Hello YABC’ers!
Welcome to the weekly post by the Staff at YA Books Central called Current Reads Monday!
We love everything bookish and just wanted to share with our readers what books we are currently reading and obsessing about! So check out what books the YABC Staff are currently reading below and comment to let us know what book or books you’re reading as well!!
Share, Tweet, and post with the hashtag #YABCCurrentReads!
Happy Reading!!
*Olivia’s Current Read*
(Staff Reviewer)
This Ravenous Fate
The first book in a decadent fantasy duology set in Jazz Age Harlem, where at night the dance halls come to life―and death waits in the dark.
It’s 1926 and reapers, the once-human vampires with a terrifying affliction, are on the rise in New York. But the Saint family’s thriving reaper-hunting enterprise holds reign over the city, giving them more power than even the organized criminals who run the nightclubs. Eighteen year-old Elise Saint, home after five years in Paris, is the reluctant heir to the empire. Only one thing weighs heavier on Elise’s mind than her family obligations: the knowledge that the Harlem reapers want her dead.
Layla Quinn is a young reaper haunted by her past. Though reapers have existed in America for three centuries, created by New World atrocities and cruel experiments, Layla became one just five years ago. The night she was turned, she lost her parents, the protection of the Saints, and her humanity, and she’ll never forget how Elise Saint betrayed her.
But some reapers are inexplicably turning part human again, leaving a wake of mysterious and brutal killings. When Layla is framed for one of these attacks, the Saint patriarch offers her a deal she can’t refuse: to work with Elise to investigate how these murders might be linked to shocking rumors of a reaper cure. Once close friends, now bitter enemies, Elise and Layla explore the city’s underworld, confronting their intense feelings for one another and uncovering the sinister truths about a growing threat to reapers and humans alike.
*Connie’s Current Read*
(Site Manager)
Death at Morning House
Author: Maureen Johnson
Publication Date: August 6, 2024
Publisher: Harper Teen
From the bestselling author of the Truly Devious books, Maureen Johnson, comes a new stand-alone YA about a teen who uncovers a mystery while working as a tour guide on an island and must solve it before history repeats itself.
The fire wasn’t Marlowe Wexler’s fault. Dates should be hot, but not hot enough to warrant literal firefighters. Akilah, the girl Marlowe has been in love with for years, will never go out with her again. No one dates an accidental arsonist.
With her house-sitting career up in flames, it seems the universe owes Marlowe a new summer job, and that’s how she ends up at Morning House, a mansion built on an island in the 1920s and abandoned shortly thereafter. It’s easy enough, giving tours. Low risk of fire. High chance of getting bored talking about stained glass and nut cutlets and Prohibition.
Oh, and the deaths. Did anyone mention the deaths?
Maybe this job isn’t such a gift after all. Morning House has a horrific secret that’s been buried for decades, and now the person who brought her here is missing.
All it takes is one clue to set off a catastrophic chain of events. One small detail, just like a spark, could burn it all down—if someone doesn’t bury Marlowe first.
*Kim’s Current Read*
(Staff Reviewer)
It Happened to Anna
Author:Tehlor Kay Mejia
Publication Date: 8/6/24
Publisher: Delacorte Press
This spine-tingling ghost story follows a tween girl who’s being literally haunted by loneliness until a new friendship upends her life. From the bestselling author of the Paola Santiago series!
“Absolutely haunting!”—Delilah S. Dawson, New York Times bestselling author of Mine
Sadie Rivera has been haunted all her life by a vengeful ghost—a ghost that doesn’t want her to make any friends. The moment she tries? Cue exploding lightbulbs, chilling gusts of wind, and slamming doors.
Last year, Sadie got fed up. Last year, she made a best friend, Anna. So when the ghost caused an accident that killed her best friend, Sadie knew it was all her fault.
Which is why she’s not going to make any friends this year at her new school. At least until mysterious cool girl Mal shows up, and the ghost doesn’t bother her for once. But Mal wants Sadie all to herself—and she’ll do anything to make sure it stays that way.
*Sara’s Current Read*
(Staff Reviewer)
My Fairy Godfather
Author: Robert Mailer Anderson
Publication Date: 5/21/2024
A story about how music and film connects us to who we’ve loved, who we’ve been, and who we are becoming ― and that lying beneath the façade of teenage cynicism is the profound desire to be understood and loved.
Reeling from the death of her parents in a car crash, teenage Billie travels over the rainbow and under tangled concrete overpasses, from her native Austin, Texas to the improbably named Liberal, Kansas. Her plan is to live with her godfather, Adam, “a lonely, gay, film geek stuck inside a jock’s body – a jock’s world.” His partner Steven run the Starlite, a movie theater and safe haven for their eccentricities and artistic yearnings. Together, they face new challenges as they help a grieving teen find the path to her true self, while the couple themselves live with the compromises they’ve made for the sake of comfort.
Liberal, the adopted home of Oz’s Dorothy, is also home to small-town intolerance, immature adults with unsettled scores, and their children, some who resist and others who succumb to their parents’ prejudices. Along the way Billie meets Clara ― a goth, lesbian Dorothy impersonator who’s used to being an outsider ― and Dylan ― who finds himself caught between his old allegiance to rigid cliques and his magnetic attraction to this new girl who rocks Frida Kahlo tees and cowboy boots.
Full color illustrations throughout
*Mark’s Current Read*
(Staff Reviewer)
Dungeon Runners; Hero Trial
Author: Kieran Larwood
Publishing Date: 9/3/24
A new action-packed series for fans of fantasy and RPG games!
CALLING ALL DUNGEON RUNNERS – There’s space for a new team of heroes. This is your chance to enter the leagues and fight your way to the top!
Kit has dreamed of being a Dungeon Runner all his life, although being a gnorf (part gnome, part dwarf) means he’s much smaller than the other competitors.
But when a space opens up for a new team in the Dungeon Running League, Kit doesn’t want to miss this chance to try out! With his new friends Sandy and Thorn, they’re ready to take on anything – mazes, puzzles, monsters, treasure, and most of all adventure!
Are you ready for the games to begin? Welcome to the Dungeon!
What book are you currently reading? Comment below!
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