Here are the new books coming out for this week on New Book Tuesday. Click each book for more information and to purchase. Which are you planning to read? Do you have a favorite of all the new titles being released this week? Tell us in the comments section below.
Everyone Hates Kelsie Miller by Meredith Ireland
About the Book:
There’s no one Kelsie Miller hates more than Eric Mulvaney Ortiz—the homecoming king, captain of the football team, and academic archrival in her hyper-competitive prep school. But after Kelsie’s best friend, Briana, moves across the country and stops speaking to her, she’ll do anything, even talk to Eric, to find out why.
After they run into each other—literally—at the last high school party of the summer, Eric admits he’s been ghosted by his girlfriend, Jessica. Kelsie tells him she’s had zero contact from Briana since she left their upstate New York town.
Suddenly, a plan is formed: they’ll go on a road trip to the University of Pennsylvania the following week when both Briana and Jessica will be on campus. Together, they’ll do whatever it takes to win back their exes.
What could go wrong?
Used to succeeding in everything, Kelsie and Eric assume they’ll naturally figure out the details on the drive down. What they don’t expect is that the person they actually need may be the one sitting next to them.
About the Author:
Meredith Ireland was born in Korea and adopted by a New York librarian. Her love of books started early and although she pursued both pre-med at Rollins College and law at the University of Miami, stories were her fate. She currently resides with her two children, and Bob, a carnival goldfish, who’s likely a person. She writes young adult books, some of which you may like. She is the author of The Jasmine Project and Everyone Hates Kelsie Miller.
If You Could See the Sun by Ann Liang
About the Book:
Alice Sun has always felt invisible at her elite Beijing international boarding school, where she’s the only scholarship student among China’s most rich and influential teens. But then she starts uncontrollably turning invisible—actually invisible.
When her parents drop the news that they can no longer afford her tuition, even with the scholarship, Alice hatches a plan to monetize her strange new power—she’ll discover the scandalous secrets her classmates want to know, for a price.
But as the tasks escalate from petty scandals to actual crimes, Alice must decide if it’s worth losing her conscience—or even her life.
About the Author:
Ann Liang is an undergraduate at the University of Melbourne. Born in Beijing, she grew up travelling back and forth between China and Australia, but somehow ended up with an American accent. When she isn’t stressing out over her college assignments or writing, she can be found making over-ambitious to-do lists, binge-watching dramas, and having profound conversations with her pet labradoodle about who’s a good dog. This is her debut novel.
Grave Things Like Love by Sara Bennet Wealer
About the Book:
Elaine’s home is a bit . . . different. It’s a funeral home that has been in her family since the 1800s—and it’s why everyone calls her Funeral Girl. And even though she’s lived there her whole life, there are still secrets to be found.
When Xander, a cute new boy with a penchant for ghost hunting, arrives in town, Elaine feels an instant spark. His daring and spontaneous ways help her go from Funeral Girl to Fun Girl. Then there’s Miles, Elaine’s oldest friend, who she’s starting to see in a completely new light.
After Xander convinces her to stage a seance one night, Elaine discovers that her home might be haunted by a kindred spirit—the daughter of the funeral home’s original owner. But who wants to be haunted by the dead when there are boys to spend time with? After all, you only live once. . . .
About the Author:
Sara Bennett Wealer grew up in Manhattan, Kansas (the “Little Apple”), where she sang in all the choirs and wrote for the high school newspaper. She majored in voice performance at the University of Kansas before transferring to journalism school and becoming a reporter covering everything from house fires to Hollywood premieres. She now works in marketing and lives in Cincinnati with her husband, two daughters, and a growing menagerie of pets. She is the author of the YA novel Now & When.
The Witch Hunt by Sasha Peyton Smith
About the Book:
Months after the devastating battle between the Sons of St. Druon and the witches of Haxahaven, Frances has built a quiet, safe life for herself, teaching young witches and tending the garden within the walls of Haxahaven Academy. But one thing nags; her magic has begun to act strangely. When an opportunity to visit Paris arises, Frances jumps at the chance to go, longing for adventure and seeking answers about her own power.
Once she and her classmates Maxine and Lena reach the vibrant streets of France, Frances learns that the spell she used to speak to her dead brother has had terrible consequences—the veil between the living and the dead has been torn by her recklessness, and a group of magicians are using the rift for their own gain at a horrifying cost.
To right this wrong, and save lives and her own magical powers, Frances must hunt down answers in the parlors of Parisian secret societies, the halls of the Louvre, and the tunnels of the catacombs. Her only choice is to team up with the person she swore she’d never trust again, risking further betrayal and her own life in the process.
About the Author:
I Miss You, I Hate This by Sara Saedi
About the Book:
The lives of high school seniors Parisa Naficy and Gabriela Gonzales couldn’t be more different. Parisa, an earnest and privileged Iranian American, struggles to live up to her own impossible standards. Gabriela, a cynical Mexican American, has all the confidence Parisa lacks but none of the financial stability. She can’t help but envy Parisa’s posh lifestyle whenever she hears her two moms argue about money. Despite their differences, as soon as they met on the first day of freshman year, they had an “us versus the world” mentality. Whatever the future had in store for them—the pressure to get good grades, the litany of family dramas, and the heartbreak of unrequited love—they faced it together. Until a global pandemic forces everyone into lockdown. Suddenly senior year doesn’t look anything like they hoped it would. And as the whole world is tested during this time of crisis, their friendship will be, too.
With equal parts humor and heart, Parisa’s and Gabriela’s stories unfold in a mix of prose, text messages, and emails as they discover new dreams, face insecurities, and confront their greatest fears.
About the Author:
Sara Saedi is the author of the memoir Americanized: Rebel Without a Green Card and the Never Ever series. She is also a television writer, most recently working on the upcoming Green Lantern series for HBO Max. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two sons.
The Truth About Everything by Bridget Farr
About the Book:
Gut a fish. Rewire a truck. Survive the collapse of the US government. All lessons fifteen-year-old Lark has learned during “homeschool” with her conspiracy-theorist-doomsday-prepping parents. If only she’d also learned the fundamentals of human biology or even how to read. When Lark gets her first period and realizes how much she doesn’t know, she ignores her fears of everything outside their rural Montana farm and secretly attends school for the first time. At high school, Lark discovers the world is very different than she has been told, from the basics of the internet to government takeovers that never happened. Lark uncovers the holes in her parents’ beliefs and realizes that she must decide her own truth. But it won’t come without sacrifices.
About the Author:
Bridget Farr is an author and educator. Her recent novels include BookExpo Buzz Pick Pavi Sharma’s Guide to Going Home (LBYR 2019) and Margie Kelly Breaks the Dress Code (LBYR 2021). She serves as a vice principal at a public elementary school. Originally from Montana, Bridget now lives in Austin, Texas, with her husband, Shiva, and the neighborhood cat, Sherman.
Dark Room Etiquette by Robin Roe
About the Book:
SIXTEEN-YEAR-OLD SAYERS WAYTE HAS EVERYTHING.
Popularity, good looks, perfect grades—there’s nothing Sayers’ family money can’t buy.
Until he’s kidnapped by a man who tells him the privileged life he’s been living is based on a lie.
Trapped in a windowless room, without knowing why he’s been taken or how long the man plans to keep him shut away, Sayers faces a terrifying new reality. To survive, he must forget the world he once knew, and play the part his abductor has created for him.
But as time passes, the line between fact and fiction starts to blur, and Sayers begins to wonder if he can escape . . . before he loses himself.
About the Author:
Robin Roe has a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University and a master’s from Harvard. She counseled adolescents in Boston before she moved to Dallas to run a mentoring program for at-risk teens. Her debut novel A List of Cages was named one of the Best Young Adult Books of the Year by Goodreads, Chapters Indigo, EpicReads, BookPage, Powell’s Books, The Texas Library Association, and Buzzfeed. You can read more about Robin at www.robinroewriter.com and follow her on Instagram @robinroewriter.
The Nine: Origins by Kes Trester
About the Book:
Eighteen-year-old Blake Wilder usually hides her ability to see pivotal moments in other people’s pasts and futures, but when a premonition compels her to save a classmate’s life, she’s drawn into a centuries-old paranormal society on the brink of civil war.
As she struggles to find her way within a world of political intrigue and shifting alliances, her path is complicated by a budding romance with Nicholas, the chancellor’s son, and her attraction to Jessie, a man who makes up the rules as he goes. However, Blake will soon learn the truism that all is fair in love and war, especially when power is at stake.
When she witnesses a series of bizarre murders that have not yet occurred, it’s not long before the killer learns of her visions. Blake must decide whether to trust her head or her heart in a race to unmask the murderer before she is the next to die.
About the Author:
A native of Los Angeles, Kes Trester’s first job out of college was on a film set, though the movie’s title will remain nameless because it was a really bad film. Really.
As a feature film development executive, she worked on a variety of independent films, from gritty dramas (guns and hotties) to steamy vampire love stories (fangs and hotties) to teens-in-peril genre movies (blood and hotties).
Kes produced a couple of independent films, both award-winners on the festival circuit, before segueing into television commercials. As head of production for a Hollywood-based film company, she supervised the budgeting and production of nationally broadcast commercials (celebrities, aliens, talking animals!) and award-winning music videos for artists such as Radiohead, Coldplay, and OKGO (more celebrities, aliens, and talking animals!).
Kes’ contemporary novels are cinematic, fast-paced, and above all, fun. Her well-received debut novel, the young adult boarding school thriller A DANGEROUS YEAR, has been optioned for film/television. She is a four-time Pitch Wars mentor and an SCBWI Susan Alexander Grant award winner. When she’s not writing, she can usually be found in the company of an understanding husband, a couple of college-age kids, and a pack of much-loved rescue dogs.
Trespassers by Claire McFall
About the Book:
Tristan and Dylan have escaped the afterlife, defying fate: Dylan should have been killed in a horrific train crash, while Tristan should still be an immortal ferryman. Now, living in bodies they have no right to inhabit, they discover they’re connected by something stronger than love—their souls are bound together. Alone, they’ll die, but being together has its own difficulties. As they try to adjust to life in the real world, with Dylan slowly healing from her injuries and Tristan attending school for the first time, they realize that when they broke through the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead, they showed the way for others to escape. Now they must face the consequences. Dylan and Tristan’s beautifully told and richly imagined story—in development to be a major motion picture—continues in this sequel full of suspense, action, and intense emotion.
About the Author:
Claire McFall is a former English teacher whose first book, Ferryman,won the Scottish Children’s Book Award and was long-listed for both the Branford Boase Award and the Carnegie Medal. She is also the author of Black Cairn Point, published in the US as The Last Witness,which won the inaugural Scottish Teenage Book Prize. Claire McFall is from Scotland and now lives in Colorado.
Numb to This by Kindra Neely
About the Book:
Kindra Neely never expected it to happen to her. No one does. Sure, she’d sometimes been close to gun violence, like when the house down the street from her childhood home in Texas was targeted in a drive-by shooting. But now she lived in Oregon, where she spent her time swimming in rivers with friends or attending classes at the bucolic Umpqua Community College.
And then, one day, it happend: a mass shooting shattered her college campus. Over the span of a few minutes, on October 1, 2015, eight students and a professor lost their lives. And suddenly, Kindra became a survivor. This empathetic and ultimately hopeful graphic memoir recounts Kindra’s journey forward from those few minutes that changed everything.
It wasn’t easy. Every time Kindra took a step toward peace and wholeness, a new mass shooting devastated her again. Las Vegas. Parkland. She was hopeless at times, feeling as if no one was listening. Not even at the worldwide demonstration March for Our Lives. But finally, Kindra learned that—for her—the path toward hope wound through art, helping others, and sharing her story.
About the Author:
Kindra Neely is an artist and writer based in southern Oregon. Her art journey began with the amazing community and encouragement she received at Umpqua Community College. She took her first drawing class Drawing Nature at UCC and still likes to hike the trails regularly to sketch flowers and ferns. Numb to This is her debut graphic novel.
