(4) YA Josh(lyn)'s to-do list includes honing her abilities as True Dream Walker; saving Haley from Death; and keeping separate the universes of Dream, Death, and World (waking life). Josh's quest is made more difficult by her conflicted feelings toward Feodor and Will and by trauma-fueled episodes. A somewhat unevenly paced narrative manages to wrap up the trilogy's (Dreamfire; Dreamfever myriad interrelated story lines.

Reviewer: Jenn Matters

(3) YA Princess Gauri (The Star-Touched Queen) strikes a bargain with Vikram, the sly prince of a neighboring kingdom. With her fighting ability and his cunning, Vikram proposes that they can win the Tournament of Wishes. The pair must face vividly imagined mythical creatures inspired by Indian folklore--as well as their growing feelings for each other. As in the previous book, the plotting is intricate and the prose luxurious.

Reviewer: Lisa Catherine Findlay

(4) YA Birdie is a science-obsessed misfit; Bash is an underachiever whose single mother is in hospice care. After a chance meeting, their paths cross again after Bash's best friend hits Birdie's toddler brother with his car (then leaves the scene). In alternating-perspective chapters, the pair trades repartee and deep thoughts while growing closer. It's hard to get past the couple's horrifyingly tragic connection in this melodramatic romance.

Reviewer: Jessica Tackett MacDonald

(3) YA After their traveling carnival temporarily sets up shop in small, mysterious Caudry, Louisiana, Mara, daughter of the troupe's fortune-teller, must fight off dark energies and vicious creatures. Mara discovers her own supernatural powers just in time, while also falling in love with wealthy local Gabe, who has dark secrets of his own. Hocking's action-packed supernatural tale will have readers' attention glued to the pages.

Reviewer: Yaisha Cordero-Rivera

(3) YA Nineteen-year-old Elisabeth has abandoned childhood play with the Goblin King in favor of family duty. When his underground kingdom seduces her sister away, Elisabeth must again play his games and discovers an alluring world all her own. This historical fantasy, set in nineteenth-century Germany and written in lush prose, features a young woman's self-actualization through music, passion, and sexual desire.

Reviewer: Jeannie Coutant

(2) YA Illustrated by Carlos Alfredo Morataya. Gretchen (who has PTSD since being attacked and robbed) and Phoenix (who is in the U.S. awaiting a hearing for asylum after being forced to join a gang back in El Salvador) help each other heal from trauma. Alternating first-person chapters relate their (mostly) non-saccharine romance. Phoenix's story is especially compelling, avoiding stereotypes about immigrants, poverty, or Latin Americans. Occasional drawings add texture and verisimilitude.

Reviewer: Sarah Hannah Gomez | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2017

(3) YA Similar to My True Love Gave to Me, Perkins has gathered twelve engrossing short stories all centered on a main theme: this time it's summer love. In science- and realistic fiction by YA authors including Libba Bray, Jennifer E. Smith, and Tim Federle, teens face the beginning, rekindling, or ending of relationships. The stories' diverse casts and subject matter ensure this collection's broad appeal.

Reviewer: Cynthia K. Ritter

(3) YA Four months after the battle with Feodor in Dreamfire, Josh and Will bear mental and physical scars. Into this post-battle chaos appears Mirren, the lost dream-walker princess. Politics from the World and Dream collide, and the teens realize they can trust only one another. Alloway combines science with the magic of dreams, while offering a twisting plot and believable characters.

Reviewer: Jenn Matters

(3) YA In a modern Much Ado About Nothing takeoff, feuding seniors and comic-book fans Trixie and Ben are set up by their friends to believe that each loves the other. Witty wordplay infuses the teens' banter as the nerdy but mostly likable characters face common high-school issues. Pop-culture references, from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Star Wars, abound in this long but enjoyable novel.

Reviewer: Carolyn Shute

(4) YA Foster teen Sarah, who keeps her exceptionally sharp memory secret, is shocked to get a scholarship to elite prep school Sanctuary Bay in Maine. Once she's initiated into the school's secret society, seemingly innocent activities are revealed to have undertones so insidious Sarah doubts her own perceptions. Mystery, romance, and some familiar psychological-thriller elements keep the plot moving.

Reviewer: Megan Lynn Isaac

(4) YA Tales of a New World series. Eighteen-year-old Mari has been raised by her Earth Walker mother, a Moon Woman who can call on the moon to heal. Mari should be the chosen replacement Moon Woman, but she's hiding sun-driven powers inherited from her father. When danger threatens both tribes, Mari and sun-blessed Nik work together. Cast's world-building is complex and often beautiful, but rotating viewpoints create an uneven narrative.

Reviewer: Jenn Matters

(3) YA Princess Maya has always been an outcast, but she is still astonished when her father asks her to kill herself to keep peace in the kingdom. She escapes with a mysterious stranger, only to marry him and become the queen of the strange land of Akaran. Sensuous prose pulls readers into Maya's journey of self-discovery in this labyrinthine fantasy inspired by Indian folklore.

Reviewer: Lisa Catherine Findlay

(3) YA Alicia learns that her visions are actually flashes of other Alicias' lives in parallel worlds, and that she has the inherited ability to travel among these realities. In one she meets Jax; together they seek to save his dying world and uncover her family's dangerous secrets. Coyle's prose--at times spare and staccato, at others lyrical--heightens the immediacy of Alicia's experiences.

Reviewer: Katie Bircher

(4) YA Seniors Ash and Eden are academic rivals; wealthy Indian American boy Ash is well liked, while Eden is white and mouthy, and she lives in a trailer park. Competition turns to love, but their differences prove difficult to surmount. Eden is a dynamic protagonist while Ash's appeal is generic; their star-crossed romance proceeds quickly and predictably in this unusually socially conscious contemporary romance.

Reviewer: Jessica Tackett MacDonald

(3) YA Perfectionist, college-application-obsessed Viviana Rabinovich-Lowe is reeling from her ex spreading a scandalous photo of her; meanwhile, her father mysteriously left for "business" months ago. Vivi's (personal-life and academic) anxiety worsening, her mom makes her relax for the summer, and she gets a job at the community pool with best friend Sammie. Vivi's anxiety is realistically wrought in this novel populated with endearingly imperfect characters.

Reviewer: Katrina Hedeen

(4) YA In this epistolary novel set in the early 1980s, best friends Scott and Cath describe their first year out of high school. He's an aspiring rock musician working in his dad's clothing store; she's navigating freshman year of college. Readers may find the format and setting distancing, but they'll enjoy Scott and Cath's easy flirtation and root for them during tough times.

Reviewer: Rachel L. Smith

(2) YA It's San Francisco Pride Week, and high school seniors (and co-narrators) Mark and Kate each have much to figure out about themselves, including how out-and-proud they want to be. When they meet at a gay club, they quickly become close and nudge each other toward bravery, romantic and otherwise. This novel features funny and introspective teens with big decisions to make.

Reviewer: Shoshana Flax | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2016

(4) YA "Good Korean Girl" Hannah convinces her free-spirited older sister, Grace, and best friend Lo to drive to Las Vegas to surprise Hannah's longtime BFF, Nick--whom she's never met in person (they have an intense internet and phone relationship) and for whom her feelings have moved beyond friendship. Hannah's dithering over whether to tell Nick grows tiresome, but the story is escapist fun.

Reviewer: Elissa Gershowitz

(2) YA In an unnamed town in what could be the American Southwest or Latin America, seven young adults stand out from the vanilla residents. Each has a secret, but each also has knowledge about someone else's. This work of magical realism provides a thoughtful examination of gender, guilt, fear, and forgiveness, weaving together cultural traditions from Pakistan, Latin America, and the U.S. in unexpected ways.

Reviewer: Sarah Hannah Gomez | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2016

(2) YA On 9/11, sixteen-year-old Brooklynite Kyle stumbles upon a teenage girl with amnesia; despite having enough to worry about, he takes her home with him, trying to help. The mysterious girl's free-verse narration is interspersed, at times effectively, with Kyle's prose. While the conclusion is rushed, the appealing blend of mystery, burgeoning romance, and historical elements makes this a solid contribution to 9/11 YA fiction.

Reviewer: Kazia Berkley-Cramer | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2016