PW2020 YA #21: SOMEBODY’S HERO (Speculative – Superheroes #OwnVoices Aro/Ace)

After defusing a hostage situation, 18-year-old Burger Bell cashier Phoebe is offered a chance to join a superhero support team, the Sidekicks. Childhood dream fulfillment, plus health insurance to cover her little sister’s life-threatening surgery? Hell yeah. Her trial mission is gathering intel on Shadow, the city’s most notorious supervillain. But instead of an evil mastermind, Phoebe finds a dorky highschool dropout who invites her on a heist that could save her sister’s life.

This is Phoebe’s chance to be a hero—if she doesn’t become the villain first.

YA THE BOYS x WE COULD BE HEROES

PW2020 YA #22: A CLAN OF CASSANDRAS (#OwnVoices Alt. Historical Fantasy/Sapphic Romance)

In 1800s China under foreign occupation, 17-year-old Athena has a set script: survive finishing school, marry well. But when visions of future deaths entangle her in a dangerous conspiracy, she must forsake the life she’s known to save her family and her people.

DESCENDANT OF THE CRANE + Jane Austen

PW2020 YA #23: BOUND BY BLOOD (Gothic Fantasy)

UPROOTED x YA REBECCA

With her family and homeland suffering from a destructive curse, eighteen-year-old Eleanor agrees to marry the fabled Autumn Lord in exchange for a cure. But when he doesn’t keep his end of the bargain, a bloodthirsty creature emerges from the plague. Battling a growing attraction to her mysterious husband, Eleanor must stop the monster before it destroys everything—and everyone—she loves.

PW2020 YA #24: WE RISE LIKE EMPERORS (Fantasy – Chinese #OwnVoices)

THE UNTAMED meets THE CRUEL PRINCE—

Lanyu is the charming, shameless, brothel-hopping son of a powerful family in Tianhua. When the Emperor orders Lanyu’s little sister to become his concubine, Lanyu is terrified she’ll lose her life to treacherous palace politics. Desperate, he arms himself with rouges, dresses as a woman, and takes her place to sabotage the union.

But Lanyu miscalculates and, in disguise, is forced to marry the uptight Third Prince instead, sweeping him into a vicious struggle for the throne wherein his morally righteous spouse is the worst contender. If Lanyu’s to survive, he must outwit the court’s sharpest players and lift his husband onto the throne—without getting caught in his deception.

PW2020 YA #25: PALE NIGHT DARK CITY (Fantasy)

TRUE GRIT x WHERE DREAMS DESCEND 

When Ma takes her own life, she amplifies Cassidy’s rot—the lethal power to decay anything, dead or alive, with her touch. Now Cassidy’s strong enough to kill the two immortal witches who have imprisoned half the Great Plains in eternal day and half in eternal night. Cassidy vows to save her sisters from a life of poverty under the Sun Witch’s reign. But before she can use her power, she must seduce the Moon Witch’s prince into revealing his worst secret—or face her own.

PW2020 YA #26: WE SHALL BE MONSTERS (Fantasy – Fat-positive, Autism Rep #OwnVoices)

STRANGE THE DREAMER meets GIRL, SERPENT, THORN

After centuries trapped as a statue, plus-size Gia wants revenge.

But if she's going to kill the immortal man who doomed her and usurped her sister, she needs to get her hands—and likely her blade—on the handsome autistic boy whose prayers woke her.

PW2020 YA #27: ADRIAN KELLER’S GUIDE TO CRUSHES, CORPSES, AND COMMUNITY SERVICE (Contemporary Fantasy)

Adrian’s plans for his Easter holiday didn’t include community service and they definitely didn’t include a group of old-aged necromancers reanimating bodies. But when a corpse goes missing, he’s the one that has to track it down—before anyone notices the dead man walking.

PW2020 YA #28: CALL HIM BY NAME (Contemporary, Novel-in-Verse #OwnVoices)

THE POET X  x  BLOOD WATER PAINT

Amina’s father believes silence is safety, but she is her mother’s daughter. Her voice is her weapon, words her shield—and they carried Amina’s mother until her death in Sierra Leone. Amina knows the power of speaking. But when she is sexually assaulted by her pastor, a popular community figure, she finally understands her father’s silence. Amina has to find her voice again, confronting her abuser in the courtroom and her heart—and call him by name.

Told through non-linear free-verse and mixed-media with tonal similarities to HBO’s I MAY DESTROY YOU.

PW2020 YA #29: BEGUILED AND BEWITCHED (Fantasy)

CHARLIE’S ANGELS meets BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

When seventeen-year-old Gabrielle Beaumont’s father is mysteriously abducted, she coerces a handsome courtier into posing as her betrothed and gains entrance to Le Grand Palais, where she discovers her father is the Queen’s spymaster. Becoming a lady-in-waiting—a spy for the Queen—offers her a chance to find her father. But when her betrothed becomes her mark, she must discern enemies from allies—or risk her father’s life.

PW2020 YA #30: GANG (#OwnVoices Thriller)

A powerful story about American exceptionalism and the lengths one will go to fit in, perfect for fans of They Wish They Were US:

When Nigerian-American Anne is tapped to join the most popular group at her ‘whiter than white’ private school, she’s skeptical. She’s known them since they were kids and they’ve never offered friendship before. Now they want something in return: the group leader wants Anne to help kill his ex-girlfriend, who also happens to be Anne’s former best friend. And Anne doesn’t hate the idea… or the boy behind it.