Category: YA Fiction

ARC Reviews, Romance, YA Fiction

Breathless by Jennifer Niven

Michelle @ The Bookish Librarian

Grades 9 – 12

Breathless

Claudine Henry’s life is uprooted when her parents get divorced and her mother whisks her away to an island off the coast of Georgia for the summer right after her high school graduation. She is separated from her best friend and all that feels comfortable and familiar. This is a beautiful coming of age story about friends and first love.

Thanks to Netgalley for a review copy of this book.

ARC Reviews, Graphic, LGBTQ+, Romance, YA Fiction

You Brought Me the Ocean by Alex Sanchez

Michelle @ The Bookish Librarian

Grades 9 – 12

You Brought Me the Ocean

Jake Hyde’s father died by drowning, so he doesn’t swim. At all. In fact, he lives in a dessert and is forced by his mother to stay away from water at all costs. He wants to go to college on the coast however, and work with the ocean for a living. That is a secret he’s keeping from his mother. His other big secret? He doesn’t tell his best friend Maria that he doesn’t return her feelings; in fact, he is attracted to Kenny, a boy in his class who has shown interest in him. Can he come clean and be his true self?
Thanks to SLJ for a review copy of this book.
ARC Reviews, Graphic, YA Fiction

Gotham High by Melissa de la Cruz

Michelle @ The Bookish Librarian

Grades 9 – 12Gotham High

Jack, Selina and Bruce are high schoolers at Gotham High – before they became superheroes – and will do whatever it takes, even destroying their own families, to get what they want. Bruce has been kicked out of his boarding school and returns to Gotham, only to find nothing has changed. Selina and Jack are the epic duo who rule their school. Then someone is kidnapped, they must figure out who dun it before they are accused themselves.
Thanks to SLJ for a review copy of this book.
ARC Reviews, Graphic, YA Fiction

Primer by Jennifer Muro and Thomas Krajewski

Michelle @ The Bookish Librarian

Grades 9 – 12

PrimerTeen artist Ashley Rayburn has a troubled past, with her father in prison and stints in multiple foster homes. Things start to brighten for her when she meets loving parents and a new best friend, not to mention a suitcase full of superhero body paints that she uses to her advantage. Everything is going well until the government contacts her and lets her know they want the paints back. She is forced to make a tough decision and protect her family – or not.

Thanks to SLJ for a review copy of this book.

ARC Reviews, YA Fiction

Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From by Jennifer De Leon

Michelle @ The Bookish Librarian

Grades 9 – 12

Don't Ask Me Where I'm From

When Liliana Cruz is accepted into METCO, a new school that has a desegregation program, she faces new challenges of going from the majority to the minority, as a Latinx at a predominately white school. She has to lighten up if she wants to fit in at her new school. Not only that, but she has to deal with the reality that her father isn’t just on a work trip, but has been deported back to Guatemala. With things seemingly falling apart in every aspect of her life, is Liliana strong enough to overcome?

Thanks to SLJ for a review copy of this book.

ARC Reviews, Historical Fiction, YA Fiction

28 Days by David Safier

Michelle @ The Bookish Librarian
Grades 9 – 12
28 Days: A Novel of Resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto by [Safier, David]
28 Days follows sixteen-year-old Mira who smuggles food into the Warsaw ghetto to keep her family safe in 1942. When the ghetto is set to be liquidated, she is determined to find a way to keep her family safe. She meets a group of young people like herself who are planning an uprising against the occupying forces. She joins them, and they resist for 28 days, much longer than they thought possible.
Thanks to School Library Journal for a review copy of this book.
ARC Reviews, Fantasy, Graphic, YA Fiction

Zatanna and the House of Secrets by Matthew Cody

Michelle @ The Bookish Librarian

Grades 9 – 12

Zatanna & the House of Secrets

Zatanna lives with her father who is a magician in the House of Secrets, which is filled with puzzles, trap doors and mythical creatures. One day she stands up to a bully in school, and things start to change. She rushes home to tell her father, but it appears he has gone missing within the House of Secrets’ four walls.
Thanks to SLJ for a review copy of this book.