My Friends by Fredrik Backman
Synopsis: Most people don’t even notice them—three tiny figures sitting at the end of a long pier in the corner of one of the most famous paintings in the world. Most people think it’s just a depiction of the sea. But Louisa, an aspiring artist herself, knows otherwise, and she is determined to find out the story of these three enigmatic figures.
Twenty-five years earlier, in a distant seaside town, a group of teenagers find refuge from their bruising home lives by spending long summer days on an abandoned pier, telling silly jokes, sharing secrets, and committing small acts of rebellion. These lost souls find in each other a reason to get up each morning, a reason to dream, a reason to love.
Out of that summer emerges a transcendent work of art, a painting that will unexpectedly be placed into eighteen-year-old Louisa’s care. She embarks on a surprise-filled cross-country journey to learn how the painting came to be and to decide what to do with it. The closer she gets to the painting’s birthplace, the more nervous she becomes about what she’ll find. Louisa is proof that happy endings don’t always take the form we expect in this stunning testament to the transformative, timeless power of friendship and art.
The Missing Half by Ashley Flowers
Synopsis: Nicole “Nic” Monroe is in a rut. At twenty-four, she lives alone in a dinky apartment in her hometown of Mishawaka, Indiana, she’s just gotten a DWI, and she works the same dead-end job she’s been working since high school, a job she only has because her boss is a family friend and feels sorry for her. Everyone has felt sorry for her for the last seven years—since the day her older sister, Kasey, vanished without a trace.On the night Kasey went missing, her car was found over a hundred miles from home.
The Devils by Joe Abercrombie
Synopsis: Holy work sometimes requires unholy deeds.
Brother Diaz has been summoned to the Sacred City, where he is certain a commendation and grand holy assignment awaits him. But his new flock is made up of unrepentant murderers, practitioners of ghastly magic, and outright monsters. The mission he is tasked with will require bloody measures from them all in order to achieve its righteous ends.
Elves lurk at our borders and hunger for our flesh, while greedy princes care for nothing but their own ambitions and comfort. With a hellish journey before him, it’s a good thing Brother Diaz has the devils on his side.
Bad Publicity by Bianca Gillam
Synopsis: Andie has been awash in grief since the death of her father, but when she lands her dream job as a senior book publicist, she finally finds some buoyancy, a renewed sense of purpose. She’s prepared to take the New York publishing scene by storm. Until her first day, when she discovers that her biggest author is Jack Carlson—the same Jack who ruined her life at university. Whom she hasn’t spoken to in five years. Who is not only still infuriatingly hot but also incredibly successful. And whose campaign she definitely cannot mess up, if she wants to keep her job.
To make matters even worse, the central part of this career-defining campaign is a book tour. For a month, Andie will have to travel across Europe with the man whom, if she were being totally honest, she’d like to hit with her car. Plus, there’s the unrelenting grief and her mother’s confusing new beau. Put all this together and you get. . . a lot.
But she will not lose this opportunity, especially not because of Jack. One month on tour with Jack Carlson, visiting some of the most romantic spots in Europe. Deep breath. She can do this.
Available now via Penguin Books. Order here.
Rules for Ruin by Mimi Matthews
Synopsis: On the outskirts of London sits a seemingly innocuous institution with a secretive aim—train young women to distract, disrupt, and discredit the patriarchy. Outraged by a powerful lord’s systematic attack on women’s rights in Parliament, the Academy summons its brightest—and most bitter—pupil to infiltrate the odious man’s inner circle. A deal is struck: bring down the viscount, and Miss Euphemia Flite will finally earn her freedom.But betting shop owner Gabriel Royce has other plans. The viscount is the perfect pawn to insulate Gabriel’s underworld empire from government interference. He’s not about to let some crinoline-clad miss destroy his carefully constructed enterprise—no matter how captivating he finds her threats.
From the rookeries of St. Giles to the ballrooms of Mayfair, Euphemia and Gabriel engage in a battle of wits and wills that’s complicated by a blossoming desire. Soon Euphemia realizes it’s not the broken promises to her Academy sisters she should fear. . . . It’s the danger to her heart.
Available now via Berkley. Order here.
The Knight and The Moth by Rachel Gillig
Synopsis: Sybil Delling has spent nine years dreaming of having no dreams at all. Like the other foundling girls who traded a decade of service for a home in the great cathedral, Sybil is a Diviner. In her dreams she receives visions from six unearthly figures known as Omens. From them, she can predict terrible things before they occur, and lords and common folk alike travel across the kingdom of Traum’s windswept moors to learn their futures by her dreams.Just as she and her sister Diviners near the end of their service, a mysterious knight arrives at the cathedral. Rude, heretical, and devilishly handsome, the knight Rodrick has no respect for Sybil’s visions.
But when Sybil’s fellow Diviners begin to vanish one by one, she has no choice but to seek his help in finding them. For the world outside the cathedral’s cloister is wrought with peril. Only the gods have the answers she is seeking, and as much as she’d rather avoid Rodrick’s dark eyes and sharp tongue, only a heretic can defeat a god.
Broken Souls and Bones by LJ Andrews
Synopsis: Lyra Bien intended to live a quiet life to avoid the attention of the magic-obsessed king in the fortress of Stonegate. Until Roark Ashwood—the prince’s silent guard and rumored killer for the crown—invades her village and uncovers the truth behind the silver scars in her eyes. To save her best friend from death, she’s forced to reveal her abilities, and is immediately claimed by the crown as the next melder.To be the King’s melder is to be revered and feared in equal measures, but above all it is a slow death sentence. Lyra is determined to find a way to free herself and her friends from bondage. But first she must get more information from the silent, brooding sentry who first took her captive: Roark.
As Lyra gets closer to Roark, she soon learns he’s nothing like she assumed—and in fact everything she needs. The more they work as allies, the harder it becomes to ignore the growing passion between them. After a sinister truth is revealed, Roark and Lyra must choose to stand against all they know, or accept their dark destiny.
Available now via Ace. Order here.
The Thrashers by Julie Soto
Synopsis: Welcome to the Thrashers, the elite friend group at New Helvetia High.
They’re everything everyone wants to be.
Jodi Dillon was never meant to be one of them. Julian, Lucy, Paige, and the infamous Zack Thrasher are rich, sophisticated, and love attention. Jodi feels out of place, but Zack’s her childhood best friend, so she’s in.
Then Emily Mills, who desperately wanted to be a Thrasher, dies—and the whispers about the Thrashers begin. As Emily’s journal surfaces, detectives close in, and Jodi faces an impossible choice: betray her friends or protect herself.
But as eerie messages and strange occurrences escalate, it becomes clear—Emily isn’t done with them yet.
Audre and Bash Are Just Friends by Tia Williams
Synopsis: MEET AUDRE. Junior class president. Debate team captain. Unofficial student therapist. Desperately in need of a good time. MEET BASH. Mysterious new senior. Everybody’s crush. Tall, floppy, great taste in jewelry. King of having a good time.
It’s the last day of school at Cheshire Prep, Brooklyn’s elite academy–and Audre Mercy-Moore’s life is a mess. Her dad cancelled her annual summer visit to his Malibu beach house. Now? She’s stuck in a claustrophobic apartment with her mom, stepdad, and one-year-old sister (aka the Goblin Baby).
Under these conditions, she’ll never finish writing her self-help book–ie, the key to winning over Stanford’s admissions board.
Cut to Bash Henry! Audre hires him to be her “fun consultant.” His job? To help her complete the Experience Challenge–her list of five wild dares designed to give her juicy book material. She’ll get inspo; he’ll get paid. Everybody wins.
He isn’t boyfriend material. And she’s not looking for one. Can they stay professional despite their obvious connection?
Available now via Little, Brown Books For Young Readers. Order here.
Wandering Wild by Lynette Noni
Synopsis: Zander Rune was the darling of Hollywood until he fell from glory and was labeled a problematic bad boy. His public image needs fixing–fast–or he’ll lose the role of a lifetime, and all his dreams with it.
Charlie Hart is a regular teenage girl who despises everything Zander represents. But thanks to her scheming best friend and an ill-timed social media competition, Charlie finds herself pretending to be Zander’s biggest fan on a four-day reality TV adventure led by renowned survivalist Rykon Hawke.
Scaling towering cliffs, navigating claustrophobic caves, and encountering deadly wildlife aren’t the only dangers facing Zander and Charlie. Because when their trip goes horribly wrong, they’re left stranded in the Australian wilderness. No Rykon, no film crew, no rescue. The only way they’ll survive is if they trust each other. But in order to do so, both will have to let go of the ghosts of their pasts, and just maybe find themselves–and one another–in the process.
Available now via Blackstone Publishing. Order here.
El Niño by Pam Muñoz Ryan
Synopsis: Sometimes the only way to hold onto what we love is to let go. Kai Sosa is so passionate about swimming he is practically a fish. This summer, he’s determined to become the athlete he once was on an elite swim team.
But something invisible holds him back. His race times are off. Dreams of his sister Cali haunt him. And he hasn’t found her missing gold cuff, her last request. Mom is still talking about grief, even though it’s been two years since she disappeared. He’s fine now, isn’t he?
When Kai discovers a library book Cali had checked out multiple times–about an underwater realm and a mysterious place called the Library of Despair and Sorrow–details from the story begin to appear in his own life: dolphin pods, imposing rock towers, unusual sea creatures, and even Cali’s beloved bracelet. As myth and reality collide, El Niño unleashes its fury, and Kai is swept up in a storm of events that will change his understanding of love, death, grief, and how best to honor those we’ve lost.
Exquisitely packaged with breathtaking illustrations by award-winning artist Joe Cepeda and printed in blue ink.
Available now via Scholastic Press. Order here.
The Beautiful Maddening by Shea Ernshaw
Synopsis: Seventeen year-old Lark Goode wants only one thing: to escape her small town of Cutwater and the history of her family name. It’s a history that began during the Dutch tulip mania of 1636, when Lark’s ancestor stole the last remaining tulip bulbs and fled to America. But when the tulips bloomed on American soil, madness sprouted from their snowy white petals. The madness was love.
Now, generations later, the Goodes remain cursed—the unnatural flowers outside their home causing locals to fall helplessly in love with anyone carrying Goode blood in their veins. While her brother embraces the strange power, Lark wants nothing more than to be free from it.
But when she meets a boy who seems unaffected by the family curse, Lark finds herself falling headlong into a feeling she’s spent her whole life trying to avoid. Yet, all curses and magic come with a price, and the town of Cutwater soon sinks into a dangerous sickness tied to Lark and the ill-fated tulips.
To save the town, Lark will need to sacrifice everything—even true love—to break the spell. Because in the Goode family, love has a way of destroying everything.
The Listeners by Maggie Stiefvater
Synopsis: January 1942. The Avallon Hotel & Spa has always offered elegant luxury in the wilds of West Virginia, its mountain sweetwater washing away all of high society’s troubles.Local girl-turned-general manager June Porter Hudson has guided the Avallon skillfully through the first pangs of war. The Gilfoyles, the hotel’s aristocratic owners, have trained her well. But when the family heir makes a secret deal with the State Department to fill the hotel with captured Axis diplomats, June must persuade her staff—many of whom have sons and husbands heading to the front lines—to offer luxury to Nazis. With a smile.
Meanwhile FBI Agent Tucker Minnick, whose coal tattoo hints at an Appalachian past, presses his ears to the hotel’s walls, listening for the diplomats’ secrets. He has one of his own, which is how he knows that June’s balancing act can have dangerous consequences: the sweetwater beneath the hotel can threaten as well as heal.
June has never met a guest she couldn’t delight, but the diplomats are different. Without firing a single shot, they have brought the war directly to her. As clashing loyalties crack the Avallon’s polished veneer, June must calculate the true cost of luxury.
Available now via Viking. Order here.
Sounds Like Love by Ashley Poston
Synopsis: Joni Lark has a secret. She’s one of the most coveted songwriters in LA, and yet she can’t write. There’s an emptiness inside her, and nothing seems to fill it.When she returns to her hometown of Vienna Shores, North Carolina, she hopes that the sand, the surf, and the concerts at The Revelry, her family’s music venue, will spark inspiration. But when Joni gets there, nothing is how she left it. Her best friend is hiding something, her mother’s memories are fading fast, and The Revelry is closing.
How can Joni write when her world is leaving her behind?
Until she hears it. A melody in her head, lyric-less and half-formed, and an alluring and addictive voice to go with it—belonging, apparently, to a wry musician with an emptiness of his own.
Surely, he’s a figment of Joni’s overworked imagination.
Then a very real man shows up in Vienna Shores. He’s arrogant and guarded—nothing like the sweet, funny voice in Joni’s head—and he has a plan for breaking their inconvenient telepathic connection: finish the song haunting them both and hope they don’t risk their hearts—or their secrets—in the process.
Because that melody, the one drawing them together . . . what if it’s there for a reason?
Brianna Robinson is a book publicist and Sarah Lawrence College alum. She lives in New York with too many books and two enthusiastic dachshunds. You can find her on twitter @blrobins2.
