Here’s another YA genre-bender receiving raves. In its STARRED REVIEW, Kirkus has this to say of Kylie Lee Baker’s THE KEEPER OF NIGHT [Inkyard Press, Oct. 12]: “This dark historical fantasy seamlessly weaves Japanese folklore and magic into its storyline. Perfectly paced, it is filled with action, horrific death, mysterious motives, and raw emotions….The story also touches on racism, ableism, self-acceptance, and finding one’s place in the world. The descriptive (read more…)

Congratulations to author Vera Kurian! Her debut thriller NEVER SAW ME COMING [Park Row, September 7], about three diagnosed psychopathic students facing off against a campus killer, was voted a September LibraryReads pick! (The complete list of LibraryReads picks can be found here.) NEVER SAW ME COMING is still available to preview on Edelweiss or Netgalley.

TRASHLANDS (MIRA, Oct 26) by Alison Stine is a literary speculative novel that is garnering a ton of buzz and racking up stars! Check out what Publishers Weekly and Booklist had to say: “Stine draws on her personal experience of today’s Appalachia to craft a harrowing vision of the future, and at its center is the tug-of-war between what is right and what is necessary to survive. This painful, thought-provoking (read more…)

So…is it historical fiction? Or YA fantasy and Jewish folklore? Maybe a thriller-slash-murder mystery? Incredibly…the answer is all of the above. Check out the starred reviews for Aden Polydoros’s THE CITY BEAUTIFUL [Inkyard Press, Oct. 5] as bestowed by Publishers Weekly and Bookpage: “Polydoros seamlessly blends a murder mystery with Jewish folklore in this haunting historical fantasy…. Readers looking for finely wrought historical fiction with fully realized characters and a (read more…)

In its STARRED review for Mallory O’Meara’s GIRLY DRINKS: A World History of Women and Alcohol (Hanover Square Press, Oct 19), Publishers Weekly raves: “[A] thorough, and thoroughly entertaining, history…. Provoking both thought and laughter, [Girly Drinks] serves as bracing refreshment from a master textual mixologist!” Check out the entire review here and request the DRC on Netgalley or Edelweiss. (And if you love the read, please consider voting it for LibraryReads by Sept. 1.)