Hey YA Readers!
Welcome to the last week of June. Let’s make it a good one with some new books.
This book mail enamel pin is so freaking cute. I wish these were real stamps. $15.
New Releases
Grab the full list of new YA books out this week over here, and keep your eyes out for the summer 2022 YA megalist of releases to publish on site soon.
The Black Girls Left Standing by Juliana Goodman
Beau is an artist and dreams of leaving the projects she’s grown up in. But when her older sister Katia is killed by an off duty police officer, everything changes–now she’s determined to clear her sister’s name and to do that, she needs to find her sister’s boyfriend, the only witness to her murder.
Of course, it won’t be that simple, and Beau has to decide how much of her life she needs to put aside for Katia.
Our Crooked Hearts by Melissa Albert
This stand alone dark contemporary fantasy is being compared to The Craft, which means it is on my TBR. It’s a story about suburban witches, told in two timelines, mother-daughter relationships, and all of the thriller vibes.
Dana befriends a girl in her teen years that turns out to be A No Good Person and deals with the fallout of that relationship for a long time. Now, 20 years later, her daughter Ivy is tracking down a similar path.
For a more comprehensive list, check out our New Books newsletter.
Riot Recommendations
As someone who is a devoted tea drinker–my current flavor of choice is this Okinawa sugar–I love when YA brings up tea in some capacity. Teens in YA are big coffee drinkers, but there are far fewer who are connected to tea. Here are two YA books where tea plays a big role.
Darius The Great Is Not Okay by Adib Khorram
Darius is a master tea drinker in this book about growing up, about identity, and about maybe finding the right one in an unexpected way..
Darius has always felt like the wrong piece of a puzzle. His dad is white and not like him at all. His mom is Iranian, but she’s fair skinned and doesn’t “look” Persian. Though he doesn’t look like his heritage, Darius is an outsider because people know he’s “not like them” in his Portland school. When his mother’s dad is nearing the end of his life, the family chooses to take a trip to Iran to reconnect. And it’s here where Darius really comes to understand he is an important piece of the puzzle in her family, in his community, and in the bigger world. Sohrab, the new friend-more-than-a-friend Darius makes in Iran, calls this what translates from Farsi into “your place was empty,” and that sentiment really resonated not only for Darius and his place in the world, but also, his place inside himself.
A Magic Steeped in Poison by Judy I. Lin
In this first book of a series, Ning accidentally kills her mother with a poison tea and now she’s not only grieving, but she’s worried that her sister will also be killed by the tea.
When Ning hears about a competition to find the greatest master of tea-making in the kingdom, she enters. This well-paced fantasy follows as Ning attempts to take the title, which will not only earn her favor within the royal court but will also help save her sister’s life.
A tea competition? Yes, please.
As always, thanks for hanging out, and we’ll see you on Thursday with your new YA paperback releases and your latest in all things YA book news.
Until then, happy reading!
— Kelly Jensen, currently reading Don’t Call Me a Hurricane by Ellen Hagan