YA Friday: June 2018 Monthly Wrap-Up

YA book covers with a blue circle and white text that reads Monthly Wrap-Up

June 2018

It's officially Summer and June kicked things off to a great start with some amazing new young adult book releases. Spend this Summer break reading some highly anticipated sequels to some of my favorite fantasies, get caught up in a 'make-you-melt' romance, and enjoy some realistic fiction from some fresh and diverse voices.

Check out these picks for the best YA novels of June — All you'll need next is your sunscreen.

Save the Date book cover

Save the Date by Morgan Matson

When seventeen-year-old Charlie Grant's four older siblings reunite for a wedding, she is determined they will have a perfect weekend before the family home is sold, but last-minute disasters abound. Over the course of three ridiculously chaotic days, Charlie will learn more than she ever expected about the family she thought she knew by heart. And she’ll realize that sometimes, trying to keep everything like it was in the past means missing out on the future.


Bring Me Their Hearts book cover

Bring Me Their Hearts by Sara Wolf

Forced to serve the witch who controls her heart, Zera is ordered to infiltrate the royal court and engage in a game of cat and mouse to steal the heart of the court-weary crown prince, who is captivated by Zera's carefree, irreverent ruthlessness.


Not The Girls You're Looking For book cover

Not The Girls You're Looking For by Aminah Mae Safi

A Muslim-American teen goes into denial mode about her role in an out-of-control party that occurred during Ramadan, a situation that escalates until she incurs damage that is harder to repair, forcing her to come to terms with her true self.


A Reaper at the Gates book cover

A Reaper at the Gates by Sabaa Tahir

The epic adventure continues where A Torch against the Night left off. Elias, now the Soul Catcher and urgently needing to heighten his powers, is up to his eyebrows in despairing ghosts and angry jinn. Laia, who loves him, is desperate to foil the world-destroying machinations of the Nightbringer while also saving her people, the Scholars, from destruction. And the Blood Shrike is at sword’s point with the consummately evil Commandant and determined to save her sister from the brutality of the sadistic, increasingly irrational emperor Marcus. Meanwhile, wars (and rumors of wars) threaten to bring the empire to its knees. Treachery abounds and courage seems no match for it.


Dive Smack book cover

Dive Smack by Demetra Brodsky

Blaming himself for the fire that destroyed his home and ended his mother's life, Theo, a talented student and athlete, focuses on securing a scholarship that will let him escape his hometown only to be assigned a family history project that forces him to confront his patchy memory of what really happened.


A Thousand Beginnings and Endings book cover

A Thousand Beginnings and Endings edited by Ellen Oh and Elsie Chapman

A mountain loses her heart. Two sisters transform into birds to escape captivity. A young man learns the true meaning of sacrifice. A young woman takes up her mother’s mantle and leads the dead to their final resting place. Fifteen authors of Asian descent reimagine the folklore and mythology of East and South Asia, in short stories ranging from fantasy to science fiction to contemporary, from romance to tales of revenge.


Further Reading

The Bird and the Blade book coverSummer of Salt book coverSweet Black Waves book coverFat Girl on a Plane book coverMy Plain Jane book coverSmoke in the Sun book cover