Best of
Young-Adult-Contemporary

1

Christmas As We Know It


Sarah Sutton
    And since this is the last Christmas season of my high school career, my last chance to spend the holidays with my friends before we all go off to college, the news is anything but merry and bright.There is one silver lining, though. Bentley, the sweet and kind guy I’ve been crushing on for years, is in my volunteer group for the annual Winter Festival. And did I mention his love for Christmas just might rival my own? Even though I’ll be missing out on the Winter Festival, being paired with Bentley almost makes it worth it.Until something happens with Jason, my best friend since elementary school. Something that may or may not involve an almost kiss. Jason’s the opposite of jolly, the Grinch to my Mrs. Claus, and though every year I have to drag him along for the Yuletide ride, this December, he’s grumpier than ever about the holidays.But the closer I get to Bentley, and the more it looks like Jason and his ex are getting back together, the more unsure I am about who I want to ring in the new year with.Maybe all I need is the magic of a mistletoe kiss to make up my mind. Or better yet, a Christmas miracle…

As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow


Zoulfa Katouh
    She still had her parents and her big brother; she still had her home. She had a normal teenager’s life. Now Salama volunteers at a hospital in Homs, helping the wounded who flood through the doors daily. Secretly, though, she is desperate to find a way out of her beloved country before her sister-in-law, Layla, gives birth. So desperate, that she has manifested a physical embodiment of her fear in the form of her imagined companion, Khawf, who haunts her every move in an effort to keep her safe. But even with Khawf pressing her to leave, Salama is torn between her loyalty to her country and her conviction to survive. Salama must contend with bullets and bombs, military assaults, and her shifting sense of morality before she might finally breathe free. And when she crosses paths with the boy she was supposed to meet one fateful day, she starts to doubt her resolve in leaving home at all. Soon, Salama must learn to see the events around her for what they truly are—not a war, but a revolution—and decide how she, too, will cry for Syria’s freedom.

The Edge of Summer


Erica George
    But when tragedy strikes, Cor is left to complete the list of things they wanted to accomplish before college alone, including a marine biology internship on Cape Cod.Cor's summer of healing and new beginnings turns complicated when she meets Mannix, a local lifeguard who completely takes her breath away. But she knows whatever she has with Mannix might not last, and that her focus should be on rescuing the humpback whales from entanglement. As the tide changes, Cor finds herself distracted and struggling with her priorities.Can she follow her heart and keep her promise to the whales and her best friend?

Hollow Fires


Samira AhmedSamira Ahmed
    Perfect for fans of Sadie and Dear Martin. Safiya Mirza dreams of becoming a journalist. And one thing she’s learned as editor of her school newspaper is that a journalist’s job is to find the facts and not let personal biases affect the story. But all that changes the day she finds the body of a murdered boy.Jawad Ali was fourteen years old when he built a cosplay jetpack that a teacher mistook for a bomb. A jetpack that got him arrested, labeled a terrorist—and eventually killed. But he’s more than a dead body, and more than “Bomb Boy.” He was a person with a life worth remembering.Driven by Jawad’s haunting voice guiding her throughout her investigation, Safiya seeks to tell the whole truth about the murdered boy and those who killed him because of their hate-based beliefs. This gripping and powerful book uses an innovative format and lyrical prose to expose the evil that exists in front of us, and the silent complicity of the privileged who create alternative facts to bend the truth to their liking.

How to Excavate a Heart


Jake Maia Arlow
    It all starts when Shani runs into May. Like, literally. With her mom’s Subaru.Attempted vehicular manslaughter was not part of Shani’s plan. She was supposed to be focusing on her monthlong paleoichthyology internship. She was going to spend all her time thinking about dead fish and not at all about how she was unceremoniously dumped days before winter break.It could be going better.But when a dog-walking gig puts her back in May’s path, the fossils she’s meant to be diligently studying are pushed to the side—along with the breakup.Then they’re snowed in together on Christmas Eve. As things start to feel more serious, though, Shani’s hurt over her ex-girlfriend’s rejection comes rushing back. Is she ready to try a committed relationship again, or is she okay with this just being a passing winter fling?

Like I Never Said


C.W. Farnsworth
    Expected. Accidentally gifts a five-hundred-dollar pen to a stranger. Unexpected.Neither event wreaks havoc on her life quite like meeting Elliot Reid does. He has eyes the color of the cloudy sky. A slapshot the whole country has an unhealthy obsession with. The uncanny ability to say the exact right thing, right when she needs to hear it.They stay in touch after she leaves. Swap secrets. Become best friends. Tell each other everything.Well…almost everything.It’s a thin line between love and hate. The line between love and friendship with a guy who makes mammoth-sized butterflies swarm your stomach? Practically transparent.But when he’s made it clear friendship is all he has to offer?You can never say it.

The Bah Humbug Bad Boy


Pixie Perkins
    Too bad his mom thinks it’ll “be good” for him. And if that wasn’t frustrating enough, now he has to deal with a certain attractive—loves to wear tacky Christmas clothes—overbearing girl who’s determined to show him the ins and outs of being holly and jolly. Is she for real?Last Christmas, Fallon Bauer was dumped by her now-ex. This Christmas? She just wants to enjoy her favorite time of year without thinking about you-know-who. So, when her neighbor asks for some holiday help, Fallon is more than glad to lend a hand. She wasn’t, however, expecting to work with Patton High’s bad boy: Marco Amorelli. The guy is a total grinch! But helping him find some serious holiday cheer could be a sure way to keep herself distracted from feeling heartbroken…right?What happens, though, when sparks fly between them and more than snow starts falling?

My Starry Sky


Confeito Planet
    Skyler might look blessed (his sister’s even in a girl group), but he’s got some family issues that only Yeonduk can understand. Yeonduk is more than just star-struck, though, and when Skyler starts acting nice and walking to school with him, he can’t help but hope there might finally be more between them.

There Goes the Neighborhood


Jade Adia
    born and raised, but a recent wave of gentrification has been transforming the place that they call home. When an eviction notice from a greedy landlord threatens to split up the crew, Rhea and her friends manipulate social media to form a fake gang in hopes of scaring off developers. Their scheme appears to work at first… until a murder is pegged on the nonexistent gang. Yikes.THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD is a love letter to South L.A., a middle finger to the destructive powers of gentrification, and a hilarious adventure about three teens who have the best intentions, if not always the best solutions. Perfect for fans of Tiffany Jackson's Let Me Hear a Rhyme and Netflix's On My Block, this is an uproarious novel about power, friendship, and what really makes a neighborhood.

The Love Match


Priyanka Taslim
    For fans of Sandhya Menon, Gloria Chao, and Jenny Han, THE LOVE MATCH is a young adult romantic comedy starring Zahra Khan, a Bangladeshi-American teenager who has to deal with growing feelings for two very different boys after her meddling widow mother decides to play matchmaker.

Pretty Dead Queens


Alexa Donne
    . . and she's not the first. From the critically acclaimed author of The Ivies comes a nonstop thriller about a deacades-old mystery, a copycat killing, and the teen who won't stop until she discovers the truth.After the death of her mom (screw cancer), seventeen-year-old Cecelia Ellis goes to live with her estranged grandmother, a celebrated author whose Victorian mansion is as creepy as the murder mysteries she writes. On the surface, life is utterly ordinary in the California coastal town . . . until the homecoming queen is murdered. And she’s not Seaview’s first pretty dead queen. With a copycat killer on the loose, Cecelia throws herself into the investigation, determined to crack the case like the heroines in her grandmother’s books. But the more Cecelia digs into the town’s secrets, the more she worries that her own mystery might not have a storybook ending.

Kismat Connection


Ananya Devarajan
    According to her astrology-obsessed mother, Madhuri’s upcoming senior year will be a total failure. To make matters worse, she’s also the victim of a family curse that sentences her to a happily ever after with her first boyfriend whether she likes it or not. In an attempt to prove the existence of her free will, Madhuri devises an experimental relationship with Arjun Mehta, a boy she’s convinced will never escape the friendzone. Arjun Mehta is also at the mercy of the stars, but he isn’t complaining. His astrological reading destines him for success and Arjun resolves to use his year of good luck to impress his absentee parents and Madhuri, both of whom have rejected him on multiple occasions. So when Madhuri offers him the opportunity to be her relationship lab rat, he can’t help but agree. To him, it feels like the universe is finally granting his wishes. As their prophecies slowly become true and real feelings emerge between the two childhood best friends, Madhuri faces an impossible choice. She must decide if destroying her family curse in an act of self-determination is worth breaking Arjun’s heart.

Beating Heart Baby


Lio Min
    When he accidentally leaked his internet best friend Memo’s song, and it became an overnight hit, Memo disappeared—leaving their song’s cult fame, and Santi, behind.Three years later, Santi arrives in Los Angeles with a mission: get over the ghost of Memo. Thankfully, his new school and its wildly-talented Sunshower marching band welcome him with open arms. All except for his section leader, the prickly, proud, musical prodigy Suwa. After a disastrous first encounter, Suwa makes Santi’s life a living hell. But when Santi realizes Suwa is trans, then Suwa realizes Santi takes his identity in stride, both boys begin to let their guards down. Santi learns Suwa's surliness masks a painful, still-raw history of his own, and as they open up to each other, their friendship quickly takes on the red-hot blush of a mutual crush.Just as Santi is feeling settled in this new life, with a growing found family and a head-over-heels relationship with Suwa, he begins to put together the pieces of an impossible truth—that Memo and Suwa might just be one and the same. But their fragile fresh start threatens to rip apart at the seams again when Suwa is offered the chance to step into the spotlight he’s owed, but has always denied himself. Now, as each of them faces the future, Santi and Suwa must finally reckon with their dreams, their pasts, and the boy who always seems to appear right at the wrong time.

This Place Is Still Beautiful


XiXi Tian
    A shocking racist incident. The summer that will change both of their lives forever. Despite having had near-identical upbringings, sisters Annalie and Margaret agree on only one thing: that they have nothing in common. Nineteen-year-old Margaret is driven, ambitious, and keenly aware of social justice issues. She couldn't wait to leave their oppressive small-town home and take flight in New York. Meanwhile sweet, popular, seventeen-year-old Annalie couldn't think of anything worse - she loves their town, and feels safe coasting along in its confines.That is, until she arrives home one day to find a gut-punching racial slur painted on their garage door.Outraged, Margaret flies home, expecting to find her family up in arms. Instead, she's amazed to hear they want to forget about it. Their mom is worried about what it might stir up, and Annalie just wants to have a 'normal' summer - which Margaret is determined to ruin, apparently.Back under each other's skins, things between Margaret and Annalie get steadily worse - and not even the distraction of first love (for Annalie), or lost love (for Margaret) can bring them together.Until finally, a crushing secret threatens to tear them apart forever.

Flip the Script


Lyla Lee
    As an avid watcher of K-dramas, Hana knows all the tropes to avoid when she finally lands a starring role in a buzzy new drama. And she can totally handle her fake co-star boyfriend who might be falling in love with her. After all, she promised the producers a contract romance, and that’s all they’re going to get from her. But when showrunners bring on a new girl to challenge Hana’s role as main love interest—and worse, it’s someone Hana knows all too well—can  Hana fight for her position on the show while falling for her on-screen rival in real life?-K-drama lovers will fall for all the fan-favorite tropes that make for a hit show.-Romance is everywhere in this swoony, joy-filled novel, with fake dating, a secret relationship, and a classic love triangle!-Visit South Korea as Hana takes readers through popular spots and hidden gems.