Kelly McFarland
As we move into 2020, we decided to welcome in the new decade by taking a look at some of the absolute must-read YA books that are coming out this year!
Fearless! How to be your true, confident self- Liam Hackett
Release Date: 02 Jan 2020
Start your journey to becoming Fearless. A guide which gives you all the knowledge and tools to become your fearless, true and confident self. It aims to help young people be themselves, explaining how they can break free from labels and stereotypes to fearless and truly realize their full potential.
It was written by Liam Hackett, the founder and CEO of Ditch the Label, one of the largest anti-bullying charities in the world.
Release Date: 16 Jan 2020
Jade Khanjara and her three best friends rule their glittering LA circle. They control everything.
Until one night.
The night four boys spike Jade’s drink, lock her in a room and attack her. When they try to ruin her.
But they chose the wrong girl.
Jade is made of claws and fangs and cruel sharp edges. Jade will have them clutching at their throats and choking on blood.
She wants revenge. She has no mercy. And now she won’t rest until she gets satisfaction.
Release date: 21 Jan 2020
Meet Pepper, swim team captain, chronic overachiever, and all-around perfectionist. Her family may be falling apart, but their massive fast-food chain is booming — mainly thanks to Pepper, who is barely managing to juggle real life while secretly running Big League Burger’s massive Twitter account.
Enter Jack, class clown and a constant thorn in Pepper’s side. When he isn’t trying to duck out of his obscenely popular twin’s shadow, he’s busy working in his family’s deli. His relationship with the business that holds his future might be love/hate, but when Big League Burger steals his grandma’s iconic grilled cheese recipe, he’ll do whatever it takes to take them down, one tweet at a time.
All’s fair in love and cheese — that is, until Pepper and Jack’s spat turns into a viral Twitter war. Little do they know, while they’re publicly duking it out with snarky memes and retweet battles, they’re also falling for each other in real life — on an anonymous chat app Jack built.
As their relationship deepens and their online shenanigans escalate — people on the internet are shipping them?? — their battle gets more and more personal until even these two rivals can’t ignore they were destined for the most unexpected, awkward, all-the-feels romance that neither of them expected.
![Tweet Cute by [Lord, Emma]](https://images-eu.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51xXe2kJtHL.jpg)
Don’t Read The Comments- Eric Smith
Release date: 28 Jan 2020
Divya Sharma is a queen. Or she is when she’s playing Reclaim the Sun, the year’s hottest online game. Divya–better known as popular streaming gamer D1V–regularly leads her #AngstArmada on quests through the game’s vast and gorgeous virtual universe. But for Divya, this is more than just a game. Out in the real world, she’s trading her rising-star status for sponsorships to help her struggling single mom pay the rent.
Gaming is basically Aaron Jericho’s entire life. Much to his mother’s frustration, Aaron has zero interest in becoming a doctor like her, and spends his free time writing games for a local developer. At least he can escape into Reclaim the Sun–and with a trillion worlds to explore, disappearing should be easy. But to his surprise, he somehow ends up on the same remote planet as celebrity gamer D1V.
At home, Divya and Aaron grapple with their problems alone, but in the game, they have each other to face infinite new worlds…and the growing legion of trolls populating them. Soon the virtual harassment seeps into reality when a group called the Vox Populi begin launching real-world doxxing campaigns, threatening Aaron’s dreams and Divya’s actual life. The online trolls think they can drive her out of the game, but everything and everyone Divya cares about is on the line…
And she isn’t going down without a fight.
We sort of love books that feature the world of gaming at the moment. So we reckon this one’s going to be pretty good.
Jane Anonymous- Laurie Faria Stolarz
Release date: 1 Feb 2020
Jane Anonymous is a revelatory confessional of a seventeen-year-old girl’s fight to escape a kidnapper–and her struggles to connect with loved ones and a life that no longer exists.
Seven months.
That’s how long I was kept captive.
Locked in a room with a bed, refrigerator, and adjoining bathroom, I was instructed to eat, bathe, and behave. I received meals, laundered clothes, and toiletries through a cat door, never knowing if it was day or night. The last time I saw the face of my abductor was when he dragged me fighting from the trunk of his car. My only solace was Mason–one of the other kidnapped teens–and our pact to one day escape together. But when that day finally came, I had to leave him behind.
Now that I’m home, my parents and friends want everything to be like it was before I left. But they don’t understand that dining out and shopping trips can’t heal what’s broken inside me. I barely leave my bedroom. Therapists are clueless and condescending. So I start my own form of therapy–but writing about my experience awakens uncomfortable memories, ones that should’ve stayed buried.
When I ask the detectives assigned to my case about Mason, I get an answer I don’t believe–that there were no traces of any other kidnapped kids. But I distinctly remember the screams, holding hands with Mason through a hole in my wall, and sharing a chocolate bar. I don’t believe he wasn’t really there and I’m determined to find him. How far will I have to go to uncover the truth of what happened–and will it break me forever?
Release date: 1 Feb 2020
When Nina decides to take a radio broadcasting class her senior year, she expects it to be a walk in the park. Instead, it’s a complete disaster.
The members of Nina’s haphazardly formed radio team have approximately nothing in common. And to maximize the awkwardness her group includes Jamie, a childhood friend she’d hoped to basically avoid for the rest of her life.
The show is a mess, internet rumours threaten to bring the wrath of two fandoms down on their heads, and to top it all off Nina’s family is on the brink of some major upheaval.
Everything feels like it’s spiralling out of control–but maybe control is overrated?
The Gravity of Us- Phil Stamper
Release date: 4 Feb 2020
Cal wants to be a journalist, and he’s already well underway with almost half a million followers on his FlashFame app and an upcoming internship at Buzzfeed. But his plans are derailed when his pilot father is selected for a highly-publicized NASA mission to Mars. Within days, Cal and his parents leave Brooklyn for hot and humid Houston.
With the entire nation desperate for any new information about the astronauts, Cal finds himself thrust in the middle of a media circus. Suddenly his life is more like a reality TV show, with his constantly bickering parents struggling with their roles as the “perfect American family.”
And then Cal meets Leon, whose mother is another astronaut on the mission, and he finds himself falling head over heels–and fast. They become an oasis for each other amid the craziness of this whole experience. As their relationship grows, so does the frenzy surrounding the Mars mission, and when secrets are revealed about ulterior motives of the program, Cal must find a way to get to the truth without hurting the people who have become most important to him.
We Used to Be Friends- Amy Spalding
Release Date: 10 Feb 2020
Two best friends grow up and grow apart in this innovative contemporary YA novel This is one of those books that could turn out to be something many readers will relate to.
Told in dual timelines half of the chapters moving forward in time and half moving backwards. We Used to Be Friends explores the most traumatic breakup of all: that of childhood BFF’s.
At the start of their senior year in high school, James (a girl with a boy’s name) and Kat are inseparable, but by graduation, they re no longer friends. James prepares to head off to college as she reflects on the dissolution of her friendship with Kat while, in alternating chapters, Kat thinks about being newly in love with her first girlfriend and having a future that feels wide open. Over the course of senior year, Kat wants nothing more than James to continue to be her steady rock, as James worries that everything she believes about love and her future is a lie when her high-school sweetheart parents announce they are getting a divorce.
The New David Espinoza- Fred Aceves
Release date: 11 Feb 2020
David Espinoza is tired of being messed with. When a video of him getting knocked down by a bully’s slap goes viral at the end of junior year, David vows to use the summer to bulk up— do what it takes to become a man—and wow everyone when school starts again the fall.
Soon David is spending all his time and money at Iron Life, a nearby gym that’s full of bodybuilders. Frustrated with his slow progress, his life eventually becomes all about his muscle gains. As it says on the Iron Life wall, What does not kill me makes me stronger.
As David falls into the dark side of the bodybuilding world, pursuing his ideal body at all costs, he’ll have to grapple with the fact that it could actually cost him everything.
![the New David Espinoza by [Aceves, Fred]](https://images-eu.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41Q%2BOVtuG5L.jpg)
If Only You Knew- Prerna Pickett
Release date: 11 Feb 2020 (Kindle) 1 March 2020( Hardback)
Corey has just been released from jail, and all he wants is a new beginning. But when his former gang comes knocking, Corey agrees to vandalize the home of Kent Hopper, the prosecutor who put him away.
To erase the guilt she carries from getting away with a crime, Tessa spends most of her nights riding her motorcycle. When she catches Corey destroying her father’s car, she doesn’t see a criminal: She sees a way to finally right her own wrongs. So instead of turning Corey over to the police, she convinces her father to give Corey a second chance.
As Tessa and Corey spend more time with each other, it becomes difficult to ignore the pull between them. But they’re both keeping secrets, and when those secrets come to light, they’ll each have to face their demons in order to have a future together.
Release date: 07 April 2020
May is a survivor. But she doesn’t feel like one. She feels angry. And lost. And alone. Eleven months after the school shooting that killed her twin brother, May still doesn’t know why she was the only one to walk out of the band room that day. No one gets what she went through–no one saw and heard what she did. No one can possibly understand how it feels to be her.
Zach lost his old life when his mother decided to defend the shooter. His girlfriend dumped him, his friends bailed, and now he spends his time hanging out with his little sister…and the one faithful friend who stuck around. His best friend is needy and demanding, but he won’t let Zach disappear into himself. Which is how Zach ends up at band practice that night. The same night May goes with her best friend to audition for a new band.
Which is how May meets Zach. And how Zach meets May. And how both might figure out that surviving could be an option after all.
Release date: 5 May 2020
When King Jameson declares his love for Lady Hollis Brite, Hollis is shocked–and thrilled. After all, she’s grown up at Keresken Castle, vying for the king’s attention alongside other daughters of the nobility. Capturing his heart is a dream come true.
But Hollis soon realizes that falling in love with a king and being crowned queen may not be the happily ever after she thought it would be. And when she meets a commoner with the mysterious power to see right into her heart, she finds that the future she really wants is one that she never thought to imagine.
If you loved Keira Cass’s Selection books then this is one you should add to your to read list.
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (A Hunger Games Novel) – Suzanne Collins
Release date: 19 May 2020
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes will revisit the world of Panem sixty-four years before the events of The Hunger Games, starting on the morning of the reaping of the Tenth Hunger Games. It focuses on the life of President Snow when he was younger and is one of the most highly anticipated books to be released this year.
American Royals 2: Majesty- Katharine McGee
Release date: 3 Sept 2020
Beatrice Washington now rules America as its first-ever queen, but her family are more concerned about rushing through her arranged marriage to a man she barely knows. No one can know that her heart really belongs to her bodyguard – but even their love is under threat.
Meanwhile, Princess Samantha is under more scrutiny than ever before – and she still longs to be with her sister’s fiancee. But with no sign of Bea’s wedding being called off, she’s surprised to find someone else catching her eye.
Nina Gonzalez is also tangled up with someone she never expected to be. She and Ethan are both nursing broken hearts, and it’s not long before they find themselves pulled irresistibly together.
Luckily for Daphne Deighton, Prince Jeff’s grief for his father makes him a prime target for her attentions. She’s the closest she’s been in years to getting what she wants . . . so why can’t she let the idea of her and Ethan go?
What none of these four young women know is that a secret bigger than all of them is about to be revealed. One that will change the face of America forever . . .
We LOVE YA books that feature takes on modern royals and we were huge fans of the first book in the series so we cannot wait for this one.
What YA books are on your to-read list for 2020? Let us know at @Fuzzable!
