June New Releases: New Young Adult Reads For a Fantastical Summer
It’s June 2022, readers and dreamers! That means it’s time for this fantastical list of new young adult reads. Find your new reads for the summer here.
Check out the list below (organized by release date)!
June 4th
Dacia Wolf and the Dragon Lord: A magical coming of age fantasy adventure novel
By Mandi Oyster
The prophecy was fulfilled, but fate wants more.
Dacia has settled into the life of an ordinary teen. She spends her days in classes and her nights with Samantha and Cody, no longer fearing her powers.
However, Dacia is anything but normal.
When a horde of dragons and the wizard who controls them infiltrate her dreams, her life becomes a nightmare.
A new student arrives on campus, knowing things nobody should about Dacia. Is she a friend or foe? Can Dacia trust a stranger's help to become proficient in her magic?
If she's to face a hoard of dragons and their master, does she have a choice?
Find out in this stunning sequel to Dacia Wolf and the Prophecy.
June 7th
By Brigid Kemmerer When ancient magic tests a newfound love, a dark fate beckons . . . Magic has been banished in the land of Syhl Shallow for as long as best friends Jax and Callyn can remember. They once loved the stories of the powerful magesmiths and mythical scravers who could conjure fire or control ice, but now they've learned that magic only leads to danger: magic is what killed Callyn's parents, leaving her alone to raise her younger sister. Magic never helped Jax, whose leg was crushed in an accident that his father has been punishing him for ever since. Magic won't save either of them when the tax collector comes calling, threatening to take their homes if they can't pay what they owe. Meanwhile, Jax and Callyn are astonished to learn magic has already returned to Syhl Shallow—in the form of a magesmith who's now married to their queen. Now, the people of Syhl Shallow are expected to allow dangerous magic in their midst, and no one is happy about it. When a stranger rides into town offering Jax and Callyn silver in exchange for holding secret messages for an anti-magic faction, the choice is obvious—even if it means they may be aiding in a plot to destroy their new king. It's a risk they're both willing to take. That is, until another visitor arrives: handsome Lord Tycho, the King's Courier, the man who's been tasked with discovering who's conspiring against the throne. Suddenly, Jax and Callyn find themselves embroiled in a world of shifting alliances, dangerous flirtations, and ancient magic . . . where even the deepest loyalties will be tested.
Out There: Into the Queer New Yonder
By various
Into the queer new yonder!
To conclude the trio of anthologies that started with critically acclaimed All Out and Out Now, Out There features seventeen original short stories set in the future from fantastic queer YA authors.
Explore new and familiar worlds where the human consciousness can be uploaded into a body on Mars…an alien helps a girl decide if she should tell her best friend how she feels…two teens get stuck in a time loop at a space station…people are forced to travel to the past or the future to escape the dying planet…only a nonbinary person can translate the binary code of a machine that predicts the future…everyone in the world vanishes except for two teen girls who are in love.
This essential and beautifully written collection immerses and surprises with each turn of the page.
By Wendii McIver
The Banshee and the Wraith. They have the power to save the world—or destroy it. In a place unlike any other, two brothers set off an ancient, epic, and never-ending battle. This world is controlled by the Necromancers and Reapers—one side pulls people back up through the earth, and the other cuts them down again. One ancient family, the Laheys, have been tasked again and again with keeping the balance between the worlds. And Nyx Lahey, born a Necromancer, but raised a Reaper, is on the front lines. Lately, though, Nyx is wrestling with her identity as she’s thrown into an adventure filled with prophecies and the kind of danger you can cut down with a giant scythe. While chasing a creature that’s killing young girls, Nyx runs headlong—and gun drawn—into Erebus Salem. A hunter who has the ability to turn into a raven to escape danger, Erebus also harbors a secret: he’s not alive. He lives in Dewmort, a world in-between, where the souls of the dead reside, and where memory is all but erased. With no memory of who he is, his only connection to the past is a locket which ends up in Nyx’s hands. Determined to get it back, Erebus and his friends set watch on the Laheys, but they aren’t the only ones. Other beings are lurking in the shadows. They know the truth about Erebus and Nyx. They know that the pair are the Relics, the only two powerful beings in the world capable of taking down the greatest evils known to any kind. Soon, Nyx and Erebus become the hunted, and must try and escape the evil plans of the war lord, Bellum. Bellum wants the Relics for his own purposes. He needs them to raise his father, the original Necromancer, Neco. With his father by his side, Bellum believes he can rule the world—all of them—and destroy the Reapers once and for all. Can Nyx and Erebus master their new found powers, and even if they do, can they survive?
By Ciannon Smart
Perfect for fans of Sabaa Tahir and Roseanne A. Brown, this highly anticipated sequel to Witches Steeped in Gold finds rival witches Jaz and Iraya in an alliance that hangs by a thread, with a brand-new enemy on the horizon.
The Doyenne is dead, and the throne is empty.
Iraya, her revenge taken and magic unfettered, turns her sights on a bigger goal: freeing Aiyca for the Obeah. But first she must shed the guise of the rogue warrior and become the Lost Empress her people need.
Jazmyne’s mother has been overthrown, but her people aren’t ready to call her doyenne. She’s no stranger to a fight, though, and she’s prepared to go to extreme lengths—and court ruthless danger—to secure her title.
But a new threat is awakening—an enemy with vicious intent and an army of nightmares from beyond the veil. An enemy who has waited a decade to strike, who would claim both Iraya’s birth right and Jazmyne’s bloody crown.
Trust is scarce, and betrayal a breath away. And Iraya and Jazmine must once again turn to each other—after all, better the witch you know than the nightmare you don’t.
The war has just begun.
June 14th
The Blood Traitor (The Prison Healer Book 3)
By Lynette Noni
She’d failed them. All of them. And now she was paying the price.
Kiva thought she knew what she wanted—revenge. But feelings change, people change . . . everything has changed.
After what happened at the palace, Kiva is desperate to know if her friends and family are safe, and whether those she wronged can ever forgive her. But with the kingdoms closer to the brink of war than they’ve ever been, and Kiva far away from the conflict, more is at stake than her own broken heart.
A fresh start will mean a perilous quest, forcing mortal enemies and uneasy allies together in a race against the clock to save not just Evalon, but all of Wenderall. With her loyalties now set, Kiva can no longer just survive—she must fight for what she believes in. For who she believes in. But with danger coming from every side, and the lives of everyone she loves at risk, does she have what it takes to stand, or will she fall?
