If you’re keeping tabs on the YA releases from first-time authors, here’s this month’s installment. All descriptions come from Worldcat, unless otherwise noted, and you can check out prior monthly installments on June’s post. 

I’ve tried to get them all, but if there are any traditionally-published, first-time novels for young adults out in July that I’ve missed, let us know in the comments. We’ve linked to relevant reviews, and we’ll update as we review novels throughout the year, as well. 

45 Pounds (More or Less) by K. A. Barson: When Ann decides that she is going to lose 45 pounds in time for her aunt’s wedding, she discovers that what she looks like is not all that matters.

After Eden by Helen Douglas: Eden, sixteen, must choose between helping Ryan, a time-traveler, and her best friend Connor who, according to Ryan, is about to become famous through a significant scientific discovery that will, ultimately ruin the world.

All Our Pretty Songs by Sarah McCarry: In the Pacific Northwest, the bond between two best friends is challenged when a mysterious and gifted musician comes between them and awakens an ancient evil. Kelly talked a little about this book in her post on empowering female sexuality. 

Contaminated by Em Garner: Velvet fights for her family’s survival after a widespread contamination turns a segment of the population, including her mother, into ultra-violent zombie-like creatures

OCD Love Story by Corey Ann Haydu: In an instant, Bea felt almost normal with Beck, and as if she could fall in love again, but things change when the psychotherapist who has been helping her deal with past romantic relationships puts her in a group with Beck–a group for teens with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Prep School Confidential by Kara Taylor: When Anne’s misbehavior sends her from her Upper East Side prep school to a prestigious boarding school outside of Boston, her only goal is to get back home until her roommate, Isabella, is murdered and Anne decides to find out what happened, whatever the cost.

Since You Asked by Maureen Goo: Fifteen-year-old Holly Kim, the copyeditor for her San Diego high school’s newspaper, accidentally submits a piece ripping everyone to shreds and suddenly finds herself the center of unwanted attention–but when the teacher in charge of the paper asks her to write a regular column her troubles really start.

Some Quiet Place by Kelsey Sutton: Seventeen-year-old Elizabeth Caldwell sees, rather than feels, emotions; they’re beings who walk among us. The only emotion who engages with her now is Fear, and he’s as desperate as Elizabeth is to figure out how she became this way. 

Starglass by Pheobe North: For all of her sixteen years, Terra has lived on a city within a spaceship that left Earth five hundred years ago seeking refuge, but as they finally approach the chosen planet, she is drawn into a secret rebellion that could change the fate of her people.

The Theory of Everything by Kari Luna: When fourteen-year-old Sophie Sophia journeys to New York with a scientific boy genius, a Kerouac-loving bookworm, and a giant shaman panda guide, she discovers more about her visions, string theory, and a father who could be the key to an extraordinary life.

Vigilante Nights by Erin Richards: His beloved twin dead, his future destroyed, Lucas forms a vigilante posse to take revenge on the gang members responsible. Can his new love, and his sister’s voice from beyond death, stop Lucas from self-destruction?

Here’s this months YA debut novels. As you know, we’ve been keeping track each month (you can get to May’s here, and then April through May’s post and so forth). We try to make the effort to come back and link up our own reviews in each of these posts, so if you’re curious what we thought of the various debuts throughout the year, that’s how you can find out.

If you know of other traditionally published debut YA novels out in June, let us know in the comments. We define debut as first published novel, regardless of whether the author has published in a different category (adult, picture book, etc) previously. We want the freshest blood for these round ups!

All descriptions come from WorldCat unless otherwise noted.

Another Little Piece by Katie Karyus Quinn: A year after vanishing from a party, screaming and drenched in blood, seventeen-year-old Annaliese Rose Gordon appears hundreds of miles from home with no memory, but a haunting certainty that she is actually another girl trapped in Annaliese’s body.

Charm & Strange by Stephanie Kuehn: A lonely teenager exiled to a remote Vermont boarding school in the wake of a family tragedy must either surrender his sanity to the wild wolves inside his mind or learn that surviving means more than not dying.

Linked by Imogen Howson: When Elissa’s nightmarish visions and inexplicable bruises lead to the discovery of a battered twin sister on the run from government agents, Elissa enlists the help of an arrogant new graduate from the space academy.

Tides by Betsy Cornwell: After moving to the Isles of Shoals for a marine biology internship, eighteen-year-old Noah learns of his grandmother’s romance with a selkie woman, falls for the selkie’s daughter, and must work with her to rescue her siblings from his mentor’s cruel experiments.

Ink by Amanda Sun (via Goodreads): On the heels of a family tragedy, the last thing Katie Greene wants to do is move halfway across the world. Stuck with her aunt in Shizuoka, Japan, Katie feels lost. Alone. She doesn’t know the language, she can barely hold a pair of chopsticks, and she can’t seem to get the hang of taking her shoes off whenever she enters a building. Then there’s gorgeous but aloof Tomohiro, star of the school’s kendo team. How did he really get the scar on his arm? Katie isn’t prepared for the answer. But when she sees the things he draws start moving, there’s no denying the truth: Tomo has a connection to the ancient gods of Japan, and being near Katie is causing his abilities to spiral out of control. If the wrong people notice, they’ll both be targets. Katie never wanted to move to Japan—now she may not make it out of the country alive. 

In the After by Demitria Lunetta: In a post-apocalyptic world where nothing is as it seems, seventeen-year-old Amy and Baby, a child she found while scavenging, struggle to survive while vicious, predatory creatures from another planet roam the Earth.

Insomnia by J. R. Johansson: Sixteen-year-old Parker Chipp spends his nights experiencing other people’s dreams and getting no rest, so when he discovers that new friend Mia’s dreams are different he becomes fixated on her until memory blackouts lead him to question exactly what their relationship is.

The Oathbreaker’s Shadow by Amy McCulloch: Fifteen-year-old Raim lives in a world where you tie a knot for every promise that you make. Break that promise and you are scarred for life, and cast out into the desert. Raim has worn a simple knot around his wrist for as long as he can remember.

Belle Epoque by Elizabeth Ross: Sixteen-year-old Maude Pichon, a plain, impoverished girl in Belle Epoque Paris, is hired by Countess Dubern to make her headstrong daughter, Isabelle, look more beautiful by comparison but soon Maude is enmeshed in a tangle of love, friendship, and deception.

Can you believe we’re already more than five months into 2013? Some of us are still making our checks out to 2012 (how many ways can a person date herself in one sentence — yes, I still use checks sometimes). We’ve been keeping track of this year’s YA debut novels, and here are May’s additions. As usual, all of these are by first time writers within in any genre or category, and all are traditionally published titles. Descriptions come from WorldCat, and as we review any of these titles during the year, we’ll come back and link up our reviews.

If you know of other debut novels coming out in May, we’d love to know!

The Color of Rain by Cori McCarthy: If there is one thing that seventeen-year-old Rain knows and knows well, it is survival. Caring for her little brother, Walker, who is “Touched,” and losing the rest of her family to the same disease, Rain has long had to fend for herself on the bleak, dangerous streets of Earth City. When she looks to the stars, Rain sees escape and the only possible cure for Walker. And when a darkly handsome and mysterious captain named Johnny offers her passage to the Edge, Rain immediately boards his spaceship. Her only price: her “willingness.” Secretly and quickly Rain discovers that Johnny’s ship serves as host for an underground slave trade for the Touched . . . and a prostitution ring for Johnny’s girls. With hair as red as the bracelet that indicates her status on the ship, the feeling of being a marked target is not helpful in Rain’s quest to escape. Even worse, Rain is unsure if she will be able to pay the costs of love, family, hope, and self-preservation. 

Coda by Emma Trevayne: Ever since he was a young boy, music has coursed through the veins of eighteen-year-old Anthem — the Corp has certainly seen to that. By encoding music with addictive and mind-altering elements, the Corp holds control over all citizens, particularly conduits like Anthem, whose life energy feeds the main power in the Grid. Anthem finds hope and comfort in the twin siblings he cares for, even as he watches the life drain slowly and painfully from his father. Escape is found in his underground rock band, where music sounds free, clear, and unencoded deep in an abandoned basement. But when a band member dies suspiciously from a tracking overdose, Anthem knows that his time has suddenly become limited. Revolution all but sings in the air, and Anthem cannot help but answer the call with the chords of choice and free will. But will the girl he loves help or hinder him?

The End Games T. Michael Martin: In the rural mountains of West Virginia, seventeen-year-old Michael Faris tries to protect his fragile younger brother from the horrors of the zombie apocalypse. 

Nantucket Blue by Leila Howland:  Seventeen-year-old Cricket Thompson is planning on spending a romantic summer on Nantucket Island near her long time crush, Jay–but the death of her best friend’s mother, and her own sudden intense attraction to her friend’s brother Zach are making this summer complicated.

Reboot by Amy Tintera: Seventeen-year-old Wren rises from the dead as a Reboot and is trained as an elite crime-fighting soldier until she is given an order she refuses to follow. 

Riptide by Lindsey Scheibe: While training for a surfing competition to earn a college scholarship, Grace Parker struggles with her feelings toward her best friend Ford Watson and tries to conceal her family’s toxic dynamics. 

Out of This Place by Emma Cameron: Luke divides his time between hanging at the beach, working at the local supermarket, and trying to keep out of trouble. Bongo, his mate, gets wasted to forget about the brother who was taken away from his addict mom and his abusive stepdad. Casey, the girl they love, looks to leave her controlling dad and find her own path. But after they leave and move onto very different lives, can they leave behind the past? And will they ever see each other again? 

Parallel by Lauren Miller: A collision of parallel universes leaves 18-year-old Abby Barnes living in a new version of her life every day, and she must race to control her destiny without losing the future she planned and the boy she loves. 

The Rules for Disappearing by Ashley Elston: High school student “Meg” has changed identities so often that she hardly knows who she is anymore, and her family is falling apart, but she knows that two of the rules of witness protection are be forgettable and do not make friends–but in her new home in Louisiana a boy named Ethan is making that difficult.

Firecracker by David Iserson (from Goodreads): Being Astrid Krieger is absolutely all it’s cracked up to be. She lives in a rocket ship in the backyard of her parents’ estate. She was kicked out of the elite Bristol Academy and she’s intent on her own special kind of revenge to whomever betrayed her. She only loves her grandfather, an incredibly rich politician who makes his money building nuclear warheads. It’s all good until…“We think you should go to the public school,” Dad said. This was just a horrible, mean thing to say. Just hearing the words “public school” out loud made my mouth taste like urine (which, not coincidentally, is exactly how the public school smells). Will Astrid finally meet her match in the form of public school? Will she find out who betrayed her and got her expelled from Bristol? Is Noah, the sweet and awkward boy she just met, hiding something?

Truth or Dare by Jacqueline Green: In the affluent seaside town of Echo Bay, Massachusetts, mysterious dares sent to three very different girls–loner Sydney Morgan, Caitlin “Angel” Thomas, and beautiful Tenley Reed–threaten both their reputations and their lives. Kimberly’s review. 

Wild Awake by Hilary T Smith: The discovery of a startling family secret leads seventeen-year-old Kiri Byrd from a protected and naive life into a summer of mental illness, first love, and profound self-discovery. 

How My Summer Went Up in Flames by Jennnifer Salvato Doktorski: Placed under a temporary retstraining order for torching her former boyfriend’s car, seventeen-year-old Rosie embarks on a cross-country car trip from New Jersey to Arizona while waiting for her court appearance.

The Summer I Became A Nerd by Leah Rae Miller (from Goodreads): On the outside, seventeen-year-old Madelyne Summers looks like your typical blond cheerleader—perky, popular, and dating the star quarterback. But inside, Maddie spends more time agonizing over what will happen in the next issue of her favorite comic book than planning pep rallies with her squad. That she’s a nerd hiding in a popular girl’s body isn’t just unknown, it’s anti-known. And she needs to keep it that way. Summer is the only time Maddie lets her real self out to play, but when she slips up and the adorkable guy behind the local comic shop’s counter uncovers her secret, she’s busted. Before she can shake a pom-pom, Maddie’s whisked into Logan’s world of comic conventions, live-action role-playing, and first-person-shooter video games. And she loves it. But the more she denies who she really is, the deeper her lies become…and the more she risks losing Logan forever.  

The Falconer by Elizabeth May (Goodreads): 18-year-old Lady Aileana Kameron, the only daughter of the Marquess of Douglas, was destined to a life carefully planned around Edinburgh’s social events – right up until a faery kills her mother. Now it’s the 1844 winter season. Between a seeming endless number of parties, Aileana slaughters faeries in secret. Armed with modified percussion pistols and explosives, every night she sheds her aristocratic facade and goes 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 she never even considered that she might become attracted to one. To the magnetic Kiaran MacKay, the faery who trained her to kill his own kind. Nor is she at all prepared for the revelation he’s going to bring. Because Midwinter is approaching, and with it an eclipse that has the ability to unlock a Fae prison and begin the Wild Hunt. A battle looms, and Aileana is going to have to decide how much she’s willing to lose – and just how far she’ll go to avenge her mother’s murder. 

Maid of Secrets by Jennifer McGowan: In 1559 England, Meg, an orphaned thief, is pressed into service and trained as a member of the Maids of Honor, Queen Elizabeth I’s secret all-female guard, but her loyalty is tested when she falls in love with a Spanish courtier who may be a threat.

The S-Word by Chelsea Pitcher: Angie’s quest for the truth behind her best friend’s suicide drives her deeper into the dark, twisted side of Verity High.

Zenn Scarlett by Christian Schoon (from Goodreads): Zenn Scarlett is a resourceful, determined 17-year-old girl working hard to make it through her novice year of exovet training. That means she’s learning to care for alien creatures that are mostly large, generally dangerous and profoundly fascinating. Zenn’s all-important end-of-term tests at the Ciscan Cloister Exovet Clinic on Mars are coming up, and, she’s feeling confident of acing the exams. But when a series of inexplicable animal escapes and other disturbing events hit the school, Zenn finds herself being blamed for the problems. As if this isn’t enough to deal with, her absent father has abruptly stopped communicating with her; Liam Tucker, a local towner boy, is acting unusually, annoyingly friendly; and, strangest of all: Zenn is worried she’s started sharing the thoughts of the creatures around her. Which is impossible, of course. Nonetheless, she can’t deny what she’s feeling. Now, with the help of Liam and Hamish, an eight-foot sentient insectoid also training at the clinic, Zenn must learn what’s happened to her father, solve the mystery of who, if anyone, is sabotaging the cloister, and determine if she’s actually sensing the consciousness of her alien patients… or just losing her mind. All without failing her novice year.  Kimberly’s review. 

The Beautiful and the Cursed by Page Morgan: Residing in a desolate abbey protected by gargoyles, two beautiful teenaged sisters in turn-of-the-twentieth-century Paris discover deadly and otherworldly truths as they search for their missing brother.

Transparent by Natalie Whipple: Sixteen-year-old Fiona O’Connell is the world’s first invisible girl, which makes her the ideal weapon for her crime-lord father. But now, she and her mother have escaped and are hiding out in a small town where they’re determined to start a normal life.

Ready for your monthly dose of debut novels, YA style? I’ve been trying to keep track of everything Kim and I have read through these posts, linking to reviews where relevant. Last month’s debut post will link you to the debut posts in prior months,. 

As always, summaries are from WorldCat, unless otherwise noted. Debut is defined as the first published novel by an author within any category, confirmed to the best of our ability; we include first-time publication in the US as debut (meaning if it published in Australia or the UK prior to this month, but it’s the first publication in the US, it’s a debut). If we’re missing a traditionally-published title for the month of April, let us know in the comments. And if you’ve read anything here we should make sure we don’t miss, we’d love to hear! 

In the Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters: In San Diego in 1918, as deadly influenza and World War I take their toll, sixteen-year-old Mary Shelley Black watches desperate mourners flock to séances and spirit photographers for comfort and, despite her scientific leanings, must consider if ghosts are real when her first love, killed in battle, returns.

Taken by Erin Bowman: In the isolated town of Claysoot, every male is mysteriously “Heisted” on his eighteenth birthday, and seventeen-year-old Gray Weathersby is determined to figure out why. 

That Time I Joined the Circus by JJ Howard: After her father’s sudden death and a break-up with her best friends, seventeen-year-old Lexi has no choice but to leave New York City seeking her long-absent mother, rumored to be in Florida with a traveling circus, where she just may discover her destiny.

The Ward by Jordana Frankel: Set in a futuristic Manhattan after a catastrophic flood called the Wash Out, sixteen-year-old Ren must race against a conspiracy to find freshwater springs and a cure for the deadly disease that has stricken her sister and many others in the Ward. 

The Symptoms of My Insanity by Mindy Raf: When you’re a hypochondriac, there are a million different things that could be wrong with you, but for Izzy, focusing on what could be wrong might be keeping her from dealing with what’s really wrong–with her friendships, her romantic entanglements, and even her family. 

Vengeance Bound by Justina Ireland: Amelie Ainsworth longs to graduate from high school and live a normal life, but as an abused child she became one of the Furies, driven to mete out justice on the Guilty, and lives on the run from the murders they commit.

Anthem for Jackson Dawes by Celia Bryce: When Megan, thirteen, arrives for her first cancer treatment, she is frustrated to be on the pediatric unit where the only other teen is Jackson Dawes, who is as cute and charming as he is rebellious and annoying, and who helps when her friends are frightened away by her illness.

Arclight by Josin L. McQuein (via Goodreads): No one crosses the wall of light . . . except for one girl who doesn’t remember who she is, where she came from, or how she survived. A harrowing, powerful debut thriller about finding yourself and protecting your future—no matter how short and uncertain it may be. The Arclight is the last defense. The Fade can’t get in. Outside the Arclight’s border of high-powered beams is the Dark. And between the Light and the Dark is the Grey, a narrow, barren no-man’s-land. That’s where the rescue team finds Marina, a lone teenage girl with no memory of the horrors she faced or the family she lost. Marina is the only person who has ever survived an encounter with the Fade. She’s the first hope humanity has had in generations, but she could also be the catalyst for their final destruction. Because the Fade will stop at nothing to get her back. Marina knows it. Tobin, who’s determined to take his revenge on the Fade, knows it. Anne-Marie, who just wishes it were all over, knows it. When one of the Fade infiltrates the Arclight and Marina recognizes it, she will begin to unlock secrets she didn’t even know she had. Who will Marina become? Who can she never be again?

The Boyfriend App by Katie Sise: Seeking to win a scholarship offered by global computing corporation Public, programming genius Audrey McCarthy writes a matchmaking app but discovers her results may be skewed by a program Public is secretly using to influence teens.

Hammer of Witches by Shana Mlawski: Fourteen-year-old bookmaker’s apprentice Baltasar, pursued by a secret witch-hunting arm of the Inquisition, escapes by joining Columbus’s expedition and discovers magical secrets about his own past that his family had tried to keep hidden. 

The Loop by Shandy Lawson: In New Orleans, Louisiana, star-crossed teens Ben and Maggie try to find a way to escape the time loop that always ends in their murder.

My Life After Now by Jessica Verdi: When she loses a leading role and her leading man to another girl, sixteen-year-old Lucy, a member of the high school drama club, does something completely out of character that has life-altering consequences.

Trying to keep up with the debut YA novels being published each month? I’ve been keeping track, starting with January and February, linking reviews written by Kimberly and myself as they’ve published. 

Here are this month’s debut novels, followed by the descriptions via WorldCat and relevant reviews, if they’ve been published already. If I’m missing any titles that were traditionally published, feel free to leave a comment. I take debut to mean it’s the author’s first book, so if the author has published for a different audience in the past, they aren’t counted as debut. 

If You Find Me by Emily Murdoch: There are some things you can’t leave behind… A broken-down camper hidden deep in a national forest is the only home fifteen year-old Carey can remember. The trees keep guard over her threadbare existence, with the one bright spot being Carey’s younger sister, Jenessa, who depends on Carey for her very survival. All they have is each other, as their mentally ill mother comes and goes with greater frequency. Until that one fateful day their mother disappears for good, and two strangers arrive. Suddenly, the girls are taken from the woods and thrust into a bright and perplexing new world of high school, clothes and boys. Now, Carey must face the truth of why her mother abducted her ten years ago, while haunted by a past that won’t let her go… a dark past that hides many a secret, including the reason Jenessa hasn’t spoken a word in over a year. Carey knows she must keep her sister close, and her secrets even closer, or risk watching her new life come crashing down. Kelly’s review.

Pretty Girl-13 by Liz Coley: Sixteen-year-old Angie finds herself in her neighborhood with no recollection of her abduction or the three years that have passed since, until alternate personalities start telling her their stories through letters and recordings. Kelly’s review.

The Murmurmings by Carly Anne West: After her older sister dies from an apparent suicide and her body is found hanging upside down by one toe from a tree, sixteen-year-old Sophie starts to hear the same voices that drove her sister to a psychotic break. Kelly’s review.  

Mila 2.0 by Debra Driza: Sixteen-year-old Mila discovers she is not who–or what–she thought she was, which causes her to run from both the CIA and a rogue intelligence group.

The Nightmare Affair by Mindee Arnett: Being the only Nightmare at Arkwell Academy, a boarding school for “magickind,” sixteen-year-old Destiny Everhart feeds on the dreams of others, working with a handsome human student to find a killer.

The Culling by Steven Dos Santos: In a futuristic world ruled by a totalitarian government called the Establishment, Lucian “Lucky” Spark and four other teenagers are recruited for the Trials. They must compete not only for survival but to save the lives of their Incentives, family members whose lives depend on how well they play the game. 

Poison by Bridget Zinn: When sixteen-year-old Kyra, a potions master, tries to save her kingdom by murdering the princess, who is also her best friend, the poisoned dart misses its mark and Kyra becomes a fugitive, pursued by the King’s army and her ex-boyfriend Hal.

Strands of Bronze and Gold by Jane Nickerson: After the death of her father in 1855, seventeen-year-old Sophia goes to live with her wealthy and mysterious godfather at his gothic mansion, Wyndriven Abbey, in Mississippi, where many secrets lie hidden.

The Art of Wishing by Lindsay Ribar: When eighteen-year-old Margo learns she lost the lead in her high school musical to a sophomore because of a modern-day genie, she falls in love with Oliver, the genie, while deciding what her own wishes should be and trying to rescue him from an old foe.

Being Henry David by Cal Armistead: Seventeen-year-old ‘Hank,’ who can’t remember his identity, finds himself in Penn Station with a copy of Thoreau’s Walden as his only possession and must figure out where he’s from and why he ran away

Bruised by Sarah Skilton: When she freezes during a hold-up at the local diner, sixteen-year-old Imogen, a black belt in Tae Kwan Do, has to rebuild her life, including her relationship with her family and with the boy who was with her during the shoot-out.

Dr. Bird’s Advice for Sad Poets by Evan Roskos: A sixteen-year-old boy wrestling with depression and anxiety tries to cope by writing poems, reciting Walt Whitman, hugging trees, and figuring out why his sister has been kicked out of the house.

OCD, The Dude, and Me by Lauren Roedy Vaughn: Danielle Levine stands out even at her alternative high school–in appearance and attitude–but when her scathing and sometimes raunchy English essays land her in a social skills class, she meets Daniel, another social misfit who may break her resolve to keep everyone at arm’s length.