New young adult books for February 2024
by Sophie Green
Looking for some new YA titles to read this February? Take a look at our top picks, from a Dungeons & Dragons novel to a young alchemist on a dangerous mission.
Find more recommendations for young adults.
Cross My Heart and Never Lie, by Nora Dasnes
Tuva is starting seventh grade, and her checklist of goals includes: writing a diary, getting a cool look, building the best fort in the woods with her BFFs, and sharing everything with them. But when she starts school, nothing is how she hoped it would be. Seventh grade has split her friends into rival factions: Team Linnea and the girls who fall in love and Team Bao and the girls who are still playing. Linnea has a boyfriend, Bao hates everything related to feelings. Worst of all, Tuva is expected to choose a side!
Then Mariam shows up and suddenly things begin to make a little more sense. But with all her friends fighting, this is one part of growing up that Tuva isn't quite sure how to share.
Borrow Cross My Heart and Never Lie →
The Girl in Question, by Tess Sharpe
The sequel to The Girls I've been.
Nora O'Malley has survived - senior year, that is. School's over, but her life isn't, which is weird since last she checked, her murderous stepdad Raymond is finally free. Determined to enjoy summer before her (possibly) imminent demise, Nora plans a backpacking trip with Iris and Wes. And Wes's girlfriend tags along. Amanda's nice, so it's not a huge issue. Until she gets taken. Or rather, mis-taken - for Nora.
Now they're deep in the woods. Raymond has a hostage. Nora has no leverage. Iris is carving spears out of sticks. And Wes is building booby traps. It'll take all of them to make it out alive. But someone is lying. Someone is keeping secrets. And someone has to die.
Compass and Blade, by Rachel Greenlaw
Mira is a wrecker, one of the seven chosen to swim out and plunder the wrecked ships beyond the Isle of Rosevear. The waves seem to sing to her soul, the call of the sea beckoning her into deeper waters. But Rosevear needs her, and she could never abandon her home. Until one evening when lightning splits the sky and the Watch descend, taking Mira's father away. Mira needs handsome stranger Seth to help her find a way to buy back her father's freedom.
But on the journey she will need to learn who to trust - Seth is hiding something behind those enigmatic eyes, there's a family secret buried deep in the ocean and shadowy stranger Elijah is offering Mira a dark bargain. Securing her own future, and that of her island, will come at a high price.
The Druid's Call, by E.K. Johnston
Spin-off novel from the film Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.
For as long as she can remember, Doric has felt alone. Abandoned by her human parents, she wandered for years before being taken in by a community of Neverwinter Woods elves. But her horns and tail proclaim a tiefling heritage, and even among the kindest of elves, her fledgling druidic abilities mark her as different from the rangers around her. And as humans begin to encroach farther and farther into the once pristine woods, Doric knows she needs to master her druidic capabilities if she is to be any help to her adopted family.
Hell Breaks Loose, by Derek Landy
Standalone prequel to Skulduggery Pleasant.
Italy, 1703. As the war with Mevolent rages on, the Dead Men are dispatched to a walled town in the Tuscan hills - not to assassinate the Lord of the Dark Sorcerers, but to save him. A rift has opened to a hellish dimension where a being of devastating power awaits, and only Mevolent is strong enough to seal it and save the world. A simple mission, then, which turns ever-so-slightly trickier when Skulduggery is presented with the opportunity to finally get revenge on Nefarian Serpine, the man who murdered him and killed his family thirteen years earlier.
Breaks, Vol. 1, by Emma Vieceli and Malin Ryden
Cortland Hunt has made some dangerous mistakes. Now he's waiting quietly for those mistakes to catch up with him. Ian Tanner coasts through life denying the spark of anger beneath his laid back exterior. When school politics and personal lives become a battleground, the pair find that what they share may just be their only safe haven. Bringing the world of LGBT young adult fiction into the realm of comic books, and collecting the first arc of the acclaimed weekly web series (2014-2016).
City of Nightmares, by Rebecca Schaeffer
Face your fear - or become your nightmare. Ever since her sister became a man-eating spider and slaughtered her way through town, nineteen-year-old Ness has been terrified - terrified of some other Nightmare murdering her, and terrified of ending up like her sister. Because in Newham, the city that never sleeps, dreaming means waking up as your worst fear. Whether that means becoming a Nightmare that's monstrous only in appearance, or transforming into a twisted, unrecognisable creature that terrorises the city, no one is safe.
Ness will do anything to avoid becoming another victim, even if that means lying low among the Friends of the Restful Soul, a questionable organisation that may or may not be a cult. But being a member of this maybe-cult has a price.
Infinity Alchemist, by Kacen Callender
Ash Woods isn't supposed to perform alchemy - he'll be arrested if anyone ever finds out. But when he's caught by the condescending Ramsay Thorne, instead of handing him over to the reds, Ramsay blackmails Ash into helping with a dangerous personal mission: finding the legendary Book of Source, said to make its reader an all-powerful alchemist. As Ash and Ramsay work together, their feelings for each other grow. But, Ash must discover his own power and find out how far other alchemists are willing to go to get it.