New YA Book Releases This Week, May 7, 2025

Small town Idlewood, Indiana is fueled by rumors, as well as stories of long-time curses. Many believe that the De Luca family are witches and that they cursed the Barrion family decades ago over a bad romance. The curse? Any time anyone falls in love with a Barrion, that person will die.

Penny prefers to avoid both families just to be safe. But her life gets intricately dangled in the rumors when her mom falls victim to the Barrion curse.

Penny does not want to lose her mom forever. So now it’s up to her to find a way to break the curse by working with the high school quarterback Corey Barrion and rumored-witch Alonso De Luca. But as they work together, something becomes more and more confusing: maybe there was no curse at all.

For readers who love portal world stories, add this one to your list.

Jolie Lam is a social outcast, thanks to two things. First, a random freakout at a swim meet last year. Second, her grandmother is a fortuneteller who has spun stories of dragons and earthquakes.

Jolie’s fortune and lot in the social structure change, though, when she steps in and helps shake bizarre visions that queen bee Huong Pham experiences. Huong decides Jolie is worth befriending and before long, the two discover that together, they have a few huge powers. They’re telepathic, for one, and they’re also suddenly fluent in Vietnamese. But the vision that brought them together wasn’t an accident either. Both girls are being haunted by strange things, and it doesn’t take long for them to realize these visions are because they’re both related to some powerful ancient Vietnamese queens and goddesses.

Together, they’ll need to travel through several portals and visions to figure out what is and isn’t true about their past. For Jolie, this won’t just be about connecting her past to her present. It’ll also be about discovering whether or not someone she believes is a friend or is someone with a sinister plan.

New Helvetia High’s most elite friend group is The Thrashers. Everyone wants to be them or be seen with them, but few are given the chance.

Jodi didn’t think she was meant to be a Thrasher, but she’s been long-time friends with Zack, one of the most infamous members of the group. That’s her in.

So when Emily, a classmate who was desperate to be part of the group, winds up dead, fingers point to the Thrashers. But it gets worse. Emily’s journal has been found, and it is really hard for Jodi to sit in the place between not wanting to be part of the group and the reality that she might be connected with them over what happened.

Worse? Weird things are happening. It’s clear that even if Emily might be dead physically, someone is sending them all a message.

This is Soto’s first foray into YA, and the book has earned favorable comparisons to the work of thriller queens Karen M. McManus and Kara Thomas.

This fast-paced, edge-of-your-seat, dual point of view thriller follows Cooper. He’s been hanging out with Jason, who has now pressured Cooper into a little light looting during a local march. When gunshots are fired, Cooper and his friends become the subject of the news, which has shown photos of them in ski masks near the scene.

While Cooper worries that he’s about to see the police, the police have gone elsewhere. Jason’s been taken into custody, and now, Jason’s sister–and Cooper’s long-time crush–must team up to clear everyone’s names.

As the two grow closer in their work, feelings between them begin to emerge. But there’s a big problem among so many other big problems: Cooper isn’t being truthful with Jason’s sister about where he was the day of the murder for which her brother is currently under arrest.

Talia’s been forced to live with her aunt’s family, including her cousin Lake, with whom Talia has absolutely nothing in common. Through flashbacks, Talia’s story slowly begins to unfold, explaining why and how she ended up in this living arrangement–and where and how she plans on escaping. 

alia’s mom founded a cult atop a mountain in the Catskills, and it was a cult that only invited women to be part of its world. Her mom founded it for good reason–rage, anger, injustice, a desire for a community that cared about women–but the settlement had so much mysterious around it, even for Talia who grew up there. 

Suma does a fantastic job of world-building and her settings are lush and evocative. Talia is a complex character, forced to navigate her before atop the mountain community she grew up in with the new life at her aunt’s house, stumbling through what it is to be a “typical” high schooler. She’s ANGRY but that anger is a necessary driver for her. She uses it to unpack her past in order to build a future. . . and it’s one that will involve her cousin Lake, despite their initial hesitations toward one another. 

If you love cult stories, this is going to be your jam.

This book is very, very gay. That’s the point.

Set over one hot summer, Mac begins his summer trying to avoid his dad’s toxicity and finds some luck in Cammy, his first-ever gay friend. Much as Mac loves that he can be his true self around Cammy, Cammy is a little too harsh sometimes.

But the summer keeps unlocking magic as Mac meets Flor, who shows Mac how to strike a balance between being fierce and being kind. Then there’s Mikey who is super hot and who might also reciprocate Mac’s feelings.

It’s a transformative summer for Mac, who learns how to lean into who he is and forge relationships that are meant to both challenge and comfort him.

This paperback original sounds like it is a bit of a combination of Kristina Forest’s Now That I’ve Found You and the movie Groundhog Day. In other words, this is my catnip.

Sydney is stopping for breakfast to prolong the inevitable failing grade she anticipates on her big exam. At breakfast, she runs into, quite literally, the cutest boy she’s seen in a while, Marcus.

Marcus asks if Sydney wants to skip school all together and chill with him for the morning. She says yes, and that breakfast then becomes a day-long adventure throughout the streets of New York City. There’s chemistry between them, that’s for sure.

But when the day’s fun comes to a close, something happens. Sydney can’t remember much more than the sirens, the headlights, the pain.

When she wakes up, it’s once again September 24, the day of her big exam.

A murder-y theme park? Yes, please.

Everything’s coming up Billie this year, as she’s got some sweet friends, a crush who seems into her, and she’s being promoted to ride operator at the theme park where she works. This promotion isn’t just to any old ride, though. It’s to the park’s hottest new attraction.

Things go south that first night, though, as one of Billie’s creepy coworkers dies on the ride. She wasn’t yet supposed to be operating it, so there’s no way Billie was responsible. This is especially true because it looks like her coworker had a heart attack.

Or did he?

Now Billie is recruiting her friends to solve the mystery of what happened while the park is closed for the night. Time will tell if Billie or her friends are the next victims of whoever or whatever is out for blood.