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Sidney and Asher should’ve clicked. Two star swimmers forced to share a lake for the summer sounds like the perfect match. But they spend their days pranking each other instead—until their feud causes their families to be kicked out of their beloved lake houses. In new accommodations, Sidney expects the pranks to continue, but gets a note—Meet me at midnight. Asher has a proposition: join forces against the woman who kicked them out. Their truce should make things simpler, but six years of torment isn’t so easy to ignore. Kind of like the undeniable attraction growing between them…
Hey YA Readers!
If you’re not feeling okay right now, just know that you are not alone. It’s been incredible to me to see performative happiness going on, even now. You don’t need to feel any way or pretend to feel anyway. Just feel.
As you might suspect, YA news is light this week. But there are a ton of awesome new books to get excited about, and I encourage you to pick up some of these titles for whenever your urge to read kicks back in, if you’ve lost it — it took me about two weeks to find a groove. It’s not the same as it was, but it’s a groove nonetheless.
YA Book News
- I got to write a piece for Bustle this week, and it’s a deep dive into the election-themed YA books out this year and why they’re vital additions to bookshelves.
- Have you seen all of the buzz for Crave, the new vampire novel from Tracy Wolff? It’s been optioned for potential screen adaptation.
- Check out this incredible list of Muslim authors with books out in 2020. The list will be updated, so keep this one bookmarked.
- YA author Kat Cho put together a calendar of all the virtual kid lit events going on. Super helpful!
- Sarah J. Maas’s “A Court of Thorns and Roses” series got a cover redesign and it’s pretty great.
- Francis Ford Coppola’s The Outsiders brought the definitive YA novel to screen. What do you think? I’ve read the book but haven’t seen the adaptation.
- Vogue on the Judy Blume renaissance.
- The 2020 translated YA book award winners are in!
- “Writing Lulu reminded me, viscerally and intimately, of how hard we have to work to unlearn stories that tie up our weight and our worth; it helped me see work I have done and work I have yet to do.” This piece on discovering one’s own connection to their body issues through writing YA is worth reading.
This Week’s New Books
Books with a * beside them are ones I’ve read and recommend. It’s a great week for books, y’all.
The Best Laid Plans by Cameron Lund (pizza book cover!)
The Dark Matter of Mona Starr by Laura Lee Gulledge (graphic novel)
Empire of Dreams by Rae Carson (series)
Girl Crushed by Katie Heaney
*Goodbye From Nowhere by Sara Zarr (I loved this!)
*A Heart in a Body in the World by Deb Caletti (paperback)
It Sounded Better In My Head by Nina Kenwood
Jack Kerouac Is Dead to Me by Gae Polisner
Little Universes by Heather Demetrios
Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to Know by Samira Ahmed
Meet Me at Midnight by Jessica Pennington
*The Opposite of Always by Justin A. Reynolds (paperback)
The Perfect Escape by Suzanne Park
*The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo (paperback)
Rules for Being a Girl by Candace Bushnell and Katie Cotugno
Ruthless Gods by Emily A. Duncan (series)
So This Is Love by Elizabeth Lim
Sword in the Stars by Cori McCarthy and Amy Rose Capetta (series)
They Went Left by Monica Hesse
Two Dark Reigns by Kendare Blake (paperback)
*We Didn’t Ask For This by Adi Alsaid (This was fabulous, especially if you love teen activism!)
We Hunt The Flame by Hafsah Faizal (series, paperback)
A Werewolf in Riverdale by Caleb Roehrig (paperback Archie novel!)
What I Like About You by Marisa Kanter
Wicked Saints by Emily A. Duncan (paperback series)
Wild Blue Wonder by Carlie Sorosiak (paperback)
On Book Riot This Week
- 10 manga like Death Note.
- Take this fairy tale themed quiz and get your next YA book recommendation.
- These YA comics and graphic novels will hit shelves this spring.
- Your ultimate guide to YA books hitting shelves this spring.
- I revealed the cover for my next anthology, Body Talk. Note: I mis-attributed the design in the previous email. It’s Laura Williams.
- Great YA book series about dragons.
- If the huge guide to YA books for spring is overwhelming, how about this guide to must-read April releases?
May McSweeney’s take on Frog and Toad make you smile like it did me.
Hang in there, pals.
We’ll see you next week!
— Kelly Jensen, @heykellyjensen on Instagram and editor of Body Talk, (Don’t) Call Me Crazy, and Here We Are.