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Love Radio by Ebony LaDelle

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ACHUKA Book of the Day 5 Jul 2022

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“LaDelle does a fantastic job of bringing the complex, dynamic personalities and relationships of her characters to life while highlighting romantic, familial, and platonic love as well as self-love. Strong pacing allows the storylines to flow organically. Readers will find themselves hooked from the first page to the last. A sweet, charming story with both heartwarming and heart-rending moments.” KIRKUS

Prince Jones is passionate about music and romance, dishing out relationship advice on his Love Radio show. But his own love life is looking kind of quiet… until he meets Dani Ford. Dani isn’t checking for anybody. She’s focused on her plan to move to New York City to become a famous author, and avoiding dealing with what happened at that party a few months ago.

When the two meet, sparks fly – but Dani’s not looking to get derailed. So she gives Prince just three dates to convince her that he’s worth falling for… sometimes the best love story is the one you write yourself.

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This is Not the End by Molly Morris

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Part road-trip drama, part comedy and part romance.

Ever since the sudden deaths of his parents, seventeen-year-old Hugh has developed a serious preoccupation with endings. Things get a little complicated when he meets Olivia Moon, a high-school outcast who can’t die. But if he wants to learn more about her impossible power, he’ll have to drive Olivia to New York and help retrieve a stolen crate of her most treasured possessions. As his feelings for Olivia grow, Hugh embarks on a road trip he’ll never forget. Can she help him to accept that unsatisfying, messy endings are just a part of life? An unforgettable contemporary YA debut with a unique twist.

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My Mechanical Romance by Alexene Farol Follmuth

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“Follmuth’s humorous debut lightly addresses discrimination faced by women of color in STEM, as well as issues of privilege and resource accessibility, set within an upbeat romantic comedy populated by a sympathetic and inclusive cast. The characters’ struggles are realistic, and the romantic chemistry is palpable, making this a joyful read.” Publishers Weekly

Nerds are so hot. Especially battle-robot-building nerds.

When Bel accidentally reveals a talent for engineering at school, she’s forced into joining the robotics club. Enter Mateo Luna, captain of the football team and the robotics club. He recognises Bel as a potential asset, even if they couldn’t be more different. And as the nights of after-school work grow longer, Bel and Teo realise they’ve made more than just a combat-ready robot for the championship: they’ve made a connection themselves.
But with graduation approaching, their differences and what they want for their futures, threatens what they’ve built together.

Can they survive Nationals without breaking their robots – or their hearts?

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Twin Crowns by Katherine Webber & Catherine Doyle

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Twin sisters separated at birth and raised into entirely different worlds are about to get to know each other’s lives a whole lot better…

Bestselling authors, Catherine Doyle and Katherine Webber, joined forces on an utterly compelling YA romantic fantasy bursting with high-stakes adventure and crossover appeal about twin princesses separated at birth.

Two sisters. One throne. Who will ultimately rise to power and wear the crown? Wren Greenrock has always known that one day she would steal her sister’s place in the palace. Trained from birth to avenge her parents’ murder and usurp the princess, she will do anything to rise to power and protect the community of witches she loves. Princess Rose Valhart knows that with power comes responsibility including marriage into a brutal kingdom. Life outside the palace walls is a place to be feared and she is soon to discover that it’s wilder than she ever imagined.

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Once Upon A K-Prom by Kat Cho

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ACHUKA Book of the Day 1 Jun 2o22

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“The story unfolds in alternating perspectives with an even mix of flirty and serious tones balancing a frothy premise with sympathetic lead characters who are each struggling in their own ways to define themselves. No prior K-pop knowledge is needed to enjoy the slow-burn, will-they, won’t-they storyline, though fans of the genre will appreciate a few blink-and-you’ll-miss-them allusions to real K-pop idols. Pleasantly indulgent, with a dash of realism.” KIRKUS

Elena Soo has always felt overshadowed — whether by her more successful older sisters, her more popular twin brother, or her more outgoing best friend. Everyone except Elena seems to know exactly who they are and what they want. But she is certain about one thing — she has no interest in going to prom. While the rest of the school is giddy over corsages and dresses, Elena would rather spend her time working to save the local community centre, the one place that’s always made her feel like she belonged.

So when international K-pop superstar and onetime childhood best fried Robbie Choi shows up at her house to ask her to prom, Elena is conflicted. The one thing she maybe, possibly, secretly wants more than anything is fror the two of them to keep the promise they made each other as kids: to go to prom together. But that was seven years ago, and with this new K-pop persona, pink hair, and stylish clothes, Robbie is nothing like the sweet, goofy boy she remembers — the boy she shared all her secrets with. The boy she used to love.

Kat Cho loves to incorporate her Korean heritage in her writing, especially if it involves describing food. She likes anything that encourages nerding out, including reading, K-dramas, K-pop and anime.

“If I were to just name K-Pop idols that I would want in a movie adaptation of K-Prom in general, I’d say Stray Kids’ Bangchan, Felix, or Han. BlackPink’s Lisa or Rosé. CL or Sandara Park (two of my first K-Pop faves!) BTS’s RM or Suga, BtoB’s Peniel, Astro’s Eunwoo, Jessi, Ailee, AleXa, Eric Nam, or Rain.”
Kat Cho, in an interview for United by Pop.

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Serendipity ed. Marissa Meyer

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Love is in the air in this is a collection of stories inspired by romantic tropes and edited by #1 New York Times-bestselling author of Gilded, Marissa Meyer.

The secret admirer. The fake relationship. The matchmaker. From stories of first love, unrequited love, love that surprises, love that’s been there all along, ten of the brightest and award-winning authors writing YA have taken on some of your favourite romantic tropes, embracing them and turning them on their heads.

Readers will swoon for this collection of stories that celebrate love at its most humorous, inclusive, heart-expanding and serendipitous.

Contributors include Elise Bryant, Elizabeth Eulberg, Leah Johnson, Anna-Marie McLemore, Marissa Meyer, Sandhya Menon, Julie Murphy, Caleb Roehrig, Sarah Winifred Searle and Abigail Hing Wen.

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The Wanderer by Josie Williams

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A moving, compelling and spooky YA romance. Fifteen-year-old Maggie is in foster care following the death of her mother and her grandmother’s slip into dementia. When Ryder saves her life, she can’t help but fall in love with him. The only problem is that he has been dead for five years… Unsentimental, passionate and moving, The Wanderer takes a fresh look at first love and growing up.

Voodooville Part 1 by Nova Chimera

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A fine, emotionally engaging YA fantasy adventure featuring romance, gang warfare, humour and a rich cast of characters who engage in exciting set-piece chases and fights. There are touching scenes of young love. A music soundtrack is referenced throughout. The dialogue is pacy and contemporary. Spex, the 17 year-old narrator, frequently interjects face-to-camera type commentary/asides.

The debut author is a young Malawi in his twenties who has lived in the UK since the age of 3. He has always loved writing and drawing, and says that most of his early influences came from cartoons and anime. His main goal is to write an animated TV show, and embarked on writing this novel as a  way of testing his writing ability. 

Inspirations for Voodooville include Murukami’s Kafka On The Shore, the Scott Pilgrim graphic novels, the Japanese animation of Howl’s Moving Castle, City of God, Fooly Cooly (FLCL) and the 2015 film Brick. Readers of the book will find traces of all these in the story.

Blackout by Dhonielle Clayton, Tiffany D Jackson, Nic Stone, Angie Thomas, Ashley Woodfolk & Nicola Yoon

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“Each author tells a love story about teenagers – maybe a dozen young people in total. Their lives are loosely but seamlessly interlinked through brief appearances in each others’ stories.  No doubt, the writers’ email trails, agreeing details of plots, characterisation and so on, would be fertile ground for future PhD Sherlocks. Tiffany D. Jackson’s ‘The Long Walk’ gives structure to the whole through 5 ‘Acts’, set between the other authors’ narratives. Jackson’s story reflects a sustained conversation between Tammi and her ex, Kareem, thrown together by chance on this extraordinary evening, four months after they had broken up. For them Blackout brings illumination and renewal as they make their way across the city to a party in Brooklyn where Kareem is scheduled to deejay.”
BfK 5-star review

‘Blackout is our love letter to love, to New York City, and to Black teens. Our reminder to them that their stories, their joy, their love is valid and worthy of being spotlighted.’ Dhonielle Clayton.

When a heatwave plunges New York City into darkness, sparks fly for thirteen teenagers caught up in the blackout.

A first meeting.
Long-time friends.
Bitter exes.
And maybe the beginning of something new…

When the lights go out, people reveal hidden truths, love blossoms, friendship transforms and new possibilities take flight.

Six of today’s biggest stars of the YA world, Dhonielle Clayton, Tiffany D. Jackson, Nic Stone, Angie Thomas, Ashley Woodfolk, and Nicola Yoon, bring all the electricity of love to a collection of charming, hilarious and heartbreaking tales that shine the brightest light through the dark.

All Our Hidden Gifts by Caroline O’Donoghue

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“O’Donoghue’s intriguing story takes in myth, history, tensions between Catholic and Protestant, and race in Ireland. Helping the repentant Maeve search for the missing girl is Lily’s nail-polish wearing brother Roe, formerly Rory, who is the essence of fluidity in a novel that’s all about the power of liminal spaces.” The Financial Times
“Detailed, interesting characters carry this contemporary story of competing energy and curses. Woven delicately throughout are chillingly eerie depictions of the Housekeeper, a figure who shows up on an extra card in the deck, echoing the White Lady legend from Irish folklore. Even more disturbing is an organization of young people led by a homophobic but charismatic figurehead intent on provoking backlash against Ireland’s recent civil rights victories.” KIRKUS
“Ghostly menace, queer liberation, and sweet nonbinary romance all find room in this modern Irish contemporary.” Publishers Weekly

Maeve Chambers doesn’t have much going for her. Not only does she feel like the sole idiot in a family of geniuses, she managed to drive away her best friend Lily a year ago. But when she finds a pack of dusty old tarot cards at school, and begins to give scarily accurate readings to the girls in her class, she realizes she’s found her gift at last. Things are looking up – until she discovers a strange card in the deck that definitely shouldn’t be there. And two days after she convinces her ex-best friend to have a reading, Lily disappears.

Can Maeve, her new friend Fiona and Lily’s brother Roe find her? And will Maeve’s new gift be enough to bring Lily back, before she’s gone for good?