Did someone say new Free Reads? Yes, that’s right, we did! And we are so excited for September’s Free Reads. This month’s theme is Hispanic Heritage Month! Plus, check out all of September’s new releases with extended excerpts.
First-generation American LatinX Liliana Cruz does what it takes to fit in at her new nearly all-white school. But when family secrets spill out and racism at school ramps up, she must decide what she believes in and take a stand.
The Hating Game meets I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter in this Pura Belpré Award–winning novel that’s an irresistible romance starring a Mexican American teen who discovers love and profound truths about the universe when she spends her summer on a road trip across the country.
Perfect for fans of Adam Silvera, this stunning novel, told through the lens of a guy in love with the cosmos (and maybe two girls), explores the complicated histories that bring us together and tear us apart.
Acclaimed author Margarita Engle tells a “deeply felt and engrossing” (Horn Book Magazine) story of love in a time of hunger inspired by her own family’s struggles during a dark period in Cuba’s history.
Inspirada por las dificultades de sus propios parientes durante un período oscuro de la historia de Cuba, la aclamada autora Margarita Engle cuenta “un doloroso y conmovedor” (la revista Horn Book) relato de amor en los tiempos del hambre.
A Heart in a Body in the World by Deb Caletti meets Amber Smith’s The Way I Used to Be in this young adult mystery following a teen searching for the truth behind the deadly car crash that claimed the lives of her twin sister and the high school football coach.
From the New York Times bestselling author of When Dimple Met Rishi comes the third installment in a series set an elite boarding school that’s a contemporary spin on fairy tales, this one a thrilling and swoon-worthy twist on Sleeping Beauty.
Perfect for fans of The Last Magician and Serpent & Dove, this heart-stopping debut is an imaginative Romeo and Juliet retelling set in 1920s Shanghai, with rival gangs and a monster in the depths of the Huangpu River.
Dive into the award-winning, internationally renowned book that is a “tender, honest exploration of identity” (Publishers Weekly) and distills lyrical truths about family and friendship—featuring images from the film!
The highly anticipated sequel to the critically acclaimed, multiple award-winning novel Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe is an “emotional roller coaster” (School Library Journal, starred review) sure to captivate fans of Adam Silvera and Mary H.K. Choi.
A girl disguises herself as a boy to train as a knight in this first book in Tamora Pierce’s Margaret A. Edwards Award–winning young adult series—now with a new look!
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of These Violent Delights and Our Violent Ends comes the second book in the captivating Foul Lady Fortune duology following an immortal assassin in 1930s Shanghai as she races to save her country and her love.
Caught in the crosshairs of gang violence, a teen girl and her mother set off on a perilous journey from Guatemala City to the US border in this “engrossing” (Kirkus Reviews) young adult novel from the author of Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From.
This “heartbreaking and heartfelt” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) star-crossed love story follows two teens in a starkly unequal future world who are struggling to find their places.
The Taking of Jake Livingston meets Cemetery Boys in this YA ghost story about a Puerto Rican teen’s battle with a malevolent spirit targeting his apartment building and the all-too-real horrors of gentrification.
Love & Gelato meets Don’t Date Rosa Santos in this charming, heartfelt story following a Miami girl who unexpectedly finds love—and herself—in a small English town.
An inspiring coming-of-age story told in prose and “spare, lyrical” verse (The Horn Book Magazine) from award-winning author Margarita Engle about a girl falling in love for the first time while finding the courage to protest for women’s right to vote in 1920s Cuba.
Join Dimple and Rishi as they do an escape room in this exclusive short story from Sandhya Menon! You’ll also see how Pinky and Samir met for the first time before you can read about them in 10 Things I Hate About Pinky.
Romie Brysden is a Dreamer, the best at the prestigious Aldryn College for Lunar Magics. She knows the realm of dreams like a sea captain knows the tides. And she’s gone deeper into this vast sleepscape than any Dreamer ever has. This is a prequest short story to A Curious Tides.
Summer days are best spent by the water. Maybe you’re lounging at an all-inclusive resort sipping on fresh coconut water; or you could just be down at the local pool. But no matter how glamorous the location, the one thing you need for a great day at the beach (or pool) is an amazing book. Here are some of our favorite reads for your days spent in the sun!
This Mamma Mia!–inspired tale about a teen girl finding romance while trying to connect with her absent father in beautiful Santorini, Greece is the perfect read for the beach!
Spending summer on the high seas? Sign us up! In this must-read queer romance a young prince must rely on a mysterious stranger to save him when he is kidnapped during his coming-of-age tour in this swoony adventure.
Best-friends-turned-best-enemies Zorie and Lennon are abandoned in the wilderness. And as they travel through the California backcountry, secrets and hidden feeling surface. They can’t entirely blame the forest air and starlit nights on this rekindling connection!
What happens when a mad, sad fiery girl meets a beautiful cinnamon roll boy with secrets? An unforgettable romance following two Muslim teens who meet during a spring break trip.
In this hilarious and delightful romance from the author of fan favorite Better Than the Movies a teen girl has the worst Valentine’s Day ever—only to relive it over and over again.
A Grumpy/Sunshine romance is ALWAYS a good idea! In All Alone with You Eloise, a standoffish teen girl, has her loner status challenged by Marianne and Austin, a dynamic elderly woman and a perpetually cheerful boy.
Another time loop romance?! Yes, because this read is too good not to include in this list! If I See You Again Tomorrow puts a unique spin on Groundhog Day that makes this queer romance a delightful read with excellent mental health rep.
Is it even really summer if you haven't taken a trip to Cousins Beach yet? The Summer I Turned Pretty (and its sequels) are the PERFECT beach reads, we don't make the rules!
After recovering from a life-changing injury, Hannah must navigate a new job, an ex-best friend, and two surprisingly attractive coworkers in this sweet summer romance.
Summer is coming to a close, but there are still SO many new reads to look forward to! Check out all of the amazing new books that headed your way this August, including a sapphic romance with Bridgerton vibes, a swashbuckling graphic novel adventure, and more!
Our Flag Means Death gets a magical, sapphic twist in this swashbuckling young adult graphic novel adventure full of high-stakes adventure, fantastical creatures, and a swoony enemies-to-lovers romance perfect for fans of In Deeper Waters and The Prince and the Dressmaker.
Rethink the way you approach writing in this revolutionary and informative new anthology from fourteen diverse authors that demystifies craft and authorship based on their experiences as writers of color—perfect for fans of Fresh Ink and Our Stories, Our Voices.
From the New York Times bestselling coauthor of Five Feet Apart and She Gets the Girl comes a fresh and inventive sapphic romantic comedy that’s What If It’s Us meets Bridgerton.
From the author of I Killed Zoe Spanos comes a YA thriller in the vein of The White Lotus and Karen M. McManus’s The Cousins following a doomed family reunion at a posh Caribbean resort, where old grudges and dangerous secrets culminate in murder.
Now a major motion picture starring Max Pelayo, Reese Gonzales, and Eva Longoria! Dive into the award-winning, internationally renowned book that is a “tender, honest exploration of identity” (Publishers Weekly) and distills lyrical truths about family and friendship—featuring images from the film!
Did someone say new Free Reads? Yes, that’s right, we did! And we are so excited for August’s Free Reads. This month’s theme is summer romance, and these reads will have you swooning! Plus, check out all of August’s new releases with extended excerpts.
From the New York Times bestselling author of So This Is Ever After, a young prince must rely on a mysterious stranger to save him when he is kidnapped during his coming-of-age tour in this swoony adventure that is The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue meets Pirates of the Caribbean.
Two friends fall into a passionate romance, but first they must confront a painful past, or else lose out on the one thing they’ve been searching for in this heartrending novel from the author of Come Back to Me and Stay with Me.
From the New York Times bestselling coauthor of Five Feet Apart and She Gets the Girl comes a fresh and inventive sapphic romantic comedy that’s What If It’s Us meets Bridgerton.
From the author of I Killed Zoe Spanos comes a YA thriller in the vein of The White Lotus and Karen M. McManus’s The Cousins following a doomed family reunion at a posh Caribbean resort, where old grudges and dangerous secrets culminate in murder.
Perfect for fans of The Last Magician and Serpent & Dove, this heart-stopping debut is an imaginative Romeo and Juliet retelling set in 1920s Shanghai, with rival gangs and a monster in the depths of the Huangpu River.
Dive into the award-winning, internationally renowned book that is a “tender, honest exploration of identity” (Publishers Weekly) and distills lyrical truths about family and friendship—featuring images from the film!
Join Dimple and Rishi as they do an escape room in this exclusive short story from Sandhya Menon! You’ll also see how Pinky and Samir met for the first time before you can read about them in 10 Things I Hate About Pinky.
Romie Brysden is a Dreamer, the best at the prestigious Aldryn College for Lunar Magics. She knows the realm of dreams like a sea captain knows the tides. And she’s gone deeper into this vast sleepscape than any Dreamer ever has. This is a prequest short story to A Curious Tides.
As the summer continued to heat up so did this season’s new releases! We can’t wait for you to read July’s roundup of new books, including a searing high-stakes thriller, a sweet grumpy sunshine romance, and a bone-chilling dark fantasy! How many of these are living on your TBR?
In the spirit of Paolo Bacigalupi and Laini Taylor, this futuristic star-crossed love story follows two teens in a starkly unequal world struggling to find their place.
A Black teen desperate to regain her Ivy League acceptance enters an elite competition only to discover the stakes aren’t just high, they’re deadly, in this searing thriller that’s Ace of Spades meets Squid Game with a sprinkling of The Bachelor.
HBO Max’s Hacks gets a romantic twist in the vein of Jenn Bennett in this swoon-worthy novel about a standoffish teen girl whose loner status gets challenged by a dynamic elderly woman and a perpetually cheerful boy.
Gideon the Ninth meets the Game of Thrones White Walkers in this dark young adult fantasy about a disgraced ghost-fighting warrior who must journey into a haunted wasteland to rescue a kidnapped prince.
This lyrical coming-of-age novel for fans of Darius the Great Is Not Okay and On the Come Up, set in southern California in 1996, follows a teen who wants to honor her deceased friend’s legacy by entering a rap contest.
The Taking of Jake Livingston meets Cemetery Boys in this YA ghost story about a Puerto Rican teen’s battle with a malevolent spirit targeting his apartment building and the all-too-real horrors of gentrification.
It’s that time of year again, friends–San Diego Comic-Con is almost here! Here’s a comprehensive schedule of all our Simon & Schuster activity this year. Don’t forget to follow us @SimonTeen on Twitter and Instagram for up-to-the minute news and content from us and our authors at San Diego Comic-Con. See you soon!
(Before we start, books are available for purchase at the Simon & Schuster booth all week long!)
Daily In-Booth Raffles @ Simon & Schuster Booth #1128
Wednesday, 7/19: The Last Hours Trilogy Raffle
Thursday, 7/20: Arc of a Scythe Series Raffle
Friday, 7/21: Foul Lady Fortune Duology Raffle
Saturday, 7/22: F.T. Lukens Collection Raffle
Sunday, 7/23: Keeper of the Lost Cities Series Raffle
Day 1: Wednesday, July 19th
All Day – In-Booth Raffle @ Simon & Schuster Booth #1128
6:00 pm ARC drop – Curious Tides ARC drop @ Simon & Schuster Booth #1128
Day 2: Thursday, July 20th
All Day – In-Booth Raffle @ Simon & Schuster Booth #1128
Stop by the Simon & Schuster booth to grab a copy of Skandar and the Unicorn Thief by A.F. Steadman, while supplies last!
6:30 – 7:30 pm – What’s the Scoop at S&S? Panel @ Room 4
Are you obsessed with epic fantasy? The sweetest romances? The most chilling thrillers? Then come join the team at Simon & Schuster to hear about all the fantastic new books from Simon Teen and Simon Kids in 2023! Bonus–you’ll leave with some epic freebies!
Day 3: Friday, July 21st
All Day – In-Booth Raffle @ Simon & Schuster Booth #1128
9:30 am ARC drop – By Any Other Name ARC drop @ Simon & Schuster Booth #1128
Stop by the Simon & Schuster booth to grab an ARC of By Any Other Name by Erin Cotter, while supplies last!
11:30 – 12:30 pm – Adventures for the Next Generation Panel @ 24ABC
Stop by for this panel featuring Shannon Messenger, author of the Keeper of the Lost Cities series!
Simon Teen hosts at least one (and sometimes as many as four!) new sweepstakes every month, so if there isn’t a sweepstakes running right now, the next one is likely only a few weeks away!
What can I win?
Books, books… and more books! You can enter for a chance to win finished copies of our titles, advance reader’s copies (ARCs), bookish swag, and more. We also occasionally partner with other brands to bring you even more fun prizes.
How do I enter for a chance to win?
You can enter for a chance to win our sweepstakes by keeping an eye on our Instagram, Twitter, and SimonTeen.com for when a new sweepstakes pops up! When we have one running we’ll share all of the information you need, including the entry form and rules.
How will I find out if I’ve won?
When entering a Simon Teen sweepstakes, you will provide a way to contact you (usually your email address) and we will contact you there if you are a sweepstakes winner.
Have more questions? Check out the rules for each sweepstakes for any questions about specifics.
What, you ask, is Simon Teen Reveals Week? It’s that special time of year when we show you all the shiny new covers for books coming out in just a few seasons. From June 12 – 16, we’re showing you all the new covers for our Spring 2024 young adult books. So get your Goodreads shelf ready because you’re going to want to add all of these books to your TBR!
After her private school is rocked by a gruesome murder, a teen tries to find the real killer and clear her brother’s name in this psychological thriller perfect for fans of The Taking of Jake Livingston and Ace of Spades.
Sunny Behre has four siblings, but only one is a murderer.
With the death of Sunny’s mother, matriarch of the wealthy Behre family, Sunny’s once picture-perfect life is thrown into turmoil. Her mother had groomed her to be the family’s next leader, so Sunny is confused when the only instructions her mother leaves is a mysterious note: “Take care of Dom.”
The problem is, her youngest brother, Dom, has always been a near-stranger to Sunny…and seemingly a dangerous one, if found guilty of his second-degree murder charge. Still, Sunny is determined to fulfill her mother’s dying wish. But when a classmate is gruesomely murdered, and Sunny finds her brother with blood on his hands, her mother’s simple request becomes a lot more complicated. Dom swears he’s innocent, and although Sunny isn’t sure she believes him, she takes it upon herself to look into the murder—made all the more urgent by the discovery of another body. And another.
As Sunny and Dom work together to track down the culprit, Sunny realizes her other siblings have their own dark secrets. Soon she may have to choose: preserve the family she’s always loved or protect the brother she barely knows—and risk losing everything her mother worked so hard to build.
A skeptic and a supernatural being make a crossroads deal to achieve their own ends only to get more than they bargained for in this lively young adult romantic adventure from the New York Times bestselling author of Spell Bound and So This Is Ever After.
Seventeen-year-old Ellery is a non-believer in a region where people swear the supernatural is real. Sure, they’ve been stuck in a five-year winter, but there’s got to be a scientific explanation. If goddesses were real, they wouldn’t abandon their charges like this, leaving farmers like Ellery’s family to scrape by.
Knox is a familiar from the Other World, a magical assistant sent to help humans who have made crossroads bargains. But it’s been years since he heard from his queen, and Knox is getting nervous about what he might find once he returns home. When the crossroads demons come to collect Knox, he panics and runs. A chance encounter down an alley finds Ellery coming to Knox’s rescue, successfully fending off his would-be abductors.
Ellery can’t quite believe what they’ve seen. And they definitely don’t believe the nonsense this unnervingly attractive guy spews about his paranormal origins. But Knox needs to make a deal with a human who can tether him to this realm, and Ellery needs to figure out how to stop this winter to help their family. Once their bargain is struck, there’s no backing out, and the growing connection between the two might just change everything.
In this sequel to the New York Times bestselling, “pulse-pounding” (Publishers Weekly) A Door in the Dark, Ren’s intellect and cunning are stretched to the limit in her quest to take down the system that stole her father’s life.
Ren Monroe is a wolf among lions. After infiltrating one of the greatest Houses in Kathor through her successful bond with Theo Brood, she finds Theo’s father is two steps ahead. He exiles Theo and isolates Ren, strategically working to break her unwelcome grasp on his son—and foiling Ren’s first step to enacting the revenge she’s been planning her whole life.
Ren might have more resources than she’d ever imagined growing up, but she’ll still get nowhere without allies. Enter House Tin’Vori. Years ago, House Brood led an unprecedented raid to destroy a fellow House of Kathor. But a few siblings survived, and they haven’t forgotten the horrors waged against their family. Quietly, they’ve plotted their own revenge, waiting for the right moment to strike. And Ren Monroe might be their best chance.
Like fire, the Tin’Vori siblings are as dangerous as they are useful, both gifted in rare magics. Ren must decide how to unleash them against House Brood without hurting Theo in the process. Her feelings for Theo are growing past the boundaries of their bond, and Ren finds herself balanced on a knife’s edge, a breath away from immense power or utter ruin.
A girl with dangerous magic makes a risky bargain with a demon to be free of her monstrous power in this young adult fantasy perfect for fans of AnEnchantment of Ravens and House of Salt and Sorrows.
Liska knows that magic is monstrous, and its practitioners are monsters. She has done everything possible to suppress her own magic, to disastrous consequences. Desperate to be free of it, Liska flees her small village and delves into the dangerous, demon-inhabited spirit-wood to steal a mythical fern flower. If she plucks it, she can use its one wish to banish her powers. Everyone who has sought the fern flower has fallen prey to unknown horrors, so when Liska is caught by the demon warden of the wood—called The Leszy—a bargain seems better than death: one year of servitude in exchange for the fern flower and its wish.
Whisked away to The Leszy’s crumbling manor, Liska soon makes an unsettling discovery: she is not the first person to strike this bargain, and all her predecessors have mysteriously vanished. If Liska wants to survive the year and return home, she must unravel her taciturn host’s spool of secrets and face the ghosts—figurative and literal—of his past. Because something wakes in the woods, something deadly and without mercy. It frightens even The Leszy…and cannot be defeated unless Liska embraces the monster she’s always feared becoming.
Penny Dreadful meets The Gilded Wolves in this breathtaking finale to young adult historical fantasy Bones of Ruin trilogy!
For years, the elite secret society called the Enlightenment Committee has waited for the apocalyptic force known as Hiva to destroy the world as it has so many times before. What the Committee didn’t know, however, was that Hiva wasn’t an event—it was a person.
Iris Marlow. An African tightrope dancer with no memories of her past. A girl who cannot die.
At least, she couldn’t die. Until her own friends discovered her one weakness and murdered her once and for all. The world-ending threat she posed should be gone too, but there’s one more Hiva out there, and unlike Iris, this one has no love for humanity. In her absence, this Hiva has taken it upon himself to judge if humanity deserves to live.
But when it comes to Hivas, the judgment is always the same. The ending is always total destruction. And while Iris is dead, she’s not gone—and after the betrayal that ended her life as Iris, she is now out for revenge.
The world’s days are numbered. The Cataclysm has begun.
For fans of Talia Hibbert and Lynn Painter comes a funny and unflinchingly honest story about a teen who must come to terms with her disability and what it means for her identity, her love life, and her future.
Brynn Kwan is desperate for her high school persona to be real. That Brynn is head of the yearbook committee, the favorite for prom queen, and definitely not crumbling from a secret disability that’s rapidly wearing her down. If no one knows the truth about her condition, Brynn doesn’t have to worry about the pitying looks or accusations of being a faker that already destroyed her childhood friendships. She’s even willing to let go of her four-year relationship with her first love, Oliver, rather than reveal that a necessary surgery was the reason she ignored his existence for the entire summer.
But after Brynn tries to break up a fight at a pep rally and winds up barred from all her clubs and senior prom, she has nothing left to prop up her illusion of being just like everyone else. During a week-long suspension from school, she realizes that she doesn’t quite recognize the face in the mirror—and it’s not because of her black eye from the fight. With a healthy sister who simply doesn’t understand and a confused ex-boyfriend who won’t just take a hint and go away like a normal human being, Brynn begins to wonder if it’s possible to reinvent her world by being the person she thought no one wanted: herself.
A painfully average teen’s life is upended by a magical apocalypse in this darkly atmospheric and sweepingly romantic novel perfect for fans of The Raven Boys, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and The Rest of Us Just Live Here.
High school is hard enough to survive without an apocalypse to navigate.
Sid Spencer has always been the most normal girl in her abnormal hometown, a tourist trap built over one of the fault lines that seal magic away from the world. Meanwhile, all Sid has to deal with is hair-ruining humidity, painful awkwardness, being one of four Asians in town, and her friends dumping her when they start dating each other—just days after one of the most humiliating romantic rejections faced by anyone, ever, in all of history.
Then someone kills one of the Guardians who protect the seal. The earth rips open and unleashes the magic trapped inside. Monsters crawl from the ground, no one can enter or leave, and the man behind it all is roaming the streets with a gang of violent vigilantes. Suddenly, Sid’s life becomes a lot less ordinary. When she finds out her missing brother is involved, she joins the remaining Guardians, desperate to find him and close the fault line for good.
Fighting through hordes of living corpses and uncontrollable growths of forest, Sid and a ragtag crew of would-be heroes are the only thing standing between their town and the end of the world as they know it. Between magic, murderers, and burgeoning crushes, Sid must survive being a perfectly normal girl caught in a perfectly abnormal apocalypse.
Only—how can someone so ordinary make it in such an extraordinary world?
Neve faces her vengeful cousin, the leader of the legions of hell, forcing her to decide where her loyalties truly lie in this thrilling sequel to Ravensong that’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets Celtic mythology.
Neve and her sisters failed in protecting the mortal world against the legions of hell when the Veil they had spent their lives guarding split and the vengeful cousin they forgot ever existed, Aodh, managed to slip through. Dangerous and bitter, Aodh is on a mission to free the rest of their family still trapped behind the veil and set them loose on the mortal world.
Still injured from her last battle, Neve is not only working to track Aodh, but also trying to navigate painful memories that keep rising to the surface. Memories of her past lifetimes protecting the Gate…and of her first life, before she and her sisters scrubbed it from their minds. More questions arise when a new family member reveals themself, someone Neve and her sisters have been missing. Someone who might just be able to save them all.
Neve must face the sins of her past while navigating the dangers of the present. The more she remembers, the more it seems like everything she was raised to believe was a lie, and the fallout might decimate everything she has worked so hard to build in the present, including her relationship with Alexandria.
Caught between humanity and divinity, the past and the present, Neve must try to strike a balance between the warring forces both within and without, because if she doesn’t, it might not just be her relationship at stake, but the whole world.
A teen girl searches for closure after her brother dies by suicide in this breathtaking novel from the author of Learning to Breathe and Facing the Sun.
Karmen is about to start her last year of high school, but it’s only been six weeks since her brother, Julian, died by suicide. How is she supposed to focus on school when huge questions loom: Why is Julian gone? How could she have missed seeing his pain? Could she have helped him?
When a blowup at school gets Karmen sent home for a few weeks, life gets more complicated: things between her parents are tenser than ever, her best friend’s acting like a stranger, and her search to understand why Julian died keeps coming up empty.
New friend Pru both baffles and comforts Karmen, and there might finally be something happening with her crush, Isaiah, but does she have time for either, or are they just more distractions? Will she ever understand Julian’s struggle and tragedy? If not, can she love—and live—again?
All of Us Villains meets Kingdom of the Wicked in this action-packed fantasy following a teen determined to win the competition held by warring vampire and witch kingdoms, only to develop complicated feelings for the vampire she’s supposed to hand over.
Blood is survival for seventeen-year-old Bly, who lives in the poverty-stricken human villages caught between enemy vampire and witch kingdoms. Most of the time, vampires and witches live in uneasy truce, buying human blood for their food and spells. But for two weeks a year, the ceasefire dissolves, and they hold the Revenant Games.
Any human can play in the games for either the witches or the vampires. Alongside life-changing riches, the witches will raise one person from the dead for whoever captures the highest-ranking vampire. In turn, the vampires offer immortality to whoever captures the most powerful witch. For most humans, the games are a ticket out of poverty. For Bly, it’s a chance to get back her dead sister, Elise, and save the life of her dying best friend, Emerson.
Together, she and Emerson forge a dangerous plan to play both sides and win both prizes: resurrection for Elise and immortality for Emerson. But when the vampire they capture stirs a passion in Bly that she hasn’t felt in a long time, she’ll have to make a choice: her sister or the boy who’s shown her there’s more to life than just survival.
A teen’s fight for suffrage turns into one of survival when her crew’s Antarctic expedition ship gets stuck in the ice in this historical novel told in journal entries perfect for fans of Gary Paulsen and The Downstairs Girl.
November 1914.
Clara Ketterling-Dunbar is one of twenty-eight crew members of The Resolute—a ship meant for an Antarctic expedition now marooned on ice one hundred miles from the shore of the continent. An eighteen-year-old American, Clara has told the crew she’s a twenty-one-year-old Canadian. Since the war broke out, sentiment toward Americans has not been the most favorable, and Clara will be underestimated enough simply for being a woman without also giving away just how young she is. Two members of the crew know her nationality, but no one knows the truth of her activities in England before The Resolute set sail.
She and her suffragist sisters in the Women’s Social & Political Union were waging war of a different kind in London. They taught Clara to fight. And now, even marooned on the ice, she won’t stop fighting for women’s rights…or for survival. In the wilderness of Antarctica, Clara is determined to demonstrate what a woman is truly capable of—if the crew will let her.
In this stirring young adult romance from award-winning author Margarita Engle, love and conservation intertwine as two teens fight to protect wildlife and heal from their troubled pasts.
Ana and her mother have been living out of their car ever since her militant father became one of the FBI’s most wanted. Leandro has struggled with debilitating anxiety since his family fled Cuba on a perilous raft.
One moonlit night, in a wilderness park in California, Ana and Leandro meet. Their connection is instant—a shared radiance that feels both scientific and magical. Then they discover they are not alone: a huge mountain lion stalks through the trees, one of many wild animals whose habitat has been threatened by humans.
Determined to make a difference, Ana and Leandro start a rewilding club at their school, working with scientists to build wildlife crossings that can help mountain lions find one another. If pumas can find their way to a better tomorrow, surely Ana and Leandro can too.
A bisexual teen girl tries to make her ex jealous by faking an Instagram romance that leads to surprisingly real feelings in this hijinks-filled rom-com perfect for fans of To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before and She Gets the Girl.
Ava “Fitz” Fitzgerald has worked hard to create the picture-perfect life she’s always wanted. She spent her junior year transforming her passion for sustainable fashion and upcycling into a viral online platform, maintaining a 4.0 GPA, and spending every free second with her soon-to-graduate girlfriend, Danica. And this summer she plans to take it all to the next level by attending a prestigious summer fashion program in New York City and convincing Dani that they can survive a year of long distance.
But when Dani dumps her before classes even start, accusing Fitz of being more invested in growing her online persona than deepening their relationship, she’s left not only heartbroken, but also creatively blocked.
Fitz will do anything to win Dani back, even if that means taking a break from the platform that she’s worked so hard to build. But just as she decides to go all-in on a hiatus, a chance encounter reunites her with Levi Berkowitz, her childhood best friend that she hasn’t seen since elementary school. Levi is struggling with heartbreak of his own, and this cosmic coincidence sparks a new use for her social media savvy. Fitz offers to help Levi craft a fake relationship online to make his person jealous…if in return he can pretend to be her boyfriend in front of Dani to make her jealous. If all goes according to plan, by the end of the summer they’ll both be reunited with their perfect partners and get to rekindle their friendship in the process.
Sometimes even the most carefully designed plans can come apart at the seams, though. And when real history leads to not-so-fake feelings, Fitz will have to decide if she’s finally willing to let go of what she thought was picture-perfect and choose what might actually be right for her.
Is there any vacation more summer-y than a road trip? (Is summer-y a word? We say yes.) The second the weather turns warm, all we want to do is hop in a car with our friends and see where the road takes us. Whether you’ve got a cross-country journey ahead of you (give the World’s Biggest Ball of Twine our love!), or just wish you did, here are our favorite road trip novels to keep you entertained along the way.
20 Road Trip Novels To Pack in Your Bag This Summer
Stiggy knows is that he needs to get out of Minnesota after his father’s suicide and his girlfriend ghosting him. With no phone, and a just a map of the Great River Road, he heads out in his dad’s old car. The only problem is, life on his own isn’t exactly what he expected and, soon enough, he finds himself at a crossroads: keep running from his demons, or let them hitch a ride back home with him.
Juan and JD both have plans. Juan is going to get out of El Paso, Texas, on a basketball scholarship and JD is going to be a filmmaker. Fabi doesn’t have a plan anymore, not since getting pregnant at sixteen. When Juan and JD embark on road trip to visit Juan’s dad on death row (someone Fabi always said was dead), we find out there are some things you just can’t plan for…
Addie has a plan: get through her aunt’s wedding in Ireland, ignore her brother Ian & escape to visit her friend Lena in Italy ASAP. When she finds a travel guide called Ireland for the Heartbroken, she’s skeptical about its power to heal the wounds of her past, but then she accidentally joins Ian & his cute friend Rowan on a whirlwind tour of the Emerald Isle & she begins to hope the guide can not only heal her broken heart, but also repair her shattered relationship with her brother. That is, if they don’t get completely lost along the way.
Amy thinks her life sucks. Her dad recently died, and her mom decides to move from California to Connecticut—just in time for Amy’s senior year. To escape from it all, Amy embarks on a road trip, driving cross-country from the home she’s always known toward her new life. Joining her is Roger, the son of Amy’s mother’s old friend. Amy hasn’t seen him in years, but her feelings for Roger develop as the miles roll by….
Aspiring artist Dessa Rhodes is a modern day nomad. Her family travels in an RV, their lives defined by state lines, exit signs, and the small communal caravan they call home. Among them is Cyrus, her best friend and long-time crush, whom she knows she can never be with. When your families are perpetually linked, it’s too dangerous to take a risk on romance. But when her family suffers an unexpected blow, Dessa must decide: Say goodbye to her nomadic lifestyle and the boy she loves? Or never stop moving?
Three days after learning of her brother Finn’s death, Honor receives his last letter from Iraq. Devastated, she interprets his note as a final request and sets off to California to fulfill it. She’s joined by Rusty, Finn’s former best friend. Rusty is the last person Honor wants to be with, but as they cover the dusty miles together in Finn’s beloved 1967 Chevy Impala, long-held resentments begin to fade, and Honor and Rusty struggle to come to terms with the loss they share.
Ok, so Blood Red Road is not the most traditional of road trip stories, but variety is the spice of life! Saba has spent her whole life in a dried-up wasteland ravaged by constant sandstorms. Civilization has long been destroyed, leaving only landfills for she and her family to scavenge from. That’s fine by her, as long as her beloved twin brother Lugh is around. But when a monster sandstorm arrives, along with four cloaked horsemen, Saba’s world is shattered. Lugh is captured, and Saba embarks on an epic quest to get him back.
Jordan and Courtney are totally in love. Sure, they were an unlikely high school couple. But they clicked; it worked. They’re even going to the same college, and driving cross-country together for orientation. Then Jordan dumps Courtney for a girl he met on the Internet, but it’s too late to change plans, so the road trip is still on. Courtney’s sure she can tough it out for a few days. But can she? Can Jordan?
Hendrix has made his grandfather an impossible promise—that he’ll get him back east to where he first kissed his wife before his Alzheimer’s wipes away all memory of her. One hot July night, Hendrix and his friend Corrina steal a car, spring Gpa from his assisted living facility, and take off on a cross-country odyssey from LA to NY. With everyone hot on their heels, Hendrix and Corrina set off to discover for themselves if what Gpa says is true—that the only stories that last are love stories.
To put distance between Rosie and her ex (whose car she may or may not have set on fire, who can really say?), her parents send her on a cross-country road trip with responsible, reliable neighbor Matty. Forget freedom of the road–Rosie wants to hitchhike home and win her ex back. But her determination starts to dwindle with each passing mile. Because Rosie’s spark of anger? It may have just ignited a romance with someone new…
After her mother died, it’s all Tessa can do to keep her friends, her boyfriend, and her happiness from slipping away. Her father’s solution? An impromptu road trip that lands them in Tessa’s grandmother’s small coastal town, where Tessa can’t help but feel even more lost. Untils he meets Henry Lark. He understands the relationships that matter. More importantly, he understands her. A secret stands between them, but Tessa’s willing to do anything to bring them together—because Henry may just be her one chance at forever.
Finn has two things going for him: his best friend, the possibly-insane-but-definitely-excellent Cade Hernandez, and Julia Bishop, the first girl he’s ever loved. Then Julia moves away. Feeling restless, Finn embarks on a road trip with Cade to visit their college of choice in Oklahoma. When an unexpected accident happens and the boys become unlikely heroes, they take an eye-opening detour away from everything they thought they had planned—and learn how to write their own destiny.
Jason Carrillo came out to his basketball team and lost his university scholarship. Now that he’s graduated, he’s been asked to speak at the opening of a gay and lesbian high school across the country. When his boyfriend, Kyle, hears about it, he jumps at the chance to go with Jason. But can their romance survive two weeks crammed together in a car? And can their friend Nelson, who’s looking for a soul mate of his own, handle being the third wheel on this road trip?
Hattie has just discovered she’s pregnant with her best friend Reuben’s baby, who has run off to Europe to “find himself.” When her great-aunt Gloria (who no one even knew existed) comes crashing into her life, Hattie sets out with her on a road trip of self-discovery—Gloria to finally confront the secrets of her past before they are erased from her memory forever and Hattie to face the hard choices that will determine her future.
Owen, Frank, Audrey, and Jin-Ae have one thing in common: they all want to die. When they meet online, the four teens make a deadly pact: they will escape together on a summer road trip to visit the sites of celebrity suicides…and at their final destination, they will all end their lives. As they drive cross-country, bonding over their dark impulses, sharing their deepest secrets and desires, living it up, hooking up, and becoming true friends, each must decide whether life is worth living–or if there’s no turning back.
In an effort to keep Ruby occupied and mend her own broken heart, Ruby’s mother Ann drags Ruby to the weekly book club she runs for seniors. At first Ruby can’t imagine a more boring way to spend an afternoon, but she is soon charmed by the feisty group. When it is discovered that one of the group’s own members is the subject of the tragic love story they are reading, Ann and Ruby ditch their respective obsessions to spearhead a reunion between the long-ago lovers.
In this contemporary retelling of The Canterbury Tales, a group of teens on a bus ride to Washington, DC, each tell a story—some fantastical, some realistic, some downright scandalous—in pursuit of the ultimate prize: a perfect score.
Peyton and Jace have broken up, but they’ve been thrown together on a road trip. Awkward. One of them is lying about the destination. One of them is pretending not to be leaving something behind. And neither of them is prepared for what’s coming on the road ahead…
When Winston’s absentee mother, Skye Harper (that’s her stage name), sends a letter asking for help, Winston’s Nanny says the best way to give it is to take a cross-country road trip—in a “borrowed” motor home—to go find Winston’s mother once and for all. With a cute stowaway named Steve along for company and an adventure on the horizon, this is sure to be a summer to remember.
We just checked the weather and it’s going to be gorgeous this weekend in Santa Monica for YALLWEST 2019! SO GET READY because here’s a comprehensive schedule of all our Riveted by Simon Teen activity this year. Don’t forget to follow us @SimonTeen on Twitter and in our Instagram Stories for up-to-the minute news and lots of fun video content from our authors at YALLWEST.
Everything Happening With Riveted by Simon Teen @ YALLWEST 2019
Saturday, May 4th
All day long at the Riveted Booth!
Pick up your copy of “Riveted Weekly” to keep track of all the giveaways and author events.
Stop by for our “What’s in Your Bag” raffle to enter for a chance to win a Riveted tote bag and ARCs of The Lady Rogue, Songs from the Deep, and She’s the Worst. We’ll be drawing winners all day!
Get a wristband for our #MalecMeetup at 1pm where you can snag exclusive Shadowhunter swag.
Take a photo (or two…or three) at our photo wall.
10:00am
Meet-and-greet with Shea Ernshaw and get a signed sampler of Winterwood (Riveted Booth)
11:00am
Kiersten White signing (Innovation Quad)
RomComs panel with Mary H.K. Choi and Sandhya Menon (Barnum Hall)
