Young Adult
Court of the Undying Seasons by A.M. Strickland
In becoming a vampire, I’m less than a girl. And more.
Or maybe I’m becoming what I always have been, deep inside.
A blade.
When nineteen-year-old Fin volunteers to take her secret love's place in their village's Finding, she is terrified. Those who are chosen at the Finding are whisked away to Castle Courtsheart, a vampire school where human students either succeed and become vampires, fail and spend the rest of their lives as human thralls...or they don't survive long enough to become either.
Fin is determined to forge a different learn how to kill the undead and get revenge for her mother, who was taken by the vampires years ago. But Courtsheart is as captivating as it is deadly, and Fin is quickly swept up in her new world and its inhabitants - particularly Gavron, her handsome and hostile vampire maker, whose blood is nothing short of intoxicating. As Fin begins to discover new aspects of her own identity and test her newfound powers, she stumbles across a string of murders that may be connected to a larger ritual - one with potentially lethal consequences for vampires and humans alike. Fin must uncover the truth and find the killer before she loses her life...or betrays her own heart.
Court of the Undying Seasons is a deliciously dark romantic novel and a pitch perfect modern take on classic vampire tropes.
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Painted Devils by Margaret Owen
Let's get one thing straight - Vanja Schmidt wasn't trying to start a cult.
After taking down a corrupt margrave, breaking a deadly curse, and finding romance with the vexingly scrupulous junior prefect Emeric Conrad, Vanja had one great mystery left: her long-lost birth family . . . and whether they would welcome a thief. But in her search for an honest trade, she hit trouble and invented a god, the Scarlet Maiden, to scam her way out. Now that lie is growing out of control--especially when Emeric arrives to investigate and the Scarlet Maiden manifests to claim him as a virgin sacrifice.
For his final test to become a prefect, Emeric must determine if Vanja is guilty of serious fraud or if the Scarlet Maiden--and her claim to him--is genuine. Meanwhile, Vanja is chasing an alternative sacrifice that could be their way out. The hunt leads her not only into the lairs of monsters and the paths of gods, but also the ties of her past. And with what should be the simplest way to save Emeric hanging over their heads, he and Vanja must face a more dangerous question: Is there a future for a thief and a prefect, and at what price?
From the indie bestselling author Margaret Owen comes the thrilling next installment in the Little Thieves trilogy with all new interior illustrations from the author.
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Venom & Vow by Anna-Marie McLemore and Elliott McLemore
Keep your enemy closer.
Cade McKenna is a transgender prince who’s doubling for his brother.
Valencia Palafox is a young dama attending the future queen of Eliana.
Gael Palma is the infamous boy assassin Cade has vowed to protect.
Patrick McKenna is the reluctant heir to a kingdom, and the prince Gael has vowed to destroy.
Cade doesn’t know that Gael and Valencia are the same person.
Valencia doesn’t know that every time she thinks she’s fighting Patrick, she’s fighting Cade.
And when Cade and Valencia blame each other for a devastating enchantment that takes both their families, neither of them realizes that they have far more dangerous enemies.
Cowritten by married writing team Anna-Marie and Elliott McLemore, Venom & Vow is a lush and powerful YA novel about owning your power and becoming who you really are - no matter the cost.
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Fake Dates and Mooncakes by Sher Lee
Dylan Tang wants to win a Mid-Autumn Festival mooncake-making competition for teen chefs—in memory of his mom, and to bring much-needed publicity to his aunt’s struggling Chinese takeout in Brooklyn.
Enter Theo Somers: charming, wealthy, with a smile that makes Dylan’s stomach do backflips. AKA a distraction. Their worlds are sun-and-moon apart, but Theo keeps showing up. He even convinces Dylan to be his fake date at a family wedding in the Hamptons.
In Theo’s glittering world of pomp, privilege, and crazy rich drama, their romance is supposed to be just pretend . . . but Dylan finds himself falling for Theo. For real. Then Theo’s relatives reveal their true colors—but with the mooncake contest looming, Dylan can’t risk being sidetracked by rich-people problems.
Can Dylan save his family’s business and follow his heart—or will he fail to do both?
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We'll Never Tell by Wendy Heard
No one at Hollywood High knows who’s behind We'll Never Tell—a viral YouTube channel where the anonymous creators trespass behind the scenes of LA's most intriguing locales. The team includes CASEY, quiet researcher and trivia champ; JACOB, voice narrator and video editor, who is secretly dating EDDIE, aspiring filmmaker; and ZOE, coder and breaking-and-entering extraordinaire.
Now senior year is winding down, and with their lives heading in different directions, the YouTubers vow to go out with a bang. Their last episode will be filmed at the infamous Valentini “murder house,” which has been left abandoned, bloodstained, and untouched since a shocking murder/suicide in 1972. When the teens break in, they capture epic footage. But someone trips an alarm, and it’s a mad dash to get out before the police arrive—at which point they realize only three of them escaped instead of four. Jacob is still inside, slain and bleeding out. Is his attack connected to the historic murder, or is one of their crew responsible?
A week of suspicions and cover-ups unfolds as Casey and her remaining friends try to stay alive long enough to solve murder mysteries past and present. If they do, their friendship may not survive. If they don't, the house will claim more victims.
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Don't Ask If I'm Okay by Jessica Kara
A year ago, Gage survived a car accident that killed his best friend, Hunter. Without the person who always brought out the best in him, Gage doesn’t know who he is. He likes working as a fry cook and loves his small-town friends and family, but they weren’t in the wreck and he can’t tell them how much he’s still hurting. He just wants to forget all his pain and move on.
So when his stepdad shows him a dream job opening in one of his idol’s restaurants, Gage knows this is his chance to convince everyone and himself that he’s fine. To try to push past his grief once and for all, Gage applies for the job, asks out a crush, and volunteers to host a memorial for Hunter.
But the more Gage tries to ignore his grief, the more volatile it becomes.
When his temper finally turns on the people he loves, Gage must decide what real strength is—holding in his grief until it destroys him, or asking for help and revealing his broken heart for all to see.
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Transmogrify: 14 Fantastical Tales of Trans Magic edited by G. Haron Davis
Transness is as varied and colorful as magic can be. In Transmogrify!, you’ll embark on fourteen different adventures alongside unforgettable characters who embody many different genders and expressions and experiences—because magic is for everyone, and that is cause for celebration.
Featuring stories from: AR Capetta and Cory McCarthy, g. haron davis, Mason Deaver, Jonathan Lenore Kastin, Emery Lee, Saundra Mitchell, Cam Montgomery, Ash Nouveau, Sonora Reyes, Renee Reynolds, Dove Salvatierra, Ayida Shonibar, Francesca Tacchi, Nik Traxler
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All the Dead Lie Down by Kyrie McCauley
The Sleeping House was very much awake . . .
Days after a tragedy leaves Marin Blythe alone in the world, she receives a surprising invitation from Alice Lovelace—an acclaimed horror writer and childhood friend of Marin’s mother. Alice offers her a nanny position at Lovelace House, the family’s coastal Maine estate.
Marin accepts and soon finds herself minding Alice’s peculiar girls. Thea buries her dolls one by one, hosting a series of funerals, while Wren does everything in her power to drive Marin away. Then Alice’s eldest daughter returns home unexpectedly. Evie Hallowell is every bit as strange as her younger sisters, and yet Marin is quickly drawn in by Evie’s compelling behavior and ethereal grace.
But as Marin settles in, she can’t escape the anxiety that follows her like a shadow. Dead birds appear in Marin’s room. The children’s pranks escalate. Something dangerous lurks in the woods, leaving mutilated animals in its wake. All is not well at Lovelace House, and Marin must unravel its secrets before they consume her.
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Hurt You by Marie Myung-Ok Lee
Moving beyond the quasi-fraternal bond of the unforgettable George and Lenny from Of Mice and Men, Hurt You explores the actual sibling bond of Georgia and Leonardo da Vinci Daewoo Kim, who has an unnamed neurological disability that resembles autism. The themes of race, disability, and class spin themselves out in a suburban high school where the Kim family has moved in order to access better services for Leonardo.
Suddenly unmoored from the familiar, including the support of her Aunt Clara, Georgia struggles to find her place in an Asian-majority school where whites still dominate culturally, and she finds herself feeling not Korean "enough." Her one pole star is her commitment to her brother, a loyalty that finds itself at odds with her immigrant parents’ dreams for her, and an ableist, racist society that may bring violence to Leonardo despite her efforts to keep him safe.
Hurt You is a deep exploration of family, society, and the bond between siblings and reflects the reality that people with intellectual disabilities are far more likely to be the victim of a violent crime, not the perpetrator.
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As Long As We're Together by Brianna Peppins
Even though she has six siblings, sixteen-year-old Novah still knows what it's like to feel lonely. Her friends never remember to invite her anywhere because they assume Novah will be too busy overseeing dinner, baths, and homework -- tasks that fall to her when her parents are at work. She wouldn't mind it so much if her "perfect" older sister, Ariana, wasn’t always excused from helping out. She's the star of the volleyball team, and their parents don't want anything to jeopardize the scholarships she'll need to become the first member of their family to attend college.
Needless to say, Novah feels like she's been given a raw deal, especially when she's forced to cancel a maybe-date with her crush, Hailee.
Then one terrible night, their parents don't make it back home. A car accident takes their lives and leaves seven heartbroken kids on their own. The Wilkinson siblings have no grandparents, no aunts or uncles. Since Ariana has just turned eighteen, she manages to convince the judge to give her temporary custody. If she can keep her family running smoothly, they'll get to stay in their home. If not, they'll be placed into foster care.
Novah will do whatever it takes to keep her family together but finds herself in a constant power struggle when Ariana refuses to take her advice, even once it becomes clear that they are all in way over their heads. Will Novah find her voice and summon the strength to do the impossible? Or will she be forced to say the hardest goodbyes of all?
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Rubi Ramos's Recipe for Success by Jessica Parra
When Alma waitlists Rubi's application, Rubi will need to be distraction-free to make the grade and keep her parents--who have wanted this for her for years--from finding out. Which means falling for her cute surfer-slash-math tutor, Ryan, definitely won't work. And neither will breaking her mother's ban on baking--her parents didn't leave Cuba so she could bake just like them.
But some recipes are begging to be tampered with.
When the First Annual Bake Off comes to town, Rubi's passion for baking goes from subtle simmer to full boil. Add to the mix her crush on Ryan may be turning into a full-fledged relationship and Rubi's life is suddenly so different from what it was. She's not sure if she has what it takes to win the Bake Off, or where the relationship with Ryan is going, but there's only one way to find out--even if it means going against her parents' priorities.
Now Rubi must differentiate between the responsibility of unfulfilled dreams she holds and finding the path she's meant for.
A joyful novel of first romance, new possibilities, and the chance to define yourself, Rubi Ramos's Recipe for Success will find its way into your heart.
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Lose You to Find Me by Erik J. Brown
Tommy Dees is in the weeds—restaurant speak for beyond overwhelmed. He’s been working as a server at Sunset Estates retirement community to get the experience he needs to attend one of the best culinary schools in the world. And to make his application shine, he also needs a letter of recommendation from his sadistic manager. But in exchange for the letter, Tommy has to meet three conditions—including training the new hire.
What he doesn’t expect is for the newbie to be an old crush: Gabe, with the dimples and kind heart, who Tommy fell for during summer camp at age ten and then never saw again. Unfortunately, Gabe doesn’t remember Tommy at all. The training proves distracting as old feelings resurface, and the universe seems to be conspiring against them.
With the application deadline looming and Gabe on his mind, Tommy is determined to keep it all together—but what if life isn’t meant to follow a recipe?
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Make the Fireflies Dance by Rachel Bateman
Quincy Walker is a hopeless romantic, so when she's kissed by a stranger in a dark theater, her rom-com obsessed imagination begins plotting the perfect movie-version ending to her senior year (which ends, like all great high school rom-coms, with the prom). With the help of her friends, Operation Mystery Kisser is born: a plan to set Quin up on dates with all the guys who were at the theater that night so she can discover who kissed her. The only problem? Her friends insist on blind dates, and Quin hates letting go of control--just ask the members of her group for her final project for film class. As prom draws nearer, Quin is no closer to finding who her mystery kisser was, and she's not sure she wants to continue looking. Maybe it's her dad's failing health and her brother's absence; maybe it's the fact that she's fighting with her best friend; or maybe--just maybe--it's that she's falling for a guy who definitely isn't the one she's been looking for.
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Julieta and the Romeos by Maria E. Andreu
Julieta isn't looking for her Romeo--but she is writing about love. When her summer writing teacher encourages the class to publish their work online, the last thing she's expecting is to get a notification that her rom-com has a mysterious new contributor, Happily Ever Drafter. Julieta knows that happily ever afters aren't real. (Case in point: her parents' imploding marriage.) But then again, could this be her very own meet-cute?
As things start to heat up in her fiction, Julieta can't help but notice three boys in her real life: her best friend's brother (aka her nemesis), the boy next door (well, to her abuela), and her oldest friend (who is suddenly looking . . . hot?). Could one of them be her mysterious collaborator? But even if Julieta finds her Romeo, she'll have to remember that life is full of plot twists. . . .
From the author of Love in English comes a fresh take on love and romance, and a reminder to always be the author of your own life story.
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Bound by Sword and Spirit by Andrea Robertson
THE FINAL BATTLE
Ara and her companions are separated, and the world is in danger. The evil Vokkans are continuing their conquest of Saetlund and the world Ara is meant to protect. The only thing that can stop the wizards and the destroyer, Vokk, is Ara and her Loreknights. But she still has many to find.
Teth is captured--thrown into prison with none other than their betrayer, Prince Eamon. While he struggles with a shocking secret from his past, he must determine whether he can trust his former friend to help turn the tables on the dark wizards. Meanwhile, Eamon has to gather all his courage and wit to enact a secret plan to help his sister and redeem himself--no matter what.
As a battle to save their world approaches, Ara and her friends must rally their forces--some more mysterious than they ever could have imagined--and take back their kingdom, once and for all. Ultimately, they will change the future of Saetlund forever.
From internationally bestselling author Andrea Roberston comes the final book in a gorgeously written new fantasy series perfect for readers of Leigh Bardugo's Shadow and Bone or Sabaa Tahir's An Ember in the Ashes series.
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Last Canto of the Dead by Daniel José Older
Healer. Destroyer. Creator. Mateo Matisse and Chela Hidalgo are not just two teenagers in love--they're powerful gods in human form. Powerful enough to have saved their Brooklyn diaspora community from the wrath of an ancient enemy and to have raised their once-sunken native island of San Madrigal from the sea.
But soon they discover that their problems are far from over. On the shores of San Madrigal, two creature armies are battling for survival. And on the streets of Brooklyn, a once tight-knit community is divided, with two sides at each other's throats. But worst of all, a heartbreaking prophecy rips these two young lovers apart, sending Mateo back to the city, where cops are now patrolling the streets, and keeping Chela tethered to the island, where chaos and death lurk around every corner.
Healer. Destroyer. Creator. As gods, their powers know no limits. But as teenagers--separated, desperate, grieving--what will become of them? And what will become of their people?
Join their battle and witness their love in this thrilling conclusion to the epic saga that began with BALLAD & DAGGER.
Endorsed by Rick Riordan, author of Percy Jackson and the Olympians, soon to be a series on Disney+.
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Middle Grade
The Drama With Doomsdays by Scott Reintgen
Ever since the fateful visions about Jeffrey Johnson, Celia Cleary’s prophecies have focused on smaller things like minor mishaps and everyday inconveniences. It’s finally starting to feel like she has a handle on her powers…until things take a turn for the weird.
One day at school, Celia’s notebook magically fills in with a single name written over and Patrick . She uses the family guidebook to investigate and learns that the mysterious Patrick is connected to a Doomsday Prophecy—a vision that involves a large group of people, a point of no return, and a terrible future. The target for this particular reckoning? The entire eighth grade.
Celia soon finds herself in a race against the clock to figure out which Patrick at their school is at the heart of the coming disaster. As the shifting sands of luck turn against her, she’ll need Grammy’s voice and the help of friends more than ever. But even with their efforts combined, can they prevent the doomsday?
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Before I sign off, I want to bring special attention to one of this week's new releases, Court of the Undying Seasons. AdriAnne's husband was recently in a life-threatening accident and I'm part of a team working to get the word out about the book so that she can focus on his recovery. Court of the Undying Seasons is the queer vampire romance you didn't know you needed and I highly recommend checking it out! I'm also very excited to read Venom & Vow and Painted Devils this week!
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