Categories: What to Read

Love YA: Top 3 Y.A. Reads for the Week of May 21st!

This week’s picks for best YA books include a much-anticipated fantasy sequel, a romance by a well-known booktube star and an edgy thriller.

So, read on as I, your Frolic YA expert, showcase these amazing top picks for YA fiction that will have you saving bookshelf space.

Kingsbane by Claire Legrand

In this thrilling sequel to Furyborn, Rielle Dardenne has been anointed Sun Queen, but her trials are far from over. The Gate keeping the angels at bay is falling. To repair it, Rielle must collect the seven hidden castings of the saints. Meanwhile, to help her prince and love Audric protect Celdaria, Rielle must spy on the angel Corien—but his promises of freedom and power may prove too tempting to resist.

Centuries later, Eliana Ferracora grapples with her new reality: She is the Sun Queen, humanity’s long-awaited savior. But fear of corruption, fear of becoming another Rielle, keeps Eliana’s power dangerous and unpredictable. Hunted by all, racing against time to save her dying friend Navi, Eliana must decide how to wear a crown she never wanted—by embracing her mother’s power, or rejecting it forever.

Stay tuned for amazing twists and turns that will keep you flipping pages through the night.

Again, But Better by Christine Riccio

In this romance, Shane has been doing college all wrong. Pre-med, stellar grades, and happy parents…sounds ideal, but Shane’s made zero friends, goes home every weekend, and romance…what’s that?

Her life has been dorm, dining hall, class, repeat. Time’s a ticking, and she needs a change, there’s nothing like moving to a new country to really mix things up. Shane signs up for a semester abroad in London. She’s going to right all her college mistakes: make friends, pursue boys, and find adventure!

Easier said than done. She is soon faced with the complicated realities of living outside her bubble, and when self-doubt sneaks in, her new life starts to fall apart.

Shane comes to find that, with the right amount of courage and determination one can conquer anything. Throw in some fate and a touch of magic and the possibilities are endless.

This romance by booktuber Christine Riccio is a cute one I highly, highly recommend.

Bright Burning Stars by A.K. Small

In this thriller, best friends Marine Duval and Kate Sanders have trained at the Paris Opera Ballet School since childhood, where they’ve formed an inseparable bond forged by respective family tragedies and fierce love for dance. When the body of a student is found in the dorms just before the start of their final year, Marine and Kate begin to ask themselves what they would do to win the ultimate prize: to be the one girl selected to join the Opera’s prestigious corps de ballet. Would they die? Cheat? Seduce the most talented boy in the school, dubbed the Demigod, hoping his magic would make them shine, too? Neither girl is sure.

But then Kate gets closer to the Demigod, even as Marine has begun to capture his heart. And as selection day draws near, the competition, for the prize, for the Demigod, becomes fiercer, and Marine and Kate realize they have everything to lose, including each other.

This thriller tackles some serious issues and leaves the reader thinking past the last page.

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

As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

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!"