Children of Virtue & Vengeance by Tomi Adeyemi (Legacy of Orïsha book 2)

SPOILER ALERT! If you haven’t read the first book in the series, Children of Blood and Bone Stop! I don’t want to ruin the story for you.

Check out Book Series Recaps for a refresher of the first book.
Please visit the Recaptains blog if you need a refresher of the first book.

“After battling the impossible, Zélie and Amari have finally succeeded in bringing magic back to the land of Orïsha. But the ritual was more powerful than they could’ve imagined, reigniting the powers of not only the maji, but of nobles with magic ancestry, too.

Now, Zélie struggles to unite the maji in an Orïsha where the enemy is just as powerful as they are. But when the monarchy and military unite to keep control of Orïsha, Zélie must fight to secure Amari's right to the throne and protect the new maji from the monarchy's wrath.

With civil war looming on the horizon, Zélie finds herself at a breaking point: she must discover a way to bring the kingdom together or watch as Orïsha tears itself apart.” - taken from Goodreads.com

This second book in the trilogy ends on a cliffhanger with no word about the final book being published.

The publication of the third book in the Legacy of Orïsha trilogy hasn’t been determined yet.

Made in Korea by Sarah Suk

“There’s nothing Valerie Kwon loves more than making a good sale. Together with her cousin Charlie, they run V&C K-BEAUTY, their school’s most successful student-run enterprise. With each sale, Valerie gets closer to taking her beloved and adventurous halmeoni to her dream city, Paris.

Enter the new kid in class, Wes Jung, who is determined to pursue music after graduation despite his parents’ major disapproval. When his classmates clamor to buy the K-pop branded beauty products his mom gave him to “make new friends,” he sees an opportunity—one that may be the key to help him pay for the music school tuition he knows his parents won’t cover…

What he doesn’t realize, though, is that he is now V&C K-BEAUTY’s biggest competitor.

Stakes are high as Valerie and Wes try to outsell each other, make the most money, and take the throne for the best business in school—all while trying to resist the undeniable spark that’s crackling between them. From hiring spies to all-or-nothing bets, the competition is much more than either of them bargained for.

But one thing is clear: only one Korean business can come out on top.” - taken from Goodreads.com

Valerie Quan runs a successful Korean beauty products business at her school with her cousin Charlie. When a new student, Wes Jung comes to school in the morning with some K beauty samples that his mom gave him to make new friends with, students believe that he too has a student-run beauty business. Seeing a way to support his musical ambitions that his parents don't approve of, Wes draws the attention of Valerie. But with the competition heating up, who will come up on top, especially when love is on the line? 

Visit Sarah Suk’s website.

Last Chance Books by Kelsey Rodkey

“Don’t you just love the smell of old books in the morning?

Madeline Moore does. Books & Moore, the musty bookstore her family has owned for generations, is where she feels most herself. Nothing is going to stop her from coming back after college to take over the store from her beloved aunt.

Nothing, that is—until a chain bookstore called Prologue opens across the street and threatens to shut them down.

Madeline sets out to demolish the competition, but Jasper, the guy who works over at Prologue, seems intent on ruining her life. Not only is he taking her customers, he has the unbelievable audacity to be… extremely cute.

But that doesn’t matter. Jasper is the enemy and he will be destroyed. After all—all’s fair in love and (book) wars.” - taken from Goodrerads.com

Madeline Moore’s life has just been turned upside down. With college on the horizon in the fall, her family’s bookstore is struggling to stay afloat, her absentee mother has reentered the picture, and a rival bookstore just opened up across the street. When the hot Jasper walks into Books & Moore, Madeline’s interest is peaked until she realizes that he is the owner’s son of Prologue, her competition. When an all-out battle rages between the two of them, who will be left standing? A story about the challenges of reaching adulthood and making your dreams come true.

This book is for fans of Rachel Lynn Solomon and Laura Taylor Namey.

Visit Kelsey Rodkey’s website.
 

Call Down the Hawk by Maggie Stiefvater (Dreamer trilogy book 1)

SPOILER ALERT! The Dreamer trilogy is a continuation of the Lynch brothers’ story that begins with the Raven Cycle quartet. Please be advised that for maximum enjoyment, those four books should be read first in order to understand the story.

“The dreamers walk among us . . . and so do the dreamed. Those who dream cannot stop dreaming – they can only try to control it. Those who are dreamed cannot have their own lives – they will sleep forever if their dreamers die.

And then there are those who are drawn to the dreamers. To use them. To trap them. To kill them before their dreams destroy us all.

Ronan Lynch is a dreamer. He can pull both curiosities and catastrophes out of his dreams and into his compromised reality.

Jordan Hennessy is a thief. The closer she comes to the dream object she is after, the more inextricably she becomes tied to it.

Carmen Farooq-Lane is a hunter. Her brother was a dreamer . . . and a killer. She has seen what dreaming can do to a person. And she has seen the damage that dreamers can do. But that is nothing compared to the destruction that is about to be unleashed. . . .” - taken from Goodreads.com

Why did I wait so long to start this book? Our Lynch brothers are back and the implications of being a dreamer as well as being dreamed are explored. Ronan finds out that he’s not alone. Enter Jordan Hennessy who has a massive secret of her own as a fellow dreamer. When Hennessy and Ronan’s paths converge, they learn there is a group determined to end all dreamers in order to save the world. With that cliffhanger ending, I’m glad that the second book is already available.

Book two in the trilogy, Mister Impossible, is out now.

Visit Maggie Stiefvater’s website.

The Initial Insult by Mindy McGinnis (The Initial Insult book 1)

 

“Welcome to Amontillado, Ohio, where your last name is worth more than money, and secrets can be kept… for a price.

Tress Montor knows that her family used to mean something—until she didn’t have a family anymore. When her parents disappeared seven years ago while driving her best friend home, Tress lost everything. She might still be a Montor, but the entire town shuns her now that she lives with her drunken, one-eyed grandfather at what locals refer to as the “White Trash Zoo,” – a wild animal attraction featuring a zebra, a chimpanzee, and a panther, among other things.

Felicity Turnado has it all – looks, money, and a secret that she’s kept hidden. She knows that one misstep could send her tumbling from the top of the social ladder, and she’s worked hard to make everyone forget that she was with the Montors the night they disappeared. Felicity has buried what she knows so deeply that she can’t even remember what it is… only that she can’t look at Tress without having a panic attack.

But she’ll have to.

Tress has a plan. A Halloween costume party at an abandoned house provides the ideal situation for Tress to pry the truth from Felicity – brick by brick – as she slowly seals her former best friend into a coal chute. With a drunken party above them, and a loose panther on the prowl, Tress will have her answers – or settle for revenge.” - taken from Goodreads.com

Missing parents in a damaged friendship takes center stage and this mystery draws heavily from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe. Told in alternating points of view, readers will be drawn into what happened the night that Tress Montor's parents disappeared and Felicity Turnado is the only witness. Once best friends, the girls are at odds during a Halloween party where things are taken a bit too far. Fans of this book will be eagerly awaiting the final installment after the cliffhanger ending.

This duology will conclude with The Last Laugh in 2022.

Visit Mindy McGinnis’ website.

Better Than the Movies by Lynn Painter

 

“Liz Buxbaum has always known that Wes Bennett was not boyfriend material. You would think that her next-door neighbor would be a prince candidate for her romantic comedy fantasies, but Wes has only proven himself to be a pain in the butt, ever since they were little. Wes was the kid who put a frog in her Barbie Dreamhouse, the monster who hid a lawn gnome's severed head in her little homemade neighborhood book exchange.

Flash forward ten years from the Great Gnome Decapitation. It's Liz's senior year, a time meant to be rife with milestones perfect for any big screen, and she needs Wes's help. See, Liz's forever crush, Michael, has just moved back to town, and—horribly, annoyingly—he's hitting it off with Wes. Meaning that if Liz wants Michael to finally notice her, and hopefully be her prom date, she needs Wes. He's her in.

But as Liz and Wes scheme to get Liz her magical prom moment, she's shocked to discover that she actually likes being around Wes. And as they continue to grow closer, she must reexamine everything she thought she knew about love—and rethink her own perception of what Happily Ever After should really look like.” - taken from Goodreads.com

Liz Buxbaum is looking for her happily ever after. When her childhood crush, Michael Young, moves back into town, Liz sets her sights on him. When she finds out that her next door neighbor and childhood tormentor, Wes Bennett, is speaking to Michael, she asks Wes for his help in securing a date. With a parking space on the line, Wes agrees. What Liz doesn't expect is to fall in love with someone who is not Michael.

Visit Lynn Painter’s website.