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May Debut YA Novels

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Time to sink your teeth into this month’s debut YA novels. Like usual, I’m sticking to the very strict definition of debut: it is the author’s first novel ever. I did not include any novels that were the author’s first YA title or their first under a pseudonym. I did include one novel this month that was published abroad last year and is being published for the first time in the US since it was her first novel.

As usual, it’s possible I’ve missed a major title or two, so feel free to let me know in the comments. All descriptions are from WorldCat unless otherwise noted. 

Camelot Burning by Kathryn Rose: Eighteen-year-old Vivienne, lady-in-waiting to the future queen Guinevere, is secretly apprenticed to Merlin the magician and helps him try to create a steam-powered metal beast to defeat Morgan La Fey, King Arthur’s sorceress sister, when she declares war on Camelot.

Infinite Sky by CJ Flood: When Iris’ mum leaves home, her brother, Sam, goes off the rails and her dad is left trying to hold it all together. So when a family of travellers sets up camp illegally in front of their farm, its the catalyst for a stand-off that can only end in disaster. But to Iris it’s an adventure. She secretly strikes up a friendship with the gypsy boy, Trick, and discovers home can be something as simple as a carved out circle in a field of corn. (Via Goodreads). 

These Gentle Wounds by Helene Dunbar: Fifteen-year-old Gordie is trying to build a new life after tragically losing his family, but when his abusive father returns, Gordie must confront the traumas of the past. 



End Times by Anna Schumacher: When life in Detroit becomes too hard to bear, Daphne flees to her Uncle Floyd’s home in Carbon County, Wyoming, but instead of solace she finds tumult as the townsfolk declare that the End Times are here, and she may be the only person who can read the signs and know the truth.

Oblivion by Sasha Dawn: Sixteen-year-old Callie Knowles fights her compulsion to write constantly, even on herself, as she struggles to cope with foster care, her mother’s life in a mental institution, and her belief that she killed her father, a minister, who has been missing for a year.

One Man Guy by Michael Barakiva: When Alek’s high-achieving, Armenian-American parents send him to summer school, he thinks his summer is ruined. But then he meets Ethan, who opens his world in a series of truly unexpected ways.  



A Girl Called Fearless by Catherine Linka: After a synthetic hormone in beef kills fifty million American women, seventeen-year-old Avie struggles for a normal life in a world where teenage girls are a valuable commodity, but when her father contracts her to marry a rich, older man, Avie decides to run away with her childhood friend and revolutionary, Yates.

The Falconer by Elizabeth May: Lady Aileana Kameron, the only daughter of the Marquess of Douglas, was destined for a life carefully planned around Edinburgh’s social events – right up until a faery killed her mother. Now it’s the 1844 winter season and Aileana slaughters faeries in secret, in between the endless round of parties, tea and balls. Armed with modified percussion pistols and explosives, she sheds her aristocratic facade every night to go hunting. She’s determined to track down the faery who murdered her mother, and to destroy any who prey on humans in the city’s many dark alleyways. But the balance between high society and her private war is a delicate one, and as the fae infiltrate the ballroom and Aileana’s father returns home, she has decisions to make. How much is she willing to lose – and just how far will Aileana go for revenge? Kimberly’s Review. 

Wish You Were Italian by Kristin Rae: Seventeen-year-old Pippa Preston, sent to Italy for a three-month art history program, decides instead to see the country on her own, armed with a list of such goals as eating an entire pizza and falling in love with an Italian, but soon finds herself attracted both to a dangerous local boy and an American archaeology student.



Killing Ruby Rose by Jessie Humphries: Ruby Rose, a 17-year-old Southern California girl known for her killer looks and killer SAT scores, becomes a vigilante who is also being hunted.

The Eighth Guardian by Meredith McCardle: Amanda Obermann. Code name Iris. It’s Testing Day. The day that comes without warning, the day when all juniors and seniors at The Peel Academy undergo a series of intense physical and psychological tests to see if they’re ready to graduate and become government operatives. Amanda and her boyfriend Abe are top students, and they’ve just endured thirty-six hours of testing. But they’re juniors and don’t expect to graduate. That’ll happen next year, when they plan to join the CIA—together. But when the graduates are announced, the results are shocking. Amanda has been chosen—the first junior in decades. And she receives the opportunity of a lifetime: to join a secret government organization called the Annum Guard and travel through time to change the course of history. But in order to become the Eighth Guardian in this exclusive group, Amanda must say good-bye to everything—her name, her family, and even Abe—forever. Who is really behind the Annum Guard? And can she trust them with her life? (via Goodreads). 

April Debut YA Novels

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It’s time to talk April debut YA novels, and this month, there are quite a few. I’ve rounded them up best as I can, but as usual, it’s likely I’ll miss a title or two and I’m happy to hear of other debuts from traditional publishers in the comments. I define debut as first novel. I’m not including debuts that are an author’s first YA novel; I want them to be first novels. 

All descriptions are from WorldCat. Titles that Kimberly or I may have reviewed we’ll include links to, as well. 

Breakfast Served Anytime by Sarah Combs: Spending the summer before her senior year at a camp for gifted and talented students, Gloria struggles with the recent loss of her grandmother while trying to meet new friends and make the best of her new circumstances.

Burn Out by Kristi Helvig: In the future, when the Earth is no longer easily habitable, seventeen-year-old Tora Reynolds, a girl in hiding, struggles to protect weapons developed by her father that could lead to disaster should they fall into the wrong hands.

Dear Killer by Katherine Ewell: Kit, a seventeen-year-old moral nihilist serial killer, chooses who to kill based on anonymous letters left in a secret mailbox, while simultaneously maintaining a close relationship with the young detective in charge of the murder cases. 



Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige: Amy Gumm, the other girl from Kansas, has been recruited by the Revolutionary Order of the Wicked to stop Dorothy who has found a way to come back to Oz, seizing a power that has gone to her head — so now no one is safe!

Expiration Day by William Campbell Powell: t is the year 2049, and humanity is on the brink of extinction. Tania Deeley has always been told that she’s a rarity: a human child in a world where most children are sophisticated androids manufactured by Oxted Corporation. 

Far From You by Tess Sharpe: After Sophie Winters survives a brutal attack in which her best friend, Mina, is murdered, she sets out to find the killer. At the same time she must prove she is free of her past Oxy addiction and in no way to blame for Mina’s death. 

Learning Not to Drown by Anna Shinoda: Clare, seventeen, has always stood up for her eldest brother, Luke, despite his many jail stints but when her mother takes Clare’s hard-earned savings to post bail for Luke, Clare begins to understand truths about her brother and her family.

Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaria: When Laurel starts writing letters to dead people for a school assignment, she begins to spill about her sister’s mysterious death, her mother’s departure from the family, her new friends, and her first love.

Open Road Summer by Emery Lord: Follows seventeen-year-old Reagan as she tries to escape heartbreak and a bad reputation by going on tour with her country superstar best friend–only to find more trouble as she falls for the surprisingly sweet guy hired to pose as the singer’s boyfriend.

Pointe by Brandy Colbert: Four years after Theo’s best friend, Donovan, disappeared at age thirteen, he is found and brought home and Theo puts her health at risk as she decides whether to tell the truth about the abductor, knowing her revelation could end her life-long dream of becoming a professional ballet dancer. Kelly’s review. 

Prisoner of Night and Fog by Anne Blankman: In 1930s Munich, the favorite niece of rising political leader Adolph Hitler is torn between duty and love after meeting a fearless and handsome young Jewish reporter.

Salvage by Alexandra Duncan: Ava, a teenage girl living aboard the male-dominated, conservative deep space merchant ship Parastrata, faces betrayal, banishment, and death. Taking her fate into her own hands, she flees to the Gyre, a floating continent of garbage and scrap in the Pacific Ocean. How will she build a future on an Earth ravaged by climate change? Kimberly’s review. 

Sekret by Lindsay Smith: A group of psychic teenagers in 1960s Soviet Russia are forced to use their powers to spy for the KGB. Kimberly’s review. 

Stolen Songbird by Danielle L. Jensen: Trolls are said to love gold. They are said to live underground and hate humans, perhaps even eat them. They are said to be evil. When Cécile de Troyes is kidnapped and sold to the trolls, she finds out that there is truth in the rumors, but there is also so much more to trolls than she could have imagined. Cécile has only one thing on her mind after she is brought to Trollus, the city she hadn’t even known existed under Forsaken Mountain: escape. But the trolls are inhumanly strong. And fast. She will have to bide her time, wait for the perfect opportunity. But something strange happens while she’s waiting–she begins to fall in love with the handsome, thoughtful troll prince that she has been bonded and married to. She begins to make friends. And she begins to see that she may be the only hope for the half-bloods–part troll/part human creatures who are slaves to the full-blooded trolls. There is a rebellion brewing. And her prince, Tristan, the future king, is its secret leader.

Talker 25 by Joshua McCune: The fifteen-year-long war between man and dragons seems nearly over until Melissa becomes an unwilling pawn of the government after she–and those driving the beasts to extinction–discover that she can communicate with dragons.





Tease by Amanda Maciel: A teenage girl faces criminal charges for bullying after a classmate commits suicide. 

The Chance You Won’t Return by Annie Cardi: High school student Alex Winchester struggles to hold her life together in the face of her mother’s threatening delusions about being Amelia Earhart.

The Vigilante Poets of Selwyn Academy by Kate Hattemer: When a sleazy reality television show takes over Ethan’s arts academy, he and his friends concoct an artsy plan to take it down. 

Twitterview: Brandy Colbert (POINTE)

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Yesterday, we had a review of Brandy Colbert’s knockout debut Pointe. Today, we have a Twitterview with her, asking the tough questions about Pointe, her writing process, as well as the books and music that inspire her. This is our first Twitterview of the new year, and it’s a good one.


In addition, we’re giving away two finished copies of Pointe. Form is at the bottom of the interview, and the contest is open to US and Canadian residents only.


I’m so excited to share this conversation, so without further ado, here’s Brandy.

Pitch Pointe in 140 characters.

A gifted dancer’s life unravels when her childhood best friend returns after four years in captivity—and she has ties to the abduction.
What inspired Pointe?

A lifelong love of dance and an obsession with long-term kidnapping stories, especially the one portrayed in I Know My First Name Is Steven.

How would you describe Theo, your main character?

Determined. Foolhardy. Passionate. Competitive. 


Theo is a POC in a very white world (in setting and sport). Talk about that.

Theo is very aware that she sticks out in her world, but she refuses to let her race define her, in both her life and desired profession.

Do you have more to say about that?  

I do! POINTE is the third book I’ve written about a teenage black girl, but it’s the first in which her race was not the focal point or even a subplot of the story. As someone who grew up black in a predominantly white town in southwest Missouri, I wanted to write a character who dealt with some of the day-to-day issues and obstacles I’d experienced without that being the point of the book. I was very involved in academics and extracurricular activities as a child and teen, and although it was a little tough almost always being the only black person in the room, or being the first black person to, for instance, join my high school’s dance team, I think those years were instrumental in shaping the person I am today. Overall, I had a great time in high school and tried to make the best of it. If people were going to notice me for being different anyway, I wanted them to especially notice me for my accomplishments. I believe Theo has a similar attitude.

There’s romance in this book but it’s the friendships that stand out to me. Tell me about Theo and Ruthie’s friendship.

They’re lifelong friends from ballet and are competitive, but also have a mutual respect and trust that extends to life beyond the studio.

And how about Theo and Donovan’s friendship?

Complicated. They’re essentially strangers now, but also bonded for life, because and in spite of what happened when they were thirteen.

Was there a particular scene in the book you most enjoyed writing?

Theo + Hosea in the gazebo. They don’t really know each other and are both very  private, but they open up to talk honestly about their art.



What about a scene that gave you the most trouble writing? 

Scenes at the abandoned park and convenience store. Dance scenes can be tough; you want to show authority + beauty without getting jargon-y.

Who is your ideal reader for Pointe? 

Truly, everyone. But I love the idea of young black girls who haven’t seen themselves represented this way in YA fiction connecting to it.

Is there anything you want readers to walk away with? 

Hmm. I’d be happy knowing people think about the story at all after they finish the book.

Pointe is your debut novel. What’s been the most exciting part of your debut year so far?

That people who aren’t related to me care about this little idea that lived in my head and on my computer for years. It’s so very surreal.

What’s been the most surprising part of your debut year? 

Emotions, everywhere! About everything! Also, time management is pretty much nonexistent these days.

If you had to give your book a “____ meets _____” pitch, what two (or three! or four!) books/films/shows would Pointe be a meeting of?

My editor has described it as “Black Swan” meets “Speak.” I’m terrible at mash-ups and it’s super flattering, so I’ll go with that.

Outside of writing, what do you do with your free time? 

I joke about being a hermit and it’s maybe 40% true. I read a lot. Obsess over TV. Hang with friends who trick me into things like hiking.


Who or what do you write for?

Myself, mostly. Writing is very therapeutic for me, and my work is at its best when I write the type of story I would love to read.

What was your most influential read as a teenager?

How Do You Lose Those Ninth-Grade Blues? It was already dated when I first read it, but DeClements’ books really speak to me. 
Who are your top three writing influences?

ZZ Packer, Courtney Summers, Barthe DeClements
Who do you believe is breaking ground in YA right now?

Stephanie Kuehn, Corey Ann Haydu, Carrie Mesrobian, Blythe Woolston, Steve Brezenoff

Can you share three of your all-time, would-recommend-to-anyone favorite books?

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender, A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett, Hold Still by Nina LaCour
What’s the best writing advice you ever received?

Be an honest writer. I found my voice once I stopped worrying what people would think of me for writing dark books about complicated topics.

What’s your best writing advice to give?

If people say there’s no room on the shelves for the books you write, keep at it until someone makes room for you. Don’t give up.

What is your writing routine?

I am completely without routine, but I’ve always done my best writing late at night, and when I have large chunks of time to devote to it.

What gets you jazzed to write?

I’m inspired by good writing and storytelling, so: discovering new books/TV/film, my critique partners’ work, rereading old favorites.

Do you have a writing soundtrack? Care to share a bit?

I love music, but don’t write to it! In the rare instance I do, I tend to go with groups like Zero 7, Daft Punk, and Thievery Corporation.

What’s next for you?

More gritty YA contemp about black girls. I’m working on two projects that I’m unbelievably excited about, but they’re under wraps for now.

Favorite ice cream?

Only the tough questions! Tie between Ben & Jerry’s AmeriCone Dream, Häagen-Dazs Dulche de Leche, and Trader Joe’s Golden Caramel Swirl.

Would you like the chance to win Pointe? We’re giving away two finished copies. Fill out the form below. We’ll pull winners at the end of the month.

Pointe by Brandy Colbert

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Theo, an elite ballerina, walks late into dance class only to see the usual accompanist has been replaced by Hosea — the guy she kind of  knows from school, who is dating a girl she kind of knows. But what she really knows is Hosea is one of the big suppliers of the pot she and her friends are able to score when they need it.

As much Pointe by Brandy Colbert is a story about a relationship that develops between Theo and Hosea, it’s also not a story about their relationship.

This is a story about what happens when Donovan, Theo’s neighbor and best friend, suddenly comes back home four years after being kidnapped. When he won’t talk to anyone.

When Donovan won’t talk to anyone.

Because this book is complex and encompasses a lot of story within it — and successfully so — this review is full of spoilers. There’s a lot I want to talk about, and avoiding the big issues in the sake of avoiding talking about a big plot issue won’t work for me. Proceed at your own caution.

Colbert’s debut novel tackles a huge array of topics within it, but it does so by carefully braiding together threads of Theo’s past with the reality and immediacy of the present. There are balls in the air for her, including the return of Donovan, the future of gaining admission to another level of ballet that would set her on the track to big stages and a career in the art, and the budding romance with Hosea. Theo’s juggling time with her close friends, as well: she’s a girl who is social and who would never be seen as a wallflower nor the kind of person who would stay home at night, rather than go to the school dance or a party. Though it might be in her better interests not to.

In the midst of juggling the responsibilities of now, particularly the emerging romance between her and Hosea, flashbacks to life four years ago begin popping up. Slowly, Theo remembers the relationship she had with an older boy named Trent. He loved to have sex with her, and sometimes she liked it, while other times, she felt like she was being used. But Trent being eighteen and she being much younger, she went along with it. That relationship — secret to her friends and her family — made her feel good and wanted. It made her feel powerful. An older boy who physically showed her he was interested in her.

That relationship with Trent, though, wasn’t entirely a secret to Donovan. Theo met Trent when she was hanging out with Donovan. He knew they had something going on, though the extent to which he knew remains in the air.

Backpedalling a bit, though: what about those four interim years between the time Donovan disappeared and when he returned? That’s where things become really interesting, and the memories that bubble up from Theo serve as a means of giving us as readers a true sense of not just who she was, but who she’s become now. We know she’s a dancer. We know she has a future ahead of her. But we also know losing her best friend and losing the first boyfriend of her life and the stress of being a dancer couldn’t be easy. Theo spent many of those interim years struggling with an eating disorder, one she held secret until she blacked out at the mall with one of her friends. The eating disorder was her means of holding control over something completely on her own. It ultimately got her institutionalized, and it’s something from which she never quite recovered. Donovan’s return home also retriggers the eating disorder. But not because of his presence; it’s because of what his return brings up in Theo’s past.

When Theo learns that the name of the man who kidnapped Donovan is Chris, things unhinge. When Theo puts the pieces together and realizes her Trent was never the person he said he was. He was never eighteen. He was in his twenties. And his name wasn’t Trent.

It was Chris. The same Chris who pled not guilty to kidnapping Donovan and the same Chris against whom Theo will have to testify in order to seek justice for Donovan.

The same Chris who raped Theo. Who took advantage of her being underage and naive. The same Chris who raped Theo no one knows about until that very trial.

Colbert weaves in an array of “issues” within Pointe, and while it could have become easily overwhelming, Theo’s amazing development as a character keeps them all together smoothly. Theo is a tough girl who doesn’t take crap from anyone, but she’s also a character who doesn’t quite know how to trust that instinct about her. She’s tentative internally as much as she appears steadfast and confident externally. Much of it is probably due to her being a ballerina and needing to exude that confidence on stage and shove down anything that might take away from the part she’s playing while performing. But part of it comes from being a black girl in a mostly-white suburb outside Chicago, as well as being a black girl in a mostly-white artistic/athletic sphere.

Within the story, Theo’s race plays a role in the experiences she has in and out of the classroom in ways that are painful to read but which also give immense insight into what that experience of being a minority might feel like. I can’t ever know personally, but through Theo’s actions and reactions, through the way she talks through these experiences internally, it was easy to understand where some of the external face she puts on comes from. She has to be strong, she has to be brave, and she has to stand up and fight harder than an average person would simply because of the color of her skin. It’s unfair, and that unfairness shines through.

Though it looked and felt like a good thing in the moment, Theo’s relationship with Hosea turns out to be a disaster. She and he are both aware that he’s dating someone, but it doesn’t stop either one of them from reciprocating the physical and emotional (at least her emotional) actions toward one another. Part of their relationship happens because Theo needs someone to be with her, now that the memories she’d tamped down are coming back up again with Donovan’s return. She wants to feel that physical closeness. She wants to be wanted. But when Hosea and Theo are close to having sex in the science classroom and his girlfriend sees what happens, things end. Fortunately for Theo, the only thing Hosea ever got out of her was physical. He wasn’t privy to her experiences with Chris nor how they related to Donovan.

In fact, the only person who ever knew what happened in Theo’s past was a female friend of hers, and it came out almost by accident. That friend revealed something about her own life, and Theo reciprocated by talking about how she’d dated an older guy. And then revealed more and more, until the friend managed to convince Theo what had happened was rape. It was in this moment that Pointe went from being good to being really good — not because Theo was forced to reconsider what happened, but because that reconsideration came through talking it out with another girlfriend. Not with Hosea. Not with a counselor. Not with anyone except a female friend. There is no one who saves Theo in the story except Theo herself. The boy who looked like he would be the hero falters, and it’s she who gets to walk away, knowing that it was a mistake but a mistake from which she can learn.

But it got even better when, seated to testify at the trial, Theo reveals the rape to the courtroom. When she finally owns what happened to her those years ago. When she releases Donovan, too, because her testimony ultimately sends Chris to jail for kidnapping and a slew of other charges.

That reveal wasn’t the only one she made. Theo also admits to her parents she isn’t over her eating disorder. That she’s not “okay.” That she needs help. And with that, she chooses to check herself into the same clinic she attended before but didn’t find helpful. This time, the story feels more promising, especially as she severs ties she really needs to and works to strengthen others. Going away means putting the ballet dreams on hold — but she knows, too, they’ll be there waiting for her when she’s ready  and healthy enough to visit them again.

Theo is one of my favorite characters in a long time. She makes a lot of dumb mistakes, and she’s unwilling to trust herself, even when her gut instincts tell her what she’s thinking or feeling are right. She’s not weak, but she’s also not “strong.” She’s imperfect and rough and misguided but ultimately, she wants to do what’s right. It’s just a matter of figuring out how to do that without continuing to hurt herself in the process — which she does anyway, but in recognizing that, she grows. Theo learns about trusting herself, as well as trusting others in the process.

At the end of Pointe, nothing is perfect. Theo will still make dumb mistakes. That she’ll still stumble and fall. She’ll still likely go out and party when it might be smarter not to. But we also know she’s figured out that she has the capability to own her story and work with it, rather than always work against it. To recognize that being a human being means being imperfect, and that the best relationships are the ones that take work. Especially the relationship one has with herself.

Pass Brandy Colbert’s Pointe to readers who love Sara Zarr or Siobhan Vivian. Those readers who love a complex female character and a book that’s tightly written with an authentic and memorable voice will find much to love here. Readers who want a story that features a character passionate about her art — dancers especially — will enjoy Theo’s dedication and Colbert’s ability to write about it with authority. Although there is a lot of plot, ultimately Pointe is a character-driven novel, and one that will resonate with readers who are eager for solid, memorable, smart, damn good contemporary YA fiction. Colbert creates real teen characters in situations that allow them to be teenagers without offering judgment for the choices that they do and do not make, regardless of how smart those choices may or may not be.

Pointe will be available April 10. Review copy received from the publisher. Tomorrow, we’ll have an interview with Colbert, along with a giveaway. 

March Debut YA Novels

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It’s that time again to roundup the debut novels out this month. As we get into the new few months, prepare your to-be-read piles to explode, as more debuts will be popping up over the next three or four months. I define debut as I have in the past: the author has not published another novel before, so this YA title is their first across any category or genre. 

I’m pretty sure I’ll miss something, so feel free to let me know of other traditionally published debut novels out in March in the comments. All descriptions come from WorldCat.

Nearly Gone by Elle Cosimano: A math-whiz from a trailer park discovers she’s the only student capable of unravelling complex clues left by a serial killer who’s systematically getting rid of her classmates. 

Side Effects May Vary by Julie Murphy: Alice is ready to go out in a blaze of glory, but then she discovers she’s in remission from cancer and she must deal with all of the mistakes she’s made and the people she’s hurt. 

The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton: Born with bird wings, Ava Lavender is well aware that love has long made fools of her family. When pious Nathaniel Sorrows mistakes her bird wings for angel wings, 16-year-old Ava faces the man’s growing obsession, which comes to a head with the rain and feathers that fly through the air during a nighttime summer solstice celebration.

ACID by Emma Pass: 2113. In Jenna Strong’s world, ACID – the most brutal, controlling police force in history – rule supreme. No throwaway comment or muttered dissent goes unnoticed – or unpunished. And it was ACID agents who locked Jenna away for life, for a bloody crime she struggles to remember. The only female inmate in a violent high-security prison, Jenna has learned to survive by any means necessary. And when a mysterious rebel group breaks her out, she must use her strength, speed and skill to stay one step ahead of ACID – and to uncover the truth about what really happened on that dark night two years ago. 

Liv, Forever by Amy Talkington: Soon after an art scholarship gets Liv a place at prestigious Wickham Hall, she becomes the latest victim of a dark conspiracy spanning 150 years, but her ghost, aided by friend Gabe and boyfriend Malcolm, tries to put a stop to the killing.

Nil by Lynne Matson: Transported through a “gate” to the mysterious island of Nil, seventeen-year-old Charley has 365 days to escape–or she will die.

A Death-Struck Year by Makiia Lucier: When the Spanish influenza epidemic reaches Portland, Oregon, in 1918, seventeen-year-old Cleo leaves behind the comfort of her boarding school to work for the Red Cross.

Half Bad by Sally Green:In modern-day England, where witches live alongside humans, Nathan, son of a White witch and the most powerful Black witch, must escape captivity before his seventeenth birthday and receive the gifts that will determine his future.

The Story of Owen by E. K. Johnston: In an alternate world where industrialization has caused many species of carbon-eating dragons to thrive, Owen, a slayer being trained by his famous father and aunt, and Siobahn, his bard, face a dragon infestation near their small town in Canada.

The 57 Lives of Alex Wayfare by M. G. Buehrlen: For as long as Alex Wayfare can remember, she has had visions of the past. Vivid visions that make her feel like she’s really on a ship bound for America, or riding the original Ferris wheel at the World’s Fair. It isn’t until she meets Porter, a stranger who knows more than should be possible about her, that she learns the truth; her visions aren’t really visions. Alex is a Descender — capable of traveling back in time to her past lives. But the more she descends, the more it becomes apparent that someone doesn’t want Alex to travel again. And they will stop at nothing to make this life, her fifty-seventh, her last.

Ask Again Later by Liz Czukas: Instead of a “No Drama Prom-a” with a group of friends, seventeen-year-old Heart LaCoeur must choose between two boys with good reasons for asking her, but a flip of a coin leads not to one date but two complete–and very different–prom nights.

Gilded by Christina Farley: Sixteen-year-old Jae Hwa Lee is a Korean-American girl with a black belt, a deadly proclivity with steel-tipped arrows, and a chip on her shoulder the size of Korea itself. When her widowed dad uproots her to Seoul from her home in L.A., Jae thinks her biggest challenges will be fitting into a new school and dealing with her dismissive Korean grandfather. Then she discovers that a Korean demi-god, Haemosu, has been stealing the soul of the oldest daughter of each generation in her family for centuries. And she’s next.

The Other Way Around by Sashi Kaufman: To escape his offbeat family at Thanksgiving, Andrew West accepts a ride from a band of street performers who get their food and clothing from dumpsters, but as he learns more about these “Freegans” he sees that one cannot outrun the past.

The Secret Side of Empty by Maria E. Andreu: M.T. is a high-achieving high school student, who hiding the fact that she’s an undocumented immigrant in the United States.

The Violet Hour by Whitney A. Miller: Seventeen-year-old Harlow Wintergreen, plagued by mental voices and visions while traveling through Asia, must confront the evil sources of them when the hallucinations start bleeding into reality.