Thursday, December 11, 2025

New Fiction


Gleanings
by Neal Shusterman  
Arc of a Scythe; Book Four
“Neal Shusterman—along with collaborators David Yoon, Jarrod Shusterman, Sofía Lapuente, Michael H. Payne, Michelle Knowlden, and Joelle Shusterman—returns to the world throughout the timeline of the Arc of a Scythe series. Discover secrets and histories of characters you’ve followed for three volumes and meet new heroes, new foes, and some figures in between.” -Amazon

If The Shoe Fits by Julie Murphy 
"In this modern-retelling of Cinderella, plus-size Cindy dreams of becoming a shoe designer. But when a spot opens up on her stepmother's famous reality dating TV competition, Cindy is thrust into the spotlight in ways she never thought possible." -Publisher

In the Key of Us by Mariama Lockington
"Thirteen-year-old Andi feels stranded after the loss of her mother, the artist who swept color onto Andi's blank canvas. When she is accepted to a music camp, Andi finds herself struggling to play her trumpet like she used to before her whole world changed. Meanwhile, Zora, a returning camper, is exhausted trying to please her parents, who are determined to make her a flute prodigy, even though she secretly has a dancer's heart. At Harmony Music Camp, Zora and Andi are the only two Black girls in a sea of mostly white faces. In kayaks and creaky cabins, the two begin to connect, unraveling their loss, insecurities, and hopes for the future. And as they struggle to figure out who they really are, they may just come to realize who they really need: each other." -Dust jacket

Made in Korea by Sarah Suk 
"Two entrepreneurial Korean-American teens butt heads-and fall in love-while running competing Korean beauty businesses at their high school." -Publisher

Michigan vs. The Boys by Carrie S. Allen       
"Michigan Manning lives for hockey, and this is her year to shine. That is, until she gets some crushing news: budget cuts will keep the girls' hockey team off the ice this year. If she wants colleges to notice her, Michigan has to find a way to play. Luckily, there's still one team left in town ... The boys' team isn't exactly welcoming, but Michigan's prepared to prove herself. She plays some of the best hockey of her life, in fact, all while putting up with changing in the broom closet, constant trash talk and "harmless" pranks that always seem to target her. But once hazing crosses the line into assault, Michigan must weigh the consequences of speaking up -- even if it means putting her future on the line." -Publisher

Wednesday, December 10, 2025

New Horror/Mystery/Thriller Fiction


Glorious Rivals
by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Grandest Game; Book Two
"Players move into the next round of the Grandest Game, where millions of dollars in prize money are on the line-and new relationships, motivations, and threats come to light. Seven players arrived on Hawthorne Island, each with their own secrets and motivations to win the Grandest Game. Millions are at stake, but so are hearts--and lives. The players now must race to win the game, solve myriad mysteries, and survive the twists and turns of Glorious Rivals." -Publisher

Looking For Smoke by K.A. Cobell Mystery
"Since moving to the Blackfeet Reservation with her parents, Mara Racette has felt like an outsider, taunted by her tight-knit classmates for growing up far away. So when a local girl includes Mara in a traditional Blackfeet giveaway to honor her missing sister, Mara thinks she'll finally make some friends. Instead, a girl from the giveaway, Samantha White Tail, is found murdered. Because the members of the giveaway group were the last to see Samantha alive, each becomes a person of interest in the investigation: New girl Mara, who hated Samantha for being particularly cruel. Grief-stricken Loren Arnoux, who was Samantha's best friend until Loren's sister's disappearance drove a wedge between them. Class clown Brody Clark, whose unreciprocated crush on Samantha is an open secret. And tough guy Eli First Kill, who has his own complicated history with Samantha. Despite deep mistrust, the four must now take matters into their own hands and clear their names. Even though one of them may be the murderer.” -WorldCat

Messenger 93 by Barbara Radecki    
“She will fall in seven days,” say the crows. “As she falls, so do we all.” Who falls? wonders M. The ominous, supernatural message starts M on a quest that could save more than one life. But what if the person in danger happens to be her nemesis? Along the way, M meets up with Gray, a Cree boy with his own hopes of saving a runaway Indigenous girl. As they begin a wild journey through the city and into the bleak northern woods, M grasps for the true meaning behind the crows’ messages and pushes deeper and deeper into worlds she doesn’t know or understand, holding fast to a questionable dream that she might be a modern-day Joan of Arc.” -Amazon

The Disappearances by Emily Bain Murphy   
“Every seven years, an important thing, like scent, disappears from the town of Sterling and Aila, sixteen, is determined to find the cause and how her recently-deceased mother was involved.”-WorldCat

The Haunting of Velkwood by Gwendolyn Kiste
"Three childhood friends miraculously survive the night when everyone in their suburban hometown turns into ghosts." -Publisher

Tuesday, December 9, 2025

New Fantasy Fiction


City of Ghosts
by V. E. Schwab
“Ever since Cass almost drowned (okay, she did drown, but she doesn't like to think about it), she can pull back the Veil that separates the living from the dead ... and enter the world of spirits. Her best friend is even a ghost. So things are already pretty strange. But they're about to get much stranger. When Cass's parents land a gig hosting a TV show about the world's most haunted places, the family heads off to Edinburgh, Scotland. Here, graveyards, castles, and secret passageways teem with restless phantoms. And when Cass meets another girl who shares her ‘gift,’ she realizes how much she still has to learn about the Veil--and herself. And she'll have to learn fast. The city of ghosts is more dangerous than she ever imagined.” -WorldCat

The Way Back by Gavriel Savit 
“For the people of Tupik, a tiny village in Eastern Europe, demons are everywhere: dancing on the rooftops in the darkness of midnight, congregating in the trees, even reaching out to try and steal away the living. The demons have a land of their own: a Far Country, governed by demonic lords and ladies. When the Angel of Death comes strolling through the little shtetl of Tupik one night, Yehuda Leib and Blume will be sent spinning off on a journey through the Far Country. There they will make pacts with ancient demons, declare war on Death himself, and maybe-- just maybe-- find a way to make it back alive.” -WorldCat

Time’s Convert by Deborah Harkness
All Souls Series; Book Four
“A passionate love story and a fascinating exploration of the power of tradition and the possibilities not just for change but for revolution, Time's Convert, the fourth books in the All Souls Series channels the supernatural world-building and slow-burning romance that made the previous books instant bestsellers to illuminate a new and vital moment in history, and a love affair that will bridge centuries.” -Publisher

Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune
“When a reaper comes to collect Wallace from his own funeral, Wallace begins to suspect he might be dead. And when Hugo, the owner of a peculiar tea shop, promises to help him cross over, Wallace decides he's definitely dead. But even in death he's not ready to abandon the life he barely lived, so when Wallace is given one week to cross over, he sets about living a lifetime in seven days.” -Publisher

Wings of Starlight by Allison Saft 
“In Pixie Hollow, the Never Fairies of Spring, Summer, and Autumn work to create seasons for the humans on the Mainland, while the fairies of Winter remain apart in the Winter Woods. Clarion, a governing-talent fairy who’s soon to take over as queen of Pixie Hollow, often looks wonderingly at the Winter Woods. But crossing the border is against the rules set forth by her mentor, Queen Elvina. When a monster from Winter breaks free and enters Spring, Clarion bristles at Elvina’s dismissal. Determined to be involved, she secretly travels to Winter, meets with Milori, the Warden of the Winter Woods, and learns that the land is nothing like what she’s heard, making her wonder what else the queen has been untruthful about. Together Milori and Clarion work to discover the secrets of Pixie Hollow, which may save them—or lead to death.” -Kirkus

Monday, December 8, 2025

New Historical Fiction


A Crane Among Wolves
by June Hur 
“In a kingdom gripped by turmoil, privileged seventeen-year-old Iseul defies danger to rescue her sister Suyeon from the absolute power of tyrannical King Yeonsan, while Prince Daehyun, desperate to overthrow his despotic half brother, forms an uneasy alliance with Iseul, leading them to join forces in a perilous gamble against the oppressive regime.” -WorldCat

Artifice by Sharon Cameron 
“In 1943, Isa de Smit survives the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam by keeping her head down. She hates the Nazis, who have taken some of her beloved friends, like Jewish artists Moshe and Hilde, and even executed her gay artist friend, Arondeus, for resisting. She knows that Truus, her former best friend, is in the Resistance, but 18-year-old Isa’s job is protecting both the Gallery De Smit, including the hidden Vermeer, and looking after her widower father, an impractical painter. When she rebels by selling a fake Rembrandt to the Nazis for tax money, she’s drawn into action via an uneasy alliance with a young art-loving Nazi soldier named Michel Lange who’s craving escape, smuggling Jewish babies away before they’re sent to their deaths, and interacting with collaborators and Nazis to sell forged art.” -Kirkus

Everything Is Poison by Joy McCullough
"Early seventeenth-century Rome. For as long as she can remember, Carmela Tofana has desperately wanted one thing: to be a part of La Tofana's, her mother's apothecary in Campo Marzio, Rome. When she finally turns sixteen, she's allowed into the inner sanctum: the workroom where her mother and two assistants craft renowned remedies for their customers. But for every sweet-smelling flower extract in the workroom, there's another potion requiring darker ingredients. And then there's Aqua Tofana, the apothecary's remedy of last resort. In all Carmela's years of wishing to follow in her mother's footsteps, she never realized one tiny vial could be the death of them all.” -WorldCat

So Many Beginnings by Bethany C. Morrow   
“North Carolina, 1863. As the American Civil War rages on, the Freedmen's Colony of Roanoke Island is blossoming, a haven for the recently emancipated. This is where the March family has finally been able to safely put down roots with four young daughters. Meg is a teacher who longs to find love and start a family of her own. Jo is a writer whose words are too powerful to be contained. Beth, a talented seamstress, is searching for a higher purpose. Amy, a dancer, is eager to explore life outside her family's home. As the March sisters come into their own as independent young women, they will face first love, health struggles, heartbreak, and new horizons-- and they will face it all together. -Publisher

When Clouds Touch Us by Thanhha Lai
“Hà and her family have worked hard to make a life for themselves in the US, but it hasn’t come easy. Hà has only just started to feel settled when Mother decides that the family will move to Texas for a new job.

Hà knows how hard starting over is and doesn’t want to have to do it again. But sometimes even an unwanted change can bring opportunity, new friends, and a place to call home.” -Amazon

Friday, December 5, 2025

New Realistic Fiction


Dear Justyce by Nic Stone
Dear Martin; Book Two
“Vernell LaQuan Banks and Justyce McAllister grew up a block apart in the Southwest Atlanta neighborhood of Wynwood Heights. Years later, though, Justyce walks the illustrious halls of Yale University and Quan sits behind bars at the Fulton Regional Youth Detention Center.

Through a series of flashbacks, vignettes, and letters to Justyce, Quan's story takes form. Troubles at home and misunderstandings at school give rise to police encounters and tough decisions. But then there's a dead cop and a weapon with Quan's prints on it. What leads a bright kid down a road to a murder charge? Not even Quan is sure.” -Amazon

Dear Manny by Nic Stone
Dear Martin; Book Three
“Jared Peter Christensen is running for president (of the Junior Class Council at his university, but still). His platform is solid--built on increased equity and inclusion in all sectors of campus life--and he's got a good chance of beating the deeply conservative business major he's running against.But then a transfer student enters the race and calls Jared out for his big-talk/little-action way of moving. But what's the right way to bring about change? As the campaign heats up, feelings are caught, and juicy secrets come to light, and Jared writes letters to his deceased friend Manny, hoping to make sense of his confusion. What's a white boy to do when love and politics collide?” -WorldCat

The Great Upending by Beth Kephart
“If eleven-year-old Sara and her brother Hawk can complete a task involving the reclusive author renting out the silo on their farm for the summer they will receive reward money that will pay for Sara's life-saving surgery.” -WorldCat

The Hoop and the Harm by Jawara Pedican 
"Udoka Clendon is a first-year university student and a product of basketball systems that have produced professional players. He's been pushed relentlessly by the obsessive mentorship of his older brother, which has been tolerated by his hard-working single mother. For years his brother has taken him to tournaments and pushed him to succeed on the outdoor courts of the west end. Burdened by expectations and self-doubt, Udoka tries to reignite his passion for the game. Now, he's been given a final opportunity at the city-wide tournament to rediscover his confidence and his sense of purpose--all of which he fears he has lost forever. With the clarity and poetic style of a seasoned writer, and drawing on his own time as an elite sports prospect, Jawara Pedican shows the trials and traumas of becoming fixated on a dream of sports stardom." -Publisher

You Truly Assumed by Laila Sabreen
“Sabriya has her whole summer planned out in color-coded glory, but those plans go out the window after a terrorist attack near her home. When the terrorist is assumed to be Muslim and Islamophobia grows, Sabriya turns to her online journal for comfort. You Truly Assumed was never meant to be anything more than an outlet, but the blog goes viral as fellow Muslim teens around the country flock to it and find solace and a sense of community.

Soon two more teens, Zakat and Farah, join Bri to run You Truly Assumed and the three quickly form a strong friendship. But as the blog’s popularity grows, so do the pushback and hateful comments. When one of them is threatened, the search to find out who is behind it all begins, and their friendship is put to the test when all three must decide whether to shut down the blog and lose what they’ve worked for…or take a stand and risk everything to make their voices heard.” -Amazon

Thursday, December 4, 2025

New Nonfiction


Pieces of a Girl
by Stephanie Kuehnert 
  
“A raw and bold memoir about abuse and addiction, and the power of expression and community that helped Stephanie Kuehnert, the author of Ballads of Suburbia and regular Rookie contributor, survive and thrive. Told in varied narrative styles, including journal entries, original illustration, and pages torn from her actual diaries and zines, this is the memoir of Stephanie's life as a struggling outsider who survived substance and relationship abuse to become a strong young woman after years and years trapped in a cycle that sometimes seemed to have no escape.” -Amazon

Putin and the Return of History: How the Kremlin Rekindled the Cold War by Martin Sixsmith
"An original history of Russia's thousand-year past, tracing the forces and the myths that have shaped Putin's politics and rekindled the Cold War.” -Amazon

Shackled: A Tale of Wronged Kids, Rogue Judges, and a Town that Looked Away by Candy J. Cooper 
"Here is the explosive story of the Kids for Cash scandal in Pennsylvania, a judicial justice miscarriage that sent more than 2,500 children and teens to a for-profit detention center while two judges lined their pockets with cash, as told by Candy J. Cooper, an award-winning journalist and Pulitzer Prize finalist." -Publisher

The Life of Wanda Robson: Canada's advocate for Viola Desmond and Social Justice by Graham Reynolds
"This is the life of Wanda Robson a Black woman who kept alive the story of her sister, Viola Desmond, the Nova Scotian businesswoman who refused to give up her seat in the whites-only section of the Roseland Theatre, Nov 8, 1948—was jailed, tried for one penny of tax evasion and found guilty—race was never mentioned in the records. Over 60 years later through Wanda's efforts Viola was granted an apology and Free Pardon which meant there never was a crime committed." -Publisher

Writing With My Eyes: Staying Alive While Dying by Angela Parker-Brown
“Angela Parker-Brown does not want her legacy to be that of a woman in Truro, Nova Scotia, who had ALS. She wants to be remembered as Angie, the super cool mom, daughter, sibling, aunt and friend who lived despite having ALS. This is her story, and she wrote this book to inspire others to thrive in their lives no matter what that life looks like. In telling her story, she encourages others to accept and embrace their challenges, to see past their limitations, and to be honest in the journey.” -Amazon

Wednesday, December 3, 2025

New Romance Fiction


#famous
by Jilly Gagnon
“In this modern day love story: Girl likes boy. Girl snaps photo and posts it online. Boy becomes insta-famous. And what starts out as an innocent photo turns into a whirlwind adventure that forces them both to question whether fame—and love—are worth the price…and changes both of their lives forever.

Told from alternating points of view, #famous captures the sometimes-crazy thrill ride of social media and the equally messy but wonderful moments of liking someone in real life.” -Amazon

All We Lost Was Everything by Sloan Harlow
“After the tragic loss of her father in a house fire, eighteen-year-old River Santos feels stuck, but when new revelations about the fire emerge, she must confront painful truths about her past, relationships both new and old, and a dangerous revenge plot that may be lurking closer than she thinks.” - WorldCat

Everything We Never Said by Sloan Harlow
“It’s been months since the accident that killed Ella’s best friend, Hayley, and Ella can’t stop blaming herself. Now Ella is back at school, and everywhere she looks are reminders of her best friend—including Sawyer, Hayley’s boyfriend. Little by little, they grow closer, until Ella realizes something horrifying…She’s in love with her dead best friend’s boyfriend. 

Racked with guilt, Ella turns to Hayley’s journal, hoping she’ll find something in the pages that will make her feel better about what’s happening. Instead, she discovers that Sawyer has secrets of his own and that his relationship with Hayley wasn’t as picture-perfect as it seemed.” -Amazon

Falling Like Leaves by Misty Wilson
“Heading into senior year, Ellis plans to study hard and crush it at the journalism internship her media executive dad got her, paving the way for her acceptance to Columbia University. But then Ellis’ parents announce they’re separating—and that Ellis and her mom will be heading to Bramble Falls to stay with her aunt and cousin. Furious that her careful plans have been upended, Ellis struggles to settle into the small, charming Connecticut town even as everyone around her gears up for the annual Falling Leaves Festival. Ellis runs into Cooper Barnett—her long-ago summer friend from visits to Aunt Naomi and cousin Sloane—who’s grown up to be very handsome. But Cooper isn’t pleased to see Ellis; he’s cold and curt, and she has no idea why. Wilson’s YA debut is chock-full of charm. Readers will swoon at Cooper’s and Ellis’ developing feelings following their frosty reunion and sympathize with Ellis’ difficulties even as Bramble Falls grows on her. She must choose between small-town community ties and big-city ambitions—between what her dad wants for her and what she really wants.” -Kirkus

More Than This by Krystal Marquis
The Davenports; Book Two
"The Davenports are one of the few Black families of immense wealth and status in 1910 Chicago, and the two Davenport sisters, along with their closest friends, are finding their way through turbulent changes in life and love." -Publisher