Hey YA Readers!
I’m gearing up — quite literally — for a long weekend in northern Wisconsin. One of my yoga teachers hosts a biannual retreat, and I’ve been needing to get away for a couple of days and focus entirely on me and my well-being. I’m super looking forward to what will be some cold hiking in one of my favorite places in the country, a massage, yoga and meditation, journaling, and plenty of time around a fire with some books and hot chocolate in the evening. Is there anything cozier?
Let’s dive into some more of this week’s new YA books and this week’s YA book news.
Bookish Goods
Orange Plaid Book Sleeve by CPickeringCo
Looking for a new book sleeve to protect your ereader or current read? If I weren’t already into the cover I have for my ereader, I’d definitely be tempted by this orange plaid option. $13.50 and up, depending on size.
New Releases
I’m changing it up a little bit this week. Usually on Thursdays, I highlight two new paperback releases. This week, and likely in future weeks through the end of the year, we’ll see fewer and fewer books hitting selves, but more, we’ll see fewer paperbacks among them. Wrestling up two to talk about that aren’t titles within a series is challenging this week, so I’m sharing one paperback and one hardcover (that wasn’t shared on Monday).
Briar Girls by Rebecca Kim Wells — in paperback
Lena was cursed by a witch before she was born, leading her to a secret: she can kill with the touch of her skin. But when she and her father are forced from their lives of isolation, they end up in a village near the Silence, a forest that reportedly lures people in who are never again seen.
But when Miranda stumbles out of the Silence and meets Lena, she tells her about Gather, a city within the forest with magic. Miranda is on a search for someone who can wake the sleeping princess of Gather, who she believes holds the secret to liberating Gather from their tyrant leader. Miranda offers Lena a chance to break free from her own curse, so long as she helps find someone to wake the princess.
Lena’s on it…but the more she discovers about Gather and Miranda, the more she sees she’s been lied to about her own past. Dive into a fantastical bisexual retelling of The Sleeping Beauty.
The Lies We Tell by Katie Zhao
Social activism + enemies-to-lovers + thriller + college campus setting, this one is checking all of the boxes for so many readers.
Anna is moving into the dorms across town to attend Brookings University; she’s still close to her parents’ home and their struggling bakery. She’s determined to not only do well in school but to investigate a crime that happened on campus and claimed the life of her former babysitter.
When Anna encounters middle school rival Chris, whose family opened a bakery near the one her parents run, she’s wary. But a vandal who hit his family’s bakery left a racist tag and it matches something in Anna’s other investigation.
After a threat against Anna, she realizes that her connections with Chris might be what helps her get to the bottom of the death of her former babysitter, the vandalism at Chris’s family’s bakery, and a series of other local racist events.
For a more comprehensive list of new releases, check out our New Books newsletter.
YA Book News
- We’re getting a Netflix adaptation of Judy Blume’s Forever…featuring two Black teen leads.
- If you haven’t looked into the latest title in Penguin’s Pocket Change Collective nonfiction YA series, here’s a peek behind The Black Internet Effect.
- An interview with YA author Leah Johnson on (among other things) the power of writing joy.
As always, thanks for hanging out. We’ll see you on Saturday with some great YA book deals.
Until then, happy reading!
— Kelly Jensen, currently packing Never Ever Getting Back Together by Sophie Gonzales….and yes, even as someone who doesn’t listen to Taylor Swift, the song is in my head.