4 Must Read Young Adult Novels

by MK French

Are your teens already bored with summer? Or are you looking for young adult fiction for your own beach bag? Either was,y these young adult titles are must reads. 

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A Forgery of Fate by Elizabeth Lim

June 2025; Knopf Books for Young Readers; 978-0593650615
audio, ebook, print (480 pages); YA fantasy

Truyan Saigas had to support her mother and two younger sisters after her father was lost at sea. Tru can paint the future and is a gifted art forger, but she still has trouble paying off gangsters demanding payment for her mother’s gambling debts. She agrees to marry a mysterious dragon lord in exchange for a fresh start for her mother and sisters and answers about her father's disappearance. Now she must join him in his desolate undersea palace and assist in his plot to infiltrate the tyrannical Dragon King's inner circle. She must do this by painting a future so treasonous, it could upend both the mortal and immortal realms.

Tru had turned to forgery to make ends meet, especially when her mother's fortune-telling took a turn for the worse. The dragon lord is cursed, a half-human and half-dragon without his pearl to fly. His grandfather, the Dragon King, had banished him so that he could not return without his fated bride, and Elang hopes to use her ability to trap the Dragon King. His palace fell into disrepair without him, his people were without a proper home, and the Dragon King grew ever more tyrannical. As Tru tries to learn how to paint the Dragon King's form properly, she finds herself growing closer to Elang, learning some of his secrets, and understanding more of the magic around her as well as her ability to paint the future. 

I had trouble putting the book down. It's loosely based on Beauty and the Beast, with a healthy dose of Asian dragon lore. I adored the mix of legendary creatures in the story, and the message that hope and love can still make a difference even when it all seems lost. Elizabeth Lim is a gifted storyteller, and Tran Nguyen's art for the cover is perfect. 

Buy A Forgery of Fate at Amazon

Kill Creatures by Rory Power

June 2025; Delacorte Press; 978-0593302316
audio, ebook, print (288 pages); YA thriller

Last summer, Luce, Edie, Jane, and Nan took a boat out for one final swim in the river. Nan was the only one to return from the trip, and for a year, she continually told the others that they had gone ahead, and she lost track of them. This summer at their memorial, Luce climbs out of the water. The entire town of Saltcedar is shocked, but Nan most of all. Because she had killed Luce as well as Edie and Jane.

The entire book is a trip. There are chapters in the current timeline as well as leading up to the summer before the girls went out together. Nan had kept a control over the narrative, her parents emotionally supporting her even when she kept secrets from them. Her memories waver when Luce arrives, when the new sheriff begins to search for Edie and Jane. We learn about the relationships between the girls, with the adults in their lives, and see the cracks where Nan deliberately chose to keep to the narrative in her mind. It rapidly comes together at the end, and it's a twisty one. It is a tight, claustrophobic story with messy emotions and needs, all the way to the very end. 

Buy Kill Creatures at Amazon

We Can Never Leave by H. E. Edgmon

June 2025; Wednesday Books; 978-1250853653
audio, ebook, print (320 pages); YA fantasy

The Caravan helps the inhuman creatures that wake up with no memories of who they are or where they came from, creating a new community. One day, five of the teens wake up and find out that the Caravan is gone. The five teens include a half-human returning from the outside world, a pair of brothers, a venomous girl, and a shadow shaped like a boy. Together, they try to figure out what happened while keeping their own secrets safe. However, it doesn't seem like something happened to the Caravan, but something happened to them.

Bird's father is human, but their mother isn't; Bird's grandparents have snakes for hair and feathered wings. Hugo has antlers, and his brother Felix has furry, doglike ears. Calliope is a fanged wolf girl with venom. Eamon has red eyes and is more at home in the shadows and woods than with people. In addition to their inhuman appearance, each teen has some kind of magical ability. The Caravan had collected people over the years who wouldn't fit into the human world because of their oddities, and as a whole, the people expect the foundlings to be grateful for it. 

"This is a book about haunted houses, except that the houses are bodies and the hauntings are the lies children tell and are told." There are complicated relationships between the teens and the rest of the Caravan, an insular group with a network of members that pass as human who help them find other inhuman creatures. They have different beliefs about magic and luck, and the abilities they have. The road trip they take looking for the other adults strains their relationships further, and the flashes of life before the disappearance show us that all is not quite right with the Caravan, even for taking in the oddities of humanity. The secrets they keep are only hinted at, but the undercurrent of horror remains. It is a deeply unsettling feeling when we reach the end of the book, and hope that they continue to make it through.

Buy We Can Never Leave at Amazon

The Blood Phoenix by Amber Chen

June 2025; Viking Books for Young Readers; 978-0593622780
audio, ebook, print (464 pages); YA fantasy

Two years after Ying left the Engineers Guild, life appeared peaceful. Her sister Nian lives in the capital, awaiting her marriage to the High Commander. Nian is closest to Ye-kan and has a head for politics and intrigue, but there is a new conspiracy. The Blood Phoenix pirate attacks force Ying back to the capital, and the Engineers Guild to solve the problem. Can they defeat their enemies? And will it be worth the cost?

This is the sequel to Of Jade and Dragons, concluding this silkpunk tale. It absolutely relies on reading the first book to understand the tension Ying has with the Engineers Guild and the central island of Fei. The High Commander is now Ye-yang, and he finds Ying because of her creativity and determination to do good with her work. It's been two years since the close of the first novel, and the war has continued. Refugees are present everywhere, coffers and supplies are strained, and Ying is still hiding from her feelings and the choices they had to make. 

Soon after Ying returns to Fei, she learns more about the dangers she had ignored for a time. We also get two threads of story, one for each sister. Nian is the High Commander's fiancée; the marriage was delayed to allow the proper grieving time. She learns a lot about statecraft in this time, and it's what ultimately supports the ruling nobility. Fei is in trouble, with the siblings still jockeying for power in Ye-yang's absence, traitors siphoning supplies and tainting food, and weapons getting funneled out. Ying's thread covers the time she, Ye-yang, and two friends from the Guild are with the pirates that rescued them after a storm swept them out to sea. This period of time challenges Ying's assumptions about the pirates and gives Ye-yang (and us!) more clues regarding the war and who's behind the trouble in Fei.

There is a lot of intrigue in this novel, as well as many thrilling sequences that the sisters go through. While Ying had formal engineering training and is searching for her purpose in the world, Nian is just as clever and protective of those she cares about. She tracks down conspirators and stands up for herself, something I never would have expected given how she was in the first book. The different threads come together well, with secrets revealed and a climactic battle. There is some ambiguity in the ending, which I appreciate. It gives me a little hope about a potential happily ever after, even if the odds aren't good. This is a darker book, given the nature of war and betrayals, and I like having the hope of survival to balance out the deaths we see along the way. Overall, it's an excellent close to the duology.

Buy The Blood Phoenix at Amazon

Born and raised in New York City, M.K. French started writing stories when very young, dreaming of different worlds and places to visit. She always had an interest in folklore, fairy tales, and the macabre, which has definitely influenced her work. She currently lives in the Midwest with her husband, three young children, and a golden retriever.

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