New YA Book Releases This Week, February 12, 2025

For readers who seek YA that lands on the younger end of the category, look no further. This story follows 13-year-old aspiring rapper Shaun “Growls” and his best friend Zachariah “Shanks” as they enter a Raptology competition. Growls isn’t just there to show off his chops—he’s convinced it’ll be how he can win the heart of his longtime crush Tanisha.

But the rap duo has an epically bad practice and worse, it goes viral, making them the absolute butt of every joke in school. Now Growls is convinced he’ll never get the eye of Tanisha and he’s also worried about the sudden disappearance of Shanks.

When Growls meets a new girl who begins to change his perspective, he might have to give his passion for rapping another shot. That confidence and resilience might be what helps Shanks show up back as well.

This is the first in an enemies-to-forbidden-lovers fantasy romance series. In Thirstwood years ago, a young forest princess befriended a boy from the underground. He left her with a ring that seemed to be worthless but was far from—that ring opened up a war between the queen of the underground and the forest king.

Fast forward and now Cassia has become an important part of her father’s army and Zeru now knows he needs to retrieve the ring he gave her so many years ago to fix things. Cassie is being forced to join Zeru on a trip to a place neither of them actually believe existed. Now, they’re faced with the reality of the war around them, their role in its kindling, and the feelings that have never stopped existing between them.

We know Zoboi’s contemporary fiction well in the YA world, and now, she’s showing off her skills in speculative fiction, too. This is a novel in verse based on Caribbean folklore following 15-year-old Marisol, who is the daughter of a soucouyant. When the new moon arrives each month, Marisol sheds her skin and turns into a fireball, launched into the sky where she must sip from other people’s lives to sustain her own. That is really difficult in Brooklyn, where it seems the lights never dim and folks keep themselves locked inside at night. Marisol wishes she didn’t need to do this, but her mother kept her tied to their magical past.

Genevieve, 17, is dealing with a skin condition that, in addition to her new baby siblings, keeps her up all night long. There’s a hunger inside her that wants nothing more than to recall her estranged mother. But it’ll be a new nanny in her house that begins to show a link between Genevieve and Marisol and it goes far more than skin deep.

Itching for a sapphic romantasy read? Look no further.

Ofelia wants nothing more than to enter Le Château Enchanté. It’s a mysterious court that’s been blessed by the gods. Within its court, the shadow monsters that abound in Ofelia’s land never enter.

Lope is a knight who has worked to keep Ofelia’s homeland safe from the shadow monsters.

When the shadows get a little too close for comfort, Lope and Ofelia need to flee. Their escape leads them to Château Enchanté, where they will discover that this purported place of magic may be the epicenter of the raging shadows.

Noa has dreamed of being a journalist forever, but that dream always felt out of reach thanks to her sister Leah. Leah and Noa were always competing, so when Leah scored a high profile newspaper internship in Manhattan, that hurt Noa in ways she couldn’t articulate. At least she couldn’t until Leah died and Noa felt a strange sense of relief.

But a series of strange things led to Leah’s death, and Noa can’t let it go. She’s bound and determined to use her skills in writing the news to find out what really happened to her sister. Even if that means she ends up entwined with a powerful family who wants to entice her with all of the beauty and goods in the world. If Noa can resist, she’ll find out a shocking secret and learn what happened to Leah. If Noa can’t resist, she might find herself facing the same fate as her sister.