Want to check out all the books we included and decide for yourself? Here are the 14 possible results.
Crazy Stupid Bromance by Lyssa Kay Adams
After a rocky start, Alexis Carlisle is finally getting her cat café off the ground. The last thing she expects is for one of her customers to claim that the two are long-lost sisters. Alexis enlists the help of her best friend, Noah — a former teenage hacktivist turned (mostly) legitimate cybersecurity professional — to help her find the truth of the shocking secret. Of course, Noah agrees to help and decides it's time to come clean about a secret of his own: that he's been in love with her for years. —Shyla Watson
Memorial by Bryan Washington
Benson, a Black daycare teacher, and Mike, a Japanese American chef at a Mexican restaurant, have been living together in Houston for a few years. Their relationship is fine, but not what it once was. Right as the two begin to question where their lives are headed, Mike decides to travel to Osaka to say goodbye to his dying estranged father. He leaves just as his mother is arriving to visit them in Texas, leaving her and Benson in a strange, forced roommate situation that blooms into a meaningful relationship. Benson and Mike's time apart gives them clarity on their future together. —Shyla Watson
Magic Lessons by Alice Hoffman
Magic Lessons is a prequel to Practical Magic, though it can be read as a standalone. It traces the Owen bloodline to Salem, Massachusetts, during the 1600s. Maria Owens goes from England to Curacao to Salem in search of her love and the father of her child, but instead of finding love, she finds a misogynistic religious fever that has no room for independent women, much less witchcraft. This book is about love, it’s about motherhood, it’s about magic and darkness. It’s truly a spellbinding read. —Margaret Kingsbury
Blazewrath Games by Amparo Ortiz
Blazewrath Games follows Lana, whose biggest dream is to represent her native Puerto Rico in its first-ever Blazewrath World Cup appearance. This is basically a tournament for dragons and their riders to compete, and she finally gets her chance when the person who is supposed to be the runner for the Puerto Rico team gets kicked off. Quickly, though, she realizes that not everything is as dreamy as it seems, because a Blazewrath superstar has teamed up with a dragon in human form and they are working together to take down the entire world cup. —Rachel Strolle
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
In 18th-century France, Addie LaRue makes a deal with the darkness in exchange for getting her out of an arranged marriage, but the darkness is tricky — he causes everyone to forget who she is and, in return, she has to willingly give him her soul when she’s ready. Centuries pass and Addie never has a second conversation with anyone. Everyone immediately forgets who she is the second they see her — until 2014, when she meets a bookseller and he remembers her and they have a second, third, and fourth conversation. This is a beautiful and meditative novel with an ending that hit me right in the heart. —Margaret Kingsbury
Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam
A sense of foreboding lingers throughout this suspenseful novel, which was announced as a National Book Award finalist and is already set to become a Netflix miniseries starring Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington. A white middle-class family from Brooklyn sets off on an idyllic summer vacation with their two preteens in a house upstate. When an elderly Black couple shows up unannounced at their door one dark night, the white couple is forced to contend with their own buried prejudices, as it becomes increasingly clear that all is not right with the world. While vaguely apocalyptic novels certainly feel very fitting for our current moment, it’s really the strength of Alam’s writing and his observations about parenthood, in particular, that make this novel such an engrossing read. —Tomi Obaro
Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade
Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade is about April Whittier, a geologist by day and a fanfic writer for a Game of Thrones–esque show by night. When she tweets a photo of herself in cosplay in an attempt to make her private life more public, she's met with internet trolls instead. The star of the show, Marcus, not only defends her, but asks her out on a date, and what starts as a publicity stunt quickly blooms into a whirlwind romance. Except it turns out that Marcus just also happens to be April's long-term fanfic friend IRL. This book is a love letter to fandoms and is one of my favorite reads of the year. —Shyla Watson
In a Holidaze by Christina Lauren
In a Holidaze by Christina Lauren follows Maelyn Jones, whose life isn't going according to plan. The only thing she has to look forward to is spending the holiday with her family in the same Utah cabin they go to every year, along with two other families they vacation with. But even that tradition is coming to an end. But at the end of the holiday, she gets into a car crash and wakes up back at Day 1 to start the festivities all over again. This book is funny, full of holiday cheer, and is about second, third, and even fourth chances. —Shyla Watson
Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse
Rebecca Roanhorse sets Black Sun — the first book in a new trilogy — in a fantasy world inspired by the pre-Columbian Americas. Blinded as a child by his mother, Serapio’s destiny is to become the Crow God reborn and wreak vengeance on the Sun Priest and their followers, who have violently suppressed the holy city Tova’s indigenous religious traditions. Naranpa recently became Sun Priest, and she’s unprepared for the Order’s political machinations and backstabbing. Xiala, a captain charged with carrying Serapio to Tova, can calm the waters with her voice, an inheritance from her magical, ocean-dwelling Teek heritage, but her sailors fear her. This violent and epic clash between colonizers and indigenous peoples pushes against Eurocentric fantasy. It’s also a thrilling and intriguing read. —Margaret Kingsbury
Snapped by Alexa Martin
When Denver Mustangs quarterback Quinton Howard Jr. takes a knee during the national anthem at a game, he finds himself working alongside strategic communications manager Elliot Reed. Though things between them get off to a rocky start, they realize they have more in common than they thought. However, their growing feelings are risky with their jobs and integrity on the line. —Shyla Watson
Simmer Down by Sarah Smith
Nikki DiMarco uproots her life and moves to Maui to help her mom run their food truck, Tiva’s Filipina Kusina. Everything's going great until British food truck owner Callum James parks too close for comfort and starts stealing their customers and drawing her into a public feud. Nikki's determined to get rid of him once and for all by beating him in the upcoming food festival. But as the date approaches, Nikki starts to see another side to him, and soon, getting rid of him is the last thing she wants to do. —Shyla Watson
Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark
In Clark’s version of 1922 Georgia, the Ku Kluxes are Lovecraftian monsters from another dimension who wreak havoc while posing as Klan members. Maryse fights these monsters, armed with a magical sword that channels generations of vengeful anger, alongside shotgun-wielding Sadie and explosives master Chef. Then, a far more dangerous monster arrives — the Butcher, who can direct the Ku Kluxes’ mindless hunger. Using the film The Birth of a Nation as a spell, the Butcher plans to bring the most terrible monster of all into this dimension to consume everyone, and Maryse is the only one who can stop him. To do so, she must face her past tragedy and contend with her anger. This emotional and riveting novella is infused with Black folklore and rich friendships. —Margaret Kingsbury
White Ivy by Susie Yang
Ivy Lin's parents moved from China to the US when she was 2, and she spent the next three years in the care of her offbeat but doting grandmother. When she follows her parents to the US, she barely recognizes them. Luckily, her grandmother is soon able to join them — and when she arrives, she senses an urgent need to teach Ivy “two qualities necessary for survival: self-reliance and opportunism.” So Ivy learns the skills of deception, which she uses as a child and teen to steal what she can’t afford, and then, when she’s an adult, to slip into the upper-crust world she’s always been obsessed with but never had full access to. But the flip side of deception is distrust, and when she starts dating Gideon, a local politician’s son and the very embodiment of privilege, she can’t stop second-guessing their relationship — especially when an unwelcome reminder of her past turns up on the first vacation she takes with Gideon’s family. —Arianna Rebolini
This Is All Your Fault by Aminah Mae Safi
Told in multiple POVs with big Empire Records vibes, three very different girls team up to save Wild Nights, their local indie bookstore. After Eli accidentally spends $9,000 of the store’s money on fake Air Jordans in a half-hearted attempt to try and raise money to save the shop, Rin, Daniella, and Imogen have 24 hours to try and fix his mistake, and save the store before it’s too late.
—Farrah Penn
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