The domination of romantasy continues with the March and April young adult releases. There’s very little science fiction, some horror, and a whole lotta fantasy, most of which is of the romance variety. If you want a book about friends doing heists or space opera, good luck to you. And if you want smooching in fantasylands, your TBR is about to explode. Here are the 18 new young adult books I’m most excited for this spring.
Love Is in the Air
Roll for Love by M.K. England
This may be more speculative adjacent than full-on fantasy, but I couldn’t resist a sweet, queer romance about two teen Dungeons & Dragons players. Harper’s mom drags her away from Portland, Oregon to nowheresville Virginia after the death of Harper’s grandfather. It’s her senior year of high school, but Harper isn’t college apps obsessed like everyone else. Fortunately, she’s able to distract herself by joining a new D&D crew, the Gay Barn. The romance blooming between the fictional barbarian and paladin seeps into the real world, but Harper and Ollie have some personal issues to work through first. (Running Press Kids; April 8, 2025)
Love at Second Sight by F.T. Lukens
High school sophomore Cam just wants a normal life…as normal as life can be when your best friend is a witch, your crush is a werewolf, and you can see the future. When he sees a vision of the murder of a young woman, Cam puts his new abilities to the test. He’ll have to figure out who both the victim and the killer are and stop the latter before it’s too late. Not to mention dealing with all the unwanted attention from being the first clairvoyant in ages and having every magical group in town trying to get him to join. (Margaret K. McElderry Books; April 29, 2025)
Dark Academia
Lovely Dark and Deep by Elisa A. Bonnin
It’s Faith’s final year of school on the hidden magical island of Ellery West. Life has been challenging enough as an immigrant at the school, worse now that the administration has “red striped” her to warn the other kids away. Last year, she and another student entered the woods surrounding the school, and only she walked back out. Another trespass and Faith risks being expelled and having her magic taken away permanently. She and the other Red Stripe students bond in their outcast status and work to confront the school’s racist past. (Feiwel & Friends; March 25, 2025)
Thrills & Chills
I Am Made of Death by Kelly Andrew
Thomas, the hearing son of Deaf parents, is hired as a sign language interpreter for the Farrow family. Vivienne is selectively mute after being possessed as a child and developing a voice so powerful it can kill. Really, he’s there to spy on Vivienne for her distrustful parents. His interference makes it harder for her to enact her plan to free her body and voice. As the two teens grow closer, her long awaited exorcism becomes more and more within reach. If “horromance” is the new shiny new marketing label, this is a good example of it. (Scholastic Press; March 4, 2025)
They Bloom at Night by Trang Thanh Tran
Almost two years ago, the town of Mercy, Louisiana was devastated by a hurricane. In its wake, a mysterious red algae has bloomed, covering everything in a mutating goo. Convinced her son and husband were transformed into sea monsters, Noon’s mother drags her surviving daughter along and she sails her old shrimp trawler through the cove looking for them. Noon is strongarmed into taking a gig from a local, crooked rich guy. He is convinced a mutant monster is killing people in Mercy and hires Noon to go with his daughter, Covey, to hunt it down. (Bloomsbury YA; March 4, 2025)
How to Survive a Slasher by Justine Pucella Winans
Teen slashers are back, baby! CJ Smith lives in Satterville, aka Slasherville. In 1996, their father was the only survivor of a killing spree at a summer camp only to get murdered by a second wave of attacks six years ago. Moon Satter, a popular true crime writer, sends CJ a manuscript for a new book, a book whose plot points are now coming true. CJ is determined not to become the next Smith who gets killed, but saving their life may mean sacrificing someone else’s. (Bloomsbury YA; March 11, 2025)
Deadstream by Mar Romasco-Moore
Theresa, an agoraphobic teen, hasn’t left her bedroom since barely surviving the car accident that claimed the life of her best friend. Now she spends her time livestreaming with an online queer community. After witnessing the livestreamed murder of another streamer, the attacker begins to haunt Theresa’s internet life. Peppered with DMs, chats, texts, forum posts, and social media threads, this unconventional story ramps up the horror right quick. (Viking Books for Young Readers; April 1, 2025)
Magic with a Twist
Divining the Leaves by Shveta Thakrar
Nature-obsessed Ridhi Kapadia loves making perfume in her spare time and believes in magic no matter how much her classmates tease her about it. Nilesh Batra, cool, rich, and popular, dropped Ridhi as a friend over her quirks, but after his parents split up he’s dumped at the Kapadias’ door. The teens are offered a fantastical life in the magical realm of the yakshas, woodland spirits from Hindu and Buddhist folklore, but bargaining with magic creatures is always a risky thing. (HarperCollins; March 4, 2025)
Somadina by Akwaeke Emezi
Twins Sọmadịna and Jayaike are inseparable. That bond is not only because they’re twins but also because they’re so different from everyone else. Magic keeps their bodies from maturing like other kids their age, and when the god Ala belatedly grants their coming-of-age abilities, they become dangerously powerful. A wicked hunter, lured in by their newfound power, kidnaps Jayaike. To get him back, Sọmadịna must confront past choices her parents refuse to acknowledge. Her older sister, Nkadi, who left to train as a dịbịa, is there to guide her, but the real battle is hers alone to fight. (Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers; April 15, 2025)
Folklore & Mythology
Oathbound by Tracy Deonn (The Legendborn Cycle #3)
The highly anticipated conclusion to the Legendborn Cycle opens with Bree Matthews captured by the Shadow King. Her battles in the first two books, the friends and family she lost, it all comes down to this. The Shadow King wants her power and she needs him to learn how to use it, so she makes a deal with a literal demon. Selwyn has vanished, consumed by demonia, Nick is an outcast in his own Order, and the other Scions are lost at sea without a leader to guide them. Bree better figure her magic out soon or more Merlins are going to die and Selwyn and Nick will be lost forever. Inspired by King Arthur mythology. (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers; March 4, 2025)
The Floating World by Axie Oh (The Floating World #1)
This remix of the Celestial Maidens story from Korean folklore centers on two very different teens tormented by their pasts. As a child, Ren escaped her birthplace and was taken in by traveling acrobats. Sunho knows nothing about his life before a few years ago, just his name, that he was a soldier, and that his brother is out there somewhere. During a demon attack, Ren discovers she has magical powers, the same powers Sunho is hired to track down. The secrets of their pasts tangle the two teens together in ways they don’t yet understand. (Feiwel & Friends; April 29, 2025)
Death Is Not the End
His Mortal Demise by Vanessa Le (The Last Bloodcarver #2)
Nhika is a bloodcarver who can change human biology. She’s in love with Kochin, a heartsooth, who can heal any wound except death. She’s also dead. Somehow Kochin figures out how to bring her back, but the cost may be too great for him to bear. Nhika sets off on a quest through Theumas, their homeland currently engulfed in war, to find him. Also, have you seen that cover? Wow! (Roaring Brook Press; March 18, 2025)
The Coven Tendency by Zoe Hana Mikuta
The Adams are one of three families owned by a Museum. Teens like Vanity have their magic sedated and their bodies isolated from other witches for fear they become unstable. Adults like her parents are trotted out every night to perform a Spectacle to resurrect the dead as gaudy entertainment. Vanity may not like her life, but it’s better than the alternative: forced into a coma and having her magic drained to make a drug for the wealthy. But when Vanity crosses paths with two other Museum teens, violence ensues. Her mind fractures as her powers get wilder. (Disney Hyperion; April 1, 2025)
Chaos King by Kacen Callender (Infinity Alchemist #2)
In the first book, Infinity Alchemist, Ash helped fight back against his cruel father to protect New Anglia. Now he can’t stop thinking about all that violence. He keeps having nightmares of his dead mother warning him of terrible events still to come. As a wave of anti-alchemist sentiment crashes through New Anglia, Ash, one of those beleaguered alchemists, is kidnapped by dangerous activists. Ash and his partners Callum and Ramsay are going to have to fight for each other and the world. (Tor Teen; April 15, 2025)
The Summer I Ate the Rich by Maika Moulite & Maritza Moulite
Brielle is a zonbi (Haitian Creole for “zombie”) who loves to cook. Her chronically ill mother’s health insurance claim is denied, so Brielle maneuvers herself into a job working for a fabulously wealthy family. With a The Menu-like twist, Brielle uses her cooking skills to balance the scales on the rich jerks who relish making the world worse. It sounds entertaining, but that title is all I needed to know. Immediately yes. (Farrar, Straus and Giroux Books for Young Readers; April 22, 2025)
In It to Win It
Fable for the End of the World by Ava Reid
Caerus is ruled by an authoritarian corporation. When its citizens fall too far into debt, they’re forced to pay it off by sending a loved one into the Gauntlet, a livestreamed competition where sacrificial Lambs try to survive the genetically modified killers called Angels. Inesa is sent to the Gauntlet as punishment for her mother’s debt. She’s hunted by Melinoë, a vicious killing machine who needs to win back favor from her employers or face a dark, short future. As the two girls race across the apocalyptic wasteland that is Caerus, their fates are intertwined by death and love. (HarperCollins; March 4, 2025)
Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins (The Hunger Games #.5)
We’re in prequel territory with this one. Haymitch Abernathy is a teen in District 12 during the 50th anniversary of the deadly competition. He and three other teens are selected and sent to the Capitol to fight to the death. I mean, it’s Suzanne Collins with another Hunger Games book. What else do you need to know? (Scholastic Press; March 18, 2025)
Children of Useyi by Moses Ose Utomi (Sisters of the Mud #2)
After the last Bowing competition, Dirt is thriving on success. With a new leadership role and a growing community of warriors in training, things are looking up. She lives with other elite female fighters on the Mud Farm, a village on the Isle. There are no adults there, not for longer than anyone can remember. Which makes it all the more surprising when an adult man, Mister Odo, washes ashore. He claims to be from the same land where all people go once they have their rite of passage and grow up. A new competition with a huge prize is tempting, but first they’ll have to stop the monsters from killing everyone. (Atheneum Books for Young Readers; March 25, 2025)
