When Life gives you Corpses by Lene D Buttner

Theory has a monstrous secret. He isn’t an ordinary search-and-recovery guide at Fiendworld, the world’s premier magical-sinkhole-turned-amusement-park; he’s a cursed, human-eating mantis. But not to worry—he has an excellent solution for his particular diet. Whenever he’s asked to retrieve the corpse of a lost adventurer, he simply snacks on a finger or two. No harm done.

That is, until he’s given his latest assignment: recover the body of park management’s missing son. Great. Yet another foolish wizard who got lost adventuring, and this time the direct descendant of the very person who cursed Theory in the first place. Worse, when Theory reluctantly sets off on the search, he’s shocked to find the wizard somehow still alive.

Nim—the wizard in question—has no desire to be rescued. He’s on a mission to the bottom of the sinkhole, and refuses to return to the surface before he gets there. He may be a subpar wizard, as his parents constantly remind him, but he’s got a positive attitude, an enchanted backpack, and now a mysterious rescue worker to recruit to his cause! Even though said worker is quite rude and seems to be getting Nim into more danger rather than out of it.

To survive, Theory and Nim must brave man-eating fish, walls of tentacles, and devastating both their own, and ones the park desperately tries to keep hidden. Along the way, they may just discover that they’re stronger together than apart.

The Fall of Iris Henley by Jennifer Graham

All it takes to ruin someone’s life is the stroke of a key. Just ask Iris Henley. Her life is destroyed when someone posts an anonymous message on her high school’s subreddit thread: “Iris Henley is a killer. I’ve been too scared to come forward until now, but I saw her murder Rocky and Lynette last summer.”

Just like that, Iris loses everything. Her reputation. Her friends. Her hope of getting into college on scholarship. Even, possibly, her freedom, once the police start to investigate. After all, she’s the perfect suspect: Rocky was her boyfriend, and Lynette was her ex-best friend—and the girl he was cheating on her with. But Iris didn’t do it, and now it’s up to her to clear her name by finding out who did—before it’s too late.

Propulsive, sharp, and absolutely twisty from the New York Times bestselling author who brought readers the Veronica Mars duology, Jennifer Graham's YA thriller is unputdownable.

Dead Fake by Vincent Ralph

Welcome to Bleak Haven: The town you won't (or can't!) leave... Deep fake murders have taken over the high school, but what happens when they start to become real?

Would you Swipe to Die?

When the new craze takes over Bleak Haven High, Ava Wilson refuses to join in. As the niece of an infamous murderer, it’s the last thing she needs.

The mysterious website allows people to view their own ‘death’ – an AI generated version of their final slasher-movie-moments. But, when some of her classmates’ deepfakes are replicated in real life, Ava can either catch the killer…or be the next victim.

Final Cut by Olivia Worley

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✦ BLURB ✦

When recent high school graduate Hazel Lejeune gets the lead role in a slasher film, it feels like a dream come true. This is her chance to break into the industry, build her reel, and prove to her mom that this "gap year" can turn into a career. So what if it's set in the nothing town of Pine Springs, Louisiana-the same place her father, the Pine Springs Slasher, was convicted of a series of murders fifteen years ago? But when Haze arrives on set, she gets much more than she bargained for. The shoot is plagued with suspicious "accidents." Mentions of her dad dot the entire script. And then, a gruesome murder shocks everyone to the core. Now, it's clear there's a real killer on set-one who's determined to finish the film at all costs. But is this merely a copycat, or is the wrong Slasher behind bars? As the body count rises and reality blurs with fiction, Haze must unmask the killer before she becomes a real-life final girl...or before the killer flips the script and makes her the next victim.

Moonsick by Tom O'Donnell

✦ BLURB ✦

High school senior Heidi Mills seemingly has it all: a charming (albeit pompous) boyfriend, loving (wealthy) parents, and an acceptance letter to Harvard (well, not yet). With her mom and stepdad away on vacation, this weekend she’s going to host a rager at their mansion to celebrate the end of high school. There’s just one catch: she has to make it through the next 24 hours. The full moon is coming tonight, and the worldwide werewolf epidemic that’s been running rampant for the past few years will awake those who are infected.

Safe in her home, with its state-of-the-art lockdown system to keep the monsters out, Heidi expects to wait out the night. But when two intruders show up to loot what they think will be an empty home, the life of privilege, ease, and safety that Heidi has taken for granted comes crashing down. Suddenly exposed to the realities of this virus and the way that the rest of the world has been living all this time, Heidi embarks on a dark adventure accompanied by the mysterious--but alluring--boy who broke into her house. But as she fights to survive the underbelly of a post-pandemic society, she'll learn that not all monsters have fangs.

A Curious Kind of Magic by Mara Rutherford

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✦ BLURB ✦

Everyone in Ardmuir knows that Willow Stokes is a charlatan, including Willow herself. Her father’s shoppe hasn’t sold anything magical in decades, and it’s only hanging on by the skin of the fake dragon’s teeth Willow sells as charms, along with “enchanted” ostrich eggs, taxidermied chimeras, and talismans made of fools’ gold.

Until outlander Brianna Hargrave appears and turns Willow’s fakes into exactly what they’re purported to be. But try as Willow might to enlist Bri’s help, she wants nothing to do with Willow and her curiosities.

Because Brianna is harboring a secret of her own: everything she touches turns to magic, and the consequences have chased her all the way to Ardmuir. All she wants to do is find a particular missing grimoire, which contains a spell that can finally put an end to her curse.

Desperate to keep her father's shoppe, Willow proposes a bargain that could save them both. Together with the frustratingly handsome printer's assistant, the girls will uncover a plot that goes far deeper than either could have imagined. But when Willow is forced to participate in an ambitious collector's quest for the rarest magical object in the world—a quest that risks almost-certain death—she learns that not all treasure is for sale, and that true magic is closer than she ever could have imagined.

The Rules of Royalty by Cale Dietrich

Jamie Johnson has never been the centre of attention, and he’s perfectly okay with that. His entire world unravels as a hidden truth emerges: he's the heir to the throne of Mitanor, a sun-drenched southern European country, and the press is ready to expose this secret to the world. An invitation to spend the summer in his father's palace arrives, giving Jamie a chance to get to know the man he never thought he’d meet.

Meanwhile, in a northern European kingdom known for its cold climate and stoic royals, Erik Von Rosenborg, the spare prince, grapples with the upcoming marriage of his golden-boy elder brother. With the country’s spotlight trained on his family more than ever, Erik feels sidelined and tightly controlled. So when he receives an offer to tutor the newly found American prince in the ways of royalty, he accepts without hesitation.

At a magnificent summer palace, Erik guides Jamie through the intricacies of royal etiquette, politics, and history. What neither prince anticipates is the connection that sparks between them—one that challenges both of their futures. Now each must make a choice: follow their hearts, or the time-honored royal path where crown and country reigns supreme, no matter the personal cost.

What the Woods Took by Courtney Gould

Devin Green wakes in the middle of the night to find two men in her bedroom. No stranger to a fight, she calls to her foster parents for help, but it soon becomes clear this is a planned abduction—one everyone but Devin signed up for. She’s shoved in a van and driven deep into the Idaho woods, where she’s dropped off with a cohort of equally confused teens. Finally, two camp counselors inform them that they've all been enrolled in an experimental therapy program. If the campers can learn to change their self-destructive ways—and survive a fifty-days hike through the wilderness—they’ll come out the other side as better versions of themselves. Or so the counselors say.

Devin is immediately determined to escape. She’s also determined to ignore Sheridan, the cruel-mouthed, lavender-haired bully who mocks every group exercise. But there’s something strange about these woods—inhuman faces appearing between the trees, visions of people who shouldn't be there flashing in the leaves—and when the campers wake up to find both counselors missing, therapy becomes the least of their problems. Stranded and left to fend for themselves, the teens quickly realize they’ll have to trust each other if they want to survive. But what lies in the woods may not be as dangerous as what the campers are hiding from each other—and if the monsters have their way, no one will leave the woods alive.

Atmospheric and sharp, What the Woods Took is a poignant story of transformation that explores the price of becoming someone—or something—new.

Heir, Apparently by Kara McDowell

An American teen learns she may have accidentally married the King of England, only to end up stranded on a tropical island with him in this highly-anticipated sequel to The Prince & The Apocalypse.

Freshman year is stressful enough without accidentally being married to the King of England. Of course, Wren Wheeler can’t tell her Northwestern classmates about that; after surviving a narrowly-averted apocalypse over the summer, everyone’s had enough excitement for one lifetime. Wren knows she needs to move on from Theo, but she can’t forget the look in his eyes when he left her on that island in Greece—and also, he took her dog.

When an ill-fated attempt to rescue Comet the Apocalypse Dog turns into a chemistry-fueled reunion with Theo that’s caught by the paparazzi, Wren finds herself under the royal spotlight. Suddenly, she’s a problem for “the firm” to solve, and in order to be protected from the rabid press, she’ll have to fly back to London with Theo. Along for the ride are Naomi and Brooke, as well as Theo's siblings, including Henry, the brother he's spent his life being compared to. But because the universe can’t let these two maybe-newlyweds have one conversation in peace, their plane goes down over the Atlantic, crashing on a tropical island in the middle of nowhere.

Stranded with no sign of rescue, the group will have to band together against poisonous animals, catastrophic injuries, a brotherly rivalry, and an ill-timed volcano if they’re going to make it out alive. And, scariest of all, Wren and Theo will have to face their feelings for one another and decide what they want their futures to look like—and if that future will be heartbreak, or happily ever after.

Attached at the Hip by Christine Riccio

Orie Lennox has spent her entire life prepping for her happily ever after -- and now that she’s graduated, she’s low-key wondering, when the heck is it gonna hit. Her love life, her new job, her relationship with her sister: none of it is quite what she envisioned it to be.

One evening, on a whim, she applies for a reality show where she’ll be stranded on an island, with a bunch of strangers, to play a game of human chess for a shot at a million dollars. What better way to force herself to break up with the things that aren’t bringing her joy, than to abandon them all on short notice to live off the grid on a beach in the South Pacific!

Orie's shocked when she ends up cast in an experimental romantic edition of the show: and even more surprised to find that her old high school crush, Remy, has been cast as well. Orie's one of ten contestants, set to compete in formidable challenges, while speed dating, in the wilderness: without deodorant, toilets, shaving cream, or showers. (How!?)

She finds herself tied up — literally — in a game of risky alliances as she navigates ever-growing feelings for her one that got away, alongside an exciting array of budding new relationships.

The Perfect Guy Doesn't Exist by Sophie Gonzales

A fanfic writer brings her favorite TV character to life in this friends-to-enemies-to-lovers novel full of humor and heart.

Ivy Winslow has the house to herself for a week while her parents are away. She’s planning to use this newfound freedom to binge-watch her favorite fantasy TV show, H-MAD, and hang out with her best friend, Henry. She’ll also have to avoid her former best friend-turned enemy (and neighbor), Mack. But things quickly go awry when Ivy wakes up to find Weston, the gorgeous, very fictional main character of H-MAD in her bedroom, claiming to be her soul mate.

Ivy realizes that her fanfic writing has somehow brought Weston as she’s imagined him to life. But it turns out that the tropes she swoons over in her stories are slightly less romantic in reality, and her not-so-fictional crush is causing some real-world problems. To figure out why Weston is here and what to do with him, Ivy decides to team up with Henry and (against her better judgment) Mack. But with Mack back in her life, Ivy starts to wonder if Weston, her “perfect guy”, is the one who’s truly perfect for her . . . or if that was someone else all along.

People to Follow by Olivia Worley

Ten teen influencers come to a remote island to star in a reality show, but when one of them winds up dead, they realize that this time, the price of being “cancelled” could be their lives.

A reality show on a remote Caribbean island. Ten teen influencers. One dead body.

Welcome to “In Real Life,” the hot new reality show that forces social media’s reigning kings and queens to unplug for three weeks and “go live” without any filters. IRL is supposed to be the opportunity of a lifetime, watched closely by legions of loyal followers. But for these rising stars--including Elody, an Instagram model with an impulsive streak; Kira, a child star turned fitness influencer; Logan, a disgraced TikTok celeb with a secret; and Max, a YouTuber famous for exposés on his fellow creators—it’s about to turn into a nightmare.

When the production crew fails to show up and one of their own meets a violent end, these nine little influencers find themselves stranded with a dead body and no way to reach the outside world. When they start receiving messages from a mysterious Sponsor threatening to expose their darkest secrets, they realize that they’ve been lured into a deadly game…and one of them might be pulling the strings.

With the body count rising and cameras tracking their every move, the creators must figure out who is trying to get them canceled—like, literally—before their #1 follower strikes again.

Gwen and Art are Not In Love by Lex Croucher (spoilers in review)

Gwen, the quick-witted Princess of England, and Arthur, future lord and general gadabout, have been betrothed since birth. Unfortunately, the only thing they can agree on is that they hate each other. 

When Gwen catches Art kissing a boy and Art discovers where Gwen hides her diary (complete with racy entries about Bridget Leclair, the kingdom's only female knight), they become reluctant allies. By pretending to fall for each other, their mutual protection will be assured. But how long can they keep up the ruse? 

With Gwen growing closer to Bridget, and Art becoming unaccountably fond of Gabriel, Gwen's infuriatingly serious, bookish brother, the path to true love is looking far from straight ...

The Prince & The Apocalypse by Kara McDowell (one slight spoiler in review)

Wren Wheeler has flown five thousand miles across the ocean to discover she’s the worst kind of traveler: the kind who just wants to go home. Her senior-year trip to London was supposed to be life-changing, but by the last day, Wren’s perfectly-planned itinerary is in tatters. There's only one item left to check off: breakfast at The World’s End restaurant. The one thing she can still get right.

The restaurant is closed for renovations—of course—but there's a boy there, too. A very cute boy with a posh British accent who looks remarkably like the errant Prince Theo, on the run from the palace and his controlling mother. When Wren helps him escape a pack of tourists, the Prince scribbles down his number and offers her one favor in return. She doesn’t plan to take him up on it—until she gets to the airport and sees cancelled flights and chaos. A comet is approaching Earth, and the world is ending in eight days. Suddenly, that favor could be her only chance to get home to her family before the end of the world.

Wren strikes a bargain with the runaway prince: if she’ll be his bodyguard from London to his family’s compound in Santorini, he can charter her a private jet home in time to say goodbye. Traveling through Europe by boat, train, and accidentally stolen automobile, Wren finds herself drawn to the dryly sarcastic, surprisingly vulnerable Theo. But the Prince has his own agenda, one that could derail both their plans. When life as they know it will be over in days, is it possible to find a happy ending?

This is the Way the World Ends by Jen Wilde (spoilers in review)

As an autistic scholarship student at the prestigious Webber Academy in New York City, Waverly is used to masking to fit in—in more ways than one. While her classmates are the children of the one percent, Waverly is getting by on tutoring gigs and the generosity of the school’s charming and enigmatic dean. So when her tutoring student and resident “it girl” asks Waverly to attend the school’s annual fundraising Masquerade disguised as her, Waverly jumps at the chance—especially once she finds out that Ash, the dean’s daughter and her secret ex-girlfriend, will be there.

The Masquerade is everything Waverly dreamed of, complete with extravagant gowns, wealthy parents writing checks, and flowing champagne. Most importantly, there’s Ash. All Waverly wants to do is shed her mask and be with her, but the evening takes a sinister turn when Waverly stumbles into a secret meeting between the dean and the school’s top donors—and witnesses a brutal murder. This gala is harboring far more malevolent plots than just opening parents’ pocketbooks. Before she can escape or contact the authorities, a mysterious global blackout puts the entire party on lockdown. Waverly’s fairy tale has turned into a nightmare, and she, Ash, and her friends must navigate through a dizzying maze of freight elevators, secret passageways, and back rooms if they’re going to survive the night.

And even if they manage to escape the Masquerade, with technology wiped out all over the planet, what kind of world will they find waiting for them beyond the doors?

The Grace Year by Kin Ligget

The Grace Year, by Kim Liggett, is one of this year's big titles. Tapping into the 'dangerous women' craze started by The Handmaid's Tale, this one features a town where the girls are sent into the wild for a year to expel the magic that drives men wild. If they survive, they can come home to be married or assigned a job in the fields and dairies. The novel follows one particular group of girls as they go on their Grace Year and struggle to survive.