Happy Friday! We cannot wait to get this weekend started and crack open (and finish) a good book by the pool. This has been an exciting month here at City Lights Press and we’ve been lucky enough to bring you three great new books! Here’s a recap of the releases we’ve had this month in case you missed them!
A Perfect Fit by Sascha Illyvich
Happy first day of Summer! Now is the PERFECT time to lounge around and read any and everything you can get your hands on. Here are a few of our recommendations for YA books that you can’t miss out on this Summer!
My Summer Job is a YA Mystery that any Nancy Drew fan will love. The novel follows average teenager, Siobhan Murphy, through her adventures of landing her first job and everything that follows. Siobhan lands an assistant job for stylish Natasha Romanoff, everything seems to be going great until she uncovers the secrets behind Natasha’s business. Siobhan and her BFF Marcy put on their detective gear and find out the truth.
Sarah Dessen does it again with Once and For All, which fans everywhere have long been waiting for. The bestselling author gives us humor, entertainment, romance and of course, a happily-ever-after in this YA novel based around wedding planning.
Louna, daughter of famed wedding planner Natalie Barrett, gets a summer job helping brides plan their perfect day. Louna has been cynical about “happily-ever-afters” since her own first love ended tragically…that is until she meets Ambrose. Maybe this will be the second chance Louna has been waiting for.
Readers won’t be disappointed with Sarah Dessen’s 13th YA novel.
Readers are already calling In a Perfect World Trish Doller’s best book yet! Let’s just say, summer vacation, Egypt and romance, what more could we ask for?
Caroline Kelly was looking forward to spending her summer vacation with her best friend, exploring Ohio with her boyfriend, and attending soccer camp in hopes of making team captain her senior year. But Caroline’s mom is given the chance to open an eye clinic in Cairo, Egypt, ruining all of Caroline’s summer plans. Follow Caroline through her summer in Egypt while she explores the culture and meets a charming love interest.
“I know how to watch my back. I’m the only one that ever has.”
India Maxwell’s whole life changed when she moved to one of Boston’s wealthiest neighborhoods with her mom’s fiancée and his daughter, Eloise. India finds herself back on the bottom of the social ladder…a place she never thought she’d see again. Slowly, India befriends Eloise and grows closer to Eloise’s boyfriend, Finn. It is then she learns that everyone’s life is more complex than it first appears.
The Impossible Vastness of Us is a great YA book that reminds readers that everyone has their own struggles and secrets you know nothing about. Young does a great job at showing us you never really know someone until you find out their deepest secrets.
Not Alone is the debut novel from New England author, A.L. Flagg. Flagg thrives on making characters that readers will love and hate, she wants to make realities that you can get lost in. She wants to make you laugh and cry, and above all else she wants to be memorable.
Memorable is exactly what her new YA novel is. Eden L’Embrance is moved to a small town after she is brutally attacked and lost her family in a home invasion. She does a great job at staying isolated in her new home…that is until she meets Caleb Saint. Eden forms a friendship with Caleb and can’t help but fall for him. But then Eden learns terrible information about the invasion and her world starts to crumble around her.
Follow Eden on her journey and see if she is strong enough to face the truth or if she surrenders to the darkness that has been haunting her.
Fans of My Lady Jane, this one is for you! Full of humor, wit, friendship and romance, The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue is intriguing at every turn! This is a Historical Fiction YA novel that takes us on a Grand Tour of Europe in the 18th-Century.
With his father expecting him to take over the family’s estate, Monty embarks on a Grand Tour of Europe with his best friend Percy. Monty vows to make this yearlong escapade his one last selfish hurrah before his quests for pleasure and vice come to an end. Suddenly, one of Monty’s reckless decisions turns their trip abroad into a harrowing manhunt (cue the pirates!) and Monty crushing on his travel companion, Percy.
This book encompasses everything you could ask for with historical tropes, diversity, queer representation and feminism.
Debut novelist Laura Silverman gives us a realistic summer novel that anyone who likes contemporary YA is sure to enjoy. Anise can’t wait to spend the summer before her senior year doing what she loves, surfing and hanging out on the Santa Cruz beach with her friends. But Anise must say goodbye to beautiful California and all her summer plans when her aunt is in a serious car accident. Anise heads to Nebraska where she soon meets Lincoln, a charismatic one-armed skater.
Fans of Jenny Han, Morgan Matson and Sarah Dessen will fall in love with this summer novel about finding yourself and finding love in unexpected places.
Sometimes a new perspective is all that is needed to make sense of the world.
Everyone is surprised when a friendship is sparked between popular Kit Lowell and socially isolated David Drucker. When Kit asks for David’s help in figuring out the details of her dad’s tragic car accident he’s all in. But can their friendship survive the truth that they’ll discover?
Where to start with this one?! Although it sounds like the cliché high school story, the characters are so raw and realistic. What To Say Next is heartwarming and heartbreaking all at the same time.
City Lights Press 
Lauren