Love YA: Hip-Hop, Smoke and First Kisses

It’s the month of love, so why not love your shelf with some new reads this week?

From fantasy to romance, we have everything you need to get your month started off right.

Read on and stock those shelves with some new YA!

On the Come Up by Angie Thomas

From the author of The Hate U Give, this story follows sixteen-year-old Bri who wants to be one of the greatest rappers of all time. Or at least make it out of her neighborhood one day. As the daughter of an underground rap legend who died before he hit big, Bri’s got big shoes to fill. But now that her mom has unexpectedly lost her job, food banks and shutoff notices are as much part of Bri’s life as beats and rhymes. With bills piling up and homelessness staring her family down, Bri no longer just wants to make it, she has to make it.

On the Come Up is Angie Thomas’s homage to hip-hop, the art that sparked her passion for storytelling and continues to inspire her to this day. It is the story of fighting for your dreams, even as the odds are stacked against you; of the struggle to become who you are and not who everyone expects you to be; and of the desperate realities of poor and working-class black families.

Expect heart-tugging emotions and great character development in this novel.

Lady Smoke by Laura Sebastian

In the sequel to Ash Princess, The Kaiser murdered Theodosia’s mother, the Fire Queen, when Theo was only six. He took Theo’s country and kept her prisoner, crowning her Ash Princess–a pet to toy with and humiliate for ten long years. That era has ended. The Kaiser thought his prisoner weak and defenseless. He didn’t realize that a sharp mind is the deadliest weapon.

Theo no longer wears a crown of ashes. She has taken back her rightful title, and a hostage, Prinz Soren. But her people remain enslaved under the Kaiser’s rule, and now she is thousands of miles away from them and her throne.

To get them back, she will need an army. Only, securing an army means she must trust her aunt, the dreaded pirate Dragonsbane. And according to Dragonsbane, an army can only be produced if Theo takes a husband. Something an Astrean Queen has never done.

Expect romance and fantasy in this engaging book sure to entertain.

Theo knows that freedom comes at a price, but she is determined to find a way to save her country without losing herself.

Fame, Fate and the First Kiss by Kasie West

In this classic romance, Lacey Barnes has dreamed of being an actress for as long as she can remember. So when she gets the opportunity to star in movie alongside one of Hollywood’s hottest actors, she doesn’t hesitate to accept the part.

But Lacey quickly learns that life in the spotlight isn’t as picture perfect as she imagined. She’s having trouble bonding with her costars, her father has hired the definition of a choir boy, Donavan Lake, to tutor her, and somewhere along the way she’s lost her acting mojo. And just when it seems like things couldn’t get any worse, it looks like someone on set is deliberately trying to sabotage her.

As Lacey’s world spins out of control, it feels like the only person she can count on—whether it’s helping her try to unravel the mystery of who is out to get her or snap her out of her acting funk—is Donavan. But what she doesn’t count on is this straight-laced boy becoming another distraction.

With her entire future riding on this movie, Lacey knows she can’t afford to get sidetracked by a crush. But for the first time in her life Lacey wonders if it’s true that the best stories really do happen when you go off script.

Expect the usual swoony story from West in this romantic tale.

What romantic and fantasy-filled YA reads are you looking forward to and what are some of your favorite holiday books? Let us know on Twitter or IG (@onfrolic) for a chance to have them featured in #LoveYA!

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Aurora Dominguez

Aurora Dominguez is a high school English teacher, college professor and journalist in South Florida. Her work has appeared in The Miami Herald, Where Magazine and J-14 Magazine, all places where she worked as a writer and editor before going from the newsroom to the classroom. Her favorite days are "Caturdays," which she spends with a good book, her husband, Sebastian, and her cat, Luna. Her motto when it comes to reading: "No book left behind!"