Release Date Not Yet Known
Temporary Bodies by Anuradha D. Rajurkar (Knopf) - moved from 2024, then from 2025.
Katherine
Harrison and Gianna Lakenauth at Knopf have acquired, in an exclusive
submission, Temporary Bodies by Anuradha D. Rajurkar,
a YA gothic thriller about a teen girl who seeks a fresh start in India
after the death of her sister, but discovers that the abandoned
building her parents are renovating into a boutique hotel has a dark
history as a birthing hospital, haunted by restless spirits and the
twisted legacy of colonialism. Publication is set for summer 2024;
Alexander Slater at GreenburgerKids did the deal for North American
rights.
August 3rd
The Bone Singer by Abigail Owen (Entangled Teen)
Thalia Cross has spent eighteen years perfecting invisibility. Homeschooled on a mountain, warned away from town, kept just separate enough from everyone that loneliness became a personality trait. Her grandfather calls it protection. She calls it Thursday.
Then her therapist disappears into the Colorado wilderness, and Thalia follows a dead woman's voice into the dark.
What she finds in that clearing strips away every careful rule she's lived by: her therapist's bones arranged with unnerving precision, bleached white as if from centuries of sun. Before she can run, she slams straight into eighteen-year-old Bram Wilder, the sheriff's son and her longtime crush, two days from his first shift as a deputy, and apparently the universe's preferred instrument of her humiliation. He turned down a full ride to Stanford to stay in this town, and nobody seems to know why.
He arrests her. She almost respects it.
But something far worse than a murder charge is circling Wilder, Colorado, and Thalia can't outrun it alone. Pulled toward two other girls she has no reason to trust, she's starting to understand that her grandfather's rules weren't about keeping her safe. They were about keeping her quiet. About keeping her from discovering exactly what she is.
Because something ancient is sealed in these mountains. It has been waiting a very long time. And the dead, who have always been the only honest voices in Wilder, keep whispering the same thing.
Her name.
The Inheritance Games meets Caraval in this propulsive, gothic, slow-burn thriller that will wreck your sleep schedule completely.
Drop Dead Darlings by Jessica Warman (Entangled Teen) - description not yet updated on Goodreads.
Then two classmates are found brutally murdered.
And somehow, things only get worse. An impossibly glamorous stranger appears with an even more impossible claim: Shiv and her friends are fictional characters trapped inside a horror novel.
According to the author, one of them is the hero.
One of them is the villain.
And one of them is going to die horribly.
With the body count rising, Shiv and her friends will fight to outsmart the author before they're written out of the story for good. Because the only thing more dangerous than a writer...is the monster she's written.
Darkly funny, wildly original, and gleefully blood-soaked, Drop Dead Darlings is a genre-bending horror novel about friendship, free will, first love, and what happens when the author decides your favorite character simply has to die.
Chuck and the Girl by Yusuke Saitoh (Graphix) - YA graphic novel/manga, moved from March 2027 and May 2027.
Amy's life in Los Angeles is uprooted when she's packed off to Yokohama, Japan, to live with the grandmother she's never met. She's ready for adventure in a country she's only seen in movies and anime, but the reality is even better than she'd imagined: Her grandmother is a painter and teacher whose home is filled with art and music, and she encourages Amy to embrace the unexpected - whether it's riding her skateboard, jamming on the guitar with her uncle, or befriending an adorable Siamese kitten named Chuck. Amy's spirit of creative expression brings a classmate, Kenta, into her family's orbit - and inspires the shy Japanese boy to express himself more freely.
But all isn't sunshine and cherry blossoms in Amy's world as she adjusts to her new home and learns the real reason why her mother sent her off to Japan... and whether this is just a temporary move, or her new home for good.
Dark Descent by Kristen Ciccarelli (Wednesday Books) - description not yet updated on Goodreads.
Rune Winters died for Cascadia and came back changed. The resurrection left something dark coiled beneath her ribs: a growing corruption she can’t explain and can’t afford to reveal. Not to the political enemies demanding evaluations for all witches, and not to Gideon, the former witch hunter she married who she fears losing most of all.
As witches vanish across the country and a foreign empire arrives with an offer of protection they're too desperate to refuse, Rune is forced into increasingly dangerous choices between the woman she wants to be and the power she was born to wield.
In Kristen Ciccarelli's Dark Descent, the devastating third installment of The Crimson Moth series, some bargains cannot be unmade, and some secrets consume those who keep them.
What the Light Cannot Touch by Alyssa Hollingsworth (Page Street) - description not yet updated on Goodreads.
But only one week away from the youngest sister's birthday, Thistle makes a mistake. Her childhood frenemy turned soldier baits her into an argument, and in a fit of defiance, she steps out into a rainstorm-just as the clouds break.
She and her sisters are imprisoned in the enchanted lands under the Blue Mountain. To save her sisters and free herself, Thistle will need to master dream magic to make contact with someone in the outside world.
Ruler of the Dead City by Brandie June (Page Street YA)
Hawk is a human boy raised by owl-women, sirins. When a sirin is killed protecting Hawk during a Wild Hunt, some suggest he should live with his own kind. But to be rejected by his sirin family would be a fate worse than death to Hawk, so he hatches a plan to kill the Death King and stop the Wild Hunt forever.
When MoriAna and Hawk collide, she on a mission to prove herself to her father, he on a mission to kill her father, neither of them expects to become what the other needs most. On their journey to belong, both will have to decide who they want to become.
No Glory for Thieves by S.G. Prince (Godwin Books)
Debt-ridden, hard-working Henry Love and wealthy, pretentious Vincent Rafford are an unlikely duo, but when Henry needs a fighting partner to win a city-wide tournament and Vincent needs information about a powerful relic stolen from his family, each turns out to be the perfect solution to the other’s problem. The closer they get to reaching their goals, however, the more enemies they seem to make, forcing them to rely on one another both inside and outside the juvonmon arena to secure the futures they’re seeking—and, maybe, the chance to live them out together.
Cheer Heist by Stacy Wells (Scholastic)
Jody Corbett at Scholastic has bought, in a preempt, Cheer Heist, the debut YA by Choctaw Nation member Stacy Wells, developed by Bittersweet Books. Three Choctaw cheerleaders take on smugglers of stolen Native art in this adventure aimed at fans of Rez Ball and Heist Society. Publication is scheduled for 2027; John Cusick at Folio Literary Management brokered the deal on behalf of Bittersweet Books; Savannah Brooks represented the author while at KT Literary; Wells is now represented by Laurel Symonds at KT Literary.
How to Be a Heartbreaker by Morgan Thompson (Scholastic) - moved from 2026, and from July 2027.
Maya Marlette at Scholastic has bought Cherokee author Morgan Thompson's YA romantic comedy How to Be a Heartbreaker, where a heartbroken Native American teenager enlists the help of a powerful Deer Lady spirit to teach her how to be confident in the hope of winning back her ex. Publication is slated for summer 2026; Linda Camacho at Gallt and Zacker Literary Agency did the deal for world rights.
Renegade Stars by Eilis O'Neal (Bloomsbury)
August 10th
The Raven Engagement by Alison Stine (Wednesday Books) - description not yet updated on Goodreads.
Growing up as the daughter of a famous, dead writer hasn’t been easy for Tessa Williams. Her house is decrepit and her father is still grieving her mother Juliet, who died young. Rumors swirl that writing her books—a series of children’s fantasy novels set in a world called Kingdom—is what actually killed Juliet. Her last book seems unfinished, and fans insist there’s a missing third installment.
An outcast at school, Tessa’s popular boyfriend Alec has stuck by her for years. And when he unexpectedly proposes on the night of her graduation party, something strange happens as Tessa puts the engagement ring on.
She goes to Kingdom.
Tessa finds herself in a castle, face to face with The Owl King, the enigmatic love interest from her mother’s books. He’s as magnetic as he is mysterious, and the magical life he shows Tessa is straight from Juliet’s pages. But there’s a price.
Because the throne The Owl King offers isn’t as perfect as it first seems. And as the boundaries between her two worlds blur, Tessa must search for the conclusion of her mother’s story before she loses her heart—and possibly her life—to the darkness waiting for her in Kingdom.
August 17th
Pawn's Fate by J.D. Myall (Wednesday Books)
After defeating a curse that pitted their families against one another in a vicious competition of survival, Malcolm and Emma are finally ready to just enjoy what they do best–magic, entertaining, and falling deeper in love with one another. But just as their families have finally found peace with the horrors of their pasts, Malcolm’s sister Jayla goes missing, leaving a trail of blood in her wake.
Visions draw them into a place where memories are currency and nothing is given freely. To learn where Jayla is, they must barter pieces of themselves that they’ll never get back. But then, they receive a warning that their nightmare has only just begun. Ariella, the daughter of the very woman who tried to destroy them is pulling the strings, and she’s demanding a soul as payment for her mother’s.
In Pawn’s Fate by J.D. Myall, Emma and Malcolm must once again participate in a merciless game where only one of them can survive. But in a world built on illusion, is their love strong enough to save them twice?
Somewhere in the Gray by Michelle Jing Chan (FSG) - YA graphic novel, moved from 2026.
Grace Kendall at FSG has acquired world rights, at auction, in a six-figure deal, Michelle Jing Chan's debut graphic novel, Somewhere in the Gray, which follows a girl who is dating the most popular girl at school, and what seems easy for her friends—being intimate in any way with their partners—doesn't feel quite right to her as she learns it's more than okay to live somewhere in the gray of asexuality. Publication is scheduled for fall 2026; Jemiscoe Chambers-Black at Andrea Brown Literary Agency negotiated the deal.
Ink & Soul by Tracy Banghart (Candlewick) - previously titled When I Wrote the World.
Miriam Newman at Candlewick has bought When I Wrote the World and a sequel by Tracy Banghart (the Grace and Fury duology). In this YA meta-fantasy adventure, a young author falls into the world of her bestselling novel and is shocked to discover the place is real, right before she is taken hostage by her main characters. Book one will publish in summer 2027; Pam Gruber at High Line Literary Collective negotiated the deal for world rights.
August 24th
A Different Kind of Murder by Racquel Marie (Feiwel and Friends) - full description not yet updated on Goodreads.
On the surface, seventeen-year-old Paloma O’Hare is gentle, well-behaved, and balanced, especially compared to the troublesome step-sister taking up most of her parents’ attention. But Paloma’s anxiety and OCD have been worsening since her ex-boyfriend and ex-best friend found the journal that she’d been using to detail her disturbing intrusive thoughts. It feels inevitable that soon, everyone else will discover what she’s always feared most: she’s actually a terrible person.
For months, Paloma left the journal untouched and instead spent all her free time birding in the forest surrounding her small town, befriending the crows there and convincing herself things might be okay. That is, until dead animals start showing up with page scraps from her journal stuffed inside them, preceding violent attacks by the crows... attacks that are making her worst intrusive thoughts come true. Horrified, Paloma knows this is all her fault.
Teaming up with an unlikely ally, town loner Alise Cordova, Paloma tries to find a way to stop the crows before they take things too far. But unless she can reconcile with the cruelest parts of her brain and accept her own imperfections, there may be no way of stopping the murder.
The Season of Wild Poppies by Amir Ahmadi Arian (Henry Holt) - description not yet updated on Goodreads.
For fifteen-year-old Yashar, war is something that happens on TV.
It belongs to news headlines and Hollywood movies, not to his quiet life in Ahvaz, in southern Iran. But in September 1980, Iraq invades, and suddenly his hometown is at the heart of the battlefield. As his family rushes to fortify their home, Yashar stumbles across a hidden suitcase. Inside, he finds a stack of drawings by another child, kept alongside his own childhood drawings. Has his mother been keeping the memory of a sibling he never knew? And if so, what became of this other child?
Yashar confides in Nilou, his childhood friend newly returned to Ahvaz. Together they search for answers, and their bond deepens into a fierce first love. While bombs fall and school life fractures, the drawings reveal a trail of clues. The missing child was obsessed with Tintin, using comics to map their world in secret codes. Decoding their art, Yashar and Nilou begin to uncover a darker history: the sibling may have crossed paths with a notorious serial killer, and may still be alive.
For readers of Ruta Sepetys and Khaled Hosseini, Amir Ahmadi Arian's The Season of Wild Poppies is a deeply thrilling, heart-rending novel.
No comments:
Post a Comment