One of the best parts of my job is ordering new books for the Edge–reading the reviews, seeing what popular authors come up with next, or finding out about an upcoming sequel to an old favorite. Read on to find out about some of the new YA fiction titles coming to our shelves this month.

The Totally True Story of Gracie Byrne by Shannon Takaoka
Grades 8 and up
Library Catalog

“An old journal gives a teen the ability to control the narrative of her life—but at what cost? Gracie is a lover of words and stories. Her imagined life on the page is so much more appealing than her real one. Reality means divorced parents and a new start in Pittsburgh as she begins her junior year of high school, now that Alzheimer’s disease prevents Katherine, her maternal grandmother, from living alone. Gracie, while idly exploring Katherine’s vanity, discovers a velvet-covered journal. Unable to resist the lure of its blank pages, she begins penning her stories there—and soon realizes that the stories are moving beyond the pages and into the real world.” –Kirkus Reviews

The Spells We Cast by Jason June
Grades 9 and up
Library Catalog

“Nigel Barrett, the youngest magician in his family, is called to the annual Culling—a competition that determines which teenage magicians get to keep their magical powers into adulthood and which don’t—while he’s at a cheap taco stand being broken up with by his boyfriend. Things can only go up from there, or so he thinks, until he runs into the other apprentices competing for a place in the Guild.” –Booklist

The Blackwoods by Brandy Colbert
Grades 9 and up
Library Catalog

“In present-day Los Angeles, after the death of film star Blossom Blackwood, tabloids chronicle the family’s grieving process and Hollywood searches for its next big star. Despite having grown up benefiting from her great-grandmother Blossom’s influence, Hollis has never wanted to be in the public eye. Hollis’s cousin Ardith, meanwhile, reveled in the limelight; as a child actor, Ardith yearns to follow in her great-grandmother’s footsteps. But when the teens’ personal secrets and private pasts begin leaking to the press, they must each reckon with the consequences of being in the spotlight.” –Publisher's Weekly

The Forest Demands Its Due by Kosoko Jackson
Grades 9 and up
Library Catalog

“A centuries-old curse plagues a prestigious academy nestled in a Vermont forest in this fantasy/horror novel. Douglas Jones, a queer, Black teenager from Washington, DC, is given a fresh start at Regent Academy in the aftermath of a deadly apartment fire he was unfairly accused of causing. However, he feels isolated and frustrated at the predominately white school, and is unnerved by strange voices he alone hears emanating from the Atolas Forest. Unease turns to horror when a student is murdered there, and no one other than Douglas and the groundskeeper, Everett Everley, even remember the student's existence. Douglas learns that this is due to an ancient curse, and that he was brought to Regent because the Headmaster believes Douglas holds a unique power that can end it.” –School Library Journal

The Rosewood Hunt by MacKenzie Reed
Grades 9 and up
Library Catalog

“In this gripping mystery, 17-year-old Lily Rosewood aspires to design clothes for—and eventually take over—Rosewood Inc., the luxe coat company led by generations of her forebears. When her grandmother, the company’s current head, dies, the future of the property and the Rosewood fortune are in doubt. Lily, whose mother is MIA and whose father is dead, moves in with her uncle and cousin Daisy, a social media sensation whose estrangement from Lily puzzles her. Upon learning that Gram did not choose a successor (“the receiver will be determined at a later date, under privately specified circumstances,” her will states), Lily and three teens—STEM-genius Caleb Johnson, self-defense expert Quinn Zhao, and Lily’s former friend Leo DiVincenzi—must solve riddles left to Lily by her grandmother in hopes of winning control of Rosewood Inc.” –Publisher's Weekly

Sequels:

A British Girl’s Guide to Hurricanes and Heartbreak by Laura Taylor Namey
Grades 8 and up
Library Catalog

“Flora Maxwell, younger sister to Orion, the romantic lead from A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow (2020), is feeling unmoored. “She’s a hurricane, that one,” her family’s always said. While she used to find empowerment in that label, in the months following the death of her mum, Flora feels as if she only embodies destruction. Grief, doubt, and the shame of mistakes she’s made compel Flora to lash out and pull away from those who love her, including Gordon, the old friend who could be something more if she weren’t so afraid of ruining another good thing.” –Kirkus Reviews

The first book in the series, A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow, is available here.

Foul Heart Huntsman by Chloe Gong
Grades 9 and up
Library Catalog

“Following the devastating standoff at the end of Foul Lady Fortune, Rosalind Lang has been exposed as the deadly almost-immortal operative Fortune while her former mission partner, Orion Hong, has been kidnapped by his own mother for further Frankenstein-esque experimentation. Although Rosalind's friends and family are irrevocably tangled in the political knot enveloping 1932 Shanghai as the Communists, Nationalists, and Japanese imperialists wrangle for control, they all come together to rescue Orion and stop Lady Hong's terrifying experimentation in its tracks.” –School Library Journal

The first book in the series, Foul Lady Fortune, is available here.