New YA Books Hitting Shelves This Week, June 24, 2024

Here’s another example where I don’t think the cover of this book fits the description of the book itself very much. I see this and think fantasy or even romantic fantasy. It’s not. It’s a mystery/thriller with Yellowjacket comparisons.

Alas!

Isabeau and five other girls are best friends and they all share the same birthday. But as they’ve gotten older, their friendships have shifted and splintered. Iz is still close with Reuel, however, and on the night of their 16th birthday, after Iz heads home, Reuel goes missing. She returns two days later with no memory of what happened and she’s become incredibly sick. Now all six birthday-sharing former besties are getting back together to figure out what happened.

Then another one of them goes missing. There is something more than their birthdays tying them together. There’s someone or something out there taking them out one at a time. But who? Why?

A twist on Snow White? Yes, please!

Princess Eve has the power to conjure weapons from nature, which makes her an excellent person to have around. Her purpose is to destroy the Knight, an evil sorcerer who has created evil with his trickery throughout the royal kingdom.

But right before her 17th birthday, Eve’s mom, the Queen Regina, is behaving oddly. She’s been doing things like talking into a mirror by herself at night. So when a man claiming to be the Knight’s messenger delivers to Eve a message about her past that she’s never known, everything she thought she knew about herself, her family, and her future begins to unravel.

Will she find enough fight in her though to save her family and her future as queen? Or will this shocking truth upend everything?

Kajal is putting her sister’s soul up for bid in order to bring her back to life—she knows it’s not good or right and that she should let Lasya rest. She can’t, though. Kajal cannot live without her.

Kajal is ready for the resurrection. But it wasn’t what she expected at all. Lasya’s soul resurrects as a murderous spirit, and now, Kajal is being given a death sentence for trying to bring her sister back to life.

This is part Indian mythology and part Frankenstein and sounds fabulous. The cover is also just perfect.

Rae Winter should have died in the fiery car wreck that killed her dad. She didn’t though, and that’s why Matthew Watts wants to take her down. Matthew and his dad are hunters who travel from place to place to take down people that they believe have been marked by the devil. Those who’ve been marked have come close to death but survived, and, with the mark now on their soul, those survivors play out the devil’s evildoing back on Earth.

Matthew’s got his target set on Rae. But there’s a problem. A big one. He’s beginning to fall for Rae, who is the smartest, kindest person he’s met. How could someone like her be an agent of the devil?

Matthew’s unsure what to do: continue to be a hunter and follow the rules or reconsider everything he’s ever been known and taught.

Luxe is part of her family’s show on the island of Charmant. It’s one of magic and splendor, but with prohibition, the money is getting much tighter and the show’s income dwindling. But the son of on of the island’s wealthiest families makes her family an offer: pose as his girlfriend to help secure mayorhood for his father. She’s in.

Jamison is an orphan and he’s come to Charmant to unravel the secrets of his family’s past. But as he delves in, he starts to discover something which not only hurts him but puts the island itself in danger.

So when Luxe and Jamison accidentally meet…and sparks accidentally fly…things for both of them and their futures are about to get much more complicated.

This one is influenced by Moulin Rouge and set on an island that is inspired by Prohibition-era New York City

Three words: queer paranormal romance! There’s a really great Amazon review titled “Scooby-Doo but make it queer” that works here, too.

Jaime’s tried forgetting the last eight years of his light. But that’s difficult in a place like St. Juniper, since everyone knows his business. For a little solitude, he decides to enter into the Folly…only to never come out.

St. Juniper is nothing but the feeling of being stuck for Theo, who is about to begin his senior year of high school. That is, until he wanders into the Folly. It’s there he finds a mysterious abandoned house with a (cute) boy stuck inside.

Taylor finds St. Juniper to be a complete mystery. She’s a budding witch but her father has banned her from practicing her craft following the sudden death of her mom. Her mom was a super accomplished witch, so Dad was scared of the magic. But Taylor finds her skills called upon by a someone who enters her room and talking about a house in the Folly with a trapped boy inside.

Drawn together, the three teenagers will learn how to navigate the mysterious Folly and the truths that the woods and house want them to learn about themselves and each other.