Hey, YA Readers!
No big intro today. Let’s let the books do all of the talking for themselves, shall we?
Want to make your book club the best club? Sign up for our In the Club newsletter. In the Club will deliver recommendations for the best books to discuss in your book clubs. From buzzy new releases to brilliant throwbacks, the books highlighted in this newsletter will drive your book club discussions. Weâll also share some book club-friendly recipes and interesting bookish updates from all over. If you become a paid subscriber, you get even more recommendations, plus community features. In other words, weâll keep you well-met, well-read, and well-fed. Sign up today!
Bookish Goods
Customized Neon Library Sign by MaeArtNeonShop
I try to keep everything I highlight in this bookish goods section at the lower end of the price range. But I could not help myself with today’s find because it is so good. Consider this a treat yourself find or something you put on your wishlist.
Get a customized neon library sign! This would look rad on your walls or above your bookshelves or in your little reading nook. $84+.
New Releases
There are fewer new releases this week than lastâthat was a monster!âso today, I’m sticking to the usual highlight of two new hardcover releases. Both are fiction, and both are very different from one another.
You can grab the full list of new YA releases over here.
Ariel Crashes A Train by Olivia A. Cole
Ariel’s mind is scary. Aside from everything she contends with on the outside—demanding parents, being queer, being a “big girl,” no longer having her older sister at home to spend time with—she cannot stop imagining violent situations.
She’s hopeful that a new summer job at a carnival will help, even if it means some of her rituals and routines are not what they used to be. She’s making friends and enjoying herself.
But how long until she cracks and what’s going on inside splits her in half?
This is a book exploring obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Meet Me In The Fourth Dimension by Rita Feinstein
This book showed up as a digital galley many months ago, and even though I did not get to it yet, it’s been one I have been itching to read as soon as possible.
Written in verse, the book begins with NASA assuring everyone that even though a massive planet named Malachite is in their orbit, everything will be okay. Crosby doesn’t believe that, though. She’s convinced that if people do not ascend to the fourth dimension, they will be instantly killed when Malachite slides by.
Crosby’s been taken in by fortune tellers and Malachite truther sites online. Worse, no matter how much she tries to convince everyone in her life that in order to survive, they need to immediately prepare for the apocalypse, they don’t listen.
So what happens when Crosby needs to be brought back to Earth?
For a more comprehensive list of new releases, check out our New Books newsletter.
Take Me To The Flower Shop
One of the things I love in YA is looking at the creative places where teen characters find jobs. I pulled together a list in 2017 on the topic on Book Riot, and I am realizing that I have not written about specific jobs I’ve seen pop up in YA since.
Even though my reading so far this year has slowed down, I am paying close attention to the books releasing. So, color me surprised to see not one but two YA books where the teen character sells flowers as a job. I love itâit’s clever, creative, and offers a lot of plot-building opportunities (not to mention the sensory opportunities for the reader!).
Today, it’s time to take a trip to the flower shop. I’m going to highlight both of the books referenced above, as well as other titles where we’ve got budding (heh) teen florists.
A fun commonality among the four books here? They’re all set in California. This makes so much sense, tooâmore opportunities to sell flowers year-round and in different capacities than, say, Minnesota.
(Please, please, please: I would love a YA book about a teen caught up in the Dahlia wars!).
Kill Her Twice by Stacey Lee (April 23)
Lee’s forthcoming novel is an excellently plotted historical mystery set in Chinatown, Los Angeles, in the 1930s. Following sisters Gemma and May, who discover the dead body of friend and Hollywood actress Lulu Wong, they work to unearth the truth of who—and what—killed her. This is a character-driven, multiple-point-of-view story with a very satisfying conclusion to the mystery.
The sisters work a flower business which was launched by their father and it plays a key role in helping them unravel the mystery.
Little & Lion by Brandy Colbert
Suzette (Little) is not sure she wants to leave L.A. again, even though she’s attending boarding school in New England. Everyone she loves is here, including her stepbrother Lionel (Lion) and her crush, Emil. Little takes a job at a local flower shop where her feelings toward Emil begin to shift as she starts to fall for one of her coworkers…who happens to be the same person that Lion loves.
This is a powerful story about family, relationships, and at its core is a compassionate rendering of mental illness.
This Time Will Be Different by Misa Sugiura
CJ has never been good enough for her mom, and she’s never bought into the meanings behind the flowers at the family’s shop where she works. But CJ has a heck of a knack for flower arranging, and she’s proud of it.
But then CJ’s mom threatens to sell the shop, and she’s not only looking to sell it, the buyers caused great harm to CJ’s grandparents when they and thousands of others were sent to Japanese Internment Camps during World War II.
CJ won’t stay quiet. She won’t fit her mom’s expectations.
And frankly, she’s okay with that. This is too important not to fight.
With Love, Echo Park by Laura Taylor Namey (August 27)
L.A.’s Echo Park used to have a thriving Cuban business community, but that’s dwindled. One of the last remaining businesses of those days is Clary’s family’s flower shop, La Rosa Blanca. Clary is going to inherit the business and sees her role in keeping the history of Echo Park alive as one she’s looking forward to.
The only other Cuban business in Clary’s Echo Park business district is Avalos Bicycle Works. Emilio, also a teenager, is set to inherit it, but unlike Clary, he’s not committed to it. She can hardly find him attractive or appealing if his goal is to book it out of town and let the legacy of Cuban ancestry in the area continue to crumble.
A big secret ends up cracking Clary’s world open at the same time Emilio begins to think maybe he’s being too rash about his future. You can say their need to depend on one another this summer was historic…and meant to be.
Bonus: “Old Rifts and Snowdrifts,” a short story by Kayla Whaley in the anthology Up All Night, is about ex-best friendsâone of whom is a wheelchair userâstuck inside the flower shop where they work during a snowstorm.
Thanks, as always, for hanging out. We’ll see you on Thursday with your YA paperback new releases and your YA book news.
Until then, happy reading!
âKelly Jensen