May 28, 2024
- Publisher: Page Street YA
- Reading age: 14 – 17 years
Two rival drag kings competing for a crown might just win each other’s hearts.
When eighteen-year-old Briar Vincent’s mental health takes a turn for the worst, her parents send her to spend the summer in New York City with her older brother, Beau, also known as the drag queen Bow Regard.
Backstage at the gay bar where Beau performs, Briar just wants to be a fly on the wall, but she can’t stand by when the cute but conceited drag king Spencer Read tries to put down another up-and-coming performer. To prove to him that even a brand-new performer could knock him off his pedestal, Briar signs up for the annual drag king competition.
There’s just one flaw in her plan: Briar has never done drag before.
With the help of her brother and a few new friends, Briar becomes Edgar Allan Foe, a drag king hellbent on taking Spencer down. But unless she can learn how to shake her anxiety and perform, she doesn’t stand a chance of winning Drag King of the Year, overcoming her depression and inner demons, or avoiding falling for her enemy, who might not be so bad after all.
What If It’s Us meets They Both Die at the End in this sequel to the beloved postapocalyptic queer YA adventure romance All That’s Left in the World by USA Today bestselling author Erik J. Brown.
After a long and treacherous journey south, Andrew and Jamie have finally found safety in the Florida Keys. But they soon learn that safety doesn’t always mean happily ever after.
Settling into life in the Islamorada colony with other survivors of the bug, Andrew believes they’ve finally found themselves a home, even a family. But anxious Jamie is less comfortable in their new community and is eager to return north to keep the promise they made to their friend Henri—to bring her to the colony and reunite her with her daughter. Besides, would it really be so bad to find someplace just for the two of them?
When a hurricane and a shocking betrayal force them to leave the colony in search of new shelter, it brings their tensions to a head—and puts them in the path of some old enemies. Andrew and Jamie must set aside their differences to survive once more and find a new home. But what if “home” means different things to each of them?
- Publisher: Wednesday Books
- Reading age: 12 – 18 years
- Grade level: 10 – 12
Most Anticipated by HipLatina * Latinx In Publishing * Book Riot* Goodreads, and more!
Castillo Torres, Student Body Association event chair and serial planner, could use a fairy godmother. After a disastrous mishap at her sister’s quinceañera and her mother’s unexpected passing, all of Cas’s plans are crumbling. So when a local lifestyle-guru-slash-party-planner opens up applications for the internship of her dreams, Cas sees it as the perfect opportunity to learn every trick in the book so that things never go wrong again.
The only catch is that she needs more party planning experience before she can apply. When she books a quinceañera for a teen Disneyland vlogger, Cas thinks her plan is taking off… until she discovers that the party is just a publicity stunt―and she begins catching feelings for the chambelán.
As her agenda starts to go way off-script Cas finds that real life may be more complicated than a fairy tale. But maybe Happily Ever Afters aren’t just for the movies. Can Cas go from planner to participant in her own life? Or will this would-be princess turn into a pumpkin at the end of the ball?
- Publisher: Christy Ottaviano Books
- Reading age: 12 – 18 years
- Grade level: 7 – 12
New York Times bestselling author April Henry delivers a thrilling murder mystery featuring a teen with an assassin on her trail fighting to uncover the truth behind a government cover up, perfect for fans of Karen McManus.
Sometimes, the only way to live is to make sure the world thinks you’re dead . . .
In the aftermath of a car accident that claimed the life of her senator father, sixteen-year-old Milan finds herself adrift, expelled from her third boarding school. Milan’s mother, who has assumed the senate seat, diverts her private plane to pick up her daughter. But on their way home, a bomb rips off a wing and the plane crashes in the mountains. In her final moments, Milan’s mother entrusts her with a key. She reveals it will unlock the evidence that so many people have already died for—including Milan’s father. The only way Milan can survive, her mom tells her, is to let everyone believe she died with the other passengers.
Milan is forced to navigate a perilous descent in freezing conditions while outwitting everything from a drone to wild animals. With relentless assassins on her trail, she must untangle the web of deceit and save herself and countless others. Will she piece together the truth in time?
- Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
- Reading age: 13 – 18 years
- Grade level: 10 – 12
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.
Tautly written, tense, and evocative, this is a stunning YA novel by award-winning and critically acclaimed author Anna-Marie McLemore.
- Publisher: HarperTeen
- Reading age: 13 – 17 years
- Grade level: 8 – 9
We Are Okay meets The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School in this heartfelt, queer coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of a small town’s evangelical megachurch culture.
The end of Daya Keane’s junior year in Escondido, Arizona, is anything but expected.
And it starts when her longtime swoon-worthy crush, Beckett Wild, actually talks to her at a party neither of them should’ve been at.
But as Daya’s best friends, Stella and B’Rad, are quick to point out, smart, cute, artistic Beckett is also the poster girl for the wildly popular youth group at Grace Redeemer, the megachurch Daya’s mom prays at and pushes her daughter to attend.
Amid the concert-worthy light shows, high-energy live band, and pastor preaching to love thy neighbor so long as thy neighbor “gets right with God” first, Daya struggles to find her place in a house of worship that doesn’t seem to create space for someone like her. Then again, she never planned to fall this hard for a girl like Beckett Wild.
Now Daya has to decide how far she’s willing to surrender to Beckett’s world of Grace Redeemer, and who she’s willing to become to be with her.
A fearless and profound tale ideal for readers of Jeff Zentner and Jennifer Dugan, The Redemption of Daya Keane gives an intimate and unforgettable look into a world that demands to be seen.
- Publisher: Tor Teen
- Reading age: 13 – 18 years
- Grade level: 10 – 12
Viola Reyes is annoyed.
Her painstakingly crafted tabletop game campaign was shot down, her best friend is suggesting she try being more “likable,” and her school’s star 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 realize 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…
- Publisher : G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers (May 28, 2024)
- Reading age : 14 – 17 years
- Lexile measure : HL690L
- Grade level : 9 – 12
What you don’t know can hurt you….
It’s been months since the accident that killed Ella’s best friend, Hayley, and Ella can’t stop blaming herself. Now Ella is back at school, and everywhere she looks are reminders of her best friend—including Sawyer, Hayley’s boyfriend. Little by little, they grow closer, until Ella realizes something horrifying . . .
She’s in love with her dead best friend’s boyfriend.
Racked with guilt, Ella turns to Hayley’s journal, hoping she’ll find something in the pages that will make her feel better about what’s happening. Instead, she discovers that Sawyer has secrets of his own and that his relationship with Hayley wasn’t as picture-perfect as it seemed.
Ella knows she should stay away but finds herself inextricably drawn to him—and scared of everything she never knew about him. Perhaps it’s his grief. Or maybe his desires, cut short by tragedy. Or could it be something twisted only Hayley knew about?
A dark, romantic thriller perfect for fans of Colleen Hoover and Laura Nowlin, Everything We Never Said explores the secrets in even the best of friendships and asks how well you ever know the ones you love.
