Archives de catégorie : Young Adult

LET’S NEVER SPEAK OF THIS AGAIN de Megan Williams

Ella and I have been best friends since grade one. We can spend hours talking about everything and nothing. We know each other’s greatest fears, things that irrationally annoy us, and ideal career if money and skill weren’t an issue. If there was only one Hartford Bakery brownie left in the whole world and it was somehow in my possession, Ella is the only person I’d consider sharing it with.

LET’S NEVER SPEAK OF THIS AGAIN
by Megan Williams
Text Publishing, September 2023

Life is pretty good for sixteen-year-old Abby. Okay, her grandma doesn’t remember things anymore, her relationship with her mum is increasingly strained and she accidently kissed her cousin’s cousin on the weekend, so things aren’t exactly perfect. But everything is manageable with her best friend, Ella, by her side.

And with Ella’s brother, Will—interesting and attentive—on the sidelines.

When new girl Chloe arrives, Abby is pleased to be the one to show her around, to welcome her to the group. But Abby doesn’t imagine Chloe fitting in so well or quite so quickly. And before long Abby is feeling just a little left out, a little unsure of Ella’s friendship. In a moment of anger and confusion she wishes something bad would happen.

When it does—with tragic consequences—everything shifts again. And Abby has to face her own feelings and work out what friendship really means.

Megan Williams’ brilliant debut novel is a tender, moving, often funny celebration of female friendship, about the things that test it, and about what matters most.

Megan Williams won the 2022 Text Prize for her debut YA novel, LET’S NEVER SPEAK OF THIS AGAIN. She lives in Brisbane with her husband and their three children.

IT’S NOT ME, IT’S YOU d’Alex Light

Wattpad superstar Alex Light’s third novel is the perfect rom-com for fans of Jenny Han and Emma Lord, starring a self-proclaimed relationship expert on a mission to help her nemesis get his girlfriend back… if she doesn’t fall for him first.

IT’S NOT ME, IT’S YOU
by Alex Light
HarperTeen, October 2024

Jackie Myers is a fraud. Or she might be a genius—the jury’s still out.

The thing is, she secretly runs pleasebreakmyheart, a gone-viral account aimed at breaking hearts and ending relationships…. And she just used it to break up her insufferable eternal nemesis’s picture-perfect relationship.

Wilson is the buttoned-up, type A assistant manager of her nightmares—but it turns out he’s also, apparently, a really great boyfriend.

So with her conscience (and paycheck) on the line, Jackie decides there’s only one thing to do: She’s going to help Wilson win his ex-girlfriend back. Which should be easy, considering Jackie hates him…right?

Alex Light grew up reading too many books and listening to too many Taylor Swift songs. Now she writes books that make people laugh (and sometimes cry). Alex began writing as a teen. She shared dozens of love stories online, which have now been read over 150 million times. Shockingly, she graduated with a BA in English literature.

THE ANCIENT’S GAME de Loni Crittenden

Alchemy and ancient spirits come to life in this debut fantasy inspired by African Diasporic folklore and the 1920s World Fair, wherein sixteen-year-old Kellan DuCuivre, an orphan from a reviled class, must compete for a coveted apprenticeship among the nation’s elite in order to save her adopted father from a twisted fate.

THE ANCIENT’S GAME
by Loni Crittenden
HarperTeen, October 2024

In THE ANCIENT’S GAME, readers will find themselves on the edge of their seats as Kellan competes in The Gauntlet, a thrilling test of wits and skill wherein eight apprentices studying in the alchemic art of makecraft must compete for a coveted spot among its Guild of Engineers—only for the tests to take a series of deadly turns.

The love stories centered in THE ANCIENT’S GAME touch upon a range of relationships, from familial love in Kellan’s quest to save her adopted father, the love between friends and found families, and the tender, friendship to romantic relationship that’s cultivated when Kellan encounters Axel Bonne, the illegitimate son of the vicious head of the House Bonne, a family of makers renowned for their runework inventions.

With its 1920s World’s Fair inspired setting and thrilling, death-defying gauntlet competition, THE ANCIENT’S GAME is the perfect read for fans of These Violent Delights, Iron Widow, and Dread Nation.

Loni Crittenden is a writer from Buffalo, New York. She has a BA in creative writing from SUNY Oswego and an MFA in writing popular fiction from Seton Hill University. When she’s not glued to her laptop, you can find her nursing various cat-inflicted wounds, planning on painting again someday maybe, and hunting for unusually flavored teas.

THE QUEEN’S SPADE de Sarah Raughley

With its sharp, fast-past narrative, and cut-throat revenge arc buoyed by its empowering, emotional core and a heart wrenching romance, THE QUEEN’S SPADE is the crossover YA, Adult book that readers have been clamoring for and is perfect for fans of The Davenports, Queen Charlotte, and A Dowry of Blood.

THE QUEEN’S SPADE
by Sarah Raughley
HarperCollins Children’s Books, January 2025

In this riveting historical thriller that’s loosely inspired by true life events, The Count of Monte Cristo meets Bridgerton, as revenge, romance, and twisted secrets take center stage in Victorian England’s royal court when Sally, a kidnapped African princess and goddaughter to Queen Victoria, plots her way to take down the monarchy that stole her from her homeland.

While falling in love isn’t in Sally’s revenge plans, readers will be beguiled by the slow-burn romance that sparks off the page as Sally becomes drawn to Rui, the crime lord in London’s underworld helping Sally with her revenge for a price—all while she navigates the affections of Queen Victoria’s own son, Prince Albert, her unwanted matrimony, and her dangerous scheme to infiltrate Queen Victoria’s inner circle to take down the crown.

Sarah Raughley is a graduate of the department of English and Cultural Studies at McMaster University. She is also the author of the recent Victorian fantasy Bones of Ruin series and the Effigies series.

SONG OF THE LAST KINGDOM SERIES d’Amélie Wen Zhao

In a fallen kingdom, one girl carries the key to its forgotten past – and the demons that sleep at its heart…

SONG OF THE LAST KINGDOM Series
by Amélie Wen Zhao
Delacorte, 2023 – 2024
(via Park & Fine Literary and Media)

SONG OF SILVER, FLAME LIKE NIGHT (Book 1 – January 2023)

Once, Lan had a different name. Now she goes by the one the Elantian colonizers gave her when they invaded her kingdom, killed her mother, and outlawed her people’s magic. She spends her nights as a songgirl in Haak’gong, a city transformed by the conquerors, and her days scavenging for what she can find of the past. Anything to understand the strange mark burned into her arm by her mother in her last act before she died.

The mark is mysterious—an untranslatable Hin character—and no one but Lan can see it. Until the night a boy appears at her teahouse and saves her life.

Zen is a practitioner—one of the fabled magicians of the Last Kingdom. Their magic was rumored to have been drawn from the demons they communed with. Magic believed to be long lost. Now it must be hidden from the Elantians at all costs.

When Zen comes across Lan, he recognizes what she is: a practitioner with a powerful ability hidden in the mark on her arm. He’s never seen anything like it—but he knows that if there are answers, they lie deep in the pine forests and misty mountains of the Last Kingdom, with an order of practitioning masters planning to overthrow the Elantian regime.

Both Lan and Zen have secrets buried deep within—secrets they must hide from others, and secrets that they themselves have yet to discover. Fate has connected them, but their destiny remains unwritten. Both hold the power to liberate their land. And both hold the power to destroy the world.

Now the battle for the Last Kingdom begins.

DARK STAR BURNING, ASH FALLS WHITE (Book 2 – January 2024)

The Demon Gods have risen. Skies’ End has fallen to the colonizers. And Lan and Zen have chosen sides.

But they will not fight together.

Though Lan inherited the power of the Silver Dragon, she understands the path she must take. She believes the Demon Gods to be the cause of war, conflict, and turmoil, and that the future of the Last Kingdom depends on their being eliminated forever. Worse, she knows that if the Elantians manage to bind one of the legendary beings, their army will be unstoppable. To save her kingdom and her people, Lan will need to find the only mythical weapon capable of destroying the Demon Gods: the Godslayer.

Zen is sure that the only way to free the Last Kingdom is to use the power of the Demon Gods. When he bound the Black Tortoise, he paid the ultimate price: to inherit its strength, he will forfeit his body, his mind, and his soul. Yet one Demon God is not enough against the might of the colonizers. In the ruins of the northern Mansorian lands slumbers a magical army of demonic practitioners capable of facing off against the Elantians—but Zen must find the Seal to awaken them to fight by his side.

At the center of both Lan’s and Zen’s journeys is one city: Shaklahira, a former stronghold of the Imperial Court that vanished without a trace when the Elantians invaded. Its location is a mystery, and both are sure that it holds the answers they need, but the past it hides might be more dangerous than anything they’ve faced yet.

The battle for the Last Kingdom rages on. But to win the war, Lan will have to decide: Can she face the boy she loves again? And when she does, can she kill him to free her people?

Amélie Wen Zhao（赵雯）was born in Paris and grew up in Beijing, where she spent her days reenacting tales of legendary heroes, ancient kingdoms, and lost magic at her grandmother’s courtyard house. She attended college in the United States and now resides in New York City, working in finance by day and being a fantasy author by night. Amélie is the NYT bestselling author of the SONG OF THE LAST KINGDOM duology and the Blood Heir trilogy.