Cold weather days are the best time to curl up with a book or the Libby app! Check out these new titles that are sure to have you hooked.
Looking for something cozy with a little romance?
Fools in Love: Fresh Twists on Romantic Tales edited by Ashley Herring Blake and Rebecca Podos
This collection of short stories aimed at YA readers brings 15 award-winning and up-and-coming authors together to reimagine familiar romance tropes with fresh twists on the happily ever after.
Some stories are contemporary, and others are genre-bending. Natasha Ngan's "Snowed in Together" begins near the finish line of an Iditarod-style racecourse with wolves and giant tentacled monsters. "Mistaken Identity," by Amy Spalding, is a funny rideshare meet-cute. In Julian Winters' "Hero vs. Villain," two superheroes break up, and one goes for the villain. Lilliam Rivera's "Sibling's Hot Best Friend" has puppeteers trying to hide their desires behind the scenes, and Malinda Lo's princess in "Secret Royalty" is simply trying to hide out.
With nonbinary protagonists and an overall strong LGBTQ+ representation, this anthology gives all readers hope that love is out there for everyone.
Serendipity: Ten Romantic Tropes, Transformed edited by Marissa Meyer
The secret admirer. The fake relationship. The matchmaker.
From stories of first love, unrequited love, love that surprises, love that’s been there all along, 10 of the brightest and award-winning authors writing YA have taken on some of your favorite romantic tropes, embracing them and turning them on their heads.
Readers will fall for this collection of stories that celebrate love at its most humorous, inclusive, heart-expanding, and serendipitous.
Want a book that is part Scott Pilgrim and part Interview with a Vampire?
The Lost Girls: A Vampire Revenge Story by Sonia Hartl
Holly was turned into a vampire by her boyfriend, Elton, in the mid-1980s, so she's stuck looking 16 with badly crimped hair for eternity. Since she's basically a teenager forever, she has to survive by getting a job at Taco Bell, where she was almost fired for eating one of her coworkers.
When Rose and Ida, two of Elton's other vampiric ex-girlfriends, seek her out and try to talk her into killing Elton before he can turn any more unsuspecting and lovelorn girls into vampires, she's sure they're kidding. But then she meets his new conquest, Parker, and falls head over heels for the unsuspecting high-school senior. While trying to convince Parker to stay away from Elton—without saying the word vampire, of course—Holly, Rose, and Ida find themselves up to their elbows in murder, heists, and blasts from each of their haunting pasts. Holly doesn't take her afterlife too seriously, and even before she gets involved with Elton's exes, readers will be laughing.
Looking to adventure across the vast depths of space only to end up back on Earth?
To save a galactic kingdom from revolution, Kindred mind-pairings were created to ensure each and every person would be seen and heard, no matter how rich or poor…
Joy Abara knows her place. A commoner from the lowly planet Hali, she lives a simple life—apart from the notoriety that being Kindred to the nobility’s most infamous playboy brings.
Duke Felix Hamdi has a plan. He will exasperate his noble family to the point that they agree to let him choose his own future and finally meet his Kindred face-to-face.
Then the royal family is assassinated, putting Felix next in line for the throne…and accused of the murders. Someone will stop at nothing until he’s dead, which means they’ll target Joy, too. Meeting in person for the first time as they steal a spacecraft and flee amid chaos might not be ideal…and neither is crash-landing on the strange backward planet called Earth. But hiding might just be the perfect way to discover the true strength of the Kindred bond and expose a scandal—and a love—that may decide the future of a galaxy.
Interested in diving into someone else's drama for a minute and don't want to leave Florida?
The Jasmine Project by Meredith Ireland
Jasmine Yap’s life is great. Well, it’s okay. She’s about to move in with her long-time boyfriend, Paul, before starting a nursing program at community college - all of which she mostly wants. But her stable world is turned upside down when she catches Paul cheating. To her giant, overprotective family, Paul’s loss is their golden ticket to showing Jasmine that she deserves much more. The only problem is, Jasmine refuses to meet anyone new.
But…what if the family set up a situation where she wouldn’t have to know? A secret Jasmine Project.
The plan is simple: use Jasmine’s graduation party as an opportunity for her to meet the most eligible teen bachelors in Orlando. There’s no pressure for Jasmine to choose anyone, of course, but the family hopes their meticulously curated choices will show Jasmine how she should be treated. And maybe one will win her heart.
But with the family fighting for their favorites, bachelors going rogue, and Paul wanting her back, the Jasmine Project may not end in love but total, heartbreaking disaster.
Did you love Hatchet when you read it in school and want to try to survive the wilderness again?
When a deadly plague reaches the small fish camp where he lives, an orphan named Leif is forced to take to the water in a cedar canoe. He flees northward, following a wild, fjord-riven shore, navigating from one danger to the next, unsure of his destination. But the deeper into his journey he paddles, the closer he comes to his truest self as he connects to “the heartbeat of the ocean . . . the pulse of the sea.”
With hints of Nordic mythology and an irresistible narrative pull, Northwind is Gary Paulsen at his captivating, adventuresome best.
Want to take a cruise and fall in love?
One True Loves by Elise Bryant
Lenore Bennett has always been a force. A star artist and style icon at her high school, she’s a master in the subtle art of not giving a . . . well, you know what. But now that graduation is here, she’s a little less sure.
She’s heading to NYU in the fall with a scarlet U (for “undeclared”) written across her chest. Her parents always remind her that Black kids don’t have the luxury of figuring it out as they go—they have to be 110 percent prepared. But it’s a lot of pressure to be her ancestors’ wildest dreams when Lenore’s not even sure what her dreams are yet.
When her family embarks on a post-graduation Mediterranean cruise, her friend Tessa is sure Lenore’s in for a whirlwind romance. But Lenore knows that doesn’t happen to girls like her.
Then she meets Alex Lee. After their parents bond over the Cupid Shuffle, she ends up stuck with him for the remainder of the cruise. He’s a hopeless romantic and a golden boy with a ten-year plan. In short, he’s irritating as hell.
But as they get to know each other during the picturesque stops across Europe, Alex may be able to help Lenore find something else she’s been looking for, even if she doesn’t want to admit it to herself: love.
Need a new real-life hero who was a groundbreaking super spy and even had a wooden leg?
Code Name Badass: The True Story of Virginia Hall by Heather Demetrios
To say Virginia "Dindy" Hall was ambitious would be an understatement. She was that girl at your high school who makes everyone else look like a slacker, no matter how hard they're working.
But how many of them can say they've been on Nazi Germany's Most Wanted list? At a time when most women were expected to becomes wives and mothers, Virginia craved adventure. And with the world gearing up for a second World War, this fearless woman knew that she had to find a way to get involved.
When the State Department proved to be a sexist boy's club that wouldn't allow her in, she went to England to join their Special Operations unit, which was more than happy to hire this talented, brilliant woman. Even after a terrible accident left her needing a wooden leg, she remained undeterred. Soon Virginia became an essential part of the Allied mission and the French Resistance, earning the dangerous honor of being named "the most dangerous of all Allied spies" by the Gestapo. This is a smart and spirited celebration of Virginia Hall, a woman with audacious courage and kickass spy skills.