Release Date Not Known
Dear Younger Me: What 30 Trailblazing Women Wish They'd Known as Girls by Elisa Boxer (Rowman & Littlefield) - YA non-fiction.
March 5th
An Unlikely Proposition by Rosalyn Eves (FSG)
A standalone companion to An Improbable Season, this Regency romance — perfect for fans of Bridgerton — is about following your heart, pursuing your dreams, and falling head over heels in love.
Eleanor did
not come to London to be proper and boring. After the death of her
husband and a year of mourning, the seventeen year old wants nothing
more than her independence and to have a little fun. She’s hardly
looking to remarry, despite pressures from her late husband’s nephew,
who is keen on obtaining her inheritance. Eleanor quickly devises a plan
that includes a fake engagement. What’s not a part of the plan? Falling
for a dashing, quiet man outside of her social circle – a man who is not her betrothed. Can she survive the Season with her heart and her fortune intact?
Thalia
is determined to begin afresh after a disastrous first Season in
London. No romantic distractions, but only her work as a poet and
newfound companion to Eleanor. Determined to get her poems published,
she struggles to be taken seriously as a female writer. As the spring
progresses, Thalia does not expect to take interest in a man from her
past (a man who is engaged to her employer, no less!), but some feelings
demand to be felt even if the timing isn’t quite right.
Rosalyn Eves's An Unlikely Proposition is a transportive Regency drama that captures the sparkle of London, thrill of friendship, and swoon of new love.
Kindling by Traci Chee (Clarion Books)
Once, the war was fought with kindlings—elite, magic-wielding warriors whose devastating power comes at the cost of their own young lives.
Now, the war is over, and kindlings have been cast adrift—their magic outlawed, their skills outdated, their formidable balar weapons prized only as relics and souvenirs.
Violence still plagues the countryside, and memories haunt those who remain. When a village comes under threat of siege, it offers an opportunity for seven kindlings to fight one last time. But war changed these warriors. And to reclaim who they once were, they will have to battle their pasts, their trauma, and their grim fates to come together again—or none of them will make it out alive.
From bestselling and award-winning author Traci Chee comes a gut-wrenching, introspective fantasy about seven lost soldiers searching for the peace they once fought for and the future in which they’re finally daring to believe.
The Encanto's Daughter by Melissa de la Cruz (Putnam) - moved from 2023.
MJ Rodriguez has spent her life hiding in the human world and guarding a heavy She’s not entirely human. MJ is half-encanto, a fairy from a world unknown to humankind, and as the only child of King Vivencio, she’s also next in line for the throne. Now, upon her father’s sudden death, MJ must take her place as the king’s rightful heir.
In wondrous Biringan, the road to the throne is paved with thorns. MJ has to navigate a backstabbing council that objects to a half-human ruler. And when it looks like her father’s death wasn’t natural but possibly due to an ancient curse, she must find and stop the sorceress behind the merciless magic.
To succeed, MJ forges an unlikely alliance with the dashing Sir Lucas of the feared Sigbin Court, and soon, she starts falling deeply for the mysterious knight. But with peril looming over the realm, the princess must decide if she can open her heart to love—and prove she can carry the weight of the crown.
The Poisons We Drink by Bethany Baptiste (Sourcebooks Fire) - moved from 2022, then from January 2023, then from June 2023 and from February 2024.
Love potions is a dangerous business. Brewing has painful, debilitating side effects, and getting caught means death or a prison sentence. But what Venus is most afraid of is the dark, sentient magic within her.
Then an enemy's iron bullet kills her mother, Venus’s life implodes. Keeping her reckless little sister Janus safe is now her responsibility. When the powerful Grand Witcher, the ruthless head of her coven, offers Venus the chance to punish her mother's killer, she has to pay a steep price for revenge. The cost? Brew poisonous potions to enslave D.C.'s most influential politicians.
As Venus crawls deeper into the corrupt underbelly of her city, the line between magic and power blurs, and it's hard to tell who to trust…Herself included.
One Last Breath by Ginny Myers Sain (Razorbill)
The perfect blend of Natasha Preston, Krystal Sutherland, and Delia Owens, with a paranormal twist.
Mount Orange, Florida, is famous for two things.
The spectre of Bailey and Celeste's murders cast a permanent darkness over sunny Mount Orange. Tru has always lived in that shadow. Sometimes, it seems like she knows the long-dead Bailey, feels the dead girl in her bones. Now she's supposed to head to FSU in the fall with her boyfriend, but those unsolved murders - and the death of her own sister - invade her every thought. It’s only in the shadowy deep, 100 feet below the surface of Hidden Glen Springs, that she can breathe.
When a strange girl named Rio rolls into town, hell-bent on figuring out who killed Bailey and Celeste, Tru can't resist entangling herself in the thrill of solving the decades old mystery any more than she can resist her familiar, aching attraction to Rio.
As the summer heat ignites, so does the spark between Tru and Rio...along with their other-worldy connection to Bailey and Celeste. But when someone begins stalking them, the girls become convinced the killer is back in town. And if they keep digging into the past, Tru and Rio know this time, it could be their blood that makes the springs run red.
Last One to Die by Cynthia Murphy (Delacorte) - previously published in the UK.
16-year-old, Irish-born Niamh has just arrived in London for the summer, and quickly discovers that girls who look frighteningly like her are being attacked.
Determined to make it through her Drama Course, Niamh is placed at the Victorian Museum to put her drama skills to the test, and there she meets he’s kind, fun, attentive, and really hot! Nonetheless, there's something eerie about the museum...
As present-day serial attacker and sinister Victorian history start to collide, Niamh realizes that things are not as they seem. Will she be next?
Promchanted by Morgan Matson (Disney Hyperion)
Two modern teens.
One classic fairy tale.
Absolutely no cell service.
Stella Griffin doesn’t believe in fairy tales. Ever since her boyfriend dumped her three weeks before the prom— not ideal timing—she’s convinced every love story is a lie.
She’s ready to skip the prom entirely. But she and her best friend, Nisha, have been planning for years to celebrate at Disneyland before the prom . . . an OG OC tradition. But even being all dressed up at the Happiest Place on Earth isn’t salvaging Stella’s night. Nisha has brought along her friend Reece to join them, and he and Stella do not get along. They’re like oil and water. Cats and dogs. Aladdin and Jafar. And so what if Reece is, fine, kind of cute? Stella’s over it all. Happily-ever-afters, true love’s kisses, princes on white horses. It’s not real. Or is it?
Because when Stella and Reece push through a hidden door in Sleeping Beauty’s castle, they’re not in Anaheim anymore. They’re in the story. In Sleeping Beauty —with Aurora and Phillip, the fairies, Maleficent, and extremely intelligent woodland creatures.
Unfortunately, they’ve landed right in the middle of the story—which throws things off. Suddenly, Aurora and Phillip are meeting before they were supposed to. The fairies are suspicious of the interlopers, and even Maleficent gets word of their arrival.
Stella and Reece will have to put aside their differences, make sure Aurora and Phillip fall in love, and get the story back on track—because if things don’t end the way they’re supposed to... they might never get home.
Will they be able to pull off a fairy-tale ending? And will Stella and Reece get a happily-ever-after of their own?
Ellie Haycock Is Totally Normal by Gretchen Schreiber (Wednesday Books)
When Ellie is forced to return to the hospital for an extended stay, she worries about her two lives colliding, and all she wants is to get back home as soon as possible.
But this stay is different. Ellie becomes close with a group of friends including Ryan, a first-timer who’s still optimistic about the doctors that Ellie stopped trusting years ago. Despite their differences, she can’t seem to keep him out of her head. Ellie’s life has never been normal, but maybe between these fast friendships and falling in love, she can find her own version of normal.
The Baker & the Bard by Fern Haught (Feiwel and Friends) - YA graphic novel, moved from 2023.
Juniper and Hadley have a good thing going in Larkspur, spending their respective days apprenticing at a little bakery and performing at the local inn. But when a stranger makes an unusual order at the bakery, the two friends (and Hadley’s pet snake, Fern) set out on a journey to forage the magical mushrooms needed to make the requested galette pastries.
Along the way, Juniper and Hadley stumble across a mystery too compelling to ignore: Something has been coming out of the woods at night and eating the local farmers' crops, leaving only a trail of glowy goo behind. Intent on finally going on an adventure that could fuel their bardic craft, Hadley tows Juniper into the woods to investigate.
What started as a simple errand to pick mushrooms soon turns into a thrilling quest to save some furry new friends—and their caretaker, a softspoken little fey named Thistle—who are in danger of losing their home.
What Monstrous Gods by Rosamund Hodge (Balzer + Bray) - moved from October 2021, then from October 2022 release date, then from 2023.
Born with a miraculous gift, Lia's destiny is to kill Ruven and wake the royals. But when she succeeds, she finds her duty is not yet complete, for now she must marry into the royal family and forge a pact with a god - or die.
To make matters even worse, Ruven's spirit is haunting her.
As discord grows between the old and new guards, the queen sends Lia and Prince Araunn, her betrothed, on a pilgrimage to awaken the gods. But the old gods are more dangerous than Lia ever knew - and Ruven may offer her only hope of survival.
As the two work together, Lia learns that they're more alike than she expected. And with tensions rising, Lia must choose between what she was raised to believe and what she knows is right - and between the prince she is bound to by duty... and the boy she killed.
Breathing Underwater by Abbey Nash (Holiday House)
Seventeen-year-old Tess Cooper lives by three train hard, study hard, work hard. Swimming is her best chance at a college scholarship. It’s what her parents, her coaches, and even her best friend expect from her—and Tess can always deliver.
Until tragedy strikes. Tess has a seizure underwater, and her world suddenly becomes one of doctor visits, missed practices, and a summer job stuck behind a counter—not sitting high in the lifeguard chair like every year before.
Instead, her spot goes to new guy Charlie. Sure, his messy hair and laid-back demeanor sends Tess’ heart racing, but this isn’t really the time. She’s got focus on getting back into the pool. But with the support of her chaotic but loving family, her best friend Mac, an epilepsy support group, and maybe the cute new boy himself, Tess slowly starts to envision a different future for herself—one based on self-acceptance and inclusion.
Bad Like Us by Gabriella Lepore (Inkyard Press) - moved from 2023.
Spring break is a vibe—until someone gets murdered
Partying with popular classmates they barely know is not what Eva and her BFFs had in mind for their spring break. But things have been off ever since Miles' academic career took a turn for the worse (they don't talk about it), so a trip to a private beach lodge might be exactly what they need. And Eva won’t admit it, but the chance to reconnect with Colton is worth putting up with Piper’s constant livestreams to her thousands of “besties.”
At first, it’s all sand and waves, but tensions run high when an anonymous letter shakes up an already-flailing love triangle.
When someone turns up dead, Eva can’t even trust her closest friends—but she thinks she can trust Colton. As they get closer to the truth, they uncover secrets that upend everything they thought they knew about their fellow spring breakers.
Compass and Blade by Rachel Greenlaw (Inkyard Press)
This world of sea and storm runs deep with bargains and blood.
On the remote isle of Rosevear, Mira, like her mother before her, is a wrecker, one of the seven on the rope who swim out to shipwrecks to plunder them. Mira’s job is to rescue survivors, if there are any. After all, she never feels the cold of the frigid ocean waters and the waves seem to sing to her soul. But the people of Rosevear never admit the that they set the beacons themselves to lure ships into the rocks.
When the Council watch lays a trap to put an end to the wrecking, they arrest Mira’s father. Desperate to save him from the noose, Mira strikes a deal with an enigmatic wreck survivor guarding layers of secrets behind his captivating eyes, and sets off to find something her mother has left her, a family secret buried deep in the sea.
With just nine days to find what she needs to rescue her father, all Mira knows for certain is The sea gives. The sea takes. And it’s up to her to do what she must to save the ones she loves.
Clever Creatures of the Night by Samantha Mabry (Algonquin)
WHERE IS DREA?
When Case shows up at the isolated West Texas house where her best friend, Drea, lives with friends from school, Drea is nowhere to be found. Why would she ask Case to visit and then disappear? With twenty-four hours until her ride home, Case intends to find out.
But Drea’s roommates can’t—or won’t—answer any questions. They leave Case to search alone, to find bits and pieces of Drea's life hidden in and around the house, while they continue playing out a rural utopian fantasy. Their bizarre behavior puts Case on edge, and she’s not the only one. The animals nearby are lashing out, strangely aggressive.
Something bad happened in this house. Something that must be connected to Drea’s disappearance—and if she gets too close to the truth, Case might just be next.
The No-Girlfriend Rule by Christen Randall (Antheneum)
Hollis Beckwith isn’t trying to get a girl—she’s just trying to get by. For a fat, broke girl with anxiety, the start of senior year brings enough to worry about. And besides, she already has a Chris. Their relationship isn’t particularly exciting, but it’s comfortable and familiar, and Hollis wants it to survive beyond senior year. To prove she’s a girlfriend worth keeping, Hollis decides to learn Chris’s favorite tabletop roleplaying game, Secrets & Sorcery—but his unfortunate “No Girlfriends at the Table” rule means she’ll need to find her own group if she wants in.
Gloria Castañeda and her all-girls game of S&S! Crowded at the table in Gloria’s cozy Ohio apartment, the six girls battle twisted magic in-game and become fast friends outside it. With her character as armor, Hollis starts to believe that maybe she can be more than just fat, anxious, and a little lost.
But then an in-game crush develops between Hollis’s character and the bard played by charismatic Aini Amin-Shaw, whose wide, cocky grin makes Hollis’s stomach flutter. As their gentle flirting sparks into something deeper, Hollis is no longer sure what she wants…or if she’s content to just play pretend.
A Different Kind of Brave by Lee Wind (Chicago Review Press)
Nicolas “Nico” Hall is sixteen when he escapes from Dr. H’s religious gay reprogramming institute in California. On his own, he assumes one identity after another to avoid recapture as he flees south to Peru, and then Mexico.
Seven days younger than Nico, Samuel “Sam” Jonas Solomon is a privileged Upper West Side only child who idolizes James Bond. When his heart is broken, he vows that, like Bond, he’s never going to trust in love again. Then he meets Nico, and his heart won’t listen to any logic.
Nico’s survived by living only for himself—until his love for Sam has him risking his freedom for others. And as much as Sam wants to be like 007, he discovers that James Bond is a terrible role model.
Together, Nico and Sam set out to free the other teens trapped in Dr. H’s Institute, plunging readers into a globe-trotting, high stakes adventure with the heroic courage of the James Bond movies and the ongoing romance of the Hart to Hart TV show—with a gay twist.
49 Days by Agnes Lee (Levine Querido) - YA graphic novel, moved from 2023.
Day 1
The Other Lola by Ripley Jones (Wednesday Books)
In the months after Cam and Blair broke their small hometown’s legendary missing-girl story and catapulted to accidental fame, they vowed never to do it again. No more mysteries, no more podcasts, and no more sticking their heads where they don’t belong.
Until Mattie Brosillard, a freshman at their high school, shows up on their doorstep, begging Cam and Blair for help. Mattie's sister Lola disappeared mysteriously five years ago. No trace of her was ever found. Now, she's back--but Mattie is convinced the girl who returned is an impostor. Nobody believes Mattie's wild story--not Mattie's brother, not Mattie's mother, and not even Cam and Blair. But something is definitely wrong in the Brosillard family. And Blair has her own reasons for wanting to know what really happened to Lola while she was gone.
With Cam and Blair still struggling with the aftermath of their first mystery—and with new secrets swirling between them—the stakes are higher than ever in this can’t-miss sequel to Missing Clarissa.
Not Your Average Jo by Grace Shim (Kokila) - moved from Fall 2023.
Things at Carlmont Academy start out strong: She joins a band, and they set out to make plans to perform at the annual spring concert—with a chance to land a record contract. Another student, Xander, decides his school project will be a documentary about the band leading up to their first show. But not everything goes how Riley Jo imagined. She is soon sidelined when her other bandmates feel she is “too Asian” to be their lead singer, and they choose her classmate Bodhi Collins for the role instead.
Bodhi is rock music royalty, with a dad who is a famous music exec. And he’s got the “all-American rock star look.” Her classmates suggest she try making K-pop, but her heart is in indie rock. Riley Jo decides to take matters into her own hands and writes an original song to showcase her talent. But Bodhi takes the credit…and given his connections, the band lets him.
Xander captures all of this in his film, which he leaks in order to
show the truth behind the band. Riley Jo decides to sign up for the
spring concert and perform on her own . . . but will she finally be able
to take center stage?
The Hedgewitch of Foxhall by Anna Bright (HarperTeen)
Ffion is the last hedgewitch in Foxhall. To work her magic, she takes only what nature can spare, unlike the witches of the powerful Foxhall coven, who sacrifice whole forests to fuel their spells. But across the warring kingdoms of Wales, all magic is fading. Even the dragons have vanished.
Prince Taliesin would love nothing more than to watch magic die. But when his father charges Tal and his brother, Dafydd, with destroying King Offa’s dyke—the massive earthen wall raised by their Mercian enemies to the east, which may be the cause of magic’s disappearance—he begrudgingly seeks aid from a witch.
Because whichever prince succeeds in destroying the dyke will win the throne, and Tal is willing to do whatever it takes to become king. Even if the Foxhall coven refuses to help him. Even if he’s forced to team up with a spitfire hedgewitch who hates him almost as much as he hates her magic. And even if Dafydd proves to be a worthier rival than he anticipated…for the crown, and for Ffion’s heart.Book, Beast, and Crow by Elizabeth Byrne (Quill Tree Books)
Anna Kellogg has always felt different. Growing up in Hartwood, New Jersey—where frequent disappearances are attributed to an urban-legend-like beast who dwells in the walled-in swamp at the center of town—can have that effect on people. But for Anna, it’s more than that. Since she was a child, she’s been plagued by “episodes” where she sees things others can’t see. Feeling different is one thing, but actually being different is another. If it weren’t for her best friend, Olivia, Anna’s not sure where she’d fit in.
But any hopes of having a normal senior year come to a halt when Olivia is attacked in the woods, bitten, and left for dead by a whirling cyclone of claws, fur, and teeth. Though Olivia survives, a sinister entity makes it clear that the mark had been set on Anna…and the miss has set in motion a catastrophic shift that will change Anna and her friends’ lives forever.
With dashes of mythology, fantasy, and suspense, this genre-bending novel from Elizabeth Byrne will leave readers breathless.
Six Truths and a Lie by Ream Shukairy (Little, Brown)
As fireworks pop at a rowdy Fourth of July bonfire party, an explosion off the California coast levels an oil rig and a beach town is left reeling from the aftermath of tragedy.
At the center are six Muslim teens.
An old soul stuck in a modern world. An aspiring doctor caught in the wrong place. An influencer with a reputation to protect. A perfect daughter with secrets. A soccer star headed for Stanford. An immigrant in love. Six strangers with something to hide and everything to lose.
Faced with accusations of terrorism, the Six are caught in a political game that will pit them against one another. As police investigate what really happened that night, which secrets will be worth the cost of freedom?
They each must decide: Betray the others to guarantee their own futures, or expose their secrets to earn justice for them all.
These Bodies Between Us by Sarah Van Name (Delacorte)
Four girls. Four girls skating home, both sides of the road, fearless. Four girls at the mouth of an infinite ocean, sugared and salted with sand and seawater, the tide licking their sunburned feet.
This summer, they’re going to disappear.
For seventeen-year-olds Callie, Talia, and Cleo, every summer in their small North Carolina beach town is as steady as the tides. But this year, Cleo has invited enigmatic new girl Polly to join them, creating waves in their familiar friendship. And Cleo has an idea, gleaned from private YouTube videos and hidden message
They’re going to learn how to make themselves invisible.
Callie thinks it’s a ridiculous, impossible plan. But the other girls are intoxicated by the thought of disappearing, even just temporarily—from bad boyfriends, from overbearing families, from the confusing, uncomfortable reality of having a body altogether. And, miraculously, it works.
Yet as the girls revel in their reckless new freedom, they realize it’s getting harder to come back to themselves… and do they even want to?
Ariel Crashes a Train by Olivia A. Cole (Labyrinth Road) - YA novel in verse.
Ariel is afraid of her own mind. She already feels like she is too big, too queer, too rough to live up to her parents' exacting expectations, or to fit into what the world expects of a “good girl.” And as violent fantasies she can’t control take over every aspect of her life, she is convinced something much deeper is wrong with her. Ever since her older sister escaped to college, Ariel isn't sure if her careful rituals and practiced distance will be enough to keep those around her safe anymore.
Then a summer job at a carnival brings new friends into Ariel’s fractured world , and she finds herself questioning her desire to keep everyone out—of her head and her heart. But if they knew what she was really thinking, they would run in the other direction—right? Instead, with help and support, Ariel discovers a future where she can be at home in her mind and body, and for the first time learns there’s a name for what she struggles with—Obsessive Compulsive Disorder—and that she’s not broken, and not alone.
Strong Like You by T.L. Simpson (Flux)
He said, "You know how sometimes a dog gets sick or bites somebody and you have to put it down?"
Somebody said, "Yep." "That's probably what happened to Walker's daddy."
Walker Lauderdale hasn"t cried once since his daddy went missing. And even though everyone says he's dead, Walker won't give up hope. He knows his father is out there, somewhere, cutting a wild trail through the Ozarks like always.
But when a relative threatens to kick him and his momma out of the family home, Walker realizes he has no choice but to look for his daddy - search that leads him straight to a drug-addled and dangerous hillbilly named Lukas Fisher. While attempting to balance life as a normal fifteen-year-old boy and star player on the football team, Walker begins a desperate search across the hills of the Ozarks for the man who, for better or worse, taught him everything he knows about strength.
Meet Me in the Fourth Dimension by Rita Feinstein (Page Street) - YA novel-in-verse.
She tries to prepare her friends and family to leave their bodies behind and raise their frequency by changing their diets, wearing the right crystals, and moving into her friend’s bunker before it’s too late. But no one is listening.
The more time she spends trying to talk her roommate and her quirky friends into her apocalypse plans, the more Crosby is forced to face the cracks in everything she believes to be true.
Monster Crush by Oli Franey (Dark Horse) - YA graphic novel.
Since her parents split up, Ruby Reid has been having a tough time at Crestwood High.
But everything changes the day Ella Mooney moves to town. Ella isn’t like most she’s never been on a Ferris wheel, never had an ice cream cone, and sometimes she grows fangs and a tail!
It’s not just Ruby who takes an interest in the new girl, and the pair find themselves on the run from a mysterious group that wants to capture Ella and her whole family!
Just Another Epic Love Poem by Parisa Akhbari (Dial) - moved from 2023, some editions dated February 2024 but publisher confirms this date.
Best friendship blossoms into something more in this gorgeously written queer literary romance.
Over
the past five years, Mitra Esfahani has known two her best friend Bea
Ortega and The Book—a dogeared moleskin she and Bea have been filling
with the stanzas of an epic, never-ending poem since they were 13.
For
introverted Mitra, The Book is one of the few places she can open
herself completely and where she gets to see all sides of brilliant and
ebullient Bea. There, they can share everything—Mitra’s complicated
feelings about her absent mother, Bea’s heartache over her most recent
breakup—nothing too messy or complicated for The Book.
Nothing except the one thing with the power to change their entire the fact that Mitra is helplessly in love with Bea.
Told
in lyrical, confessional prose and snippets of poetry Just Another Epic
Love Poem takes readers on a journey that is equal parts joyful,
heartbreaking, and funny as Mitra and Bea navigate the changing nature
of I love you.
Ruti is Markless. In a society where worth is determined by the mark on your palm and the magic it grants you, this also deems her worthless. Except she’s also a hardened survivor, a protector of the Markless…and the most powerful witch in Somanchi. With a single song, she can pray to the many gods for unimaginable powers.
Dekala’s Mark is strong, a Mark fit for the future queen of Somanchi, but it’s also unstable. She knows the only solution is to be bonded, but she also knows that this would mean relinquishing control over her throne and kingdom. So when she is witness to Ruti’s power, Dekala offers the witch a She can be prosecuted for her crimes…or she can help Dekala ascend to the throne, unbonded.
Dekala is cold and brutal and cares only about getting her way. She is also determined, intelligent, and compassionate. Ruti is torn between wanting her to fail or to emerge victorious. But as the gods are defied, new alliances are forged, and unexpected feelings are unearthed, Ruti realizes the fate of the kingdom––and the survival of the Markless–– lies in her unmarked hands.
March 19th
We Are Mayhem by Beck Rourke-Mooney (Feiwel and Friends) - moved from 2023.
When Birdie’s parents move the family from their gated New Jersey community to the Catskills, Birdie thinks life as she knows it is once again—just like it was when she quit gymnastics—completely over. But when Birdie’s friends ditch her during a dare gone wrong, she finds herself staring down the barrel of a shotgun wielded by Mad Mabel the Mother of Mayhem, and Birdie strikes a deal with Mabel to work off her crime.
Abigail Rose, Mabel’s granddaughter, is convinced that Birdie—whose big, strong arms have always felt like the bane of her existence — is destined to help pull her family’s male-dominated indie wrestling promotion in a more feminist direction.
With no way to return to or escape her past and no clear course into her future, Birdie has to find a way to somehow make her new town a home. But if Birdie is going to be the future of Mayhem, she first has to find a way to embrace who she is - no matter the cost.
Rules for Rule-Breaking by Talia Tucker (Kokila)
Winter Park and Bobby Bae are Korean American high school juniors whose families have been friends since the kids were making crayon art. They, however, are repulsed by each other.
Winter is MIT-bound, comfortable keeping people at arm’s length, and known by others as responsible, though she has a desire to let loose. This probably comes from her rebel grandmother, who is constantly pushing boundaries and encouraging Winter to do so as well. Winter’s best friend is moving abroad and won’t be attending college at all, and Winter’s wrestling with what it means to be left behind. Bobby is as Type-A, anxious, and risk-averse as you can get. He’s also been recently dumped, which has him feeling disoriented and untethered.
That’s why, when Winter’s and Bobby’s parents insist that they go on a northeast college campus tour together, both teens find reasons to accept even though the thought of being stuck in a car together for 700 miles sounds unbearable. What awaits them is a journey of self-discovery where the only rule on their road trip is to break all the rules. At first, this happens in hilariously calculated ways (using lists and reason and logic!), but they soon abandon that, challenging each other to dares in Virginia, getting high and wandering Philly for food—and battling the subsequent digestive distress—and crashing a party in Cambridge. And, of course, realizing that they’re perfect together.
Where Sleeping Girls Lie by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé (Feiwel and Friends) - moved from May 2023, then from January 2024, then from March 5th.
It’s like I keep stumbling into a dark room, searching for the switch to make things bright again. To make me remember. But the switch isn’t there. Was it there before?
Sade Hussein is starting her third year of high school, this time at the prestigious Alfred Nobel Academy boarding school. After being home-schooled all her life and feeling like a magnet for misfortune, she’s not sure what will happen. What she doesn’t expect though is for her roommate Elizabeth to disappear after Sade’s first night. Or for people to think she had something to do with it.
With rumors swirling around her, Sade catches the attention of the most popular girls in school – collectively known as the ‘Unholy Trinity’ – and they bring her into their fold. Between learning more about them - especially Persephone, who Sade finds herself drawn to - playing catch-up in class, and trying to figure out what happened to Elizabeth, Sade has a lot on her plate. It doesn’t help that she’s already dealing with grief from the many tragedies in her family.
And then a student is found dead.
The more Sade investigates, the more she realizes there’s more to Alfred Nobel Academy and its students than she realized. Secrets lurk around every corner and beneath every surface…secrets that rival even her own.
The Revenant Games by Margie Fuston (Margaret K. McElderry Books)
Blood is survival for seventeen-year-old Bly, who lives in the poverty-stricken human villages caught between enemy vampire and witch kingdoms. Most of the time, vampires and witches live in uneasy truce, buying human blood for their food and spells. But for two weeks a year, the ceasefire dissolves, and they hold the Revenant Games.
Any human can play in the games for either the witches or the vampires. Alongside life-changing riches, the witches will raise one person from the dead for whoever captures the highest-ranking vampire. In turn, the vampires offer immortality to whoever captures the most powerful witch. For most humans, the games are a ticket out of poverty. For Bly, it’s a chance to get back her dead sister, Elise, and save the life of her dying best friend, Emerson.
Together, she and Emerson forge a dangerous plan to play both sides and win both resurrection for Elise and immortality for Emerson. But when the vampire they capture stirs a passion in Bly that she hasn’t felt in a long time, she’ll have to make a her sister or the boy who’s shown her there’s more to life than just survival.
Cancelled by Farrah Penn (Viking) - moved from Fall 2023.
Not to brag, but Brynn Whittaker is basically
killing her senior year. She’s got the looks, the grades, and a thriving
“flirt coach” business that will help pay for her ultimate dream
school: Stanford University.
But when a highly incriminating
video goes viral after the first rager of the year, Brynn finds herself
at the center of a school-wide scandal of catastrophic proportions. She
knows she’s not the girl in the video hooking up with her former best
friend’s boyfriend (While wearing a banana costume, no less. Hey, points
for style), but adding that to her reputation of being a serial dater,
she quickly starts losing friends and customers. On top of
that, the scorn she receives exposes the culture of misogyny that is
rampant at her school . . . and Brynn and her three best friends are
determined to take down all the haters.
But as she gets closer
to identifying the person in the video that got her cancelled, Brynn
must decide—is exposing the girl worth losing everything she’s worked so
hard for?
This witty, unapologetic novel by Farrah Penn boldly
tackles the problematic double standards that seek to bring girls down,
and shines a light on the loving, uplifting friendships that can help
them make it through those brutal four years.
Under This Red Rock by Mindy McGinnis (Katherine Tegan Books)
Neely’s monsters don’t always follow her rules, so when the little girl under her bed, the man in her closet, and the disembodied voice that shadows her every move become louder, she knows she’s in trouble.
With a history of mental illness in her family and the suicide of her older brother heavy on her mind, Neely takes a job as a tour guide in the one place her monsters can’t follow—the caverns. There she can find peace. There she can pretend to be normal. There . . . she meets Mila. Mila is everything Neely isn’t—beautiful, strong, and confident. As the two become closer, Neely’s innocent crush grows into something more. When a midnight staff party exposes Neely to drugs, she follows Mila’s lead . . . only to have her hallucinations escalate.
When Mila is found brutally murdered in the caverns, Neely has to
admit that her memories of that night are vague at best. With her
monsters now out in the open, and her grip on reality slipping, Neely
must figure out who killed Mila... and face the possibility that it
might have been her.
It's been years since Nova Evans last saw Sam. She was too young then to understand why he had to move away—and what it had to do with the cuts and bruises he got from home and never wanted to talk about. All she knew is that they promised to find each other when they were older, something she thought was impossible thanks to her and her mom moving around constantly. Until she bumps into Sam in her new school, and realizes he has clearly forgotten their childhood promise.
Sam Jordan has a plan for his life: accept his college football scholarship, date his girlfriend Abigail, and—most importantly—hide how much he wants to do something, anything other than The Plan™ his parents and coaches have set before him. It doesn't matter if sometimes he finds himself thinking about the new girl he met in the cafeteria, a girl who reminds him of a past that hurts to remember.
When a school-wide personality test reveals Nova and Sam to be each others' top matches—not only that, but a match of 99%, the highest in the school—they begin to remember why they were such close friends, all those years ago. As well as the myriad of reasons this new-yet-familiar, magnetic, sparkling thing between them will never, ever work out.
In the Orbit of You is a story about the enduring and changing nature of friendship, of the strange struggle between who you are and who you want to be, and finding your voice after trauma.
Calling of Light by Lori Lee (Page Street) - moved from November 2022, then from November 2023.
Everyone might believe she's a monster, but Sirscha knows who the real evil is, and she refuses to let him destroy their world.
Full of the danger, intrigue, fierce friendship, and incredible world building of the first two books in the Shamanborn trilogy, this final installment will delight readers of this popular series.
Cursed Cruise by Victoria Fulton and Faith McLaren (Underlined)
All aboard...
After their fateful stay at the Hearst Hotel, the Ghost Gang is back with more spooks and more subscribers. They’ve been invited to record onboard the RMS Queen Anne, a transatlantic luxury ocean liner with a colorful past of violent deaths of hundreds of passengers—souls that bought a one-way ticket to the afterlife (and never disembarked).
When Chrissy, Chase, Kiki, and Emma board the ship, they have a funny feeling they’ve been sucked into a ghostly time warp—a theory that takes a frightening turn when Chrissy goes missing on the first night.
Unbeknownst to the rest of the group, Chrissy has been sucked into another time by a passenger who wants the Ghost Gang to know her untimely death was not an accident and the perpetrator is still alive—and on board this ship.
Taka by Ryan Jampole (IDW) - YA graphic novel.
A new YA graphic novel for fans of the Neon Genesis Evangelion manga.
Taka is no hero. The Notorious Delinquent has a bit of a reputation in her city, but after she accidentally unleashes a horde of evil robots, she begrudgingly takes up the mantle of MECH FIGHTER!
Armed with special abilities, Taka sets out to recapture all the robots and seal them back up, playing protector to a city of people who previously couldn’t care less about her. While the popularity of the Mech Fighter grows with every adventure, Taka does her best to keep her identity a secret. Because, after all, she has a reputation to keep!
Set in a fictional world that takes inspiration from Japanese, Western, and European comics and manga, Taka follows our titular hero, Star (her best friend), Meg (the last survivor of the mythical Science-Priests), and a host of memorable villains on the adventure of a lifetime.
Pillow Talk by Stephanie Cooke and Mel Valentine Vargas (HMH/Etch) - YA graphic novel, moved from 2023.
Grace Mendes a.k.a. Cinderhella is a fierce competitor in the PFF, a pillow fight federation that’s part roller derby, part professional wrestling. But in this fresh, coming-of-age YA graphic novel, Grace needs to learn to overcome her biggest herself.
For fans of Check, Please and Bloom. When college freshman Grace Mendes reluctantly attends her first pillow fight match, she falls in love with the surprisingly gritty sport. Despite her usually shy, introverted, and reserved nature, Grace decides to try out for the Pillow Fight Federation (PFF), a locally famous league of fighters with larger-than-life personas like Pain Eyre, Miss Fortune, and champion Kat Atonic. They may battle with pillows, but there is nothing soft about these fighters. The first and only rule to pillow fighting is that the pillow needs to be the first point of contact; after that, everything else goes.
Grace struggles with deep-seated body image issues, so she is especially shocked when she makes the competitive league and is welcomed into the fold of close knit, confident fighters. As her first official fight performing as newly crafted alter-ego/ring persona Cinderhella looms on the horizon, the real battle taking place is between Grace and her growing insecurities. What if people laugh or make fun of her? Why did she think she could pillow fight in the first place when she doesn’t look like your “typical” athlete? Turns out, no one is laughing when Cinderhella dominates her first match in the ring. And as her alter-ego rises through the ranks of the PFF, gaining traction and online fame (and online trolls), can Grace use the spotlight to become an icon for not just others, but most importantly, for herself?
Pillow Talk is an inclusive, high-octane, outrageously fun graphic novel that aims a punch at the impossibly high standards set for women in sports (and otherwise) and champions the power of finding a team that will, quite literally, fight for you. A knock-out!
March 26th
The Perfect Guy Doesn't Exist by Sophie Gonzales (Wednesday Books) - previously titled Careful What You Wish For, moved from 2023.
While her parents are away for the week, sixteen-year-old Ivy McIntosh plans on binge-watching her favourite TV show and hanging out with her best friend, Henry. But things quickly go downhill on the very first morning, when Ivy wakes up to find Weston, the gorgeous lead character of her favourite show, in her bedroom.
And, oh yeah, he thinks that she's his soulmate .
Ivy realizes that her writing has somehow brought Weston as she's imagined him to life, and now he's living out her fanfiction dreams. But those fairytale dreams soon turn into disasters.
Mack, Ivy's best-friend-turned-enemy who lives next door, and Henry get involved and the three of them need to figure out why Weston is here and how to get rid of him.
As Ivy and Mack grow closer again, old feelings resurface and they finally face the fallout of their broken friendship, and question if they've both secretly always wanted something more...
The new sapphic YA friends-to-enemies-to-lovers novel from bestselling author Sophie Gonzales, with her trademark humour and heart.
The Last Bloodcarver by Vanessa Le (Roaring Brook Press) - moved from 2023.
Nhika is a bloodcarver. A cold-hearted, ruthless being who can alter human biology with just a touch. In the industrial city of Theumas, she is seen not as a healer, but a monster that kills for pleasure.
When Nhika is caught using her bloodcarving abilities during a sham medical appointment, she's captured by underground thugs and sold to an aristocratic family to heal the last witness of their father’s murder.
But as Nhika delves deeper into their investigation amidst the glitz of Theumas’ wealthiest district, she begins to notice parallels between this job and her own dark past. And when she meets an alluring yet entitled physician's aide, Ven Kochin, she’s forced to question the true intent behind this murder. In a society that outcasts her, Kochin seems drawn to her...though he takes every chance he gets to push her out of his opulent world.
When Nhika discovers that Kochin is not who he claims to be, and that there is an evil dwelling in Theumas that runs much deeper than the murder of one man, she must decide where her heart, and her allegiance, truly lie. And - if she's willing to become the dreaded bloodcarver Theumas fears to save herself and the ones she's vowed to protect.
Icarus by K. Ancrum (HarperTeen)
Icarus Gallagher is a thief.
He steals priceless art and replaces it with his father’s impeccable forgeries. For years, one man—the wealthy Mr. Black—has been their target, revenge for his role in the death of Icarus’s mother. To keep their secret, Icarus adheres to his own strict rules to keep people, and feelings, at bay: Don’t let anyone close. Don’t let anyone touch you. And, above all, don’t get caught.
Until one night, he does. Not by Mr. Black, but by his mysterious son, Helios, now living under house arrest in the Black mansion. Instead of turning Icarus in, Helios bargains for something even more dangerous—a friendship that breaks every single one of Icarus’s rules.
As reluctance and distrust become closeness and something more, they uncover the bars of the gilded cage that has trapped both of their families for years. One Icarus is determined to escape. But his father’s thirst for revenge shows no sign of fading, and soon it may force Icarus to choose: the escape he’s dreamed of, or the boy he’s come to love. Reaching for both could be his greatest triumph—or it could be his downfall.
Royal Scandal by Aimee Carter (Delacorte) - moved from 2023.
American girl turned monarchy nightmare, Evan Bright, has gotten used to the press about her but the media attention has only seemed to get worse.
From desperate clickbait articles about her and the President's son to Royal Record headlines pitting her against Princess Maisie, it seems everyone is dying for Evan to return back to America for good. Meanwhile Evan is receiving mysterious threats about her real story being reveiled in a tell-all biography.
When more information is leaked about Evan, she fears she will always be Britain's media villain. But the threats escalate when there is an attempted assassination with no suspects...and Evan believes the person is in the palace's walls.
They say what doesn't kill you will make you stronger...but what if it's the royal family who wants you dead?
Out of Left Field by Jonah Newman (Little, Brown) - YA graphic novel, moved from May 2023.
Ninth grader Jonah is not a jock. On the contrary, he loves history class and nerdy movies, and his athletic ineptitude verges on tragic. So what’s he doing signing up for the baseball team? Could it have something to do with the cute shortstop, Elliot?
For the rest of high school, Jonah faces challenges on and off the baseball field, from heteronormative social pressure to thrilling romance. Realizing who his real friends are, he figures out what really matters and finally recognizes and embraces his gay identity.
Based on debut author-illustrator Jonah Newman’s coming-of-age experiences, Out of Left Field is a big-hearted and funny YA graphic novel about learning to be yourself.
Return of the Vengeful Queen by C.J. Redwine (Balzer + Bray) - moved from June 2023, then from July 2023, then from November 2023.
Tal is imprisoned, both by the Rakuuna's isolated castle and the weight of his guilt. Though he once betrayed his love, he knows that he can help turn the tide in Charis’s favor, if only he can regain her trust. But the Rakuuna have an ally of their own--one who knows Charis’s every move and will stop at nothing to see her destroyed.
With threats closing in and every allegiance in doubt, Charis must be stronger, faster, and more vicious than her enemies to reclaim her kingdom--and her future.
Pieces of a Girl by Stephanie Kuehnert (Dutton) - non-fiction YA, moved from March 2021, release date not yet updated on Goodreads.
Years before she would become a published author…years before she would find a voice and a home in the Riot Grrrl movement and emerging zine community, Stephanie Kuehnert struggled to find her place. Told in varied narrative styles, including journal entries, original illustration, and pages torn from her actual teenage diaries and zines, this is the story of Stephanie Kuehnert’s life as a struggling outsider who survived substance and relationship abuse to become a strong and powerful young woman after years trapped in a cycle that sometimes seemed to have no escape. From the author of Ballads of Suburbia and former Rookie contributor Stephanie Kuehnert, this bold and bare memoir about a life shaped by music and writing is unflinching and devastatingly honest.
Dead Girls Walking by Sami Ellis (Amulet)
Temple Baker knows that evil runs in her blood. Her father is the North Point Killer, an infamous serial killer known for how he marked each of his victims with a brand. He was convicted for murdering 20 people and was the talk of countless true crime blogs for years. Some say he was possessed by a demon. Some say that they never found all his victims. Some say that even though he’s now behind bars, people are still dying in the woods. Despite everything though, Temple never believed that her dad killed her mom. But when he confesses to that crime while on death row, she has no choice but to return to his old hunting grounds to try see if she can find a body and prove it.
Turns out, the farm that was once her father’s hunting grounds and her home has been turned into an overnight camp for queer, horror-obsessed girls. So Temple poses as a camp counselor to go digging in the woods. While she’s not used to hanging out with girls her own age and feels ambivalent at best about these true crime enthusiasts, she tries her best to fit in and keep her true identity hidden.
But when a girl turns up dead in the woods, she fears that one of her father’s “fans” might be mimicking his crimes. As Temple tries to uncover the truth and keep the campers safe, she comes to realize that there may be something stranger and more sinister at work—and that her father may not have been the only monster in these woods.
Chronically Dolores by Maya Van Wagenen (Dutton)
About to start high school, Dolores Mendoza is struggling to navigate changing friendships, family dramas, and her recently diagnosed interstitial cystitis. Making her fiction debut, bestselling author Maya Van Wagenen (Popular) tells Dolores’s story with humor, heart, and a little bit of telenovela flair.
Nothing has been the same for fourteen-year-old Dolores Mendoza since everything started changing at the end of middle school. Newly diagnosed with interstitial cystitis, Dolores had a humiliating accident in class that earned her the nickname “whiz kid.” Even worse, she’s losing her lifelong BFF, Shae, who’s suddenly ignoring Dolores to hang out with the cool girls. Dolores is alone, and confused. What did she do wrong?
Now her mom is forcing Dolores to go to a “communication workshop for girls.” There, Dolores makes a tentative connection with Terpsichore Berkenbosch-Jones. Terpsichore, who is home-schooled and neurodiverse, makes a deal with Pretend to be her friend so Terpsichore can convince her overprotective mother to let her go to public school, and in return Terpsichore will help Dolores get Shae back. Eventually, their friendship of convenience will start to transform both Dolores and Terpsichore and redefine the ways both girls understand friendships old and new.
Dolores's funny and bittersweet coming-of-age friendship story is punctuated by her wry reviews of every bathroom in town (which she comes to know very well thanks to her IC) and hilariously over-dramatized flashbacks as Dolores rewrites traumatic experiences as if she’s the star of a telenovela.
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