This summer’s YA books are full of adventure, mystery, and hauntings. The streets of Puerto Rico become the setting for a mystery with a mythological twist in Ann Dávila Cardinal’s Five Midnights; a fantastical library becomes a battleground in Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson; and Korean mythology takes on a new life in Kat Cho’s Wicked Fox.
Head below for the full list of Young Adult titles heading your way in June!
Keep track of all the new releases here. Note: All title summaries are taken and/or summarized from copy provided by the publisher.
Week One
Five Midnights — Ann Dávila Cardinal (June 4, Tor Teen)
If Lupe Dávila and Javier Utierre can survive each other’s company, together they can solve a series of grisly murders sweeping though Puerto Rico. But the clues lead them out of the real world and into the realm of myths and legends. And if they want to catch the killer, they’ll have to step into the shadows to see what’s lurking there―murderer, or monster?
Sorcery of Thorns — Margaret Rogerson (June 4, Margaret K. McElderry)
All sorcerers are evil. Elisabeth has known that as long as she has known anything. Raised as a foundling in one of Austermeer’s Great Libraries, Elisabeth has grown up among the tools of sorcery—magical grimoires that whisper on shelves and rattle beneath iron chains. Then, an act of sabotage releases the library’s most dangerous grimoire. Elisabeth’s desperate intervention implicates her in the crime, and she is torn from her home to face justice in the capital. With no one to turn to but her sworn enemy, the sorcerer Nathaniel Thorn, and his mysterious demonic servant, she finds herself entangled in a centuries-old conspiracy. Not only could the Great Libraries go up in flames, but the world along with them.
War of the Bastards (Royal Bastards #3) — Andrew Shvarts (June 4, Disney-Hyperion)
A year has passed since the fall of Lightspire. The Inquisitor Miles Hampstedt rules Noveris with a blood-soaked iron fist. Tilla and her friends have become hardened rebels in the Unbroken, a band of guerilla fighters hiding out on the fringes of the Kingdom protecting the true queen, Lyriana Volaris. Even as they fight, they know their cause is doomed—that with every passing day Miles’s army of Bloodmages spreads across the continent. After a daring rescue mission, the group frees two vital prisoners: the Raven, a mysterious informant with a deep personal connection to Tilla, and Syan Syee, a strange girl from the Red Wastes who demonstrates an incredible new kind of magic and speaks of a secret civilization hidden in her isolated homeland. With Miles’s forces closing in, a ragtag team sets out on an eleventh-hour mission: form an alliance with Syan’s people that could turn the tide of the war. But what they discover in the Red Wastes changes everything, including their very understanding of the magic that runs through Noveris-magic that has brought the Kingdom to the brink of ruin.
The Haunted — Danielle Vega (June 4, Razorbill)
Clean slate. That’s what Hendricks Becker-O’Malley’s parents said when they moved their family to the tiny town of Drearfield, New York. Hendricks wants to lay low and forget her dark, traumatic past. Forget him. But things don’t go as planned. Hendricks learns from new friends at school that Steele House—the fixer upper her parents are so excited about—is notorious in town. Local legend says it’s haunted. But Hendricks isn’t sure if it’s the demons of her past haunting her…or of the present. Voices whisper in her ear as she lays in bed. Doors lock on their own. And, then, one night, things take a violent turn.
With help from the mysterious boy next door, Hendricks makes it her mission to take down the ghosts…if they don’t take her first.
Shadow & Flame — Mindee Arnett (June 4, Balzer + Bray)
Kate and Corwin are on the run, desperate for allies in a new world of war among the kingdoms of Rime. As the book opens, Kate suffers a massive loss, one that will shape the struggle for freedom of all wilders and magic folk—that is, if Kate can learn to control her own power.
Week Two
Stronger Than A Bronze Dragon — Mary Fan (June 11, Page Street Kids)
As a warrior who protects her village from shadow spirits, Anlei has never been beyond the borders of her town. All of that changes the day the viceroy and his fleet of mechanical dragons arrives. It’s the protection her village is desperate for, but it will only be given in exchange for Anlei’s hand in marriage. Torn between wanting to protect her village and her own freedom, Anlei is forced to make a sacrifice. The day before her wedding, she encounters Tai, a young thief who is also trying to save his people. Tempted by his quest and the thrill of glory it promises, the two embark on an epic journey to the Courts of Hell to discover where the shadow spirits come from. But the secret of their existence isn’t so easily solved.
Amid dark experiments and battles on magic-fueled airships, Anlei must summon the courage to be the hero; to live the life she has always dreamed of.
Rise — Ellen Goodlett (June 11, Little, Brown BYR)
Sisters Akeylah, Ren, and Zofi are all a step closer to their dying father’s throne, a step closer to the crown that will allow one of them to rule over Kolonya. But the sisters’ pasts continue to haunt them. Each hides a secret marked with blood and betrayal, and now their blackmailer is holding nothing back. When King Andros discovers the sisters’ traitorous pasts, the consequences will shake the entire kingdom to its core. As Kolonya’s greatest threat stalks closer and closer, weaving a web of fear and deceit around Ren, Zofi, and Akeylah, even the people they love are under suspicion. If the sisters are going to survive, they’ll have to learn to trust each other above all else and work together, not only to save themselves, but to protect everyone and everything they hold dear.
Teeth in the Mist — Dawn Kurtagich (June 11, Little, Brown BYR)
Sixteen-year-old photography enthusiast Zoey has been fascinated by the haunted, burnt-out ruins of Medwyn Mill House for as long as she can remember—so she and her best friend, Poulton, run away from home to explore them. But are they really alone in the house? And who will know if something goes wrong?
Three women, centuries apart, drawn together by one Unholy Pact. A pact made by a man who, more than a thousand years later, may still be watching…
This haunting and captivating mystery redefines the horror and fantasy space.
Storm and Fury — Jennifer L. Armentrout (June 11, Inkyard Press)
Eighteen-year-old Trinity Marrow may be going blind, but she can see and communicate with ghosts and spirits. Her unique gift is part of a secret so dangerous that she’s been in hiding for years in an isolated compound fiercely guarded by Wardens—gargoyle shapeshifters who protect humankind from demons. If the demons discover the truth about Trinity, they’ll devour her, flesh and bone, to enhance their own powers. But all bets are off as a supernatural war is unleashed…
Week Three
No new releases.
Week Four
The Evil Queen — Gena Showalter (June 25, Inkyard)
Far, far away, in the realm of Enchantia, creatures of legend still exist, magic is the norm and fairy tales are real. Except fairy tales aren’t based on myths and legends of the past—they are prophecies of the future. Though Princess Everly Morrow was raised in the mortal human realm, she knows she’s destined to rule a kingdom in Enchantia, thus fulfilling a beloved fairy tale. At seventeen, when an ability to commune with mirrors manifests, she begins to suspect the truth, and it’s more sinister than anyone ever realized. She is destined to be Snow White’s greatest enemy, the Evil Queen.
Wicked Fox — Kat Cho (June 25, G.P. Putnam’s Sons BFYR)
Eighteen-year-old Gu Miyoung has a secret—she’s a gumiho, a nine-tailed fox who must devour the energy of men in order to survive. Because so few believe in the old tales anymore, and with so many evil men no one will miss, the modern city of Seoul is the perfect place to hide and hunt. But after feeding one full moon, Miyoung crosses paths with Jihoon, a human boy, being attacked by a goblin deep in the forest. Against her better judgment, she violates the rules of survival to rescue the boy, losing her fox bead—her gumiho soul—in the process.
Jihoon knows Miyoung is more than just a beautiful girl—he saw her nine tails the night she saved his life. His grandmother used to tell him stories of the gumiho, of their power and the danger they pose to men. He’s drawn to her anyway. With murderous forces lurking in the background, Miyoung and Jihoon develop a tenuous friendship that blossoms into something more. But when a young shaman tries to reunite Miyoung with her bead, the consequences are disastrous and reignite a generations-old feud . . . forcing Miyoung to choose between her immortal life and Jihoon’s.
