UKYA Books On My Radar

I thought it would be fun, since I’m leaving for London this week, to let you know which UK young adult books are on my radar and that are on my list of potential books to pick up while I’m perusing some bookstores in London because really that’s always the plan when traveling — to which Will is like “but why? We have bookstores at home?” Oh sweet husband. To which I’m like, “well why do we have to go to a sporting event that we can watch here?” To which he said…touche. SEE…it’s so easy for me to reason with him to see my bookworm tendencies when I explain them in sports terms — basic marriage to a non-book worm negotiating.

Anyways, here are some of the UKYA books on my TBR list that I’ll be looking out for on my trip that are either hard to find here in the US or not published here yet! You’ll have to let me know which ones you think I should get — especially if you’ve read any! I’m always too cheap to pay international shipping so I’m hoping to at least snag one or two of them!

 

 

 

1. Lobsters by Tom Ellen and Lucy Ivison: This one actually is going to be published as A Totally Awkward Love Story here in the US this May! Looks like a cute summer read about “finding the one”. The synopsis details that the main characters “ must navigate social misunderstandings, the plotting of well-meaning friends, and their own fears of being virgins for ever to find happiness.”

 

2. Lorali by Laura Dockrill: MERMAIDS!! A princess mermaid who has rejected mermaid life and wants to be a human and is found by a human boy!

 

 

3. Counting Stars by Keris Stainton: I love stories about people who are moving on their own for the first time and this one is about a girl who moves to the city after school with the promise of a new & awesome job and six great flatmates. But not everything is totally as she hoped. So she starts a blog to talk about all her adventures and stuff with her friends but spills a secret with major consequences.

 

4. Crow Moon by Anna McKerrow: This one looks like an awesome fantasy with an interesting alternate Britain worlds. I saw a UK blogger I follow on Twitter raving about it so I had to look more into it and it sounds really interesting.

 

5.  13 Minutes by Sarah Pinborough: This one looks like a gripping thriller about a girl whose friends may or may not have tried to kill her.

 

6.  The Next Together by Lauren James: TIME TRAVEL!! I’m just going to leave the official synopsis because that was all I needed to read to want it: Katherine and Matthew are destined to be born again and again, century after century. Each time, their presence changes history for the better, and each time, they fall hopelessly in love, only to be tragically separated.  Spanning the Crimean War, the Siege of Carlisle and the near-future of 2019 and 2039 they find themselves sacrificing their lives to save the world. But why do they keep coming back? What else must they achieve before they can be left to live and love in peace?

 

 

7. Remix by Non Pratt: A book set at a music festival! YEP. So there for that. This one is actually being published here in July 2016.

 

 

8. All of the Above by James Dawson: This looks like a cute and fun contemporary about a girl trying to navigate her new school and the regular pressures of high school and is befriended by a girl named Polly who takes her under her wing and brings her into her group of friends in the ~alternative~ crowd where she meets the lead singer of a local band who she totally falls for.

 

 

9. Radio Silence by Alice Oseman: It’s about a girl who acts one way at school but can’t reconcile who she really is what that version of her until she meets the creator of one of her favorite podcasts and a friendship quickly forms and he helps her start to do that. Then the podcast goes viral and some sort of trust issue goes down between them. Also seems like they both have some heavy stuff they are dealing with. It soooo sounds like a *me* book!

 

 

Tell me if there are any other UKYA books that should be on my radar! OR, since we all love a good book cover, are there any books whose UK cover is infinitely better and you would totally grab if you were in the UK?? I have a couple of those…for example one is Landline by Rainbow Rowell. Love the US cover but gahhh that UK cover.