All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir, 2022

Salahudin and Noor have been friends for years.  Noor is studious and steady.  Salahudin works to keep his family stable.  They own a motel that is not doing well; his father turns to drink; his mother has kidney disease.  Salahudin turns to an opportunity (illegal) to make quick money and through a series of troubles also involves Noor.  While the reader roots for them all to succeed, how much is unforgiveable?

The Cousins by Karen M. McManus, 2021

        Three cousins who barely know each other are invited to their grandmother's estate for the summer.  The problem is, the grandmother seems to have no idea they were coming and she has had no contact with their parents and doesn't want the grandchildren.  The parents had hoped this invitation is an opening to better relationships and getting an inheritance, but it opens up family secrets instead. The reader tries to second guess the ending, but there are many surprises instead.

A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer, 2020

A retelling of the Beauty and the Beast story with a very modern "Belle"/ Harper who is transported to the beast's castle in the hopes that she will fall in love with him and break the curse.  She won't have any part of this "fairy tale" until the violence of the situation awakens her sympathy and affection. While a complete story, this begins a series and each of the novels is entertaining. 

Game Changer by Neal Shusterman, 2021

Ash gets a bad hit and concussion during a football game.  It affects his brain so that he is transported to other dimensions. He keeps asking others to try to understand why everything is so different. Each dimension shows the ills of society and how he could be a better person.

Hope and Other Punch Lines by Julie Buxbaum, 2019

Abbi Hope Goldstein was the baby pictured in the newspaper as a symbol of the horrors of 9/11.  Now a teen she wants to never be recognized or interviewed; after all, she was a baby and doesn't even remember it.  Taking a summer camp job seemed like the best escape because the campers would not know about her--until another counselor recognizes her.  He also has trauma from 9/11 that he wants to keep buried.

I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys, 2022

Based on the true existence of citizens in Romania in 1985, Christian lives under the brutal dictatorship of Nicolae Ceaușescu.  He is forced to be a spy for the regime, but is determined to use his position to undermine the government as best as he can. A thriller read from the espionage, narrow escapes and harrowing duplicity as well as awakening the empathy of the reader. 

Instructions for Dancing by Nicola Yoon, 2021

This reality novel with a magic core begins when Evie meets a witch.  She soon realizes that she can see a couple and know their whole relationship from beginning to death.  At a dance studio she meets Xavier.  The two are paired for competition hoping to win the prize and keep the dance studio in business.  Evie is alternately dismayed and pleased with her supernatural powers. When they show a happy ending to a relationship, she is pleased, but a tragic ending is devastating.

Luck of the Titanic by Stacey Lee, 2021

With some basis in fact since there were Chinese aboard the Titanic, Luck, a British-Chinese acrobat, stows aboard the Titanic to find her twin brother, her acrobat partner, who is employed on the ship.  Her brother has given up on being an acrobat.  Luck wants them to perform for the circus owner who is aboard, be hired for his circus, and be able to live in America.

Roxy by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman, 2021

The villains are Roxy, the personification of Oxycodone and Addison, the personification of Adderall. The victims are Isaac who is an athlete and his sister, Ivy, who is a party girl. The two drugs target the brother and sister in a contest to see which one can addict their target first.