YA

When We Ride

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by Rex Ogle
First sentence: “I’m waiting to die”
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Content: There is drug use (and dealing) by teenagers, swearing including multiple f-bombs, talk of alcoholism, and death. It’s in the Contemporary YA section of the bookstore.

Diego is trying to find his way out of his town. His mom is a recovering alcoholic, and after his dad left, all she wants is for Diego to make something of himself. Study hard, go to college, live a better life than she has been able to provide. His best friend, Lawson, is also being raised by his mom, but doesn’t have the drive that Diego has, and has taken the easy way out: he’s selling drugs for easy cash. As the book goes over their senior year of high school, with the ups and downs of their friendship – Diego has a car and Lawson always needs rides places – we find out what drives Diego and what might keep him back.

I liked this one well enough, but I think I wanted more in the end. I was hoping for something similar to Long Way Down, something powerful and deep, and maybe it is that to some readers. I know there will be many who see themselves in Diego and Lawson, and I hope it starts conversations. But, honestly? It left me wanting more. The big climax wasn’t emotionally moving, and I felt like the book went in circles for much of it. That said, I’m glad it’s out there, and I hope it’s a good mirror for some readers.

A Prince Among Pirates

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by Katie Abdou
First sentence: “Canon fire before breakfast is obscene – and waking up to it an atrocity.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Release date: June 16, 2026
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Content: There is some violence, and lots of drinking (well, they are pirates). There are inferences to sex, but none actual. It will be in the Young Adult section of the bookstore.

Kit – otherwise known as Christopher-Henry – has spent his whole life living under his father’s thumb and in his shadow. The last thing he wants to do is marry the woman his father has picked out, even if she’s of a higher station than he is, and would increase his status in the English upper crust of the 1700s. So, he does the only thing he can think of: he runs away to the port and picks the first ship he sees to board. He charms (of sorts) his way on and convinces the crew that he can be of use. Two problems, though: 1 – the ship is captained by the charming and desirable Reggie Swan, and Kit finds himself smitten. And 2 – it’s a pirate ship. Kit finds a home and friends on the ship there, and will do anything to help and protect his shipmates, especially when his past catches up with him.

I picked this one up because the markup notes mentioned Our Flag Means Death, and oh, this scratched that itch. It’s not deep, it’s not historically accurate (it’s accurate-ish), it’s mostly just a lot of fun, which is exactly what I wanted out of it. I liked Kit’s growth arc, and the characters of all the pirates on the ship. I’m also here for any book that has me sailing around the Caribbean, experiencing the open air and the sea. It’s a delight of a book, and one that will make a perfect summer romance read.

An Expanse of Blue

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by Kauakanilehua Mahoe Adams 
First sentence: “Mass begins at 10:00 a.m. on the dot, but we are late because I walked out of my room this morning in leggings and a sweatshirt and Dad lost his shit.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Release date May 19, 2026
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Content: There is swearing, sexual assault, and talk of sex. It will be in the YA section of the bookstore.

Aouli Smith is struggling. She’s unheard at home and school, she fights constantly with her “perfect” sister – it’s no fun being the younger, less perfect one – and she’s losing her best friend. The only safe place, her refuge is her Auntie Ehu’s house with the Native Hawai’ian community in Western Washington. But then, her life starts unraveling. She finds out a secret about her father, she is assaulted by a boy at church, she can’t hold in the secrets any more. But then, another Hawai’ian boy, Nalu, moves in, and maybe there is hope in the world again.

I’m doing the children’s buying at the bookstore again, and I stumbled on this one while going through the Harper frontlist. I was attracted by the cover and by the premise – I do love Hawai’i – so I downloaded the DRC, and started reading. But once I began, I fell in love with Adams’ storytelling and her way with words. The poems are beautiful, and I love the way Adams talks about faith, family, and tradition. It’s a gorgeous debut YA novel, and I hope I can find readers for it.

Audiobook: All the Crooked Saints

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by Maggie Stiefvater
Read by Thom Rivera
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Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: There’s some swearing, including a couple of f-bombs. It is in the Young Adult Science Fiction section of the bookstore, but younger kids might be interested in it.

I’m not really going to sum up the plot, since I did that when I first read this book eight years ago. I did enjoy Rivera’s narration, though. And maybe I enjoyed this better as an audiobook. It felt like Rivera was sitting there telling me this tall tale about family and love and miracles. It’s the least Stiefvater-y book of all the ones I’ve read this year, but I still loved it. And yeah, while I see it’s problematic that Stiefvater is exploring a culture that isn’t hers, I still liked the way she wove religion and myth with Latinx culture and 1960s. It was a delightful audiobook to listen to.

Highly recommended on audio, especially.

Audiobook: The Scorpio Races

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by Maggie Stiefvater
Read by Steve West & Fiona Hardingham
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Or listen at Libro.fm
Content: It’s violent. But, if there’s a kid, say, 11 years old or so, who is interested in dark fairy-type tales, I’d give it to them. It’s in the Young Adult Bestsellers section of the bookstore.

Because this story isn’t this story without the first sentence: “It is the first day of November, and so, today, someone will die.”

I haven’t reread this in a handful of years, but I seem to be on a Stiefvater kick this year (seven of her books and counting!) and I couldn’t pass up the chance to listen to this one. And, like it always is, it’s an excellent story. The narrators did a wonderful job with the story, and I loved being back on Thisby in the thick of things again.

I adore Stiefvater’s work, and this is absolutely no exception.

Joy to the Girls

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by Rachael Lippincott and Alyson Derrick
First sentence: “I push through the heavy wooden doors out of the Cathedral of Learning, my last exam of the term finally complete.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Release date: Sept 30, 2025
Content: There is some swearing, including multiple f-bombs, and some fade-to-black sex. It’s in the YA Romance/Holiday section of the bookstore.

Alex and Molly are nearly done with college, and they both have plans for the future. The problem is that neither one of them has talked to the other about said plans. Alex wants to move in together; Molly wants to go to King’s College in London for an MFA. On top of that, it’s winter holiday, and their friend May has invited them and their other mutual friend, Cora (who has a crush on May), to her hometown, which happens to be all-in on Christmas. Can Alex and Molly make it through the trip with their secrets and their relationship intact (while also setting Cora and May up).

I’ll admit up front that I haven’t read the book that this novella is a spin-off of, and so maybe I’m missing something when it comes to character development. Because while this was cute, it was lacking. I was constantly annoyed that Alex and Molly just DIDN’T TALK TO EACH OTHER, and I felt not quite enough was spent on Cora and May getting together. (Also, there was a definite lack of figure skating.) It was cute, but not cute enough to make me really love it. Maybe if I were the intended audience (read: a fan of the first book) it would have sat differently.

The Guardians of Dreamdark: Windwitch

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by Laini Taylor
First sentence: “The wolf tasted the babe’s face with the tip of his tongue, and pronounced her sweet, and the fox licked the back of her head to see if it was so.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
I read my old edition; the new edition will be released on September 23, 2025.
Content: There are some intense moments of danger. It will be in the YA Science Fiction/Fantasy section in the bookstore.

I was on Instagram, when I stumbled across Laini Taylor announcing that she’s re-releasing her first book in a new edition. I was immediately excited, mostly because I remember loving this series and I know it’s been out of print for years. So, I decided to dig out my copies (which I have been meaning to reread for years) and give them a reread to see if they hold up.

And it does. I had one quibble: it’s not really a middle grade book anymore. Maybe 18 years ago, it was, but middle grade books have changed so much that I can’t really see giving this to anyone younger than 11 or 12. It’s not the content; it’s mostly Taylor’s writing style. She’s a very lush, descriptive writer (one of the things I like about her), and she’s not a very linear writer. Both of these add up to a more mature writing style for kids than I think kids are used to/want right now. I think my oldest read this when she was 11, but I couldn’t fathom giving it to my youngest at the same age, 10 years later. It’s a gorgeous book, with an intense plot, and the characters are fabulous, and it holds up all these years later. It’s just an older book than I remember it being.

Hekate

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by Nikita Gill
First sentence: “This is an ancient story written long before us.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Content: There is some violence and a hint of romance. It will be in the YA Science Fiction/Fantasy section of the bookstore.

I know I’ve heard the name Hekate before, but I’m not sure I knew her myth before reading this novel in verse. I’m going to assume that Gill took some liberties expanding the myth – putting Hekate at Troy, or raising Odysseus’s puppy from the dead, for example – but perhaps it mostly keeps to the general thread of the myth. It follows Hekate from her birth, through her exile in the Underworld, to her finding and coming into her powers – both witchcraft and necromancy – and helping the Olympians defeat the giants.

It’s a beautifully written book; the poems are lovely, and I liked following Hekate’s story. But – and perhaps it’s because it’s an epic story – I never really felt connected to Hekate or her story. I wanted to cheer for her or feel bad that she’s exiled from her parents, or feel something. I wanted Song of Achilles or Circe. And maybe it could have been. Maybe it wasn’t because it was in verse, because we weren’t given the chance to really delve into Hekate’s trauma or her motivations. Or maybe it’s because it’s geared towards young adults, when it’s not really a “young adult” story. I don’t know.

In the end, I liked it, but I didn’t love it. Which isn’t a bad thing.

The Raven Boys: The Graphic Novel

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by Maggie Stiefvater, Stephanie Williams, Sas Milledge
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Content: Much like the source material, there is some mild swearing and references to teenage drinking. It’s in the Teen Graphic Novel section of the bookstore.

I’m not going to rehash the plot here because I read the audiobook earlier this year. My thoughts on this can be boiled down to this: I loved the art, but I missed the words. Milledge did an excellent job of capturing the boys and Blue. She was able to portray their personalities in the art (though I’d always pictured Gansey as a blonde, but oh well), and I loved seeing her interpretations of the locations in the book. The art is, in fact, quite lovely.

But I don’t read Stiefvater for the plots. (Unusual for me, but there it is.) I missed her words. The book -because it’s a graphic novel – it boiled down to the plot and honestly, there’s not much there there. Which means I didn’t get the soaring descriptions, the lovely turns of phrase, the things that make me truly love these books. It was…. just okay.

That’s not to say I’m not going to collect these for the art. It’s just not as good a read as the original is.

In the Serpent’s Wake

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by Rachel Hartman
First sentence: “Once there was a girl named Tess, Who’d got herself in a wretched mess.”
Support your local independent bookstore: buy it there!
Others in the series: Seraphina, Shadow Scale, Tess of the Road
Content: There is violence towards others, including colonizer violence, and talk of rape. It’s in the Young Adult Science Fiction section of the bookstore.

Tess has promised her quigutl friend, Pathka, that she will take him to the Sea World Serpent, especially after she was inadvertently responsible for the death of the Continental World Serpent. However, even though she’s on a voyage with noted scientist Countess Margarethe and her brother-in-law (of sorts) Jacomo, this task isn’t as easy as it seems. First: there’s the competing dragon expedition, headed by Spiro, whom Tess has had (unfortunate) dealings with. And then there’s the repeated warnings that the serpent is not for her- and other Deadlanders, as the island peoples call them – and she will not be allowed near.

It’s a simple story at it’s heart, but Hartman, because she’s a brilliant writer, has managed to weave in so much. The consequences of not saying anything in the face of injustice. The assumptions that class and privilege afford you. The choices we all make, for good or ill, and the fallout of those. And, most of all, reparations for those choices, especially when they’ve done ill (whether you’ve meant it or not). I marveled just how much Hartman was able to pack into this simple voyage story, and how satisfying it was, even if Tess didn’t succeed at her quest.

I’m not sure I’ll continue with the new one, at least not yet. But, if you haven’t had the pleasure of reading one of Hartman’s books, I’d highly suggest remedying that.