Book Stacks and New(ish) Books

Stack of books including An Arrow to the Moon, Cafe Con Lychee, Just Your Normal Bisexual Disaster, Hunting by Stars, One True Loves, and Wave.

One of my favorite things to do at the library is to browse the “New Books” shelf. They aren’t necessarily brand new releases, but they are new to the library and me. Today, quite a few titles caught my attention. Here are the ones I couldn’t walk past:

A golden arrow is flying straight up at a very bright yellow moon. It seems to be pushing through the air as if going through waves in water.An Arrow to the Moon by Emily X.R. Pan
Little, Brown Books For Young Readers

Hunter Yee has perfect aim with a bow and arrow, but all else in his life veers wrong. He’s sick of being haunted by his family’s past mistakes. The only things keeping him from running away are his little brother, a supernatural wind, and the bewitching girl at his new high school.

Luna Chang dreads the future. Graduation looms ahead, and her parents’ expectations are stifling. When she begins to break the rules, she finds her life upended by the strange new boy in her class, the arrival of unearthly fireflies, and an ominous crack spreading across the town of Fairbridge.

As Hunter and Luna navigate their families’ enmity and secrets, everything around them begins to fall apart. All they can depend on is their love… but time is running out, and fate will have its way.

Illustrated book cover of two teenage boys looking at each other. One is Asian and the other is Puerto Rican. Between them and above them is a collage of baked goods, coffee, and boba tea.Café con Lychee by Emery Lee
Quill Tree Books [Audrey’s Review]

Sometimes bitter rivalries can brew something sweet

Theo Mori wants to escape. Leaving Vermont for college means getting away from working at his parents’ Asian American café and dealing with their archrivals’ hopeless son Gabi who’s lost the soccer team more games than Theo can count.

Gabi Moreno is miserably stuck in the closet. Forced to play soccer to hide his love for dance and iced out by Theo, the only openly gay guy at school, Gabi’s only reprieve is his parents’ Puerto Rican bakery and his plans to take over after graduation.

But the town’s new fusion café changes everything. Between the Mori’s struggling shop and the Moreno’s plan to sell their bakery in the face of the competition, both boys find their dreams in jeopardy. Then Theo has an idea—sell photo-worthy food covertly at school to offset their losses. When he sprains his wrist and Gabi gets roped in to help, they realize they need to work together to save their parents’ shops but will the new feelings rising between them be enough to send their future plans up in smoke?

Book cover features a young girl in a tshirt and soft slouchy hat sitting on wooden planks outside. There are trees behind her on the left and some buildings further in the distance on the right.Just Your Local Bisexual Disaster by Andrea Mosqueda
Feiwel & Friends

Growing up in Texas’s Rio Grande Valley, Maggie Gonzalez has always been a little messy, but she’s okay with that. After all, she has a great family, a goofy group of friends, a rocky romantic history, and dreams of being a music photographer. Tasked with picking an escort for her little sister’s quinceañera, Maggie has to face the truth: that her feelings about her friends—and her future—aren’t as simple as she’d once believed.

As Maggie’s search for the perfect escort continues, she’s forced to confront new (and old) feelings for three of her friends: Amanda, her best friend and first-ever crush; Matthew, her ex-boyfriend twice-over who refuses to stop flirting with her, and Dani, the new girl who has romantic baggage of her own. On top of this romantic disaster, she can’t stop thinking about the uncertainty of her own plans for the future and what that means for the people she loves.

As the weeks wind down and the boundaries between friendship and love become hazy, Maggie finds herself more and more confused with each photo. When her tried-and-true medium causes more chaos than calm, Maggie needs to figure out how to avoid certain disaster—or be brave enough to dive right into it.

the book cover has a night sky filled with stars and the tips of tall evergreen trees. It seems there are also sparks from a fire rising from the ground near the trees.Hunting by Stars [The Marrow Thieves #2] by Cherie Dimaline
Harry N. Abrams

Years ago, when plagues and natural disasters killed millions of people, much of the world stopped dreaming. Without dreams, people are haunted, sick, mad, unable to rebuild. The government soon finds that the Indigenous people of North America have retained their dreams, an ability rumored to be housed in the very marrow of their bones. Soon, residential schools pop up—or are re-opened—across the land to bring in the dreamers and harvest their dreams.

Seventeen-year-old French lost his family to these schools and has spent the years since heading north with his new found family: a group of other dreamers, who, like him, are trying to build and thrive as a community. But then French wakes up in a pitch-black room, locked in and alone for the first time in years, and he knows immediately where he is—and what it will take to escape.

Meanwhile, out in the world, his found family searches for him and dodges new dangers—school Recruiters, a blood cult, even the land itself. When their paths finally collide, French must decide how far he is willing to go—and how many loved ones is he willing to betray—in order to survive.

Book cover with light purple background. Young black presenting person with long hair is sitting on a green rolling suitcase that is tipped on its side. The case is covered in many stickers.One True Loves (Happily Ever Afters #2) by Elise Bryant
Balzer & Bray/Harperteen

Lenore Bennett has always been a force. A star artist and style icon at her high school, she’s a master in the subtle art of not giving a . . . well, you know what. But now that graduation is here, she’s a little less sure.

She’s heading to NYU in the fall with a scarlet U (for “undeclared”) written across her chest. Her parents always remind her that Black kids don’t have the luxury of figuring it out as they go—they have to be 110 percent prepared. But it’s a lot of pressure to be her ancestors’ wildest dreams when Lenore’s not even sure what her dreams are yet.

When her family embarks on a post-graduation Mediterranean cruise, her friend Tessa is sure Lenore’s in for a whirlwind romance. But Lenore knows that doesn’t happen in real life. At least not to girls like her.

Then she meets Alex Lee. After their parents bond over the Cupid Shuffle, she ends up stuck with him for the remainder of the cruise. He’s a hopeless romantic and a golden boy with a ten-year plan. In short, he’s irritating as hell.

But as they get to know each other during the picturesque stops across Europe, he may be able to help her find something else she’s been looking for, even if she doesn’t want to admit it to herself: love.

A young woman is on a surfboard riding a wave. The foam and bubbles behind here are small drawn circles and flowers.

Wave by Diana Farid illustrations by Kris Goto
Harry N. Abrams

Thirteen-year-old Ava loves to surf and to sing. Singing and reading Rumi poems settle her mild OCD, and catching waves with her best friend, Phoenix, lets her fit in—her olive skin looks tan, not foreign. But then Ava has to spend the summer before ninth grade volunteering at the hospital, to follow in her single mother’s footsteps to become a doctor. And when Phoenix’s past lymphoma surges back, not even surfing, singing, or poetry can keep them afloat, threatening Ava’s hold on the one place and the one person that make her feel like she belongs. With ocean-like rhythm and lyricism, Wave is about a girl who rides the waves, tumbles, and finds her way back to the shore.


The June calendar with books listed on each of the Tuesdays in the month. I had grabby hands and my backpack was full on the way home. I get excited just thinking about all of the great reading in my near future.

If I’m not able to get to the physical library though, another way I discover books is to check the release calendar here on Rich in Color. The calendar provides plenty of titles to add to my TBR list.

Beyond that, it’s fun to see what will be coming in the future. We update the calendar periodically, but things that are farther than a month or two away will be on the shelves of our Goodreads account. even if they haven’t made it to the calendar yet.

If you ever see that we’ve missed something that you’re waiting for, please let us know. If you are an author or someone in the publishing industry, we are also happy to hear from you if we haven’t discovered your book(s) yet.

What’s in your book stack or on your TBR list? Let us know in the comments.