Teen Scene
July 2025

Recent Releases
Amelia, If Only
by Becky Albertalli

Amelia Applebaum isn’t in love with Walter Holland. He just happens to be her favorite moderately famous, chaotically bisexual YouTuber. Who she just happened to invite to prom. (But it’s fine. No, for real. If you delete the post, it didn’t happen.)

Okay, maybe her friends are right: she’s slightly parasocially infatuated. But Amelia just knows sparks would fly—if only she could meet Walter for real.

If only he would host a meet-and-greet.

If only it were just a short road trip away.

And if only she could talk her best friends into making it the perfect last hurrah before graduation—even Amelia’s newly-single, always-cynical, guitar-toting best friend Natalie.

One thing’s for sure: all roads lead to butterflies.

But what if Amelia’s butterflies aren’t for Walter at all?
A Forgery of Fate
by Elizabeth Lim

Truyan Saigas didn't choose to become a con artist, but after her father is lost at sea, it’s up to her to support her mother and two younger sisters. A gifted art forger, Tru has the unique ability to paint the future, but even such magic is not enough to put her family back together again, or stave off the gangsters demanding payment in blood for her mother’s gambling debts.

Left with few options, Tru agrees to a marriage contract with a mysterious dragon lord. He offers a fresh start for her mother and sisters and elusive answers about her father's disappearance, but in exchange, she must join him in his desolate undersea palace. And she must assist him in a plot to infiltrate the tyrannical Dragon King's inner circle, painting a future so treasonous, it could upend both the mortal and immortal realms. . . .
You've Awoken Her
by Ann Dávila Cardinal
 
Gabi should be thrilled to be visiting his best friend for the summer. But with its mansions, country clubs, and Ruth’s terrible new boyfriend, Frost Thurston, the Hamptons is the last place he wants to be. And then Gabi witnesses a woman being dragged under the ocean by what looks like a tentacle . . .
 
When no one—not the police or anyone else—seems to care, Gabi starts to wonder if maybe the beachside town’s bad vibes are more real than he thought. As the number of “accidental” deaths begins to climb, the Thurston family name keeps rising to the top. And what’s worse is that all the signs point to something lurking beneath the water—something with a hunger for blood. 
 
Can Gabi figure out how the two are intertwined and put an end to the string of deaths . . . before becoming the water’s next victim?
We Fell Apart : A We Were Liars Novel
by E. Lockhart

The invitation arrives out of the blue.

In it, Matilda discovers a father she’s never met. Kingsley Cello is a visionary, a reclusive artist. And when he asks her to spend the summer at his seaside home, Hidden Beach, Matilda expects to find a part of herself she’s never fully understood.

Instead, she finds Meer, her long-lost, openhearted brother; Brock, a former child star battling demons; and brooding, wild Tatum, who just wants her to leave their crumbling sanctuary.

With Kingsley nowhere to be seen, Matilda must delve into the twisted heart of Hidden Beach to uncover the answers she’s desperately craving. But secrets run thicker than blood, and blood runs like seawater.

And everyone here is lying.
The Same Backward As Forward
by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
 
Hannah Rooney knows how to be invisible. At twenty, she keeps her head down and her eyes open, and so far, she’s managed to avoid being pulled into the dealings of her notorious criminal family. Hannah lives her life in countdown mode, biding her time in nursing school as she waits for her beloved sister, Kaylie, to turn eighteen so Hannah can get them both far, far away from Rockaway Watch and start a new life.
 
Tobias Hawthorne II acts every inch the entitled heir that he is. As the only son of one of the country's richest men, there isn't a door that isn't open to him. Yet behind his razor sharp cheekbones and devil-may-care attitude, Toby is guarding a nest of deadly secrets and a fiery anger fierce enough to burn everything in his path.
 
Their lives collide in one tragic, stormy night, where an act of arson and nature leave Kaylie and two others dead and Toby just barely alive—with no memory of who he is. The fisherman who pulls him from the ocean enlists Hannah to help save the very person who she knows took away her sister. Fueled by her hatred, Hannah is determined to deny Toby's death wish by keeping him alive. He is the last person that she should ever develop feelings for, and she is the first thing he ever remembers seeing.
 
Some things cannot happen—and some things cannot be stopped.
Never Thought I'd End Up Here
by Ann Liang
 
Leah Zhang has just ruined her cousin's wedding. She didn't mean to wish the bride a depressing marriage and poor health, but she's forgotten most of her Mandarin. Her parents stage an intervention: Leah will be sent on a travel program across China's most beautiful cities. To them, it’s the perfect opportunity for Leah to get back to her roots. To Leah, it’s simply a much-needed escape.
 
But before Leah can even begin to enjoy the luxurious hotels, stunning scenery, and mouth-watering cuisine, she finds that also on the trip is cynical, sarcastic Cyrus Sui, who’s somehow only gotten more annoyingly handsome since the day he told a lie that ruined her life.
 
While Leah might be tempted to shove him off the peak of the Yellow Mountain when nobody’s looking, she can’t get rid of him just yet. After all, she might never get another chance to get revenge.
 
Yet the deeper they wander into China’s provinces, the deeper Leah finds herself falling in love ― with the boy she once thought she despised, the home she never thought she’d call her own, and the parts of herself she thought were already lost.
Give Up the Night
by P. C. Cast
 
New York Times bestsellers P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast return with Give Up the Night, the astonishing conclusion to their Moonstruck duology set in a dark and magickal world filled with incredible danger and irresistible romance.
 
Since becoming Moonstruck on her eighteenth birthday, Wren Nightingale has found herself thrust into a world filled with deception, danger, and murder. Uncovering that their magick was fractured and limited when the original Moonstruck ritual was broken by Selene, Wren is determined to find a way to restore it. But the Elementals are split into two factions—some want the ritual completed and their freedom—and others are so terrified of change that they’re willing to end Wren before she can reach the center of the island where the ritual Selene ruined can be completed.
 
Between his overbearing father’s arrival, Rottingham delegating him more and more responsibility, and Celeste taking a special interest in him, Lee Young has been struggling to find his own path. As much as Lee wants to take his place in the Moonstruck hierarchy, he knows something’s not right at the Academia de la Luna. He thinks if he can talk some sense into Wren and get her to return to the Academia, that everything will turn out alright.
 
As Wren and Lee both battle for what they believe is right, they’ll have to uncover who their true allies are…and if they’re even on the same side of this magickal fight.
Coldwire
by Chloe Gong

The future is loading…

To escape rising seas and rampant epidemics, most of society lives “upcountry” in glistening virtual reality, while those who can’t afford the subscription are forced to remain in crumbling “downcountry.”

But upcountry isn’t perfect. A cold war rages between two powerful nations, Medaluo and Atahua—and no one suffers for it more than the Medan orphans in Atahua. Their enrollment at Nile Military Academy is mandatory. Either serve as a soldier, or risk being labelled a spy.

Eirale graduated the academy and joined NileCorp’s private forces downcountry, exactly as she was supposed to. Then Atahua’s most wanted anarchist frames her for assassinating a government official, and she’s given a choice: cooperate with him to search for a dangerous program in Medaluo or go down for treason.

Meanwhile, Lia is finishing her last year upcountry at Nile Military Academy. Paired with her academic nemesis for their final assignment, Lia is determined to beat him for valedictorian and prove her worth. But there may be far more at stake when their task to infiltrate Medaluo and track down an Atahuan traitor goes wrong…

Though Eirale and Lia tear through Medaluo on different planes of reality, the two start to suspect they are puzzle pieces in a larger conspiracy—and the closer they get to the truth, the closer their worlds come to a shattering collision.
Chaos King
by Kacen Callender

Ever since he rose up against his father and saved New Anglia from destruction, Ash has been struggling to adapt to his new life. He has nightmares every night, haunted by strange black orbs and his screaming dead mother. Ash is sure she’s trying to warn him that the world is still in danger, and becomes determined to find a way to speak to her again―but communicating with the dead isn’t easy, even for an alchemist as powerful as Ash.

It doesn’t help that violent anti-alchemist sentiment is spreading across New Anglia. When Ash is captured by a radical group, inspired by his father’s legacy, he must decide if alchemist rights can be trusted in the hands of the Houses, along with his partners Callum and Ramsay―or if Ash must follow the path his father laid for him, and become the leader of an alchemist revolution.

Can Ash keep his relationships together and stop the world from falling apart?
Hour of the Pumpkin Queen: Disney Tim Burton's the Nightmare Before Christmas
by Megan Shepherd

Sally must embark on a time-bending adventure to save Halloween Town--and her beloved Jack Skellington.

One year has passed since Sally wed her beloved Jack Skellington and stepped into her role as queen of Halloween Town. Even with her Jack at her side, though, being a ruler isn’t easy, and Sally feels uncertain of her future. Her seams are stretched thin with her royal duties, her newfound family in Dream Town, and a desire to bring citizens from across the Hinterlands together.

Then a simple potion demonstration at Sally’s inaugural Halloween exhibition goes horribly wrong, and things unravel fast: Sally and her new rag doll apprentice, Luna, fall through a mysterious portal, landing in a new realm called Time Town. They discover that someone has tampered with the clock that controls Halloween Town, and Sally cannot return to the present-day version of her home unless she finds the culprit and resets time.

Sally and Luna embark on a journey to unmask the truth, encountering more towns, friends, and foes along the way. But time is ticking, and as Sally fights to save Jack and her hometown, she wonders what kind of future she really wants--and what she must sacrifice to get it.
Contact your librarian for more great books for age 14 and up!
Newton Public Library
100 N 3rd Ave W.
Newton, Iowa 50208
641-792-4108
www.newtongov.org/1149/Library