Archives de catégorie : Young Adult

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

Women bite back in this queer gothic thriller, perfect for fans of Interview with the Vampire and Plain Bad Heroines.

POSSESSION ISLAND
by Sarah McCarry
Saturday Books, December 2026
(via Writers House)

It wasn’t easy for Angela Bell growing up on Possession island, the remote Pacific Northwest setting of her late mother’s wildly popular vampire novel. When she returns home from college and her estranged best friend, Mo, is murdered, she’s forced to reckon with yet another loss—and finds herself in the crosshairs of the bungled police investigation.

Sally Raleigh has longed to leave the island for years, but she’s trapped by her father’s declining health and her devotion to her charismatic twin brother Adrian. The last thing she needs is her high-school nemesis Angela back in town. But Sally is also devastated by Mo’s death, and finds herself forging an unlikely alliance with her former enemy to find Mo’s killer.

As Angie and Sally delve deeper into the island’s sinister underbelly, they must confront just how far they’re willing to go to protect the people they love. And they’ll soon find that the secrets they’ve been keeping from each other won’t stay buried for long….

Sarah McCarry is the author of the novels All Our Pretty Songs, Dirty Wings, About A Girl, and The Darling Killers. 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.

SPARKS FLY de Hazel Henry

Three girls, one summer—and the perfect beach read for fans of Gilmore Girls, Jenny Han, and Elin Hilderbrand!

SPARKS FLY
by Hazel Henry
Avon/HarperCollins, May 2026

The Hollidays are having a summer to remember . . .

Georgia can’t wait to get back to Laurel Lake, where she’ll be too busy lifeguarding to miss her boyfriend, Rhys. Besides, he’ll visit every weekend. It’ll be perfect. She certainly won’t get distracted by the local boy who seems determined to catch her eye …

Daisy is finally old enough for a summer job at the local club, which is good because it will take her mind off the confusing way she and Owen said goodbye—by kissing. A lot. Are they dating now? And if so, should she not be spending time with Mateo, the hot older guy who’s always available to give her a ride home from work?

Eden is on thin ice with her parents, who think that learning to survive in the woods will “fix” her. Sure, being at the lake with Georgia and Daisy is great. A backpacking class? No. A backpacking class with her ex infatuation and forever arch nemesis, Leo? She’d rather hike all the way back to New York City.

The Holliday sisters have so many questions: about love, friendship, and who they want to be. Luckily, they also have each other.

Hazel Henry spends her summers close to several beautiful lakes, though she rarely meets cute boys there. Her favorite warm-weather traditions are beach bonfires, sunset ice cream runs (strawberry, but only if it’s with real strawberries), and lazing in the hammock with a good book.