We’re back and there are so many titles to share that were released this month.
The Swan’s Daughter by Roshani Chokshi
Wednesday Books
To find love is a curse …
Prince Arris knows that marriage means murder. Thanks to a poorly worded wish to a sea witch, all one needs to rule the Isle of Malys is the heart and hand of the kingdom’s heir. Historically, this has been construed quite literally.
Thus, Arris expects that the day after his marriage and murder he will wake up as a sentient tree alongside the rest of his predecessors. His only chance at a long life is finding true and lasting love. When Arris’s parents announce a tournament of brides to compete for his hand and heart, a slew of eligible, lovely and (possibly murderous) bachelorettes make their way to Rathe Castle. Amidst glittering balls in ozorald caves, strolls through menageries of daydream trees and pearl crocodiles, tea time on glass boats and kisses that leave his head spinning, Arris cannot tell who is here out of love for him…or lust for power.
Until he meets Demelza.
As a veritas swan, Demelza’s song wrings out the truth. Forced into hiding, Demelza strikes a deal. Arris will provide her with safekeeping in exchange for her truth-telling song to sort through his potential brides.
While Arris is used to dodging death threats and Demelza is accustomed to fighting for her voice to be heard, to survive the tournament of brides requires a different kind of bravery. And perhaps the bravest thing one can do is not merely protect one’s life, but find the courage to chase a life worth living.
Raven Saga, Vol 1 by Chihiro Howe
WEBTOON Unscrolled
This gorgeous fantasy graphic novel adapted from the hit WEBTOON comic tells the story of a girl on an epic quest to rescue her grandmother in a world populated by fairy tale characters.
Wen lives in a land of fairy tales and has never seen the world outside of her home. The house where she and her grandmother, Clarimonde, reside is protected and secluded by a magical barrier. Wen dreams of exploring the world and seeing the ocean one day, yet her grandmother insists that she stay inside their little bubble where the seasons never change.
When a peculiar boy with a band of ravens begins capturing magic users across the kingdom, she must uncover the secrets held within the woods before the world is robbed of its happily ever after.
One day, a mysterious prince passes out just outside the barrier and Wen crosses over to help him. In the confusion outside the protective circle, the boy and his flock of ravens descend and abduct Wen’s grandmother. Wen decides to travel with her newfound friend, Prince Corliss, and his trusty sidekick Theo the swallow, on a quest to save Clarimonde.
On her journey, Wen discovers that the outside world isn’t as magical as she once thought, and danger lurks around every corner. But with the help of her friends, she will do her best to unravel the mystery of the boy with the ravens, and more importantly, the mystery of her own past.
This volume collects episodes 1 to 17 of the enchanting WEBTOON comic Raven Saga.
Oxford Blood by Rachael Davis-Featherstone
Wednesday Books
Love, Lies, Legacy…
Eva has one dream: to study English at Oxford University. Not only will she receive a world-class education – getting into Oxford is a path to freedom.
But when Eva and her best friend George are invited to interview week, they find themselves in the cutthroat ultra-competitive world of elite academia, and at the center of gossip on anonymous student forum Oxford Slays. When Eva finds George dead near the steps of a statue in the college, she knows he’s been murdered – but all eyes are now on her. Can she clear her name, catch the true killer and win her place at Beecham College?
Eva has one week to prove her innocence, and Oxford Slays will be watching.
Oxford Blood is a riveting murder mystery thriller, packed with narrative twists and turns, complex and appealing characters and a captivating, authentic setting in its searing examination of the true cost of privilege.
Love Me to Death: Volume One by Toonimated
Little, Brown Ink
In the city of San Guadario, necromancy has been banned for one hundred years. Every aspect of life, from buying food to getting married, requires a signature written in one’s own blood. If a necromancer were to sign, their identity would be revealed by the magic that courses through their veins. As a necromancer, Victor and his cute one-eyed cat must live a discreet life, constantly on the run.
Everything changes when the wealthiest patron in San Guadario hires Victor to resurrect his recently deceased, and impossibly beautiful, bride. The catch? Victor must perform an ancient ritual which eternally binds himself to this bride. After he brings her back to life, Victor finds himself magically entangled with the bride and groom and caught in the middle of more romance than he knows what to do with.
Red and the Wolves: A Graphic Novel by Cherry Zong
Andrews McMeel Publishing
Red, a fiercely loyal hunter, has dedicated her life to protecting her witch Grand Mother. Monsters have been roaming the forest that they call home, bringing forth a mysterious illness that has devastated the land and chased every living soul away. Until Red stumbles upon an injured wolf-girl named Sil.
Red is cautiously optimistic to befriend someone new, but the more their relationship deepens, the more she begins to uncover the sinister truths behind everything she’s ever known.
Red must make the difficult decision of who to defend, before catastrophe consumes them all. This graphic novel that’s an apocalyptic fantasy meets queer love story turns the classic Little Red Riding Hood fairytale on its head.
Lovely One (Adapted for Young Adults) by Ketanji Brown Jackson
Random House Children’s Books
Growing up, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s parents taught her that she could achieve anything she wanted, and be whoever she wanted to be. In high school, she dreamt of being a Supreme Court judge. In 2022, her dream came true: she was sworn in as the first African American woman judge.
Lovely One is Justice Jackson’s journey to making her dreams a reality, the hurdles she faced, and the lessons she learned along the way. She recalls feeling different and lonely as one of the few Black kids at her high school. At Harvard University, she was homesick and grappled with imposter syndrome. She took on the difficulties of working in the legal field as a Black woman, and the challenges of balancing a career and relationships.
But Justice Jackson persevered. She found like-minded people at her high school’s speech club and Harvard’s musical theatre group. With support from her family and strength from friends, she took on the world with optimism, determination, and hard work. Justice Jackson’s story will resonate with dreamers everywhere, spreading hope and inspiration for generations to come.
This young adult adaptation has a brand-new preface and epilogue and includes an exclusive prize-winning speech the justice delivered as a high school student.
I Don’t Wish You Well by Jumata Hill
Delacorte Press
Five years ago, the infamous Trojan murders turned the small town of Moss Pointe, Louisiana into a living nightmare. Four teen boys—all star players on Moss Pointe High’s football team—were murdered one after the other by a Trojan-mask wearing killer.
Eventually, the murderer was unmasked. But the community has never forgotten—and some folks in town still wonder whether the police got it right.
Eighteen-year-old Pryce Cummings is one of them. An aspiring journalist, Pryce is pretty sure he just stumbled upon evidence that throws the killer’s guilt into question. It’s the perfect story for his own podcast, and a reason to go back to the hometown he’s avoided since coming to terms with his sexuality while at college.
But in Moss Pointe, digging into the past is anything but welcome. There’s so much more to what happened there five years ago, and Pryce is ready to crack it all wide open . . . if he lives to tell the tale.
Fustuk: A Graphic Novel by Robert Mgrdich Apelian
Penguin Workshop
Seventeen-year-old Katah Fustukian has always felt like the odd one out in his family of chefs. Unlike his older siblings, he is useless in the kitchen, and too young to have known their late father—a legendary Hye chef who’d made a name for himself in the Pars Empire.
But with his mom’s illness worsening, Katah hopes that his vision-like dreams are a sign of magic stirring within him—especially after they lead him to Az, a powerful div with some mysterious connection to his family. In an attempt to save their mom’s life, he and his siblings strike a deal: Az’s help in exchange for a dish that rivals their father’s.
But after the siblings clash over what to cook, Katah will have to make sense of his magic and family history—and wager far more than a single meal to meet Az’s demands…
Love Makes Mochi by Stefany Valentine
Joy Revolution
A teen goth fashion designer travels to Tokyo, Japan, where she meets a tattoo artist apprentice who may just be the one to change her mind about love—part of the international Love in Translation series of standalone YA romances.
Lilyn Jeong is living her best life—in Tokyo! She gets to learn from the legendary yet notoriously terrifying tailor Mrs. Matsumoto. Getting a glowing recommendation from her could be Lilyn’s ticket into her dream fashion school.
So when Lilyn is tasked with designing an entire collection, panic sets in. She has only weeks to figure out how to mix her goth aesthetic with traditional Japanese style. Thankfully, Mrs. Matsumoto’s rebellious, tattooed, rainbow-haired daughter Yua offers to help.
But going on cozy dates with this cute girl is way easier than sewing yukatas. Can Lilyn find a path forward in fashion and love? Or will she watch as everything falls apart at the seams?
The swoony Love in Translation romances can be read together or separately:
LOVE REQUIRES CHOCOLATE • LOVE CRAVES CARDAMOM • LOVE MAKES MOCHI
The Great Disillusionment of Nick and Jay by Ryan Douglass
HarperCollins
Seventeen-year-old Nick Carrington wants nothing more than to leave Greenwood, Oklahoma, behind and make a name for himself in the papers. But when tragedy strikes, dreams turn into a twisted reality. Forced to start anew in Harlem, only a letter of acceptance from the prestigious West Egg Academy is able to pull him back into the world.
But the supposedly integrated private boys’ school is more of a catchy headline than a fact, with the same prejudices Nick left behind back home. And his secret but growing feelings for the founder’s wickedly charismatic son, Jay Gatsby Jr.— who dances past society’s conventions with practiced ease—only add more complications.
When Nick’s cutting pen exposes dangerous truths about West Egg and leads to
perilous consequences, he and Jay must decide whether to spend a lifetime outrunning trouble or be the ones to light the match. Can they not only fight back but triumph? Or will the powers that be win yet again?
It Lurks in the Night by Sarah Dass
Disney Hyperion
All Maya Woods wants is to reunite her three best friends, Pearl, Erica, and Lystra, for one last epic boat trip to the islands around their Caribbean home before they all graduate from high school. But the girls are forced to make an emergency landing on Annatto—an island avoided by locals and tourists alike because of the rumors of monsters and shadows that lurk in its depths—and their yearly tradition descends into darkness as Erica turns up dead and the girls are forced to leave her body behind.
Their tight-knit community is sent into a spiral of grief and suspicion, and Maya and her friends are at a loss to understand what happened: was it simply an accident or is there truth to the rumors about Annatto?
And while the community rejoices when Erica mysteriously returns alive and well a week later, Maya can’t seem to let go of her questions. What did they see that night? And who—or what—has Erica returned as? As old arguments and new betrayals rise to the surface, Maya and her friends can feel the shadows closing in on them. Something is lurking in the night, and they must be ready to face it.
Drawing from the darkest corners of Caribbean mythology, acclaimed author Sarah Dass delivers a supernatural thriller blends cultural nuance with monsters that go bump in the night, giving long-time Rick Riordan Presents fans the kind of story that will root into their hearts and awaken never their deepest fears.
Better Catch Up, Krishna Kumar by Anahita Karthik
HarperCollins
Krishna Kumar may have gotten into her dream college, but that doesn’t mean she’s stopped being a bi disaster. Even after spending her whole summer in India flirting with her gorgeous neighbor Amrit, she has nothing to show for it. And now, her fate is sealed: she’s destined to be the only freshman who’s never been kissed.
But when her flight home is delayed right as a distinctly flirty text from Amrit lights up her phone, Krishna is determined to seize her last chance at a perfect first kiss with Amrit, even if it means asking her cousin-turned-nemesis, Priti, for help. Because Amrit is miles away at a family wedding—and Priti’s best friend, Rudra Desai, is the only one with a car.
The unlikely trio set off on a road trip to crash a wedding and save Krishna’s summer. But as she starts to fall for the quiet yet irresistibly hot and charming Rudra, who everyone knows is unrequitedly in love with Priti, Krishna realizes her heart better catch up to her head before she skips right past her first kiss and falls directly into her first heartbreak.
Sundown Girls by L.S. Stratton
Nancy Paulsen Books
When sixteen-year-old Naomi Ward and her family head to a secluded cabin in the Shenandoah Valley for summer vacation they don’t know the small, mountain town of Sparksburg, Virginia has a dark and twisted past. But when they arrive, Naomi can’t shake the feeling that something about Sparksburg just isn’t right—and it smells god awful, but for some reason Naomi is the only who can smell the town’s stench. When she learns Sparksburg had once been a Sundown Town—a town where Black people weren’t allowed after sunset lest they be murdered—Naomi’s unease starts to make sense.
As Naomi digs more into Sparksburg’s violent origins, she finds herself haunted by the ghost of a girl, appearing nightly outside her window. Then she learns of two girls who’ve recently gone missing and suspects the past may still be present in Sparksburg and beneath the quaint façade of this tourist town is a palpable danger.
When Naomi decides to track the disappearance of the two girls herself, she becomes suspicious of a local man who has kindled fear in Naomi more than once. She soon learns he has a connection to one of the missing girls, and Naomi is certain he’s responsible for the disappearances.
When no one believes her, Naomi takes matters into her own hands. But to save the missing girls, she’ll have to finally face her own past trauma as a “missing girl” as she finds herself in a fight for survival.
Gripping and triumphant, L.S. Stratton tells an important and unforgettable story of racial reckoning inspired by historical events.