Category: YA Books

‘This is How You Fall in Love’ by Anika Hussain

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Zara and Adnan have been best friends for ever but their families and friends have always assumed that they will get together one day. When Adnan asks Zara to pretend to be his girlfriend to cover up a secret relationship, Zara reluctantly agrees, because the idea makes her family so happy. But she has watched too many romcoms not to know how fake dating usually turns out…

I really enjoyed this charming, heartfelt YA romance and the subverted romcom tropes kept me guessing. Zara is a great protagonist, though I think I loved her family even more than her! I’ll definitely be recommending this one in the school library – perfect for fans of ‘Never Have I Ever’.

‘Someone Is Watching You’ by Tess James-Mackey

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After Nia throws an impromptu party to impress her new boyfriend and his friends, during which her little sister goes temporarily missing, she is grounded and dragged out to a soft play with her mum and sister. But the soft play is on the grounds of an abandoned prison (of course!) and Nia’s new friends dare her to sneak into the prison building and take a look around. But of course Nia’s sister Kayla follows her in, they both get trapped, Kayla disappears and Nia realises they are not alone!

A super-creepy, gruesomely gripping story about toxic friendships with a shocking conclusion. This is a horrid book and I couldn’t put it down!

‘The Agency for Scandal’ by Laura Wood

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If there was anything that could make a Laura Wood historical romance EVEN better, it would be adding a Women’s Detective Agency! 

Isobel Stanhope is used to being a wallflower, next to her beautiful and vivacious best friend, but when her father dies and she discovers he’s left her family penniless, she’s given an opportunity to use her talent for blending in to her advantage when she joins the ‘Aviary’ – a detective agency specialising in helping women who have nowhere else to turn. And Izzy is a talented agent, whether it is picking locks, picking pockets or infiltrating the criminal underworld disguised as boy. But when her latest case leads her to work with the enigmatic Duke of Roxton, who she’s been secretly crushing on, Izzy realises she’s not as invisible to him as she’d always thought. 

A fantastic feminist detective story, set in Victorian London, and even featuring a couple of iconic Laura Wood characters from an earlier book. So much fun, when I got to the end I wanted to read it all over again.

‘Belladonna’ by Adalyn Grace

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Signa Farrow has been stalked by death all her life, literally. She was orphaned as a baby, all of her avaricious guardians since then have perished and Death himself is her longest standing relationship. When she is invited to live with the Hawthorn family she finds them in mourning for their wife/mother and Death is already preparing to take another member of the family. Signa must work with Death and the ghosts of the house to unmask a murderer and save her cousin.

‘Belladonna’ is a lyrical and atmospheric blend of fantasy romance and mystery. (And the Fairyloot edition is exquisitely beautiful!) Loved it.


‘Promise Boys’ by Nick Brooks

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The Urban Promise Prep School is a charity school in Washington DC that takes boys from poor neighbourhoods and subjects them to a punishingly strict daily routine in an attempt to instil the discipline required to surpass expectations and make a success of their lives. (It reminded me of the Michaela School in London.) But when the Principal is shot in his office, three students find themselves in the spotlight of a murder investigation.

JB, Ramon and Trey were all in detention together, had motives to kill Principal Moore and initially suspect each other but soon decide to work together to find the real killer and expose what is happening behind the scenes at Promise. The story is told in bits of testimony from members of the community and from the perspectives of the three boys themselves. 

‘Promise Boys’ combines a hard-hitting contemporary story about the expectations and prospects of Black and Latinx boys in the US, with a gripping school murder mystery. I really enjoyed this compelling and redemptive story – definitely buying this one for the school library. An excellent read!