Hey, YA Readers!
Let’s welcome a new month in like a lion. We’ve got new books out our ears and eyes to enjoy. In addition, we’ll do something a little different for our book list this week: we’ll peep at some of the cute pets populating YA books in recent memory.
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Bookish Goods
Tulip Bookmark by LumiyaCreations
We’re only a few weeks out from spring, and in my neck of the woods, the tulips are already showing up in stores. If you’re looking for a new spring bookmark, this tulip option is a good one (bonus is that it doesn’t need water and will last as long as you have it!). Choose how many stems and what color. $10.
New Releases
As mentioned in the intro, it’s a big release week. This tends to be the case at the beginning of most months, but especially in March, April, and May (then again in September and October). I’m highlighting several new books across genres hitting shelves this week in hardcover below, but you can check out the entire list over here.
Clever Creatures of Night by Samantha Mabry
Something bad happened in the run-down house that Cas arrives at in West Texas. She’s come at the request of her best friend Drea, who has been living there for a few weeks with other classmates.
But things are off. Drea isn’t there, and her roommates aren’t talking. It’ll be up to Cas to find out what happened to her best friend and the role this terrifying house may have played in Drea’s disappearance.
Kindling by Traci Chee
When I put together my master database of YA releases, this one was slated for March 5. It looks like it got moved to February 27, so technically, this one’s been on shelves for a week.
I’m including it anyway.
Kindling—young elite warriors who wielded magic had power so strong that it killed them when it was used—used to fight wars. But with war over, Kindling have been outcast.
There’s still violence around. There is also a history of trauma. So when a village is under threat, seven Kindling see their opportunity to once again bring their powers to the fore.
Except the war they’re engaged in won’t just be on the ground. It’ll be with themselves, their histories, and their legacies, too.
The No-Girlfriend Rule by Christen Randall
Hollis wants senior year to go by without much more to worry about. This includes not rattling the comfortable relationship she has with her boyfriend, Chris—she goes as far as to learn his favorite tabletop game to keep their bond strong, but he has a rule for game night that excludes her since she’s just one of the girlfriends.
Hollis wants to play the game, so she finds an all-girl group headed by Gloria Castañeda. It’s a great way for her to make friends and play Secrets & Sorcery. It is giving her a space to be more than the labels attached to her: fat, anxious, Chris’s girlfriend.
Then, an in-game crush begins between Hollis’s character and Aini Amin-Shaw’s character. But is it only in-game?
The Poisons We Drink by Bethany Baptiste
Venus Stoneheart is a hustler who brews magic love potions, even though it is a dangerous job—it not only has physical consequences, but if she’s ever caught, she will end up in prison.
Then Venus’s mom is killed by an enemy. Everything changes in an instant for her, the it changes even further when the Grand Witcher of her coven offers Venus the opportunity for revenge. All Venus needs to do is brew a potion that will enslave some of the most powerful politicians in D.C.
This story brings us into a world of people and witches and the battle of power between them. It’s also about making tough choices in the name of saving your life and your loved ones.
Six Truths and a Lie by Ream Shukairy
It’s the 4th of July, and an explosion levels an oil rig. It brings chaos with it, and it immediately puts 6 Muslim teens at the center of the incident—convenient suspects who had nothing to do with it but whose lives are upended in the process of proving their innocence.
Now they’re stuck in a game where they have to point their fingers at one another in order to acquire their own freedom.
For a more comprehensive list of new releases, check out our New Books newsletter.
Riot Recommendations
I’ve been working on the big roundup of new releases for the spring, and whenever I am perusing publisher catalogs, it is book covers—and trends within them—that capture me immediately. This is good most of the time, like today (other times, it is less good).
So, one of the things I’ve seen in 2024 YA? Adorable pets on the book cover. I’ve seen far more dogs this year than cats, but I’m including both in the little roundup below.
As always, I need to caveat this roundup with this crucial note: finding cover design information is far more difficult than it should ever be. This can go right on the publisher’s landing page for a book, but it almost never does. Especially as AI art continues to increase, why isn’t more credit given where it is due?
Which one of these is your favorite? I know they’ve all helped me add more books to my TBR.
Ash’s Cabin by Jen Wang, publishing August 13. Cover is by the author/illustrator.
The Breakup Artists by Adriana Mather, publishing June 4.
Lucy, Uncensored by Mel Hammond and Teghan Hammond, publishing October 8.
The Someday Daughter by Ellen O’Clover, available now. Cover illustrator is Vi-An Nguyen, and the designer is Chris Kwon.
Wild Dreamers by Margarita Engle, publishing April 23.
As always, thanks for hanging out. We’ll see you again later this week for paperback releases and YA book news.
Until then, happy reading!
–Kelly Jensen, who hasn’t opened a book in weeks.