Spring break is coming up and you will want to keep the kids entertained without having them in front of screens all the time. There are several great books coming out for middle grades and high school students.
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A Song For You And I by K. O'Neill
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| March 2025; Random House; 978-0593182307 ebook, print (240 pages); middle grades |
Rowan wants to protect their village as a ranger along with their flying horse Kes. When showing off gets Kes injured, Rowan isn't sure they can be a good enough protector. As Kes heals, Rowan is assigned to a slow expedition with lackadaisical sheep herder Leone. Each struggle in their own way during the trip, and Rowan soon wonders if their friendship is something more. If it is, could Rowan leave to become a ranger?
This graphic novel seeks to answer the question "What happens if the hero fails?" The illustrations are adorable, which makes sense since this is written by the same author who does the Tea Dragon graphic novels. (Go check those out if you haven't read them, they're adorable and fun reads.) In the world of this book, rangers advocate for humans and nature, and all of the novice rangers hoped for daring posts. Rowan, originally known as Rose, gets Lamb's Ear Meadow, where "lazy shepherd Leone" is known to nap. He doesn't mind being a shepherd since it gives him time to practice his violin. It's rescuing him from a storm that injures Kes' wing, and now the two are sent to help check in on families and clear roads from the storm debris.
During the traveling, Rose sees different people and that there's more to the meadows than they previously thought. They also consider the name Rowan and see how different villagers live throughout the traveling. Leone has his own insecurities, which is why he appears so lazy to ranger novices. Over the course of the story, we see how insecurities trap anyone, so they can't be their true selves. Family and traditions are important, and holding true to them as well can be difficult. We find out why Leone only plays for the sheep, and why Rose pushed Kes so hard. By the end, they both find the place they need to be and are able to be themselves.
Buy A Song for You and I at Amazon
All The Stars Align by Gretchen Schreiber
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| April 2025; Wednesday Books; 978-1250892188 audio, ebook, print (352 pages); YA magical realism |
All the women of Piper's family know who their true love is. This tradition seems to break when Piper's parents divorce. She was already treated differently due to having a disability. She finally finds her true love and wants to get her traditional love story and be an accepted part of her family. This will require help from her friend Leo, who is a love expert. The problem is, they haven't spoken in six months and he confesses his love for Piper. Who will she choose?
This is a YA romance, so you can tell how it's going to end from the start. Piper struggles with the concept of fate and feels cursed when her parents' marriage fails. She literally says in chapter one that there's no point in chasing something that isn't forever, a very defeatist way of looking at the world. It doesn't help that she's pressured by her aunts into thinking that she must choose between family traditions or having nothing at all. It leaves her with only two friends, limited social skills outside of her family, and being rather self-centered. This is why she asks Leo for advice on talking to Forest and misses the clear signs that he's interested in her. She had interest in him before but put it aside because he didn't ping the same The One vibes that family traditions talked about.
I didn't like Piper much, and of all people, I empathize with her mother and the more nuanced view of relationships. Love is there, but relationships take work from both people involved and shouldn't erase one's identity. I feel like Piper doesn't see this, it makes her miss out on a lot of her own life. Even Leo tries to understand why Piper is so upset about the divorce and changing and doesn't get a clear answer. The more time I spent with Piper, the less I was convinced she was worth the romance part of the book. She has a lot more growing up to do before she's ready for a relationship and the commitment it takes to make it work, Blessing or no Blessing.
Buy All The Stars Align at Amazon
Where Shadows Meet by Patrice Caldwell
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| April 2025; Wednesday Books; 978-1250815347 audio, ebook, print (320 pages); YA fantasy |
Favre sacrificed her wings for love, but the goddess Thana sacrificed that love for power. Favre never forgave the loss, and Thana's choice led to living in eternal night. One thousand years later, Leyla is the crown princess of a vampire nation. Her best friend is captured during an attack on the capital, so Leyla travels to Nekros, the island of the dead. The closer she gets, however, she risks awakening an ancient evil.
There are two timelines in this book, which is the first half of a duology. One timeline is that of Favre and Thana's life together in the wake of Thana seizing the throne. The nobility among gods looked down on Favre, so they eventually go to the world of mortals. Now a vampire, Thana declares herself queen and kicks off a war lasting nearly a thousand years. The other timeline follows Leyla the vampire princess, Najja who can see the dead and is capable of foretelling the future, as well as Favre trying to get back to Thana, who was betrayed by her daughter and proclaimed dead to vampires.
The book took me a bit to get into because there's so much going on at once. This steep entry might be off-putting to some readers. The traditional fantasy story of rescuing Leyla's best friend from the dangerous creatures is fairly straightforward, and Najja is pulled along with her due to the visions she had and the duty to her family to see fate through, even if the current vampire queen has condemned her people for that very gift. The alternate storyline in that timeline is slower, with fewer clues, so we see less of Favre initially. More of her is seen in the past, leading up to Thana's choice and those who followed her to the mortal world.
The majority of the book follows Leyla's journey, so her chapters and Najja's feel the most relatable. They journey together and learn about the kingdom as well as each other, and their arc is pretty obvious from the start. Side characters come and go, and the book feels short. The finale felt flat and unfinished, mostly because there's a second half to this story. I won't spoil it, but there's a distinct need for that second book to finish the overall story.
Buy Where Shadows Meet at Amazon
The Notorious Virtues by Alwyn Hamilton
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| April 2025; Viking Books; 978-0451479662 audio, ebook, print (512 pages); YA fantasy |
Honora "Nora" Holtzfall is sixteen and part of the most powerful family in Walstad. Her family controls money and magic, and the family members are soon pitted against each other in the Veritaz, a magical competition for power that determines the one family heir when Nora's mother is found dead in an alley. All of Nora's cousins are present, including Lotte, the illegitimate daughter that Nora's aunt once abandoned to a rural convent. The Veritaz is deadly for all involved, and the cousins must work together to survive.
For a family that started out with a virtuous man named Honor who wanted to protect his wife and stay warm in the winter, the Holtzfall family became the premier and politically powerful family in Walstad. The family members compete each generation for the role of Heir, which means being the head of the household, controlling that money and power. In this glitzy gilded age type of world, they have incredible wealth, charmed items and trinkets, and the ear of politicians as well as a family of knights bound to protect and serve hers. The four cousins have little love for each other, continually competing for attention and a sense of worth. This is the world that Nora is born to, but she's smarter than she lets on and is determined to find her mother's killer. The Veritaz can be a deadly competition, but political unrest from the lower class and police corruption add to the city's dangers.
We are told this story through various POVs. We have Nora, Lotte, the knight Theo, and the reporter August. Nora wants to find her mother's killer as much as she wants to win the Veritaz and maintain her lifestyle. Lotte wants to prove she belongs to a family and isn't cursed. Theo isn't as good a knight as his brother but is put in an impossible place between duty and family. August works for a budget newspaper and hopes for more prestige by working with Nora to find the killer. These lives intersect and twine around each other as the Veritaz begins and the protesting lower classes start to intensify and threaten the upper-level residents. The tension slowly rises throughout the novel as the story brings them together or puts them at odds.
The trials and the murder investigation run concurrently, and there are all kinds of secrets behind the scenes. The family had been in charge of the city for so long, and there were always secrets throughout the generations in order to do so. The trials are meant to test the virtues of the descendants to see who is worthy of being the heir, to hold the magic and the wealth, and to protect the city from the dangerous magic within the woods. Clues take on different meanings by the time we get to the final part of the book, which is masterfully done. It's an enthralling book, and I couldn't put it down until it was done.
Buy The Notorious Virtues at Amazon
Pride or Die by CL Montblanc
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| April 2025; Wednesday Books; 978-1250340474 audio, ebook, print (336 pages); YA mystery |
Eleanora Finkel wants to finish her senior year and get out of Texas. When the head cheerleader is attacked at the same time her club is meeting, they're blamed for it. To clear their names and keep their club for future queer teens, they’ll have to track down the real culprit. Eleanora isn't a detective and is anxious. She is also attracted to said cheerleader. Can they solve this mystery before one of them is next?
The LGBT club at school is small but a safe place for the four openly queer kids at school. The principal is against them from the start, the cheerleader made a comment a year ago that got most of the popular kids bullying them, and being accused of attempted murder will ruin future college admissions. It's easier for the principal and police to blame them than to really look for the culprit; as they investigate, they realize how much corruption really exists within the school. This takes on more comedic elements at times, but there are serious consequences as the team tries to gather clues and find the real attacker. The investigation intensifies when one of the friends is arrested and threats are painted on their lockers. We get the crimes all solved by homecoming, in the most spectacular and romcom-style admissions, which had me laughing. Overall, this was a very fun read, incorporating a very serious topic.
Buy Pride or Die at Amazon
Born and raised in New York City, M.K. French started writing stories when very young, dreaming of different worlds and places to visit. She always had an interest in folklore, fairy tales, and the macabre, which has definitely influenced her work. She currently lives in the Midwest with her husband, three young children, and a golden retriever.
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