Category: What’s Up in YA

If you’d like a sort-of-enemies-to-lovers rom-com with a fake dating trope tossed in, this sounds like it’ll be 100% up your reading alley. Bailey just took a job at a hotel waterpark, and she’s discovered her coworker is Charlie. The Charlie she sat next to on a flight after her parents divorced and she moved to Omaha. He annoyed her then, and he’s annoying her now.

Or at least he was annoying her. She’s actually enjoying working with him, and the two of them are engaged in friendly conversation about the types of people frequently visiting the hotel waterpark. They make a bet on whether or not a pair of coworkers will begin to date, as they’ve been heavily flirting. But now Charlie cannot deny his feelings for Bailey and the fact the two of them need to fake date in order to hedge off some annoyance between Bailey and her mom and new boyfriend.

Perhaps the real bet isn’t on their coworkers but on the future of their own relationship.

Dawn wants queer love so bad. It’s senior year of high school in her Houston community, and she’s realizing if she cannot have those feelings herself, perhaps she could use her skills as a burgeoning filmmaker to document queer love in other ways. Perhaps that could help her even get a scholarship for college.

Armed with a camera and her two besties, Dawn is ready to take down the obstacles to her dreams—those of film school and those of love.

This collection of science fiction short stories has two clear selling points. First, the premise is the question of what the future could look like with the help of technology. Second, the lineup of authors is out of this world good. You’ll get work from K. Ancrum, Elizabeth Bear, A.R. Capetta, Charlotte Nicole Davis, Nasugraq Rainey Hopson, A.S. King, E.C. Myers, Junauda Petrus-Nasah, and Wendy Xu.

Twelve teens are out to help a friend make a giant apology, but then, Atlanta is struck by a snowstorm. Will they be able to make it happen? This is a sweet winter romance told through several voices, perspectives, and, of course, packed with feelings.

Chloe Chang moved from New York City to Los Angeles and she was then dumped by her boyfriend via the postal service. She’s ready to destroy her box of artifacts from the relationship until she gets a better idea. What if she created an art exhibit dedicated to showcasing the romantic artifacts of other ended relationships from her peers?

Chloe wants to make the exhibit, which she’s called Heartifacts, successful. There are just a few problems—first, the influencers who want to take her down.

Second: the boy she’s met at the show and is falling hard for.

It’s the summer before senior year. Jay is the exact opposite of his brother: Jay is soft, gentle, while his brother is the definition of all one thinks of as a man. Then he catches the attention of Leroy, and while Jay is shocked, he is getting the attention of a guy who could have his pick of anyone; he’s feeling it.

But their relationship is challenged because of Leroy’s family obligations to protect the neighborhood and to learn who attacked his own brother.

This book is being pitched as Concrete Rose meets Things We Couldn’t Say and looks fantastic.

Chess ruined Mallory’s life four years ago, and even if she’s done with the sport, the reality is her life itself has become the game. But even amid family stress, she agrees to one last charity tournament. Her opponent is Nolan, the current world champion and known for being a notorious bad boy.

So when Mallory destroys Nolan, it ends up not only causing waves in the chess world, but it begins to make her want to keep going. She could win money, grab some titles, maybe help her family with the bills in a way her current part-time job just doesn’t.

She begins to compete again, and she’s doing it in secret. But her skills are thrusting her into the spotlight, and Nolan, well, he’s hard to resist, too.

Pop this paperback original from a well-known romance writer right onto this list of YA books about teen gamers!

Nothing seems out of place that September day, but then, Shur sees a creature outside of her history class. It looks like a giant butterfly. Harmless, really.

But then emergency alerts ping on everyone’s phones, and it’s clear this butterfly–and its hoard of friends–are not what they seem. Shur, her brother, and two best friends get home just in time to avoid the creatures attacking. Now, the four are panicked, doing all they can to create a safe space.

It won’t stop with the butterfly creatures. There’s more to come, and for Shur, her companions, and the world more broadly, things are not looking good.

A survival story? Count me in!

Sunny is part of a K-pop trio that is rocketing up the charts. Her two fellow bandmates, Candie and Mina, are struggling to resist feelings flaring between them, and in the midst of a scandal, Mina dies right in front of them. Sunny always suspected it had to do with secrets between Mina and Candie.

Fast forward two years, and with questions still remaining about Mina’s death, Sunny hears that Candie might be trying out to be part of a new K-pop band. So Sunny does what anyone would do: she follows Candie to the K-pop workshop. While there, Sunny keeps getting otherworldly visions and experiences and realizes the only way to get to the bottom of Mina’s death is to tell some ugly secrets.

This is a horror-meets-thriller book set in the glossy world of K-pop, and sounds so fun.

Cue the U2, everyone, and prepare to enjoy a warm hug in the shape of a book (for long-time readers and/or Hey YA listeners, you’ll know that as one of Eric Smith’s favorite book descriptions!).

Looking for an enemies-to-lovers rom-com about rival food trucks? Then look no further.

Jordan Plazas and Cindy Ortiz hate each other. Everyone knows this. Their families own rival cheesesteak food trucks in Philadelphia, and the teens’ bickering and animosity is well documented.

But…the truth is the two of them like each other. When their fake fighting lands them an offer on a reality TV show, can they keep up the act, or will they be forced to confront the truth of their “rivalry?” Sign me up, please!

In this literary blend of Romeo and Juliet and Chinese mythology, Hunter Yee cannot escape his family’s past, even if he is an expert with the bow and arrow. It is only his brother, a cute girl at school, and a magical wind keeping him where he is. He wants to run, to escape, but he knows he cannot.

Luna Chang feels crushed by the weight of her family’s expectations for her, which have only continued to grow as she’s come closer and closer to high school graduation. Little by little, though, Luna starts to break some rules and discovers both the magical and the ominous in doing so.

But as Hunter and Luna draw closer to one another, it might be their respective families that keep them from connecting as they wish they could. Can–will–the fates intervene?

This is a queer grumpy-sunshine romance, wherein a date drafted for a wedding on the other side of a country ends up falling apart before it begins, and when Neil drafts a new date last minute, it may be more than simply a date to the wedding. It might be something much more fiery.

This story is a little bit Groundhog Day, a little bit of a mental health story, and a fascinating story about a complicated family.

Aimee Roh is 17, and she’s been diagnosed with Sensory Time Warp Syndrome. When she smells something that brings up a memory–she is instantly sucked out of the present and dropped back into the memory. Sometimes, these experiences only happen for a few seconds, but lately, they’ve been lasting for minutes or longer.

Aimee’s dad thinks that she will grow out of the disorder. Because he’s a single father–Aimee’s mother left long ago–he’s worried about her, but his own fears over her disappearances have kept him from taking her to see a specialist. Even when she disappears for nine hours into a memory of her estranged mother, Aimee’s dad still won’t get her checked out.

She won’t take it alone anymore, and Aimee starts to wonder if her mother’s disappearance from their lives is at all related to the disorder. It can be genetic, so maybe her mom struggled with STWS, too. But the only way she can ever find out is to track down her grandparents and ask. But Aimee lives in Vancouver, and her grandparents live in Korea. She does what any reasonable 17-year-old would—she books a flight and informs her father that the trip is happening. He is hardly happy, but she’s ready to get the answers he won’t give her.

Will is agender, and at 17, they are so ready for their freedom from everything that has held them back growing up. This includes leaving their small town, no longer needing to care for their mother, who struggles with addiction, and having to hide who they really are. But Will’s mother dies before they turn 18, and while Will is glad for the unexpected freedom to come early, they are not entirely prepared. Worse, Will’s mother cursed them with her dying breath, saying it was Will’s fault she was dying. 

Now worried about that curse and worried about making it before truly being granted adulthood independence, Will needs to find their foster mother Raz ASAP—they don’t want to be caught by Child Protective Services, and they definitely do not want to be found by the local drug dealers who played a role in their mother’s death. 

But how can Will figure out a future if they need to travel into their past to find it? 

Natalie and Reid are life-long enemies, and the tension between them only grows as their school’s budget cuts get sharper. Natalie is fighting to direct the first-ever school play written by students, but in order for the play to get funded, the school’s award-winning band will lose it. That would be Reid’s band, of course.

But there’s a compromise here. Even if it doesn’t feel like a compromise at all, Natalie and Reid can work together to produce a school musical, ensuring both the theater and band get some kind of funding–and if the show goes really well, perhaps it will prove to the district that both groups deserve a better budget.

But can Natalie and Reid work together? Or is this show going to be a disaster?

Marisabina Russo grew up in the 1950s, and she’s not only been raised Catholic, but she’s attending a Catholic school she loves. So when she discovers that she has Jewish heritage and several members of her family are Holocaust survivors, everything she thought she knew about herself and her history is no longer certain.

This graphic memoir is about family and growing up, and it’s a look at what it means to understand one’s past while having the opportunity to define one’s future.

Nikki is a budding photographer and is looking forward to spending five days with her father in Dubai to celebrate Diwali. However, she soon discovers that her neighbor and rival, Yash is also on the flight to Dubai.

Nikki’s family doesn’t know about the tension between the two and, with their sights on matchmaking, encourage Nikki to get cozy with Yash. But can they? Is their history too heavy?

Perhaps the celebration of light will change everything in this enemies-to-lovers rom-com.

If you’re looking for an anthology of stories by and from adoptees, look no further. The stories represent a wide range of experiences being adopted, and the author list is a knockout: Kelley Baker, Nicole Chung, Shannon Gibney, Mark Oshiro, MeMe Collier, Susan Harness, Meredith Ireland, Mariama J. Lockington, Lisa Nopachai, Stefany Valentine, Matthew Salesses, Lisa Wool-Rim Sjöblom, Eric Smith, Jenny Heijun Wills, and Sun Yung Shin.

If you’re into magical stories in line with Holly Black’s style, look no further for your next read.

Croi is what is known as a brownie, made up and invisible to humans. She lives in the Wilde Forest, and even though she has magic powers, they are weak. When her guardian gives her a book of magick from the Otherworld of Higher Fae, Croi realizes she’s been put under a spell that begs her to come to the Otherworld.

As she leaves on her adventure, though, it’s not just the movement that will change Croi. She will discover she’s no brownie at all, but may be something else entirely. How can she learn the truth, especially as it seems she continues to fall under spells?

This remix of the classic Wuthering Heights is set in Yorkshire in 1786. Heathcliff is the abandoned son of a sailor from India, and Catherine is the youngest daughter of an estate owner who is preparing her for a life in high society. They connect with one another as they escape to the moors, working to build not only their budding romance but their connection to their cultural heritage. If you like broody, reclaimed classics with Gothic undertones, you’ll be into this one.