Somehow we’ve reached the last week of April. We hope any rain or dark weather you’ve experienced this month is about to transformed into marvelous May flowers.

by Jenny Lee
Hardcover
Flatiron Books
Released 4/27/2021
The sequel to Anna K, set over the course of the next summer, as the characters come to terms with Vronsky’s tragic death.
How the mighty have fallen. Anna K, once the golden girl of Greenwich, CT, and New York City, has been brought low by a scandalous sex tape and the tragic death of her first love, Alexia Vronsky. At the beginning of the summer, her father takes her to the other side of the world, to connect with his family in South Korea and hide her away. Is Anna in exile? Or could this be her chance to figure out who she really is?
Back in the U.S., Lolly has forgiven Steven for cheating on her, and their relationship feels stronger than ever. But when Lolly meets a boy at her beloved theater camp, she has to ask herself how well Steven will ever really know her. Meanwhile, in Manhattan, everything between Kimmie and her new boyfriend, Dustin, is easy―except when it comes to finally having sex. And Bea escapes to LA, running away from her grief at her beloved cousin’s death, until a beautiful stranger steals her heart. Is Bea ready to finally forgive Anna, and let herself truly fall in love for the very first time?
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Chaos on CatNet
by Naomi Kritzer
Hardcover
Tor Teen
Released 4/27/2021
It takes an AI to catch an AI in Chaos on CatNet, the follow-up to Naomi Kritzer’s award-winning near future YA thriller.
When a mysterious entity starts hacking into social networks and chat rooms to instigate paranoia and violence in the real world, it’s up to Steph and her new friend, Nell, to find a way to stop it―with the help of their benevolent AI friend, CheshireCat.
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Fade into the Bright
by Jessica Etting and Alyssa Schwartz
Hardcover
Delacorte Press
Released 4/27/2021
Five Feet Apart meets Tell Me Three Things in this YA contemporary novel about two sisters, one summer, and a diagnosis that changes everything.
Abby needs to escape a life that she no longer recognizes as her own. Her old life–the one where she was a high school volleyball star with a textbook-perfect future–has been ripped away. Abby and her sister, Brooke, have received a letter from their estranged dad informing them he has Huntington’s disease, a fatal, degenerative disorder that you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy. And when the sisters agree to genetic testing, one of them tests positive.
Fleeing to Catalina Island for the summer, Abby is relieved to be in a place where no one knows her tragic history. But when she meets aspiring documentary filmmaker Ben–tall, outdoorsy, easygoing, with eyes that don’t miss a thing–she’s thrown off her game. Ben’s the kind of guy who loves to figure out people’s stories. What if he learns hers?
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Gilded Serpent
by Danielle L. Jensen
Hardcover
Tor Teen
Released 4/27/2021
THEIR BATTLES ENDED IN VICTORY
Lydia returns to Mudaire to enter training at the healing temple. But instead of fighting to save lives, she’s convinced she is doing more harm than good. She delves into the history of the gods only to discover a truth that will change her life forever.
His birthright as commander of the Royal Army is finally in his grasp, but Killian feels anything but victorious. Burdened by his past, he embraces the darker side of his mark―and in doing so, risks starting a war.
BUT THE WAR HAS ONLY JUST BEGUN
Having defeated the tyrant Urcon, Marcus struggles to form a lasting alliance with the Arinoquians. But he is plagued by the knowledge that there is a traitor among his friends, and it could cost him everything that he’s fought for.
Torn between her growing allegiance to the Thirty-Seventh legion and her need to liberate her people, Teriana finds herself mired in a web of secrets. She embarks upon a path that will either save everyone she loves―or put them all in their graves.
Readers may read either Dark Shores or Dark Skies first!
Suggested series reading order:
1. Dark Skies or Dark Shores
2. Dark Shores or Dark Skies
3. Gilded Serpent
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Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses
by Kristen O’Neal
Hardcover
Quirk Books
Released 4/27/2021
Teen Wolf meets Emergency Contact in this sharply observed, hilarious, and heartwarming debut young adult novel about friendship and the hairy side of chronic illness.
Priya worked hard to pursue her premed dreams at Stanford, but a diagnosis of chronic Lyme disease during her sophomore year sends her back to her loving but overbearing family in New Jersey—and leaves her wondering if she’ll ever be able to return to the way things were. Thankfully she has her online pen pal, Brigid, and the rest of the members of “oof ouch my bones,” a virtual support group that meets on Discord to crack jokes and vent about their own chronic illnesses.
When Brigid suddenly goes offline, Priya does something out of character: she steals the family car and drives to Pennsylvania to check on Brigid. Priya isn’t sure what to expect, but it isn’t the horrifying creature that’s shut in the basement. With Brigid nowhere to be found, Priya begins to puzzle together an impossible but obvious truth: the creature might be a werewolf—and the werewolf might be Brigid. As Brigid’s unique condition worsens, their friendship will be deepened and challenged in unexpected ways, forcing them to reckon with their own ideas of what it means to be normal.
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On This Unworthy Scaffold
by Heidi Heilig
Hardcover
Greenwillow Books
Released 4/27/2021
Jetta is in the center of a war. With her magical power, she could save everyone, save her country . . . or she could destroy it all.
Heidi Heilig blends traditional storytelling with ephemera for a lush, page-turning commercial fantasy for fans of Tomi Adeyemi and Leigh Bardugo.
The final book in the acclaimed Shadow Players trilogy.
Jetta’s home is spiraling into civil war. Le Trépas—the deadly necromancer—has used his blood magic to wrest control of the country, and Jetta has been without treatment for her malheur for weeks. Meanwhile, Jetta’s love interest, brother, and friend are intent on infiltrating the palace to stop the Boy King and find Le Trépas to put an end to the unleashed chaos.
The sweeping conclusion to Heidi Heilig’s ambitious trilogy takes us to new continents, introduces us to new gods, flings us into the middle of palace riots and political intrigue, and asks searching questions about power and corruption.
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Rickety Stitch and the Gelatinous Goo Book 3: The Battle of the Bards
by James Parks & Ben Costa
Paperback
Knopf Books for Young Readers
Released 4/27/2021
Nimona meets Adventure Time in the third installment of this full-color graphic novel about a singing skeleton who finally finds his origins alongside his gelatin monster sidekick!
Rickety Stitch is a walking, talking, singing skeleton, the only animated skeleton in the dungeon who seems to have retained his soul. He has no idea who he used to be when he was covered in a living, breathing sack of meat and skin. His only clue to his former identity is a song he hears snippets of in his dreams, an epic bard’s tale that could also explain the old fog covering the comical fantasy land of Eem…
Oh, and his sidekick and only friend is a cube of sentient goo.
In this race-to-the-finish final volume, Rickety faces all manner of new creatures on his ultimate quest to uncover the secret of Epoli and learn his true origins.
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Slingshot
by Mercedes Helnwein
Hardcover
Wednesday Books
Released 4/27/2021
An exciting debut contemporary young adult novel perfect for fans of Rainbow Rowell and Mary H. K. Choi.
“I didn’t think it was going to be anything like this when I finally fell in love. I thought it was going to be pretty simple. Like, I’d love someone and they’d love me. I thought that’s the way it worked.”
Grace Welles is stuck at a third-tier boarding school in the swamps of Florida, where her method of survival is a strict, self-imposed loneliness. And it works. Her crap attitude keeps people away because without friends, there are fewer to lose.
But when she accidentally saves the new kid, Wade Scholfield, from being beaten up, everything about her precariously balanced loner world collapses and, in order to find her footing again, she has no choice but to discover a completely new way to exist.
Because with Wade around, school rules are optional, weird is okay, and conversations about wormholes can lead to make-out sessions that disrupt any logical stream of thought. Nothing’s perfect, but that’s not the point. When they’re together everything seems uncomplicated in a way that Grace knows is not possible.
Except it is.
So why does Grace crush Wade’s heart into a million pieces?
Acidly funny and compulsive readable, this debut is a story about two people finding each other and then screwing it all up. See also: soulmate, stupidity, sex, friendship, bad poetry, very bad decisions and all the indignities of being in love for the first time.
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Violet and Daisy : The Story of Vaudeville’s Famous Conjoined Twins
by Sarah Miller
Hardcover
Schwartz & Wade
Released 4/27/2021
Violet and Daisy. They were as sweet and pretty as their names would suggest, the pair of them as alike as two flower buds on a single stem. They were also joined, back-to-back, at the base of their spine.
Freaks, monsters — that’s what conjoined twins were called in 1908. And so their mother abandoned Violet and Daisy to the care of her midwife, who immediately put the babies on exhibition in the back room of her pub, embarking on a course of blatant exploitation that would range from the Brighton seashore to Australian amusement parks, American sideshows, and eventually to the most phenomenal success in vaudeville’s history.
But Violet and Daisy were more than just an exhibit, of course. They were two distinct individuals with remarkably harmonious personalities: Violet thoughtful yet candid, Daisy impulsive and easygoing. Above all, they were sisters.
In a story packed to the brim with questions about individuality, identity, and exploitation, Sarah Miller delivers an engrossing, compassionate portrait of two sisters whose bonds were so sacred that nothing — not even death — would compel Violet and Daisy to break them.
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