Today’s post is sponsored by Kelsey B. Toney and The Unexpected Consequence of Bleeding On A Tuesday!
Title The Unexpected Consequence of Bleeding On A Tuesday
Author Kelsey B. Toney
Intended Target Audience Young Adult
Publication Date June 17th 2025 by Random House Books for Young Readers
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Delia Bridges is striving to become the compassionate doctor she’s been unable to find in her journey to diagnose her excruciating period pain – but when a single rule-breaking incident jeopardizes her future, she must find a way to reclaim her dreams in this funny, period-positive novel.
High school senior Delia Bridges has the most amazing mom and sister, a killer GPA – and periods that are so painful they make her scream, pass out, and throw up. Though she doesn’t know it yet, Delia has endometriosis, an affliction plaguing millions of people that is notoriously difficult to diagnose.
Pain makes everything harder, but Delia is just one semester away from graduating from Stockwood Prep and pursuing her dream of becoming the kind of doctor she’s never had: one who takes her symptoms seriously. But when she breaks a rule for the first time ever and is caught using marijuana at school to manage her pain, Delia is expelled.
Her expulsion jeopardizes her college acceptance, her planned mentorship, and everything she had carefully planned for years. Without her academic success and no closer to a diagnosis, is Delia anything more than her period?
I look forward to making Pop! Goes The Reader’s most-anticipated lists every single year! While being a mood reader means I’m not always able to strictly stick to a to-be-read list, it’s exciting to explore what’s being published in the months ahead. Posts like this help me better organize my thoughts and decide what I ideally want to prioritize and read first, not to mention give me lots to look forward to!
Please Note: If you’re a young adult author with a novel being published in 2025 and don’t see your book on one of Pop! Goes The Reader’s Most-Anticipated lists, please don’t be hurt or upset! These lists are entirely subjective and based on my own personal reading taste. My favourite genres are contemporary and realistic fiction fiction, horror and historical fiction, which is why you won’t see many books outside of those genres on this list. While I try my best to remain up-to-date about upcoming releases, it’s also entirely possible that I simply haven’t learned about your book yet! If you’re the author of a 2025 young adult novel that you think might make a good fit for me and Pop! Goes The Reader, please don’t hesitate to reach out – I would love to hear from you!
For even more wonderful young adult novels being published in 2025, please check out this Goodreads list which currently includes over 550 YA novels being published this year for you to choose from. Hopefully you’ll be able to find the perfect book for you. Happy reading!
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The publication dates listed below might be subject to change.
Publication Date July 1st 2025 by Viking Books for Young Readers
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The glitz of Gossip Girl meets the hustle of Leah Johnson’s You Should See Me In A Crown in this charming and hilarious story of ex-BFFs from PG County, Maryland, perfect for fans of Joya Goffney and Elise Bryant.
Girls like Reya Samuels always come from Prince George’s County. Reya is rich and she’s not afraid to show it — she wears designer clothes, drives a custom pink Audi, and lives in a neighborhood tucked behind a fancy cast iron gate. She works hard, but she can get anything she wants with a snap.
Sommer Watkins is from Seat Pleasant, where the cast iron gates are significantly smaller — and attached to the windows, where most folks are still trying to make ends meet. Every day for Sommer is a hustle, working at her dad’s bookstore, and using her art skills to scrounge up enough scholarship money for her dream school, Spelman.
Reya and Sommer used to be BFFs — back when Reya lived in Seat Pleasant, too. Now the girls are from different stratospheres — but when Reya desperately needs help to prove to FIT admissions officers that she has what it takes to make it in fashion, the only person who can help is Sommer. Reya promises to help Sommer in return — she’ll pay her for her services, helping Sommer afford the school her parents can’t.
As the girls work together, slowly they begin to trust each other again. But when new relationships push them both, and Sommer’s dad’s bookstore is suddenly in danger of closing, old wounds bubble up. Can the girls find a way to repair their friendship and stay true to themselves along the way?
Publication Date July 1st 2025 by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
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She Gets The Girl meets Bottoms in this fun and flirty young adult sapphic rom-com about two teens who want revenge on the flaky popular girl they’re both crushing on.
Cynical but sensitive Beau Carl is on a mission. She needs to know if ultra-popular Maia Moon — the girl she’s been secretly hooking up with for months — really has feelings for her. But when she shows up at the last big party of the year before prom, she sees Maia about to kiss someone else.
Sweet, inexperienced Charm Montgomery is the “someone else.” And she’s ecstatic that she’s been reading Maia’s flirty behavior in their tutoring sessions correctly. But when the kiss is interrupted and Maia accepts an elaborate promposal from her douchey, popular boyfriend just a few days later, both Charm and Beau end up heartbroken.
There’s only one thing for them to do — get her back. And the only way to do that is for Beau to tutor Charm on how she can get their former crush to fall for her so hard that Maia will dump her ex…and then get dumped for once.
As their plan starts working, Beau and Charm grow closer too, in a way neither expected. But are either of them ready to let go of their scheme to take a chance on something a little sweeter — and scarier — than revenge?
Publication Date July 8th 2025 by Delacorte Press
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A teen girl’s attempt at social reinvention takes a deadly turn when a co-worker disappears — and she learns she may have been the last person to see the missing girl — in this razor-sharp, murderously funny thriller debut.
After the incident last year, Greta Riley Green is looking for reinvention — a fresh start — and a job at Hyper Kid Magic Land, the local amusement park, seems like the perfect way to forge a new path…no matter what it takes.
So when fate pulls Greta into Mercy Goodwin’s orbit, it feels like things are looking up. Beautiful and confident, Mercy dazzles audiences daily. And at the first party of the summer, she picks Greta to confide in. Mercy has a secret to share, if Greta will just meet her the next day. It’s a sign that Greta’s truly fitting in.
Only, when the time comes, Mercy is a no-show — as she is everyday after that — and Greta knows something’s wrong. She can’t help thinking back to the night of the party. Did Mercy seem upset? Terrified, even? Could she be in trouble? It wouldn’t be the first time a talented young performer came to a sinister end at Hyper Kid…
Of course, Greta has her own issues with the past, and the more she uncovers Hyper Kid’s secrets, the more her own threaten to surface. This job was meant to be a reboot, a summer without trouble. But trouble, it seems, finds Greta, and her past — and the bloody past of Hyper Kid — is about to catch up with her.
Publication Date July 8th 2025 by Storytide
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Bridgerton meets The Davenports in this wildly entertaining standalone romance, following a young Black woman trying to balance her independence with her future in 1860s London’s high society.
Stella Sedgwick is a lost cause.
Banished from etiquette lessons and unsure of her future, Stella dreams of a writing career and independence, but 1860s England offers little opportunity beyond marriage or servitude for a sharp-tongued, dark-skinned girl.
When her late mother’s former employer summons Stella to London, he tells her of his intention to bequeath one of the family’s great estates to her. It’s a life-changing inheritance, but one that will precipitate a legal battle that would be easier if Stella were married. With her cousin Olivia by her side, Stella is thrust into London society and must navigate fashion and balls, insults and stares, and a rekindled connection to Nathaniel, her childhood best friend with a rakish reputation.
Beyond the marriage market, living in London presents intriguing opportunities to Stella, like picking up her mother’s anonymous advice column to guide readers through upper-class perils. As new acquaintances are made and old secrets are uncovered, Stella must decide when to play by the rules, when to break them, and when to let herself follow her heart.
Publication Date July 8th 2025 by Bloomsbury YA
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You Should See Me In A Crown meets Black girl magic – literally – in this enchanting rom-com about a reluctant witch caught up in a faking dating scheme.
Witches and humans have always had issues.
Cayden is well aware of that: her witch mom was shunned by her high-society parents when she fell in love with Cayden’s human dad. Now, the family business is in trouble due to wealthy witches gentrifying her historic Texas neighborhood. So Cayden is appalled when she realizes she unknowingly went on a date with Coven it-boy Khy Carter. But when her father’s bakery has an influx of new customers, she realizes Khy might just be a solution to her family’s problems: Cayden absolutely cannot be with a Coven boy, but that doesn’t mean she can’t pretend to be.
Suddenly, Cayden is thrown into the Coven system she grew up despising, but it turns out embracing the witchy side of herself is actually…fun. As she spends more time with Khy, their fake dating starts to feel like real feelings. And even though she’s doing this for her family, Cayden knows she’s also betraying them. Her parents may have put love before everything else, but is Cayden willing to do the same?
Publication Date July 8th 2025 by
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A teen girl’s dream job aboard a luxury train derails when she discovers the strange cargo being transported — a mysterious and beautiful greenhouse — but its flowering façade may hide deadly thorns beneath, in this atmospheric and lush novel from the author of Those We Drown.
When Lara Williams gets a summer job aboard the luxury train the Banebury, she thinks she’s landed a five-star escape from her past. Even after she learns that her ex-friend Rhys, who she definitely did not have feelings for before their relationship imploded, is one of her coworkers, she’s determined to make things work.
But on the first day of their journey, the trip takes a strange turn. Two mysterious carriages filled with an array of beautiful and rare plants are attached to the Banebury in the middle of the night.
And with them comes a pair of siblings. Wealthy, mysterious, and charismatic, Gwen and Gwydion claim the plants they’re transporting are for research, but Lara can’t shake the feeling that there’s something…otherworldly about the strange blooms. Something that will stop at nothing to ensure the Banebury never reaches its destination.
Soon Lara will learn: You can’t outrun your troubles. You have to grab them by their roots. And if she can’t unearth the secrets of the Banebury, they might drag her down for good…
Publication Date July 15th 2025 by Viking Books for Young Readers
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The occasionally magic, always superstitious town of Prior’s End is famous for three things: whimsical charm at the annual Fall Festival, the legend of the wishing well hidden in a forest bristling with secrets, and Nova Marwood’s missing hiker father.
Every year without him, it gets easier to pretend Nova doesn’t believe in myth and magic. Easier to pretend she’s doing okay. Easier to pretend she doesn’t have a secret crush on the girl she fake-hates.
Kiara Mistry is the luckiest girl in town and the thief of every crush Nova had her heart set on first. In theory, Nova should resent Kiara. But it’s getting harder to deny her feelings.
When Nova lays an unintended hex on Kiara at the Fall Festival, and one misfortune after another swiftly follows, soon Kiara’s very survival is at stake. To reverse the bad luck, Kiara’s exes turned BFFs commence a quest for the miraculous wishing well. There’s only one person who can get them there…Nova.
But to save Kiara — and maybe find her dad, too — she’ll have to believe in something much stronger than magic. Nova will need to believe in herself.
Publication Date July 22nd 2025 by Delacorte Romance
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In this joyful celebration of fandoms, whirlwind romance, and plus-size girls, love is the ultimate roller coaster ride.
Lia Baker has spent the last few months wishing time would stand still. Soon her friends will head off to college while she’s left behind, buried under her mom’s anxiety and working a job she doesn’t want. But life throws her for a loop when she wins a spot in the fiftieth-anniversary scavenger hunt at Fableland, a legendary theme park. The contest is a golden ticket to a world where her favorite stories come to life and a chance for her to write some new ones of her own.
Everything seems perfect, especially after she teams up with Mason, a cute rival who knows as much about Fableland as she does. Together, they’re unstoppable. But as Mason’s sweet smile starts to melt her focus, Lia realizes that she may have to choose between the future she wants to rewrite — and a love she hadn’t planned for.
Publication Date July 29th 2025 by G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers
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A murder mystery game turns deadly in this young adult whodunit by the author of Suddenly A Murder.
Everyone in town knows about the game. For decades, J. Everett High has staged an annual murder mystery to put its criminology students to the test. And this year, crime junkie Dulce Castillo is dead set on winning. Soon, the game kicks off, and the student playing the victim, Xavier Torres, is found poisoned in the school’s greenhouse…except his death is not pretend.
It’s murder.
When the authorities open an investigation, all the evidence points to Sierra Fox, Xavier’s ex-girlfriend and Dulce’s ex-best friend. Claiming innocence and desperate to clear her name, Sierra begs Dulce to look past their bad blood and find the culprit.
After all, Dulce knows this school better than any investigator ever could, but she must use caution to solve this mystery. Because these historic halls are full of suspects with no shortage of motives. And in this game of cat and mouse, the other player kills.
Publication Date July 29th 2025 by Quill Tree Books
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Anita Kelly delivers their YA debut — a sweet and satisfying queer romance about two teens who fall for each other while trying to save the local donut shop where they’re working for the summer.
“Relaxing” and “getting a tan” may be on most teens’ summer to-do lists, but for chronically freckled and deeply anxious Penny Dexter? Not a chance. Socking money away for college? Of course. Babysitting her siblings? Sure. Becoming a climate scientist and saving the world? She wishes.
At least she can tackle the tuition money with the seasonal gig she landed at Delicious Donuts. But when she finds out that her genderqueer nemesis, Mateo della Penna, will also be working behind the counter, Penny’s summer of mindless labor instantly vanishes before her eyes. Mateo is ridiculous and artsy, and their favorite kind of donut is Boston Crème (gross!). But the duo’s two-and-a-half-year feud will have to take a backseat when the donut shop is threatened by a corporate takeover.
As their small town faces big pressure, and anxiety threatens everything Penny’s worked for, there’s still one person who remains by her side. And though their taste in donuts is questionable, Mateo’s presence manages to keep Penny calm and focused. Could it be that Penny’s found the perfect, most infuriating person to change the world with?
Publication Date August 5th 2025 by Levine Querido
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WHERE: Middle Woods, Briar, Ohio
VICTIM: Rachel Simon
HERO: D.J. Rosenblum
VILLAINS: ???It’s the beginning of the school year — and Briar’s newest resident, D.J. Rosenblum, is not here for it. Ever since her cousin Rachel died, D.J.’s family has been a mess: Her aunt and uncle are catatonic. Her mom is even more scatterbrained than usual. She had to postpone her bat mitzvah a whole year. Worst of all, she and her mom had to move — leaving her best friend, Eva, behind.
Briar does have one redeeming factor, though: Here, in Rachel’s hometown, D.J. can finally get to the bottom of her cousin’s death. With the help of a chatty journalist and a queen-bee hacker, D.J. can fill in the last days of Rachel’s life. And if she can just figure out her Torah portion — with help from her cute tutor, Jonah — maybe, just maybe, she’ll be able to solve a bigger mystery.
For fans of Looking For Alaska and Never Have I Ever comes Abby White’s debut novel, D.J. Rosenblum Becomes The G.O.A.T. It’s a basket of matzo ball soup dumplings for anyone learning to chart their own path, navigate new friendships and crushes, and figure out how to love — and live — after loss.
Publication Date August 12th 2025 by Joy Revolution
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A teen actress lands a role on the same high-profile show as her ex-boyfriend — only for things to get messy when she falls for his cute scene partner — in a dazzling sapphic rom-com from the author of Caught In A Bad Fauxmance.
Actress Marisol Polly-Rodriguez might be entering her flop era. After wrapping up a hit show, she’s neither booked nor busy. Not to mention, her former costar turned boyfriend, Miles, recently dumped her for being an “unserious” performer. Can you imagine?
To prove to Miles — and online trolls — that she takes her craft very seriously, Marisol lands a role on the same upcoming drama series he does. But with the eccentric director constantly rewriting her lines and a snobby castmate trying to upstage her, Marisol quickly realizes that her hope of nabbing an award nomination might be a pipe dream.
The only person she doesn’t have to put on a performance for is the show’s leading lady, Jamila. Marisol hasn’t been able to look away from her since their first audition. Falling for Jamila wasn’t part of Marisol’s plan, but even the most dedicated actors go off script sometimes, right?
Publication Date August 19th 2025 by Storytide
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Nina LaCour meets Alyson Derrick in this cross-country journey of identity, love, and friendships as Zoe tries to figure out her life, one train stop at a time.
Zoe’s life has gone off the rails.
When she left Seattle to go to college in New York, she was determined to start fresh, to figure out what being a lesbian meant to her, to experiment with clothes and presentation away from home for the first time.
Instead, she lost touch with her freshman orientation friend group, skipped classes, and failed completely at being the studious premed student her parents wanted her to be.
But the biggest derailment of all? Her newly minted ex-boyfriend — and the fact that she had a boyfriend to begin with. When she met Alden, he made her feel wanted, he made her feel free. He made her feel…like she could be like him, which was exciting and confusing all at once.
So, Zoe decides a second fresh start is in order: She’s going to take a cross-country train from New York to Seattle for fall break. There, no one will know who she is, and she can outrun her mistakes.
Or so she thinks until she meets Oakley, who’s the opposite of Zoe in so many ways: effortlessly cool and hot, smart, self-assured. But as Zoe and Oakley make their way across the country, Zoe realizes that Oakley’s life has also gone off the rails — and that they might just be able to help each other along before that train finally leaves the station.
Publication Date August 19th 2025 by Page Street YA
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Pageant winner and horror fanatic Corie Nielson dreams of putting the “queen” in “scream queen”.
Born into a family of beauty queens, seventeen-year-old Corie Nielson has the looks and charm befitting of Miss Teen Indiana. Her sights are set on the Miss Teen America crown next ― and the college scholarship that comes with it ― in hopes that she can finally break into her secret dream career: horror movie scream queen.
With pageant appearances, caring for her great-grandma, school, and shifts at the family boutique…there’s more than enough for one person to juggle, let alone Corie with her undiagnosed ADHD. But when the local horror show announces a monster costume contest that promises to make all her dreams come true, Corie can’t help but think: What’s one more thing? Surely, she can manage her family’s high expectations while also using her pageant skills to launch her into horror stardom. All she has to do is convince grumpy special effects makeup artist Everett Robbins to partner up and turn her into a pageant-worthy monster.
But old habits die hard; when the contest and a budding relationship with Everett distract her from her obligations even more, Corie must decide if a shot at her wildest dreams is worth risking the family bonds and pageant Adrienne Rivera traditions that have brought her this far.
Publication Date August 26th 2025 by Wednesday Books
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Book Lovers meets Notting Hill with a slice of You’ve Got Mail in this rivals-to-lovers romance from bestselling, award-winning author Elle McNicoll.
Eighteen-year-old Allegra Brooks has skyrocketed to fame after starring in a hit television show, and she’s the overnight success that everyone’s talking about. They just don’t know she’s autistic. And now all she wants is a normal teenage summer.
Her destination for escape is the remote Lake Pristine and its annual Book Festival, organized by the dedicated but unfriendly senior bookseller, Jonah Thorne.
In small towns like Lake Pristine, misunderstandings abound, and before long the two are drawn into high-profile hostility that’s a far cry from the drama-free holiday Allegra was craving. Thank goodness for her saving grace: the increasingly personal emails she’s been sharing with a charming and anonymous bookseller who is definitely not Jonah Thorne…
An unforgettable romcom about finding the one person who makes you feel like yourself when the whole world is watching.
Publication Date August 26th 2025 by Wednesday Books
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Heartstopper meets Buffy in this queer paranormal rom-com where a college sophomore must navigate suddenly becoming a vampire, the underground society he’s now part of, and the cute boy who discovers his secret.
It’s only natural nineteen-year-old Brennan’s life would be upended by something as ridiculous and unexpected as turning into a vampire. But if there’s one thing Brennan can do, it’s pretend everything’s fine when he’s close to losing his mind. Brennan has just clawed his way back to Sturbridge University after recovering from a suicide attempt, and this is not the new life he was hoping for.
Brennan’s newly bloodthirsty existence gets way more complicated when Cole, the super cute librarian and everyone’s campus crush, stumbles on Brennan drinking from a stolen blood bag. Luckily, adorable Cole is happy to keep Brennan’s secret, and even seems to maybe like him? Navigating a new relationship is hard enough without the added struggles of vampire puberty, an eclectic clan of self-proclaimed “good” vampires, and growing feelings for the one person who makes Brennan feel normal. With swirling rumors of a missing student and a rise in strange “animal attacks” near campus, Brennan must uncover the secrets of the clan and figure out how to balance vampirism and humanity, or risk losing the first real friends he’s ever had.
Filled with humor and heart, The Good Vampire’s Guide To Blood & Boyfriends has a gentle bite.
Publication Date August 26th 2025 by Page Street YA
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Scholarship student Mars Chang has finally been accepted into the most prestigious dance academy ― and she’ll do anything to stay.
Earning a scholarship to the Allegra Academy summer intensive was supposed to fix everything for Mars Chang. The academy is owned and run by the Bechlers, a big pharma family. And if Mars befriends the right girls, she could unlock the doors to the Ivy League future of her dreams.
When Mars is unexpectedly assigned to room with Alex Bechler, she knows impressing Alex will make or break all her plans. Alex is annoyingly attractive, the best dancer at the academy, and her great-aunt runs the program. So when the headmistress pulls Mars aside and asks her to swap Alex’s supplements with a new Bechler product, APL, in exchange for year-round admittance, Mars can’t say no.
But as Mars gets to know Alex and how much she dislikes her family and ballet, swapping the pills proves harder than Mars bargained for. Knowing Alex better only makes it clearer how unfair the academy is. So Mars decides to help another scholarship student by letting her try the supplements. At first, the pills give the girl an instant edge in class. But when they also produce terrifying side effects, Mars suspects that APL might not be safe after all.
But how can Mars, the new girl, convince the academy’s best that her life is in danger without jeopardizing her own dreams in the process?
Publication Date August 26th 2025 by G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers
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Two teen girls must uncover the dark, occult secrets lurking in their Cape Cod town to solve a series of murders — and save themselves from the same fate — in this twisty, witchy thriller.
When Mazzy and her best friend Nora sneak down to the beach one moonlit night to cast a spell, they don’t expect to find a dead body. But as the tide rolls in, it carries the remains of a woman who is missing her hands and teeth.
The girls know they should leave the investigation to the police, but they can’t shake the weird, supernatural connection they feel with the dead woman. Using spellwork and divination, they set out to find answers of their own. But after they uncover a rash of local disappearances stretching back years — and both girls start having occult visions and hearing ghostly, whispering voices — Mazzy worries that she and Nora are in danger.
Then, Nora finds a second body. And the whispering voice is telling her where to find more. With everything spiraling, Mazzy needs to figure out who to trust and how to sever this supernatural connection — or she and Nora might be the next bodies to wash up on the beach.
Publication Date September 2nd 2025 by Quill Tree Books
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Fourteen acclaimed authors showcase the beautiful and diverse ways holidays are observed in this festive anthology. Keep the celebrations going all year long with this captivating and joyful read!
From Lunar New Year to Solstice, Día de Los Muertos to Juneteenth, and all the incredible days in between, it’s clear that Americans don’t just have one holiday. Edited by the esteemed Dahlia Adler and authored by creators who have lived these festive experiences firsthand, this joyful collection of stories shows that there isn’t one way to experience a holiday.
With stories by: Dahlia Adler, Candace Buford, A. R. Capetta and Cory McCarthy, Preeti Chhibber, Natasha Díaz, Kelly Loy Gilbert, Kosoko Jackson, Aditi Khorana, Katherine Locke, Abdi Nazemian, Laura Pohl, Sonora Reyes and Karuna Riazi, contributor to The Grimoire of Grim Fates
Publication Date September 2nd 2025 by Margaret K. McElderry Books
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Gilmore Girls meets Jenny Han in this autumnal teen rom-com about a city girl stuck in a quaint small town who must confront her future and her old flame while the town prepares for an annual fall festival.
Ellis has a plan: spend her senior fall prepping her application for Columbia, get into their journalism program, and set the foundation for a respectable career. So when her parents announce that not only are they separating, but Ellis has to move with her mom from New York City to Bramble Falls, Connecticut, to live with her aunt and cousin, it couldn’t come at a worse time.
From past summers spent in Connecticut, Ellis knows Bramble Falls is idyllic and charming. But it also seems to be full of distractions. There’s local barista Cooper Barnett, Ellis’s one-time best friend and first kiss who now wants nothing to do with Ellis. And then there’s the Falling Leaves Festival, a local autumnal celebration run by Ellis’s aunt where people from all over come to see Bramble Falls’s beautiful foliage. The house is stuffed with decorations, and every conversation seems to center around the festival.
Dragged to every oh-so-charming event from apple picking to pumpkin carving, Ellis can’t stop bumping into Cooper…or falling for the quaint town and its quirky residents. As her return to Manhattan gets repeatedly delayed, Ellis finds herself caught between two very different places — and the futures they represent.
Publication Date September 2nd 2025 by Knopf Books for Young Readers
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A simmering psychological thriller about a dead teacher at an elite boarding school, the students who had every reason to want her gone, and the tangled web of rivalry and romance concealing the truth from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of All The Bright Places.
At an elite New England boarding school, eight students are selected for an exclusive storytelling workshop with the one and only Meredith Graffam — an enigmatic writer, director, and actress. For sixteen days, they will live in the isolated estate of the school’s founder, surrounded by snowy woods and a storm-tossed sea. Only one of the chosen will walk away with a lifechanging opportunity to realize their creative dreams.
Everyone, including Graffam, has a compelling reason to be there — Effy, the orphan, Isaac, the legacy, Ness, the wallflower, Ramon, the outsider, and Arlo, whose unexpected arrival leaves Effy spiraling — but only the most ambitious will last the term. Graffam’s unorthodox methods push the students past the breaking point, revealing their darkest secrets, taking unthinkable risks, and slowly starting to turn on one another. But Graffam never expected they would turn on her…
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of All The Bright Places comes a psychological thriller about the monsters who walk among us — even in the glittering upper echelons of society — and the ways in which we seek redemption for the wrongs we’ve done.
Publication Date September 2nd 2025 by Tundra Books
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In a world where magical beings, fey, are mistrusted and often institutionalized, a human brother and fey sister must team up to solve a bizarre murder in this 1920s-inspired queer teen fantasy novel.
In the city of Puck’s Port, where motorized vehicles fill the streets and new technological marvels abound, something rotten is lurking under the surface. A violent murder at the docks seems to point to a fey killer, igniting a powder keg of distrust between the city’s humans and its fey inhabitants — folks who wield wonderful but often uncontrollable magical power.
Gristle Senan Maxim Junior finds himself caught in the middle. Forced into the reluctant role of private investigator, like his late father, he’s working to solve the mystery of this fiery murder…mainly because his sister, Hawthorne Stregoni, is a fey herself with an unfortunate penchant for setting things ablaze.
Hawthorne is part of an experimental study to control feyism but struggles to keep her powerful magic in check in a country that hates what she is. Can she and Gristle work together to find the true instigator of the murder before it’s too late?
Publication Date September 2nd 2025 by Peachtree Teen
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A twisty, dark royalcore fantasy that takes the courtly intrigue of Hamlet and infuses it with the vicious ambition of the Boleyn family. For readers who love Holly Black and Sarah J. Maas.
Marry the prince, then kill him.
Princess Madalina and her twin sister, Inessa, were born attached at the hand and separated right after. That’s the only time the sisters ever held hands. The girls’ personalities have been shaped in the Sinet family’s drive to make their kingdom more than what it is: unrespectable and loathsome, a damp place where deceit fills the palace walls like mold.
Madalina is different from her family. She’s considered the weak one and only finds peace in the garden, tending her magical flowers, which are pejoratively called grave flowers because they are ideal for torture and torment. Secretly, she dreams of escape and a new life.
Then Inessa, who was betrothed to the heir of a wealthy kingdom — Prince Aeric — gets trapped in Bide, a terrifying purgatory, and begs Madalina to set her free. Now, not only must Madalina take her sister’s place as Aeric’s bride-to-be, but she also must finish Inessa’s secret mission: Inessa wasn’t just sent to marry Prince Aeric, but to kill him, too, and solidify a profitable pact with his traitorous uncle.
On behalf of her family, Madalina will need to resist the infuriatingly clever prince — as well as her own heart — if she’s to free her sister and finish the job.
Publication Date September 2nd 2025 by Scholastic Press
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When the town’s “it-couple,” Brad and Shelley, are found brutally murdered in a secluded manor, a brave group of teen friends takes on the mystery.
Set in 2001 Sanera, California – a small, quiet community where nothing ever happens – the shocking murders shake everyone, leaving them to believe the ghost of a murdered landowner has finally taken his revenge. Join Cam, Jonesy, Amber, and the new girl Buffy as they dig deeper into the sinister secrets of the mansion. With every clue they uncover, the eerie rumors seem frighteningly real. As they decide whether to stick together or split up to find evidence, they must face the ultimate question: will this decision be their salvation or their doom?
Publication Date September 9th 2025 by Sourcebooks Fire
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A senior year goodbye morphs into carnival carnage in this sickly-sweet slasher novel
Everyone at Pritchett High wants an invitation to the Senior Scavenge, and this year, Violet Warren and her friends are the lucky ones. Eight girls will break into the Poison Apple Carnival after hours for a scavenger hunt, a school tradition to welcome the best and brightest into their senior year.
But warm welcomes turn into gory goodbyes as those hunting become the hunted. One by one, Violet’s friends are viciously murdered by a mysterious masked figure running loose through the carnival grounds.
Can Violet survive this roller coaster ride from hell?
Or will her head end up on a cotton candy pike?
Publication Date September 9th 2025 by Storytide
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“You never know what’s going to happen, Milo. No matter how hard you try to control things, this is our summer in Paris, and it might just be unpredictable. There might just be boys.”
Milo is determined to have the most magical summer in Paris after winning an apprenticeship at a prestigious fashion house. The plan is simple: work hard, impress the team, and land a permanent job. With his best friend Celeste by his side, nothing will stand in his way of getting what he wants — especially not a boy.
Enter Rhodes Hamilton: London’s resident tabloid magnet and the son of a famous footballer. Milo is devastated to learn that Rhodes’ connections have also landed him an apprenticeship, which means he’s now the competition. Milo knows he has to win at any cost, so he can’t risk getting close to Rhodes, no matter how nice and charming and cute he is…
Publication Date September 9th 2025 by Delacorte Romance
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A brooding witch and a bubbly mortal must team up during their town’s fall festival in this cozy sapphic romance, perfect for fans of Gilmore Girls and Wicked!
In the charming town of Fableview, every day is Halloween.
Darcy Keller, resident ray of sunshine and town spirit princess, loves every moment of Fableview’s fall festivities. But she’s also really ready to leave for college next year, even though her parents expect her to stay and take over their Halloween empire.
Enter brooding new girl Anya Doyle, a real-life witch and almost a full member of her coven. In order to be initiated, she has to choose a mortal ally to act as her “protector.” But having moved around so much, Anya is completely friendless. So she does what any self-respecting teenage almost-witch would — she lies and tells her coven her secret crush, Darcy, is willing to do the job.
The solution? Work together, of course. The girls agree to help each other out, attending everything from a costume parade to a pumpkin patch party to an apple bobbing contest together. But with Anya’s magical powers and Darcy’s future independence on the line, the last thing they need is the added complication of pesky feelings…
Publication Date September 9th 2025 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
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A blood-curdlingly spooky and darkly funny romance about how falling in love is scary AF, perfect for fans of Wednesday and Heartstopper.
When Gray gets a text from a wrong number, he’s pretty sure it’s a serial killer — or worse, his ex — on the other end of the line. But, the anonymous texter shares his same taste in music and movies, and Gray’s bored while stuck at home all summer, so why not respond? Being anonymous actually helps them open up to each other, and Gray finds himself hopeful that this could be his dream goth crush. All they have to do is meet—on Halloween, the night of Sleepy Hollow’s big house-decorating contest, and the perfect opportunity for Gray to show his mystery texter his true feelings.
But between Gray’s closeted ex coming back into the picture, a cute but obnoxious new goth kid vying to win the contest, and a maybe serial killer lurking around and killing local gay teens, Gray’s prospects are looking grim. Come Halloween, he’ll either get his dream guy or die trying…
You’ve Goth My Heart is the romantic and hilarious accidental-connection romance you don’t want to miss!
Publication Date September 9th 2025 by Union Square & Co.
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Horror movie buff Charley Ryan isn’t expecting much when she’s enrolled at a girls’ boarding school on a remote island. That is, until someone starts killing off the senior class. From elaborate scare tactics to severed heads in fridges, these gruesome murders are straight out of Charley’s favorite films. To top it off, she’s also seeing the ghosts of her former classmates.
No one’s surprised when Charley’s taste in movies makes her the prime suspect. Determined to clear her name, she sets out to find the killer before her campus becomes more graveyard than school. She’s equipped only with her encyclopedic knowledge of horror cinema and the help of her trusty cinephile best friend, Olive — oh, and those pesky ghosts, if they can shut up long enough to lend a helping hand.
With a plot twist sure to make you scream, this is an addictive love letter of a slasher that will keep you guessing until the very last page.
Publication Date September 16th 2025 by Delacorte Press
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One can never ask too many questions in this contemporary horror about a teen girl who gets invited to the soft launch of a luxury resort and finds their wellness practices disturbing – and deadly.
Ariana is ready to get away. From the chill of a New York winter. From the anxiety around her volleyball injury and what that means for her future.
Thanks to her new friend Oakley, she can do just that. Oakley has offered Ariana an all-expenses-paid trip to her parents’ wellness retreat on an island off Barbados.
The Dream resort seems like the perfect escape. At least, it did before lifestyle guru Juniper-Moon started introducing suspect activities like psychedelic mushroom tea ceremonies and bee venom facials.
And as disturbing accidents start happening around the island and tension between the guests and staff builds, Aria realizes she and her friends might not be in paradise after all. Now it’s no longer a question of when but if they can make it home alive.
Publication Date September 16th 2025 by Bloomsbury YA
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A sweet meet-cute or a scheme destined to turn sour? Fake dating, family drama, and foodie fun combine in this YA paperback original.
Valeria Morales’ senior year is not off to a great start. Her twin brother Adrian isn’t talking to her, she’s realizing all of her friends were actually his friends, and now she’s failing math. Enter Gage Magnussen. Gage isn’t looking to take on any tutoring gigs now that his standing as valedictorian is at risk after letting a catastrophic breakup distract him – not to mention his demanding parents expect Gage to coordinate their yearly charity auction alongside his cheating ex. So Valeria offers him a deal: If he helps her pass, she’ll take over event planning AND pretend to be his girlfriend. A win-win-win!
But as their study sessions move to deep conversations and their fake dates begin feeling realer and realer, is it possible the lemons they’ve been dealt will turn to lemonade? Or will this arrangement only sting?
Publication Date September 16th 2025 by PUSH
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Stephen King meets Holly Jackson by way of We Were Liars in this action-packed story of queer horror from the acclaimed author of The Honeys!
Two Days Before
Ollie Veltman is finally coming home to the quaint island of Anchor’s Mercy after a year away while his mom battled cancer. It should be a celebration – his mom is cancer free, and she’s determined to have the best summer ever – but Ollie’s (now ex) best friends think he abandoned them, and he’s returning with a lot of questions. Because for a place that’s perfect on the surface, a secret rots below the waves. A secret that could explain his mom’s illness, and the illness of so many other locals.Ollie’s desperate search for the truth turns life-or-death when a storm descends upon the island. In its wake, a long-sunken horror rises…
Three Weeks After
Ollie is being held in isolation aboard a military hospital ship in the harbor. They say he’s a survivor, but they only know half the story. The truth is more monstrous than Ollie ever believed, and he suspects his saviors aren’t here to save anyone. Only Ollie can stop what’s coming, but that means getting back to Anchor’s Mercy before it vanishes, taking with it everyone he has ever loved.
Publication Date September 23rd 2025 by Bloomsbury YA
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I Kissed Shara Wheeler meets The Agathas in this cozy mystery about rivals who must find out who has been framing them for crimes they didn’t commit, from Stonewall Honor-winning author Chatham Greenfield.
Sadie Katz and Cleo Chapman have been rivals since birth. Literally. They entered the world competing to be the first baby born in the new year, and ever since Cleo beat out Sadie for that title, she has been nonchalantly beating Sadie at just about everything – and making it look easy.
Now in the fall of their senior year, Sadie and Cleo are neck-and-neck for valedictorian. But then a string of increasingly serious pranks take over their high school, and all signs point to Sadie and Cleo as the perpetrators. Suddenly expulsion is on the line, and the only way to clear their names is to team up and find out who is framing them. It’s not only suspects the girls are questioning, though. Sadie’s ivy league dream isn’t feeling as appealing as it once did, and Cleo is wondering if it’s about time she start fighting for what she really wants instead of just accepting whatever comes easiest.
With their futures on the line, the two grow closer, and both begin to wonder: Could it be that Sadie and Cleo weren’t meant to be rivals at all, and were instead destined to be something more?
Publication Date September 30th 2025 by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
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From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Better Than The Movies Lynn Painter comes a heartfelt and banter-filled rom-com about childhood sweethearts whose icy reunion in their hockey-loving hometown unexpectedly thaws when they fake a romantic relationship.
Growing up, Dani couldn’t help but follow around the adorable son of her mom’s best friend. Funny, kind of nerdy, and a little soft, Alec was always down to hang with Dani when they were little. From play dates on the playground to sneaking into movie theaters, Dani and Alec were inseparable. Until Dani moved away. Alec promised they’d stay in touch — except, they didn’t.
Flash forward and Dani is back in Minnesota for her senior year, she and her mom living with her grandfather. Dealing with the fallout of her parents’ devastating divorce, Dani wouldn’t mind a nerd-out with the cozy and comforting Alec (and maybe a chance to confront him on his MIA status for all these years). But teenage Alec is nothing like the kid Dani remembers. He’s a hockey star in a town where hockey players are worshiped as gods. Dani’s place as his shadow has been taken up by drooling female fans…and he loves it.
Dani is resolved to ice out her former best friend until an unlikely series of events brings them together — and forces them to fake being a couple. Once forced together, the former childhood sweethearts begin to reconnect, unearth complicated family secrets, and face their true feelings towards each other…including the real reason Alec has been pushing Dani away all these years.
Publication Date September 30th 2025 by Quill Tree Books
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From the acclaimed author of This Place Is Still Beautiful comes an evocative, achingly romantic road-trip story about grief, diasporic identities, and the deep-buried secrets that haunt us, perfect for fans of Past Lives and The Farewell.
Stella Chen’s life ground to a halt when her brother unexpectedly passed away a year ago. Raised together by their grandmother for years in the Chinese countryside before rejoining their parents in the United States, his absence destroys the connective tissue in her family. With another jarring move her senior year, from rural Illinois to unfamiliar surroundings in San Diego, she is left alone and adrift in her family’s suffocating silence and the void of unanswered questions her brother left behind.
So when Stella’s parents force her to join her estranged childhood friend Alan Zhao for a college tour all over California, Stella dreads it. Alan is a reminder of everything Stella wishes she could be—popular, gregarious, unburdened — and a reminder of how lost she is.
As this road trip takes Stella and Alan down beautiful coastlines and through fraught family dynamics, Stella can’t help but feel the spark of why she and Alan were once so close. Before long, they find themselves pulled into each other’s orbits, forcing unspoken feelings and long-hidden truths into the light.
Publication Date September 30th 2025 by Disney Hyperion
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Sadie meets The Female of the Species in this YA thriller starring Nev, one of eight missing girls from a group home called Sister’s Place — and the only one who returned.
In the town of Avan Island, there was a group home called Sister’s Place. It housed girls no one cared about, girls who had nothing and no one but each other. Over the course of six months, eight girls from the home seemingly disappeared, never to return.
But one girl did.
Nev is the girl who returned. The girl who survived. She’s done her best to leave what happened in the forest on Avan Island behind her, but now, five years later, the men in charge of Sister’s Place, the men who brushed the missing girls off as “runaways,” are turning up dead. And Nev realizes that confronting the town that was all to happy to forget her may be her only chance to get answers about what happened to her sisters.
As Nev is pulled deeper into Avan’s secrets — and as more bodies pile up — she must unravel the mysteries locked in her own mind as she hunts down a killer who is willing to do anything to make sure the past stays buried.
Lost sisters, female rage, and the determination to survive drive Nev on her propulsive journey to find answers and peace — and maybe revenge.
Publication Date September 30th 2025 by Peachtree Teen
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Don’t Let The Forest In meets The Whispering Dark in a queer YA cult horror following a recently diagnosed autistic teen who becomes enmeshed in a community of outcasts harboring sinister secrets.
After a meltdown in her school cafeteria prompts an unwanted autism diagnosis, Cassie Davis moves back to her hometown in upstate New York, where her mom hopes the familiarity will allow Cassie to feel normal again. Cassie’s never truly felt normal anywhere, but she does crave the ease she used to have with her old friends.
Problem is that her friends aren’t so eager to welcome her back into the fold. They extend an olive branch by inviting her on their backpacking trip to Hollow Ridge, in the upper reaches of the Adirondacks. But when a fight breaks out their first night, Cassie wakes to a barren campsite — her friends all gone.
With severe weather approaching and nearing sensory overload, Cassie is saved by a boy named Kaleb, who whisks her away to a compound of artists and outcasts he calls the Roost. As Kaleb tends to her injuries, Cassie begins to feel — for the first time in her life — that she can truly be herself. But as the days pass, strange happenings around the Roost make Cassie question her instincts. Noises in the trees grow louder, begging the question: Are the dangers in the forest, on the trail, or in the Roost itself?
In a world where autistic characters rarely get to be the hero of their own stories, Cassie Davis’s one-step-back, two-steps-forward journey to unmasking makes Hollow as much a love letter to neurodiversity as it is a haunting tale you’ll want to read with the lights on.
Publication Date September 30th 2025 by Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
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TAKE YOUR FINAL BOW
The Ghostlight Youth Theater Camp isn’t the best program in the world, but to Faye, it’s home. Every summer since junior high, Faye and her friends have come together for a monthlong musical-theater intensive. For her last year before graduation, Faye’s finally ready to take center stage as her true Afro-Latina self and break out of her white-passing roles.
But as Faye steps into her spotlight, complications arise. Suddenly, she’s competing with her BFF for lead roles and distracted by the attentions of the new camp hottie. Even when the drama turns deadly, Faye remains determined to make this the best production the Ghostlight has ever seen. It must be a coincidence that the stagehands keep disappearing and having gruesome accidents, right? But dark secrets are hiding behind the scenes, and opening night might turn out to be a bloodbath.
Publication Date September 30th 2025 by Bloomsbury YA
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New York Times bestselling author Kalynn Bayron is back with a Frankenstein-tinged horror romance.
Meka is used to death. After all, it’s the family business.
As a newly certified mortician’s assistant at her parents’ funeral home, her days are not for the faint of heart. Luckily her boyfriend Noah isn’t squeamish, and Meka is finally feeling ready to say the three little words that will change everything.
But then tragedy strikes, and Meka’s world is torn apart. Nothing makes sense, especially the strange things start happening. Ravens are circling her home. Strangers are following her. Someone is leaving mysterious items at her door. And worst of all…
The dead don’t seem to be staying dead.
Meka thought she understood death better than anyone. Turns out, the family business is a bit more complicated than it seems. And Meka isn’t the only one desperate to unearth their secrets…because the truth may be worth dying for.
Publication Date September 30th 2025 by Delacorte Press
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A transgender teen’s post-op recovery is derailed when he is bitten by a werewolf and his body begins to change. A thought-provoking page-turner that will haunt you for days!
Hunter’s life is at a turning point: After years of fighting his father for it, he’s gotten top surgery. He’s finally starting to feel comfortable in his own skin…only to be attacked by a strange creature in his backyard.
The encounter should kill him, but his best friend Gabe intervenes, and Hunter is able to walk away from the incident with his life — and new body — mostly intact. Still, something isn’t right. First, his wounds are healing quickly — too quickly. Then there are the feverish nightmares, the sudden return of his period, and his teeth…they’re falling out of his head.
Enter Mars, Hunter’s other best friend. A horror movie devotee, Mars points out the obvious: That mysterious creature was a werewolf, and Hunter is becoming one too—unless they can figure out a cure, which basically means they have to kill the creature that bit him.
Now, Hunter, Gabe, and Mars are in a race against time. A voice that could only belong to the creature itself is worming its way into Hunter’s head, and as the days pass, it’s only getting louder. It promises revenge on Hunter’s transphobic peers if he succumbs to his lycanthropic transformation. Or he can reject the monster and fight alongside his friends before the body — and life — he’s fought so hard for slips away for good. The choice is Hunter’s.
