Debut YA Novels: July 2016

August 1, 2016 |

Welcome to August! This month you’ll be treated to two debut YA novel round-ups, since I didn’t post July’s during July.

Like always, this round-up includes debut novels, where “debut” is in its purest definition. These are first-time books by first-time authors. I’m not including books by authors who are using or have used a pseudonym in the past or those who have written in other categories (adult, middle grade, etc.) in the past. Authors who have self-published are not included here either.

All descriptions are from WorldCat or Goodreads, unless otherwise noted. If I’m missing any debuts out in July from traditional publishers — and I should note that indie/small presses are okay — let me know in the comments.

As always, not all titles included here are necessarily endorsements for those titles. Get ready to get reading.

Gemini by Sonya Mukherjee

Seventeen-year-old conjoined twins Clara and Hailey have lived in the same small town their entire lives—no one stares at them anymore. But there are cracks in their quiet existence, and they’re slowly becoming more apparent. Clara and Hailey are at a crossroads. Clara wants to stay close to home, avoid all attention, and study the night sky. Hailey wants to travel the world, learn from great artists, and dance with mysterious boys. As high school graduation approaches, each twin must untangle her dreams from her sister’s, and figure out what it means to be her own person.

How to Hang a Witch by Adriana Mather

Samantha Mather has just moved to Salem, Massachusetts from New York City in the wake of her father’s mysterious illness. But Mathers have lived in Salem for centuries and Sam is the ancestor of Cotton Mather—one of the architects of the Salem Witch Trials. Her name precedes her, and comes with too many stigmas. Before long, Sam finds herself at odds with The Descendants, a powerful group of girls who also have ties to the trials; only their ancestors were on the other end of the noose.
Before long, Sam realizes she is at the center of a centuries old curse that is tying her fate, as well as her father’s, to her new enemies. Can she overcome her family’s past and break the cycle of unexplained deaths or will she discover just how easy it can be to hang a witch?

The Killer in Me by Margot Harrison

Seventeen-year-old Nina Barrows knows all about the Thief. She’s intimately familiar with his hunting methods: how he stalks and kills at random, how he disposes of his victims’ bodies in an abandoned mine in the deepest, most desolate part of a desert.

Now, for the first time, Nina has the chance to do something about the serial killer that no one else knows exists. With the help of her former best friend, Warren, she tracks the Thief two thousand miles, to his home turf—the deserts of New Mexico.

But the man she meets there seems nothing like the brutal sociopath with whom she’s had a disturbing connection her whole life. To anyone else, Dylan Shadwell is exactly what he appears to be: a young veteran committed to his girlfriend and her young daughter. As Nina spends more time with him, she begins to doubt the truth she once held as certain: Dylan Shadwell is the Thief. She even starts to wonder . . . what if there is no Thief?

Learning to Swear in America by Katie Kennedy

An asteroid is hurtling toward Earth. A big, bad one. Yuri, a physicist prodigy from Russia, has been called to NASA as they calculate a plan to avoid disaster. He knows how to stop the asteroid: his research in antimatter will probably win him a Nobel prize–if there’s ever another Nobel prize awarded. But Yuri’s 17, and having a hard time making older, stodgy physicists listen to him. Then he meets Dovie, who lives like a normal teenager, oblivious to the impending doom. Being with her, on the adventures she plans when he’s not at NASA, Yuri catches a glimpse of what it means to save the world and save a life worth living.

Little Black Dresses, Little White Lies by Lauren Stampler

Harper Anderson always believed she belonged somewhere more glamorous than her sleepy Northern California suburb. After all, how many water polo matches and lame parties in Bobby McKittrick’s backyard can one girl take? That’s why Harper is beyond ecstatic when she lands her dream internship as a dating blogger at the elite teen magazine Shift. Getting to spend the summer in New York City to live her dream of becoming a writer? Harper’s totally in.

There’s just one teeny, tiny, infinitesimal problem: Apart from some dance floor make-outs, Harper doesn’t have a lot of – or, really, any – dating expertise. In fact, she might have sort of stolen her best friend’s experiences as her own on her Shiftapplication. But she can learn on the job…right?

From awkward run-ins with the cute neighborhood dog-walker to terrifying encounters with her crazed editor, from Brooklyn gallery openings to weekends in the Hamptons, Harper finds out what it takes to make it in the Big City–and as the writer of her own destiny.

Remake by Ilima Todd

Nine is the ninth female born in her batch of ten females and ten males. By design, her life in Freedom Province is without complications or consequences. However, such freedom comes with a price. The Prime Maker is determined to keep that price a secret from the new batches of citizens that are born, nurtured, and raised androgynously.

But Nine isn’t like every other batcher. She harbors indecision
and worries about her upcoming Remake Day — her seventeenth birthday, the age when batchers fly to the Remake facility and have the freedom to choose who and what they’ll be.

When Nine discovers the truth about life outside of Freedom Province, including the secret plan of the Prime Maker, she is pulled between two worlds and two lives. Her decisions will test her courage, her heart, and her beliefs. Who can she trust? Who does she love? And most importantly, who will she decide to be?

**Worth noting this book looks like it was published by Shadow Mountain in 2014, though this refers to the Simon Pulse edition from this month.

Riverkeep by Martin Stewart

The Danék is a wild, treacherous river, and the Fobisher family has tended it for generations—clearing it of ice and weed, making sure boats can get through, and fishing corpses from its bleak depths. Wulliam’s father, the current Riverkeep, is proud of this work. Wull dreads it. And in one week, when he comes of age, he will have to take over.

Then the unthinkable happens. While recovering a drowned man, Wull’s father is pulled under—and when he emerges, he is no longer himself. A dark spirit possesses him, devouring him from the inside. In an instant, Wull is Riverkeep. And he must care for his father, too.

When he hears that a cure for his father lurks in the belly of a great sea-dwelling beast known as the mormorach, he embarks on an epic journey down the river that his family has so long protected—but never explored. Along the way, he faces death in any number of ways, meets people and creatures touched by magic and madness and alchemy, and finds courage he never knew he possessed.

The Season by Jonah Lisa Dyer and Stephen Dyer

Megan McKnight is a soccer star with Olympic dreams, but she’s not a girly girl. So when her Southern belle mother secretly enters her in the 2016 Dallas debutante season, she’s furious—and has no idea what she’s in for. When Megan’s attitude gets her on probation with the mother hen of the debs, she’s got a month to prove she can ballroom dance, display impeccable manners, and curtsey like a proper Texas lady or she’ll get the boot and disgrace her family. The perk of being a debutante, of course, is going to parties, and it’s at one of these lavish affairs where Megan gets swept off her feet by the debonair and down-to-earth Hank Waterhouse. If only she didn’t have to contend with a backstabbing blonde and her handsome but surly billionaire boyfriend, Megan thinks, being a deb might not be so bad after all. But that’s before she humiliates herself in front of a room full of ten-year-olds, becomes embroiled in a media-frenzy scandal, and gets punched in the face by another girl.

The season has officially begun…but the drama is just getting started.

Signs of You by Emily France

Since sixteen-year-old Riley Strout lost her mother two years ago, her saving grace has been her quirky little family in the grief support group she joined as a freshman. Jay, Kate, and Noah understand her pain; each lost a loved one, and they’ve stuck together in spite of their differences, united by tragedies only they understand.

When Riley thinks she spots her mother shopping in a grocery store, she fears she is suffering some sort of post-traumatic stress. Then Jay and Kate report similar experiences. Only Noah hasn’t had some kind of vision, which is perhaps why he’s become so skeptical and distant.

When Noah disappears, Riley fears she’s lost another loved one. As they frantically search for him, she, Kate, and Jay are drawn into the mystery surrounding a relic that belonged to Jay’s dead father and contains clues about the afterlife. Riley finds herself wrestling with her feelings for both Noah and Jay—which have become clear only in Noah’s absence. If Riley is to help those she loves, and herself, she must set things right with the one she’s lost.

Songs About A Girl by Chris Russell

Charlie Bloom never wanted to be ‘with the band’. She’s happiest out of the spotlight, behind her camera, unseen and unnoticed. But when she’s asked to take backstage photos for hot new boy band Fire&Lights, she can’t pass up the chance.

Catapulted into a world of paparazzi and backstage bickering, Charlie soon becomes caught between gorgeous but damaged frontman, Gabriel West, and his boy-next-door bandmate Olly Samson. Then, as the boys’ rivalry threatens to tear the band apart, Charlie stumbles upon a mind-blowing secret, hidden in the lyrics of their songs.

*This book appears to be a UK release, so it might not yet bet available in the US/Canada.

June Debut YA Novels

June 27, 2016 |

It’s time for another round-up of debut YA novels of the month. Like always, this round-up includes debut novels, where “debut” is in its purest definition. These are first-time books by first-time authors. I’m not including books by authors who are using or have used a pseudonym in the past or those who have written in other categories (adult, middle grade, etc.) in the past. Authors who have self-published are not included here either.

All descriptions are from WorldCat or Goodreads, unless otherwise noted. If I’m missing any debuts out in June from traditional publishers — and I should clarify that indie/small presses are okay — let me know in the comments.

As always, not all noted titles included here are necessarily endorsements for those titles. Get ready to get reading.

All The Feels by Danika Stone

College freshman Liv is more than just a fangirl: The Starveil movies are her life… So, when her favorite character, Captain Matt Spartan, is killed off at the end of the last movie, Liv Just. Can’t. Deal.

Tired of sitting in her room sobbing, Liv decides to launch an online campaign to bring her beloved hero back to life. With the help of her best friend, Xander, actor and steampunk cosplayer extraordinaire, she creates #SpartanSurvived, a campaign to ignite the fandom. But as her online life succeeds beyond her wildest dreams, Liv is forced to balance that with the pressures of school, her mother’s disapproval, and her (mostly nonexistent and entirely traumatic) romantic life. A trip to DragonCon with Xander might be exactly what she needs to figure out what she really wants.

American Girls by Alison Umminger

She was looking for a place to land.

Anna is a fifteen-year-old girl slouching toward adulthood, and she’s had it with her life at home. So Anna “borrows” her stepmom’s credit card an runs away to Los Angeles, where her half-sister takes her in. But LA isn’t quite the glamorous escape Anna had imagined.

As Anna spends her days on TV and movie sets, she engrosses herself in a project researching the murderous Manson girls—and although the violence in her own life isn’t the kind that leaves physical scars, she begins to notice the parallels between herself and the lost girls of LA, and of America, past and present.

The Cresswell Plot by Eliza Wass

Castella Cresswell and her five siblings—Hannan, Caspar, Mortimer, Delvive, and Jerusalem—know what it’s like to be different. For years, their world has been confined to their ramshackle family home deep in the woods of upstate New York. They abide by the strict rule of God, whose messages come directly from their father.

Slowly, Castley and her siblings start to test the boundaries of the laws that bind them. But, at school, they’re still the freaks they’ve always been to the outside world. Marked by their plain clothing. Unexplained bruising. Utter isolation from their classmates. That is, until Castley is forced to partner with the totally irritating, totally normal George Gray, who offers her a glimpse of a life filled with freedom and choice.

Castley’s world rapidly expands beyond the woods she knows so well and the beliefs she once thought were the only truths. There is a future waiting for her if she can escape her father’s grasp, but Castley refuses to leave her siblings behind. Just as she begins to form a plan, her father makes a chilling announcement: the Cresswells will soon return to their home in heaven. With time running out on all of their lives, Castley must expose the depth of her father’s lies. The forest has buried the truth in darkness for far too long. Castley might be their last hope for salvation.

Cure for the Common Universe by Christian McKay Heidicker

Sixteen-year-old Jaxon is being committed to video game rehab . . .

ten minutes after he met a girl. A living, breathing girl named Serena, who not only laughed at his jokes but actually kinda sorta seemed excited when she agreed to go out with him.

Jaxon’s first date. Ever.

In rehab, he can’t blast his way through galaxies to reach her. He can’t slash through armies to kiss her sweet lips. Instead, he has just four days to earn one million points by learning real-life skills. And he’ll do whatever it takes—lie, cheat, steal, even learn how to cross-stitch—in order to make it to his date.

If all else fails, Jaxon will have to bare his soul to the other teens in treatment, confront his mother’s absence, and maybe admit that it’s more than video games that stand in the way of a real connection.

Prepare to be cured.

Frayed by Kara Terzis

Dear Kesley,

My therapist tells me I should write you a letter. Like flushing all my thoughts and feelings out of my system and onto paper. I tell her it’s a stupid idea.

But here I am, writing a letter to a dead girl. Where do I start? Where did our story begin? From the moment you were born…or died?

I’ll start with the moment I found out the truth about you. Your lies and my pain. Because it always begins and ends with you.
And that end began when Rafe Lawrence came back to town…

Ava Hale will do anything to find her sister’s killer…although she’ll wish she hadn’t. Because the harder Ava looks, the more secrets she uncovers about Kesley, and the more she begins to think that the girl she called sister was a liar. A sneak. A stranger.

And Kesley’s murderer could be much closer than she thought…

How It Ends by Catherine Lo

There are two sides to every story.

It’s friends-at-first-sight for Jessie and Annie, proving the old adage that opposites attract. Shy, anxious Jessie would give anything to have Annie’s beauty and confidence. And Annie thinks Jessie has the perfect life, with her close-knit family and killer grades. They’re BFFs…until suddenly they’re not.

Ivory and Bone by Julie Eshbaugh

Hunting, gathering, and keeping his family safe—that’s the life seventeen-year-old Kol knows. Then bold, enigmatic Mya arrives from the south with her family, and Kol is captivated. He wants her to like and trust him, but any hopes of impressing her are ruined when he makes a careless—and nearly grave—mistake. However, there’s something more to Mya’s cool disdain…a history wrought with loss that comes to light when another clan arrives. With them is Lo, an enemy from Mya’s past who Mya swears has ulterior motives.

As Kol gets to know Lo, tensions between Mya and Lo escalate until violence erupts. Faced with shattering losses, Kol is forced to question every person he’s trusted. One thing is for sure: this was a war that Mya or Lo—Kol doesn’t know which—had been planning all along.

Life Before by Michele Bacon

Seventeen years is a long time to keep secrets, so Xander Fife is very good at it: everyone believes he has a normal family. If he can just get through this summer, he’ll start his real life in college with a clean slate–no risk, no drama, no fear.

Xander’s summer plans include pick-up soccer, regular hijinks with friends, an epic road trip, and—quite possibly— the company of his ideal girlfriend, the amazing Gretchen Taylor.

Instead of kicking off what had promised to be an amazing summer, however, graduation day brings terror. His family’s secrets are thrust out into the open, forcing Xander to confront his greatest fear. Or run from it.

Armed with a fake ID, cash, and a knife, Xander skips town and assumes a new identity. In danger hundreds of miles from home, one thing is clear: Xander’s real life is already in progress and just getting through it isn’t enough.

The Loose Ends List by Carrie Firestone

Seventeen-year-old Maddie O’Neill Levine lives a charmed life, and is primed to spend the perfect pre-college summer with her best friends and young-at-heart socialite grandmother (also Maddie’s closest confidante), tying up high school loose ends. Maddie’s plans change the instant Gram announces that she is terminally ill and has booked the family on a secret “death with dignity” cruise ship so that she can leave the world in her own unconventional way – and give the O’Neill clan an unforgettable summer of dreams-come-true in the process.

Soon, Maddie is on the trip of a lifetime with her over-the-top family. As they travel the globe, Maddie bonds with other passengers and falls for Enzo, who is processing his own grief. But despite the laughter, headiness of first love, and excitement of glamorous destinations, Maddie knows she is on the brink of losing Gram. She struggles to find the strength to say good-bye in a whirlwind summer shaped by love, loss, and the power of forgiveness.

Lucky Few by Kathryn Ormsbee (note: not a debut, since she wrote a middle grade under her initials — but that took a little figuring out!)

Stevie, Max, and Sanger: keeping Austin weird.

Stevie Hart is homeschooled, but don’t hold that against her. Sure, she and her best (okay, only) friend, Sanger, will never be prom queens, but that’s just because the Central Austin Homeschool Cooperative doesn’t believe in proms. Or dancing. Still, Stevie and Sanger know how to create their own brand of fun.

Enter Max Garza, the new boy next door. After a near-fatal accident, Max is determined to defy mortality with a checklist: 23 Ways to Fake My Death Without Dying. Dead set on carrying out fabricated demises ranging from impalement to spontaneous combustion, Max charms Stevie and Sanger into helping him with this two-month macabre mission. But as Stevie finds herself falling for Max, it becomes increasingly difficult to draw a line between his make-believe deaths and her real life.

The Marked Girl by Lindsey Klingele

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away (Los Angeles)…

When Cedric, crowned prince of Caelum, and his fellow royal friends (including his betrothed, Kat) find themselves stranded in modern-day L.A. via a magical portal and an evil traitor named Malquin, all they want to do is get home to Caelum—soon. Then they meet Liv, a filmmaker foster girl who just wants to get out of the system and on with her life. As she and Cedric bond, they’ll discover that she’s more connected to his world than they ever could’ve imagined…and that finding home is no easy task.

Mirror in the Sky by Aditi Khorana

For Tara Krishnan, navigating Brierly, the academically rigorous prep school she attends on scholarship, feels overwhelming and impossible. Her junior year begins in the wake of a startling discovery: A message from an alternate Earth, light years away, is intercepted by NASA. This means that on another planet, there is another version of Tara, a Tara who could be living better, burning brighter, because of tiny differences in her choices.

As the world lights up with the knowledge of Terra Nova, the mirror planet, Tara’s life on Earth begins to change. At first, small shifts happen, like attention from Nick Osterman, the most popular guy at Brierly, and her mother playing hooky from work to watch the news all day. But eventually those small shifts swell, the discovery of Terra Nova like a black hole, bending all the light around it.

As a new era of scientific history dawns and Tara’s life at Brierly continues its orbit, only one thing is clear: Nothing on Earth–and for Tara–will ever be the same again.

Never Ever by Sara Saedi

When Wylie encounters Phinn—confident, mature, and devastatingly handsome—at a party the night before her brother goes to juvie, she can’t believe how fast she falls for him. And that’s before he shows her how to fly.

Soon Wylie and her brothers find themselves whisked away to a mysterious tropical island off the coast of New York City where nobody ages beyond seventeen and life is a constant party. Wylie’s in heaven: now her brother won’t go to jail and she can escape her over-scheduled life with all its woes and responsibilities—permanently.

But the deeper Wylie falls for Phinn, the more she begins to discover has been kept from her and her brothers. Somebody on the island has been lying to her, but the truth can’t stay hidden forever.

The Way to Game the Walk of Shame by Jenn P. Nguyen

Taylor Simmons is screwed.

Things were hard enough when her single-minded dedication to her studies earned her the reputation of being an Ice Queen, but after getting drunk at a party and waking up next to bad boy surfer Evan McKinley, the entire school seems intent on tearing Taylor down with mockery and gossip.

Desperate to salvage her reputation, Taylor persuades Evan to pretend they’re in a serious romantic relationship. After all, it’s better to be the girl who tames the wild surfer than just another notch on his surfboard.

True Letters from a Fictional Life by Kenneth Logan

If you asked anyone in his small Vermont town, they’d tell you the facts: James Liddell, star athlete, decent student and sort-of boyfriend to cute, peppy Theresa, is a happy, funny, carefree guy.

But whenever James sits down at his desk to write, he tells a different story. As he fills his drawers with letters to the people in his world–letters he never intends to send–he spills the truth: he’s trying hard, but he just isn’t into Theresa. It’s a boy who lingers in his thoughts.

He feels trapped by his parents, his teammates, and the lies they’ve helped him tell, and he has no idea how to escape. Is he destined to live a life of fiction?

May 2016 Debut YA Novels

May 30, 2016 |

All descriptions are from WorldCat or Goodreads, unless otherwise noted. If I’m missing any debuts out in May from traditional publishers — and I should clarify that indie presses are okay — let me know in the comments.

As always, not all noted titles included here are necessarily endorsements for those titles. Get ready to get reading. It’s a busy month (and June will be, too)!

26 Kisses by Anna Michels

When Veda’s boyfriend unceremoniously dumps her right after graduation, she embarks on a summer love quest to move on and move up: kiss 26 boys, one for each letter of the alphabet

The Crown’s Game by Evelyn Skye

Vika Andreyeva can summon the snow and turn ash into gold. Nikolai Karimov can see through walls and conjure bridges out of thin air. They are the only enchanters in Russia, and when the Ottoman Empire and the Kazakhs threaten to attack, the tsar wants a powerful enchanter by his side, and as an advisor for the prince, Pasha. He initiates the Crown’s Game, a duel of magical skill, and the winner will become his Imperial Enchanter; the loser will die. For Vika and Nikolai, the game is a chance of a lifetime, but they come to realize that their growing regard for each other makes the game impossible to win. And as long-buried secrets emerge, threatening the future of the empire, it becomes increasingly clear to them that the Crown’s Game is not one to lose.

Devil and the Bluebird by Jennifer Mason-Black

Blue Riley has wrestled with demons ever since the loss of her mother to cancer. But when she encounters a beautiful devil at her town crossroads, it’s her runaway sister’s soul she fights to save. The devil steals Blue’s voice—inherited from her musically gifted mother—in exchange for a single shot at finding Cass

Draw the Line by Laurent Linn (technically, this might not be a debut novel, depending upon how a licensed board book credit in 2000 might be attributed, but I’m including it)

A teen boy survives a hate crime against another gay student through his art.

Even if the Sky Falls by Mia Garcia

When Julie takes a break from helping her youth group rebuild houses in New Orleans, she meets and falls in love with Miles and together they must survive a hurricane.

Everland by Wendy Spinale

London is a ruin, destroyed by German bombs, ravaged by the Horologia virus, and ruled by the ruthless Captain Hanz Otto Oswald Kretschmer, whose Marauders search for and seize the children who are immune to the virus in the hope that their blood will produce a cure–their latest victim is sixteen-year-old Gwen Darling’s younger sister and Gwen will do anything to get her back, even join up with Pete and his gang of Lost Boys living in a city hidden underground.

Frannie and Tru by Karen Hattrup

When Frannie Little eavesdrops on her parents fighting she discovers that her cousin Truman is gay, and his parents are so upset they are sending him to live with her family for the summer. At least, that’s what she thinks the story is. . . When he arrives, shy Frannie befriends this older boy, who is everything that she’s not–rich, confident, cynical, sophisticated. Together, they embark on a magical summer marked by slowly unraveling secrets.

If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo

Amanda Hardy only wants to fit in at her new school, but she is keeping a big secret, so when she falls for Grant, guarded Amanda finds herself yearning to share with him everything about herself, including her previous life as Andrew.

Jerkbait by Mia Siegert

Even though they’re identical, Tristan isn’t close to his twin Robbie at all—until Robbie tries to kill himself.

Forced to share a room to prevent Robbie from hurting himself, the brothers begin to feel the weight of each other’s lives on the ice, and off. Tristan starts seeing his twin not as a hockey star whose shadow Tristan can’t escape, but a struggling gay teen terrified about coming out in the professional sports world. Robbie’s future in the NHL is plagued by anxiety and the mounting pressure from their dad, coach, and scouts, while Tristan desperately fights to create his own future, not as a hockey player but a musical theatre performer.

As their season progresses and friends turn out to be enemies, Robbie finds solace in an online stranger known only as “Jimmy2416.” Between keeping Robbie’s secret and saving him from taking his life, Tristan is given the final call: sacrifice his dream for a brother he barely knows, or pursue his own path. How far is Robbie willing to go—and more importantly, how far is Tristan willing to go to help him?

Love & Gelato by Jenna Evans Welch

After her mother dies, Lina travels to Italy where she discovers her mother’s journal and sets off on an adventure to unearth her mother’s secrets.

The May Queen Murders by Sarah Jude

When her beloved cousin goes missing after a May Day celebration, sixteen-year-old Ivy discovers that both her cousin and her hometown in the Missouri Ozarks are as full of secrets as the woods that surround them.

The Only Thing Worse Than Me Is You by Lily Anderson

After years of competing against each other, Trixie and Ben form a fandom-based tentative friendship when their best friends start dating each other, but after Trixie’s friend gets expelled for cheating they have to choose which side they are on.

Please Don’t Tell by Laura Tims

Joy must deal with a blackmailer after the harm inflicted on her sister at a party by a perpetrator who ends up dead.

The Star Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi

Sixteen-year-old Maya’s arranged marriage turns out much better than she expected, but her husband’s magic–and her curiosity–may threaten more than her life.

The Square Root of Summer by Harriet Reuter Hapgood

Gottie Oppenheimer, a seventeen-year-old physics prodigy, navigates grief, love, and disruptions in the space-time continuum in one very eventful summer.

Suffer Love by Ashley Herring Blake

Hadley St. Clair’s life changed the day she came home to a front door covered in slips of paper, each of them revealing the ugly truth about her father. Now as her family falls apart in the wake of his year-long affair, Hadley wants everyone–her dad most of all–to leave her alone. Then she meets Sam Bennett, a cute new boy who inexplicably “feels like home” to Hadley. Hadley and Sam’s connection is undeniable, but Sam has a secret about his family that could ruin everything.

Summer of Sloane by Erin L. Schneider

Seventeen-year-old Sloane McIntyre spends a summer in Hawaii as she deals with being betrayed by both her boyfriend and her best friend, and she and her twin brother, Penn, begin new, complicated, romances.

Summer of Supernovas by Darcy Woods

As the daughter of an astrologer, Wilamena Carlisle knows the truth lies within the stars, so when she discovers a rare planetary alignment she is forced to tackle her worst astrological fear– The Fifth House of Relationships and Love– but Wil must decide whether a cosmically doomed love is worth rejecting her mother’s legacy when she falls for a sensitive guitar player.

This Is the Part Where You Laugh by Peter Brown Hoffmeister

Rising sophomore Travis and his best friend, Creature, spend a summer in a Eugene, Oregon, trailer park dealing with cancer, basketball, first love, addiction, gang violence, and a reptilian infestation.

Wandering Wild by Jessica Taylor

A teenage girl from a family of Wanderers must choose between the hustling, rambling way of life she has always known and the townie boy for whom she falls.

Debut YA Novels, April Edition

April 25, 2016 |

All descriptions are from WorldCat or Goodreads, unless otherwise noted. If I’m missing any debuts out in February from traditional publishers — and I should clarify that indie presses are okay — let me know in the comments.

As always, not all noted titles included here are necessarily endorsements for those titles. Get ready to get reading. It’s a busy month!

The Art of Not Breathing by Sarah Alexander

Since her twin brother, Eddie, drowned five years ago, sixteen-year-old Elsie Main has tried to remember what really happened that fateful day on the beach. When cute, mysterious Tay introduces Elsie to the world of freediving, she vows to find the answers she seeks at the bottom of the sea.

Consider by Kristy Acevedo

As if 17-year-old Alexandra Lucas’ anxiety disorder isn’t enough, mysterious holograms suddenly appear, heralding the end of the world. They bring an ultimatum: heed the warning and step through a portal-like vertex to safety, or stay and be destroyed by a comet that is on a collision course with Earth. The holograms, claiming to be humans from the future, bring the promise of safety. But without the ability to verify their story, Alex is forced to consider what is best for her friends, her family, and herself. To stay or to go. A decision must be made.

Crossing The Line by Meghan Rogers

Jocelyn Steely was kidnapped as a child and trained as a North Korean spy, but the tables turn when she becomes a double agent for the very American spy organization she has been sent to destroy.

Daughters of Ruin by K. D. Castner

As a war begins, four princesses of enemy kingdoms who were raised as sisters must decide where their loyalties lie: to their kingdoms, or to each other.

Dig Too Deep by Amy Allgeyer

When a nearby mountaintop removal mine is suspected of contaminating the water and sickening the residents of a small Kentucky town, sixteen-year-old Liberty Briscoe searches for answers.

Don’t Get Caught by Kurt Dinan

To his great surprise, uncool eleventh-grader Max Cobb is invited to join the Chaos Club, an exclusive group of students responsible for some of the biggest pranks at his high school.

Dreamology by Lucy Keating

Experiencing dreams about her soulmate all of her life, Alice meets the real boy, Max, when she moves to a new school and finds that their real relationship is more complicated than their dream one.

The End of FUN by Sean McGinty

Seventeen-year-old Aaron is hooked on FUN, a new augmented reality experience that is as addictive as it is FUN. But when he sets off on a treasure hunt, left by his late grandfather, Aaron must navigate the real world and discover what it means to connect–after the game is over.

A Fierce and Subtle Poison by Samantha Mabry

Spending the summer with his hotel-developer father in Puerto Rico, seventeen-year-old Lucas turns to a legendary cursed girl filled with poison when his girlfriend mysteriously disappears.

Love & Gelato by Jenna Evans Welch

After her mother dies, Lina travels to Italy where she discovers her mothers’s journal and sets off on an adventure to unearth her mother’s secrets.

Love, Lies, and Spies by Cindy Anstey

In the early 1800s, when her father sends her to London for a season, eighteen-year-old Juliana Telford, who prefers researching ladybugs to marriage, meets handsome Spencer Northam, a spy posing as a young gentleman of leisure.

My Kind of Crazy by Robin Reul

Hank Kirby can’t catch a break. He doesn’t mean to screw up. It just happens. Case in point: his attempt to ask out the girl he likes literally goes up in flames when he spelled “prom”” in sparklers on Amanda Carlisle’s lawn…and nearly burns down her house, without ever asking her the big question. Hank just wants to pretend the incident never happened. And he might’ve gotten away with it–except there is awitness. Peyton Breedlove, brooding loner and budding pyromaniac, saw the whole thing, and she blackmails Hank into an unusual friendship. Sure, Hank may be headed for his biggest disaster yet, but it’s only when life falls apart that you can start piecing it back together.

One Silver Summer by Rachel Hickman

Still grieving for her mother, sixteen-year-old Saskia has come from Brooklyn to Cornwall to live with her uncle where she discovers a beautiful silver-colored horse named Bo, and a boy, Alex, who describes himself as the horse’s trainer–but as their friendship deepens into something more she discovers that Alex is hiding a secret about himself and his family that could affect their relationship.

Scarlett Epstein Hates It Here by Anna Breslaw

When Scarlett’s beloved TV show is canceled and her longtime crush, Gideon, is sucked out of her orbit and into the dark and distant world of Populars, Scarlett turns to the fanfic message boards for comfort. This time, though, her subjects aren’t the swoon-worthy stars of her fave series — they’re the real-life kids from her high school.

South of Sunshine by Dana Elmendorf

In Sunshine, Tennessee, the main event in town is Friday night football, the biggest party of the year is held in a field filled with pickup trucks, and church attendance is mandatory. For Kaycee Jean McCoy, life in Sunshine means dating guys she has no interest in, saying only “yes, ma’am” when the local bigots gossip at her mom’s cosmetics salon, and avoiding certain girls at all costs. Girls like Bren Dawson. Unlike Kaycee, Bren doesn’t really conceal who she is. But as the cool, worldly new girl, nobody at school seems to give her any trouble. Maybe there’s no harm if Kaycee gets closer to her too, as long as she can keep that part of her life a secret, especially from her family and her best friend. But the more serious things get with Bren, the harder it is to hide from everyone else. Kaycee knows Sunshine has a darker side for people like her, and she’s risking everything for the chance to truly be herself.

Tripping Back Blue by Kara Storti

Finn is a gentle, tortured dealer and addict whose life is slipping away. When he finds an almost magical drug called Indigo, he thinks it will let him break free, but he’s dead wrong.

March Debut YA Novels

March 28, 2016 |

All descriptions are from WorldCat, unless otherwise noted. If I’m missing any debuts out in February from traditional publishers — and I should clarify that indie presses are okay — let me know in the comments.

As always, not all noted titles included here are necessarily endorsements for those titles.

Beyond the Red by Ava Jae: Alien queen Kora has a problem as vast as the endless crimson deserts. She’s the first female ruler of her territory in generations, but her people are rioting and call for her violent younger twin brother to take the throne. Despite assassination attempts, a mounting uprising of nomadic human rebels, and pressure to find a mate to help her rule, she’s determined to protect her people from her brother’s would-be tyrannical rule. Eros is a rebel soldier hated by aliens and human like for being a half-blood. Yet that doesn’t stop him from defending his people, at least until Kora’s soldiers raze his camp and take him captive. He’s given an ultimatum: be an enslaved bodyguard to Kora, or be executed for his true identity– a secret kept even from him. When Kora and Eros are framed for the attempted assassination of her betrothed, they flee. Their only chance of survival is to turn themselves in to the high court, where revealing Eros’s secret could mean a swift public execution. But when they uncover a violent plot to end the human insurgency, they must find a way to work together to prevent genocide.

Burning Glass by Kathryn Purdie: Tasked with sensing the intentions of would-be assassins, Sonya is under constant pressure to protect the emperor of Riaznin. But in a palace of warring emotions and looming darkness, Sonya fears that the biggest danger to the empire may be herself. When threats of revolution pit Emperor Valko against his younger brother Prince Anton, Sonya must choose which brother to trust.

The First Time She Drowned by Kerry Kletter: Committed to a mental hospital against her will for something she claims she did not do, Cassie O’Malley signs herself out against medical advice when she turns eighteen and tries to start over at college, until her estranged mother appears, throwing everything Cassie believes about herself into question.

The Girl Who Fell by SM Parker: When new boy in school, Alec, sweeps Zephyr off her feet, their passionate romance takes a dangerous and possessive turn when Alec begins manipulating Zephyr.

Guile by Constance Cooper: In the Bad Bayous, guile–a power in the water that changes people and objects, sometimes for the worse–sets Yonie Watereye, 16, on a path that puts her own life in danger as she traces her family tree and finds a murderer.

The Leaving Season by Cat Jordan: Middie Daniels is torn between the memory of her missing boyfriend, Nate, and Nate’s brooding best friend Lee.

Liars and Losers Like Us by Ami Allen-Vath: For seventeen-year-old Bree Hughes, it’s easier said than done when gossip, grief, and the opportunity to fail at love are practically high-fiving her in the hallways of Belmont High.

When Bree’s crush, Sean Mills, gives her his phone number, she can’t even leave a voicemail without sounding like a freak. Then she’s asked to be on Prom Court because Maisey Morgan, the school outcast nominated as a joke, declined. She apologizes to Maisey, but it’s too late. After years of torment and an ugly secret shared with their class’s cruel Pageant Queen, Maisey commits suicide. Bree is left with a lot of regret…and a revealing letter with a final request.

With Sean by her side, Bree navigates through her guilt, her parents’ divorce, and all the Prom Court drama. But when a cheating-love-triangle secret hits the fan after a night of sex, drinks, and video games, she’s left with new information about Sean and the class Pageant Queen. Bree must now speak up or stay silent. If she lets fear be her guide, she’ll lose her first love, and head to prom to avenge the death of the school outcast—as a party of one. (via Goodreads).

The Lifeboat Clique by Kathy Parks: During a party a tsunami hits the coast of California, and Denver and a handful of others escape death and are swept out to sea. Of course, one of her fellow castaways is none other than her ex-BFF, Abigail, who can barely stand the sight of her. Trapped on a small boat with the most popular kids in school and waiting to be rescued, Denver wonders what might kill her first–dehydration, sunstroke, or the girl she used to think of as a sister?

Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton: Amani is desperate to leave the dead-end town of Dustwalk, and she’s counting on her sharpshooting skills to help her escape. But after she meets Jin, the mysterious rebel running from the Sultan’s army, she unlocks the powerful truth about the desert nation of Miraji…and herself.

Save Me Kurt Cobain by Jenny Manzer: A chance discovery makes Nico, fifteen, believe that not only is Kurt Cobain, lead singer of the 1990s grung band Nirvana, still alive, but that he might be her real father.

Seven Ways We Lie by Riley Redgate: A chance encounter tangles the lives of seven high school students, each resisting the allure of one of the seven deadly sins, and each telling their story from their seven distinct points of view.

The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner: The son of a Pentecostal preacher faces his personal demons as he and his two outcast friends try to make it through their senior year of high school in rural Forrestville, Tennessee without letting the small-town culture destroy their creative spirits and sense of self.

Stone Field by Christy Lenzi: In this loose retelling of “Wuthering Heights” set in Missouri during the Civil War, when free-spirited seventeen-year-old Catrina discovers a mysterious young man with amnesia on her family’s sorghum farm, they fall passionately in love, scandalizing intolerant family members and neighbors.

A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro: Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson descendants, Charlotte and Jamie, students at a Connecticut boarding school, team up to solve a murder mystery.

Timber Creek Station by Ali Lewis: Thirteen-year-old Danny Dawson lives on a cattle station in the Australian outback, where his family struggles to cope with the accidental death of his older brother a year earlier and his sister’s pregnancy by an Aboriginal.

The Way I Used To Be by Amber Smith: After fourteen-year-old Eden is raped by her brother’s best friend, she knows she’ll never be the way she used to be.

Where Futures End by Parker Peevyhouse: Five interconnected stories that weave a subtle science-fictional web stretching out from the present into the future, presenting eerily plausible possibilities for social media, corporate sponsorship, and humanity, as our world collides with a mysterious alternate universe.