New Young Adult Books
Teen (& Tween) Events
YA Book Reviews
Lies We Tell About the Stars
by Susie Nadler
-You can find this book here.
A young woman struggles mightily when her best friend disappears during a massive earthquake in this debut set in a near-future San Francisco.
Celeste has been best friends with brilliant, determined Nicky, who’s gay, since they were 3-year-olds; the friends, who are cued white, are now high school seniors. The inseparable pair were born on the same day and have long shared a fascination with space—they even planned to study at MIT and work at NASA together. As the dust settles from the quake and Nicky remains missing, his mother and Celeste’s family begin to lose hope, but Celeste remains convinced he’s alive. Chapters labeled “Before” punctuate the intense third-person narration, highlighting Celeste’s memories of the events leading up to the Big One. In the present day, a heartrending story unfurls in chapters that indicate the number of days that have elapsed since the earthquake, expanding into a tale that’s as much about grief-stricken Celeste’s search for herself as her quest to locate Nicky. Along the way she meets, falls hard for, and is helped by a kind boy named Meo, who’s Mexican American and whose Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals immigration status forces him to live precariously. Celeste has Type 1 diabetes and her service dog, Ursa, a Newfoundland, is a vivid, endearing character. Celeste’s palpable anxiety and complex feelings about her future will be well understood by many teens.
A wise, gripping, and poignant tale of a teen finding her way. (Fiction. 14-18)
Review found here.
Release Me
by Tahereh Mafi
Shatter Me: Series Two
-You can find this book here.
Romantic complications between a trained killer and one of her captors drive this sequel to Watch Me (2025).
Appealing to readers who prefer their romantic dramas to be light on action and heavy on long passages of banter, bitter sibling arguments, and tortured reflections, Mafi continues the tale of Rosabelle Wolff, the flaxen-haired assassin from the dystopic Reestablishment, and magnetic, “impossibly stunning” James Anderson, her nemesis-turned-lover who’s still trying to take down the regime. Now desperate to accomplish several secret missions, Rosa easily escapes from one of The New Republic’s prisons, where she was left in the series opener, and, dressed in “a little kid’s cat onesie,” eludes all pursuers except for James, who can seemingly find her at will. Enigmatic Rosa responds unpredictably to many human contacts—including with violence, temporary death (one of her abilities), or a sudden panic attack. Along with the central pair of rivals and lovers, James’ older brother, Aaron, shares the narration. Bestseller Mafi tucks in several subplots, including, notably, a cameo from Juliette Ferrars, the protagonist of the original Shatter Me series, who’s undergoing a scarily difficult pregnancy. Amid the slowly simmering rising action, the author delivers a revelation and a twist that set up a potential series climax. Some ethnic diversity is present in the supporting cast.
A character-focused entry that will satisfy fans. (Dystopian. 14-adult)
Review found here.
We're A Bad Idea, Right?
by K. L. Walther
-You can find this book here.
A Connecticut girl and her best friend devise a series of plans in order to achieve their goals: following a dream and winning back an ex.
Eighteen-year-old Audrey Barbour has a Master Plan: attend Blue Ridge Glass School in North Carolina and someday turn her Etsy shop, Golightly Glass, into a thriving business. But her uber-wealthy parents insist that she instead follow in their footsteps and go to business school. So Audrey decides to go find the tuition money she needs with help from her best friend, Henry Chen. Henry needs a favor, too: He hopes that fake dating Audrey will help him win back his ex-girlfriend, and he points out to a reluctant Audrey that this could make her crush, Griffin, notice her. While Audrey’s parents vacation in France for three weeks, the pair rent out the Barbour mansion on the Long Island Sound. Soon romantic chemistry grows alongside their business partnership. Despite the pair’s great preparation and an abundance of secondary characters with connections and talents to help pull off their increasingly ambitious ideas, plans go awry, leaving Audrey and Henry scrambling and second-guessing their choices. The pacing is even, but the characters often take a back seat to the whirlwind of activity that drives the plot, with the emphasis falling on each person’s practical skills and their role in keeping the action moving over their emotional bonds. Audrey is white, and Henry’s surname cues him as Chinese American.
A light and entertaining plot-driven romance. (Romance. 14-18)
Review found here.
A Stage Set For Villains
by Shannon J. Spann
-You can find this book here.
In order to save her own life, an 18-year-old must strike a bargain with a notoriously violent leader in Spann’s YA fantasy novel.
The land of Theatron is divided in half. People living north of the Cut live in complete truth: no fictional stories, no music, no lying, and certainly no theater. All are measures to help protect them from the Players in the southern region and their worshippers, called Revelers. The Players are immortal performers with fearsome, godlike powers whose narcissism often leads to gruesome violence. Northerners are advised to never look a Player in the eye and to pay them three compliments to appease their vanity and enable escape. The Northerners are also marked with Eleutheraen gold—the one material that can harm and kill a Player—to ensure immunity to the Players’ allure. Thanks to a 500-year treaty, the Players stay south of the Cut, but that treaty is reaching its expiration date. Ten years ago, Riven Hesper had a run-in with a rogue Player and escaped by stabbing her with an Eleutheraen gold knife; the Player’s blood infected the child with a curse that, in the present, still causes her body to deteriorate. Now, 18-year-old Riven doesn’t have much time left. The Playhouse announces it will have a casting call for a grueling competition which will end with a mortal taking the place of an immortal Player—or dying themselves. Riven, desperate for a cure, goes to the Playhouse where she’s forced to strike a deal with the enigmatic Lead Player Jude Stepharros, who’s determined to make Riven the winner. Spann’s debut novel is a dark and dizzying fantasy that will keep readers enthralled to the end. Protagonist narrator Riven is resilient, flawed, and engaging throughout, and the supporting characters are equally intriguing. Most noteworthy is the complex and well-developed worldbuilding and the storytelling style, which often combines prose with scriptlike dialogue. While this novel will appeal to many fantasy-genre fans, readers with a theater background will especially appreciate the inclusion of universal stagecraft rules, such as “do not touch other’s props” and “never anger the stage manager.”
A richly detailed dark fantasy with an engaging lead player.
Review found here.
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