May 2021 New Releases





May 1st
Truly, Madly, Deadly by Hannah Jayne (Sourcebooks Fire) - re-release.

A heart-pounding thriller where a secret admirer turns deadly in the name of protection

They Said It Was An Accident...

Sawyer Dodd is a star athlete, a straight-A student, and the envy of every other girl who wants to date Kevin Anderson. When Kevin dies in a tragic car crash, Sawyer is stunned. Then she opens her locker to find a note:

You're welcome.

Someone saw what he did to her. Someone knows that Sawyer and Kevin weren't the perfect couple they seemed to be. And that someone--a killer--is now shadowing Sawyer's every move...





May 4th
The Ones We're Meant to Find by Joan He (Roaring Brook Press)

One of the most twisty, surprising, engaging page-turner YAs you’ll read this year—We Were Liars with sci-fi scope, Lost with a satisfying resolution.

Two sisters. One awakes on a deserted island with no memory how she got there. From the safety of her city floating above an Earth decimated by natural disasters, the other, a science and math prodigy, mourns the sibling she believes died from a terminal disease. Both think what they know about each other and their world is true and sound. Both are dead wrong.

Unable to overcome her grief or guilt, Kasey toys with the idea of having the memories of her sister excised. Then she receives an encrypted file from her sister’s user ID. Faced with the possibility that her sister might still be alive, Kasey retraces her final steps. When a series of manmade disasters rocks the planet, Kasey will have to decide if she’s ready to use science to help humanity, even though it failed the person who mattered most.

 The Block by Ben Oliver (Scholastic)

In the second book of The Loop trilogy, Luka is trapped in a fate worse than death. But now that he knows the truth about what him and his fellow inmates are being used for, it's more important than ever that he not only escapes, but that he builds an army.

Luka in a prisoner once again. But this time it's a fate worse than death. In the Block, he must toggle between enduring an Energy Harvest for twelve hours of the day and surviving complete immobilization. The only semblance of relief is the Sane Zone, created to keep prisoners from going completely mad. In this virtual reality, the prisoners live out their fantasies of life outside. But for Luka, it's different.

Happy is determined to find out the location of his friends, who disappeared after the Battle of Midway Park. But can Luka battle the descent into madness long enought to stop Happy's manipulation tactics and keep his friends' location safe?

Another prison break is the only chance to protect the Missing. And as reality becomes increasingly scrambled on the outside, it'll take an army to stop Galen from carrying out his plans.


Indivisible by Daniel Aleman (Disney Hyperion)

Indivisible by Daniel AlemanThere is a word Mateo Garcia and his younger sister Sophie have been taught to fear for as long as they can remember: deportation. Over the past few years, however, the fear that their undocumented immigrant parents could be sent back to Mexico has started to fade to the back of their minds. And why wouldn't it, when their Ma and Pa have been in the United States for so long, they have American-born children, and they're hard workers and good neighbors?

When two ICE agents come asking for Pa, the Garcia family realizes that the lives they've built are about to come crumbling down. And when Mateo returns from school one day to find that his parents have been taken, he'll have to come to terms with the fact that his family's worst nightmare has become a reality.

With his Ma and Pa being held in separate detention centers, Mateo must learn how to look after his sister and himself. The choices Mateo makes, and the people he turns to for help, might reunite his family… or tear them apart for good. With his parents’ fate and his own future hanging in the balance, Mateo must figure out who he is and what he is capable of, even as he’s forced to question what it means to be an American teenager in a country that rejects his own mom and dad.

Daniel Aleman’s INDIVISIBLE is a remarkable and timely story—both powerful in its explorations of immigration in America and deeply intimate in its portrait of a teen boy driven by his fierce, protective love for his parents and his sister.

Better Than the Movies by Lynn Painter (Simon Pulse)

In this rom-com about rom-coms, in the spirit of Kasie West and Jenn Bennett, a hopeless romantic teen attempts to secure a happily-ever-after moment with her forever crush, but finds herself reluctantly drawn to the boy next door.

Perpetual daydreamer Liz Buxbaum gave her heart to Michael a long time ago. But her cool, aloof forever crush never really saw her before he moved away. Now that he’s back in town, Liz will do whatever it takes to get on his radar—and maybe snag him as a prom date—even befriend Wes Bennet.

The annoyingly attractive next-door neighbor might seem like a prime candidate for romantic comedy fantasies, but Wes has only been a pain in Liz’s butt since they were kids. Pranks involving frogs and decapitated lawn gnomes do not a potential boyfriend make. Yet, somehow, Wes and Michael are hitting it off, which means Wes is Liz’s in.

But as Liz and Wes scheme to get Liz noticed by Michael so she can have her magical prom moment, she’s shocked to discover that she likes being around Wes. And as they continue to grow closer, she must reexamine everything she thought she knew about love—and rethink her own ideas of what Happily Ever After should look like.


This Is For Tonight by Jessica Patrick (Swoon Reads)
51547383. sy475Andi Kennedy knows the best cure for her breakup is a weekend at a music festival with her twin brother. Nothing gets her mind right like great bands, footage for her popular YouTube channel, and cute boys-including the charming guy in the next campsite.

But the daylight reveals the guy is Jay Bankar, popular YouTube prankster. Andi can’t stand Jay, but when she enters a contest to win an interview with the headlining band, he’s her biggest competition.

The interview will be huge for Andi's channel, and she'll do whatever it takes to win. But as she and Jay go head-to-head, Andi discovers there's more to him than his jerky on-screen persona. Soon she must decide what's more important-winning, or giving a second chance to a guy who couldn’t be more wrong for her.




When You Get the Chance and Robin Stevenson (Running Press Kids)
40216677. sy475Following cousins on a road trip to Pride as they dive into family secrets and friendships, When You Get the Chance is a contemporary YA novel, perfect for fans of David Levithan and Becky Albertalli, and for readers looking for a story of friendship and family.

As kids, Mark and his cousin Talia spent many happy summers together at the family cottage in Ontario, but a fight between their parents put an end to the annual event. Living on opposite coasts--Mark in Halifax and Talia in Victoria--they haven't seen each other in years. When their grandfather dies unexpectedly, Mark and Talia find themselves reunited at the cottage once again, cleaning it out while the family decides what to do with it.

Mark and Talia are both queer, but they soon realize that's about all they have in common, other than the fact that they'd both prefer to be in Toronto. Talia is desperate to see her high school sweetheart Erin, who's barely been in touch since leaving to spend the summer working at a coffee shop in the gay village. Mark, on the other hand, is just looking for some fun, and Toronto Pride seems like the perfect place to find it.

When a series of complications throws everything up in the air, Mark and Talia--with Mark's little sister Paige in tow--decide to hit the road for Toronto. With a bit of luck, and some help from a series of unexpected new friends, they might just make it to the big city and find what they're looking for. That is, if they can figure out how to start seeing things through each other's eyes. 

Blade of Secrets by Tricia Levenseller (Feiwel and Friends)

A teenage blacksmith with social anxiety accepts a commission from the wrong person and is forced to go on the run to protect the world from the most powerful magical sword she's ever made.

Eighteen-year-old Ziva prefers metal to people. She spends her days tucked away in her forge, safe from society and the anxiety it causes her, using her magical gift to craft unique weapons imbued with power.

Then Ziva receives a commission from a powerful warlord, and the result is a sword capable of stealing its victims' secrets. A sword that can cut far deeper than the length of its blade. A sword with the strength to topple kingdoms. When Ziva learns of the warlord’s intentions to use the weapon to enslave all the world under her rule, she takes her sister and flees.

Four companions—a blacksmith, a mercenary, a scholar, and an aspiring warrior—set out on a quest to keep the sword safe until they can find a worthy wielder or a way to destroy it entirely.

Meet Cute Diary by Emery Lee (Quill Tree Books)

Felix Ever After meets Becky Albertalli in this swoon-worthy, heartfelt rom-com about how a transgender teen’s first love challenges his ideas about perfect relationships.

Noah Ramirez thinks he’s an expert on romance. He has to be for his popular blog, the Meet Cute Diary, a collection of trans happily ever afters. There’s just one problem—all the stories are fake. What started as the fantasies of a trans boy afraid to step out of the closet has grown into a beacon of hope for trans readers across the globe.

When a troll exposes the blog as fiction, Noah’s world unravels. The only way to save the Diary is to convince everyone that the stories are true, but he doesn’t have any proof. Then Drew walks into Noah’s life, and the pieces fall into place: Drew is willing to fake-date Noah to save the Diary. But when Noah’s feelings grow beyond their staged romance, he realizes that dating in real life isn’t quite the same as finding love on the page.

In this charming novel by Emery Lee, Noah will have to choose between following his own rules for love or discovering that the most romantic endings are the ones that go off script.  

Sloppy Firsts: 20th Anniversary Edition by Megan McCafferty (Wednesday Books) 

The first book in the beloved, New York Times bestselling series—now with a new foreword from New York Times bestselling author Rebecca Serle

Jessica Darling is devastated when her best friend moves away from Pineville, New Jersey. With Hope gone, Jessica has no one she can really talk to. She doesn’t relate to the boy-and-shopping obsessed girls at school, or her dad’s obsession with track meets, and her mom is too busy planning big sister Bethany’s lavish wedding. Jessica is lost more than ever, and her nonexistent love life is only making things worse.

Fresh, funny, and utterly compelling, readers fell in love with Jessica Darling’s poignant, hilarious voice and have stayed with her through her ups and downs (and her mixed-up feelings about her first love, Marcus Flutie). A modern classic, readers will be excited to return to Pineville, New Jersey and Jessica Darling’s world with Sloppy Firsts.



Counting Down With You by Tashie Bhuiyan
(Inkyard Press)

In this sparkling and romantic YA debut, a reserved Bangladeshi teenager has twenty-eight days to make the biggest decision of her life after agreeing to fake date her school’s resident bad boy.

How do you make one month last a lifetime?

Karina Ahmed has a plan. Keep her head down, get through high school without a fuss, and follow her parents’ rules—even if it means sacrificing her dreams. When her parents go abroad to Bangladesh for four weeks, Karina expects some peace and quiet. Instead, one simple lie unravels everything.

Karina is my girlfriend. Tutoring the school’s resident bad boy was already crossing a line. Pretending to date him? Out of the question. But Ace Clyde does everything right—he brings her coffee in the mornings, impresses her friends without trying, and even promises to buy her a dozen books (a week) if she goes along with his fake-dating facade. Though Karina agrees, she can’t help but start counting down the days until her parents come back.

T minus twenty-eight days until everything returns to normal—but what if Karina no longer wants it to?

Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry by Joya Goffney (HarperTeen)

Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry by debut author Joya Goffney is the story of an overly enthusiastic list maker who is blackmailed into completing a to-do list of all her worst fears. It’s a heartfelt, tortured, contemporary YA high school romance with epistolary elements. Fans of Jenny Han’s To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before and Kristina Forest’s debut I Wanna Be Where You Are will love the juicy secrets, leap-off-the-page sexual tension and the enemy-to-lover romantic arc.
Quinn Jackson keeps track of everything—from the days she’s ugly cried, to “The Most Horrifying Moments of My Humanity”, to all the boys she’d like to kiss. All her lists are organized in a sectional red notebook that unfortunately looks a lot like Carter Bennett’s.

When Carter comes over after school to work on their history project, Quinn, distracted by his good looks and charm, doesn't notice when their notebooks are switched. Not only does Carter read her entire (mortifying!) journal of lists, he charges her hundreds of dollars to get her journal back… and further, comes up with a to-do list of his own, with separate fees attached to each challenge. If Quinn doesn’t complete every item by the end of the month, he’ll post pictures of her most personal lists to the whole school.

Through facing Carter’s enraging to-do list, Quinn unexpectedly finds the courage to move from passivity to action—to change the way she’s living her life, and somehow, to fall in love along the way.
 
Sunkissed by Kasie West (Delacorte)
A lighthearted and swoony contemporary YA romance by fan-favorite author Kasie West about a girl who finds that a summer spent at a family resort isn’t as bad as she imagined…and that falling in love is filled with heartache, laughter, and surprises!

After being betrayed by her best friend, Avery is hoping for a picture-perfect summer. Too bad her parents have dragged her and her sister to a remote family camp for the entire summer. And that’s not even the worst part. Avery also has to deal with no internet, a cute but off-limits staff member, and an always-in-her-face sister.

But what starts as a disaster turns into a whirlwind summer romance as Avery embarks on an unexpected journey to figure out what she truly wants and who she wants to be.
 
 


Where the Rhythm Takes You by Sarah Dass
(Balzer + Bray)

Seventeen-year-old Reyna has spent most of her life at her family’s gorgeous seaside resort in Tobago, the Plumeria. But what once seemed like paradise is starting to feel more like purgatory. It’s been two years since Reyna’s mother passed away, two years since Aiden – her childhood best friend, first kiss, first love, first everything – left the island to pursue his music dreams. Reyna’s friends are all planning their futures and heading abroad. Even Daddy seems to want to move on, leaving her to try to keep the Plumeria running.

And that's when Aiden comes roaring back into her life – as a VIP guest at the resort.

Aiden is now one-third of DJ Bacchanal – the latest, hottest music group on the scene. While Reyna has stayed exactly where he left her, Aiden has returned to Tobago with his Grammy-nominated band and two gorgeous LA socialites. And he may (or may not be) dating one of them…

Inspired by Jane Austen's Persuasion, Where the Rhythm Takes You is a romantic, mesmerizing novel of first love and second chances.

All Kinds of Other by James Sie (Quill Tree)

In this tender, nuanced coming-of-age love story, two boys—one who is cis and one who is trans—have been guarding their hearts to protect themselves, until their feelings for each other give them a reason to stand up to their fears.

Two boys are starting at a new school.

Jules is just figuring out what it means to be gay and hasn’t totally decided whether he wants to be out at his new school. His parents and friends have all kinds of opinions, but for his part, Jules just wants to make the basketball team and keep his head down.

Jack is trying to start over after a best friend break-up. He followed his actor father clear across the country to LA, but he’s also totally ready to leave his past behind. Maybe this new school where no one knows him is exactly what he needs.

When the two boys meet, the sparks are undeniable. But then a video surfaces linking Jack to a pair of popular transgender vloggers, and the revelations about Jack’s past thrust both Jack and Jules into the spotlight they’ve been trying to avoid. Suddenly both boys have a choice to make—between lying low where it’s easier or following their hearts.

Luck of the Titanic by Stacey Lee (Putnam)

From the critically acclaimed author of The Downstairs Girl comes the richly imagined story of Valora and Jamie Luck, twin British - Chinese acrobats traveling aboard the Titanic on its ill fated maiden voyage.

Southampton, 1912: Seventeen-year-old British-Chinese Valora Luck has quit her job and smuggled herself aboard the Titanic with two goals in mind: to reunite with her twin brother Jamie--her only family now that both their parents are dead--and to convince a part-owner of the Ringling Brothers Circus to take the twins on as acrobats. Quick-thinking Val talks her way into opulent firstclass accommodations and finds Jamie with a group of fellow Chinese laborers in third class. But in the rigidly stratified world of the luxury liner, Val's ruse can only last so long, and after two long years apart, it's unclear if Jamie even wants the life Val proposes. Then, one moonless night in the North Atlantic, the unthinkable happens--the supposedly unsinkable ship is dealt a fatal blow--and Val and her companions suddenly find themselves in a race to survive.

Stacey Lee, master of historical fiction, brings a fresh perspective to an infamous tragedy, loosely inspired by the recently uncovered account of six Titanic survivors of Chinese descent.

Words Composed of Sea and Sky by Erica George (Running Kids Press)

Michaela Dunn dreams of getting into an art school, but when her stepfather refuses to fund a trip there for a poetry workshop, Michaela enters a local contest searching for a poet to write the dedication plaque for a statue honoring Captain Benjamin Churchill, a whaler who died at sea over one hundred years ago. While searching for clues about this Cape Cod legend, Michaela discovers the diary of Leta Townsend from 1862 and gets a glimpse of Churchill that she didn't quite anticipate.
In 1862, Leta writes poetry under the name of Benjamin Churchill, thinking him dead after being attacked by a whale. Leta is astonished when Captain Churchill returns, completely unscathed, his death just a rumor. She quickly falls for him. But is she falling for the actual Benjamin Churchill, or the boy she constructed in her imagination? 



 

Sky Breaker by Addie Thorley (Page Street Kids)  

On the run from the king who banished her and the allies who betrayed her, Enebish travels with Serik and a band of rebels to find the deposed King of Verdenet, who is their only hope of uniting the Protected Territories and bringing peace to Ashkar.

Meanwhile, the Sky King’s patience with Ghoa has run its course. Enemy forces are bearing down on the Sky Palace, and when Ghoa throws all her power into a last-ditch effort to prove herself, the Sky King and her fellow warriors abandon her. Captured by enemy Zemyans, Ghoa is imprisoned and tortured by the merciless Kartok. Surprisingly, it’s not the Sky King he craves information on—but the First Gods, and the very nature of her otherworldly power.

Spirits fracture and alliances wither, as the monstrous outcast, the irreverent monk, and the disgraced warrior are drawn into a fight that will shape the course of an empire.
 

 

Hurricane Summer by Asha Bromfield (Wednesday Books)

Sometimes the storm is inside of you...

The powerful and emotional debut novel from Riverdale and Locke and Key actress Asha Bromfield that deals with colorism, classism, young love, the father-daughter dynamic—and what it means to discover your own voice in the center of complete destruction.












Realm Breaker by Victoria Aveyard (HarperTeen)

Who is left when the heroes fall?

Corayne lives at the end of the world. Year after year, she watches her pirate mother sail away to adventures she'll never share with Corayne. So when a mysterious immortal and deadly assassin appear on Corayne's doorstep telling her she is the last member of a dying bloodline, and the only one who can save the world, Corayne seizes the chance to have her own adventure.

But the world is in graver danger than they ever imagined; Corayne and her rag-tag group of allies are alone in a world that is slowly coming apart at the seams with little but their fading hope to guide them.

Now is not the age of heroes, but courage can bloom even in the darkest corners. And it just might be enough to save everything.
 

 

The Hollow Inside by Brooke Lauren Davis (Bloomsbury) - previously titled When We Come Home.

A gripping, twisty, thought-provoking YA debut about a girl caught in a web of betrayal and revenge, for fans of Sadie.

Phoenix and mom Nina have spent years on the road, using their charm and wits to swindle and steal to get by. Now they’ve made it to their ultimate destination, Mom’s hometown of Jasper Hollow. The plan: bring down Ellis Bowman, the man who ruined Nina’s life.

After Phoenix gets caught spying, she spins a convincing story that inadvertently gives her full access to the Bowman family. As she digs deeper into their secrets, she finds herself entrenched in the tale of a death and a disappearance that doesn’t entirely line up with what Mom has told her. Who, if anyone, is telling the whole truth?

Debut author Brooke Lauren Davis explores the murkiness of right and wrong, of choices and consequences and heroes and villains, in an eerily compelling and wholly satisfying small-town saga.

Take Me Home Tonight by Morgan Matson (Simon and Schuster) - some editions dated July 1st.
Ferris Bueller
meets Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist in this romp through the city that never sleeps from the New York Times-bestselling author of Since You've Been Gone.

Kat and Stevie may be best friends, but they are opposites in almost every way, except for the one that counts: they've both spent the last three years in Stanwich High's theater program, paying their dues. Now that they're seniors, they're ready to race into the future.

But before all that, they're sneaking out to spend a perfect night together in New York City. The plan is to go to the hottest restaurant, see an underground show, and have an adventure along the way.

What isn't in the plan:

Lost phones.
A massive fight.
A tiny pomeranian named Brad.
Losing each other.

Now, alone in New York City without money, without phones, and without one another, Kat and Stevie have to figure out what to do next. But there's a dog to return to its owner, a show to catch, a reservation to make, a party to crash, and a very cute boy to kiss. And if they manage to do all that, they might just find their way back to each other before the clock in Grand Central strikes midnight.
  


The People We Choose by Katelyn Detweiler (Holiday House)
When Calliope Silversmith meets her new neighbor Max, their chemistry is instantaneous, but the revelation of her biological father's identity throws her whole life into disarray.

Calliope Silversmith has always had just two friends in her small Pennsylvania town, Ginger and Noah, and she's fine with that. She's never wanted anything more than her best friends, her moms, their house in the woods, and their family-run yoga studio--except maybe knowing who her sperm donor is. Her curiosity has been building for years, and she can finally find out this summer when she turns eighteen.

But when Max and his family move into the sad old house across the woods from Calliope, she realizes it's nice to get to know someone new, so nice that she decides to break her no dating rule. The stability of her longtime trio wavers as she and Max start to spend more and more time together.

When Calliope finally finds out who her sperm donor is, she learns a truth more shocking and unfathomable than she could have ever dreamed: her donor is Max's father. How is this even possible? As she and Max struggle to redefine their friendship, Calliope realizes that she can turn a horrific situation into something positive by recognizing and accepting that family is both the one we are born into and the one we choose to make.

10 Truths and a Dare by Ashley Elston (Disney Hyperion) 
It's Senior Week, that magical in-between time after classes have ended but before graduation, chock-full of gimmicky theme parties, last-minute bonding, and family traditions. Olivia couldn't be more ready. Class salutatorian and confident in her future at LSU, she's poised to sail through to the next phase of her life.


But when the tiny hiccup of an unsigned off-campus P.E. form puts Olivia in danger of not graduating at all, she has one week to set things straight without tipping off her very big and very nosy extended family. Volunteering to help at a local golf tournament should do it, but since Olivia's mom equipped her phone with a tracking app, there'll be no hiding the fact that she's at the golf course instead of all the graduation parties happening at the same time. Unless, that is, she can convince the Fab Four--her ride-or-die cousins and best friends Sophie, Charlie, and Wes--to trade phones with her as they go through the motions of playing Olivia for the week.


Sure, certain members of the golf team are none too pleased with Olivia's sudden "passion" for the game. And sure, a very cute, very off-limits boy keeps popping up in Olivia's orbit. But she is focused! She has a schedule and a plan! Nothing can possibly go wrong . . . right?

May 11th
Illusionary by Zoraida Cordova (Disney Hyperion)
36152363. sy475Reeling from betrayal at the hands of the Whispers, Renata Convida is a girl on the run. With few options and fewer allies, she's reluctantly joined forces with none other than Prince Castian, her most infuriating and intriguing enemy. They're united by lofty goals: find the fabled Knife of Memory, kill the ruthless King Fernando, and bring peace to the nation. Together, Ren and Castian have a chance to save everything, if only they can set aside their complex and intense feelings for each other.

With the king's forces on their heels at every turn, their quest across Puerto Leones and beyond leaves little room for mistakes. But the greatest danger is within Ren. The Gray, her fortress of stolen memories, has begun to crumble, threatening her grip on reality. She'll have to control her magics--and her mind--to unlock her power and protect the Moria people once and for all.

For years, she was wielded as weapon. Now it's her time to fight back.

Switch by A.S. King (Dutton)

A surreal and timely novel about isolation and human connection from Michael L. Printz Award winner A.S. King.

Tru Beck is a teenage girl from Pennsylvania who lives in a world that has become trapped in a fold in time and space, where “real” time has stopped but humanity continues to mark artificial time based on a website called N3WCLOCK.com. Tru lives in a house that has a switch at its center. No one knows what the switch controls, but her father continually builds larger and larger boxes around the switch (Tru lives in Box #7). Tru leaves the box through a Tru-shaped hole to go to school, where she pays no attention to the new “Solution Time” curriculum. In fact, the only interesting thing that’s ever happened to Tru at school is when she discovers (on her first try) that she can throw a javelin farther than any human has ever thrown anything before in human history.




Lucy Clark Will Not Apologise by Margot Rabb
(Quill Tree Books)

Sixteen-year-old Lucy Clark has just been suspended from boarding school. Suddenly without a place to stay for the remaining three months of the semester, she’s sent to live with a cousin in the West Village neighborhood of New York City. Her new job: to care for Edith Fox, an elderly millionaire, and help her tend a secret garden in the middle of the city. But Edith has another task for Lucy—Edith believes someone is trying to murder her, and she enlists her young assistant to help protect her.

Can Lucy prevent Edith’s murder and save her life? Or is there no murderer at all, and Edith simply losing her mind?

Part coming-of-age story, part mystery, and part modern day Secret Garden, twists and turns abound in LUCY CLARK WILL NOT APOLOGIZE as the heroine starts her life over, finds her voice, and attempts to unravel the puzzles of her new world and her own heart.

 
The Other Side of Perfect by Mariko Turk (Little, Brown)
53305753. sy475Alina Keeler was destined to dance, but one terrifying fall shatters her leg--and her dreams of a professional ballet career along with it.

After a summer healing (translation: eating vast amounts of Cool Ranch Doritos and binging ballet videos on YouTube), she is forced to trade her pre-professional dance classes for normal high school, where she reluctantly joins the school musical. However, rehearsals offer more than she expected--namely Jude, her annoyingly attractive cast mate she just might be falling for.

But to move forward, Alina must make peace with her past and face the racism she had grown to accept in the dance industry. She wonders what it means to yearn for ballet--something so beautiful, yet so broken. And as broken as she feels, can she ever open her heart to someone else?

Touching, romantic, and peppered with humor, this debut novel explores the tenuousness of perfectionism, the possibilities of change, and the importance of raising your voice.


Baby & Solo by Lisabeth Posthuma (Candlewick Press)
44084731Sold just before the fair in a hotly contested auction, BABY & SOLO is an absorbing, disarming and searingly honest YA debut—perfect for fans of The Miseducation of Cameron Post and Eleanor & Park.

Seventeen-year-old Joel Teague is in the unique position of having completed seven years of treatment for a mental illness he may have never had. Now he’s got a new prescription from his therapist—a part-time job, which he finds at ROYO Video, a video rental store. He’s lugging around two humongous secrets (“The Bad Thing That Happened” and “What Was Wrong With Me,” as he refers to them) until he encounters, in his closed-off co-worker “Baby,” a remarkable and terrifying opportunity. To open up. To be there for her, and to be there. To choose vulnerability.

It’s a difficult choice. A childhood trauma has left him both more and less erratic than everyone around him (including his perpetually concerned parents and ROYO Video’s motley crew of femme fatales, enigmas and bratty-younger-brothers). And he’s obsessively chasing an elusive “normal life,” while navigating the pitfalls of exactly that.

BABY & SOLO explores urgent issues (LGBTQ+ identity, mental illness, female autonomy) by examining a less-enlightened time (the year 1996), to summon belly laughs and weepy spells almost simultaneously, and to trust its audience with a character and story as complex as the world around us. Joel’s voice is both hilarious and heart-bursting—and completely absorbs the reader as you hope he’ll find what he needs.

Cool For the Summer by Dalia Adler (Wednesday Books)

Lara's had eyes for exactly one person throughout her three years of high school: Chase Harding. He's tall, strong, sweet, a football star, and frankly, stupid hot. Oh, and he's talking to her now. On purpose and everything. Maybe...flirting, even? No, wait, he's definitely flirting, which is pretty much the sum of everything Lara's wanted out of life.

Except she’s haunted by a memory. A memory of a confusing, romantic, strangely perfect summer spent with a girl named Jasmine. A memory that becomes a confusing, disorienting present when Jasmine herself walks through the front doors of the school to see Lara and Chase chatting it up in front of the lockers.

Lara has everything she ever wanted: a tight-knit group of friends, a job that borders on cool, and Chase, the boy of her literal dreams. But if she's finally got the guy, why can't she stop thinking about the girl?

Cool for the Summer is a story of self-discovery and new love. It’s about the things we want and the things we need. And it’s about the people who will let us be who we are.


Fix by J. Albert Mann (Little, Brown)
53306316. sy475Eve and Lidia have been friends since Kindergarten. Eve was born with severe scoliosis. Lidia was born with one hand. Their structural deviations are not what brought them together, but they are what rips them apart.

Trapped and alone inside of an un-working body following surgery and filled with obvious regret, Eve is forced into her mind, an unhappy place since her split with Lidia. Under an increasing dependence on opiates and struggling to tell the difference between what is real and what is imagined, Eve strikes up a relationship--and a pact--with the devil. She wishes for everything to go back to the way it was, to have Lidia in her life again. But as she starts to unravel the past, she comes to realize that her memory is far from reliable and must come to grips with what she thinks she knows.






Lucky Girl by Jamie Pacton (Page Street Kids)

In Jamie Pacton’s hilarious and poignant sophomore novel, a teen wins the lotto jackpot and suspicion and jealousy spread through her small town before she can claim her prize. Perfect for fans of Rainbow Rowell and Becky Albertalli.

28,643,129. That’s how many dollars seventeen-year-old Fortuna Jane Belleweather just won in the lotto jackpot. It’s also how many reasons she has for not coming forward to claim her prize.

If she reveals her win before she turns eighteen, Jane’s hoarder mother will get the money. The last thing her mom needs is millions of dollars to buy more stuff. But Jane’s birthday is a month away, and it’s hard to keep $28 million secret for long in her tiny Wisconsin town.

After Jane’s best friend Bran declares on the news that he’ll be the one to find the lucky winner, he drags Jane into his schemes. In the meantime, everyone in town has big ideas about what they’d do with the money and strong opinions on why no one has claimed the prize. Suspicion and jealousy turns neighbor against neighbor and a hunt commences to find the lucky winner. As things in town get ugly, Jane begins to wonder: Could this much money actually be a bad thing?

War of Dragons by Jessica Cluess (Random House) - moved from May 1st.

The dragon throne has been claimed, but at what cost? Chaos bleeds across the fractured Empire, and the five royal houses feel the unease of destiny denied. The stunning sequel to House of Dragons, this is Three Dark Crowns meets The Breakfast Club with dragons.

The Trial for the crown is over, but not without consequence. For the first time in the history of Etrusia, four emperors sit on the dragon throne instead of one, and a cosmic imbalance has shaken the empire to its core. As the emperors struggle with their new reign, something old--something dark--rises beyond their reaches. A legend has awoken, and it's ready to force the world into its vision of order. And as the empire threatens to crack, war comes for our heroes whether they're ready or not.
 

 

 


Incredible Doom by Matt Bogart and Jesse Holden (HarperAlley) - YA Graphic Novel.

Incredible Doom is a compulsively readable YA graphic novel about unlikely alliances, daring escapes, stage magic, young love, and minor crime sprees all squeezed over dial-up modem connections in the early days of the internet.

It’s the dawn of a new age…the age of the internet.

Allison is drowning under the weight of her manipulative stage magician father. When he brings home the family’s first computer, she escapes into a thrilling new world where she meets Samir, a like-minded new online friend who has just agreed to run away from home with her.

After moving to a new town and leaving all of his friends behind, Richard receives a mysterious note in his locker with instructions on how to connect to “Evol BBS,” a dial-in bulletin board system, and meets a fierce punk named Tina who comes into his life and shakes his entire world view loose.


Not Our Summer by Casie Bazay
(Running Kids Press)

Unlikely alliances, first love, and minor crime sprees abound in this teen graphic novel debut about making connections while your world is falling apart. 

Five trips, two cousins, one family feud, and a summer that will change their lives forever.

It's bad enough that estranged cousins Becka and KJ see each other at their grandfather's funeral, but when he leaves them a bucket list of places to visit together over the summer, so they can earn their inheritance, it seems like things are about to get much worse.

However, with each trip the cousins complete -- like riding mules into the Grand Canyon or encountering a bear and a hot tour guide at Yellowstone -- they steadily learn about and begin to trust one another. That is until the truth behind Grandpa's bucket list, and their family feud, is revealed, testing Becka and KJ far beyond their limits.

Will they find a way to accept each other or will their grandpa's wish to mend his divided family end up buried alongside him inside his grasshopper green casket?


From Little Tokyo, with Love by Sarah Khun (Viking)

Ever feel like you're stuck in a fairy tale gone wrong? Celebrated author Sarah Kuhn explores the highs and lows of love and loss in this funny and poignant story of a girl who never thought happy endings were for people like her.

If Rika's life seems like a fairy tale in the making--being an orphan with two bossy cousins and working away in the family business--she would be the first one to reject that idiocy. After all, she loves her family (even if her cousins were named after Disney heroines) and working at her aunts' restaurant in LA's Little Tokyo is kind of fun. Anyway, with her judo skills, half-Asian heritage, and a healthy interest in Japanese snake-girl folklore, Rika is sure she's more the misunderstood witch than the singing princess.

All that changes the moment she locks eyes with Grace Kimura, America's reigning rom-com sweetheart, during the Nisei Week Festival. From there, Rika embarks on a wild adventure straight out of a Hallmark movie--discovering the truth about her mother, exploring Little Tokyo's hidden treasures with a cute boy who happens to be a famous actor, and maybe...finally losing that feeling of never quite belonging.

But fairy tales are fake, and the real world isn't so kind. Rika knows she's setting herself up for disappointment, because happy endings don't happen to girls like her. She can walk away now before she gets in even deeper, or let herself be swept away into heartache. What would a judo-fighting Japanese snake-girl do?

May 18th 
In the Ravenous Dark by A.M. Strickland (Imprint)

A pansexual bloodmage reluctantly teams up with an undead spirit to start a rebellion among the living and the dead, in this dark YA fantasy by A.M. Strickland, author of Beyond the Black Door , whom Richard Kadrey calls “a storyteller of both grace and power.”

In Thanopolis, those gifted with magic are assigned undead spirits to guard them—and control them. Ever since Rovan’s father died trying to keep her from this fate, she’s hidden her magic. But when she accidentally reveals her powers, she’s bound to a spirit and thrust into a world of palace intrigue and deception.

Desperate to escape, Rovan finds herself falling for two people she can’t fully trust: Lydea, a beguiling, rebellious princess; and Ivrilos, the handsome spirit with the ability to control Rovan, body and soul.

Together, they uncover a secret that will destroy Thanopolis. To save them all, Rovan will have to start a rebellion in both the mortal world and the underworld, and find a way to trust the princess and spirit battling for her heart—if she doesn’t betray them first.

Off the Record by Camryn Garrett (Knopf) -

The behind-the-scenes access of Almost Famous meets the searing revelations of #metoo in this story of a teen journalist who uncovers the scandal of the decade.

Ever since seventeen-year-old Josie Wright can remember, writing has been her identity, the thing that grounds her when everything else is a garbage fire. So when she wins a contest to write a celebrity profile for Deep Focus magazine, she’s equal parts excited and scared, but also ready. She’s got this.

Soon Josie is jetting off on a multi-city tour, rubbing elbows with sparkly celebrities, frenetic handlers, stone-faced producers, and eccentric stylists. She even finds herself catching feelings for the subject of her profile, dazzling young newcomer Marius Canet. Josie’s world is expanding so rapidly, she doesn’t know whether she’s flying or falling. But when a young actress lets her in on a terrible secret, the answer is clear: she’s in over her head.

One woman’s account leads to another and another. Josie wants to expose the man responsible, but she’s reluctant to speak up, unsure if this is her story to tell. What if she lets down the women who have entrusted her with their stories? What if this ends her writing career before it even begins? There are so many reasons not to go ahead, but if Josie doesn’t step up, who will?

From the author of Full Disclosure, this is a moving testament to the #MeToo movement, and all the ways women stand up for each other. 


It Goes Like This by Miel Moreland (Feiwel and Friends)
49109704. sy475In Miel Moreland's heartfelt young adult debut, It Goes Like This, four queer teens realize that sometimes you have to risk hitting repeat on heartbreak.

Eva, Celeste, Gina, and Steph used to think their friendship was unbreakable. After all, they've been though a lot together, including the astronomical rise of Moonlight Overthrow, the world-famous queer pop band they formed in middle school, never expecting to headline anything bigger than the county fair.

But after a sudden falling out leads to the dissolution of the teens' band, their friendship, and Eva and Celeste's starry-eyed romance, nothing is the same. Gina and Celeste step further into the spotlight, Steph disappears completely, and Eva, heartbroken, takes refuge as a songwriter and secret online fangirl...of her own band. That is, until a storm devastates their hometown, bringing the four ex-best-friends back together. As they prepare for one last show, they'll discover whether growing up always means growing apart.

Shipped by Meredith Tate - details not yet updated on Goodreads, but announced by publisher.

Can two IRL enemies find their happily ever after online?

Stella Greene and Wesley Clarke are Gene Connolly Memorial High School’s biggest rivals. While the two have been battling it out for top student, it’s a race to the bottom when it comes to snide comments and pulling the dirtiest prank. For years, Stella and Wes have been the villain in each other’s story, and now it’s all-out war.

And there is no bigger battle than the one for valedictorian, and more specifically, the coveted valedictorian scholarship.

But Stella and Wes have more in common than they think. Both are huge fans of Warship Seven, a popular sci-fi TV drama with a dedicated online following, and the two start chatting under aliases–without a clue that their rival is just beyond the screen. They realize that they’re both attending SciCon this year, so they plan to dress in their best cosplay and finally meet IRL.

While tensions at school are rising and SciCon inches closer and closer, the enemy lines between Stella and Wes blur when a class project shows them they might understand one another better than anyone else–and not just in cosplay.

From the author of The Last Confession of Autumn Casterly comes a heartfelt story about rivalry, friendships, and defying preconceived notions–even the ones about yourself.

Made in Korea by Sarah Suk (Simon Pulse)

There’s nothing Valerie Kwon loves more than making a good sale. Together with her cousin Charlie, they run V&C K-BEAUTY, their school’s most successful student-run enterprise. With each sale, Valerie gets closer to taking her beloved and adventurous halmeoni (grandmother) to her dream city, Paris.

Enter the new kid in class: Wes Jung, who is determined to pursue music after graduation despite his parents’ major disapproval. When his classmates clamor to buy the K-pop branded beauty products his mom gave him to “make new friends,” he sees an opportunity—one that may be the key to help him pay for the music school tuition he knows his parents won’t cover….

What he doesn’t realize, though, is that he is now V&C K-BEAUTY’s biggest competitor.

Stakes are high as Valerie and Wes try to outsell each other, make the most money, and take the throne for the best business in school—all while trying to resist the undeniable spark that’s crackling between them. From hiring spies to all-or-nothing bets, the competition is much more than either of them bargained for.

But one thing is clear: only one Korean business can come out on top.


May the Best Man Win by Z. R. Ellor (Roaring Brook Press)
54017940A trans boy enters a throw-down battle for the title of Homecoming King with the boy he dumped last summer in ZR Ellor's contemporary YA debut.

Jeremy Harkiss, cheer captain and student body president, won’t let coming out as a transgender boy ruin his senior year. Instead of bowing to the bigots and outdate school administration, Jeremy decides to make some noise—and how better than by challenging his all-star ex-boyfriend, Lukas for the title of Homecoming King?

Lukas Rivers, football star and head of the Homecoming Committee, is just trying to find order in his life after his older brother’s funeral and the loss long-term girlfriend—who turned out to be a boy. But when Jeremy threatens to break his heart and steal his crown, Lukas kick starts a plot to sabotage Jeremy’s campaign.

When both boys take their rivalry too far, the dance is on the verge of being canceled. To save Homecoming, they’ll have to face the hurt they’re both hiding—and the lingering butterflies they can’t deny.

Last Chance Books by Kelsey Rodkey (HarperTeen)

Don’t you just love the smell of old books in the morning?

Madeline Moore does. Books & Moore, the musty bookstore her family has owned for generations, is where she feels most herself. Nothing is going to stop her from coming back after college to take over the store from her beloved aunt.

Nothing, that is—until a chain bookstore called Prologue opens across the street and threatens to shut them down.

Madeline sets out to demolish the competition, but Jasper, the guy who works over at Prologue, seems intent on ruining her life. Not only is he taking her customers, he has the unbelievable audacity to be… extremely cute.

But that doesn’t matter. Jasper is the enemy and he will be destroyed. After all—all’s fair in love and (book) wars.

 


The Marvelous Mirza Girls by Sheba Karim
(Quill Tree Books)

 “The Mirza girls hit Delhi—that’s a once-in-a-lifetime adventure.”

To cure her post–senior year slump, made worse by the loss of her aunt Sonia, Noreen is ready to follow her mom on a gap year trip to New Delhi, hoping India can lessen her grief and bring her voice back.

In the world’s most polluted city, Noreen soon meets kind, handsome Kabir, who introduces her to the wonders of this magical, complicated place. With Kabir’s help—plus Bollywood celebrities, fourteenth-century ruins, karaoke parties, and Sufi saints—Noreen begins to rediscover her joyful voice.

But when a family scandal erupts, Noreen and Kabir must face complicated questions in their own relationship: What does it mean to truly stand by someone—and what are the boundaries of love?


Enduring Freedom by Trent Reedy and Jawad Arash (Algonquin)

On September 11, 2001, the lives of two boys on opposite sides of the world are changed in an instant.

Baheer, a studious Afghan teen, sees his family’s life turned upside down when they lose their livelihood as war rocks the country.

A world away, Joe, a young American army private, has to put aside his dreams of becoming a journalist when he’s shipped out to Afghanistan.

When Joe’s unit arrives in Baheer’s town, Baheer is wary of the Americans, but sees an opportunity: Not only can he practice his English with the soldiers, his family can make money delivering their supplies. At first, Joe doesn’t trust Baheer, or any of the locals, but Baheer keeps showing up. As Joe and Baheer get to know each other, to see each other as individuals, they realize they have a lot more in common than they ever could have realized. But can they get past the deep differences in their lives and beliefs to become true friends and allies?

Enduring Freedom is a moving and enlightening novel about how ignorance can tear us apart and how education and understanding can bring us back together.

Some Girls Do by Jennifer Dugan (Putnam) 

In this YA contemporary queer romance from the author of Hot Dog Girl , an openly gay track star falls for a closeted, bisexual teen beauty queen with a penchant for fixing up old cars.

Morgan, an elite track athlete, is forced to transfer high schools late in her senior year after it turns out being queer is against her private Catholic school's code of conduct. There, she meets Ruby, who has two hobbies: tinkering with her baby blue 1970 Ford Torino and competing in local beauty pageants, the latter to live out the dreams of her overbearing mother. The two are drawn to each other and can't deny their growing feelings. But while Morgan--out and proud, and determined to have a fresh start--doesn't want to have to keep their budding relationship a secret, Ruby isn't ready to come out yet. With each girl on a different path toward living her truth, can they go the distance together?

 


Mister Impossible by Maggie Stiefvater (Scholastic) - some editions also scheduled for May 18th, but author confirms this date.

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Raven Boys, a mesmerizing story of dreams and desires, death and destiny.

The stakes have never been higher as it seems like either the end of the world or the end of dreamers approaches.

Do the dreamers need the ley lines to save the world . . . or will their actions end up dooming the world? As Ronan, Hennessy, and Bryde try to make dreamers more powerful, the Moderators are closing in, sure that this power will bring about disaster. In the remarkable second book of The Dreamer Trilogy, Maggie Stiefvater pushes her characters to their limits - and shows what happens to them and others when they start to break.






Perfectly Parvin by Olivia Abtahi
(Putnam)

Fourteen-year-old Iranian-American Parvin Mohammadi sets out to win the ultimate date to homecoming in this heartfelt and outright hilarious debut.

Parvin has just had her heart broken when she meets the cutest boy at her new high school, Matty Fumero--with an emphasis on fumero, because he might be the smoking hot cure to all of her boy troubles. If Parvin can get Matty to ask her to homecoming, she's positive it will erase all the awful and embarrassing feelings He Who Will Not Be Named left her with after the summer. The only problem is Matty is definitely too cool for bassoon-playing, frizzy-haired, Cheeto-eating Parvin. Since being herself has not worked for her in the past (see aforementioned relationship), she decides that to be the girl who finally gets the guy, she should start acting like the women in her favorite rom-coms. Those girls aren't loud, they certainly don't cackle when they laugh, and they smile much more than they talk. Easy enough, right?

But as Parvin struggles through her parent-mandated Farsi lessons on the weekends, a budding friendship with a boy she can't help but be her unfiltered self with, and dealing with the ramifications of the Muslim Ban on her family in Iran, she realizes that being herself might just be the perfect thing after all.

Don't Breathe a Word by Jordyn Taylor (HarperTeen) - previously titled Fallout.

Perfect for fans of books like Truly Devious, Don’t Breathe a Word follows two girls, separated by sixty years but whose stories are inextricably linked by their connection to a secret society that has run their elite boarding school for decades.

Present Day:
Eva has never felt like she belonged . . . not in her own family or with her friends in New York City, and certainly not at a fancy boarding school like Hardwick Preparatory Academy. So when she is invited to join the Fives, an elite secret society, she jumps at the opportunity to finally be a part of something.

But what if the Fives are about more than just having the best parties and receiving special privileges from the school? What if they are also responsible for keeping some of Hardwick’s biggest secrets buried?

1962:
There is only one reason why Connie would volunteer to be one of the six students to participate in testing Hardwick’s nuclear fallout shelter: Craig Allenby. While the thought of nuclear war sends her into a panic, she can’t pass up the opportunity to spend four days locked in with the school’s golden boy. However, Connie and the other students quickly discover that there is more to this “test” than they previously thought. As they are forced to follow an escalating series of commands, Connie realizes that one wrong move could have dangerous consequences.

Separated by sixty years , Eva's and Connie’s stories become inextricably intertwined as Eva unravels the mystery of how six students went into the fallout shelter all those years ago . . . but only five came out.


May 25th
Tokyo Ever After by Emiko Jean
(Flatiron Books)

Crazy Rich Asians meets The Princess Diaries in this irresistible story about Izumi, a Japanese-American girl who discovers her senior year of high school that she’s really a princess of Japan.

Izumi Tanaka has never really felt like she fit in—it isn’t easy being Japanese American in her small, mostly white, northern California town. Raised by a single mother, it’s always been Izumi—or Izzy, because “It’s easier this way”—and her mom against the world. But then Izzy discovers a clue to her previously unknown father’s identity…and he’s none other than the Crown Prince of Japan. Which means outspoken, irreverent Izzy is literally a princess.

In a whirlwind, Izzy travels to Japan to meet the father she never knew and discover the country she always dreamed of. But being a princess isn’t all ball gowns and tiaras. There are conniving cousins, a hungry press, a scowling but handsome bodyguard who just might be her soulmate, and thousands of years of tradition and customs to learn practically overnight.

Izzy soon finds herself caught between worlds, and between versions of herself—back home, she was never “American” enough, and in Japan, she must prove she’s “Japanese” enough. Will Izumi crumble under the weight of the crown, or will she live out her fairytale, happily ever after?

The Ivies by Alexa Donne (Crown)

Readers of Karen M. McManus and Holly Jackson will want to enroll in this boarding school thriller about a group of prep school elites who would kill to get into the college of their dreams—literally.

Everyone knows the Ivies: the most coveted universities in the United States. Far more important are the Ivies. The Ivies at Claflin Academy, that is. Five girls with the same mission: to get into the Ivy League by any means necessary. I would know. I’m one of them. We disrupt class ranks, club leaderships, and academic competitions…among other things. We improve our own odds by decreasing the fortunes of others. Because hyper-elite competitive college admissions is serious business. And in some cases, it’s deadly.

Alexa Donne delivers a nail-biting and timely thriller about teens who will stop at nothing to get into the college of their dreams. Too bad no one told them murder isn’t an extracurricular.


Pumpkin by Julie Murphy
(Balzer + Bray) 

Waylon Russell Brewer is a fat, openly gay boy stuck in the small West Texas town of Clover City. His plan is to bide his time until he can graduate, move to Austin with his twin sister, Clementine, and finally go Full Waylon, so that he can live his Julie-the-hills-are-alive-with-the-sound-of-music-Andrews truth.

So when Clementine deviates from their master plan right after Waylon gets dumped, he throws caution to the wind and creates an audition tape for his favorite TV drag show, Fiercest of Them All. What he doesn’t count on is the tape accidentally getting shared with the entire school. . . . As a result, Waylon is nominated for prom queen as a joke. Clem’s girlfriend, Hannah Perez, also receives a joke nomination for prom king.

Waylon and Hannah decide there’s only one thing to do: run—and leave high school with a bang. A very glittery bang. Along the way, Waylon discovers that there is a lot more to running for prom court than campaign posters and plastic crowns, especially when he has to spend so much time with the very cute and infuriating prom king nominee Tucker Watson.

Waylon will need to learn that the best plan for tomorrow is living for today . . . especially with the help of some fellow queens...

Sisterhood of the Bollywood Bride by Nandini Bajpai (Poppy)

For fans of Morgan Matson's Save the Date comes a charming novel about one teen's summer tackling disasters including, but not limited to, family, romance, and weather -- as she plans her sister's Bollywood-style Indian wedding.

Mini's big sister, Vinnie, is getting married. Their mom passed away seven years ago and between Dad's new start-up and Vinnie's medical residency, there's no one but Mini to plan the wedding. Dad raised her to know more about computers, calculus, and cars than desi weddings but from the moment Mini held the jewelry Mom left them, she wanted her sister to have the wedding Mom would've planned.

Now Mini has only two months to get it done and she's not going to let anything distract her, not even the persistent, mysterious, and smoking-hot Vir Mirchandani. Flower garlands, decorations, music, even a white wedding horse -- everything is in place.

That is, until a monster hurricane heads for Boston that could ruin everything. Will Mini come through as sister of the bride and save the day?

The Immortal Game by Talia Rothschild and A.C. Harvey (Swoon Reads)

An exiled goddess goes on a quest to clear her name and save Mount Olympus in Talia Rothschild & A. C. Harvey's action-packed young adult debut, The Immortal Game!

Galene, daughter of Poseidon, desperately wants to earn her place among the gods. But when a violent attack leaves Mount Olympus in chaos and ruins, she is accused of the crime. Banished from Olympus, Galene sets out to prove her innocence and discovers a more deadly plot—one that threatens even the oldest of Immortals.

Fortunately, she has allies who willingly join her in exile:

A lifelong friend who commands the wind.
A defiant warrior with deadly skill.
A fire-wielder with a hero’s heart.
A mastermind who plays life like a game.

All-out war is knocking at the gates. Galene and her friends are the only ones who can tip the scales toward justice, but their choices could save Olympus from total annihilation, or be the doom of them all.

Spells Trouble by P.C. Cast and Kirsten Cast (Wednesday Books)

Double double, twins spell trouble…

Hunter and Mercy Goode are twin witches, direct descendants of the founder of their town of Goodeville. As their ancestors have done before them, it is now time for the twins to learn what it means to be Gatekeepers–the protectors of the Gates to different underworlds, ancient portals between their world and realms where mythology rules and nightmares come to life.

When their mother becomes the first victim in a string of murders, the devastated sisters vow to avenge her death. But it will take more than magic to rein in the ancient mythological monsters who’ve infected their peaceful town.

Now Hunter and Mercy must come together and accept their destiny or risk being separated for good.  

 
 
 

Kiss and Repeat by Heather Truett (Swoon Reads)
46039008. sy475In Heather Truett's Kiss and Repeat, a teen uses the scientific method drilled into him by his scientist father to begin a kissing experiment. Only the experiment gets messy, and Stephen will have to come clean if he wants to win one girl's heart in this heartfelt and funny YA debut.

Stephen Luckie isn't so lucky in love. He's completely inexperienced when it comes to girls, and wonders if his tics - caused by Tourette's Syndrome – are the reason.

Then a game at a party reveals that his body goes still while kissing. Using the scientific method drilled into him by his scientist father, Steven begins the best experiment ever--one that involves kissing as many girls as possible. Who knew science could be so fun?

But when the experiment gets underway, Stephen begins to question how he treats girls - and if his tics have been standing in his way at all. With two girls interested in him, he has to figure out what really matters to him and what he'll risk - and gain - by being his true self.

Not My Problem by Ciara Symth (HarperTeen)

From the author of The Falling in Love Montage, this queer coming-of-age story about a slacker who inadvertently becomes her school’s underground problem-solver is wry, multilayered, and unflinchingly honest—perfect for fans of Becky Albertalli and Nina LaCour.

Aideen has plenty of problems she can’t solve. But when she stumbles upon overachiever Meabh Kowalski having a full-blown meltdown, she sees one that she can actually fix. Meabh is desperate to escape her crushing pile of extracurriculars. Aideen volunteers to help—by pushing her down the stairs.

Problem? Solved. Meabh’s sprained ankle is the perfect excuse to ditch her overwhelming schedule. But when another student learns about their little scheme and brings Aideen another “client” who needs her “help,” it kicks off a semester of traded favors, ill-advised hijinks, and an unexpected chance at love. Fixing other people’s problems won’t fix her own, but it might be the push she needs to start.

A Sitting in St James by Rita Williams-Garcia (Quill Tree Books) - postponed from September 2020, publisher confirms this date.

An unmissable tour de force from three-time National Book Award finalist and Coretta Scott King Award–winning author Rita Williams-Garcia, who memorably tells the stories of one white family and the enslaved people who work for them. Essential reading for teens and adults who are grappling with our country’s history of racism.

This astonishing novel about the interwoven lives of those bound to a plantation in antebellum America is an epic masterwork—empathetic, brutal, and entirely human.

1860, Louisiana. After serving as mistress of Le Petit Cottage for more than six decades, Madame Sylvie Guilbert has decided, in spite of her family’s indifference, to sit for a portrait.

But there are other important stories to be told on the Guilbert plantation. Stories that span generations, from the big house to out in the fields, of routine horrors, secrets buried as deep as the family fortune, and the tangled bonds of descendants and enslaved.

Version Zero by David Yoon (Putnam) - adult novel, but from a popular YA author.
A lightning fast and scorchingly observant novel of the moment, Version Zero is a thrilling, humorous adult debut from the brilliant mind of New York Times bestselling author David Yoon.

Reboot the present. Save the future.

Max, a data whiz at the Facebook-like social media company Wren, has gotten a firsthand glimpse of the dark side of big tech. When he starts asking questions about what his company is doing with the data they collect, he finds himself fired…and then blackballed across all of Silicon Valley.

With time on his hands and inside knowledge about the biggest tech companies, Max and his longtime friend—and sometime crush—Akiko, decide to get even by…essentially, rebooting the internet. After all, in order to fix things, sometimes you have to break them. But when Max and Akiko join forces with a reclusive tech baron, they learn that breaking things can have unintended—and disastrous—consequences. And those consequences will ripple across the world, effecting every level of society in ways no one could have imagined.

The Coming Storm by Regina M. Hansen (Anthenum) - previously titled The Sea Tithe.

Music, myth, and horror blend in this romantic, atmospheric fantasy debut about a teen girl who must fight a powerful evil that’s invaded her Prince Edward Island home—perfect for fans of An Enchantment of Ravens.

There’s a certain wild magic in the salt air and the thrum of the sea. Beet MacNeill has known this all her life. It added spice to her childhood adventures with her older cousin, Gerry, the two of them thick as thieves as they explored their Prince Edward Island home. So when Gerry comes up the path one early spring morning, Beet thinks nothing of it at first. But he is soaking wet and silent, and he plays a haunting tune on his fiddle that chills Beet to the bone. Something is very, very wrong.

Things only get worse when Marina Shaw saunters into town and takes an unsettling interest in Gerry’s new baby. Local lore is filled with tales of a vicious shape-shifting sea creature and the cold, beautiful woman who controls him—a woman who bears a striking resemblance to Marina. Beet is determined to find out what happened to her beloved cousin, and to prevent the same fate from befalling the handsome new boy in town who is winning her heart, whether she wants him to or not. Yet the sea always exacts a price...

Aetherbound by E.K. Johnston (Dutton)

A thought-provoking new YA space adventure from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Star Wars: Ahsoka.

Set on a family-run interstellar freighter called the Harland and a mysterious remote space station, E. K. Johnston's latest is story of survival and self-determination.

Pendt Harland's family sees her as a waste of food on their long-haul space cruiser when her genes reveal an undesirable mutation. But if she plays her cards right she might have a chance to do much more than survive. During a space-station layover, Pendt escapes and forms a lucky bond with the Brannick twins, the teenage heirs of the powerful family that owns the station. Against all odds, the trio hatches a long-shot scheme to take over the station and thwart the destinies they never wished for.
  






Misfit in Love by S.K. Ali (Salaam Reads
In this fun and fresh sequel to Saints and Misfits, Janna hopes her brother’s wedding will be the perfect start to her own summer of love, but attractive new arrivals have her more confused than ever.

Janna Yusuf is so excited for the weekend: her brother Muhammad’s getting married, and she’s reuniting with her mom, whom she’s missed the whole summer.

And Nuah’s arriving for the weekend too.

Sweet, constant Nuah.

The last time she saw him, Janna wasn’t ready to reciprocate his feelings for her. But things are different now. She’s finished high school, ready for college…and ready for Nuah.

It’s time for Janna’s (carefully planned) summer of love to begin—starting right at the wedding.

But it wouldn’t be a wedding if everything went according to plan. Muhammad’s party choices aren’t in line with his fiancĂ©e’s taste at all, Janna’s dad is acting strange, and her mom is spending more time with an old friend (and maybe love interest?) than Janna.

And Nuah’s treating her differently.

Just when things couldn’t get more complicated, two newcomers—the dreamy Haytham and brooding Layth—have Janna more confused than ever about what her misfit heart really wants.

Janna’s summer of love is turning out to be super crowded and painfully unpredictable
.

Hani and Ishu's Guide to Fake Dating by Adiba Jaigidar (Page Street) 

Everyone likes Hani Kahn—she’s easy going and one of the most popular girls at school. But when she comes out to her friends as bisexual, they invalidate her identity, saying she can’t be bi if she’s only dated guys. Panicked, Hani blurts out that she’s in a relationship…with a girl her friends absolutely hate—Ishita Dey. Ishita is the complete opposite of Hani. She’s an academic overachiever who hopes that becoming head girl will set her on the right track for college. But Ishita agrees to help Hani, if Hani will help her become more popular so that she stands a chance of being elected head girl.

Despite their mutually beneficial pact, they start developing real feelings for each other. But relationships are complicated, and some people will do anything to stop two Bengali girls from achieving happily ever after. 



Sixteen Scandals by Sophie Jordan (HMH) 
53968551
In this irreverent regency romp by New York Times best-selling author Sophie Jordan, newly minted sixteen-year-old Primrose Ainsworth finds herself on a wayward birthday adventure through London with a mysterious hero--perfect for fans of My Lady Jane.

The youngest of four daughters, Primrose Ainsworth is used to getting lost in the shuffle. But when her parents decide to delay her debut into English society, Prim hatches a plan to go rogue on the night of her sixteenth birthday.

Donning a mask, Prim escapes to the infamous Vauxhall Gardens for one wild night. When her cover is nearly blown, a mysterious stranger intercedes, and Prim finds an unexpected partner in mischief...and romance. But when it's revealed her new ally isn't who he says he is, her one night of fun may last past dawn.

In this frothy regency romp perfect for fans of Austen-esque flirtation and Shakespearean hijinks, sometimes a little scandal can be a good thing.

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