Don't Miss These 30 New Young Adult Debuts

Posted by Sharon on May 11, 2020
Recent events have been especially tough on debut authors, with bookstores closed and book tours canceled. So we're rounding up a list of hit young adult books that have come out so far this year, written by previously unpublished authors.

On this list, you'll find contemporary love stories, a locked room mystery, queer pirates, and much, much more. What do these books share in common? They're loved by early readers, with an average star rating above 3.5 and at least 3,000 total shelvings each.

Don't forget to give these writers a little extra love by adding any books that catch your eye to your Want to Read shelf!


Which recent YA debuts would you recommend to your fellow readers? Let's talk books in the comments!

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Comments Showing 1-31 of 31 (31 new)

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message 1: by Christoph (new)

Christoph Hirt The Sound of Stars! by Alechia Dow


message 2: by Sarah (new)

Sarah  Ross Peta Lyre's Rating Normal by Anna Whateley
The Year the Maps Changed by Danielle Binks
Please Don't Hug Me by Kay Kerr


message 3: by Sarah (new)

Sarah  Ross How to Grow a Family Tree by Eliza Henry Jones


message 4: by Lauren (new)

Lauren Please don’t hug me by Kay Kerr <3


message 5: by Alex Logan (new)

Alex Logan Late to the Party by Kelly Quindlen


message 6: by Lori (new)

Lori Carve the mark by Veronica Roth. Young Elites by Marie Lu,


message 7: by lolo (new)

lolo it's not out yet, but look for "raybearer" by jordan ifueko in august!


message 8: by Leslie (new)

Leslie Rush The Brave by James Bird


message 9: by Fenris (new)

Fenris Ugh I'm so disappointed in every one of these. Too many tired tropes (royalty, disallowed magic, vengeful dragons and so on).
Write something new already.


message 10: by Jane (new)

Jane Yeah, I agree. It's kind of annoying because we've heard most of these types of stories before!! It's just repeats of original plots. Although, some of these I cannot WAIT to read. But We want new stories that have twist we never expected- Turns where there should be none!! Something that doesn't involve . . . all that.


message 11: by Rebecca (new)

Rebecca Winkler What is with all of these boring plain cartoonish Covers on books lately? I try not to judge a book by it cover, but I do admit that a Beautiful/Pretty/Interesting Cover definitely helps draw my attention to it initially. A nice cover makes me want to know what the book is about, it draws me in. And most of these covers lately just makes me not care at all.


message 12: by Jane (new)

Jane I know! I've never read any of these books -yet- but some of these books -like "A Breath Too Late" and "Ink in The Blood"- I want to read BECAUSE OF the cover! Some of them look just straight up boring.


message 13: by Tina (new)

Tina Why does black girl unlimited sound soo much like "a girl name Echo" who is coping who?


message 14: by Jasmine (new)

Jasmine And The Stars Were Burning Brightly by Danielle Jawando!


message 15: by Kara (new)

Kara Warcross and Wildcard by Marie Lu!


message 16: by Sjm (new)

Sjm Thirteen by Ameia Mikula-Noble!


message 17: by Jaedyn (new)

Jaedyn Long The Betrothed by Kiera Cass!


message 18: by Sofie | (new)

Sofie | Rebecca wrote: "What is with all of these boring plain cartoonish Covers on books lately? I try not to judge a book by it cover, but I do admit that a Beautiful/Pretty/Interesting Cover definitely helps draw my at..."

I kinda like the covers, even made a list of them ;) But they are better suited for some genres than others.

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...


message 19: by Sofie | (last edited May 22, 2020 12:44AM) (new)

Sofie | Fenris wrote: "Ugh I'm so disappointed in every one of these. Too many tired tropes (royalty, disallowed magic, vengeful dragons and so on).
Write something new already."


I'm so tired of fantasy tbh. The best series I've read in the genre was The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski. Honestly could barely get through reading the blurbs of these new ones.


message 20: by Catherine (new)

Catherine Downen My YA fantasy debut just came out in April. It’s called The Markings (YA FANTASY) and it’s free to all Amazon prime members and Kindle unlimited members!


message 21: by Meredith (new)

Meredith Railey Three Things I Know are True by Betty Culley


Kate (Feathered Turtle Press Reviews) Woven in Moonlight was so bad


message 23: by Hannah (new)

Hannah I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson. One of the best books I’ve read!


message 24: by Katherine (last edited May 22, 2020 03:02PM) (new)

Katherine Hayward Pérez I was on the blog tour for Tweet Cute Tweet Cute by Emma Lord https://justkatherineblog.wordpress.c...

My recommendations:

Off the Page by Jodi Picoult Off the Page (Between the Lines, #2) by Jodi Picoult

All the Twilight Saga by Stephanie Meyer and The Host The Host (The Host, #1) by Stephenie Meyer . also by her.
All the Making Out (Boyfriends and Girlfriends) series by Katherine Applegate

Tree Magic Tree Magic by Harriet Springbett by Harriet Soringbett.
I reviewed this on my blog: https://justkatherineblog.wordpress.c...

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

Breath Like Water by Anna Jarzab Breath Like Water by Anna Jarzab


message 25: by Mariana (new)

Mariana I think Only Mostly Devastated by Sophie Gonzales belongs in this list!!! Please add it!!


message 26: by Elizabeth (new)

Elizabeth Turner New Author Lori Michelini - her debut YA novel is awesome - The Remarkable Belly Button of Christopher Jones - a very good read.


message 27: by Rajendra (new)

Rajendra Sarilla SCARLETT LOST IN THE FIVELANDS, my fantasy novel is the best. It is getting 4.5 star rating from the readers. SCARLETT LOST IN THE FIVE LANDS (SCARLETT, BOOK1) by Rajendra Sarilla


message 28: by Saanvi (new)

Saanvi Srivastava Tweet Cute by Emma Lord! It's amazing, and massively underrated!


message 29: by B.A. (new)


message 30: by Dalia (new)

Dalia I see for fans of Leigh Bardugo, I click


message 31: by Rajendra (new)

Rajendra Sarilla SCARLETT LOST IN THE FIVE LANDS , the best action fantasy novel of 2020.


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