Stoked for This

Stoked for This: May

/ Alisha Helms / Leave a comment

May 6, 2025

All I really needed to know about this myself was the author: Fredrik Backman. No other author has been able to write the way he does about the human experience that has yet to hit as hard as his word do (at least to me). Even the most mundane things forms a connection and makes me feel seen. Anywho, this is his latest book.

My Friends

By: Fredrik Backman

A graphic novel filled with magic, hidden truths, and self-discovery.

Espada: The Will of the Blade

By: Anabel Colazo

I’m honestly not sure if I’m as excited for this one or more curious to see where it goes. The first book in the series was just “okay” for me, but other readers have given it high praise. I’m just wondering what in the world is going to happen.

Snowglobe 2

By: Soyoung Park

Translated By: Joungmin Lee Comfort

May 13. 2025

Yet another water world apocalyptic novel, this time in flooded San Francisco with a caregiver and her 130-year-old woman she cares for.

Awake in the Floating City

By: Susanna Kwan

Middle grade ghost story set in the 1960’s during summer camp with creepy woods and mysterious music.

The Mystery of the Haunted Dance Hall

By: Charis Cotter

A young readers adaptation of “An Immense World” that I read for a gust book group facilitator last year. That book took me some time to read, but I enjoyed all the connections I made with it. I mostly want to flip through this and see the photos 🙂

An Immense World (Young Readers Edition)

By: Ed Yong

After a super storm wipes out an important bridge from her remote town, Addy must ask for help from others (something she hasn’t done in a long time) in order to get to her summer camp she’s been waiting to go to.

Into the Rapids

By: Ann Braden

May 20, 2025

This one teased that it combines “Under the Whispering Door” (TJ Klune) with the high-stakes culinary world of “Sweetbitter” (Stephanie Danler). You all know I love me some TJ Klune, so of course I want to check this one out. This also has a premise of eating a meal one last time with someone you lost, and like, I may cry?!

After Taste

By: Daria Lavelle

Jonathan Van Ness and Julie Murphy team up in this New Adult novel about a gender-nonconforming eighteen-year-old testing their wings in the big city with a ghost of a drag performer from the fifties.

Let Them Stare

By: Jonathan Van Ness & Julie Murphy

May 27, 202

In this upper middle grade novel, Leta struggles with food insecurity. Her mom is already working two jobs and has a hard enough time keeping food on the table, so they end up with a lot of fast food. Leta works hard to keep her top spot on the track team, but when she gets sidelined with an injury, she refuses to admit just how much pain she is in as she fights to not be forgettable.

The Unforgettable Leta “Lightning” Laurel

By: R.L. Toalson

This one may be a little out there but stick with me here. Twenty years ago, the members of a reclusive commune outside Philly vanish without a trace, leaving behind a twelve-year-old girl wandering around alone. When a stranger shows up at Lee’s door all these years later with “answers”, she must decide if the truth is worth shattering her life.

The Ascent

By: Allison Buccola

This is just a fun historical novel about a young woman writer defying societal norms in 1880s with not only her fictional worlds but her journalism. When on a job covering a brewing civil war in Chile Emilia finds herself in danger and at a crossroads, questioning both her identity and her destiny.

My Name is Emilia del Valle

By: Isabel Allende

Stoked for This: April 2025

/ Alisha Helms / Leave a comment

Y’all, it’s my birthday month so you can bet we’ve got some good stuff coming out! If you’ve been around for a bit, you’ll see some familiar authors I’ve enjoyed in the past and, as always, a few debut authors I can’t wait to see their talent.

April 1, 2025

From author Laurie Halse Anderson comes a historical middle grade fiction about thirteen-year-old Elsbeth Culpepper during the spring of 1776 struggling to survive not only the Revolutionary War but the smallpox epidemic as she searches for her missing father.

Rebellion 1776

By: Laurie Halse Anderson

Back with her third graphic novel, Huda Fahmy is ready for junior year – she’s going to join all the clubs, volunteer everywhere, and ace her ACTs but then she gets the news of her parents divorce and everything goes downhill from there.

Huda F Wants to Know?

By: Huda Fahmy

A Chinese-Filipino teenager whose world of daydreams is destroyed by a family secret that portrays the pains of growing up in this lyrical, mythology-tinged debut novel.

Sunlight Playing over a Mountain

By: Selina Li Bi

Video games, queer friends, and set in both 1998 and 2013 need any more information?

A/S/L

By: Jeanne Thornton

What else would you do after hearing about your terminal illness other than road trip to kill your estranged father?

Bad Nature

By: Ariel Courage

After the street cat, Cat, get sick in a Brooklyn, five strangers from around the neighborhood come together to help him.

Cat’s People

By: Tanya Guerrero

If you could completely erase your memories of a person, would you do it? What if a chance encounter later on makes you want your memories back?

Meet Me at Blue Hour

By: Sarah Suk

Three girls just found out they were dating the same guy, basketball star, Nate. After Nate is found bloodied and unconscious in the locker room after the big game, the girls are prime suspects. Now, they much form an alliance together to clear their name.

The Payback Girls

By: Alex Travis

April 8, 2025

Ollie is stuck between everything. They’re too girlie for their neighborhood hockey team, but not girlie enough for their boy crazy BFF, and when they have to write about “What it means to be a woman” they’re caught between fleeing and confronting their own fight for their own path.

Ollie In Between

By: Jess Callans

It’s 1954 and a former nun arrives at Gulls Next in search of answers after her pen pal’s letter mysteriously stops.

Murder at Gulls Nest

By: Jess Kidd

April 15, 2025

After a school shooting, Bea, a girl with cerebral palsy who uses a wheelchair must navigate the trauma in a world that wasn’t built for her.

Please Pay Attention

By: Jamie Sumner

I got an ARC of this one and you can read my review here 🙂

April 22, 2025

Lucretia and her mom have come to the tiny Candle Island, Maine to escape the memories of the car accident that killed her father. But the island has its own secrets, one that capture Lucretia in their wake.

Candle Island

By: Lauren Wolk

April 29, 2025

Imagine Pokémon, but with dragons and phoenixes in the skies of Seoul, meals magically appear based on your moon, and dream literally come to life.

Dreamslinger

By: Graci Kim

What would you do if you moved into a rental house with thirty feral cats? And, how would caring for them open the door for saving your home?

Poets Square: A Memoir in Thirty Cats

By: Courtney Gustafson

The sequel to Abeni’s Song where Abeni faces new challenges as she seeks to bring back the Golden Throne, evade the Witch Preist’s hunters, and find the disappeared people of her village.

Abeni and the Kingdom of Gold

By: P. Djèlí Clark

Stoked For This: March 2025

/ Alisha Helms / Leave a comment

So this month is really gearing up for Poetry Month (April). Why? Because there are quite a few novel-in-verse books I’m stoked to be coming out! For a girlie who doesn’t really care too much for poetry itself, I will devour novel-in-verse books one after another. What are y’alls feelings towards Novel-in-Verses? Have you read them yet? What’s been your favorite??

Oh! – There’s also a new release from Georgia Hunter, an author I really enjoyed reading last year – I actually started it yesterday and so far so good!

March 4, 2025

A middle grade novel about 13-year-old Mo and his father’s fits of rage. This novel explores the impact of mental health on families.

The Strongest Heart

By: Saadia Faruqi

Author of “We Were the Lucky Ones” returns with the story of two friends during war torn Italy in the 1940’s and what they will do to not only survive, but to protect those they love.

One Good Thing

By: Georgia Hunter

This witchy romantasy where Charmed meets Gilmore Girls.

Spells, Strings, and Forgotten Things

By: Breanne Randall

The newest graphic novel from K. O’Neill – that’s all I should really have to say! But, for just a tiny bit more: A ranger always protects, but what if they fail and get someone hurt?

A Song for You & I

By: K. O’Neill

March 11, 2025

A middle grade novel-in-verse that follows J, a young transgender from fifth grade to seventh grade as they use the video game, Coaster Boss, to help with their ADHD, isolation, and their relationship with their gender.

Glitch Girl!

By: Rainie Oet

March 18, 2025

After getting a tarot card reading from her best friend for her birthday, Camila struggles with the fear of the future.

Camila Núñez’s Year of Disasters

By: Miriam Zoila Perez

March 25, 2025

Told through the narration of the last residential building on its street – yes, the building known as the Odenburgh – works together with 12-year-old tenant, Prue to save the building from being demolished.

Once for Yes

By: Allie Millington

A novel-in-verse novel about Pearl as she struggles with depression as she tries to adjust to the fifth grade.

Octopus Moon

By: Bobbie Pyron

A Young Adult novel-in-verse about Diego and his best friend Lawson as the lines of loyalty are tested between them.

When We Ride

By: Rex Ogle

My Week Late, Stoked For This: January 2025

/ Alisha Helms / Leave a comment

I know I’m a week (and a day) late in this, and there will be loads of books already out – but that means there’s loads more books already out (Trying to be a bit more positive this year)! I tried to get this done yesterday, but stuff happened and I couldn’t get back to this.

I’m also going to try something new with my formatting of this series. Let me know what you think! Do you like the new way? Prefer the old way? Have no comments or concerns?

January 7, 2025

Amber arrives home one spring afternoon on her bike. As soon as her mother sees her, she screams. Why? Because Amber’s been dead seven years – hit by a car on the very bike she pulled up to the house in.

After Life

By: Gayle Forman

Bletchley Park. London. 1923. Dragons soar through the skies, but Vivian Featherswallow isn’t worried, she’s going to study the dragon language and make sure her little sister doesn’t have to grow up in Third Class. But by midnight, civil war has started. Viv is recruited for a codebreaker job to save her family – but the more she learns, the harder it is for her to distinguish what what war she’s actually fighting.

A Language of Dragons

By: S.F. Williamson

A dystopian, water covered world where a family tries to save the history of humans while creating a settlement on top of New York City’s National History Museum.

All the Water in the World

By: Eiren Caffall

A sapphic YA debut novel that follows two girls has they fall in love, fighting for survival in an abandoned bookstore.

The Last Bookstore on Earth

By: Lily Braun-Arnold

January 14, 2025

Written in prose and verse, this YA novel following sixteen-year-old Carmela as she’s finally able to help in her mother’s apothecary in the Campo Marzio neighborhood of Rome. But the workroom is no simple place, for every simple ingredient, there is else even less pleasant, and Carmela begins to find out the secrets she never bargained for.

Everything Is Poison

By: Joy McCullough

What would you do if you found a magical bookstore that transports you back through time to be face-to-face with your teenage self?

The In-Between Bookstore

By: Edward Underhill

A multi-level, page turning murder novel about pyramid schemes.

Death in the Downline

By: Maria Abrams

January 21, 2025

Ex-Chicago detective Carrie Starr is now at the reservation where her father grew up: they need a new tribal marshal to help with the women who have disappeared from the rez. Now, local college student is missing and Starr begins drown in memories of her own daughter’s murder. As she works on the cases, Starr can’t shake the feeling of a fearsome spirit watching her, one of a woman with antlers of a deer.

Mask of the Deer Woman

By: Laurie L. Dove