August is a relatively slow month for YA and quite frankly, we’re a bit glad about that. Have you SEEN our TBR?! It also gives us time to revel in the glory of the books that are hitting shelves this month.
Here are a few that we’re ridiculously excited about.
‘Cuckoo’, Keren David (4th, Atom)
Jake is an actor, a household name thanks to his role on the UK’s most popular soap. But his character went upstairs to his bedroom six months ago and never came down again, and now Jake is facing an uncertain future. Add to that his dad’s anger issues, the family’s precarious finances and the demands of a severely autistic brother; Jake’s home feels like a powder keg waiting to explode. It’s easier to spend nights on friends’ sofas and futons, but what happens when you feel like a cuckoo in every nest?
Cuckoo is a novel about the roles we play when we don’t fit in anywhere, and finding unlikely solace when home is the least welcoming place of all.
‘Royal Tour (The Potion Diaries #2)’, Amy Alward (11th, Simon & Schuster)
Since winning the Hunt and saving her new BFF, Princess Evelyn, Sam Kemi has been royally busy.. What with TV interviews, working in her family’s potion store and preparing to join Evelyn on her world tour, Sam STILL hasn’t had time for a real date with Zain, her new-boyfriend-slash-former-rival.
And that’s not happening anytime soon. Someone has tampered with Sam’s grandad’s mind and she is the only one who can unlock his memories. Memories that contain the key to the most powerful potion in the world and one which people would kill for . . .
So Sam must swap dresses, princes and palaces for dragons, centaurs and caves in her quest to save her grandad (and everyone else). Just your standard episode in the life of a potion-making teenager, then.
‘The Treasure Map of Boys (Ruby Oliver #3)’, E Lockhart (11th, Hot Key Books)
Things are looking good for Ruby Oliver. It’s the thirty-seventh week that she’s been in the state of Noboyfriend. Ruby’s panic attacks are bad, and her love life is even worse, not to mention the fact that more than one boy seems to be giving Ruby a lot of their attention. Rumours are flying, and Ruby’s already not-so-great reputation is heading downhill. Not only that, she’s also: * running a bake sale * learning the secrets of heavy-metal therapy * encountering some seriously smelly feet * defending the rights of pygmy goats * and bodyguarding Noel from unwanted advances. In this third instalment to the Ruby Oliver series, Ruby tries to pin down two important things: real friendship, and true love – if such a thing exists.
‘Unboxed’, Non Pratt (15th, Barrington Stoke)
Four friends meet up at their old school to open the memory box they stowed there years ago – with five letters inside for four of them, because their friend Millie has died. When they open the box they find a new letter from Millie and discover that she has left them special instructions: permission to open her letter only if they all read aloud the letters they wrote to their older selves, revealing their deepest secrets
‘American Monsters (Demon Road #3)’, Derek Landy (25th, Harper Collins)
The epic conclusion in the mind-blowing supernatural thriller from bestselling author DEREK LANDY, creator of international sensation Skulduggery Pleasant.
Bigger, meaner, stronger, Amber closes in on her murderous parents as they make one last desperate play for power. Her own last hopes of salvation, however, rest beyond vengeance, beyond the abominable killers – living and dead – that she and Milo will have to face.
For Amber’s future lies in her family’s past, in the brother and sister she never knew, and the horrors beyond imagining that befell them.
Tell us about your most anticipated releases of August at @maximumpopbooks!
- MP! Exclusive: Win a signed copy of Amy Alward’s ‘The Potion Diaries’ signed by Zoella and Amy!
- WIN! Cast your vote to win an incredible Clare Furniss bundle posted straight to your door
- It’s time for battle! Will the UK or North America win the ‘We Are All Made of Molecules’ cover wars?
- WIN! A #YALC tote bag full of swag and signed by 30 authors, including VE Schwab, Michael Grant and Patrick Ness? Heck yes!
- 11 iconic clapbacks you’ll want to use against any bully
- The Weasleys, The Garretts and 4 other YA families that need to adopt us…like now