Though February is generally recognized as the month for romance readers, it’s hardly the only genre with a bunch of big name titles arriving this month. Fantasy fans are having a time of it with a bunch of series enders and new releases from several of the genre’s most popular writers. But the world of young adult fiction is nothing to sniff at either, as publishing drops an array of titles that range from contemporary YA romance and supernatural mysteries and fantasy-tinged adventures. There’s a lot is what I’m saying.
With multiple exciting debuts, series openers, and unique standalone stories, YA fans are really spoiled for choice, is what I’m saying. Here are our picks for the YA books arriving this February.
ASAP by Axie Oh
Release Date: February 6 by HarperTeen
Why You’ll Love It: If you enjoyed Axie Oh’s XOXO, you’ll want to pick up this companion novel, a second chance romance between fan favorites Sori and Nathaniel is a must-read.
Publisher’s Description: Sori has worked her whole life to become a K-pop idol, until she realizes she doesn’t want a life forever in the spotlight. But that’s not actually up to Sori—she’s caught between her exacting mother’s entertainment company and her father’s presidential aspirations. And as the pressure to keep her flawless public image grows, the last person she should be thinking about is her ex-boyfriend.
Nathaniel is off limits—she knows this. A member of one of the biggest K-pop bands in the world and forbidden from dating, he isn’t any more of an option now than he was two years ago. Still, she can’t forget that their whirlwind romance was the last time she remembers being really happy. Or that his family welcomed her into their home when she needed it most. . . .
So when Nathaniel finds himself rocked by scandal, Sori offers him a hideaway with her. And back in close quarters, it’s hard to deny their old feelings. But when Sori gets an opportunity to break free from her parent’s expectations, she will have to decide: Is her future worth sacrificing for a second chance at love?
Infinity Alchemist by Kacen Callender
Release Date: February 6 from Tor Teen
Why You’ll Love It: Kacen Callendar’s YA fantasy debut is a big swing—the story of three young alchemists who set out on a quest for unimaginable power who find something a lot like love and family along the way. Full of trans, queer, and polyamorous characters of color, Infinity Alchemist follows the story of Ash, a self-taught alchemist whose social status keeps them from being allowed to legally study magic. As he struggles to keep his secret—and his low-end job at the Lancaster College of Alchemic Science—Ash must join forces with a gifted apprentice to try and track down a legendary sacred text and decide what kind of power he truly wants to wield.
Publisher’s Description: Only an elite few are legally permitted to study the science of magic―so when Ash is rejected by the Lancaster Mage’s College, he takes a job as the school’s groundskeeper instead, forced to learn alchemy in secret.
When he’s discovered by the condescending and brilliant apprentice Ramsay Thorne, Ash is sure he’s about to be arrested―but instead of calling the reds, Ramsay surprises Ash by making him an offer: Ramsay will keep Ash’s secret if he helps her find the legendary Book of Source, a sacred text that gives its reader extraordinary power.
As Ash and Ramsay work together and their feelings for each other grow, Ash discovers their mission is more dangerous than he imagined, pitting them against influential and powerful alchemists―Ash’s estranged father included. Ash’s journey takes him through the cities and wilds across New Anglia, forcing him to discover his own definition of true power and how far he and other alchemists will go to seize it.
Even If It Breaks Your Heart by Erin Hahn
Release Date: February 6 from Wednesday Books
Why You’ll Love It:: The latest from Erin Hahn, author of faves like Never Saw You Coming and More Than Maybe, this contemporary Western-themed romance features the same carefully crafted love story and delicate emotion she’s famous for, along with a quiet meditation on the long-tail impact of grief.
Publisher’s Description: The only thing keeping nineteen-year-old Case Michaels together after the death of his best friend, Walker, is a list Walker left behind of things he wants Case to accomplish in his absence. So far, though, Case hasn’t even been able to continue riding bulls in the rodeo circuit, something he’s done his entire life, balking at the thought of competing without Walker by his side. But the list? Case is determined to follow it to the letter– and he follows it all the way to Winnie Sutton.
Eighteen-year-old Winnie Sutton just wants to keep her family together. She graduated high school early to work long shifts at the Michaels family ranch so she can support her younger siblings and a father who’s more than happy to let Winnie fill the responsible parent role. If she sometimes sneaks out to ride the horses herself and forget about life for a while– well, that’s no one else’s business– until the day she crashes headfirst into Case Michaels. Case sees her riding skills and immediately ropes her into competing for the ranch and becoming his friend.
Winnie and Case couldn’t be more different, but Case can’t help but be inspired by Winnie’s badly-hidden passion for riding and competition. And there’s something about Case that makes Winnie want to try grasping onto a dream for herself, whether that’s a shot at a rodeo trophy, the annoyingly handsome rancher’s son who won’t leave her alone, or maybe both.
I Hope This Doesn’t Find You by Ann Liang
Release Date: February 6 from Scholastic Press
Why You’ll Love It: Sadie is an overachieving student who channels the frustration and anger she’d never say out loud into the vehement email drafts she assumes no one will ever see. But in a To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before-style twist, chaos ensues when they’re all accidentally sent out, and Sadie must deal with the consequences. Can she survive everyone knowing what she really thinks of them—-including the boy she once insisted was her enemy, but now appears to be the only person still on her side.
Publisher’s Description: Sadie Wen is perfect on paper: school captain, valedictorian, and a “pleasure to have in class.” It’s not easy, but she has a trick to keep her model-student smile plastered on her face at all times: she channels all her frustrations into her email drafts. She’d never send them of course — she’d rather die than hurt anyone’s feelings — but it’s a relief to let loose on her power-hungry English teacher or a freeloading classmate taking credit for Sadie’s work.
All her most vehemently worded emails are directed at her infuriating cocaptain, Julius Gong, whose arrogance and competitive streak have irked Sadie since they were kids. “You’re attention-starved and self-obsessed and unbearably vain . . . I really hope your comb breaks and you run out of whatever expensive hair products you’ve been using to make your hair appear deceptively soft…”
Sadie doesn’t have to hold back in her emails, because nobody will ever read them… that is, until they’re accidentally sent out.
Overnight, Sadie’s carefully crafted, conflict-free life is turned upside down. It’s her worst nightmare — now everyone at school knows what she really thinks of them, and they’re not afraid to tell her what they really think of her either. But amidst the chaos, there’s one person growing to appreciate the “real” Sadie — Julius, the only boy she’s sworn to hate…
The Eternal Ones by Namina Forna
Release Date: February 13 from Delacorte Press
Why You’ll Love It: The final installment in Namina Forna’s Gilded Ones trilogy, The Eternal Ones sees Deka determined to take down the gods — but to do so she must figure out the source of her own divinity. An increased focus on worldbuilding and lore, as well as the return of several fan-favorite supporting characters send this series out on a high note.
Publisher’s Description: Mere weeks after confronting the Gilded Ones—the false beings she once believed to be her family—Deka is on the hunt. In order to kill the gods, whose ravenous competition for power is bleeding Otera dry, she must uncover the source of her divinity. But with her mortal body on the verge of ruin, Deka is running out of time—to save herself and an empire that’s tearing itself apart at its seams.
When Deka’s search leads her and her friends to the edge of the world as they know it, they discover an astonishing new realm, one which holds the key to Deka’s past. Yet it also illuminates a devastating decision she must soon make…
Choose to be reborn as a god, losing everyone she loves in the process. Or bring about the end of the world.
The Bad Ones by Melissa Albert
Release Date: February 20 from Flatiron Books
Why We’re Excited: This creepy, atmospheric ode to toxic friendship follows the story of a girl who must follow the cryptic clues left behind by a friend who vanished and is laced with delicate, supernatural swirls of horror.
Publisher’s Description: Goddess, goddess, count to five In the morning, who’s alive?
In the course of a single winter’s night, four people vanish without a trace across a small town.
Nora’s estranged best friend, Becca, is one of the lost. As Nora tries to untangle the truth of Becca’s disappearance, she discovers a darkness in her town’s past, as well as a string of coded messages Becca left for her to unravel. These clues lead Nora to a piece of local folklore: a legendary goddess of forgotten origins who played a role in Nora and Becca’s own childhood games…
A Tempest of Tea by Hafsah Faizal
Release Date: February 20 from Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Why We’re Excited: One part fantasy adventure and one part found family drama, A Tempest of Tea follows the story of Arthie, an orphaned youth who runs a popular tearoom—that also happens to double an illegal “blood house” for vampires at night. But when she learns that her business is about to be shut down for good, she’ll cut a dangerous deal to save it. Faizal’s fast-paced series opener wrestles with themes of colonization and mixes in elements of Arthurian legend to create something thoroughly original.
Publisher’s Description: On the streets of White Roaring, Arthie Casimir is a criminal mastermind and collector of secrets. Her prestigious tearoom transforms into an illegal bloodhouse by dark, catering to the vampires feared by society. But when her establishment is threatened, Arthie is forced to strike an unlikely deal with an alluring adversary to save it—and she can’t do the job alone.
Calling upon a band of misfits, Arthie formulates a plan to infiltrate the dark and glittering vampire society known as the Athereum. But not every member of her crew is on her side, and as the truth behind the heist unfolds, Arthie finds herself in the midst of a conspiracy that will threaten the world as she knows it. Dark, action-packed, and swoonworthy, this is Hafsah Faizal better than ever.
Conditions of a Heart by Bethany Mangle
Release Date: February 20 from Margaret K. McElderry Books
Why We’re Excited: This heartfelt story of a teen girl struggling to navigate the complexities of life and relationships while managing an unseen disability is exactly the sort of necessary representation this genre exists to provide.
Publisher’s Description: Brynn Kwan is desperate for her high school persona to be real. That Brynn is head of the yearbook committee, the favorite for prom queen, and definitely not crumbling from a secret disability that’s rapidly wearing her down. If no one knows the truth about her condition, Brynn doesn’t have to worry about the pitying looks or accusations of being a faker that already destroyed her childhood friendships. She’s even willing to let go of her four-year relationship with her first love, Oliver, rather than reveal that a necessary surgery was the reason she ignored his existence for the entire summer.
But after Brynn tries to break up a fight at a pep rally and winds up barred from all her clubs and senior prom, she has nothing left to prop up her illusion of being just like everyone else. During a week-long suspension from school, she realizes that she doesn’t quite recognize the face in the mirror—and it’s not because of her black eye from the fight. With a healthy sister who simply doesn’t understand and a confused ex-boyfriend who won’t just take a hint and go away like a normal human being , Brynn begins to wonder if it’s possible to reinvent her world by being the person she thought no one herself.
My Throat an Open Grave by Tori Bovalino
Release Date: February 20 from Page Street Kids
Why You’ll Love It: A YA folk horror story about a girl in a dead-end Appalachian town who wishes her brother away to the Lord of the Wood, this is a book with serious Labyrinth vibes and a worthwhile interrogation of what we mean when we tell young women to be “good girls”.
Publisher’s Description: Growing up in the small town of Winston, Pennsylvania feels like drowning. Leah goes to church every Sunday, works when she isn’t at school, and takes care of her baby brother, Owen. Like every girl in Winston, she tries to be right and good and holy. If she isn’t the Lord of the Wood will take her, and she’ll disappear like so many other girls before her.
But living up to the rigorous standards of the town takes its toll. One night, when Owen won’t stop screaming, Leah wishes him away, and the Lord listens. The screaming stops, and all that’s left in the crib is a small bundle of sticks tied with a ribbon.
Filled with shame and the weight of the town’s judgment, Leah is forced to cross the river into the Lord of the Wood’s domain to bring Owen back. But the devilish figure who has haunted Winston for generations isn’t what she expects. He tells her she can have her brother back―for the price of a song. A song that Leah will have one month to write.
It’s a bargain that will uncover secrets her hometown has tried to keep buried for decades. And what she unearths will have her questioning everything she’s been taught to fear.
Heartless Hunter by Kristen Ciccarelli
Release Date: February 20 from Wednesday Books
Why We’re Excited: An addictive romantic fantasy about the cat-and-mouse game between a witch and a witch hunter that develops into something more, Heartless Hunter seems destined to be one of the buzziest releases of winter. (The chemistry! Whew!)
Publisher’s Description: On the night Rune’s life changed forever, blood ran in the streets. Now, in the aftermath of a devastating revolution, witches have been diminished from powerful rulers to outcasts ruthlessly hunted due to their waning magic, and Rune must hide what she is.
Spending her days pretending to be nothing more than a vapid young socialite, Rune spends her nights as the Crimson Moth, a witch vigilante who rescues her kind from being purged. When a rescue goes wrong, she decides to throw the witch hunters off her scent and gain the intel she desperately needs by courting the handsome Gideon Sharpe – a notorious and unforgiving witch hunter loyal to the revolution – who she can’t help but find herself falling for.
Gideon loathes the decadence and superficiality Rune represents, but when he learns the Crimson Moth has been using Rune’s merchant ships to smuggle renegade witches out of the republic, he inserts himself into her social circles by pretending to court her right back. He soon realizes that beneath her beauty and shallow façade, is someone fiercely intelligent and tender who feels like his perfect match. Except, what if she’s the very villain he’s been hunting?
Disciples of Chaos by M.K. Lobb
Release Date: February 20 from Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Why You’ll Love It: This highly anticipated sequel to Seven Faceless Saints takes readers out of Ombrazia as it delves into both the story’s wider world and the struggles of Damian’s inner struggles with an unidentified darkness. Though this sequel features more overt action than its predecessor, its beating heart remains heroine Roz’s seemingly boundless rage as she fights for the home and people she loves.
Publisher’s Description: Damian Venturi isn’t aware of it yet. But as small shifts start to crack the foundations of the Ombrazian power structure after the Rebellion’s attack, cracks are beginning to show in Damian’s own facade. Uncontrollable anger is bubbling to the surface and can’t always be pushed down. Can he keep everyone safe, even from himself?
Rossana Lacertosa should feel victorious. She accomplished everything she set out to do, and more. The Rebellion’s attack set countless prisoners free and brought attention to the unfairness in the Palazzo’s structure. And Damian is back by her side where he belongs. Yet the war with Brechaat rages on and government officials are hellbent on keeping the status quo.
Then an Ombrazian general arrives from the front lines, and orders dozens of arrests, shipping Roz and Damian’s friends up north. Determined to free those who matter most, Roz and Damian set their sights on Brechaat. But their journey is dogged by strange magic, and Damian shifts further from the boy he used to be.
Snowglobe by Soyoung Park, translated by Joungmin Lee Comfort
Release Date: February 27 from Delacorte Press
Why We’re Excited: Originally published in Korean, this deliciously entertaining dystopian thriller is set in a world where eternal winter has blanketed the Earth and only the climate-controlled city of Snowglobe is anything like the world any of us will remember. A mix between The Hunger Games and The Truman Show, the story follows a young girl who becomes part of one of the many reality shows filmed in Snowglobe and beamed out to the masses, only to discover its seemingly perfect world has dark secrets of its own.
Publisher’s Description: Enclosed under a vast dome, Snowglobe is the last place on Earth that’s warm. Outside Snowglobe is a frozen wasteland, and every day, citizens face the icy world to get to their jobs at the power plant, where they produce the energy Snowglobe needs. Their only solace comes in the form of twenty-four-hour television programming streamed directly from the domed city.
The residents of Snowglobe have fame, fortune, and above all, safety from the desolation outside their walls. In exchange, their lives are broadcast to the less fortunate outside, who watch eagerly, hoping for the chance to one day become actors themselves.
Chobahm lives for the time she spends watching the shows produced inside Snowglobe. Her favorite? Goh Around, starring Goh Haeri, Snowglobe’s biggest star—and, it turns out, the key to getting Chobahm her dream life.
Because Haeri is dead, and Chobahm has been chosen to take her place. Only, life inside Snowglobe is nothing like what you see on television. Reality is a lie, and truth seems to be forever out of reach.
Tender Beasts by Liselle Sambury
Release Date: February 27 from Margaret K. McElderry Books
Why You’ll Love It: A supernaturally tinged thriller from the author of Blood Like Magic and Delicious Monsters, this twisty story of murder wrestles with everything from literal monsters to generational trauma. Sambury just doesn’t miss.
Publisher’s Description: With the death of Sunny’s mother, matriarch of the wealthy Behre family, Sunny’s once picture-perfect life is thrown into turmoil. Her mother had groomed her to be the family’s next leader, so Sunny is confused when the only instructions her mother leaves is a mysterious note: “Take care of Dom.”
The problem is, her youngest brother, Dom, has always been a near-stranger to Sunny…and seemingly a dangerous one, if found guilty of his second-degree murder charge. Still, Sunny is determined to fulfill her mother’s dying wish. But when a classmate is gruesomely murdered, and Sunny finds her brother with blood on his hands, her mother’s simple request becomes a lot more complicated. Dom swears he’s innocent, and although Sunny isn’t sure she believes him, she takes it upon herself to look into the murder—made all the more urgent by the discovery of another body. And another.
As Sunny and Dom work together to track down the culprit, Sunny realizes her other siblings have their own dark secrets. Soon she may have to choose: preserve the family she’s always loved or protect the brother she barely knows—and risk losing everything her mother worked so hard to build.
Where the Dark Stands Still by A.B. Poranek
Release Date: February 27 from Margaret K. McElderry Books
Why You’ll Love It: A rich and deeply moving reimagining of Beauty and the Beast that’s steeped in Polish folklore, Where the Dark Stands Still weaves surprisingly complex themes of repression and trauma throughout tis story of a young woman attempting to rid herself of the magic that marks her as an outsider. The rich, nightmarish worldbuilding is particularly strong and memorable.
Publisher’s Description: Liska knows that magic is monstrous, and its practitioners are monsters. She has done everything possible to suppress her own magic, to disastrous consequences. Desperate to be free of it, Liska flees her small village and delves into the dangerous, demon-inhabited spirit-wood to steal a mythical fern flower. If she plucks it, she can use its one wish to banish her powers. Everyone who has sought the fern flower has fallen prey to unknown horrors, so when Liska is caught by the demon warden of the wood—called The Leszy—a bargain seems better than death: one year of servitude in exchange for the fern flower and its wish.
Whisked away to The Leszy’s crumbling manor, Liska soon makes an unsettling discovery: she is not the first person to strike this bargain, and all her predecessors have mysteriously vanished. If Liska wants to survive the year and return home, she must unravel her taciturn host’s spool of secrets and face the ghosts—figurative and literal—of his past. Because something wakes in the woods, something deadly and without mercy. It frightens even The Leszy…and cannot be defeated unless Liska embraces the monster she’s always feared becoming.
Lacy Baugher Milas is the Books Editor at Paste Magazine, but loves nerding out about all sorts of pop culture. You can find her on Twitter @LacyMB