Archives de catégorie : Children’s Books

PROBLEMATIC FAVE d’Amber Clement

A speculative dark romance for those readers who think « I could fix him » when you know you really can’t. For fans of Bad Romance by Heather Demetrios and Undead Girl Gang by Lily Anderson, a perfect escapist read for those who have daydreamt of their favourite character appearing in real life.

PROBLEMATIC FAVE
by Amber Clement
on submission
(via Mushens Entertainment)

Like so many teens, fifteen-year-old Emilia Michaels just wants to be seen and loved by someone unconditionally. Even though her longtime crush Bryan Cook seems either cruelly aloof or hopelessly oblivious, Emilia knows she can always turn to her favorite fictional fave, Hayden Frost. Sure, Hayden is technically the villain of Boyfriend Academy, the dating simulation game that Emilia and her friend Darla are obsessed with, but who can blame her? Villains are hot, passionate, and Hayden only murders people around the playercharacter because he’s so madly in love with them.

But Emilia is devastated when she overhears Bryan calling her an “annoying bitch.” To console herself, and with Darla’s encouragement, she uses a newly-gifted drawing pen to illustrate a self-inserted webcomic in which Hayden transfers to her high school and falls in love with her. Rushing around at school the next day, Emilia nearly collides with a boy, and she can’t believe who she’s looking at. The boy is none other than Hayden Frost, himself. And just as she drew in her webcomic, he falls for her at first sight, and she finally has someone who cares only for her.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t take long for Hayden’s murderous nature to emerge, leaving Emilia to rationalize his actions as his way of “protecting her.” What begins as a beautiful, fulfilling courtship quickly spirals into a dark romance with an ever-rising body count––and if Emilia doesn’t figure out how to stop Hayden, his jealous temper could lead him to kill anyone and everyone who stands in the way of his happily ever after with her.

Amber Clement is the author of Fortune’s Kiss (Union Square & Co., 2024). She is a dreamer and a gamer. She lives in Northwest Indiana with a Pomchi who loves to sploot. When she’s not writing, she may be spotted exploring the city in search of new inspiration. Her favourite stories are full of glitter, determined girls, and captivating villains.

EVERYTHING I NEVER WANTED de Meredith Tate

EVERYTHING I NEVER WANTED
by Meredith Tate
on submission
(via Mushens Entertainment)

Maggie Duncan wants three things: for her overprotective mom to stop micro-managing her life; for hot guitarist Brad Hayes to fall madly in love with her; and to be accepted into the prestigious film program at UCLA to follow her dream of becoming a famous director. With the help of her lifelong BFF, Camille, and her next-door neighbor, Caiden, Maggie’s been filming a documentary for the past year to use as a submission into the film program.

On Maggie’s seventeenth birthday, the unfathomable happens: Brad invites her to party at the quarry with his friends. Unfortunately, the even-more-unfathomable happens: Maggie’s mom says no. Desperate, Maggie convinces a reluctant Camille to sneak out anyway. But the night ends in disaster when Camille sustains a serious injury, they get caught, and the whole thing escalates into a blow-up fight between Maggie, Camille, and her parents. Furious, Maggie makes a birthday wish to be a legal adult—only to magically wake up a year later, on her eighteenth birthday.

Meredith Tate grew up in Concord, New Hampshire, where she fell in love with her two passions—writing and traveling. Meredith earned her master’s degree in social work before switching career paths to pursue her true dream of telling stories. She has lived in five states and three countries and currently resides in New Hampshire with her husband, son, and spoiled rescue dog.

FEW BLUE SKIES de Carolina Ixta

In her latest novel, Pura Belpré Award-winning author Carolina Ixta weaves a tender story about love and hope, following a teen as she works to protect her family and community from a major corporation taking over her town.

FEW BLUE SKIES
by Carolina Ixta
Quill Tree Books, February 2026
(via Writers House)

Paloma Vistamontes is heartbroken. A year ago, her ex-boyfriend, Julio Ramos, broke up with her after his father’s death, a tragedy that drove Paloma and him apart. Ever since then, the mountains have felt flatter, the sky farther away.

Now, her hometown of San Fermín, a place where honest people work on farms and in factories, is in danger. Selva, a massive e-commerce conglomerate, threatens to open one of their warehouses beside her high school.

This isn’t the first time they’ve done this. Since Selva arrived, they’ve opened warehouses everywhere where there used to be green spaces. Because of them, the air pollution is so bad that school is often canceled. Many people, including Paloma’s ever-practical Ma, want to leave.

But Paloma wants nothing more than to stay. Because when the smog clears, there is still hope. That hope drives Paloma to reconnect with Julio to expose and challenge the dangers that Selva introduces to communities like their own. Can they stop Selva from destroying everything they know? Is there still a chance for their budding romance?

Carolina Ixta is a writer from Oakland, California. A daughter of Mexican immigrants, she received her BA in creative writing and Spanish language and literature at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and obtained her master’s degree in education at the University of California, Berkeley. Her debut novel, Shut Up, This Is Serious, was a Morris Award finalist, an LA Times Book Prize finalist, and the winner of the Pura Belpré Award. Few Blue Skies is her sophomore novel.

TO OUR UNTAMED CORE de Sonora Reyes

The stunning first YA fantasy novel from award-winning author Sonora Reyes! The Hunger Games meets Chain Gang All Stars in this tournament to the death.

TO OUR UNTAMED CORE
by Sonora Reyes
HarperCollins, September 2026
(via Writers House)

Centuries after a plague arrived alongside the conquistadores, Temo’s people are left largely infertile and with a fraction of their former strength. But as a gift from the people of El Centro, where many of the conquistadores now live, Temo and all other residents of the afueras take a daily capsule that allows them to live a civilized life, uninhibited by their untamed nature.

But the sacrament doesn’t work on everyone and every ten years, El Centro hosts El Torneo, where any afueras who were unable to be tamed by the sacraments must fight to the death in a labyrinth of a temple that once belonged to their ancestors. Hundreds of afuereños compete against each other and one conquistador champion. And each games, the conquistador champion from El Centro inevitably wins, earning his title as their next king, and proving to the people of the afueras how barbaric and inferior they are without the sacraments.

Everything changes when Temo’s boyfriend, Ollin, is unjustly arrested and sent to a certain death in El Torneo. But instead of hiding, Temo gets himself arrested too, willingly entering El Torneo knowing this will be the only way to save his gentle boyfriend from a gruesome fate, if Temo even manages to survive himself.

Sonora Reyes is the bestselling and award-winning author of The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School, The Luis Ortega Survival Club, The Broposal, and The Golden Boy’s Guide to Bipolar. Born and raised in Arizona, they write fiction celebrating queer and Mexican stories in a variety of genres, across ages. Outside of writing, Sonora loves breaking their body and vocal cords by playing with their baby niblings and dancing/singing karaoke at the same time.

POSSESSION ISLAND de Sarah McCarry

Interview with a Vampire meets Heavenly Creatures in Sara McCarry’s queer gothic New Adult thriller. Full of undying loyalty, loss, and creatures with teeth, Possession Island is a darkly funny ode to the lengths we’ll go to for the people (and monsters) we love.

POSSESSION ISLAND
by Sarah McCarry
Wednesday Books, Fall 2026
(via Writers House)

What was it my mother said? Like a woman, a vampire is made, not born. She is a creature of her own invention.
And in all the best stories, the monster always wins.
As she should.

Twenty-year-old Angela Bell comes home from college to her family’s mansion on a remote Pacific Northwest island, haunted by the legacy – and fans – of her late mother’s wildly successful vampire novel. When her estranged best friend Mo is murdered, Angie winds up in the crosshairs of the bungled police investigation.

Determined to clear her name and avenge Mo’s death, Angie finds herself entangled with Sally, a high school nemesis with more than a few secrets of her own. As Angie and Sally delve deeper into the sinister underbelly of their small town, Angie’s forced to reckon with one question: How far is she willing to go for the women she loves?

Fiendishly clever, sharp-sighted, and surprising, POSSESSION ISLAND combines the knife-edge suspense and revamped gender stereotypes of Gone Girl with a gothic horror twist.

Sarah McCarry is the author of the novels All Our Pretty Songs, Dirty Wings, About A Girl, and The Darling Killers; the editor and publisher of the chapbook series Guillotine; and the Executive Director of the Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick Foundation. Her work has been shortlisted for the Lambda Award, the Norton Award, and the Tiptree Award. She received fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, the Joint Quantum Institute, the Launchpad Writers’ Workshop, and The Arctic Circle. She’s taught letterpress printing, writing, and zine-making across the United States.