New YA Book Releases for October 15, 2025

Christmas isn’t Lyric’s favorite holiday nor season. She’s been in and out of the foster care system and never really had family, nor love, to make the season special. She’s also mostly closed herself off to the possibility of love and romance, at least for now and especially as her profile as a makeup influencer grows.

Juniper, on the other hand, has always been a fan of Christmas. At least she was until her moms broke up. The good news is they’re now back together. That means they’re happy and might take the news of Juniper’s plans for a gap year trip better. Juniper needs financial help from them to make it happen.

When Lyric and Juniper meet by chance, they shouldn’t get along. Except they do, and Lyric proposes a deal with Juniper: pretend to be her girlfriend for social media and reap some financial rewards through sponsorship dollars. It sounds pretty easy, but it’s not…and not because the girls don’t get along. It’s because they’re getting along too well and knowing the difference between fake feelings and real ones is impossible.

This one’s written in dual voices, one of which is prose and the other, verse. It sounds like fun queer holiday read.

Speaking of verse novels, if that’s a style you like, you’ll want this book on your TBR ASAP.

Pernell is once again sentenced to summer school. It’s the third year in a row, and it’s more pressing than ever that he does well. And while Pernell knows that’s important, his real goal this summer is to become the Cypher King, the person who leads the lunchroom rap circles. It’s the time in his day where he feels most himself and a title he knows he’s ready to take on.

Outside the lunchroom, though, things are tough. Pernell’s teacher doesn’t like him and his parents want him to get more help for his ADHD. It isn’t helping that his best friend is spending the summer chasing her dreams and isn’t around as much as he wishes.

But as Pernell pours more of himself into becoming and retaining the title of Cypher King, the more he learns about the power of how his mind works–and how he can harness that to graduate high school.

This book would be in a really fascinating conversation with Hannah V. Sawyerr’s Truth Is.

In a verse novel that takes place over only four minutes, readers will be thinking deeply about what the after life is and what’s possible within it.

The Leaving Room is a place all young people go through when they die too young. Gospel is its Keeper, someone assigned to help those who’ve died move through the space.

But the rules of The Leaving Room are scrambled when a random door opens and Melodee arrives. She’s a Keeper, too, and immediately, she and Gospel have a powerful connection. They have no idea, though, if Keepers can fall in love, and now, they must escape in order to pursue what feels like their true calling.

Eden Lowell lives in the marshes of what once was Miami. She’s angry–and she’s out for revenge for the ways that the rich decimated the city she loves. Corporate elite, called the Cruisers, have been blessed to live on massive shifts during all of this and have not been held accountable for it.

Then Eden learns one of the Cruisers plans on hosting a competition to find a romantic partner for their heir, Theo. She’s got a plan: she’s going to infiltrate the competition, win, and then steal the fortune to fund restoration of her beloved city.

What Eden doesn’t plan on? Starting to have real feelings for Theo during the competition. Can she keep up the plan or will she need to come to terms with how complex feelings can be?

Orlando is an outcast at Demdike College of Witchcraft, and it’s not just because they’re a (very bad) shapeshifter at a school for witches nor because they’re unable to control when their body shifts from male to female. No, Lando is an outcast because it is their fault their girlfriend Elizabeth died.

So when a new boy named Bastian arrives at the school and promises Lando that he knows a spell that could bring Elizabeth back, he’s intrigued. Intrigued isn’t the word. Lando is desperate to get Elizabeth back. He’ll do whatever it takes, even if it means facing tough questions about who Bastian is and what his real motives are for helping.

Nora O’Malley is finished with high school, and she’s going to enjoy this summer because she’s sure her end is near (her murderous stepfather is now out of jail). Nora’s joining her friends Iris and Wes for a 10-day backpacking trip. Wes’s girlfriend Amanda is joining too.

But when Amanda is mistaken for Nora, she’s kidnapped. Neither Nora, nor Wes, nor Iris have a lot of tools with them, but they need to come up with a way to free Amanda and put an end to the terror being wrought by Raymond.

This is a companion to The Girls I’ve Been but you can read it as a standalone.

Noni Reid has grown up with a mother who is a renowned Black literature scholar, and Dr. Castine is offered the role of president at Stonepost College in Virginia, she and Noni relocate. They’ve moved into a house on Tangleroot Plantation, and Noni has to reckon with losing her friends, her old school, and an internship she was really excited about.

Cuffee Fortune, one of Noni’s ancestors, built Tangleroot Plantation, and Dr. Castine is convinced that Cuffee is also responsible for founding Stonepost College. She is making it her mission to find proof and use it to change the name of the school in his honor.

Noni is not settling in well. She feels uncomfortable with the history of Tangleroot and specifically, the white slaveholding family who lived there. As she begins to learn even more about the history of the Plantation, she is forced at every turn to face the racist history, legacy, and contemporary realities in her new community.

When she discovers a secret that uproots everything, Noni finds herself in a position where fitting in and making a home become even more difficult.

Tanvi was raised by her cousin Mimi’s parents, and Tanvi has always felt like Mimi is her sister. Mimi was especially helpful as Tanvi navigated school — at least she was before she befriended Beth, Tanvi’s biggest bully.

Worried that this school year will be awful, Tanvi decides she’s going to try to get some light revenge. She gets a photo of Mimi and Beth at a party that she’s sure is pretty incriminating, only to wake up the next day and no memory of what caused the injuries now on her body. Plus, Mimi is gone.

Tanvi wants to find out what happened to her cousin, and as she works to try to piece together the memories of that night, she’s worried that she herself might be who the police believe is the prime suspect for Mimi’s murder.

L.A.’s Echo Park used to have a thriving Cuban business community, but that’s dwindled. One of the last remaining businesses of those days is Clary’s family’s flower shop, La Rosa Blanca. Clary is going to inherit the business and sees her role in keeping the history of Echo Park alive as one she’s looking forward to.

The only other Cuban business in Clary’s Echo Park business district is Avalos Bicycle Works. Emilio, also a teenager, is set to inherit it, but unlike Clary, he’s not committed to it. She can hardly find him attractive or appealing if his goal is to book it out of town and let the legacy of Cuban ancestry in the area continue to crumble.

A big secret ends up cracking Clary’s world open at the same time Emilio begins to think maybe he’s being too rash about his future. You can say their need to depend on one another this summer was historic…and meant to be.