Katie McGarry’s debut novel has everything a summer romance for teens should: compelling characters, an intriguing plot, sparkling dialogue and plenty of suspense.

Pushing the Limits is told by two high school seniors who could not be more different. Echo is trying to emerge into “normalcy” after a series of traumas: Her brother died in Afghanistan; she is repressing a terrible incident with her mother; and her new stepmother (and former babysitter) is pregnant. Furthermore, Echo’s father has pushed her away from the art classes she loves. 

At least Echo has a stable home. When her new counselor assigns her to tutor Noah, she’s unsure about getting involved with a reputed stoner. Noah, for his part, is also struggling to overcome the death of his parents, which separated him from his younger brothers and changed their lives forever.

Echo and Noah may be facing intense life situations, but their story is full of insightful humor and a cast of engaging characters. Pushing the Limits is an accomplished debut, a perfect choice for readers who thrive on edgy, riveting storytelling.

Fingerprints of You opens on Lemon’s 17th birthday, which her mom, Stella, is celebrating by getting herself a new tattoo. After a lifetime of being dragged from place to place in the wake of Stella’s bad decisions inspired by bad men, Lemon wants to differentiate herself from the mother she sees as “made of metal and glass.” Lacking a better role model, she does so by hooking up with her mom’s tattoo artist and ending up pregnant.

Author Kristen-Paige Madonia brings poetry to the down-but-not-out Stella and Lemon. When Lemon rides a bus cross-country in search of her absentee dad, she can finally loosen up and explore an age-appropriate romance (ironic belly bump notwithstanding). Lemon’s first impressions of San Francisco’s Mission District include “the smells of marinara and car fumes and something dank and wet seeping from the street drains,” along with the many small kindnesses from neighbors in an overwhelming landscape. Those little lessons pay forward into Lemon’s budding relationship with her dad and help her forge some peace with Stella.

At its heart, Fingerprints of You is the tale of Lemon’s liberation from a too-young adulthood and her emancipation back into youth. At the beginning of the book Stella jokes that she chose the name “Lemon” because her daughter was bitter; later she admits to being drawn to it because, “That yellow looked like hope to me.” Lemon’s trip is a tough one, but by the end she’s found a new path that owes as much to the hardships she’s seen as to her mother’s once-invisible but nevertheless enduring love.

Rachel Greenberg’s parents are on the edge of divorce, her former best friend Alexis is barely speaking to her, her grandmother’s health is fading—and while she’s theoretically almost-dating handsome, athletic Jake, something about the rabbi’s son, Adam, is totally irresistible.

Arriving early at her synagogue one day, Rachel accidentally hears an encounter that overturns everything she thought she knew about someone she trusted. She must come to terms with the secret and what it means for her own beliefs.

Rachel doesn’t always make the right choices—particularly when it comes to sneaking out of Friday night services or exacting revenge on a friend. However, her sense of morality, shaped by her religious heritage, leads her to well intended—if stumbling—attempts to make amends. Perhaps resolving these internal conflicts can help her find peace with her external ones as well.

Printz Honor-winning author Deborah Heiligman’s Intentions is suffused with the traditions of Reform Judaism. For readers who have struggled with Judaism’s views on God and personal responsibility, Intentions is a mirror that will validate their own experiences; for others, it’s a window to the landscape of an unfamiliar world. Intentions is a unique and welcome addition to the world of young adult literature.

Seventeen-year-old David Ellison and his fellow Oak Fields Prep classmates are expected to apply to nearby Stanford and the Ivies. His parents have even hired an independent consultant, or “college narrative coach,” to help with the process. As the star in his school’s stage adaptation of The Great Gatsby, David would rather attend Juilliard. If only his college choice were his only problem. He’s never questioned his two-year relationship with smart, attractive Ellen until he has to share a kissing scene with sexy new student Vanessa, who also has a secret past.

Author Coert Voorhees recreates the turmoil of high school and the allure of drama as David tries to decide which side is stronger in the love triangle he’s entered. In this first-person narration, punctuated with snappy dialogue and plenty of angst, the perplexed teen grapples with success (or perhaps his own fantasies) and honesty (or perhaps the truth others want to hear). Instead of playing another role and simply becoming a character, he begins to experience the intensity of life firsthand.

Adding a layer of mystery to this realistic novel are the titillating bulletin board attacks signed by “The Artist.” No one is immune from his (or her) outing of posers, fakes and liars throughout the school. Students who have studied F. Scott Fitzgerald will find similar themes, especially concerning the future we create for ourselves. Teens, whether or not Gatsby fans, will enjoy pondering David’s dilemmas and the series of choices he makes along the way.

In Seraphina’s world, dragons can take the shape of humans. Mathematical creatures by nature, dragons perceive the human world much like Mr. Spock on "Star Trek": logically and literally. While dragons and humans may coexist, their relationship is one of distrust and suspicion. Dragons’ speech and actions betray no human emotions, and they are forbidden from falling in love with humans.

A talented palace musician, Seraphina is half-dragon, a secret she must vehemently protect. Thus, her isolation is her greatest protector—until she befriends Prince Lucian Kiggs and gets caught up in the investigation of his uncle’s death. Prince Lucian is quick to see through Seraphina’s lies, and when she suspects a larger conspiracy, hiding her true identity becomes nearly impossible. Like her dragon mother, Seraphina must decide if she is willing to sacrifice self-preservation for love.

Debut novelist Rachel Hartman has created a unique and imaginative fantasy kingdom. Her world-building is so detailed and well-integrated, each character and place so well-drawn, one wonders if they truly exist somewhere. Seraphina is a strong heroine, a young woman who straddles both the dragon and human worlds but is welcomed by neither. Her talent and intellect are matched only by Prince Lucian, and yet she feels unworthy of him—a sentiment with which most readers will empathize. The novel ends with new conflict, so readers can expect more from the talented Hartman.

Endorsed by fantasy powerhouses such as Christopher Paolini and Tamora Pierce, Seraphina is an engaging and innovative fantasy that uses the plights of dragons and humans as an allegory for the real prejudices we all must face.

Lexi and Taylor have been best friends since kindergarten, and even if Taylor is rich and has the best clothes and haircut, Lexi knows she has something even more desirable: a beautiful face.

During their fifteenth summer, Lexi’s life is changed forever when she goes through the windshield of a car driven by Taylor’s brother. Lexi’s shattered world and ruined features are bad enough, but even worse is her memory of what happened just before the accident, when Taylor betrayed their friendship and Lexi’s trust.

Lexi wishes she could break every mirror in the world. Without her best friend for support, she is lost. When high school starts in the fall, Lexi refuses to leave her room and can’t talk to her parents—especially her mother, who is disappointed that Lexi will never be a beauty queen.

Lexi gets no sympathy from her older sister, Ruthie, who has never been popular or pretty. Instead, Ruthie challenges her little sister: “If you hate your life so much, stop wallowing and change it. Change yourself. No one’s going to do it for you.”

Slowly, with help from Ruthie and a boy named Theo, who has also had to cope with a terrible loss, Lexi does just that. Instead of beauty pageants, she takes up a hobby she could never have imagined. At a time when popularity and self-worth are closely tied to appearances, Lexi is forced to see the world—and herself—with new eyes.

My Life in Black and White is a satisfying journey of discovery. And, thanks to Natasha Friend’s wonderful prose, it’s a journey that readers will be glad to take with her.

Callie LeRoux has lived in the small town of Slow Run, Kansas for her entire life. Even though the constant dust that chokes her town threatens Callie’s health, her mother refuses to leave. She awaits the return of Callie’s father, who disappeared years ago and hasn’t been heard from since.

When her mother goes missing in a dust storm, Callie heads west to find her. She meets Baya, a mysterious Indian Man who helps her and then disappears. As her search continues, she befriends Jack Hollander, a young hobo who is happy to keep her company even as they encounter danger at every turn.

Callie is biracial, the daughter of a white mother and a black father—a dangerous situation in 1930s America. However, that isn’t the most unique thing about Callie; she also happens to be part fairy. In Dust Girl, book one of The American Fairy Trilogy, Sarah Zettel lays the groundwork for a complex fairy mythology. There are light and dark factions of fairies, animal-spirit guides and creatures who hide in human skins.

Dust Girl is also a complex novel of historical fiction. The Dust Bowl period—or the “Dirty Thirties”—is depicted with vivid imagery and complex detail. Whether readers are interested in the historical aspects, the magical elements or simply the well-woven tapestry of a story, Dust Girl is a mysterious and engrossing page-turner of a novel.

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Read an interview with Sarah Zettel for Dust Girl.

“The night before Amelia Anne Richardson bled her life away on a parched dirt road outside of town, I bled out my dignity in the back of a pickup truck under a star-pricked sky.” The very first sentence of Amelia Anne Is Dead and Gone tells a surprising amount about the unfolding story and its narrator Becca. Newly graduated from high school and looking to escape small-town life, Becca finds her plans change once she hears of a stranger’s murder. Instead of packing for college, she gets bogged down in the flow of local gossip about Amelia’s death. Vacillating between worry and a kind of internal deadness, she grows concerned that her boyfriend James may be covering for a suspect in the case. Alternating chapters reveal uncanny parallels between Amelia and Becca’s lives, and we watch as one life approaches its end and another is altered forever.

This is author Kat Rosenfield’s first novel, and she’s to be commended for taking risks with Amelia Anne that aren’t common in young adult fiction. The violence in this book is brutal and intimate, but never voyeuristic—don’t be surprised if you physically recoil yet can’t stop reading. Some of Becca’s chapters seem almost to be observed from the air above the town, such as a lengthy meditation about how small-town legends persist and evolve. These musings are dreamy and slow as molasses on the page, yet build and add to the suspense of the mystery. By the end, two people have died as a result of passion and stupidity, and there are no easy explanations for either crime. Amelia Anne Is Dead and Gone blends elegant writing and brutal behavior into a sharp and haunting novel.

Elvie Nara is a totally normal soon-to-be teen mom in the year 2074. She wants to colonize Mars when she grows up, she easily fixes the computerized cars that everyone drives, and she’s a devotee of old 20th-century flat pic movies.

Shortly after an encounter with heartthrob Cole leaves her pregnant, Elvie learns of the Hanover School for Expecting Teen Mothers, a school in an Earth-orbiting cruise liner. Enrolling at Hanover for a year and then putting her baby up for adoption seems like the perfect plan. That is, until Elvie learns that her nemesis, Cole’s cheerleader girlfriend Britta, is also pregnant and will also be attending Hanover.

Sneaking onto the school’s observation deck one day with a pint of ice cream, Elvie is the first to see the arrival of a group of invading aliens. Their presence sets in motion a series of adventures that will take all of Elvie’s resourcefulness—and her sense of the absurd—to resolve.

Authors Martin Leicht and Isla Neal balance Elvie’s significant decisions about the future of herself and her baby with plenty of action, humor and interesting characters. This futuristic romp will delight readers and leave them anxiously awaiting the next book in what promises to be a fun, thoughtful trilogy.

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Read an interview with Martin Leicht and Isla Neal for Mothership.

While her father lies in a coma in an assisted living facility, the result of a construction accident two years earlier, Ellis Baldwin’s late-night radio goddess mother has brought up the ultimate question again: whether it’s time to disconnect him from the machines keeping him alive. As the 15-year-old weighs the approach of death and loss, she also begins to recognize the things that give her life meaning. She makes a list that becomes the framing device for Kekla Magoon’s at once bittersweet and hopeful 37 Things I Love (In No Particular Order).

Some choices, like warm chocolate chip cookies, sleeping in one’s own bed or the last days of school, are clear-cut loves; others are more complicated. Ellis still loves her best friend Abby, but no longer appreciates her increasingly self-absorbed style and wishes they could go back to the friendship they had “long before boobs and boys and parties.” Just when Ellis notices the sexually suggestive glances she’s starting to receive from boys, former best friend Cara re-enters her life. Their renewed friendship explores a new emotional and even physical intimacy, which may lead to one more love.

Ellis’ realistic, conversational style is chock full of teen appeal, and fans of Gayle Forman’s If I Stay will enjoy this equally quick yet emotionally charged story. Despite all the things she loves, they may mean more if she could share them with the people she loves. Letting go may mean letting in. As Ellis accepts finding love in truth, a good cry and ultimately saying goodbye, readers should have plenty of tissues at hand.

The League of Heroes would be out of a job if there were no supervillains for them to vanquish, and the Vindico have played that role for a long time now—too long. With an eye toward retirement, they kidnap five teenagers to train as their replacements. Giving kids the capacity to mind-meld and shift matter: What could possibly go wrong?

Author Wesley King strikes a balance between superhero action and humor in The Vindico. It’s a little like Lish McBride’s horror-humor mashup Hold Me Closer, Necromancer, only the laughs here come from the consequences of giving teenagers superpowers. When flaky ladies’ man Hayden spies a chamber to trap and destroy the Vindico, it’s only natural that he’d neglect to check the “destroy” function until after the archvillains are trapped. Needless to say, chaos ensues.

The five teens fight, form alliances, switch sides, pair up, split up and fight some more, all of which can get confusing. But the yin-yang symbiosis of the good and bad guys is neatly rendered, and each character gets enough backstory to make them distinct. The fight scenes are winners, too, frenetic and fantastical. The Vindico is good (and evil!), action-packed and a very good time.

There’s nothing like the simple, delectable pleasure of getting lost in a book on a summer’s day—as author Huntley Fitzpatrick understands. Her debut novel, My Life Next Door, follows Samantha Reed during her 17th summer, when she falls for the most unlikely candidate imaginable: the boy next door.

Samantha lives in a coastal Connecticut town with her mother and older sister, Tracy, in a house so pristine her mother has been known to vacuum behind the girls as they walk out the door in the morning. It’s quiet, clean and, Samantha must admit, a bit boring and lonely.

No wonder she’s been watching the large, boisterous family next door for years. Her mother has forbidden Samantha from playing with the Garretts, but despite the scattered toys, unkempt lawn and Mrs. Garrett’s habit of breastfeeding yet another new baby, something about their messy life appeals to her.

Then she meets Jase Garrett and everything changes. Samantha is drawn into Jase’s life and grows comfortable with the entire family. When something terrible and unexpected happens, Samantha faces a heartbreaking decision that tests her love for her family and her own sense of right and wrong.

Samantha and Jase embark on their romance not in a vacuum, but as real teens who balance family responsibilities, work, worries about friends and questions about their futures. Fitzpatrick, a mother of six, captures the magic of family and love in this impressive debut.

Sixteen-year-old Cassandra, her twin brother Paul and their father have always lived by the Old Way, even before the government forces them to move from the concrete Corridor to the sanctuary of an island populated by a band of their people, the Métis tribe of Western Canada. Unlike other newcomers, Cass and her family know how to live without the Corridor’s technology. And although she’s ordinarily indifferent to boys, Cass finds herself attracted to Bran, son and potential heir of the band’s missing chief.

Madda, the local medicine woman, takes Cassandra on as an apprentice, helping her develop talents she’s always possessed but never studied. Cassandra can heal wounds, see the invisible animal shades that accompany her people (similar to the dæmons of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy) and travel into the spirit world. But she cannot see her own shade, cannot help Paul find peace from the ghosts that haunt him and cannot convince various jealous factions to welcome her into their community.

In Shadows Cast by Stars, debut author Catherine Knutsson, herself a member of the Métis tribe, blends a contemporary feminist sensibility with Arthurian legends, Greek mythology and Native traditions to create a rich and captivating story.