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June Debut YA Novels

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Written by: Kelly on June 15, 2015.
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.

All descriptions are from WorldCat, unless otherwise noted. If I’m missing any debuts out in June from traditional publishers, let me know in the comments. As always, not all noted titles included here are necessarily endorsements for those titles.

Because You’ll Never Meet Me by Leah Thomas: Ollie and Moritz are best friends, but they can never meet. Ollie is allergic to electricity. Contact with it causes debilitating seizures. Moritz’s weak heart is kept pumping by an electronic pacemaker. If they ever did meet, Ollie would seize. But Moritz would die without his pacemaker. Both hermits from society, the boys develop a fierce bond through letters that become a lifeline during dark times — as Ollie loses his only friend, Liz, to the normalcy of high school and Moritz deals with a bully set on destroying him. A story of impossible friendship and hope under strange circumstances, about two special boys who, like many teens, are just waiting for their moment to shine. 

Between The Notes by Sharon Huss Roat: When Ivy Emerson’s family loses their house—complete with her beloved piano—the fear of what’s to come seizes her like a bad case of stage fright. Only this isn’t one of her single, terrifying performances. It’s her life.

And it isn’t pretty.

Ivy is forced to move with her family out of their affluent neighborhood to Lakeside, also known as “the wrong side of the tracks.” Hiding the truth from her friends—and the cute new guy in school, who may have secrets of his own—seems like a good idea at first. But when a bad boy next door threatens to ruin everything, Ivy’s carefully crafted lies begin to unravel . . . and there is no way to stop them.

As things get to the breaking point, Ivy turns to her music, some unlikely new friends, and the trusting heart of her disabled little brother. She may be surprised that not everyone is who she thought they were, including herself. (via Goodreads).

Dancing with Molly by Lena Horowitz: High school junior Becca is just a “band geek” until when her friends introduce her to molly, a form of ecstasy, and she finds herself with new friends–even a boyfriend–but soon learns there is a price to her newfound popularity.

Deadly Design by Debra Dockter: Kyle McAdams races to find out what’s killing kids conceived at the Genesis Innovations Laboratory before he becomes yet another perfect, blue-eyed corpse.

Even When You Lie to Me by Jessica Alcott: Because she sees herself as ugly and a misfit, tolerated only because of her friendship with pretty and popular Lila, Charlie dreads her senior year, but a crush on the new charismatic English teacher, Mr. Drummond, makes school bearable until her eighteenth birthday, when boundaries are crossed.

Hello, I Love You by Katie M. Stout: Grace Wilde is hoping for a fresh start from her family, famous in the music industry, and escapes to the farthest place from home she can think of, a boarding school in Korea, but when her roommate Sophie’s twin brother Jason turns out to be the newest Korean pop music superstar, Grace is thrust back into the world of fame and love.

Last Year’s Mistake by Gina Ciocca: Although Kelsey has fallen in love with her best friend, David, she cuts ties with him before moving from Connecticut to Rhode Island, believing they need a fresh start, but David moves nearby at the start of senior year, threatening Kelsey’s relationship with Ryan.

Like It Never Happened by Emily Adrian: As one of The Essential Five theater students at her alternative high school, Rebecca Rivers is preparing to become an actress and enjoying junior year with the perfect boyfriend until life-changing rumors threaten everything.

Mindwalker by AJ Steiger: In a futuristic reality, one girl falls in love with the boy whose memories she tries to erase. 

More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera: After enduring his father’s suicide, his own suicide attempt, broken friendships, and more in the Bronx projects, Aaron Soto, sixteen, is already considering the Leteo Institute’s memory-alteration procedure when his new friendship with Thomas turns to unrequited love.

Proof of Forever by Lexa Hillyer: Four former friends are transported back in time to a pivotal summer in all of their lives during a camp reunion. 

The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly by Stephanie Oakes: A handless teen escapes from a cult, only to find herself in juvenile detention and suspected of knowing who murdered her cult leader. 

Skyscraping by Cordelia Jensen: In 1993 in New York City, high school senior Mira uncovers many secrets, including that her father has a male lover.

The Night We Said Yes by Lauren Gibraldi: Before Matt, Ella had a plan. Get over a no-good ex-boyfriend. Graduate from high school without any more distractions. Move away from Orlando, Florida, where she’s lived her entire life. 

But Matt—the cute, shy, bespectacled bass player who just moved to town—was never part of that plan.

And neither was attending a party that was crashed by the cops just minutes after they arrived. Or spending an entire night saying “yes” to every crazy, fun thing they could think of.

Then Matt abruptly left town, and he broke not only Ella’s heart but those of their best friends, too. So when he shows up a year later with a plan of his own—to relive the night that brought them together—Ella isn’t sure whether Matt’s worth a second chance. Or if re-creating the past can help them create a different future.  (via Goodreads).

Those Girls by Lauren Saft: Eleventh grade at Greencliff, an all-girl school near Philadelphia, is momentous for long-term best friends Alex, Mollie, and Veronica, as the secrets they are keeping from each other about boyfriends, eating disorders, and more begin to undermine their relationships.

Where You End by Anna Pellicioli: Overwrought when she sees her ex-boyfriend with another girl during a class field trip, seventeen-year-old Miriam Feldman races into the Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden and pushes over a priceless Picasso sculpture, then finds herself blackmailed by the mystery girl who saw what she did.
The Witch Hunter by Virginia Boecker: Set in an alternative 16th-century England, Elizabeth Grey is the only girl in the king’s elite group of witch hunters. When she’s framed for being a witch herself, Elizabeth finds freedom at the hands of the world’s most wanted wizard and her loyalties are tested. 

June Debut YA Novels

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Written by: Kelly on June 16, 2014.

If you’re keeping track of this year’s debut young adult novels, here’s a roundup of what’s out in the month of June. As usual, the titles included here are actual debut novels, meaning that these aren’t books that are first YA novels or first YA novels by authors who have published elsewhere under different names. 

All descriptions are from WorldCat, unless otherwise noted. It’s possible I’ve missed titles out this month — and it’s a pretty packed month for debuts — so if there’s something I’ve missed, let me know in the comments. 

17 First Kisses by Rachael Allen: Claire Jenkins has finally found a boy worth kissing, but when she discovers that her best friend Megan also has feeling for him, Claire must decide what she is willing to risk to get what she wants.

Drift by M. K. Hutchins: To raise his family out of poverty, seventeen-year-old Tenjat joins a dangerous defense against the naga monsters that gnaw at his drifting island’s foundation.

Otherbound by Corinne Duyvis: A seventeen-year-old boy finds that every time he closes his eyes, he is drawn into the body of a mute servant girl from another world–a world that is growing increasingly more dangerous, and where many things are not as they seem.

Hexed by Michelle Krys: Popular cheerleader Indigo Blackwood, sixteen, finds her perfect life threatened when Bishop, a tattooed, leather-clad stranger, tells her the family Bible just stolen from the attic of her mother’s occult shop could mean the end to all witches, including, he says, Indigo herself.

I Become Shadow by Joe Shine: Abducted at age fourteen and trained by the F.A.T.E. Center to become a Shadow, guardian of a future leader, Ren Sharpe, now eighteen, is assigned to protect college science student Gareth Young, but with help from her secret love and fellow Shadow, Junie, she learns that F.A.T.E. itself is behind an attack on Gareth.

My Last Kiss by Bethany Neal: When a seventeen-year-old girl dies and can appear to her boyfriend, she learns that her death may not have been an accident, and must delve into her past to face all the decisions she made that led to her last kiss. 

The Murder Complex by Lindsay Cummings: In a world where the murder rate is higher than the birth rate, fifteen-year-old Meadow, trained by her father to kill and survive in any situation, falls in love with Zephyr, a government assassin

Trouble by Non Pratt: When Aaron willingly signs on to be the pretend father of Hannah’s unborn baby, he is looking for redemption from a past that has a stranglehold on him. Hannah, more simply, needs support in the absence of the real father, but she’ll discover so much more. 

Vivian Divine is Dead by Lauren Sabel: Teen celebrity Vivian Divine’s movie-star mom has been murdered, her famous-director dad tried to kill himself, and her boyfriend is cheating on her. When a death threat arrives with her fan mail, Vivian has no choice but to go on the run to Mexico. She soon discovers, through, that her Oscar-nominated performance killing villains on-screen did nothing to prepare her for escaping a madman in real life. Vivian finds an ally in Nick. He is everything Hollywood boys are not-genuine, kind, and determined to see Vivian for who she really is. But even he, seems like he can’t be trusted. Beat up, hungry, and more confused than ever about who she’s running from, Vivian realizes this isn’t the stuff bad TV movies are made of; this is material for a full-on blockbuster horror flick.  

My Faire Lady by Laura Wettersten: After breaking up with her boyfriend, seventeen-year-old Rowena takes an out-of-town summer job at a Renaissance fair, but romantic entanglements soon follow.

Take Back the Skies by Lucy Saxon: To escape from a planned arranged marriage, teenaged Cat Hunter disguises herself as a boy and stows away on a smuggler’s airship where she discovers a world of excitement and adventure.

The Truth About Alice by Jennifer Matthieu: When ugly rumors and lies about Alice Franklin start after one of the guys she allegedly slept with at a party dies in a car accident, questions about truth arise in her small town. 

Cinderella’s Dress by Shonna Slayton: Being seventeen during World War II is tough. Finding out you’re the next keeper of the real Cinderella’s dress is even tougher. Kate simply wants to create window displays at the department store where she’s working, trying to help out with the war effort. But when long-lost relatives from Poland arrive with a steamer trunk they claim holds the Cinderella’s dress, life gets complicated. Now, with a father missing in action, her new sweetheart shipped off to boot camp, and her great aunt losing her wits, Kate has to unravel the mystery before it’s too late. After all, the descendants of the wicked stepsisters will stop at nothing to get what they think they deserve.

Push Girl by Chelsie Hill and Jessica Love: Kara, a high school junior, is popular with a great group of friends, an amazing boyfriend, and expectations of being Homecoming Queen until she leaves a party angry and wakes up in a hospital bed, paralized from the waist down, but as she is forced to adjust to her new physical reality, she also learns that her friends are not who they seemed to be.

Behind The Scenes by Dahlia Adler: High school senior Ally Duncan’s best friend may be the Vanessa Park – star of TV’s hottest new teen drama – but Ally’s not interested in following in her BFF’s Hollywood footsteps. In fact, the only thing Ally’s ever really wanted is to go to Columbia and study abroad in Paris. But when her father’s mounting medical bills threaten to stop her dream in its tracks, Ally nabs a position as Van’s on-set assistant to get the cash she needs.  Spending the extra time with Van turns out to be fun, and getting to know her sexy co-star Liam is an added bonus. But when the actors’ publicist arranges for Van and Liam to “date” for the tabloids just after he and Ally share their first kiss, Ally will have to decide exactly what role she’s capable of playing in their world of make believe. If she can’t play by Hollywood’s rules, she may lose her best friend, her dream future, and her first shot at love. (Description via Goodreads). 

Essence by Lisa Ann O’Kane: Neutrality is the key to longevity. This motto has governed 17 year-old Autumn’s life in the mid-21st century Centrist cult, which believes that expressing emotions leads to Essence drain and premature death. But Autumn’s younger brother’s death casts her faith into question. While sprinting through a park in violation of Centrist teachings, she encounters Ryder Stone, an Outsider who claims Essence drain is nothing more than a Centrist scare tactic. She agrees to join his Community, a utopia of adrenaline junkies living in the abandoned remains of Yosemite National Park. Autumn learns about sex, drugs, and living life to the fullest. But as she discovers dark secrets beneath the Community’s perfect exterior, she realises that this illusion of paradise could be shattered.
The Girl Who Never Was by Skylar Dorset: On her seventeenth birthday, Selkie discovers that she is a half-faerie princess and that the mother she never knew wants to kill her.

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June Debut YA Novels

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Written by: Kelly on June 25, 2013.

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.

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