Author: Kelly Jensen

The first in a new fantasy series, this one is pitched as being for fans of The Darkest Part of the Forest and The Hazel Wood.

Blackthorn, Massachusetts is a magical place, though Aziza El-Amin is its only hedgewitch. She engages with lighthearted fae mischief, but when a dark entity awakens the dark forest at the edge of town, suddenly the space between the human world and the fairy world becomes much thinner. The danger and threats become much darker, and she knows she can’t go at it alone.

Leo needs help breaking a curse upon him, and he makes a pact with Aziza to help protect her in exchange for her helping break the curse. But when they encounter a necromancer with whom they realize they have to work in order to preserve both of their lives — and worlds — dark secrets come spilling out.

Kekla Magoon is one of my favorite YA authors, and she’s back with another hard-hitting contemporary YA.

Kermit knows what it is to grieve. He’s 15, and he’s lost his sister to a car accident and nothing can pause those immense feelings of loss.

When he gets a mysterious invitation at school, signed with a “-1,” he decides to take a chance and show up. It turns out to be a group of students of all backgrounds who’ve lost someone close to them. It’s a supportive space, and it’s one where Kermit begins to find himself and allow himself to get close to Matt. Matt is the only openly gay student at school and his gregarious nature is magnetizing to Kermit.

But as Kermit falls harder, Matt’s truth begins to crack open more and more, potentially putting both of them in danger.

Are you into stories that reimagine the Lizzie Borden murders? Then step right into this one.

Six months ago, Charlotte’s mother died suddenly. Everyone says her heart stopped but she’s not buying it. The only person who even understands both her sadness and her suspicion about the true cause of her mother’s death is sister Maddi.

Their father has, however, moved on. So, too, has their mother’s personal assistant. They seem to have moved on…together. Charlotte and Maddi agree: this is not good, and everything that their family worked for is at stake if the assistant and their father become more employer and employee. It might mean they, too, will “die suddenly.”

How do they put an end to this?

A Heart in a Body in the World meets All the Rage in this verse novel about generations of women in the Dovewick family who’ve shoved down their experiences, thoughts, and realities into a series of journals that have then been passed down again and again. It is Mimi, our 2022 entry, who works to break the cycle.

This book dives into sexual abuse and high-profile #metoo allegations and the impact that has on the survivors and their families. Even deeper, though, is how stories like these have played out in every generation, wherein women are told to be one thing, pinned to a photo of that image, and are unable to break outside those lines for fear of what may or may not happen if they do. For Mimi, it’s one image on her well-followed social media accounts. For her mother, it was what happened while trying to break into acting and the sexy nymph photos she was cajoled into taking. For her grandmother, it was being the wife of a solider lost at war. For her great-grandmother, being whisked away to a home for pregnant teenagers, her first child taken from her to maintain the family’s reputation.

Generation after generation of female trauma, of expectations for girls and women, and the tremendous bravery that comes in dismantling (an apt word) the entire system and legacy are at the heart of this one.

Pitched as The Breakfast Club meets Can’t Hardly Wait, Winters returns with another great queer YA title.

Seventeen year old Theo thinks he’s got it all figured out for the future. But for now? He’s putting his efforts into having the best prom ever, with plans for an epic promposal to his crush at a party. When it goes devastatingly wrong, Theo hides out in a room above where the party is happening. One by one, classmates who are hoping to avoid something are entering the room, and maybe Theo learns he’s not as lonely as he fears he might be.

(You got the title stuck in your head now? Welcome to one of this year’s YA earworms! It’s also one of this year’s YA riffs on The Breakfast Club).

Though this is a fictional verse novel, it’s based on the very real person of Gerda Taro.

Daughter of Polish Jewish immigrants, Gerda Pohorylle never quite felt like she fit in with her German classmates. But once she attends boarding school and is able to find out who she truly is, she gets involved in anti-Nazi and activist circles. When she’s arrested, though, her family decides they must leave the country for their own safety.

Once in Paris, Gerda meets André Friedma, a Hungarian photographer. Together, they polish their skills in photography and begin to travel to military combat zones and shoot. The duo take on pseudonyms as Robert Capa and Gerda Taro to hide their Jewish heritage, and their photos catch good sums of money. When Gerda goes off on her own, she begins to cover Spain’s Civil War and then the beginning of World War II.

This story is compelling and, it should be known, won’t end on a positive note. Gerda is killed during her work, but her legacy and photography tell so many vital stories of hope, of working to defeat fascism, and the role women played during the biggest war in history.

If you’re here for awkward interactions among ex-partners that might rekindle that romantic flame, look no further.

Kiran vows to keep her dad and sister Amira close after the death of her mother. But Amira is now dating someone new and once again, Kiran’s world is changing.

Deen is excited his brother Faisal has a new girlfriend and he’s hoping that it can help them repair their brotherly relationship.

You know where this is going, right?

When Kiran and Deen meet face to face again, all that ended their secret relationship three years ago resurfaces. The walls between them are high, despite their siblings’ new relationship, but can they break them down?

Itching for action + space + romance? Here you go!

Joy is from a lowly planet and she knows her place in society. What keeps her going, though, is being Kindred to the most infamous playboy of nobility.

Duke Felix? He’s noble, and he’s persistent enough to get his parents to agree that he can meet his Kindred and choose his own future.

So when the royal family is assassinated, Felix is not only expected to step into the role he’s been born into, but he’s also being accused of his parents’ murders. He decides it’s time to escape, and, with Joy alongside him, the two will travel space and crash land on Earth, the perfect place to hide.

The first in a duology, Housman’s debut novel features a memorable autistic main character that will resonate with so many readers.

Seelie might look just like her twin Isolde, but she knows she’s different. She’s autistic, dropped in the human world by a fae as a baby. Seelie’s magic is a little unpredictable, but she’ll use it to her advantage as she and her sister take up the hunt for treasure. Too bad the girls ends up in a heist that goes south and now, they’re discovering a bigger mystery connecting the world of the fae to humans.

If you like fairy tales, fae/faeries, mystery, and twins at the center of your fantastical world building, this is written especially for you.

McBride is a master at verse, and her followup to the critically-acclaimed Me (Moth) sounds incredible. The story follows Whimsy, who is back at the hospital after a particularly brutal bout of clinical depression. While there, she meets Faerry, and they have an instant bond.

So when Faerry and his family move to the same street as Whimsy, they build an even stronger bond. They’re connected by some kind of magic — and their fear of the forest at the end of Marsh Creek Lane. But when they decide to enter the forest, they might discover more about themselves and their mental health than they could ever imagine.

If you like genre braiding books, put this one on your TBR.

Bradley is an all-around good guy. He’s a football player, has his OCD pretty well managed, and he excels in school. Well, minus the class he shares with his former best friend Celine.

Celine is conspiracy-theory obsessed. She’s a content creator and has built a following over things like aliens and UFOs and more. Problem is, despite how popular she is online, she’s not cool in real life. Even Bradley abandoned her for the cool kids when he could.

So when Celine signs up for a survival course, she’s surprised to see Bradley has, too. They’re forced to work together and as they join forces in order to win a big prize, they might discover they still have a lot in common…and maybe even start to feel some sparks.

This is one of the first releases from David and Nicola Yoon’s new imprint, Joy Revolution, which will publish stories by and about people of color experiencing just that: joy. I’m excited to dive into this one!

Hitting shelves in paperback this week is Bracken’s take on Greek mythology.

Every seven years is the Agon, wherein nine Greek gods have to walk the Earth as mortals as punishment for past rebellion. It’s especially dangerous, as they’re being hunted by descendants of ancient bloodlines, eager to kill a god to take their powers.

Lore Perseous gave up that hunt years ago after her family was killed by rival line. She’s never wanted to get revenge for the god responsible for their deaths. But as the hunt draws closer, two friends — including one she thought was dead — encourage Lore to join them. They’ll develop a mutual alliance to increase their chances of success.

Now Lore is pulled in. But she might not have what it takes to stop the god eager to ruin all of humanity.

This is a stand alone read.

I don’t know about you, but I think a science fiction take on Romeo and Juliet sounds like a blast. Barker’s novel is out in paperback today and explores the question of what happens if we could time travel forward…but some families would be chosen to stay in the now. Romeo is in a coma and Juliet wants desperately to wake him. She’s been estranged from her family because of her romance with him, and now, as a stranger arrives and has a mission for Juliet, she begins to wonder what it is she truly wants.

Also, this cover is excellent, isn’t it?

Girls of color almost never get to be unlikable, and that’s particularly true for Asian American girls. That, however, is not the case for Eliza, who we know going in isn’t here to be liked. She is driven and ambitious and when she loses the role of editor in chief to an ex-jock who just happened upon the newspaper once his career in baseball was done because of an injury, she’s ready to fight. She writes a private manifesto, loaded with her true feelings on sexism in the school, and it gets published to the front page of the digital paper. Now, she’s started a big dialog at the school level, both with supporters and those who are deeply opposed.

Then, the school principal says she and Len must work together to put their differences aside and wouldn’t you know it: they start to fall for one another. But what happens when the truth about who posted the manifesto gets out? And how will the school’s legacy of patriarchy be challenged?

This is a FUN read, with a great romance trope at the center. Eliza and Len are SO well fleshed, as are Eliza’s best friends, including Winona who is a take-no-nonsense feminist that challenges Eliza to think beyond her binaries and privileges as a model minority (Winona is among the few Black students in a very Asian and white school). There’s so much to unpack here in terms of race and feminism and about intersectionality. Plus, a sweet romance that has all of the ups and downs you can imagine.

If you like Maurene Goo’s romances, you’ll love this one.

So Jake and Nate’s ex-boyfriends decided to fake that they’re doing well post-breakup. Their exes are together and sharing on Instagram how ~perfect~ their relationship is.

Naturally, Jake and Nate decide they’re going to get back at their exes and pretend to have the best summer ever. They’ll hit the ‘Gram too with incredible photos of their perfect road trip. It’s a big scheme to make everything look like it’s going great and the two of them are are mourning the loss of their relationships.

What they won’t talk about is how they’re stuck in a van with Nate’s annoying parents and younger sister. Nor how they actually haven’t talked to each other in years.

Nor…how they might be falling for one another. A hilarious road trip meets social media hijinks rom com.

Technically, this is a sequel to Andreen’s debut YA romance So, This is Christmas, but it sounds like you can read this one as a stand alone.

Finley and Arthur had one magical Christmas Eve kiss, but now that they’re both back at Barrington Academy — aka “the real world” — they don’t know where they stand with each other. Are they a thing? Are they not a thing?

This one’s described as a romantic comedy perfect for Valentine’s Day reading.

Zoe Bailey-Cho loves comedy and has her future all set: she’s going to improve camp, then on to Second City, then on to Saturday Night Live. Currently at the improv camp, she earns a position on the varsity team, but as the only girl, she’s subject to so much ridicule. Zoe won’t blink, though. This is her dream and she knows she’s good. But when the coach is cruel to her during practice and a little too nice to her outside practice, Zoe knows she needs to speak up.

This is the third and final book in Kiersten White’s trilogy that takes a fresh spin on Arthurian legend.

Brown’s second and final installment in her duology is a take on West African folklore.