We wanted to highlight five new books that are out today, plus two we missed last week. There’s a fun mix of genres here–what are you looking forward to?
OUT TODAY
Death Card by Jasmine Smith
G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers
On an ordinary Monday morning, eighteen-year-old Mikaela Broussard receives the shock of her life. During a customer’s tarot reading at her family’s occult shop, she turns over the Death card and envisions the beautiful stranger stabbing her in the heart.
In order to determine why the girl, Joelle, wants to kill her, she’ll have to keep her close. But the more time Mikaela spends with her soon-to-be murderer, the more irresistible she finds her.
As if imminent death isn’t worrisome enough, witches are turning up with their magic stolen. And it’s clear some very dark magic is at work. Mikaela, as the next Witch Queen of her coven, is tasked with figuring out who’s behind the horrific acts—a mystery that will put her and her power to the test.
Death Card is a dark, pacy, and romantic fantasy about one witch’s journey to find the strength to fight for herself, her future, and her beloved community.
Heavensent & Hellbent by Sara Jafari
Delacourte Press
Roxana wants to relax for the rest of summer. Moving from England to Colorado was exhausting. Especially when she’s been avoiding her dad, grieving her mom, and failing to conquer sleep paralysis. Life couldn’t possibly get any more complicated.
Then Roxy bumps into a beautiful and familiar boy. Zain. In her nightmares, they’re being burned together at the stake. And in the real world, she watches him kill a man, altering life as she knows it. She quickly learns that not only do jinn—demons—exist, but angels too.
Roxy can’t ignore the undeniable attraction she feels toward Zain, even as he triggers new nightmares for her. Ones that come with a warning: Their relationship could lead to their ruin. But isn’t love worth fighting both heaven and hell for?
My Killer Family Reunion by Dinesh Thiru
Atheneum Books for Young Reader
Nothings brings family together like attempted murder.
There are three things Jayshree Devi can count on happening at her annual family reunion: 1) her cousins will forget she exists, 2) her aunts will try to set her up, and 3) her uncles will get into a fight. What she doesn’t expect? An accident that lands her grandmother in a coma, throwing the family—and their matriarch’s sizeable fortune—into chaos.
When Jay discovers Grand Mom’s “accident” might not have been so accidental after all, she’ll have to dig through decades of secrets to find the truth. With the help of her (annoyingly perky) cousins and one of their (annoyingly hot) friends, Jay finds herself knee-deep in a mystery that’s even more tangled than her family tree.
But the closer Jay gets to answers, the closer she gets to finding her place amongst the relatives who once felt so distant. With Grand Mom’s life and fortune hanging in the balance, can Jay save her family and maybe hook up with a hottie while she’s at it?
Nest of Tongues by Randy Ribay
Random House Books for Young Readers
As Filipino vampires known as manananggal, Lily and her brother Caleb understand the value of a secret. After all, to hide is to survive. To lie is to live. They’d never harm another person—but people only believe their worst fears around creatures of myth. So the siblings stay quiet. They follow their community’s rules.
Until a monster hunter turns up and kills a fellow manananggal, anyway.
Until Caleb is marked as the hunter’s next prey.
Suddenly, he and Lily realize there’s always been more at stake than the lives of their people. Because when doing everything “right” is still a death sentence, what can they take as truth? As the hunter nears, the siblings must decide if they’ll be driven from the only home they’ve ever known . . . or fight to protect a community that may already be lost.
Such Great Heights by Rajani LaRocca
Quill Tree Books
Siya Kumar is done with liars.
Part of the reason Siya joins her school’s mock trial team is to honor the memory of her mother, a lawyer who was killed in a car accident when Siya was just ten years old. Her mom always told her that the truth is like a flame that burns away lies.
When Raj Raghavan, varsity soccer star and mock trial co-captain, seems interested in Siya, it feels too good to be true. Everything is golden until an overnight team bonding session, when Siya accidentally gets locked in a room with another guy until dawn. Even though Siya swears nothing happened, she doesn’t feel like Raj believes her.
At the same time, the details of the mock trial case are suspiciously similar to the circumstances of her mom’s death—which leads Siya to wonder if it was really just a car accident that took her mother’s life.
From award-winning author Rajani LaRocca comes a contemporary retelling of the Ramayana that asks whether seeking the truth is always the right thing to do. Sometimes, is the past better left behind?
OUT LAST WEEK
Stepping Up by Kiara Valdez with Diana Tsai Santos (Illustrator)
HarperAlley
Kiara is a long way from Washington Heights. She’s at Phillips Academy Andover—the prestigious school of her dreams. But her bulky financial aid laptop in a room full of brand-new Macs, her classmates’ endless chatter about overseas vacations, and everyone’s pristine North Face jackets have her feeling like she’ll never fit in.
Then she discovers the all-star step team, SLAM. Kiara will gladly endure long practices, sore muscles, and chafed palms to finally find her place on campus. That is, until tragedy strikes and those closest to her are hurt, and she realizes exactly what it means to be an Andover student.
Because at a school where her wealthy white classmates can get away with almost anything and students like her are made to feel lucky to even be at the academy to begin with, is belonging really what Kiara wants? And is she brave enough to step up—for herself and her friends?
Everything Comes Back To You by Jackie Khalilieh
Tundra Books
Lennon is excited and apprehensive about starting high school, where her older sister is going to be a senior. Then her sister drops a bombshell: she is pregnant. Her Palestinian Canadian parents are devastated, and Lennon finds herself under even more pressure to be a “good girl” – a role autistic Lennon has always played well. But after a chance encounter with John, a white boy in the grade above, Lennon finds herself nursing a crush on someone her parents would definitely not approve of—which only seems to intrigue her more.
As Lennon and John are drawn together and pulled apart throughout her four years of high school, Lennon wrestles with feelings of shame and yearning, obedience and rebellion through the lens of her autism, trying to both please her parents and herself. When a relationship with a different boy challenges her notions of family and happiness, her way forward becomes clear, even if it might mean losing everything and everyone she loves.