The Best New YA Books of February 2025
February is generally known for two things: Valentine’s Day and extremely crappy weather. As we all hunker down for yet another round of arctic snow and bitter cold, it’s a good thing that a raft of new releases has been steadily arriving to help give us all something to do that doesn’t involve going outside. It being February, romance readers obviously have plenty to dive into, but fantasy fans can’t really complain either. And, of course, the YA genre remains publishing’s most diverse in terms of types of stories being told. From contemporary thrillers to dystopian cautionary tales and fantastical battles for magical kingdoms, there’s truly something in this bunch for every kind of reader.
Here are our picks for the best YA books hitting shelves in February.
Dead Happy by Josh Silver
Release Date: February 4 from Delacorte Press
Why We’re Excited: The sequel to last year’s (excellent) YA dystopian novel HappyHead, Dead Happy raises the stakes and the tension as the story’s central experiment continues. The top ten participants in the HappyHead program—a secret scheme to eliminate unhappiness and waste through selective breeding and population control—are sent to the Scottish island of Elmhallow, where Seb and his designated “perfect match” Eleanor are once again forced to compete in a series of increasingly strange trials to survive.
Publisher’s Description: Seb was sure surviving the experimental health center of HappyHead would be enough to send him home. But now he joins the top ten contestants in the next stage of the testing, which will take place on a remote island, under the watchful eye of a mysterious couple.
Unsure if Finn is dead or alive, Seb reluctantly teams up with Eleanor again as the pair are forced to compete in a series of ever stranger trials to prove their connection and get their lives back. But Seb can’t stop thinking about Finn and how he may have been too much of a threat to the program.
Determined to find him, Seb’s search uncovers an even darker reality…and the only way to escape the island will be to expose the sinister truth behind HappyHead once and for all.
Under the Same Stars by Libba Bray
Release Date: February 4 from Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Why We’re Excited: The first book in five years from Libba Bray, author of books like The Diviners and A Great and Terrible Beauty, Under the Same Stars is a historical mystery spread across three different decades and timelines, from 1940s Germany to 1980s West Berlin and Brooklyn in 2020. The story explores hope, resistance, and memory and genuinely could not be a more timely read for our current moment.
Publisher’s Description: It was said that if you write to the Bridegroom’s Oak, the love of your life will answer back. Now, the tree is giving up its secrets at last.
In 1940s Germany, Sophie is excited to discover a message waiting for her in the Bridegroom’s Oak from a mysterious suitor. Meanwhile, her best friend, Hanna, is sending messages too―but not to find love. As World War II unfolds in their small town of Kleinwald, the oak may hold the key to resistance against the Nazis.
In 1980s West Germany, American teen transplant Jenny feels suffocated by her strict parents and is struggling to fit in. Until she finds herself falling for Lena, a punk-rock girl hell-bent on tearing down the wall separating West Germany from East Germany, and meeting Frau Hermann, a kind old lady with secrets of her own.
In Spring 2020, New York City, best friends Miles and Chloe are in the first weeks of COVID lockdown and hating Zoom school, when an unexpected package from Chloe’s grandmother leads them to investigate a cold case about two unidentified teenagers who went missing under the Bridegroom’s Oak eighty years ago.
This Ends in Embers by Kamilah Cole
Release Date: February 4 from Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Why We’re Excited: The sequel to last year’s So Let Them Burn, which told a complicated story of what happened after a designated Chosen One fulfilled their destined task, sees Faron, the former magical protector of San Irie who betrayed her kingdom to save her sister, try to find a way to go home again, even though she and Elara (who has taken her sister’s place as San Irie’s protector) are on the opposite sides of a war.
Publisher’s Description: Faron Vincent was once the saint of San Irie. Now, she’s done the unthinkable: betrayed her country. Alone, disgraced, and kidnapped, Faron is forced to help Iya grow his bloody empire. With her soul bonded to a ruthless killer, Faron has become an enemy to her people… and she fears they might be right.
Elara Vincent—the new Empyrean—must undo the damage her sister has caused. San Irie has been brought back to the brink of war as Iya proclaims no nation will be safe from his brutal invasion. But how can Elara save her sister, her best friend, her country, and her world when she’s already cracking under the pressure?
All Better Now by Neal Shusterman
Release Date: February 4 Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Why We’re Excited: A dystopian science fiction thriller about a pandemic virus that kills many but leaves those who recover from it gifted with utter contentment, Neal Shusterman’s All Better Now feels both timely and altogether too soon. Surprising, surprisingly grim, and strangely impossible to look away from.
Publisher’s Description: A deadly and unprecedented virus is spreading. But those who survive it experience long-term effects no one has ever seen before: utter contentment. Soon after infection, people find the stress, depression, greed, and other negative feelings that used to weigh them down are gone.
More and more people begin to revel in the mass unburdening. But not everyone. People in power—who depend on malcontents and prey on the insecure to sell their products, and convince others they need more, new, faster, better everything—know this new state of being is bad for business. Surely, without anger or jealousy as motivators, productivity will grind to a halt and the world will be thrown into chaos. Campaigns start up to convince people that being eternally happy is dangerous. The race to find a vaccine begins. Meanwhile, a growing movement of Recoverees plan ways to spread the virus as fast as they can, in the name of saving the world.
It’s nearly impossible to determine the truth when everyone with a platform is pushing their agenda. Three teens from very different backgrounds who’ve had their lives upended in very different ways find themselves at the center of a power play that could change humanity forever.
Wings of Starlight by Allison Saft
Release Date: February 4 from Disney Press
Why We’re Excited: A young fairy princess must make an uncomfortable alliance to defeat a monster in this classically magical fantasy adventure from Down Comes the Night author Allison Saft that feels like nothing so much as a proper, old-school Disney movie. (Complimentary.)
Publisher’s Description: It’s been centuries since a warm-season fairy in Pixie Hollow has crossed into the Winter Woods, and while most fear the legends of monsters lurking in the frozen lands, Clarion, can’t help being intrigued by Winter’s stoic beauty. But under the watchful eyes of the current monarch and the court’s seasonal ministers, Clarion has little time to dwell on daydreams while the days to her coronation dwindle away.
That is, until reports of a monster crossing from Winter into Spring make their way to the palace. Clarion sees defeating this threat as an opportunity to prove that she is worthy of her new role. But instead of finding a monster at the edge of Winter, she finds Milori, a young guardian of the Winter Woods. Together, they form an unlikely bond as they race to save their lands.
But as their alliance warms to something more, they will discover there is a reason a warm-season fairy and a winter fairy must not be together. And the cost could be just as deadly as the monsters that prowl the Winter Woods.
The Rose Bargain by Sasha Peyton Smith
Release Date: February 4 from HarperCollins
Why We’re Excited: Described as a YA cross between Bridgerton, The Selection, and The Cruel Prince, The Rose Bargain is set in an alternate London ruled by an immortal fae queen, where girls must trade secrets for tokens that make them more appealing and compete for the hand of the prince. Come for the entertaining premise, stay for the strong bonds between the story’s female characters and the unexpectedly twisty plot.
Publisher’s Description: London, 1848—For four hundred years, England has been under the control of an immortal fae queen who tricked her way onto the throne. To maintain an illusion of benevolence, Queen Mor grants each of her subjects one opportunity to bargain for their deepest desire.
As Ivy Benton prepares to make her debut, she knows that not even a deal with the queen could fix what has gone wrong: Her family’s social standing is in shambles, her sister is a shadow of her former self, and Ivy’s marriage prospects are nonexistent. So when the queen announces a competition for Prince Bram’s hand, Ivy is the first to sign her name in blood. What a bargain can’t fix, a crown certainly could.
Ivy soon finds herself a surprising front-runner—with the help of an unexpected ally: Prince Bram’s brother, the rakish Prince Emmett, who promises to help Ivy win his brother’s heart…for a price. But as the season sweeps Ivy away, with glittering balls veiling the queen’s increasingly vicious trials, Ivy realizes there’s more at stake than just a wedding. Because all faerie bargains come with a cost, and Ivy may have discovered hers too late.
Wicked Darlings by Jordyn Taylor
Release Date: February 11 from Delacorte Press
Why We’re Excited: The latest contemporary YA thriller by the author of The Revenge Game follows aspiring journalist Noa’s investigation into the mysterious death of her sister, The satisfying story deftly blends unexpected plots twists with a complex exploration of grief and themes that encompass everything from peer pressure and guilt to class tensions and sexual assault.
Publisher’s Description: Aspiring journalist Noa has a secret she’s been keeping. Ever since her sister’s tragic death, she’s felt almost…relieved. Noa and Leah had been locked in competition with one another since childhood, and things came to a head when her sister scored a glitzy internship at a New York society newspaper. Noa can’t help but revel in her new found autonomy.
But when she gets a lead about the sketchy circumstances surrounding her sister’s untimely death, she knows she needs to investigate—owes it to Leah.
Noa sets out to infiltrate the seedy underbelly of Manhattan high society to investigate her sister’s final days. Along the way she finds herself entangled with the glamorous Avalons and their close-knit circle of friends and frienemies. But will Noa be able to resist the allure of the Avalons’ world and uncover a shocking scandal. Or will she find herself in over her head…like Leah?
The Girl You Know by Elle Gonzalez Rose
Release Date: February 18 from Bloomsbury YA
Why We’re Excited: A dark academia thriller about a girl who, convinced her sister’s death wasn’t an accident decides to impersonate her twin at her bougie boarding school, Kingswood Academy, and search for the truth. As Luna’s understanding of who her sister was—and who she wanted her to be—begins to shift, the story deftly explores the complexity of grief and loss, alongside a furious desire for justice in the face of systems that frequently denies it to young women.
Publisher’s Description The week before Luna’s twin sister Solina was supposed to head back for her final semester at Kingswood Academy, an elite boarding school in the Washington mountains, she told Luna she was dropping out. When Luna refused to let her throw away her future, Solina disappeared.
Twelve hours later, she was dead.
Luna knows Solina’s death wasn’t an accident, even if the police say otherwise. There’s a reason Solina didn’t want to go back to Kingswood, and Luna knows she’ll find the truth there. All she has to do is become Solina. Playing Solina comes easy, but finding answers is far from it. Between the cunning, cruel people Solina called her friends, Luna’s budding feelings for her roommate Claudia, and the harsh realization that Solina had dark secrets, getting to the bottom of her sister’s murder is more difficult than Luna could have ever anticipated. But when you have nothing left to lose, you’re willing to do anything to get what you want. There’s no limit to how far Luna will go to avenge her sister-even if she has to burn all of Kingswood to the ground.
Unhallowed Halls by Lili Wilkinson
Release Date February 18 from Delacorte Press
Why We’re Excited: A moody, dark academia novel about Gothic obsessed teen who is chosen to attend a strange boarding school on the Scottish moors and begins to wonder if her admission had secret strings attached. A surprising, twisty YA tale that has a little bit of everything from covert clubs and impossible magic to conspiracy theories and ancient secrets.
Publisher’s Description: Page Whittaker has always been an outcast. And after the deadly incident that destroyed her single friendship at her old school, she needs a fresh start. Which is why when she receives a scholarship offer from Agathion College, an elite boarding school folded deep within the moors of Scotland, she doesn’t even consider turning it down.
Agathion is everything Page has ever wanted: a safe haven full of dusty books, steaming cups of tea and rigorous intellectual debate. And for the first time in her life, Page has even managed to become part of a close group of friends. Cyrus, Ren, Gideon, Lacey and Oak help her feel at home in Agathion’s halls–the only problem is, they’re all keeping secrets from her.
Page doesn’t know it yet, but her perfect new school has dark roots–roots that stretch back to its crooked foundation, and an ancient clandestine society with rumored ties to demonic magic. Soon, Page will be forced to learn that not everyone at Agathion is who they say they are. Least of all, her friends.
Agathion claims to teach its students history…but some histories should stay buried.
The Otherwhere Post by Emily J. Taylor
Release Date: February 25 from G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers
Why We’re Excited: This fast-paced YA fantasy from the author of Hotel Magnifique follows a teen trapped in a deadly mystery in an attempt to exonerate her dead father, a scriptomancer accused of destroying th Written Doors and essentially erasing a kingdom. To do so, she’ll have to pose as an apprentice courier for the Otherwhere Post and learn the dangerous art of traveling through worlds by means of enchanted letters herself.
Publisher’s Description: Seven years ago, Maeve Abenthy lost everything: her world, her father, even her name. Desperate to escape the stain of her father’s crimes, she lives under a fake name, never staying in one place long enough to put down roots.
Then she receives a mysterious letter with four impossible words: Your father was innocent.
To uncover the truth, she poses as an apprentice for the Otherwhere Post, where she’ll be trained in the art of scriptomancy—the dangerous magic that allows couriers to enchant letters and deliver them to other worlds. But looking into her father’s past draws more attention than she’d planned.
Her secretive, infuriatingly handsome mentor knows she’s lying about her identity, and time is running out to convince him to trust her. Worse, she begins to receive threatening letters, warning her to drop her investigation—or else. For Maeve to unravel the mystery of what happened seven years ago, she may have to forfeit her life.
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 and Bluesky at @LacyMB