(4) YA Kira enjoys helping her foster mom, Cady, train dogs for search-and-rescue operations. But this work becomes deeply personal when Cady's estranged father shows up, begging the two to help find a girl who's gone missing, in a case that may connect with Kira's own story. A tense mystery plot and strongly drawn setting help compensate for underdeveloped supporting characters.

Reviewer: Norah Piehl

(2) YA Belles series. Camille, Rémy, and Edel (The Belles) work with an underground resistance movement to return the rightful heir to the throne, while Camille attains even greater supernatural abilities. Clayton further develops the world-building of Orléans with a wider landscape, more steampunk-meets-magic technology, and new details of Orléansian spiritual beliefs. Fans will eagerly revisit this lavishly imagined, immersive fantasy realm, which Clayton effectively uses to critique several ugly aspects of our own society.

Reviewer: Katie Bircher | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2019

(4) YA When eighteen-year-old Sawyer's maternal grandmother (whom she's never met) offers to pay her to participate in debutante season, Sawyer accepts--partly because she's hoping to discover the identity of her biological father. But it's not just her family hiding something--the deb world is full of dirty secrets. Though it's sometimes hard to keep track of the characters' complicated familial connections, the story is enjoyably scandalous.

Reviewer: Rachel L. Smith

(2) YA In the fantastical courtly society of Orléans, everyone is born ugly--except for the innately lovely Belles, who also have the supernatural ability to manipulate others' appearance. Camille, the queen's Favorite Belle, moves into the palace to provide beauty services to royals and aristocrats. Clayton vividly describes her world's dazzling fashion and lavish galas in the midst of profound racism/colorism, indentured servitude, and distorted body image.

Reviewer: Katie Bircher | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2018

(3) YA Sixteen-year-old fanfiction blogger Claire asks at a Comic-Con panel if the two male leads on her favorite TV show are in love. Costar Forest's dismissive response sets off a chain of events affecting the show, the fandom, and Claire's conception of her own sexuality. The alternating-perspective chapters of this funny, thoughtful, intersectional story are sure to keep readers in the fandom community turning pages.

Reviewer: Shoshana Flax

(3) YA In the near future, executioners pride themselves on killing their subjects in increasingly creative ways and live-streaming the deaths on social media. Dee Guerrera is surprised to wake up imprisoned at Alcatraz 2.0 and tapped as the next to die. Framed for her stepsister's murder, Dee has to take down the system and prove her own innocence in this gory story surprisingly infused with witty satire.

Reviewer: Norah Piehl

(4) YA Amateurs series. The young sleuths from The Amateurs--Seneca, Maddox, Madison, and Aerin--reunite to bring closure to the murders of their loved ones by following clues left for them by an elusive serial killer. With minimal character development and superfluous romantic subplots, the appeal of this contemporary crime novel is a twisty plot driven by the murderer's cat-and-mouse game with the teenage detectives.

Reviewer: Lana Barnes

(4) YA Bentley Royce and her family star in a TV show à la Keeping Up with the Kardashians. The book opens with Bentley and her sister Porsche's fiancé presumed dead from a car crash; the remainder relates the events that got them there. The humor often falls flat, but fans of "reality" TV franchises may be fascinated by the details that suggest they're anything but real.

Reviewer: Rachel L. Smith

(3) YA Popular, high-achieving Kyla Cheng is on track to be valedictorian, but her life is thrown seriously off course when a doctored video of her having sex with a young teacher surfaces online and instantly goes viral. Desperate to clear her name, Kyla digs deep into the social networking world in this near-future Brooklyn-set novel that feels uncomfortably close to present-day realities.

Reviewer: Norah Piehl

(3) YA Aerin's older sister went missing five years ago. Her body was recovered, but without any conclusive evidence, the case is cold. Desperate for answers, Aerin reaches out on "Case Not Closed," an online forum, and some young sleuths, including eighteen-year-old Seneca, pick up her case. Shepard's new series is exciting, twisty, and--like some of her others--chock-full of wealthy teens misbehaving.

Reviewer: Sian Gaetano