New Summer Reads for Young at Heart Reader Types
YA Books That Bring Big Feelings and Bold Adventures
If you gravitate toward stories of first love, big dreams, personal discovery, and emotional intensity, you’re a Young at Heart Reader. At Bookfinity, we match you with YA fiction that taps into the timeless thrill of becoming—books that spark empathy, joy, and nostalgia no matter your age.
This summer’s standout YA reads are packed with heart and honesty. From contemporary romance and dramatic friendships to magical quests and identity journeys, these books remind us why YA continues to resonate—with teens and adults alike.
August new releases
Girls of Dark Divine
by E V Woods
Phantom of the Opera meets Black Swan in this breathtakingly gorgeous gothic fantasy about love and control that will never let you go. A group of hauntingly beautiful girls have been bound together by a cruel curse--and one of them will go to any lengths to save them from their violent dance.
In the legendary ballet theatre of New Kora, the girls onstage enchant the audience each night with their grace and divine beauty. Before Emberlyn was the star of the show, it was her dream to become one of them . . . until she learned the price of their living nightmare.
A magical curse binds the girls to the show's mastermind, Malcolm, whose invisible strings wield their limbs as if they are marionettes . . . and the commands don't stop when the curtain comes down. Each dancer is destined to turn to dust once the curse consumes her.
When the troupe is invited to perform in the glitzy city of Parlizia, Emberlyn knows this could be her best chance to save them all. She meets an elusive boy made of shadows who has a magical connection to the girls. Together, they work to unravel the haunting truth about their creation and fight for their survival. But the cost of freedom might be too high, and as Emberlyn dances closer to the edge of darkness, she realizes she might break the curse . . . or break her own heart forever.
My Fair Monster
by Adrienne Rivera
Pageant winner and horror fanatic Corie Nielson dreams of putting the "QUEEN" in "SCREAM QUEEN"
Born into a family of beauty queens, seventeen-year-old Corie Nielson has the looks and charm befitting of Miss Teen Indiana. Her sights are set on the Miss Teen America crown next--and the college scholarship that comes with it--in hopes that she can finally break into her secret dream career: horror movie scream queen.
With pageant appearances, caring for her great-grandma, school, and shifts at the family boutique . . . there's more than enough for one person to juggle, let alone Corie with her undiagnosed ADHD. But when the local horror show announces a monster costume contest that promises to make all her dreams come true, Corie can't help but think: What's one more thing? Surely, she can manage her family's high expectations while also using her pageant skills to launch her into horror stardom. All she has to do is convince grumpy special effects makeup artist Everett Robbins to partner up and turn her into a pageant-worthy monster.
But old habits die hard; when the contest and a budding relationship with Everett distract her from her obligations even more, Corie must decide if a shot at her wildest dreams is worth risking the family bonds and pageant traditions that have brought her this far.
Tall Water: A Graphic Novel
by Sj Sindu - Dion Mbd Dion Mbd
From Stonewall Honor-winning writer SJ Sindu, author of Shakti, and celebrated illustrator Dion MBD comes a powerful coming-of-age teen graphic novel that follows one girl's journey to Sri Lanka to reconnect with her long-lost mother during the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004. Perfect for fans of Persepolis and Almost American Girl.
Ever since she turned sixteen, Nimmi has wanted to see her mother. Though she has a loving but overprotective father and a budding relationship, she yearns to travel to Sri Lanka to confront the mother who refused to leave the island during a war, not even for Nimmi's sake. Her father is going back for the first time as a reporter on assignment, but he refuses to take her, deeming Sri Lanka too dangerous.
But then Nimmi's mother appears to her in a dream, asking her to come find her, and Nimmi knows she must go. Her father is livid when he sees her at baggage claim, but by then it's too late, and he reluctantly agrees to help Nimmi make contact with her mother. In Sri Lanka, Nimmi tags along with her father and his guide, past checkpoints and armed soldiers and increasing hints of the war that rages there.
However, the day after Christmas, disaster strikes and a tsunami ravages the island. Stranded amid the devastation and destruction, can Nimmi reunite with her mother? Through her journey, Nimmi might just learn that the person she most needed to find was herself.
This Here Is Love
by Princess Joy L Perry
As the seventeenth century burns to a close in Tidewater, Virginia, America's character is wrought in the fires of wealth, race, and freedom.
Young Bless, the only child left to her enslaved mother, stubbornly crafts the terms of her vital existence. She stands as the lone bulwark between her mother and irreparable despair, her mother's only possibility of hope, as Bless reshapes the boundaries of love.
David is a helping child and a solace to his parents, and he gave a purpose to their trials. His survival hinges on his mother's shrewd intellect and ferocious fight, but his sustenance is his freed Black father's dream of emancipation for the entire family.
Jack Dane, a Scots-Irish boy, sails to Britain's colonies when his father sells him into indentured servitude as an escape from poverty. There Jack learns from the rich the value of each person's life.
A breathtaking, haunting, and epic saga, This Here Is Love intimately intertwines us with these beautifully drawn, unforgettable American characters. Bless, taken to serve the slaveowner's daughter, must decide where she belongs: with the enslaved or above them. David, sold away from his people, retreats into himself even as he yearns to unite with others. Jack, acting impetuously, changes his fortune, but will doing so sacrifice his humanity?
All three come together on Jack's land. As they face and challenge each other, they will relinquish and remake beliefs about family and freedom, even as they confront the limits of love.
Verity Vox and the Curse of Foxfire
by Don Martin
WELCOME TO FOXFIRE
The rules here are simple:
Don't look in the trees.
Don't whistle in the woods at night.
Don't answer if you hear your
name called.
And remember . . . everything wants.
Verity Vox is a witch-in-training who has never met a problem her spells can't solve. But when a cryptic plea for help sends her to the forgotten coal mining town of Foxfire, she soon learns even magic has its limits.
Verity discovers a curse was laid years ago by a traveling magician who vanished into the ancient Appalachian hills to seek greater power. Crops won't grow. Bellies go hungry. Even treasured possessions fall apart. What's worse, people have gone missing amidst rumors that they've sought out the magician who is lying in wait for those foolish or desperate enough to strike a deal with him.
The witch must break the curse, find a missing girl, and solve the mystery of what's really under the mountain before the town falls forever into the clutches of the monster lurking in the hills.
Guardians of Dawn: Yuli
by S Jae-Jones
The third book in the sweeping, richly imagined Guardians of Dawn fantasy series from S. Jae-Jones, the New York Times bestselling author of Wintersong.
Princess Yulana has a few problems. Her late grandfather has died without naming an heir, civil war threatens to tear the Morning Realms apart, a strange waking dreamer sickness is sweeping through the land, and a plague of hungry ghosts roam the steppes. On top of all of that, Kho, her former best friend turned rival, is getting under her skin. A struggle for power divides the north, and the outcome rests on the winner of the Grand Game--a competition that will determine not just the future of her people, but the course of the entire empire.
When the world is out of balance, the Guardians of Dawn are reborn.
As the Guardian of Wind, it is Yuli's responsibility to bring order to chaos, along with the Guardian of Fire and the Guardian of Wood. But can she restore balance to the Morning Realms when she can't even win the political games being played at home? The fate of the Morning Realms depends on the Guardians of Dawn, and whether Yuli can manage both the demonic and political chaos at once.
Guardian of Wind, there you are.
july new releases
Predatory Natures
by Amy Goldsmith
A teen girl's dream job aboard a luxury train derails when she discovers the strange cargo being transported--a mysterious and beautiful greenhouse--but its flowering façade may hide deadly thorns beneath, in this atmospheric and lush novel from the author of Those We Drown.
When Lara Williams gets a summer job aboard the luxury train the Banebury, she thinks she's landed a five-star escape from her past. Even after she learns that her ex-friend Rhys, who she definitely did not have feelings for before their relationship imploded, is one of her coworkers, she's determined to make things work.
Codebreaker
by Jay Martel
This original, interactive thriller from debut author Jay Martel follows a brilliant teenage girl as she races across D.C. to decode the clues her father left behind, which may just be the key to saving the country from a devastating tragedy.
Mia Hayes has peaceful plans for the summer--find a part-time job at a coffee shop and work on her college applications. Those plans are shattered one night when government agents arrive unannounced at her home seeking something they believe her father has taken. When the dust settles, her mother is dead and her father is gone, a fugitive on the run.
Three weeks later, and still reeling from her father's betrayal, Mia spends her seventeenth birthday at a protest in the heart of D.C., where she meets Logan, a rebellious and charming hacker.
Pretty Girl County
by Lakita Wilson
The glitz of Gossip Girl meets the hustle of Leah Johnson's You Should See Me in a Crown in this charming and hilarious story of ex-BFFs from PG County, Maryland, perfect for fans of Joya Goffney and Elise Bryant.
Girls like Reya Samuels always come from Prince George's County. Reya is rich and she's not afraid to show it--she wears designer clothes, drives a custom pink Audi, and lives in a neighborhood tucked behind a fancy cast iron gate. She works hard, but she can get anything she wants with a snap.
Sommer Watkins is from Seat Pleasant, where the cast iron gates are significantly smaller--and attached to the windows, where most folks are still trying to make ends meet. Every day for Sommer is a hustle, working at her dad's bookstore, and using her art skills to scrounge up enough scholarship money for her dream school, Spelman.
Tenderly, I Am Devoured
by Lyndall Clipstone
An Indie Next Selection!
Perfect for fans of Saltburn, A Study in Drowning, and Don't Let the Forest In, Tenderly, I Am Devoured is a moody, monstrously Gothic romantic folk horror in which a young woman must bind herself to a dangerous chthonic god with the help of the son of a rival family to save her family's legacy--and herself--from ruin.
Expelled from her prestigious boarding school following a violent incident, eighteen-year-old Lacrimosa Arriscane returns home in disgrace to discover her family on the point of financial ruin. Desperate to save them, she accepts a marriage of convenience... to Therion, the chthonic god worshipped by Lark's isolated coastal hometown.
June New Releases
We Can Never Leave
by H E Edgmon
Sweet Tooth meets The Raven Boys in this queer young adult contemporary fantasy about what it means to belong from H.E. Edgmon.
You can never go home...
Every day, all across the world, inhuman creatures are waking up with no memory of who they are or where they came from-and the Caravan exists to help them. The traveling community is made up of these very creatures and their families who've acclimated to this new existence by finding refuge in each other. That is, until the morning five teenage travelers wake to find their community has disappeared overnight.
If We Survive This
by Racquel Marie
The Walking Dead meets Yellowjackets in If We Survive This, a tense and emotional young adult horror novel from award-winning author Racquel Marie about a teen girl leading a group of survivors on a perilous journey during the apocalypse.
Flora Braddock Paz is not the girl who survives. A colorful creative who spends as much time fearing death as she does trying to hide that fear from her loved ones, she's always considered herself weak. But half a year into the global outbreak of a rabies mutation that transforms people into violent, zombielike "rabids," she and her older brother, Cain, are still alive.
Solo
by Gráinne O'Brien
A YA verse novel about first love and friendship, lost and found.
Daisy can feel like a solo act at home. On the outside of her twin brothers' intense relationship, she leans towards her parents, particularly her father, for support. As a passionate classical musician, she is not wildly popular at school, but she has one close friend and a life filled with musical performance. Her life is turned upside down when her boyfriend suddenly breaks up with her, and Daisy is left disconnected from her one true love, music.
The Tournament
by Rebecca Barrow
Three girls with entangled pasts compete for glory in their private school's annual tournament, putting their survival skills and their relationships to the test, in this young adult thriller that's "Shakespearean...stunning...dark academia at its finest" (Publishers Weekly, starred review).
Gardner isn't like other boarding schools. They take in those who've been rejected everywhere else, they offer a survival skills class that has students killing and gutting animals, and then there's the Tournament.
A competition available only to seven elite seniors, the Tournament is revered by the entire student body. They'd do almost anything--including completing a series of grueling physical challenges--to win the champion's cup.
And this year, three seniors make the Tournament more cutthroat than ever.
Best of All Worlds
by Kenneth Oppel
From award-winning author Kenneth Oppel a startling, can't-wait-to-talk-about-it-with-someone novel that defies genre to create a survival thriller unlike any you've read before. For fans of Leave the World Behind, A.S. King, M.T. Anderson, and Margaret Atwood.
Xavier Oaks doesn't particularly want to go to the cabin with his dad and his dad's pregnant new wife, Nia. But family obligations are family obligations, and it's only for a short time. So he leaves his mom, his brother, and his other friends behind for a week in the woods. Only... one morning he wakes up and the house isn't where it was before. It's like it's been lifted and placed... somewhere else.
When Xavier, his dad, and Nia go explore, they find they are inside a dome, trapped. And there's no one else around...
Until, three years later, another family arrives.