders in Alante. And all signs point
to Nanzy, the golden city, as the center of the whole conspiracy.
As
Io and Bianca make their way to Nanzy, they make powerful enemies, find
allies new and old, and uncover a horrifying plot that traces back
centuries. The more Io learns, the more she begins to suspect that the
future of the world may truly rest on her shoulders. But she will have
to determine how much of the future is her choice—and how much is simply
her fate.
Annie LeBlanc Is Not Dead Yet by Molly Morris (Wednesday Books)
Wilson Moss entered the town’s top-secret contest in the hopes of resurrecting her ex-best friend Annie LeBlanc, but that doesn’t mean she thought she’d actually win. Now Annie’s back and Wil’s ecstatic—does it even really matter that Annie ghosted her a year before she died…?
But like any contest, there are rules, and the town’s resurrected dead can only return for thirty days. When Wil discovers a loophole that means Annie might be able to stay for good, she’s desperate to keep her alive. The potential key? Their third best friend, Ryan. Forget the fact that Ryan openly hates them both, or that she and Wilson have barely spoken since that awkward time they kissed. Wil can put it aside for one month; she just needs to stop thinking about it first.
Because Wil has one summer to permanently put an end to her loneliness—it’s that, or lose her only friends…again. But along the way, she might have to face some difficult truths about Annie’s past and their friendship that, so far, she’s left buried.
Four Eids and a Funeral by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé and Adiba Jaigirdar (Feiwel and Friends)
Let’s get one thing straight, this is a love story.
These days, Said Hossain spends most of his time away at boarding school. But when his favorite hometown librarian Ms. Barnes dies, he must return home to New Crosshaven for her funeral and for the summer. Too bad being home makes it a lot harder to avoid facing his ex-best friend, Tiwa Olatunji, or facing the daunting task of telling his Bangladeshi parents that he would rather be an artist than a doctor.
Tiwa doesn’t understand what made Said start ignoring her, but it’s probably that fancy boarding school of his. Though he’s unexpectedly staying through the summer, she’s determined to take a page from him and pretend he doesn’t exist. Besides, she has more than enough going on, between grieving her broken family and helping her mother throw the upcoming Eid celebration at the Islamic Center—a place that means so much to Tiwa.
But when the Islamic Center accidentally catches fire, it turns out the mayor plans to demolish the center entirely. Things are still tense between the ex-friends but Tiwa needs Said’s help if there’s any hope of changing the mayor’s mind, and Said needs a project to submit to art school (unbeknownst to anyone). Will all their efforts be enough to save the Islamic Center, save Eid, and maybe save their relationship?
Heiress Takes All by Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka (Little, Brown)The
Seventeen-year-old Olivia Owens isn't thrilled that her dad's getting remarried...again. She's especially not thrilled that he cheated on her mom, kicked them out of their Rhode Island home, and cut Olivia out of her rightful inheritance.
But this former heiress has a plan for revenge. While hundreds of guests gather on the grounds of the gorgeous estate where she grew up, everyone will be thinking romance—not robbery. She’ll play the part of dutiful daughter, but in reality she’ll be redistributing millions from her father’s online accounts. She only needs the handwritten pass code he keeps in the estate's safe.
With the help of an eclectic crew of high school students and one former teacher, Olivia has plotted her mid-nuptial heist down to the second. But she didn't plan for an obnoxiously nosy wedding guest, an interfering ex-boyfriend intent on winning her back, greedy European cousins with their own agenda, or a vengeful second wife. When everything seems like it's going wrong, Olivia has to keep her eyes on what really matters: getting rich. And when she’s done, “something borrowed” will be the understatement of the year.
Six of Sorrow by Amanda Linsmeier (Delacorte)
For most of her life, Isabeau and her five best friends were inseparable—amazingly enough, the six girls even shared a birthday. Then a rift caused their friendships to fracture, and Iz lost everyone except Reuel, the only one who didn’t abandon her.
Until now. The night of their sixteenth birthday, Isabeau leaves Reuel sitting on her front porch and heads home—and in the morning, Reuel is missing. She’s gone for three days, and when she reappears, there’s something wrong with her. She’s sick. Really sick. And she doesn’t remember anything that happened while she was gone.
If there’s any bright side to the situation, it’s that Reuel’s peculiar disappearance brings the six girls back together. Their sisterhood feels as strong as it was years ago, but when another one of them disappears, they all agree that they must have more in common than simply their birthday. They all feel it. Something’s been waiting for them, and that something has come to claim them one by one.
Deep in their bones, they know—it’s just a matter of time until they they’re all taken. And if they don’t save themselves, no one will.
Moonstorm by Yoon Ha Lee (Delacorte) - previously titled Winter's Axiom and Lancers, moved from 2023.
Hwa Young was just ten years old when imperial forces destroyed her rebel moon home. Now, six years later, she is a citizen of the very empire that made her an orphan.
Desperate to shake her rebel past, Hwa Young dreams of one day becoming a lancer pilot, an elite group of warriors who fly into battle using the empire’s most advanced tech—giant martial robots. Lancers are powerful, and Hwa Young would do anything to be the strong one for once in her life.
When an attack on their boarding school leaves Hwa Young and her classmates stranded on an imperial space fleet, her dreams quickly become a reality. As it turns out, the fleet is in dire need of pilot candidates, and Hwa Young—along with her brainy best friend Geum, rival Bae, and class clown Seong Su—are quick to volunteer.
But training is nothing like what they expected, and secrets—like the fate of the fleet’s previous lancer squad and hidden truths about the rebellion itself—are stacking up. And when Hwa Young uncovers a conspiracy that puts their entire world at risk, she’s forced to make a choice between her rebel past and an empire she’s no longer sure she can trust.
Lockjaw by Matteo L. Cerilli (Tundra)
Chuck Warren died tragically at the old abandoned mill, but Paz Espino knows it was no accident — there's a monster under the town, and she's determined to kill it before anyone else gets hurt. She'll need the help of her crew — inseparable friends, bound by a childhood pact stronger than diamonds, distance or death — to hunt it down. But she's up against a greater force of evil than she ever could have imagined.
With shifting timeframes and multiple perspectives, Lockjaw is a small-town ghost story, where monsters living and dead haunt the streets, the homes and the minds of the inhabitants. For readers of Wilder Girls and The Haunted, this trans YA horror book by an incredible debut author will grab you and never let you go.
Past, Present, Future by Rachel Lynn Solomon (Simon and Schuster) - moved from 2023.
When longtime rivals Rowan Roth and Neil McNair confessed their feelings on the last day of senior year, they knew they’d only have a couple months together before they left for college. Now summer is over, and they’re determined to make their relationship work as they begin school in different states.
In Boston, Rowan is eager to be among other aspiring novelists, learning from a creative writing professor she adores. She’s just not sure why she suddenly can’t seem to find her voice.
In New York, Neil embraces the chaos of the city, clicking with a new friend group more easily than he anticipated. But when his past refuses to leave him alone, he doesn’t know how to handle his rapidly changing mental health—or how to talk about it with the girl he loves.
Over a year of late-night phone calls, weekend visits, and East Coast adventures, Rowan and Neil fall for each other again and again as they grapple with the uncertainty of their new lives. They’ve spent so many years at odds with each other—now that they’re finally on the same team, what does the future hold for them?
Wish You Weren't Here by Erin Baldwin (Viking) - previously titled Wish You Were(n't) Here, moved from May 2024.
Juliette acquiesces the spotlight to Priya all year long in exchange for her moment in the sun at Fogridge Sleepaway Camp--the place where no one is "too much." Entering her final year as a camper at Fogridge with the prestigious title of North Star, Juliette's ready to forget about Priya and enjoy the outdoors, her fellow campers, and an environment where she gets to be more than a side character. But her hopes for a Priya-free summer are shattered when her rival shows up at Fogridge on move-in day and is assigned to be her roommate.
Juliette's perfect summer continues to spiral out of control when everything that could possibly go wrong does and she is forced to spend even more time with the person she thought she couldn’t stand. But as she begins to see a new side of Priya, she’s forced to grapple with a new and unexpected feeling…love?
Two Sides To Every Murder by Danielle Valentine (Razorbill)
Most peoples' births aren't immortalized in a police report. Unlike Olivia, who was born in the middle of a massacre. Literally. Despite such an auspicious start, Olivia’s life has been pretty perfect. Until she discovers the man she calls dad is not her biological father. And the only place she knows to seek answers about her paternity is the site of the murders, Camp Lost Lake, where her mom worked until that deadly night.
Most people don’t spend their formative years on the run with an alleged murderer. Reagan did, and she’s had enough. In the court of public opinion, her mom has been tried and found guilty of the deaths at Camp Lost Lake 17 years ago. Since that night, Reagan and her mom have been in hiding, and she’s determined to find evidence to exonerate her mom once and for all.
Luckily for Olivia and Reagan, Camp Lost Lake is finally reopening. Providing the perfect opportunity to find answers. As Olivia and Reagan delve deeper into the camp's history, they uncover a tangled web of family secrets. But someone else is desperate to keep the past hidden, even if it means committing murder— again .
As darkness falls, the only way to uncover the truth of what occurred all those years back is to unmask the killer. If they can survive.
One Killer Problem by Justine Pucella Winans (HarperTeen)
When Gianna "Gigi" Ricci lands in detention again, she doesn't expect the glorified study hall to be her alibi.
But when she and her friends receive a mysterious email directing them to her favorite teacher, Mr. Ford's room, they find him lying in a pool of blood. But calling the math teacher's death an accident doesn't add up, and Gigi needs all the help she can get to find the truth. Luckily, she's friends with her high school's "mystery club," and so with her best friend, Sean, and longtime crush, Mari, Gigi sets out to solve a murder.
But it turns out, murderers are extremely unwilling to be caught, and the deeper Gigi gets in this mystery, the more dangerous things become. Between fending off a murderer, continual flare-ups of her IBS, and her archnemesis turning flirtatious... making it out of junior year is going to be one killer problem.
With a wry, hilarious voice and a main character who is the walking definition of a disaster bi, this book is an ode to cozy mysteries, queer found families, and fighting for the people you love, no matter what.
The Breakup Artists by Adriana Mather (Blackstone) - moved from 2025.
August and Valentine, seventeen-year-old best friends, run a business called Summer Love, Inc. They hire themselves out to unhappy parents whose kids are in bad relationships, adopting fake identities and going undercover to break up these relationships by any means necessary.
Valentine, the brains of the operation, believes that they're making the world a better place by steering people away from a relationship precipice so they can someday find true love. But for August, every case is personal--another chance to prove that true love doesn't exist. He blames his sister's manipulative boyfriend for her death, and--unlike Valentine--he doesn't believe in soul mates. No, he thinks the idea of falling head over heels is ridiculous at any age.
But then August meets Ella, who suddenly turns everything he thought he believed about love upside down. The problem is that she's their new case, which means that everything he's told her about himself is a lie--including his name
Everything We Never Said by Sloan Harrow (Putnam)
It's been months since accident that killed Ella's best friend Hayley, and Ella can't stop blaming herself. Now Ella is starting back at school and everywhere she looks is a reminder of her best friend, including Sawyer, Hayley’s boyfriend. When Sawyer offers an olive branch, Ella is shocked, but knows she doesn't deserve his kindness.
Then the school psychologist requires that Hayley’s closest friends join him for a grief counseling group, and Ella and Sawyer are forced together. After a few sessions, they start to grow closer, until Ella realizes something horrifying...
She’s in love with her dead best friend’s boyfriend.
As Ella discovers that nothing Hayley told her about Sawyer was true, she also sees something in him she finds irresistible. Perhaps it's his grief. Or maybe his desires, cut short by tragedy. Or could it be something dark and twisted Ella can't turn away from?
This dark, romantic thriller is perfect for fans of Colleen Hoover and Laura Nowlin.
Sunrise Nights by Brittany Cavallaro and Jeff Zentner (Quill Tree Books)
Jude loves photography—it’s the only time he knows he’s in control. Between his parents fighting and his near-constant anxiety, he can’t stop feeling powerless in the face of the future. When his camera is in his hands, he can capture individual moments in time.
Florence’s friends don’t understand why she stopped dancing—because they don’t know she has a degenerative eye disease. Given how overprotective her parents have become, she’s not in any hurry to tell people about her condition. She’s just trying to make the most of her life before her sight fades completely.
The two meet at their sleepaway camp’s closing celebration, called
Sunrise Night, and decide to take a chance. Their one rule? Don’t
contact each other after the sun has risen. Will Florence and Jude be
able to trust each other and learn who they are–and what they could be
together?
The Last Kids in Town by Natalie Leif (Holiday House) - previously Titled The Last Kids in Town.
Five years ago, a parasite poisoned the water of Ian’s West Virginia hometown, turning dozens of locals into dark-eyed, oil-dripping shells of their former selves. With chronic migraines and seizures limiting his physical abilities, Ian relies on his best friend and secret crush Eric to mercy-kill any infected people they come across.
Until a new health report about the contamination triggers a mandatory government evacuation, and Ian cracks his head in the rush. Used to hospitals and health scares, Ian always thought he'd die young... but he wasn’t planning on coming back. Much less facing the slow, painful realization that Eric left him behind to die.
Desperate to confront Eric before the parasite takes over, Ian joins two others left behind—his childhood rival Monica and the jaded prepper Angel—on a journey across town. What they don't know is that Eric is also looking for Ian, and he's determined to mercy-kill him.
Louder Than Words by Ashley Woodfolk and Lexi Underwood (Scholastic)
When Jordyn Jones transfers to Edgewood High, it's her opportunity to forget everything that happened at her old school. To forget what she and her friends did. To forget who she used to be. That was a different person — this is a fresh start. Now she's someone new, someone better. Except it's the very first day of school, and somehow everyone already seems to know who she is. But Jordyn soon finds a group of friends, and she even starts talking to Izaiah, a soccer star who shares her love of art. Life is good.
That's until an anonymous podcast called Tomcat Tea begins revealing humiliating secrets about Edgewood students, ruining their reputations and in some cases their futures. Jordyn and her friends know they have to do something—and this is Jordyn's chance to prove to herself that she's changed. Jordyn's plan to take down the podcast throws her into the spotlight, and as the momentum builds, so do the risks—because Jordyn has a secret of her own, one that could ruin everything . . . and that a mysterious harasser online is threatening to expose.
With riveting prose, New York Times bestselling author Ashley Woodfolk and acclaimed actress Lexi Underwood balance an insightful depiction of the power of art as protest with asking some of the biggest questions facing teenagers today—in an era where mistakes can be picked over endlessly online, who is worthy of forgiveness? Can someone ever really change?
Tristan and Lancelot: A Tale of Two Knights by James Percichetti and L.S. Biehler (HarperAlley) - YA graphic novel, moved from 2023, previously titled The Sapling's Curse.
When Merlin goes missing and Camelot falls under attack, King Arthur sends his estranged half-sister, Morgan le Fay, and esteemed Knights of the Round Table, Tristan and Lancelot, to find him. As the reluctant trio travels through Albion saving towns from treacherous foes and battling fae, their bonds deepen, and sparks fly between the two knights. Before they can sort through their complicated feelings, an unexpected dark force appears, bringing what just might be the end of Camelot.
From debut author James Persichetti and new talent L.S. Biehler, Tristan and A Tale of Two Knights will sweep readers away with an epic quest and a love story for the ages.
Markless by CG Malburi (Levine Querido) - moved from March 2024.
Dekala’s Mark is strong, a Mark fit for the future queen of Somanchi, but it’s also unstable. She knows the only solution is to be bonded, but she also knows that this would mean relinquishing control over her throne and kingdom. So when she is witness to Ruti’s power, Dekala offers the witch a She can be prosecuted for her crimes…or she can help Dekala ascend to the throne, unbonded.
Dekala is cold and brutal and cares only about getting her way. She is also determined, intelligent, and compassionate. Ruti is torn between wanting her to fail or to emerge victorious. But as the gods are defied, new alliances are forged, and unexpected feelings are unearthed, Ruti realizes the fate of the kingdom––and the survival of the Markless–– lies in her unmarked hands.
Furious by Jamie Pacton and Rebecca Podos (Page Street YA)
But Jojo’s heart quickens when Motorcyle Girl Eliana “El” Blum shows up at the shop. El grew up on the motocross circuit sidelines, watching her sister and idol Maxine compete. When El mysteriously loses all contact with Max, she’s determined to find her, with her first clue leading straight to the mechanic shop, and to Jojo.
United by fate, the two quickly bond over Mario Kart showdowns and the Fast & Furious films. As their friendship shifts into something more, they’ll have to confront both their growing romance and the grief woven into their complicated families if they hope to chase down their dreams and make it across the finish line.
Shift Happens: The History of Labor in the United States by J. Albert Mann (HarperTeen) - YA non-fiction.
You need to work to live.
That’s the truth for most people, and plenty of bosses have been abusing that truth for centuries.
Long before the first labor unions were formed, workers still knew what exploitation looked like. It looked like the enslavement of Black people. It looked like generations of children dying in dangerous jobs. It looked like wealthy people hiring private militaries to attack their employees.
But workers have always found a way to fight back. Arawak tribespeople resisted Columbus and his colonizers. Enslaved people led walkouts and rebellions. Textile workers demanded a wage that would let them have fun, not just survive. Miners died for the right to unionize. From 20,000 young seamstresses striking in the early 1900s to Uber drivers organizing for change today, people have learned we’re stronger when we are united.
Shift Happens is a smart, funny, and engaging look at the
history of the worker actions that brought us weekends, pay equality,
desegregation, an end to child labor, and so much more.
An Outbreak of Witchcraft by Deborah Noyes and M Duffy (Disney Hyperion) - YA graphic novel, moved from 2023, previously titled We Walked in Clouds
From 1692 to 1693, fear reigned in the small village of Salem, Massachusetts. The night Abigail Williams and Betty Paris first accused their servant of witchcraft was only the beginning.
Several more accusations would follow suit, sparking a widespread panic that consumed Salem in one of the longest cases of witch trials in America, where more than twenty innocent lives were lost, and mistrust ran amok.
The community was in ruins, from the afflicted who fanned the flames of superstition to the judges who used their power unjustly to the accused who were falsely charged and hanged in consequence. With no due process and hysteria abounding, no one in Salem was safe.
Journey into how it all began in this arresting, true-to-life look at how lies became facts, friends turned to foes, and loved ones turned to enemies.
Storm: Dawn of a Goddess by Tiffany D. Jackson (Random House)
Few can weather the storm.
As a thief on the streets of Cairo, Ororo Munroe is an expert at blending in—keeping her blue eyes low and her white hair beneath a scarf. Stealth is her specialty . . . especially since strange things happen when she loses control.
Lately, Ororo has been losing control more often, setting off sudden rainstorms and mysterious winds . . . and attracting dangerous attention. When she is forced to run from the Shadow King, a villain who steals people's souls, she has nowhere to turn to but herself. There is something inside her, calling her across Africa, and the hidden truth of her heritage is close enough to taste.
But as Ororo nears the secrets of her past, her powers grow stronger and the Shadow King veers closer and closer. Can she outrun the shadows that chase her? Or can she step into the spotlight and embrace the coming storm?
In her first speculative novel, New York Times bestselling author Tiffany D. Jackson casts a breathtaking spell with one of Marvel's most beloved characters, and brings the superhero Storm to life as you've never seen her before.
Now, Conjurers by Freddie Kölsch (Union Square Kids)
November 1999. North Dana, Massachusetts.
Nesbit Nuñez discovers the partially devoured body of Bastion star quarterback, secret witch, and Nesbit’s even-more-secret boyfriend. No one knew why brilliant, gentle Bastion lived his life by a seemingly arcane set of rules, including a strange manner of speech and an inability to say his own name.
Now the remaining members of North Coven—Nesbit, Dove, Drea, and Brandy—vow to get answers. Nothing can prepare them for what they Bastion had been locked in a terrifying battle of wits and wills with something living deep beneath an ancient mausoleum in the local cemetery. North Coven must confront the red-gloved monster that took piece after piece of Bastion, that he fought until his last breath. Not knowing that Bastion left behind the key to its destruction...
Now, Conjurers is a wildly original, spine-chilling YA debut about queer found family and a love that outlasts death.
Looking for Smoke by K.A. Cobell (Heartdrum)
Instead, a girl from the Giveaway, Samantha White Tail, is found murdered.
Because the members of the Giveaway group were the last to see Samantha alive, each becomes a person of interest in the investigation:
New-girl Mara, who hated Samantha for being particularly cruel.
Grief-stricken Loren Arnoux, who was Samantha’s best friend until her sister’s disappearance drove a wedge between them.
Class-clown Brody Clark, whose unreciprocated crush on Samantha is an open secret.
And tough-guy Eli First Kill, who has his own complicated history with Samantha.
Despite deep mistrust, the four must now take matters into their own hands and clear their names. Even though one of them may be the murderer.
In her powerful debut novel, Looking for Smoke, author K. A. Cobell (Blackfeet) weaves loss, betrayal, and complex characters into a mystery that will illuminate, surprise, and engage readers until the final word.
Rapunzella, or Don't Touch My Hair by Ella McLeod (Little Bee Books) - previously published in the UK.
Zella is imprisoned in an enchanted forest made of her own Afro, and the might of the evil King Charming seems unstoppable. But is it? Can she use her power to change the future?
You're fifteen. You spend your time at school and at Val's hair salon with Baker, Val's son, who has eyes that are like falling off a cliff into space. The salon is a space of safety, but also of possibility and dreams. When you dream, you visit an enchanted forest full of friends and wonder. You dream of witches and magic, of hair so rich and alive that it grow upwards and outwards into a wild landscape, becomes trees and leaves, and houses birds and butterflies and all the secret creatures that belong in such a forest. But when you wake, your memories vanish, and you are just you, trying to navigate relationships and learning who you will grow up to be.
Is there a future where your dreams are more than just dreams?
Ella McLeod's debut merges poetry, prose, and second person point of view in a stunningly lyrical, heart-piercingly honest exploration of a teenager coming into her power as a young woman.Lady of Steel and Straw by Erica Ivy Rodgers (Peachtree Teen)
Lady Charlotte Sand was born to calm the restless dead, but her power has grown unpopular thanks to the newly ascendant religion of the Silent Gods. Worse, her family’s ancestral Guardian, a lavender scarecrow who was once a defender of the crown, hasn’t woken for a new heir since her father’s sordid death. With other Guardians also reduced to pitiful bags of herbs on distant farms, the Order of the Old Gods is a struggling remnant filled with political exiles. But darkness stirs in Niveaux, and the spirits of the dead are turning into vengeful wraiths with alarming frequency.
Captain Luc de Montaigne is a pious follower of the Silent Gods, and he comes calling on Sand Manor with orders to collect the magic hearts of every sleeping Guardian. His success would purge the kingdom of the Old Gods once and for all, but Charlotte proves defiant and triggers a faction war. As an army of the dead amasses and dormant warriors stir from slumber, Luc and Charlotte grapple with a forbidden kill the other and step closer to victory—or yield to the electricity between them. The hearts they stand to lose may, in fact, be their own.
June 6th
Of Jade and Dragons by Amber Chen (Viking)
Eighteen-year-old Aihui Ying dreams of becoming a brilliant engineer just like her beloved father - but her life is torn apart when she arrives a moment too late to stop his murder, and worse, lets the killer slip out of reach. Left with only a journal containing his greatest engineering secrets and a jade pendant snatched from the assassin, Ying vows to take revenge into her own hands.
Disguised as her brother, Ying heads to the capital city, and discovers that the answer to finding who killed her father lies behind the walls of the prestigious Engineers Guild - the home of a past her father never wanted to talk about. With the help of an unlikely ally - Aogiya Ye-yang, a taciturn (but very handsome) young prince - Ying must navigate a world fraught with rules, challenges and politics she can barely grasp, let alone understand.
But to survive, she must fight to stay one step ahead of everyone. And when faced with the choice between doing what's right and what's necessary, Ying will have to decide if her revenge is truly worthwhile, if it means going against everything her father stood for...
Spilled Ink by Nadine Hashimi (Quill Tree Books)
When high school senior Yalda hears that her twin brother, Yusuf, will be performing with his band at a local venue—in spite of their parents’ strict rules—she lets her friends convince her to sneak out to see his show. Even more exciting: Yusuf’s friend Keith asked her to go with him, and Yalda can’t help but feel a little fluttery about their maybe-date.
But the night has something else in store. After the opening band makes some ugly jokes about “terrorists,” Yusuf uses his time in the spotlight for an impulsive stunt responding to the hate speech. And suddenly, simmering tensions begin boiling over in their Virginia town—where many Afghan refugees have sought safety, helped by Afghan American families like Yalda’s and teams of welcoming neighbors.
When a video of Yusuf’s performance goes viral online, it seems like everyone in town turns against their family’s restaurant, leaving their livelihood in jeopardy. And then Yusuf is seriously injured in a mysterious fall.
Despite her grieving and frightened family, friends she is not sure she can trust, and a town that no longer feels like a safe home, Yalda must try to find her own voice—and do what she can to change her world for the better.
Bad Graces by Kyrie McCauley (Katherine Tegan Books)
Liv Whitlock knows she doesn’t belong there. But after years of stumbling between foster homes, often due to her own self-destructive tendencies, Liv desperately needs to change the trajectory of her life . . . so she steals her perfect sister’s identity.
Using her sister’s grades and clean record, Liv starts to rewrite her story, winning a prestigious internship on a movie set filming in Alaska. Then executive producer Vincent Bellegarde changes her travel plans. Instead of a commercial flight, Liv finds herself on a luxury yacht alongside pop star Paris Grace, actress sisters Effie and Miri Knight, Olympic gymnast Rosalind Torres, and social media influencer Celia Jones. Liv tries to find common ground with her famous companions, but just as the group starts to bond, a violent storm wrecks their vessel, stranding them on a slip of an island in the North Pacific Ocean.
Among the threats of starvation and exposure, they learn there is a predator lurking in the forest, unlike anything they’ve seen before—until they begin to see it in themselves. Every injury they suffer on the island causes inexplicable changes in their bodies, transforming them bit by inhuman bit. With little hope for rescue and only each other as their final tether to humanity, can the girls endure the ominous forces at work on the island? Or will they lose themselves to their darker natures?
June 10th
Where Wolves Don't Die by Anton Treuer (Levine Querido)
Ezra gets into a terrible fight with Matt at school defending Nora, and that same night, Matt's house burns down. Instantly, Ezra becomes a prime suspect. Knowing he won't get a fair deal, and knowing his innocence, Ezra's family sends him away to run traplines with his grandfather in a remote part of Canada, while the investigation is ongoing. But the Schroeders are looking for him. . .
From acclaimed author Anton Treuer comes a novel that's both taut thriller and a raw, tender coming-of-age story, about one Ojibwe boy learning to love himself through the love of his family around him.
June 11th
The Ghost of Us by James L. Sutter (Wednesday Books)
Eighteen-year-old ghost hunter Cara is determined to escape life as a high school outcast by finding proof of the supernatural. Yet when she stumbles upon the spirit of Aiden, a popular upperclassman who died the previous year, she learns that ghosts have goals of their own. In the wake of his death, Aiden’s little sister, Meredith, has become a depressed recluse, and Aiden can’t pass on into the afterlife until he knows she’ll be okay. Believing that nothing pulls someone out of a slump like romance, he makes Cara a deal: seduce Meredith out of her shell and take her to prom, and Aiden will give Cara all the evidence she needs for fame. If not, well—no dates, no ghost.
Wooing the standoffish Meredith isn’t going to be easy, however. With Aiden’s coaching, Cara slowly manages to win Meredith over—but finds herself accidentally falling for her in the process. Worse yet: as Meredith gets happier and Aiden’s mission nears completion, his ghost begins to fade. Can Cara continue to date Meredith under false pretenses, especially if it means Aiden will vanish forever? Or should she tell Meredith the truth, and risk both of them hating her? And either way, will she lose her only shot at proving ghosts are real?
Love, Off the Record by Samantha Markum (Margaret K. McElderry Books)
Wyn is going to beat Three even if it kills her—or, preferably, him. Being freshmen staffers on the university newspaper puts them at the bottom of the pecking order—until a rare reporter spot opens up. Wyn and Three are both determined to get the position, starting a game of sabotage that pushes them to do their worst, from stealing each other’s ideas to playing twisted mind games. No road is too low when it comes to winning.
As Wyn’s search for the perfect story leads her to an anonymous, campus-wide dating app, she hits it off with a mystery man she thinks might be the cute RA from her dorm. But Wyn is all too familiar with being rejected because of her weight, and she’s hesitant to reveal her identity, even as she grows closer with someone who might be the guy of her dreams.
When Three breaks a story that’s closer to home than he or Wyn expects, the two must put aside their differences to expose the truth—and face their real feelings for each other, which threaten everything Wyn has built with her anonymous match.
Seasick by Kristin Cast and Pintip Dunn (Delacorte) - moved from July 2024.
Ex–best friends Naya Morgan and Yana Bunpraserit have always felt like outsiders in their small Oklahoma town. But this year, everything changes when they’re inducted into an exclusive society of Yatesville High’s top recent graduates. Unimaginable opportunities await them, starting with a celebratory yacht trip to Bermuda. Despite the likely onslaught of microaggressions and backhanded compliments from their peers—in addition to their own rocky past—Yana and Naya are ready for an epic voyage.
Then one of their classmates is brutally murdered, leaving them stuck at sea with a killer. Yana and Naya may have avoided each other for years, yet as the body count rises, rekindling their friendship might be the only way they’ll both survive.
Brownstone by Samuel Teer and Mariana Julia (Versify) - YA graphic novel, moved from 2022.
Almudena has always wondered about the dad she never met.
Now, with her WASP-y mother headed on a once-in-a-lifetime dance tour of Europe, she’s left alone with her Guatemalan American father for an entire summer. Xavier seems happy to see her, but he expects her to live in (and help fix up) his old, broken-down brownstone. And all along, she must constantly navigate the language barrier of his rapid-fire Spanish—which she doesn’t speak—and her fluent English—which he barely knows.
As Almudena tries to adjust to this new reality, she also encounters the various residents of Xavier’s Latin American neighborhood. Each member of the community has their own joys and heartbreaks, as well as their own opinion of this half-Latina and how she should talk, dress, and behave. Some can’t understand why she doesn’t know where she comes from. Others think she’s not cut out to be anything but an outsider, “not brown enough” to fit in.
But time is running out for Almudena and Xavier to get to know each other, and the key to their connection may ultimately lie in bringing all these different elements together. Fixing a broken building is one thing, but turning a bunch of contentious individuals into a found family might take more than this one summer.
An exciting teen coming-of-age epic from author Samuel Teer and debut graphic novel artist Mar Julia, Brownstone is a vivid, sweeping, ultimately hopeful story about navigating your heritage, even when you feel like you don’t quite fit.
A year has passed since superstar Winter and secret agent Sydney Cossette went undercover - on a dangerous mission to bring down the baddest man in London.
Winter hasn't stopped thinking about Sydney since, and she's been trying not to think about him
Family secrets and nasty newspapers has Winter desperate to re-enter the secret world. And it's not long before he gets his chance.
Sydney is back, and this time the mission goes right to the heart of the United States of America. A rescue gone wrong, an assassination attempt - and the return of an old flame - puts Winter right back into the action . . . and into a country on the brink of chaos.
And when a murder accusation has Sydney on the run, suddenly it's not just a life at stake, but all-out war.
The Wilderness of Girls by Madeline Claire Franklin (Zando)
In her ambitious debut perfect for fans of Sadie and The Hazel Wood , Madeline Claire Franklin crafts a gripping exploration of how the world teaches young girls to cage their wildness―and what happens when they claw themselves free.
After being placed in foster care, Rhi is hungry for a fresh start and begins working at the Happy Valley Wildlife Preserve. While in the woods, she stumbles upon a surreal a pack of wolves guarding four feral and majestic girls. After Rhi gains their trust, they reveal that they’re princesses from another land, raised by a magical prophet they call Mother―and they're convinced Rhi is their lost fifth sister.
Unsure what to believe, Rhi ushers the girls to civilization, where they’re met with societal uproar and scrutiny, dubbed by the ravenous media and true crime junkies as “The Wild Girls of Happy Valley.” Desperate to return to their kingdom, the girls look to Rhi for help. Rhi knows the girls are deluded, but at the same time she’s drawn in by their boldness and authenticity―traits she is afraid she has lost within herself. And when Rhi witnesses strange phenomena she can’t quite explain, the line between fantasy and reality grows blurry.
As the hunt for answers intensifies, Rhi must make a decision that will change the course of her lives and the lives of her Wild Girls forever.
Hearts of Fire and Snow by Guadalupe Garcia McCall and David Bowles (Bloomsbury) - YA graphic novel.
Blanca Montes wants to make a difference in the world, to do more than her wealthy godfather and spoiled boyfriend think her capable of. So when Greg Chan shows up as a new student at her Nevada school, she is more than intrigued by this handsome, brilliant stranger.
But Greg and Blanca are drawn to each other by something stronger--their fates entwined centuries ago. In his first life, Greg was Captain Popoca, and Blanca is the reincarnation of Princess Iztac, who took her own life after believing her beloved Popoca was sent to his death in battle. Greg has spent a thousand years searching for his lost love, and now the fates have given them one more chance to reunite. Will their hearts finally beat as one?
This swoony contemporary fantasy is perfect for fans of These Violent Delights and This Poison Heart.
Dead Girls Talking by Megan Cooley Peterson (Holiday House) - some editions titled Pretty Dead Girls.
Everyone knows Bettina’s father was the one who murdered her mother a decade ago. It’s the subject of podcasts, murder tours, and even a highly anticipated docuseries. But after growing up grappling with what that means, a string of copycat murders forces Bett to answer a harder What if he didn’t ?
Old-money Bett must team up with the only person willing to investigate alongside bookish goth girl Eugenia, the mortician’s daughter, who everyone says puts the makeup on corpses. Can this “true crime princess” unmask a murderer who’s much closer to home than she ever imagined?
Gritty, gripping, and propulsive from page one, Pretty Dead Girls is a ride for readers who love to see girls get their hands dirty as they claw their way to the truth. Peterson’s knife-sharp thriller cuts deep, with a wicked sense of humor, a wire-taut atmosphere, and a deadly serious approach to bigger transparency, justice, and female anger.
June 18th
Twelth Knight by Alexene Farol Follmuth (Tor Teen)
Viola Reyes is annoyed.
Her painstakingly crafted tabletop game campaign was shot down, her best friend is suggesting she try being more “likable,” and school quarterback Jack Orsino is the most lackadaisical Student Body President she’s ever seen, which makes her job as VP that much harder. Vi’s favorite escape from the world is the MMORPG Twelfth Knight, but online spaces aren’t exactly kind to girls like her―girls who are extremely competent and have the swagger to prove it. So Vi creates a masculine alter ego, choosing to play as a knight named Cesario to create a safe haven for herself.
But when a football injury leads Jack Orsino to the world of Twelfth Knight, Vi is alarmed to discover their online alter egos―Cesario and Duke Orsino―are surprisingly well-matched.
As the long nights of game-play turn into discussions about life and love, Vi and Jack soon realise they’ve become more than just weapon-wielding characters in an online game. But Vi has been concealing her true identity from Jack, and Jack might just be falling for her offline…
The Calculation of You + Me by Serena Kaylor (Wednesday Books)
Marlowe Thompson understands a lot of things. She understands that calculus isn’t overwhelmingly beautiful to everyone, and that it typically kills the mood when you try to talk Python coding over beer pong. She understands people were surprised when golden boy Josh asked her out and she went from weird, math-obsessed Marlowe to half of their school’s couple goals. Unfortunately, Marlowe was surprised when Josh dumped her because he’d prefer a girlfriend who was more romantic. One with emotional depth.
But Marlowe has never failed anything in her life, and she isn’t about to start now. When she’s paired with Ashton Hayes for an English project, his black clothing and moody eyeliner cause a bit of a systems overload, and the dissonant sounds of his rock band make her brain itch. But when she discovers Ash's hidden stash of love songs, Marlowe makes a desperate deal to unleash her inner romantic heroine: if Ash will agree to help her write some love letters, she’ll calculate the perfect data analytics formula to make Ash's band go viral.
As the semester heats up with yearning love notes and late nights spent with a boy who escapes any box her brain tries to put him in, Marlowe starts to question if there’s really a set solution to love. Could a girl who has never met a problem she couldn’t solve have gotten the math so massively wrong?
Masquerade of the Heart by Katy Rose Pool (Henry Holt) - previously titled Mask of the Ruthless.
Caraza sits poised on the edge of chaos. Tensions rise between the Five Families and trouble brews in the Marshes—and Marlow is at the center of it all. In the tragic aftermath of the Vale-Falcrest wedding, Adrius refuses to speak to her, publicly vowing to find a wife before the year is out. Despite her heartbreak, Marlow is still intent on breaking his curse. To do so, she’ll have to play loving daughter to the man who cast it. But the closer she gets to her father, the more she starts to question if he’s really the villain she’s made him out to be.
Marlow has learned by now that in a city steeped in secrets and lies, not everything is as it seems. As the lines between enemy and ally blur, Marlow must decide who to trust—and how high a price she’s willing to pay for the truth.
With Love, Miss Americanah by Jane Igaharo (Feiwel and Friends) - moved from 2023, previously titled Sisi Americanah.
17-year-old Enore Adesuwa doesn’t dive into things, she wades in very carefully. So when she, her mother, and her sister move from Nigeria to America shortly after her father’s death, she wants to be as prepared as possible for attending American high school. Her cousin, Adrian, doesn’t have time to explain the ins and outs to her but, luckily, he recommends the perfect research tool: teen movies.
Still dealing with grief but armed with a list of rules of survival (including no drawing attention to herself) gathered from these beloved movies, Enore is ready as she’ll ever be for senior year. But when she meets Davi Santiago, it may be much harder than she thought to keep to her rules. Because not only is he super thoughtful (and okay, very good looking), he constantly encourages her to share her incredible singing voice. Enore prefers the background but it just might be time for her to take center stage, even in spite of her mother’s own strict rules and desires for her.
With help from her rules, her crush, her younger sister, and some new friends who don’t quite fit the roles she expects them to play, Enore just might make it through, and even enjoy, senior year.
All Roads Lead to Rome by Sabrina Fedel (Delacorte)
Introverted, slightly anxious Astoria “Story” Herriot knows everything about Rome—her mom’s an attorney here and the two of them are living la dolce vita… at least until Story’s off to college in the fall.
But when Story is in the wrong gelato shop at the right time, she’s swept up in a fake dating scheme with Scottish heartthrob, Luca Kinnaird, to protect his relationship with a pop princess. There’s something in it for her, too—Luca promises to help fund a scholarship in her dad’s memory. Soon she’s showing Luca the best cafés, sightseeing at the Mouth of Truth, and picnicking at the ruins of the Abbey of Santa Maria del Piano. Story’s travel guide skills are 10/10, but what she knows about being a celebrity—or having feelings for one? Zero.
Pretending to be Luca’s guide—then his girlfriend—gets the paparazzi’s attention . . . and what’s true and what’s fake gets blurry as their different worlds crash together. Sophisticated, hot, rich, and with the most charming accent ever, Luca is full of surprises. And maybe, too, is Story’s perfectly planned future.
It’s a fairy-tale romance in the Eternal City…will it have a fairy tale ending?
If You Can't Take the Heat by Michael Ruhlman (Penguin Workshop) - details not yet updated on Goodreads.
When
high school football star Theo Claverback breaks his leg just weeks
after a devastating break-up, he’s forced to call an audible on his
summer plans and put his college ones on hold. He soon finds himself in
the most unlikely of places for a jock on crutches: the kitchen of an
upscale French restaurant, where he’ll work as a line cook while his
heart and leg heal.
But it’s in the kitchen where Theo finds new
purpose and a new romance. As he becomes a trusted employee to Chef and
is welcomed into his inner circle, Theo begins to discover the true
costs of running a restaurant—and what happens when you get into hot
water with the wrong people.
Set in Cleveland, Ohio in 1980, If You Can’t Take the Heat is a gritty look inside the belly of an upscale kitchen where love and danger boil behind closed doors.
They were promised for marriage since birth, and raised to bring down kingdoms, but the triplet princesses of Bessemia’s true destiny has always been to die—and one already has. Since Sophronia’s murder Princesses Daphne and Beatriz have discovered the truth: that they are pawns in their mother’s game. A scheme that will see her empress not just of Bessemia, but the entire continent of Vesteria. But the princesses have their own plans.
Beatriz and Daphne are still separated by a continent, and there are enemies everywhere, but now they have allies, and they stretch across the borders of Vesteria. Sophronia’s husband, the deposed King Leopold; Violie, a former spy for Empress Margaraux; and Beatriz’s missing husband, Pasquale and his lover, Ambrose. Now, with their help and the magic of the stars above, the princesses are ready to make their final stand.
But whispers of an ancient prophecy follow them--there are secrets from the their past that have yet to be revealed—and every move they make, the empress seems to always be one step ahead them. If there’s any hope for the princesses, the girls will need to use every skill their mother taught them, trust in the magic in their veins, and defy fate, itself—or all is lost for the people of Vesteria.
Rules for Camouflage by Kirstin Cronn-Mills (Little, Brown)
Evvie Chambers is doing her best to skate through the last month of high school to graduation. The only thing standing in her way is a biology report on foxes—and her teacher, Mrs. Audrey Dearborn. The same Mrs. Dearborn who’s been a thorn in Evvie’s side for years, refusing to acknowledge or accommodate her neurodiversity. Evvie would much rather be doing her report on Aretha, the octopus she cares for when she volunteers at the Minnesota Zoo but deviating from the exact assignment isn’t allowed—and Mrs. Dearborn isn’t going to make following the rules easy.
Evvie’s only escape from high school hell is the a safe haven for kids whose brains need some time away. But when Mrs. Dearborn refuses Evvie’s pleas to finesse the final report assignment to her strengths, and persistent bully Vandal McDaniel directs his harassment toward Lair members, Evvie finds herself more desperate than ever for stability and support.
When a shocking act of violence pushes the whole mess over the edge, Evvie, with the help of her friends and the others who love her, will have to figure out how to find her place in the wide world, while remaining true to herself.
A Game Most Foul by Alison Gervais (Blink)
Attending the prestigious Ashford College’s writing seminar is a dream come true for Jules Montgomery, but the summer isn’t unfolding as she hoped. Navigating London with her gradual hearing loss is difficult, and hiding it from her classmates is a challenge. Even worse, she can’t seem to shake a case of writer’s block. When a fellow student goes missing, neither the police nor their teacher, Professor Watson, seem that concerned. Jules and her new friends Percy and Suruthi are determined to get to the bottom of the case and they’re not the strange man who frequents Jules’ aunt’s antique shop is eager to help—and his name is none other than Sherlock Holmes.
Now there are two mysteries to solve. What happened to their missing classmate? And how can it be that Watson and Holmes—two fictional characters from the Victorian era—are alive and well in the 21st century? The only way to find answers might lie in a quote from one of Watson’s old “You see, but you do not observe.” Jules may not be able to hear all that well, but without her hearing aids, she can certainly see more than the average person. And nothing about this is case is average.
June 25th
Crashing Into You by Rocky Callen (Henry Holt) - previously titled Juramento.
Leti dreams of becoming a famous female street racer. But while she's at ease behind the wheel, she feels out of place in the stifling halls of fancy Philmore Academy. Her only daily refuge is listening to the rhythmic tapping of the shy classmate she's never spoken to―Jacob, a boy on the autism spectrum. Curious to know more about this gentle, quiet boy, Leti invites Jacob to join her on a car ride, and as they experience the thrill of the wind racing through their hair, they start to fall for each other.
But when tragedy soon strikes following a race, Leti blames herself and swears an oath to give up driving. But will she be able to keep her promise when racing could be the very thing that saves Jacob... and herself?
Children of Anguish and Ancarchy by Tomi Adeyemi (Henry Holt) - moved from 2020, then from 2021, then from 2023.
New allies rise.
The Blood Moon nears.
Zélie faces her final enemy.
The king who hunts her heart.
When Zelie seized the royal palace that fateful night, she thought her battles had come to an end. The monarchy had finally fallen. The maji had risen again. Zélie never expected to find herself locked in a cage and trapped on a foreign ship. Now warriors with iron skulls traffic her and her people across the seas, far from their homeland.
Then everything changes when Zélie meets King Baldyr, her true captor, the ruler of the Skulls, and the man who has ravaged entire civilizations to find her. Baldyr’s quest to harness Zélie’s strength sends Zélie, Amari, and Tzain searching for allies in unknown lands.
But as Baldyr closes in, catastrophe charges Orïsha’s shores. It will take everything Zélie has to face her final enemy and save her people before the Skulls annihilate them for good.
We Shall Be Monsters by Tara Sim (Nancy Paulsen Books) - moved from 2023.
When
her sister Lasya dies, Kajal vows to bring her back to life using any
means necessary. But in preventing Lasya from rejoining the cycle of
reincarnation, her sister’s soul turns corrupt and warps into a bhuta—a
violent, wraith-like spirit hell-bent on murdering those who wronged it
in life. With each kill, her sister’s bhuta becomes stronger and
angrier, and Kajal’s chances of resurrecting Lasya with her soul intact
grow slimmer.
Blamed for Lasya’s kills and declared a witch,
Kajal is locked away with little hope of escape until two strangers who
label themselves rebels arrive and offer to help free her. The catch:
She must resurrect the kingdom’s fallen crown prince, aiding a coup to
overthrow the usurper who murdered the royal family decades ago.
Desperate to return to Lasya’s body, Kajal rushes to revive the
prince…Only to discover that she hasn’t resurrected the crown prince,
but another boy entirely.
All her life, Kajal has trusted no one
but her sister. But with Lasya dead and rebels ready to turn her over to
the usurper’s ruthless soldiers, Kajal is forced to work with the boy
she mistakenly revived to find the right prince—before the rebels
discover her mistake, or Lasya’s bhuta finally turns its murderous fury
on the person truly responsible for her death: Kajal.
Girls Like Her by Melanie Sumrow (Balzer + Bray)
Cadence is aware of the cold reality of Ruby’s situation, even before she was arrested. Angry and alone, homeless and hungry, breaking the law just to survive, Ruby is the kind of girl no one wants to listen to, especially not the prosecutor who wants to put her away for life.
But no one knows the story—the real story—of what happened the day Ruby met the man who would end up dead. As the layers of truth are peeled away, and time is running out, Ruby and Cadence will both have desperate choices to make—choices that could mean the difference between Ruby spending her life in prison, or her name being cleared.
Told through a collection of letters, meeting notes, news articles, court transcripts, and more, Girls Like Her is
a riveting and unflinching tale of the truths so often lost in the
American justice system, and one girl’s fight to be heard.
Sleep Like Death by Kalynn Bayron (Bloomsbury) - moved from 2023, then from July 2024. Release date not yet updated on Goodreads but confirmed by author.
Only the truly desperate - and foolish - seek out the Knight, an ancient monster who twists wishes into curses. Eve knows this first-hand: one of her mothers was cursed by the Knight and trapped in the body of a songbird. With the unique abilities to communicate with animals and conjure weapons from nature, Eve has trained all her life to defeat him.
With more and more villagers harmed by the Knight's corrupt deals, Eve believes she's finally ready to face him. But when Queen Regina begins acting strangely - talking to seemingly no one, isolating herself, and lashing out at the slightest provocation - Eve must question if her powers are enough to save her family and her kingdom.
Six More Months of June by Daisy Garrison (Flatiron Books)
Golden boy Caplan and bookish Mina have been unlikely soulmates since third grade. Bound by growing up in single-mother households on the same cul-de-sac in Two Docks, Michigan, their friendship exists miraculously outside their high school's social order. Mina is class valedictorian, expected by her late father's parents to attend his Ivy alma mater; Caplan is laughing off prom-king predictions and the fear that he's peaking too soon. When Cap's skateboard-toting, detention-dodging best friend confesses his feelings for Mina, she is whisked into a social life she never imagined, bumping shoulders with the likes of Caplan's queen-bee girlfriend. Caplan is determined that things stay just as they've always been, while Mina faces the perils and privileges of opening her heart just in time to say goodbye. As the sun sets on senior year, everything glows. What will Cap and Mina discover in the last-chance light?
Alyssa
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for this list! I can only imagine the changes you have to make when the dates are reschedule. I just really appreciate this!
ReplyDelete