Welcome to my new series, “YA Must-Reads of the Month!” These are the books that have been released, or will be released soon, that have me hyped about life! While this list doesn’t include every YA book that has been released for the month, these are the ones that intrigued me from the minute I saw their cover and read their descriptions. With the holiday season coming up, these books would also be the perfect gift for any avid YA reader.
Any book you see here can be bought through any of the well-known book retailers (Barnes & Noble, Amazon, etc), but I encourage you to support your local independent bookstore. Indiebound and Bookshop.org are great places to find your local Indie or to still support independent bookstores while buying online.
- A CUBAN GIRL’S GUIDE TO TEA AND TOMORROW by Laura Taylor Namey
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On Sale: November 10th, 2020
A Reese Witherspoon x Hello Sunshine Book Club YA Pick
“A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow” follows Lila Reyes, who had her summer all planned. But when everything seems to go wrong, her parents send her to Winchester, England, to reset. Stuck in a small English town seems like a nightmare until Lila meets a teashop clerk,Orion Maxwell, who takes it upon himself to be Lila’s personal tour guide and get her out of her funk. Soon enough, as Lila finds the English countryside—and Orion— more charming, she finds herself thinking of a new future, one where she leaves everything she planned behind. (Atheneum Books for Young Readers|Simon & Schuster)
- THESE VIOLENT DELIGHTS by Chloe Gong
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On Sale: November 17, 2020
“These Violent Delights” by Chloe Gong is a retelling of “Romeo & Juliet” set in 1920s Shanghai, with rival gangs running the streets red and a mysterious monster from the depths of the Huangpu river spreading a deadly plague of madness. With illness claiming lives on both sides, Juliette Cai and Roma Montague must set their grudges aside to find the source of the plague before there is no city left to rule. (Margaret K. McElderry Books|Simon & Schuster)
Chloe Gong, a senior at UPenn, has crafted a beautiful historical fantasy that will keep you enthralled until the very end. You can find her HerCampus Hofstra Author Spotlight here.
- LOVE & OLIVES by Jenna Evans Welch
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On Sale: November 10th, 2020
“Mamma Mia” meets “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” in beautiful Santorini, Greece.
The companion to “Love & Gelato” and “Love & Luck”, Welch’s “Love & Olives” is the tale of a teen girl finding romance while trying to reconnect with her absent father in beautiful Santorini, Greece. With an idyllic setting, and a love-to-hate relationship, the story of “Love & Gelato” comes together through the exploration of a father/daughter relationship, feuding sisters, and a main character who is struggling with her own identity in the midst of her changing family structure. (Simon Pulse|Simon & Schuster)
- MASTER OF ONE by Jaida Jones and Dani Bennett
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On Sale: November 10th, 2020
Sinister sorcery. Gallows humor. A queer romance so glorious it could be right out of fae legend itself.
Rags is a thief— an excellent one. Until he’s caught by the Queensguard and forced to find an ancient fae relic for a sadistic royal sorcerer. What he could never guess is that the relic would be a distractingly handsome and ancient fae prince. But it only gets stranger from there. Melding the heist and intrigue of “Six of Crow” and the dark faerie feel of “The Cruel Prince”, “Master of One” will have readers rooting for these reluctant heroes as they take on a world-ending prophecy, a malicious royal plot, and their feelings for each other. (HarperTeen|HarperCollins)
- RUINSONG by Julia Ember
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On Sale: November 24th, 2020
In Julia Ember’s dark and lush LGBTQ+ romantic fantasy “Ruinsong”, two young women from rival factions must work together to reunite their country, as they wrestle with their feelings for each other.
In a world where magic is sung, a powerful mage named Cadence has been forced to torture her country’s disgraced nobility at her ruthless queen’s bidding. But when she is reunited with her childhood friend, a noblewoman with ties to the underground rebellion, she must finally make a choice: Take a stand to free their country from oppression, or follow in the queen’s footsteps and become a monster herself. (Farrar, Straus and Giroux Books For Young Readers|Macmillan)
- RENT A BOYFRIEND by Gloria Chao
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On Sale: November 10th, 2020
“To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” meets “The Farewell” in this incisive romantic comedy about a college student who hires a fake boyfriend to appease her traditional Taiwanese parents, to disastrous results, from the acclaimed author of American Panda.
Chloe Wang is nervous to introduce her parents to her boyfriend, because the truth is, she hasn’t met him yet either. She hired him from Rent for Your ’Rents, a company specializing in providing fake boyfriends trained to impress even the most traditional Asian parents.
When Chloe rents Drew, the mission is simple: convince her parents fake Drew is worthy of their approval so they’ll stop pressuring her to accept a proposal from Hongbo, the wealthiest (and slimiest) young bachelor in their tight-knit Asian American community.
But when Chloe starts to fall for the real Drew—who, unlike his fake persona, is definitely not ’rent-worthy—her carefully curated life begins to unravel. Can she figure out what she wants before she loses everything? (Simon Pulse – S&S BYR| Simon & Schuster)
- THOSE WHO PREY by Jennifer Moffett
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On Sale: November 10th, 2020
“Sadie” meets “The Girls” in this riveting debut psychological thriller about a lonely college freshman seduced into joining a cult—and her desperate attempt to escape before it’s too late.
College life isn’t what Emily expected.
She expected to spend freshman year strolling through the ivy-covered campus with new friends, finally feeling like she belonged. Instead, she walks the campus alone, still not having found her place or her people so far away from home.
But then the Kingdom finds her.
At times unsettling and always riveting, Those Who Prey looks at the allure of cult life, while questioning just how far we’re willing to go to find where we belong. (Atheneum|Simon & Schuster)
- HOW THE KING OF ELFHAME LEARNED TO HATE STORIES by Holly Black
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On Sale: November 24th, 2020
An illustrated addition to Holly Black’s “Folk of the Air” Trilogy, is a return to Elfhame, Holly Black’s captivating world before Cardan was a cruel prince or a wicked king. Instead we meet him as a faerie child with a heart of stone. Each chapter is paired with lavish and luminous full-color art that makes this the perfect book to have on your shelf. (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers| Hachette Book Group)
Thank you for reading and I hope you found a book that you would either love to read or gift to someone! If you want to see more books that came out in the month of November, you can find them here on the Instagram account, @UpperCaseYA.