By John Driscoll
Published in The Burg July 15, 2021
Whether you’re a teen or not, reading Young Adult books can be a great way to spend your summer days or nights. There are always more good books to read than time to read them, but here’s a look at some of the new titles available to borrow from Galesburg Public Library!
Sarah Dass’s novel Where the Rhythm Takes You, inspired by Jane Austen’s Persuasion, is a story of romantic second chances. When Reyna’s ex-boyfriend Aiden (now a famous musician) returns to the island of Tobago with his bandmates and entourage, they stay at her family’s hotel and book Reyna as a tour guide. Forced to spend time in her celebrity ex’s company, Reyna must confront her feelings and decide whether love can bloom twice.
It Goes Like This by Miel Moreland is the story of four queer teens, former members of a Grammy-winning pop group called Moonlight Overthrow. Although their band broke up and the teens have gone their separate ways, they agree to reunite for a benefit concert after their Iowa hometown is ravaged by a nasty storm. The four of them must try to resolve all the hurt feelings and lingering resentment from their split in order to come together and help out the place where they all started.
In Deb Caletti’s One Great Lie, Charlotte receives a scholarship to a summer writing program run by her favorite author, Luca Bruni. Better yet, it’s in Venice, Italy! What seems at first like a dream opportunity starts to unravel as Charlotte finds that her charming, enigmatic mentor has a dark side, and is trying to groom her for something other than a writing career.
Horror fans will enjoy The Mary Shelley Club by Goldy Moldavsky, in which teenage pranks take a terrifying turn. Horror enthusiast Rachel uncovers a secret club at her new school dedicated to watching scary movies and pulling equally scary pranks on classmates. What first seems to Rachel like spooky, harmless fun quickly becomes something much more sinister.
A.S. King’s surreal new book Switch takes place in a world where time has literally stopped – it’s been June 23, 2020 for nine months now – and everyone relies on a website to tell them what time it “would” be. At Tru’s school, students spend time every day trying to solve the time problem, while at home her father builds ever-larger boxes to contain and protect a mysterious switch.
In Realm Breaker by Victoria Aveyard, a pirate’s daughter with a secret bloodline must take up her father’s sword to seal the Spindles, magical gates that connect the world of Allward to other, dangerous places. Aided by a diverse cast of rogues and misfits, Corayne must defeat the evil Taristan before he can reopen the Spindles and destabilize the world.
Of Princes and Promises by Sandhya Menon adapts the fairy tale of The Frog Prince to a modern setting. When Caterina’s cheating ex-boyfriend announces he’s bringing a supermodel to the upcoming dance, she tries to one-up him by asking awkward, socially inept Rahul to go with her. With the aid of a makeover including magical hair gel, Rahul is transformed into suave RC. But caught up in his new identity, RC soon begins to lose sight of himself and the things that drew Caterina to him in the first place.
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