Book Lists

Audrey’s 2024 Favorites

Posted onAuthorAudrey
Collage of the book covers for ASKING FOR A FRIEND, ICARUS, THE LAST BLOODCARVER, and SOUND THE GONG. All are described in more detail in the post.

This was a year filled with a bunch of great YA books, and of them all, these four were my favorites:

Illustrated cover of Asking for a Friend. Two teenagers are sitting on the floor next to each other, close enough that their shoulders arms brush. The girl has mid-back length black hair and is wearing a short sleeved yellow dress that goes down to about her knees. The boy has short brown hair and is wearing a dark green shirt, blue jeans, and green and white sneakers. They are both holding papers, and there are more papers and envelopes scattered around them, along with boba tea.Asking for a Friend by Kara H.L. Chen
Quill Tree Books || Audrey’s Review

Juliana Zhao is absolutely certain of a few things:

1. She is the world’s foremost expert on love.

2. She is going to win the nationally renowned Asian Americans in Business Competition.

When Juliana is unceremoniously dropped by her partner and she’s forced to pair with her nonconformist and annoying frenemy, Garrett Tsai, everything seems less clear. Their joint dating advice column must be good enough to win and secure bragging rights within her small Taiwanese American community, where her family’s reputation has been in the pits since her older sister was disowned a few years prior. Juliana always thought prestige mattered above all else. But as she argues with Garrett over how to best solve everyone else’s love problems and faces failure for the first time, she starts to see fractures in this privileged, sheltered worldview. With the competition heating up, Juliana must reckon with the sacrifices she’s made to be a perfect daughter—and whether winning is something she even wants anymore.

Illustrated cover for Icarus. The cover is a medium blue, and at the center is a black line rendering of a Greek-style statue head, but the head is broken so that the eyes and right ear are missing. The white silhouette of a person falls from a flat yellow sun and looks like it is about to impact what's left of the statue head. There are additional flat silhouettes around this, including a crescent moon, several stars, foliage, an eye, a bird, a hand, and tear drops in various shades of yellow, orange, and pink.Icarus by K. Ancrum
HarperTeen || Audrey’s Review

Icarus Gallagher is a thief. He steals priceless art and replaces it with his father’s impeccable forgeries. For years, one man—the wealthy Mr. Black—has been their target in revenge for his role in the death of Icarus’s mother. To keep their secret, Icarus adheres to his own strict rules to keep people, and feelings, at bay: Don’t let anyone close. Don’t let anyone touch you. And, above all, don’t get caught.

Until one night, he does. Not by Mr. Black but by his mysterious son, Helios, now living under house arrest in the Black mansion. Instead of turning Icarus in, Helios bargains for something even more dangerous—a friendship that breaks every single one of Icarus’s rules.

As reluctance and distrust become closeness and something more, they uncover the gilded cage that has trapped both their families for years. One Icarus is determined to escape. But his father’s thirst for revenge shows no sign of fading, and soon it may force Icarus to choose: the escape he’s dreamed of, or the boy he’s come to love. Reaching for both could be his greatest triumph—or it could be his downfall.

Illustrated cover for The Last Bloodcarver. A teenage girl with light brown skin on her face and arms has a body made up of pipe-like bones and what look like red carnations. Her right hand has gone through her left ribs, so she can grip the flowers underneath. She looks like she might pull them out. She is wearing a green cape with a gold lining and stands in a field of more of the red flowers. A golden full moon hangs behind her, as well as a pair of red, white, and black fox masks with long, pointed ears.The Last Bloodcarver by Vanessa Le
Roaring Brook Press || Audrey’s Review

Nhika is a bloodcarver. A coldhearted, ruthless being who can alter human biology with just a touch.

In the industrial city of Theumas, Nhika is seen not as a healer, but a monster that kills for pleasure. And in the city’s criminal underbelly, the rarest of monsters are traded for gold. When Nhika is finally caught by the infamous Butchers, she’s forced to heal the last witness to a high-profile murder.

As Nhika delves into the investigation, all signs point to Ven Kochin, an alluring yet entitled physician’s aide. Despite his relentless attempts to push her out of his opulent world, something inexplicable draws Nhika to him. But when she discovers Kochin is not who he claims to be, Nhika will be faced with a greater, more terrifying evil lurking in the city’s center…

Her only chance to survive lies in a terrible choice—become the dreaded monster the city fears, or risk jeopardizing the future of her kind.

Illustrated cover for Sound the Gong. A young man in black and blue hanfu stands on a fortress wall, looking over the edge. He has his hand raised to obscure half his face, and his long black hair is pulled partially up. Behind him are some ornately decorated roofs, and in front of him is what looks like a wooden, decorated podium. There are gold arrows scattered in the foreground, and it looks like they're headed for whatever force is at the bottom of the wall.Sound the Gong (Kingdom of Three #2) by Joan He
Roaring Brook Press || Audrey’s Review

All her life, Zephyr has tried to rise above her humble origins as a no-name orphan. Now she is a god in a warrior’s body, and never has she felt more powerless. Her lordess Xin Ren holds the Westlands, but her position is tenuous. In the north, the empress remains under Miasma’s thumb. In the south, the alliance with Cicada is in pieces.

Fate also seems to have a different winner in mind for the three kingdoms, but Zephyr has no intentions of respecting it. She will pay any price to see Ren succeed—and she will make her enemies pay, especially one dark-haired, dark-eyed Crow. What she’ll do when she finds out the truth—that he worked for the South all along…

Only the heavens know.