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A high-stakes baking competition is underway, and our main character knows she’ll never be selected. When someone from her past makes an appearance, she finds her chance to compete and join the ruling council, as long as no one discovers her secret.

She is handpicked by the son of a powerful man to be his father’s political pawn, but she is more than he bargained for. As the competition proceeds, she becomes a hero to the city’s poor, and his faith in his father crumbles as he grows closer to her, all while deciding between a safe future or sparking a revolution.⁠

Our main character’s future has already been decided for her when she enters a prestigious academy that sets that future in stone. Nothing is like she imagined, however, as she struggles to survive through ruthless trials and brutal rules. A dangerous outsider also joins as a student, and as she’s drawn to him, he threatens everything she knows and believes. She must make her choices for her future, all while keeping the most dangerous secret of all.

In a world controlled by the ruling class, our protagonist wields a dangerous gift: her magic feeds on lies. From the shadows, she gathers secrets and trades in blackmail, tightening her grip on the court to protect her half-brother’s fragile claim to the throne.

 

But when a mysterious outsider arrives with a bid for the throne—and a power that threatens to expose her—she makes a powerful choice. This time, she has no intention of hiding in the shadows and decides to claim the throne for herself.

In the shadows of the deadly forest surrounding the town, our main character is running out of resources. She makes a deal with the leader of the vampires in the forest: give her blood in exchange for what she needs. Things go awry when her best friend goes missing. Her brother comes searching and is willing to expose her secrets to find his sister. The leader of the vampires strikes a new deal to help them both, but it may be the most dangerous deal yet.

Set in a lush world ruled by god-like beings, our main character is cursed as a child by one of them—and the curse is slowly killing her. When she learns of a contest where the prize is immortality, she infiltrates the competition, determined to break her curse at any cost. There she encounters the troupe’s enigmatic leader and strikes a perilous bargain.

 

But the more she delves into the secrets of the troupe, the more she realizes that her curse is only just the beginning.

Our first YA pick of the year is lush and romantic, with a competition and a hidden deal. The prince is not looking forward to the possible grim ending of what should be a beautiful beginning.

 

He then comes across a girl, who offers her power to wring out the truth from people within the tournament for his new bride in exchange for safekeeping. They make a deal together to survive this tournament and possibly find solace in each other.

A cataclysm approaches, and our main characters are thrust into the middle of chaos. Our main girl will do anything to be the Chosen One and embrace the wand she desires, and our main boy will do anything to avoid it.

 

And yet, the wand chooses the boy, and the girl makes a new, unheard-of wand. They must join together to defend their world from the cataclysm, but will they be able to avoid falling in love, or will their story end in fated tragedy?⁠

A witch lives a life of fraud, maintaining a family business of selling bogus spells and conducting tours of an infamous mansion with a murderous past. Our witch is then offered a large sum of money by the mansion’s heir in exchange for getting rid of his ancestor’s ghost, and how can she refuse?

But murder finds them again, and she finds herself in the middle of an investigation to solve it while keeping up her illusions, and trusting her heart in the process, even if it desires the possible murderer himself.

Our book this month features a magical curiosities shop that sits in town, where secretly the items are anything but. Our main character is keeping the shop going, but is hanging by a thread until a strange girl comes in, turning those fake items into real magic. She is hiding a secret of her own; she is cursed to make anything she touches into magic. They make a deal that could save them both, and with the help of a handsome printer’s assistant, they embark on an ambitious quest and uncover a plot that goes deeper than they could have ever imagined.⁠

In a world where gods and monsters roam the earth, the guardian of a wild and dangerous forest filled with creatures unknown finds the one person who is immune to her poisonous touch. As one of the Sleepless, he must share his body with an evil spirit. As they forge an alliance, the evil spirit harboring his body plans to manipulate the guardian for his dark purposes, but she is not without secrets of her own behind this mission. It’s only a matter of time before their paths get caught in the crossfire of dangerous magic they can’t understand and destroy everything they’ve ever known

Our August YA book is a thrilling and romantic paranormal fantasy. Our protagonist is a girl seeking a fresh start and sense of normalcy as she starts college, while still dealing with the aftermath of a loss from several years before. Everything feels normal, with the exception of a mysterious boy who seems to immediately despise her without explanation.

 

The arrival of an unexpected message leads her to discover that the local legend she was told growing up is not simply a fairy tale, and her mysterious classmate seems to know more than he is letting on. She finds herself pulled into an ancient conflict that will test everything she thought she believed and reveal truths about her family’s role that will change her world forever. ⁠

Our July book features a world of fiery racing and dangerous conspiracies, in which a phoenix tamer is forced to join together with a reckless rider to win the races. The tamer’s home then burns down, which leads to an unlikely partnership with a tech mogul who may have his own agenda. As tensions rise, both tamer and rider will do what they must to protect their loved ones, even as their resentment sparks into something unknown.⁠