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The Hottest YA Books of Summer
Young adult fans have a lot to look forward to this summer. With swoon-worthy standalones like Sadie and The Fragile Ordinary and series conclusions including Bright We Burn and Wildcard, it's sure to be an unforgettable season of our most feisty rebels, royals, and heroes.
For this list, we took a look at the top YA books publishing between June 21 and September 22. From there, we measured the anticipation of each title by looking at how many times it's been added to our members' Want to Read shelves.
To make sure we're only serving up the best of the best, we narrowed down our list to books with a rating of at least 3.9 stars or above by early reviewers. You can always share your YA recommendations in the comments and make sure to shelve what catches your eye!
For this list, we took a look at the top YA books publishing between June 21 and September 22. From there, we measured the anticipation of each title by looking at how many times it's been added to our members' Want to Read shelves.
To make sure we're only serving up the best of the best, we narrowed down our list to books with a rating of at least 3.9 stars or above by early reviewers. You can always share your YA recommendations in the comments and make sure to shelve what catches your eye!
Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre is reimagined as a young ghost hunter embarking on her most chilling adventure yet in the latest book of The Lady Janies series. Check out our interview here. Release date: June 26
Unlike her name, Comet Caldwell prefers blending in to blazing across the sky. Unfortunately, this shy student becomes the center of her school's attention when she's partnered with bad boy Tobias King on a class assignment. Release date: June 26
The conclusion to The Conqueror's Saga sees "the girl prince" Lada Dracul at the height of her power, but her iron will can only go so far. To secure her claim on Wallachia's throne, she'll sacrifice anything—including those she loves. Release date: July 10
It's been three years since Dario Heyward freed himself from his father, the infamous horror director of the iconic Moldavia Studios. But a mysterious invitation from Dario's brother lures him back to a twisted world full of real and imagined terrors. Release date: July 24
Everyone knows the story: The little mermaid strikes a cruel bargain with a sea witch for a chance at happily ever after. Here, debut author Sarah Henning lends a voice to one of Hans Christian Andersen's most iconic fairy-tale villains. Release date: July 31
Serina Tessaro was groomed to be a Grace, the submissive concubine of the heir to the throne. Her rebellious sister, Nomi, was trained to be her handmaiden. But their destinies are forever changed when the heir chooses Nomi instead. Release date: July 31
Zu Kimura battles fear and prejudice against her fellow Psi kids in this epic installment of The Darkest Minds series. When the interim government accuses her of a horrific crime, Zu must fight to stay alive once again. Release date: July 31
Monica's sister was the last cheerleader to die in a murder spree that left Sunnybrook reeling. Five years later, Sunnybrook High wants to honor the squad's lost lives. But their remembrance unearths secrets that begin to unravel Monica's world. Release date: July 31
DC Comic’s most notorious thief, Selina Kyle, reinvents herself as the mysterious and wealthy Holly Vanderhees in this thrilling take from the author of the Throne of Glass and A Court of Thorns and Roses series. Release date: August 7
A game of cat-and-mouse is played between Kazi, a legendary former street thief, and Jase, the new leader of an outlaw dynasty. Bound by danger and intrigue, they slowly begin to realize that neither of them are what they seem. Release date: August 7
In the final book of The Thousandth Floor series, author Katharine McGee takes us back to the 22nd-century supertower one last time. Here, every floor has a story to tell, a secret to keep, and a scandal to bury. Release date: August 28
All Caledonia Styx has left is her ship, thanks to the warlord Aric Athair and his bloodthirsty army of Bullets. When one of the Bullets defects and asks to join her all-girl crew, Caledonia doesn't know if she should trust him or throw him overboard. Release date: August 28
Amani dreams of adventure beyond her isolated moon. When the brutal Vathek empire kidnaps her, she discovers that she looks identical to the regime's cruel princess. Now the chance to live the life she always wanted is within her grasp. Release date: August 28
A botched police investigation leads Sadie to hit the road and bring her sister's killer to justice. Captivated by Sadie's story, radio personality West McCray starts a podcast that covers his attempt to track her down before she enacts her revenge. Release date: September 4
When Emika Chen discovers the dark truth behind the Neurolink algorithm in the Warcross Championships, she barely escapes with her life. Her sole chance at survival lies with Zero and his ruthless crew. But their protection comes at a price. Release date: September 18
Audrey Rose Wadsworth and Thomas Creswell take on their most gruesome case yet while aboard the RMS Erturia. As freakish murders claim the ship's passengers, the two partners must piece together the clues before another victim is slain. Release date: September 18
What YA books are you dying to read this summer? Let us know in the comments!
Check out more recent blogs:
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20 Upcoming Books Librarians, Editors, and Booksellers Think You'll Love
Check out more recent blogs:
24 Sci-Fi & Fantasy Audiobook Series to Binge On
Sabaa Tahir’s Top YA Picks for Young Rebels with a Cause
20 Upcoming Books Librarians, Editors, and Booksellers Think You'll Love
Comments Showing 51-77 of 77 (77 new)
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Jun 15, 2018 11:45AM
Instead of talking about the books advertised by Goodreads for this summer, why can't this blog talk about the sharing and compromise of your users' private email addresses against their permission due to a bug that's currently still happening?
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Some of the commenters on here really shouldn't be reproducing. I feel bad for your children.
Anonymole wrote: "Do I detect a gender theme here? YAF? Where are the YAMs? Maybe they're not as common?"If you're looking for a newer book to read over the summer for YA audiences with a male protagonist, I'd recommend A Lite Too Bright. It's a modern-set train adventure story with a lot of familial and emotional drama that would appeal to both boys and girls.
I'd like to add a few incredible reads to this list. When Fall Breaks, The Dead of Winter, and Secrets of Spring are all quick suspense-romance Y.A. reads, and have captivated a lot of reluctant readers. They're written by Julie Solano and Tracy Justice. Not to mention, we'll be giving away the ebook of When Fall Breaks in a few days for anyone who wants to get started. Check out the reviews on Amazon.
Apparently all but one of the hottest young adult books of the summer are by female authors with female main characters.
Why is it so outrageous that most of this summer's releases are written by women with female protagonists? Humanity was (and still is in many places) sexist for thousands of years i don't think there's anything wrong with your son reading a book written by a woman about a woman. And like i said most of MG seems to have male protagonists and there's the books i recommended
Frank wrote: "Why is it so outrageous that most of this summer's releases are written by women with female protagonists? Humanity was (and still is in many places) sexist for thousands of years i don't think the..."Didn't say anything was wrong with it. Just pointing it out as a curiosity. I think everyone knows the romance genre is dominated by women writing from the female perspective, but I wasn't aware that the YA genre was like that.
Or is it? You seem to be suggesting this is some kind gross, misplaced payback for unrelated historic issues.
Frank wrote: "And like i said most of MG seems to have male protagonists and there's the books i recommended ."Do you have a link for that? This is the first thing I've seen that suggests the age group of the reader has an author/main character gender bias.
Ew, Maze Runner, I think that book series is designed to make boys dumber.
To all the people assuming there are no male protagonists on the list.....have you actually looked at the books on this list?Robin wrote: "I immediately noticed the same things--not one selection with a male protagonist or even a co-protagonist..."
Scream All Night is in fact a male protagonist. Bright we Burn, Dance of Thieves, The Towering Sky, & Sadie all have a male co-protagonist (chapters told in a male protagonists point of view.) Seafire and Escaping from Houdini have male protagonists who might not be narrators but still clearly driving the story. I don't think you actually looked at the books on this list before assuming there were no male voices, so I suggest maybe carefully going through and reconsidering your opinion that none would appeal to your son who is more interested in like-gendered voices.
I also want to point out that these books were not selected by one person as the most interesting YA books of 2018! It's literally just a list of the books in the YA category added the most times to current goodreads users to-read lists. It reflects the current user bases interest and nothing else.
katwiththehat wrote: "So while yes, I would hope every boy would be fine reading a book with a female protagonist, I can also imagine how I would feel as a girl if there were no protagonists who looked like me. I feel like this is a valid point worth considering. "I don't think that is a valid point as the reality is that it's not hard for a (white) male to find a protagonist who looks like him. Maybe it's harder (though still possible) on this particular list than everywhere else....but if a boy wants to read a YA book with a male main character, he would have no trouble finding a wide variety of such a book.
Anonymole wrote: "Do I detect a gender theme here? YAF? Where are the YAMs? Maybe they're not as common?"Whats YAMS
The only book that looks interesting to me is seafire.Can’t wait to read it!!
Amy T. wrote: "Anonymole wrote: "Do I detect a gender theme here? YAF? Where are the YAMs? Maybe they're not as common?"I was just thinking this. I'm mom to a 13 year old boy who doesn't like to read. I came to..."
Amy T. wrote: "Anonymole wrote: "Do I detect a gender theme here? YAF? Where are the YAMs? Maybe they're not as common?"
I was just thinking this. I'm mom to a 13 year old boy who doesn't like to read. I came to..."
I really like "The Rithmatist" by Brandon Sanderson for young boys; it's a fantasy with a mystery, and some math. A lot of younger boys also seem to enjoy "The Novice" by Taran Matharu, which is like Harry Potter meets Eragon meets Pokemon. Robert Muchamore's series are popular with teen boys. On the slightly older, darker side, I really like "The Knife of Never Letting Go" by Patrick Ness, and Peter Jackson is making a movie of "The Mortal Engines" by Philip Reeve. Unfortunately, YA books are very romance heavy and it is often hard to find as many options for younger teens, and boys in particular. I have made it a bit of a project to try and collect good suggestions. :). You could check out Eric Walters and Kenneth Opal as well.
To me, it's in no way a problem that female protagonists are overrepresented. Us guys can read about women too, as we all know.The problem is that female writers are.
Nothing wrong in itself with having a bit more of one gender than of the other, but here, there are SEVENTEEN TIMES as many female writers as there are male ones.
The chance that that's just a fluke is very bad. It looks like deliberate gender discrimination of male writers.
Heather Codename: ♕Dutchess♕ wrote: "Some of the commenters on here really shouldn't be reproducing. I feel bad for your children."This is not an okay way to talk to people.
Hey y'all, maybe you overlooked the part at the top of the blog post that says: "we narrowed down our list to books with a rating of at least 3.9 stars or above by early reviewers."
Justsane wrote: "There seems to be an assumption here that only girls are going to be reading over the summer. This is a pretty disappointing list."didn't you just make the assumption that boys only read "boy books" and girls only read "girl books"?
katwiththehat wrote: "Just like we want to see more protagonists and main characters in YA reflect diversity in terms of race, culture, ability/disability and sexual orientation, so too should they ideally be diverse in..."yes, that would be really bad. it IS really bad. but this list, and YA novels, don't exist in their own vacuum; they exist in a culture and society where there are so many resources and heroes for boys, but very few for girls. There's also a parallel there between male and female authors.
Also, from what I've seen, most (popular) YA books of the age group above Percy Jackson feature female characters: see, Hunger Games, Divergent, etc.
Boys can find role models in girls, particularly since these novels don't feature anti-men tropes, unlike boy-targeted novels like Ready Player One (which had sexist tropes).
Sure! It'd be nice if we had more healthy, non-sexist novels with boys as protagonists, or across-gender team-ups. But there aren't many, so we present these girl-centered novels not as the next best thing, but as an option for all genders!
PS: the title of this is the "hottest ya books of the summer"...wouldn't they be focused on popularity?
April wrote: "Boys can’t read books with female protagonists? There’s one about Catwoman on this list, grown men read comics featuring her as the main character. The list isn’t disappointing, these reactions to ..."I couldn't agree more. My 12 year old just finished The Hunger Games, female protagonist. I read books with male protagonists all the time, lets not pigeon hole our kid's reading.
I also have trouble finding books for a 16 year old boy. He read all Rick Riordan, and Eragon series. At one time I believe he started Game of Thrones book but do not think he finish it. Thank you for suggestions for YA - boy books. Will check them out.
Anonymole wrote: "Do I detect a gender theme here? YAF? Where are the YAMs? Maybe they're not as common?"I agree, this is definitely a female-centric list. What are the boys reading?
April wrote: "Boys can’t read books with female protagonists? There’s one about Catwoman on this list, grown men read comics featuring her as the main character. The list isn’t disappointing, these reactions to ..."It’s not that they “can’t” read books with female protagonists, in fact as a teacher I noticed boys reading such books to get the inside track on girls. But boys also need opportunities to find relateable characters through which they can imagine themselves.
Anna! wrote: "re: all the people whining about not having male-centered YA books for their boys: put yourself in the opposite perspective. How often are girls forced to read books with male protags in school. Ra..."Great suggestion on The Nick Chronicles! I love that series myself and my son just started them. They are so much fun!
Amy T. wrote: "Anonymole wrote: "Do I detect a gender theme here? YAF? Where are the YAMs? Maybe they're not as common?"I was just thinking this. I'm mom to a 13 year old boy who doesn't like to read. I came to..."
Jennifer Nielsen's False Prince trilogy is good.
Emma wrote: "The History of Jane Doe by Michael Belanger! Male protagonist, realistic YA fiction, funny but so, so heartbreaking!"Such a great book!!
Nina wrote: Jennifer Nielsen's False Prince trilogy is good. Thank you so much. The boy read all 3 books in one day. Now I'm back to these great comments for more ideas.
