Archives de catégorie : Young Adult

PEARL BEACH de Beth Steiner

A poignant free verse novel about the challenges of growing up and the joy of connecting.

PEARL BEACH
by Beth Steiner
Pushkin Press, May 2026

This summer
I’ll grow up

For as long as Billie can remember, summer has meant one thing: Pearl Beach. The idyllic seaside home belonging to her old Aunt Edith, and the place where she met her best friend, Andy.

But this summer, everything seems to be changing. Andy is more interested in makeup and boys than in Billie, and Aunt Edith has decided to stay with them for the whole summer. Edith is a holocaust survivor, and whenever Billie tries to talk to her, her words seem to crumble under the weight of this knowledge.

But Edith was fourteen once too and knows all too well the pains of growing up. When Billie finds her old diary, she starts to realise just how much they have in common…

Beth Steiner is a debut writer, with a background as a primary school teacher. A passionate slam poet, she skilfully weaves poetry into her narratives, bringing a lyrical quality to her storytelling.

FLIRTING WITH MURDER d’Amanda Sellet

This mystery and romance mashup features a quirky, contemporary setting and unforgettable characters, think The Agathas meets The Thursday Murder Club.

FLIRTING WITH MURDER
by Amanda Sellet
Wednesday Books/St. Martin’s, April 2026

Some people visit Florida for theme parks and beaches. High school junior Virginia Tillis is there for murder. Accidents, electrocution, tainted hand lotion: every victim meets a different end at her grandmother Lainey’s rococo pink condo. Such is life (and death) when you roll with a crew of theater retirees who roleplay murder mysteries from the comfort of their own home in a game they fondly call Killing Me Softly.

But this summer, fictional murder has given way to the very real death of the building’s beloved owner and his dramatic last testament has the vultures circling, from estranged relatives to sleazy property developers, dead set on getting the most from his will.

Adding to the tension for Virginia is the appearance of Felix, the cute guy she met at the airport who turns out to be the grandson of one of the condo’s residents. With his charm and musical theater chops, he’s the person Virginia most wants to beat at Killing Me Softly. That is, until the day they discover an actual dead body while playing the game, forcing them to work together to figure out whodunit.

In this comedic mystery about finding the Watson to your Holmes, Virginia and Felix must banter their way from rivals to co-detectives in time to save their eccentric grandparents from a shocking disruption to the community they’ve always loved.

AMANDA SELLET is a former journalist and the author of rom-coms for teens and adults, including By the Book, which Booklist described in a starred review as, “impossible to read without laughing out loud.” She loves old movies, baked goods, and embarrassing her teen daughter.

THE REDWOOD BARGAIN de Markelle Grabo

In this gothic fairy tale, a maid poses as her lord’s stepdaughter to fulfill his bargain with the murderous lord of the woods.

THE REDWOOD BARGAIN
by Markelle Grabo
Page Street/St. Martin’s, March 2026

To free her cousin from an indentured contract, Katrien agrees to fulfill their lord’s bargain with the fabled “Redwood Man.” Three maids before her have posed as his stepdaughter, Lady Zaviera, and met this lord of the forest as promised. But Katrien means to be the first to fool him—and live. Impersonating a lady is no easy feat, especially one as beautiful and aloof as Zaviera. With one month before she’s sent off, Katrien is put through endless lessons, even as the Redwood Man’s suffocating vines overtake the manor and threaten its staff. Zaviera takes a special interest in her training, and their shared interests grow into shared affections. But the Redwood Man awaits his prize. Caught between duty and desire, her future and her past, Katrien must navigate a tricky bargain—or risk failing those she holds dearest.

Markelle Grabo retells the fairy tales that frustrate her, which, based on that guideline, could include nearly all of them. She earned her master’s degree in creative writing for children and young adults from Hamline University and lives in Illinois with her partner and their two cats, Matcha and Kava. She is the author of Call Forth a Fox.

SHE DOESN’T HAVE A CLUE de Jenny Elder Moke

A steamy rom-com/murder mystery about a bestselling author who’s stuck at a wedding weekend gone horribly awry, perfect for fans of Tessa Bailey’s My Killer Vacation, and Jesse Q. Sutanto’s Dial A for Aunties.

SHE DOESN’T HAVE A CLUE
by Jenny Elder Moke
Minotaur/St. Martin’s Press, January 2025
(via Sterling Lord Literistic)

A high-end wedding on a private island off the coast of Seattle sounds like something out of a magazine. But for bestselling mystery author Kate Valentine, it’s more like a nightmare.

Why Kate agreed to attend her ex-fiancé’s wedding is its own enigma, but she’ll plaster on a fake smile for two nights, with the aid of free champagne, naturally. And because the groom happens to be her editor, she’ll try to finish a draft of her latest Loretta Starling mystery as a wedding gift.

When the bride is poisoned and Kate stumbles across a dead body, she finds herself in a real-life mystery that eerily echoes the plot of her latest novel. And the only person who seems willing to help Kate catch the killer is Jake Hawkins, aka: the Hostralian; aka: Kate’s biggest romantic regret.

As the wine flows and the weather threatens to hold every guest hostage, bitter resentments and long-held grudges surface amongst the colorful crowd. Anyone could be capable of murder, it seems. What would Loretta do? Unfortunately, Kate doesn’t have a clue.

Jenny Elder Moke is the author of award-winning children’s and adult literature. She enjoys fast-paced adventures with plenty of mysteries, surprising turns, and laughs along the way. When she’s not writing, you can find her knitting, puzzling, or fighting imaginary crime as a black belt in Tae Kwon Do. SHE DOESN’T HAVE A CLUE is her adult debut.

BETTER THE DEVIL d’Erik J. Brown

Gritty, gripping thriller meets contemporary queer romance in this brand-new YA novel filled with first love, stolen identity and murder, from the award-winning and bestselling author of All That’s Left in the World.

BETTER THE DEVIL
by Erik J. Brown
Storytide/HarperCollins, Summer 2026
(via Dystel, Goderich & Bourret)

After being arrested for shoplifting, a homeless teen is afraid the police will send him home to his abusive family, so he assumes the identity of Nate Beaumont—a child who, according to the missing poster on the police station wall, went missing ten years ago. It doesn’t hurt that he looks a lot like the age-progressed picture of Nate. He plans to escape before the police can discover his lie, but when Nate’s family comes to collect him, he unexpectedly starts to bond with them. 

The Beaumonts are nothing like his real family. There’s Nate’s loving, but intensely protective mother, his reserved and imposing father, an older brother wracked with guilt, and a quirky, card shark grandmother. When he looks further into the disappearance, « Nate » learns that the boy he’s pretending to be didn’t just go missing—rumor is, he was murdered. As strange occurrences begin to unfold around the Beaumont home, Nate realizes he’s trapped in a dangerous game with an unknown killer. One who knows he isn’t the real Nate Beaumont.

Nate has three choices: run, confess, or find out who the real killer is…before history repeats itself.

Erik J. Brown is an award-winning writer based in Philadelphia, PA. His debut Young Adult novel, All That’s Left in the World, was nominated for a Goodreads Choice Award, shortlisted for the Waterstone’s Children’s Book Prize and won the UK reader’s choice Books Are My Bag award. In 2021 he was selected as a Lambda Literary Emerging Writers Fellow. His second novel for young adults, Lose You to Find Me, came out in May 2023, and the sequel to All That’s Left in the World, titled The Only Light Left Burning, comes out May 2024. You can find him on Twitter @WriterikJB, and Instagram @ErikJB, and on his website, https://www.erikjbrown.com.