New Releases

New Releases

Posted onAuthorK. Imani Tennyson
Three book covers. Coffeeshop at the End of the Universe, The Nightblood Prince, and Pretty Girl County.

A nice variety of new releases that can satisfy every book lover.  Which books spark joy to you?

Book cover for Coffeeshop in an alternate universe. Two people are inside holding a cup of coffee. The steam above it looks a bit like a heart. We are seeing inside an open arched window. There is a small dragon just outside the window. The people are looking at each other and smiling.Coffeeshop in an Alternate Universe by C.B. Lee
Feiwel & Friends

When Brenda’s internet goes out right before an important scholarship deadline, she stumbles right into Kat’s family’s coffeeshop. Brenda is swept away by cool, confident Kat, who actually cares about Brenda’s 19-step plan to save the world through science. Meanwhile, Kat can’t stop thinking about Brenda, who is smart, passionate, and doesn’t seem to care that Kat is the prophesized Chosen One.

The only problem? Kat and Brenda are from different universes. Like need-to-find-a-portal-to-go-on-a-second-date different universes.

As their universes collide and things spiral out of control, can a girl who is determined to save the world find love with a girl determined to outrun her destiny?

This Book Might Be About Zinnia by Brittney Morris

Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

Two moments in time. Two very different girls. And one story that connects them both.

It’s the year 2024, and Zinnia Davis is on a mission to ace her personal essay. But when an admissions rep hints that her adoption story is “lacking heart,” she has to figure out a new spin. Frankly, Zinnia doesn’t know much about her birth parents; that is, until her favorite author releases a new novel—Little Heart—about a princess with a heart-shaped birthmark on her forehead and separated from her mother at birth…just like Zinnia. Could this be her birth mother?

Flashback to 2006, and teenager Tuesday Walker is barely making it through high school after experiencing a loss that had her on leave for months. To cope, Tuesday writes a series of entries in a journal, but when the journal is lost, it feels like reliving the trauma all over again. Tuesday’s search for the journal uncovers dangerous secrets about her past, her crush, and her own mother’s story.

If Tuesday isn’t careful in her search, Zinnia will have to reap the consequences in the present.

The book cover for This is Where We Die shows a somewhat dark and foreboding sky with six figures standing on a pier in silhouette. The dots for the lower case letter i in the first two words of the title are exes.This is Where We Die by Cindy R.X. He
Sourcebooks Fire

Sadie, Will, Isla, Anthony, Emily, and Charlie are survivors. They were the six (out of eight) to return from a ski holiday turned nightmare two years ago. Although… nobody knows exactly what happened; the details hushed up via the wealth and connections of Sadie’s rich parents.

When an exclusive private island with a mansion for rent goes viral on social media, their graduating class persuades Sadie to rent it for the weekend. The six arrive first by helicopter and wait for the rest of their classmates to join them by boat the next day.

But nobody ever comes.

Cut off from the rest of the world with no cell service and no means off the island, paranoia and terror mount as they start to be picked off one by one by an unseen killer. Their past has finally caught up with them, and they’ll need to figure out who is killing them before they all wind up dead.

The cover of the book The Yomigaeri Tunnel has a young woman looking into a tunnel opening. Behind her is another person looking her way. The main person has wide open eyes. Around the edges of the tunnel different objects are floating like a graduation cap, a framed photo, part of a piano keyboard, an airmail envelope and a guitar.The Yomigaeri Tunnel by Kelly Murashige
Soho Teen

Monika can’t bring herself to celebrate her last summer before college. Instead, she’s still grieving the loss of the one classmate who didn’t make it to graduation, a boy named Shun with whom she had a complicated relationship.

Then, during her final Japanese Club meeting, Monika hears about the Yomigaeri Tunnel, a local urban legend. Those who venture into this mythological passageway undergo harrowing trials to confront their hidden secrets and worst fears. According to the lore, anyone who makes it through is rewarded with the ability to resurrect one soul from the dead.

Monika jumps at the chance to bring back Shun, but she soon discovers she’s not alone. Sharp-tongued and fierce Shiori is hell-bent on reviving her mother and won’t let anyone stop her. As Monika and Shiori confront the ghosts of their pasts, they have to decide: Are they friends, or foes?

The cover of the book Call Your Boyfriend has a pink background and features three young people. Two are young Black women at a cafe table. They are having milkshakes of some kind and one of them has waffles and the other has a slice of cherry pie. The one on the left has braids and is looking up while eating a cherry. There is another person parting the plants behind the booth seat to look at the one eating a cherry.Call Your Boyfriend by Ashley Woodfolk and Olivia A. Cole
Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

Cynical but sensitive Beau Carl is on a mission. She needs to know if ultra-popular Maia Moon—the girl she’s been secretly hooking up with for months—really has feelings for her. But when she shows up at the last big party of the year before prom, she sees Maia about to kiss someone else.

Sweet, inexperienced Charm Montgomery is the “someone else.” And she’s ecstatic that she’s been reading Maia’s flirty behavior in their tutoring sessions correctly. But when the kiss is interrupted and Maia accepts an elaborate promposal from her douchey, popular boyfriend just a few days later, both Charm and Beau end up heartbroken.

There’s only one thing for them to do—get her back. And the only way to do that is for Beau to tutor Charm on how she can get their former crush to fall for her so hard that Maia will dump her ex…and then get dumped for once.

As their plan starts working, Beau and Charm grow closer too, in a way neither expected. But are either of them ready to let go of their scheme to take a chance on something a little sweeter—and scarier—than revenge?

The cover of the book The nightblood prince has three characters on it. The background is red and many details are gold. The central figure is holding a sword downward and has a headdress that is made with golden pagoda type buildings and has beads dangling below. The two figures on either side just behind that one's shoulders are staring to the side. The one on the left is wearing white and the one on the right is wearing black. They all have long black hair and fair skin.The Nightblood Prince by Molly X. Chang
Random House Books for Young Readers

Two princes. One prophecy. A fate she cannot outrun.

The night Fei was born, a prophecy was made: she would one day become the Empress of All Empresses.

Torn from her family as a child and raised in the palace to one day marry the Crown Prince of the most powerful empire in the land, Fei has only ever known loneliness. When the opportunity arises to seize her own destiny for the first time in her life, Fei sets out to hunt a legendary tiger, knowing it might cost her everything. What she doesn’t expect is to fall under the mercy of Yexue, the beautiful runaway prince from a rival kingdom. Blessed by the night, harboring a dangerous magic, and capable of commanding an army of deadly vampires, Yexue could be the key to Fei gaining more than just her freedom.

But to outrun destiny, Fei must spark a wave of events that will change the world as she knows it. Torn between two princes and plagued by nightmares of bloodshed, she finds that the stars might be more inescapable—and more irresistible—than she ever considered before.

Illustrated cover for Pretty Girl County. A Black teenage girl stands with her back to the viewer, but she's glancing off to the right like something has caught her attention. She has shoulder-length wavy hair and is wearing a two-toned pink jacket and gold hoop earrings. She has a red purse over her right shoulder, a red cell phone peeking out of her right jeans pocket, and her free hand tucked into her left back pocket. The book title is written across the back of her jacket, like it is a Letterman style jacket.Pretty Girl County by Lakita Wilson
Viking Books For Young Readers

Girls like Reya Samuels always come from Prince George’s County. Reya is rich and she’s not afraid to show it—she wears designer clothes, drives a custom pink Audi, and lives in a neighborhood tucked behind a fancy cast iron gate. She works hard, but she can get anything she wants with a snap.

Sommer Watkins is from Seat Pleasant, where the cast iron gates are significantly smaller—and attached to the windows, where most folks are still trying to make ends meet. Every day for Sommer is a hustle, working at her dad’s bookstore, and using her art skills to scrounge up enough scholarship money for her dream school, Spelman.

Reya and Sommer used to be BFFs—back when Reya lived in Seat Pleasant, too. Now the girls are from different stratospheres—but when Reya desperately needs help to prove to FIT admissions officers that she has what it takes to make it in fashion, the only person who can help is Sommer. Reya promises to help Sommer in return—she’ll pay her for her services, helping Sommer afford the school her parents can’t.

As the girls work together, slowly they begin to trust each other again. But when new relationships push them both, and Sommer’s dad’s bookstore is suddenly in danger of closing, old wounds bubble up. Can the girls find a way to repair their friendship and stay true to themselves along the way?