At YA Books Central we hope that your spring is off to a great start!
We are looking to help you enjoy reading YA books once again in the warmer weather and teamed up with wonderful publishers to organize a great giveaway to help it happen!
Author: H. J. Reynolds
Publisher: CamCat Books
Release Date: 4/9/2024
Adlai Bringer is a thief who can steal with the slip of her shadow. But when one of her marks turns out to be a killer, she becomes his next target. As she flees his grasp, she is certain of only one thing: her shadow is a gift worth killing for.
Adlai Bringer remembers going to the desert market with her father: The colorful tents, the wink of gold, and her father’s shadow, black as night, as it moved of its own accord and stole whatever trinket she wanted. He called it the Shadow Game.
After her father disappears, Adlai keeps going back to the market determined to find some trace of him and stealing what she can with her shadow. Until one day she picks the wrong mark—someone who knows her little trick and tries to take her shadow for himself.
Everything Adlai thought she knew about her shadow is turned upside down, and her father’s disappearance takes on a new light as she’s forced to flee the city or risk being hunted. From the desert to the shadow world to even more unlikely places, Adlai knows one thing for certain: her shadow is a gift worth killing for.
Author: Andrea Lynn
Publisher: CamCat Books
Release Date: 5/7/2024
Three hungry, determined young sisters must do whatever it takes to survive in 1934 Dust Bowl Kansas after they stumble upon a secret that won’t stay buried, and vengeful ghosts howl with the wind.
She thought a dust storm was getting in the way of her dreams, but there are storms more deadly than dust.
Ever since the dust storms arrived and turned her world upside down, ambitious Stella Fischer spends her mornings hiding moonshine in laundry stacks for delivery before returning home to help her sisters—Lavinia and Mattie—run their family home turned boarding house, hoping to make enough money to finally escape to Hollywood. She has no time for distractions, especially from Lloyd, the handsome drifter who works as a hired hand at the boarding house.
When the group decides to forage for building materials at an abandoned cider mill, they discover a magical passage that sends them back to the mill in its prime. There, they meet Archie, a man trapped in the realm who can conjure lavish parties and bring back a world of joy and splendor. But Archie isn’t all he seems, and Stella must discover the truth before a storm more deadly than dust destroys her and everyone she loves.
Author: Kristi McManus
Publisher: CamCat Books
Release Date: 6/11/2024
When Hannah’s best friend Braelyn suddenly finds herself dumped, Hannah vows to help her get over her heartbreak, but Braelyn doesn’t know Hannah is also trying to get over her crush on the boy in question, while discovering she was the reason for the breakup.
Hannah Taylor has lived in her best friend Braelyn’s shadow all through high school. But when she meets Seth, the handsome and charming newcomer, she wonders if, for once, she might finally be in the spotlight. Until Braelyn and Seth meet, and Brae sweeps his attention away as only she can. Hannah is left to watch the first boy she’s ever truly liked date not only someone else, but her best friend.
When Seth unexpectedly breaks up with Brae months later, Hannah vows to help her friend get over the breakup while secretly trying to move on from Seth once and for all. Because even though Seth is no longer dating Brae, you never, ever date your best friend’s ex. But getting over Seth is easier said than done when Hannah learns that she was the reason for the breakup, and Seth may like her back.
Fire at her fingertips. Watch the world burn.
When Monroe Benson was born with the power to summon fire from her fingertips, her family knew she had to stay hidden. But when Queen Viera calls for the Culling, an age-old tradition in Erydia where ten goddess-touched girls battle to the death in order to claim the crown, Monroe can no longer hide. She’s whisked away from her home, from her mother, from everything she’s ever known to fight alongside the other girls–each with their own power―for a throne she does not want.
Duty is his destiny. There’s no way out.
As the son of the queen and the next king, Cohen can’t question tradition. Not even when he’s being mysteriously poisoned. Not even when his sister goes missing and no one seems to care. The Culling makes his life’s choices for him―who will become his wife, who will rule by his side. And when rebellion rises around him, what little control Cohen has over his future is threatened.
Together they’ll stand. Together they’ll fall.
But Monroe sees a different Cohen than the rest of the world. She sees him as more than just the crown, more than just the next cruel ruler in a long line of cruel leaders. In turn, he sees her as more than just her powers. More than just a goddess-touched girl destined to lose her life. When a betrayal threatens both their relationship and the monarchy, Monroe and Cohen face a choice that will change their lives . . . forever.
For goddess-touched girls, there is only one destiny: the Culling
From the moment Monroe Benson is born with a mark on her hand and the ability to summon fire from her fingertips, her life will never be her own. She’s goddess-touched, which means she’s destined to participate in the Culling, an age-old competition to determine the next queen of Erydia. For most of her seventeen years, her family has managed to keep Monroe―and her powers―hidden. But now, as Queen Viera calls for the Culling to start, and war looms on the horizon, Monroe can no longer hide. She must face her destiny whether she wants to or not.
For the ten goddess-touched girls, all with different powers, the inevitably of this fight to the death has always ruled their lives. The tradition is both barbaric and cruel, but to make matters worse―Monroe isn’t prepared. She hasn’t trained her whole life for this day. She doesn’t want to be in the spotlight. She doesn’t want the crown.
While Monroe struggles with her fate, a rebellion is brewing in the castle and in the country. A group called the Culled are banding together; their goal―to topple the monarchy. And the more they rise, the more merciless Viera is with her kingdom, recruiting younger and younger people from poorer and poorer places to fight in a war no one wants to be waging.
Monroe finds herself on the front lines of the rebellion’s inner circle, and only one thing stands in her way: Cohen. The queen’s son and the man who will be king. Cohen’s dedication to duty, to family, to tradition stands in stark contrast to the boy Monroe sees at night in the kitchens, secretly making the two of them a snack. As the fight crescendos around them, and the death of innocents becomes a reality, the choices Monroe makes will reverberate through the kingdom . . . and her heart forever.
OF PRINCES AND POISONS
Once there were ten.
Ten goddess-touched girls were born. Each was blessed—or cursed—with a unique power that set them apart. As part of an ancient ritual called the Culling, they were supposed to fight to the death in the arena until only one survived. That girl would marry the prince and ascend to the throne. Now only four girls remain.
Power in her blood.
Monroe Benson is one of the lucky ones. With fire at her fingertips, she survived the arena and the intrigues of the palace. Now she’s turned her back on her destiny, choosing to throw in her lot with the rebellion seeking to overturn the Erydian rulers. Monroe has never wanted the throne. She knows that her future lies elsewhere, but first she’ll have to convince the rebels to believe her.
A traitorous heart.
Monroe thought Cohen was one of the few good things about the Culling. She believed that he would have made a good ruler, but that doesn’t mean that she wanted to sit beside him on the throne. And now, she finds herself drawn to a rebel leader. A man with secrets of his own. In the end, Monroe will have to trust in more than her power or even her heart if she’s to forge her own path and find her freedom.
Made Glorious
Author: Lindsay Eagar
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Release Date: April 2, 2024
Rory is an antihero for the ages. Like Shakespeare’s Richard III, she confides in her audience, telling us exactly the lengths she’ll go to to secure the leading role in Bosworth Academy’s senior musical, confessing without shame that she is charming and conniving and brutally ambitious, that we will watch and root for her even as she manipulates and endangers those around her. And we do. Perhaps it’s because we don’t want to believe that she’s as relentless as she claims. Rory is an underdog, after all, a scholarship kid teased for her weight. Surely there will be redemption? Surely our dread and patience will be rewarded? Intricately plotted with an ingenious narrative that blends multiple viewpoints with script excerpts and an original musical score, Lindsay Eagar’s whip-smart, precision-crafted, and gleefully compulsive page-turner taps into the dark side of high school theater production. A diabolically good read, it forces our complicity as we wince and cheer for an arresting drama queen who just can’t help going full-tilt nasty in the pursuit of her dreams.
Eddy Eddy
Author: Kate De Goldi
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Release Date: May 7, 2024
A series of earthquakes exposes the fault lines in a teenager’s unconventional life in a powerful crossover novel that explores raw emotion with wit and warmth.
After the deadly 2011 earthquakes in Christ Church, New Zealand, Eddy Smallbone must navigate the ruins of his hometown along with the ruins of his personal life. A Catholic-school dropout itching to break free of the eccentric uncle who raised him and newly mourning the death of his dog, Eddy starts his own dog-walking and pet-sitting business. Through his work, he meets and cares for an extraordinary cast of characters, including a precocious seven-year-old girl and a nun and her unruly parrot. Meanwhile, Eddy’s former girlfriend, Boo, is back, and their relationship fraught, to say the least. And his best friend, Thomas Moore, who lives in a cabin behind his parents’ house, is suffering from a mysterious and devastating illness. Layered and resonant, intellectually rigorous, and as soothing as it is shocking, this sophisticated literary novel for mature teens plumbs the depths of trauma and healing. With its sensitive take on important issues—including grief and faith, unplanned pregnancy, and mental illness and self-harm—Eddy’s story will speak volumes to adult readers also.
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Witch Hunt: The Cold War, Joe McCarthy, and the Red Scare
Author: Elizabeth Levy & Andrea Balis
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Release Date: April 14, 2024
A cutting-edge look into a pivotal moment in US history: McCarthy’s infamous “witch hunt” for communists during the 1950’s Red Scare.
At the cusp of the Cold War, Americans were so afraid of communists living among them that they began to hunt them like witches. As Senator Joe McCarthy took up this mantle to hunt down “communists” in the US, citizens grew terrified of being accused, so they turned on each other – pointing fingers at neighbors, friends, and even family.
Told through a unique and inviting screenplay-format, brought to life with dozens of illustrations by Tim Foley, and comprised almost entirely of quotes derived from primary sources, Witch Hunt recounts the political craze that gripped America during the Red Scare when McCarthyism forced people to go to extraordinary lengths to keep themselves and their families safe from persecution against their own government.
The Merciless King of Moore High
Author: Lily Sparks
Publisher: Flux
Release Date: April 23, 2024
After adults morph into monsters and everyone under eighteen barricades themselves inside their schools to survive, a political exile seeks asylum from her magnet school’s hard-partying crosstown rival, which has adopted the neo-feudal trappings of a popular video game and all the competing factions, love triangles, and palace intrigue that go with it.
The Lamplighter
Author: Crystal J. Bell
Publisher: Flux
Release Date: May 21, 2024
In a quaint 19th century whaling village, a young woman seeks to expose the dark truth behind the village’s eerie disappearances at the risk of the lives of everyone she loves . . . assuming anyone will listen to a female in the first place.
The Black Girl Survives in This One
Author: Co-edited by Desiree S. Evans and Saraciea J. Fennell
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Release Date: 04/02/24
Be warned, dear reader: The Black girls survive in this one. Fifteen chilling and thought-provoking stories place Black girls front and center as heroes and survivors who slay monsters, battle spirits, and face down death. Prepare to be terrified and left breathless by the pieces in this anthology.
The Soul of Flowers
A visually captivating botanical guide that features exquisite illustrations and intriguing insights into the world of common flowers and plants.
Discover the beauty and significance of 21 common meadow and garden plants through breathtaking full-page illustrations, detailed information, and poetic reflections on botany. Drawing inspiration from nature’s most exquisite flowers, acclaimed Czech botanical painter Pavlina Kourkova explores the countryside with infectious enthusiasm. Her watercolor renditions captivate not only the eye but also the heart, providing insights into the origin, occurrence, and symbolism of these plants.
The Souls of Flowers offers budding young naturalists and art enthusiasts alike a unique opportunity to explore the fascinating world of common plants found in meadows and gardens throughout North America and Europe. With its stunning illustrations and rich botanical insights, it serves as a gateway for older kids ages 12-15 to develop an appreciation for the beauty of nature. Young readers will not only be captivated by the book’s visual splendor but also enriched by its wealth of knowledge regarding plant origins and the so-called language of flowers. It’s a perfect blend of art, science, and wonder that promises to inspire curiosity and a deeper connection to the natural world.
An action-packed and funny story about the rise and fall of a bank set up by school friends.
This is the hilarious story of a group of friends who set up a bank to lend money to their schoolmates. They have no trouble finding customers and before long they are rolling in cash. When they are asked by a pair of supersmart techy sisters to invest in their dating app, it looks like they can’t possibly lose, and soon everyone at school wants to deposit money with them as well.The whole thing starts to unravel all too soon when the app breaks down; an investment involving performing piglets goes down the pan; and the local gangster family takes far too much interest in their doings.
As the bank comes crashing down and the money starts to melt away, the young bankers are desperate to rescue their emergency stash – only to find that one of their group has cleverly hidden it in a not-so-clever place.
Historical fiction meets crime fiction in The Djinn’s Apple, an award-winning YA murder mystery set in the Abbasid period–the golden age of Baghdad.
A ruthless murder. A magical herb. A mysterious manuscript.
When Nardeen’s home is stormed by angry men frantically in search of something–or someone–she is the only one who manages to escape. And after the rest of her family is left behind and murdered, Nardeen sets out on an unyielding mission to bring her family’s killers to justice, regardless of the cost…
Your Blood My Bones
Author: Kelly Andrew
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Release Date: April 02, 2024
A seductively twisted romance about loyalty, fate, the lengths we go to hide the darkest parts of ourselves . . . and the people who love those parts most of all.
Wyatt Westlock has one plan for the farmhouse she’s just inherited — to burn it to the ground. But during her final walkthrough of her childhood home, she makes a shocking discovery in the basement — Peter, the boy she once considered her best friend, strung up in chains and left for dead.
Unbeknownst to Wyatt, Peter has suffered hundreds of ritualistic deaths on her family’s property. Semi-immortal, Peter never remains dead for long, but he can’t really live, either. Not while he’s bound to the farm, locked in a cycle of grisly deaths and painful rebirths. There’s only one way for him to break free. He needs to end the Westlock line.
He needs to kill Wyatt.
With Wyatt’s parents gone, the spells protecting the property have begun to unravel, and dark, ancient forces gather in the nearby forest. The only way for Wyatt to repair the wards is to work with Peter — the one person who knows how to harness her volatile magic. But how can she trust a boy who’s sworn an oath to destroy her? When the past turns up to haunt them in the most unexpected way, they are forced to rely on one another to survive, or else tear each other apart.
Louder Than Words
Author: Ashley Woodfolk, Lexi Underwood
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Release Date: June 04, 2024
This amazing collaboration brings together two inspirational Black artists, NYT bestselling author Ashley Woodfolk and actress Lexi Underwood, for a story about the transformative power of art as protest and its capacity to change the world.
When Jordyn Jones transfers to Edgewood High, it’s her opportunity to forget everything that happened at her old school. To forget what she and her friends did. To forget who she used to be. That was a different person ― this is a fresh start. Now she’s someone new, someone better.
Except it’s the very first day of school, and somehow everyone already seems to know who she is. But Jordyn soon finds a group of friends, and she even starts talking to Izaiah, a soccer star who shares her love of art. Life is good. That’s until an anonymous podcast called Tomcat Tea begins revealing humiliating secrets about Edgewood students, ruining their reputations and in some cases their futures. Jordyn and her friends know they have to do something―and this is Jordyn’s chance to prove to herself that she’s changed.
Jordyn’s plan to take down the podcast throws her into the spotlight, and as the momentum builds, so do the risks―because Jordyn has a secret of her own, one that could ruin everything . . . and that a mysterious harasser online is threatening to expose.
With riveting prose, New York Times bestselling author Ashley Woodfolk and acclaimed actress Lexi Underwood balance an insightful depiction of the power of art as protest with asking some of the biggest questions facing teenagers today―in an era where mistakes can be picked over endlessly online, who is worthy of forgiveness? Can someone ever really change?
The Deep Dark
Author: Molly Knox Ostertag
Publisher: Graphix
Release Date: June 04, 2024
From Molly Knox Ostertag, writer-illustrator of the New York Times and ABA Indie bestselling The Witch Boy trilogy and The Girl from the Sea, comes a darkly beautiful story of identity, family, love, loss, and magic.
Everyone has secrets. Mags’s has teeth.
Magdalena Herrera is about to graduate high school, but she already feels like an adult with serious responsibilities: caring for her ailing grandmother; working a part-time job; clandestine makeouts with a girl who has a boyfriend. And then there’s her secret, which pulls her into the basement each night, drains her of energy, and leaves her bleeding. A secret that could hurt and even kill if it ever got out — like it did once before.
So Mags keeps her head down, isolated in her small desert community. That is, until her childhood friend Nessa comes back to town, bringing vivid memories of the past, an intoxicating glimpse of the future, and a secret of her own. Mags won’t get attached, of course. She’s always been strong enough to survive without anyone’s help.
But when the darkness starts to close in on them both, Mags will have to drag her secret into the daylight, and choose between risking everything… or having nothing left to lose.
Bite Me, Royce Taslim
Author: Lauren Ho
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Release Date: May 7, 2024
Rick Riordan Presents: It Waits in the Forest
Author: Sarah Dass
Publisher: Rick Riordan Presents
Release Date: May 14, 2024
The very first thriller from Rick Riordan Presents! Drawing from the darkest corners of Caribbean mythology, acclaimed author Sarah Dass crafts a chilling tale of magic, murder, and how far we’ll go to protect what’s ours—perfect for fans of Angeline Boulley and Tiffany D. Jackson.
Unlike the other residents of the small Caribbean Island of St. Virgil, Selina DaSilva does not believe in magic. With a logical mind and a knack for botany, Selina used to dream of leaving the island to study Pharmacology—until a vicious, unsolved attack left her father dead and her mother in a coma.
Now her guilt over her mother’s condition keeps her tethered to the island, relegated to conning gullible tourists with useless talismans and phony protection rituals. But when one of those tourists ends up at the center of a string of strange murders, the truth that Selina has been denying can no longer be avoided: there is evil lurking in the forests that surround St. Virgil. Another thing that can’t be avoided? Selina’s ex-boyfriend Gabriel, newly employed at the local newspaper and eager to put his investigative skills to use.
Desperate to put an end to the killings and claim justice for Selina’s family, these two former lovers race to find answers. But evil bides its time. And as long-buried feelings and long-hidden secrets about Selina’s family’s past begin to reveal themselves, only one answer remains—and it waits in the forest.
Endorsed by Rick Riordan, author of Percy Jackson and the Olympians, now a hit series on Disney+.
Straight On Till Morning: A Twisted Tale Graphic Novel
Author: Liz Braswell
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Release Date: June 11, 2024
Sixteen-year-old Wendy Darling’s life is not what she imagined it would be. After nearly meeting her hero, Peter Pan, four years earlier, she still holds on to his shadow—and the hope that his magical home truly exists.
So when the chance to travel to Never Land arises, Wendy makes a deal with Peter’s nemesis in exchange for passage. But the Never Land she discovers isn’t the wondrous place she imagined: Peter is nowhere to be found, and his pixie friend Tinker Bell refuses to speak to her.
Still, when Captain Hook reveals some evil and rather permanent plans for Never Land, it’s up to Wendy and Tink to save Peter Pan—and his world.
~ Giveaway Details ~
One winner will receive a copy of each book from the YA Spring Buzzworthy Giveaway ~US Only!
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These all look like such interesting reads!
These look great! I’m particularly looking forward to It Waits in the Forest.
An interesting selection; I’m most intrigued by It Waits in the Forest.
Great selection! Louder Than Words sounds intriguing. Lexi was great in Little Fires Everywhere!
So many great books, my kids will love them!
So many great reads!
wow
What a great selection of books!
Amazing selection of books! I especially like The Lamplighter, Bite Me, Royce Taslim, and The Soul of Flowers. Thank you for the chance to win!
Great selection, looking forward to Liz Braswell’s work.
Love this selection of books!
These books look fabulous!
Love the twisted tale series!
Excited for such a great selection of books!
Ooh – a lot of good ones! Witch Hunt looks especially interesting!
Such a good giveaway!
Excited for such a good giveaway!