Archives de catégorie : Young Adult

OUR CURSED LOVE de Julie Abe

A magical 50 First Dates meets Love and Gelato in this enchanted companion novel to The Charmed List, set in Tokyo, about destiny, the impact of the choices we make, and the magic of true love.

OUR CURSED LOVE
by Julie Abe
Wednesday Books, December 2023

Remy Kobata has always wished she was destined to be with her best friend, Cam Yasuda. From growing up neighbors to mixing up magical prank potions together, nothing’s a secret between Remy and Cam—except for how much she is in love with him. Remy is trying to work up the courage to confess her feelings during their senior high school winter break trip to Japan when they stumble upon a secret magical apothecary in the back alleys of Tokyo. Remy and Cam are offered an ancient soulmate elixir, created before all love potions were banned by the magical government. They each have their reasons for wanting to take it, and what could go wrong with finding your soulmate? Except, after they drink up, their trip flips into the worst vacation ever: Cam has forgotten who she is. Cam’s got a feeling that this girl who’s a stranger is important to him—they have thousands of photos together—but he doesn’t have a single memory. If Remy can’t help Cam remember her by midnight on New Year’s Eve, they’ll both be cursed to forget each other. To unravel their past and rewrite the future, Remy and Cam must travel through Tokyo to rediscover Cam’s memories and make new ones—and maybe even fall in love all over again.

Julie Abe is the author of the Eva Evergreen, Semi-Magical Witch series and Alliana, Girl of Dragons middle-grade fantasy books. She has lived in Silicon Valley, spent many humid summers in Japan, and currently basks in the sunshine of Southern California with never enough books or tea, where she creates stories about magical adventures.

THE GETAWAY LIST d’Emma Lord

Inescapably romantic and brimming with New York Times bestselling author Emma Lord’s signature cheer, THE GETAWAY LIST is an uplifting and romantic read that will settle into your heart and never leave.

THE GETAWAY LIST
by Emma Lord
Wednesday Books, January 2024

The day of her high school graduation, Riley realizes two things: one, that she has spent the last four years trying so hard to be a Good Kid for her mom that she has no idea who she really is anymore, and two, she has no idea what she wants because of it. The solution? Pack her bags and move to New York for the summer where her childhood best friend Tom and co-creator of The Getaway List—a list of all the adventures they’ve wanted to do together since he moved away—will hopefully help her get in touch with her old adventurous self and pave the road to a new future. Riley isn’t sure what to expect from Tom, who has been distant since his famous mom’s scriptwriting career pulled him away. But when Riley arrives in the city, their reconnection is as effortless as it was when they were young―except with one, unexpected complication that will pull Riley’s feelings in a direction she didn’t know they could take. As she, Tom, and their newfound friends work their way through the delightfully chaotic items on The Getaway List, Riley learns that sometimes the biggest adventure is not one you take, but one you feel in your heart.

Emma Lord is a digital media editor and writer living in New York City, where she spends whatever time she isn’t writing either running or belting show tunes in community theater. She graduated from the University of Virginia with a major in psychology and a minor in how to tilt your computer screen so nobody will notice you updating your fan fiction from the back row. She was raised on glitter, lots of love, and a copious amount of grilled cheese.

TWELFTH KNIGHT d’Alexene Farol Follmuth

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Atlas Six (under the pen name Olivie Blake) comes a YA romantic comedy and coming of age story about taking up space in the world and learning what it means to let others in.

TWELFTH KNIGHT
by Alexene Farol Follmuth
Tor Teen, June 2024

Viola Reyes is annoyed. Her painstakingly crafted tabletop game campaign was shot down, her best friend is suggesting she try being more “likable,” and school running back Jack Orsino is the most lackadaisical Student Body President she’s ever seen, which makes her job as VP that much harder. Vi’s favorite escape from the world is the MMORPG Twelfth Knight, but online spaces aren’t exactly kind to girls like her—girls who are extremely competent and have the swagger to prove it. So Vi creates a masculine alter ego, choosing to play as a knight named Cesario to create a safe haven for herself. But when a football injury leads Jack Orsino to the world of Twelfth Knight, Vi is alarmed to discover their online alter egos—Cesario and Duke Orsino—are surprisingly well-matched. As the long nights of game-play turn into discussions about life and love, Vi and Jack soon realise they’ve become more than just weapon-wielding characters in an online game. But Vi has been concealing her true identity from Jack, and Jack might just be falling for her offline.

Alexene Farol Follmuth, also known under the pen name Olivie Blake, is a lover and writer of stories, many of which involve the fantastic, the paranormal, or the supernatural, but not always. More often, her works revolve around the collective experience, what it means to be human (or not), and the endlessly interesting complexities of life and love. Alexene tripped and fell into writing after abandoning her long-premeditated track for Optimum Life Achievement while attending law school, and now focuses primarily on the craft and occasional headache of creating fiction. Alexene lives and works in Los Angeles, where she is generally tolerated by her rescue pit bull. She can be loosely defined as the sort of person who picked up sparring as a means to improve writing fight scenes.

DAMNED IF YOU DO d’Alex Brown

Queer Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets Filipino folklore in this horror comedy about a high school stage manager who accidentally sells her soul to a demon.

DAMNED IF YOU DO
by Alex Brown
Page Street Kids, August 2023
(via Dystel, Goderich & Bourret)

Seven years ago, Cordelia Scott’s abusive father left without a word, and life has been normal ever since. The seventeen-year-old spends her days stage managing the school play (which is going great, if anyone asks), pining over her best friend, Veronica, and failing one too many pop quizzes.
She’s never been sad that her father left, but she knows something is…missing. When her school guidance counselor, Fred, reveals during a session that he’s actually a demon, she learns that something is indeed missing: a piece of her actual soul. Why? She unwittingly made a deal with him to make her father disappear – then bargained to have the memory erased. To make matters worse, Fred is here to make another bargain: Help him with a “little” demonic problem, or she’s doomed to spend eternity in Hell with her father.
The deal? Help Fred neutralize a rival demon, who means to do more harm in her hometown than your average demon deal.

Alex Brown is a queer, biracial Filipino American writer whose sapphic YA debut, DAMNED IF YOU DO, published in August 2023. She’s is no stranger to horror, as she’s served as the Showrunner’s Assistant for Supernatural and Netflix’s live-action adaptation of Resident Evil, and is also the co-creator of The Bridge, a narrative fiction sci-fi horror podcast. Alex lives in Los Angeles with her partner and their two very chaotic cats.

FLAWLESS GIRLS d’Anna-Marie McLemore

Tautly written, tense, and evocative, this is a stunning YA novel by award-winning and critically acclaimed author Anna-Marie McLemore.

FLAWLESS GIRLS
by Anna-Marie McLemore
Feiwel & Friends, May 2024
(via Dystel, Goderich & Bourret)

The Soler sisters are infamous in polite society―brazen, rebellious, and raised by their fashionable grandmother who couldn’t care less about which fork goes where. But their grandmother also knows the standards that two Latina young ladies will be held to, so she secures them two coveted places at the Alarie House, a prominent finishing school that turns out first ladies, princesses, and socialites.

Younger sister Isla is back home within a day. She refuses to become one of the eerily sweet Alarie girls in their prim white dresses. Older sister Renata stays. When she returns months later, she’s unfailingly pleasant, unnervingly polite, and, Isla discovers, possibly murderous. And the same night she returns home, she vanishes.

As their grandmother uses every connection she has to find Renata, Isla re-enrolls, intent on finding out what happened to her sister. But the Alarie House is as exacting as it is opulent. It won’t give up its secrets easily, and neither will a mysterious, conniving girl who’s either controlling the house, or carrying out its deadly orders.

Anna-Marie McLemore (they/them) writes magical realism and fairy tales that are as queer, Latine, and nonbinary as they are. Their books include The Weight of Feathers, a 2016 William C. Morris YA Debut Award Finalist; 2017 Stonewall Honor Book When the Moon Was Ours, which was longlisted for the National Book Award in Young People’s Literature and was the winner of the James Tiptree Jr. Award; Wild Beauty, a Kirkus, School Library Journal, and Booklist best book of 2017; Blanca & Roja, a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice; ; Dark and Deepest Red, a Winter 2020 Indie Next List selection; The Mirror Season, which has recently received starred reviews from Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, Booklist and School Library Journal; Lakelore, on ALA’s 2023 Rainbow Book List, which has received starred reviews from Kirkus, Booklist, Publishers Weekly, and Shelf Awareness; and Self-Made Boys: A Great Gatsby Remix (Fall 2022), which was longlisted for the National Book Award. In 2023, they were a LAMBDA Lammy Award finalist.