New in YA: December Picks from Our Teen Advisory Board
Our wonderful and hardworking Teen Advisory Board is back with their last monthly YA recommendations of 2020. We are extremely grateful for their many hours of reading and reviewing. Take a look below to find your next read! There's a little of everything: Rom-com, drama, fantasy, suspense. One of the picks below, The Good Girls, has been selected as the official December pick in Blue Willow's YA First Editions Club subscription program. (A little reminder for you all: The holidays are right around the corner and the subscription makes a great gift.) Looking for some more? Scroll back through the other amazing recommendations on our blog. Happy reading!
The Love Curse of Melody McIntyre by Robin Talley
Talley's excellent descriptive writing sparkles in this adorable rom-com. This novel follows Melody McIntyre, a dedicated member of tech theatre who has trouble keeping both her productions and romances continuously afloat. Whenever Melody falls in love with someone during a school production, both the performance and romance end in disaster. When the tech team suggests that there might be a correlation between the two elements of Melody's life that tend to end in disaster, Melody decides not to fall in love with anyone for the near future in her attempt to put on her absolute best rendition of Les Miserables. However, when Odile Rose decides to audition for the musical, Melody's once-solid plan is harder than she ever thought imaginable.
This book is adorable! I loved the detail-oriented writing that built up the story and also set the perfect scene for this drama-centric novel to take place. Overall, I thought this was a cute rom-com that was a fun read. I'd recommend this book to romance-lovers and fans of over-the-top romantic gestures.
—Gabriella
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The Valley And The Flood by Rebecca Mahoney
"Imagine what people would see—if you wore your insides out, if they could see your thoughts projected. Imagine what they would think." After the death of her best friend, Rose Colter is running from the past and winds up in a mysterious town known as Locus Valley. Here, people's pasts present themselves as creatures or monsters (depending on who you ask) that are known as the "neighbors." Rose brings with her a neighbor known as the flood, with painful memories so strong it has the potential to destroy the refuge of Locus Valley completely.
In this tale, the reader embarks with Rose on the mission of discovering how to stop the flood and also how to identify what it was that created it. Recovery is a fickle thing, but in this novel, the author manages to make it magical and unique as well. For any fan of mystery and fantasy, The Valley and The Flood will pique your interest with its entertaining characters and dialogue and the painful journey of discovering what it is exactly that is following Rose.
—Grace
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The Good Girls by Claire Eliza Bennett
Constantly subverting expectations and layered with feminist themes, The Good Girls was a thrilling, suspenseful read that I wasn’t able to put down. I found each of the three main murder suspects to be equally intriguing and was eager to get to the source of the mystery. As it shifts between diary entries, interviews, and the present day, readers must slowly unravel what led to the sudden death of Emma, and why hers wasn’t the first.
—Veronica
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