Tag Archives: YA

Cover Reveal

Cover Reveal: Bottle Blonde by Elle Grenier

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Today on the site I am thrilled to welcome back Elle Grenier to reveal the cover of a book I have been waiting on foreverrrr, a contemporary YA called Bottle Blonde releasing May 18, 2027 from HarperCollins! Here’s the story:

Amelia knows she was born to be a leading lady. But there’s just one thing: only one other person knows she’s a girl.

With only three and a half months until graduation, Amelia is determined to make her senior year dreams come true. And the key to living out her picture-perfect high school fantasy is landing the part of Elle Woods in Legally Blonde: The Musical. It would give Amelia the chance to play opposite her longtime crush—sensitive, mega-talented basketball star, Travis dos Santos. Travis, who always laughs at her jokes and makes space for her thoughts. Travis, who has started to look at her a bit differently.

But if she wants a real shot at her dream role, she has to come out as a trans girl.

Amelia is closer than ever to turning her main-character daydreams into reality, if only she could prove herself to the rest of the school. But finding her happily-ever-after might be more complicated than she thought—and her vibrant imagination might just carry her away this time.

Here’s the gorgeous cover designed by David DeWitt with art by Betsy Cola!

Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon

Elle Grenier is a queer and trans author from Southern Ontario currently residing in British Columbia with her partner and their three cats. Elle has a BA in English Literature from the University of Toronto, and is the author of This Wretched Beauty (A Dorian Gray Remix) as well as their upcoming YA coming-of-age rom com, Bottle Blonde.

Cover Reveal

Cover Reveal: Spiraling Out by Maya Ameyaw

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Today on the site, I’m delighted to welcome back Maya Ameyaw to reveal the cover of her next contemporary YA, Spiraling Out, which releases March 2, 2027 from Annick Press! (Can’t wait to get your hands on a copy? Reviewers can grab it on Netgalley as a Read Now for 24 hours!) Here’s the story:

A competitive figure skater tries not to buckle under pressure while ignoring her growing feelings for her rival in this YA novel perfect for fans of Some Girls Do and Spinning.

Ever since failing to get the gold last season, figure skater Evelyn Osei has had her eyes on the prize. This time nothing will get in her way―not friends or school, not her OCD, and definitely not her ex-friend and rival Mei Sato who is training at Evelyn’s club this year. As the season progresses and her relationships fray, Evelyn has to confront that she might not have everything under control and that her feelings for Mei run deeper than either friendship or rivalry.
In her third novel, award-winning author Maya Ameyaw explores the stress of athletic competition and the confusion of first love with sensitive and vivid prose. Spiraling Out will speak to figure skating fans as well as any reader balancing the demands of daily life while on the complicated road to self-discovery.

And here’s the beautiful cover by Ashley Floreal!

Cover: Spiraling Out, by Maya Ameyaw. Text: This season, everything feels off balance. Illustration: two young women strike figure-skating poses while look at one another over their shoulder.

Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon | Annick Press

MAYA AMEYAW is a Toronto-based community arts writing instructor and award-winning author. She has edited several mental health–themed anthologies for youth and adults and is the author of the critically acclaimed novels When It All Syncs Up and Under All the Lights.

Cover Reveal

Exclusive Cover Reveal: The Upstairs Room by Dana Mele

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Today on the site I’m delighted to reveal the cover of The Upstairs Room by Dana Mele, a horror thriller coming from Sourcebooks Fire April 20, 2027! Here’s the story:

A summer of nannying takes a terrifying turn when Blair discovers a legacy of mysterious deaths connected to her employer’s sprawling summer estate…but the secrets Blair is harboring may be just as deadly. 

The last place Blair Carver wants to spend the

summer is on the remote Pearl Island. Still, nannying for the reclusive Hathorne family off the coast of Maine is hardly an escape from a complicated junior year and home life—especially with all the rules that must be followed.

Stepping onto the island is like traveling back in time. Raven’s Nook, the Hathorne’s estate, sprawls around a century’s-old lighthouse. A cemetery on the property conceals family secrets, a creepy collection of dolls won’t stay put, and a forbidden upstairs room seems to hold the key to what the family is hiding.

The Hathorne children are cold and standoffish, and when they start hazing Blair with a series of escalating—dangerous—pranks, the town’s whispers about the Hathorne curse grow louder. Postcard perfect Pearl Island conceals a sinister history. Blair has dark secrets too, family secrets that have been been passed down for generations, and if Blair’s not careful, this summer will be their last…

And here’s the creeptastic cover by Jana Heidersdorf!

Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon

Processed with Lensa with BW2 filter

Dana Mele is a Pushcart-nominated author of short stories and YA novels including THE BEAST YOU LET IN. A graduate of Wellesley College, Dana holds degrees in theatre, education, and law.

Dana’s debut, PEOPLE LIKE US, was shortlisted for the 2019 ITW Thriller Award for Best Young Adult Novel and is an ALA Rainbow List Selection. Dana’s sophomore novel, SUMMER’S EDGE, was a Barnes & Noble YA Book Club Selection and a New York Public Library Best Books for Teens title. Up next is THE UPSTAIRS ROOM, a YA supernatural thriller forthcoming from Sourcebooks Fire, slated for publication April 20, 2027. Dana lives in Upstate New York with their family.

Inside an Anthology

Inside an Anthology: Being Aro ed. by Madeline Dyer and Rosiee Thor

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Today on the site I’m delighted to give a peek into Being Aro, the brand-new YA anthology edited by Madeline Dyer and Rosiee Thor containing stories featuring aromantic rep across a variety of genres! Here’s the gist:

Explore expansive aromantic love and connection in stories across genres

These twelve stories showcase aromantic people breaking generational curses, finding acceptance, and protecting the vulnerable while highlighting the infinite ways people find connection and love without romance.

A high school matchmaker learns a lesson about love. A rebellious spaceship pilot defies his culture’s compulsory coupling. A boy magically transforms banned romance novels into living dragons. A teen immune to romance, and the zombie virus, fights to survive the apocalypse. Being Aro is full of stories throughout real and imagined worlds that cross genres and disrupt the status quo.

Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon

And here’s some insight into some of the stories, given by the authors themselves!

Continue reading Inside an Anthology: Being Aro ed. by Madeline Dyer and Rosiee Thor →

Cover Reveal

Exclusive Cover Reveal: When Life Gives You Corpses by Lene D. Buttner

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Today on the site I’m delighted to reveal the cover of When Life Gives You Corpses by Lene D. Buttner, a charmingly monstrous YA releasing March 23, 2027 from Wednesday Books! Here’s the story:

In this delightfully cozy and creepy YA romp, a cave monster masquerading as a search-and-recovery guide intends to find and eat a lost wizard—but catches feelings for him instead, perfect for fans of TJ Klune and Andrew Joseph White.

Theory has a monstrous secret. He isn’t an ordinary search-and-recovery guide at Fiendworld, the world’s premier magical-sinkhole-turned-amusement-park; he’s a cursed, human-eating mantis. But not to worry—he has an excellent solution for his particular diet. Whenever he’s asked to retrieve the corpse of a lost adventurer, he simply snacks on a finger or two. No harm done.

That is, until he’s given his latest assignment: recover the body of park management’s missing son. Great. Yet another foolish wizard who got lost adventuring, and this time the direct descendant of the very person who cursed Theory in the first place. Worse, when Theory reluctantly sets off on the search, he’s shocked to find the wizard somehow still alive.

Nim—the wizard in question—has no desire to be rescued. He’s on a mission to the bottom of the sinkhole, and refuses to return to the surface before he gets there. He may be a subpar wizard, as his parents constantly remind him, but he’s got a positive attitude, an enchanted backpack, and now a mysterious rescue worker to recruit to his cause! Even though said worker is quite rude and seems to be getting Nim into more danger rather than out of it.

To survive, Theory and Nim must brave man-eating fish, walls of tentacles, and devastating secrets: both their own, and ones the park desperately tries to keep hidden. Along the way, they may just discover that they’re stronger together than apart.

And here’s the glorious cover, designed by Anto Marr and illustrated by the author themself!

Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon | Macmillan

LENE D. BUTTNER lives in London, surrounded by various fluffy and non-fluffy pets. When they’re not writing, they work in Computer Animation, where they spend their time exploding things and simulating toilet paper. They love everything scifi and fantasy and are yet to run out of book ideas featuring misunderstood, snarky monsters.

Fave Five

Fave Five: Contemporary YA Set in NYC Starring QTPoC

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Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo

I’ll Pretend You’re Mine by Tashie Bhuiyan

Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender

They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera

Burn Down, Rise Up by Vincent Tirado

Fave Five

Fave Five: Queer Black YA Horror

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I Feed Her to the Beast by Jamison Shea 

Dead Girls Walking and Funerals Are for the Living by Sami Ellis

The Taking of Jake Livingston by Ryan Douglass

You’re Not Supposed to Die Tonight by Kalynn Bayron

DOE by Rebecca Barrow

Bonus: These are all novels, but you can find even more in All These Sunken Souls: A Black Horror Anthology ed. by Circe Moskowitz

Cover Reveal

Exclusive Cover Reveal: The Siren’s Kiss by Leslie Vedder

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Today on the site I’m delighted to welcome Leslie Vedder to reveal the cover of her upcoming Sapphic YA Fantasy, The Siren’s Kiss, releasing September 1st from Amulet/Abrams! Here’s the story:

Perfect for fans of Daughter of the Pirate King and Our Flag Means Death comes a swashbuckling YA queer romantasy about a mermaid and a pirate who reluctantly join forces to find the Sea Witch.

Dead Shot Rayleigh has spent the last three years bound to a cursed ship after crossing the sea god Red-Handed Roger. Her only hope for freedom is to find his long-ago stolen heart—which means taking on his sworn enemy, the Sea Witch.

But Rayleigh’s not the only one with a score to settle… Fiery mermaid Maren is also searching for the Sea Witch, determined to bargain for the soul of her lost brother.

When Rayleigh and Maren’s separate missions bring them together, sparks fly, and all their plans go up in flames. Now they’ll have to join forces to survive.

Find the Sea Witch. Steal the heart. And don’t fall for your enemy, no matter how irresistible she is. How hard can it be?

And here’s the gorgeous cover, designed by Micah Fleming with art by Gilded Ruin!

Book cover for The Siren’s Kiss by Leslie Vedder. A mermaid with red-tipped white hair and a crimson tail stares up at a pirate with dark hair and a scar across her cheek. The pirate holds a rope on the deck of a ship, with the sunset ocean in the background.

Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon

Leslie Vedder (she/her) is a queer ace author who loves books with girl adventurers and heroes! She grew up on fantasy books, anime, fanfiction and the Lord of the Rings movies, and her debut YA The Bone Spindle was an indie bestseller. She lives in Colorado with her wife and her spoiled house cat Fox Mulder, who believes the treats are out there.