Category: What’s Up in YA

Sam Sakamoto lives in rural Washington and following the recent death of her mother, knows she has to put aside her dreams of becoming a photographer to focus on the family farm. Sam has to help ensure they can make payments on it and keep their livelihood safe.

What Sam doesn’t anticipate is the coming war. It’s December 1941 and Pearl Harbor has just been attacked. White Americans are turning their hatred toward Japanese Americans and, as much hope and promise as there seems to be between Sam and her neighbor Hiro — he wants to help her stoke her creative flames with photography — the real threat of Japanese incarceration camps may put those things even further out of reach.

This queer historical romance, set during the Swing Youth movement in World War II Berlin, follows Charlotte, a teen who would go anywhere Angelika would. That’s how she finds herself in an underground club the summer before the start of the war, dancing to jazz and swing music, both of which were not allowed (not to say anything of the queer club, of course).

Charlie knows she should keep this club and all of this dancing a secret, but she tells her friend Geri. Now, they’re going to the club over and over…despite the rise of the Nazi party and their dangerous rules.

Now, those swing dancers are ready to break even more rules. But how far will they go?

This might be the only book I can think of that tackles esports, despite esports being a huge thing.

By day, Emilia Romero is a field hockey star and incredible student. By night, she’s the only female member of a successful esports team. She keeps that part of her life on the down-low, since it can be a rough place to be a girl. When a major esports competition comes to her town, she decides it’s time to prove herself, both to her team and to the broader community of players.

One problem: a member of a rival team recognizes her. And that rival, Jake, has had a crush on her for a long time. Can they forge a real relationship and keep Emilia’s secret life safe? Or will there be consequences for their feelings?

This is a fabulous read alike to Eric Smith’s Don’t Read The Comments (and lol at their title similarities, even!).

Love the collision of romance, action, and magic? Then look no further.

Their world is on the brink of war, and Ahn — who is without a family or past — meets Altan — a lost heir — and the two of them see each other as an answer. Altan may be able to reclaim the throne while Ahn may be able to understand the power of the magical (and deadly) abilities.

There will, of course, be a price to pay in their quest for knowledge, for answers, and for power.

Tan’s stand alone fantasy has been pitched as Girls of Paper and Fire meets A Song of Wraiths and Ruin.

I am in the middle of this one right now, and I went in without any knowledge, other than I love Saedi’s writing. This is a pandemic book, but in a lot of ways…it’s very cathartic for me so far.

Parisa Naficy and Gabriela Gonzales are seniors and despite how different they are — Parisa is from a wealthy family and Gabriela’s moms can hardly make ends meet — they build a strong friendship. It’s them against the world.

But when a global pandemic hits and their entire lives are turned upside down, what do their futures look like?

This one is funny, it’s full of heart, and, like I said, surprisingly cathartic, despite how much I didn’t think I wanted to read a book about the pandemic.

Itching for a Rapunzel-inspired YA fantasy? This is it.

Selestra has been trapped in a tower for 16 years as she waits to take her mother’s place as the King’s Witch. The King’s Witch foretells death at the Festival Predictions and those who outrun the prediction get the chance to steal immortality from the King.

No one has had that chance yet, as everyone has failed to outrun their own death.

Nox is a soldier in the King’s army and he’s ready to take the King’s mortality, as well as kill his court. Nox is Selestra’s first prediction. But as soon as she touches Nox, death is out for both of them. Now they have to work together to outrun their fate.

I’m so glad to see the YA snake cover slither back in, too.

I love that Malinda’s mystery/thriller is getting a repackage following the huge success of Last Night at the Telegraph Club, though admittedly, the original cover for this book is fantastic. Alas, I suspect this might bring in some new readers who love books that look like this one.

Jess Wong is okay being a girl on the sidelines, always watching and observing. The most important thing to her is being best friends with Angie…even if Angie doesn’t quite pick up all of Jess’s cues. So when Angie begins falling for a girl at a local boarding school named Margot, Jess’s observational skills are heightened.

Angie keeps bringing Jess into her budding friendship with Margot, but Jess continues to resist. Something is wrong with Margot and her circle, but Angie keeps getting closer. When things take the turn Jess saw coming, it is Jess who will have to step in and crack open the secrets and darkness among the three of them.

Go to this one and stay for a twisty story of friendship…and maybe something more.

This one has been on my radar since it was announced and I’m so glad I could be reminded to pick it up sooner, rather than later, in its paperback edition.

A look at the complexities of love – the romantic kind, the familial kind, and the friendship kind – is at the center of the story of Gio, a bisexual teen navigating his father’s drinking habit and friends who seem to keep wanting him involved in their drama. Complicating his life more is his mother, who left him, his brother, and his father, when Gio was 9.

Gio’s mother is back now, and he’s not sure what to do. Does he forgive her? Does he ask questions?

….and then, there’s this boy Gio is starting to catch feelings for, too.

This takes place nearly 60 years after Lo’s award-winning Last Night at the Telegraph Club (and shows a little of what happened with the characters after the book finished). This one is still set in California, but this time we’re following Aria Tang West, who gets banished from Martha’s Vineyard to California by her parents. She’s made to stay with her artist grandmother, and is surprised that what she thought would be a boring summer is made anything but by her grandmother’s gardener Steph Nichols. Steph has her questioning her identity and introduces her to a whole new world full of new experiences and community.

This is the prequel to the mega popular They Both Die at the End. In it, we follow two new strangers who both sign up for Death-Cast. Even though there is still some doubt concerning whether this thing called “Death-Cast” can really predict when someone will die, Orion Pagan and Valentino Price both sign up, anyway. Orion has a heart condition and just wants to know when his final day will be, while Valentino became more cautious because of a near fatal accident his twin sister was in. The two of them meet in Times Square and immediately click, but then the first End Day calls go out and one of them is told they will die but the other isn’t. Neither of them knows what will really happen in the end, but they both know they want to spend whatever remaining time together.

This is a Chinese-inspired fantasy that is full of court deception. it follows Princess Hesina of the land of Yan, who is a reluctant royal. That is, until her father is murdered and she suddenly has to rule. To find out who killed him, she enlists the help of a psychic, even though magic was banned years ago. With her illegally obtained clues, she gets Akira, an investigator, to further help her suss out what happened since she can’t trust anyone. Not even her own family.

Audrey is understandably cynical about romance. With her parents’ divorce and her own breakup, she’s justifiably not the most romantic person right now. When she meets Harry, who is one of her movie theater coworkers, she thinks she can resist his confident flirting. She’s wrong, of course, but that doesn’t mean their romance will be like it is in the movies…

Because Lark wants to be a writer, they begin to build a social media following. Kasim, Lark’s former best friend, accidentally posts on Lark’s Twitter threat about deep and unrequited love for a secret crush and now, those tweets are the subject of school obsession. Who are they in reference to? Lark decides they’ll protect Kasim and claim those tweets were in reference to another classmate. . . but now, with the school and thousands of outsiders following and trying to unravel the truth behind those tweets, it might be bringing Lark and Kasim closer together. Can love ignite revolution?

Sharlot’s mother has caught her in a “compromising position” and decides the best solution is for them to head to her mother’s native Indonesia.

Meanwhile, George Clooney Tanuwijaya’s father–yes, he’s obsessed with American celebrities–is also trying to rein in his son. They are some of the wealthiest people in Indonesia and no way can anything mar the family’s reputation.

So when Sharlot’s mother and George’s father strike up conversation online, each pretending to be one another’s children, they think it’ll be so their children find the “right” kind of partner. But when the real Sharlot and George find out about what their parents are doing, they are horrified…and then maybe begin to actually fall for one another.

This one’s got fake dating, ridiculous parents, a romantic island adventure, and loads of humor.

There is something Not Great happening in Snakebite, Oregon, and when Logan arrives with her dads to town to film for their paranormal reality show, she’s feeling that sense of Not Great, too. No one in Snakebite is excited to be part of this show, but when the girl who has been haunted by her dead boyfriend’s ghost teams up with Logan to solve the mystery of what’s happening, a whole box of secrets about the town and its history opens.

Queer girls + ghosts + Riverdale vibes + paranormal investigator show? I’m all in.

Jenny’s coming back home to St Louis after visiting her grandparents in New York City, and she’s excited about her senior year. Too bad her plane went “missing,” and reappeared 25 years later. Now, Jenny’s missed everything in those 25 years and has to figure out a way to move forward to build a life she never anticipated.

Time travel to the future? This one sounds intriguing!

A Black, queer, magical historical fiction set in the late 1930s? This sounds like it will be a lot in a very good way.

Laura lives in America, which is divided between those who are part of the mystical arts and those who aren’t. The Great Rust destroyed the country, and now, the great rebuilding has involved a push toward industry and technology and away from traditional mystical work. Laura plans to pursue the arts, though, and once she arrives in New York City, she finds herself struggling until she applies for a job with the government. She meets Skylar, who agrees to take her on as an apprentice, and just before their first first mission, they find work from some of the most powerful mages in history that haven’t been seen in generations. It’s work that could get both of them killed.

Ireland’s no stranger to books about American history that explore race, power, and privilege. This book does all of that and more.

Itching for a childhood friends-to-lovers romance? This one’s for you.

Hannah’s looking forward to her perfectly planned summer with her boyfriend Nate and her upcoming senior year. Too bad Nate leaves Hannah, and he, like so many of her friends, have found themselves falling for all things K-Pop. It wouldn’t be a big deal, really, but Hannah has worked hard to avoid getting to know the Korean part of her Korean American identity, so it’s even harder for her to handle this breakup than she anticipated.

Jacob, Hannah’s former best friend from childhood, is home for the summer. Jacob…who starred in K-dramas. Now, Hannah not only finds herself falling for him but needing to come to terms with her own identity in the process.

I know very little about this book except that it explores gender fluidity and that it is a YA fantasy book with undertones from Japanese folklore and Egyptian mythology.

Kaori and Kai are the first set of twins to survive on the island of Mu. The reason none have survive before is because of an ancient prophecy and now, the rivalry is beginning to emerge. But what’s more important–loyalty to the island or to one another?

Natasha’s sister went missing and her car was found at the Bend, and she wants answers. Della and her family have conjured magic from the Bend, setting spells for those who are desperate. When Natasha arrives at Della’s door, itching to find out what happened to her sister, Della knows this is going to be a case requiring a lot more than a little magic.