Gorgeous is about a teenager who gets something everyone thinks they want: Becky goes from ordinary to astonishingly beautiful, magically. Along the way, she falls in love, becomes an international celebrity, and unravels the mystery of her mother’s life prior to Becky’s birth. It is an improbable but gripping journey, which takes the protagonist from…
Boarding schools for the peculiar have been all the rage since a certain bespectacled young wizard achieved global fame, and the latest offering in this genre is A Deadly Education. A YA tale about friends, love and growing up, this charming story has a lot to offer. When Orion Lake kills a soul-eater in Galadriel…
Imagine you could jump into your favorite book world and hang out with your number one book boyfriend. That’s what happens to Edie in Emily McKay’s creative Storybound. It’s a fun premise, nicely executed and will appeal to fans of YA Fantasy. Edie Keller has moved nine times in the past six years for her…
Race the Sands is a sweet, mythical tale of friendship and family which celebrates the joy of finding your place – and your people – in the world. In the kingdom of Becar how you conduct yourself in this life determines who – or what – you come back as in your next. The worthy…
There are plenty of books about teens discovering that they have supernatural powers, and even a strong subset of those involving gods and demon-slayers. What Genie Lo brings to the table to make The Epic Crush of Genie Lo stand out from the crowd is the infusion of Chinese and Chinese-American elements, stellar prose, and…
In the totalitarian world of Unnatural, the humanoid animal citizens have a responsibility to propagate their species by entering a monogamous relationship with, and only with, a member of the opposite-sex of their own animal species. Anything else is, well, unnatural, and punishable, first by rehabilitation and, on a second offense, by death. If a…
Malice, the latest standalone novel from author Pintip Dunn, is a hard book to categorize. It’s a mix of YA romance with a hint of apocalyptic terror thrown in for good measure and then, just to make things extra unique, an element of time travel is introduced. If you like books that fit neatly into…
We Unleash the Merciless Storm is the sequel to 2019’s We Set the Dark On Fire, a Mexican-inspired young adult fantasy novel with a fabulous female/female relationship at its core. The first installment did end on a rather sizable cliffhanger, so I’ve been eagerly awaiting the release of book two. This is a duology that…
I love reading series of all types, but sometimes, I find myself in the mood for something that stands on its own. If this is what you’re looking for, and if you’re a fan of young adult fantasy, look no further than Rebecca McLaughlin’s Nameless Queen. It’s a fast, absorbing read that wraps things up…
With The Harp of Kings, the first book in an all-new series, Juliet Marillier returns to the world she first introduced in Dreamer’s Pool. The book tells the story of three young people who must band together in order to locate a magical artifact with untold strength and power. Eighteen-year-old Liobhan has dreamed of becoming…