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Deep Is The Fen by Lili Wilkinson

(2024)

From the Publisher:

A bewitching journey behind the closed doors of a secret society, featuring sinister toadmen, resistance witches and a steamy enemies-to-lovers romance, from the acclaimed author of A Hunger of Thorns.

Merriwether Morgan doesn't need a happily-ever-after. Her life in the idyllic town of Candlecott is fine just as it is: simple, happy, and with absolutely no magic. Magic only ever leads to trouble.

But Merry's best friend, Teddy, is joining the Toadmen - a secret society upholding backward thinking and suspiciously supernatural traditions - and she is determined to stop him. Even if it means teaming up with her academic arch-nemesis, Caraway Boswell, an ice-cold snob who hides his true face behind a glamour.

An ancient Toad ritual is being held in the nightmarish Deeping Fen, and if Merry doesn't rescue Teddy, she'll lose him forever. But the further she travels into Deeping Fen's foul waters, the more Merry wonders if she can possibly save her friend - or if she's walking straight into a trap.

Because there's nothing the Toadmen love more than a damsel in distress . . .

Goodreads

#ausqueerya #loveozya #ya #lgbtq #Lili Wilkinson #Deep Is The Fen #queer books #queer ya #YA Books

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The Perfect Guy Doesn't Exist by Sophie Gonzales

(2024)

From the Publisher:

Sixteen-year-old Ivy accidentally brings her favourite TV character to life in this friends-to-enemies-to-lovers novel that's filled with humour and heart, from bestselling author Sophie Gonzales

What happens when the fictional 'perfect guy' comes to life and is convinced you're his soulmate?

While her parents are away for the week, sixteen-year-old Ivy Winslow plans on binge-watching her favourite TV show and hanging out with her best friend, Henry. But things quickly go downhill on the very first morning, when Ivy wakes up to find Weston, the gorgeous lead character of her favourite show, in her bedroom.

And, oh yeah, he thinks that she's his soulmate.

Ivy realizes that her writing has somehow brought Weston as she's imagined him to life, and now he's living out her fanfiction dreams. But those fairytale dreams soon turn into disasters.

Mack, Ivy's best-friend-turned-enemy who lives next door, and Henry get involved and the three of them need to figure out why Weston is here and how to get rid of him.

As Ivy and Mack grow closer again, old feelings resurface and they finally face the fallout of their broken friendship, and question if they've both secretly always wanted something more . . .

The new sapphic YA friends-to-enemies-to-lovers novel from bestselling author Sophie Gonzales, with her trademark humour and heart.

#ausqueerya #loveozya #ya #lgbtq #Queer #queer books #sapphic #sophie gonzales #The Perfect Guy Doesn't Exist #YA Books

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Chrysalis & Requiem by Quinton Li

(2024)

From the Author:

At Adraredon Academy, fervent passion, contemporary companionship, and forbidden desires intertwine with tall gothic spires, ancient halls, and centuries of history. Veaer Rosell can't imagine a better place to satiate her craving for beauty, knowledge, and art.

Yet senior year shatters her illusion of tranquillity and civil intellect when she witnesses the headmaster's daughter murder another student and is confronted by an unthinkable choice: avenging her fallen peer or taking this secret to the grave, one way or another.

But fate laughs at Veaer's expense when the headmaster's daughter requests her aid. Driven by an all-consuming thirst for answers, Veaer becomes an untimely partner in solving a murder they both know the answer to, unaware of the intricacies that come with learning the bigger picture and playing with death. Chrysalis & Requiem is a haunting thriller of tragic obsession and relentless grief, weaving two young, queer women in a spiral of clandestine violence and illicit love.

Goodreads

#ausqueerya #loveozya #ya #lgbtq #queer #queer books #Quinton Li #Chrysalis & Requiem

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Gus and the Missing Boy by Tory Hunter

(2024)

From the Publisher:

True crime buff Gus Green has always felt out of place in the world. He's overweight, gay, his injured mum's primary carer, and he only has two real friends: sporty Kane and feisty Shell, who are both dealing with their own problems.

Gus's life is flipped on its head one day when he finds a missing persons website with a digitally aged picture of a missing boy who looks eerily like him. Could he be a kidnapping victim? It would explain a lot about his patchy background, but what would that make his mum - his kidnapper?

As Gus and his friends dive into the mystery, their investigation reveals more questions than answers. Can they unravel the case before his world falls apart? And what will they do if the truth is too much to handle?

Goodreads

#ausqueerya #loveozya #ya #lgbtq #queer ya #Troy Hunter #Gus and the Missing Boy #Gay YA

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The Spider and Her Demons by sidney khoo

(2023)

From the Publisher:

Uncover an extraordinary world of demons and witches, where the ones you love can hurt you the most and hiding your true self can get you killed.

Moving and funny by turns, this is a story about what it takes to make peace with your demons – literal or otherwise. An urban fantasy spin on growing up as a second-generation immigrant, struggling under the overwhelming pressure to make others proud, while feeling trapped inside your own body.

Between surviving high school and working at her aunt’s dumpling shop, all Zhi wants is to find time for her friends . . . and make sure no one finds out she’s half spider-demon.

But when she accidentally kills and eats a man in front of the most popular girl in school, she discovers she might not be the scariest thing in the shadows.

sydney khoo is a recipient of Penguin Random House Australia’s Write It fellowship program, which aspires to find, nurture and develop unpublished writers across all genres, with a focus on underrepresented sections of our community.

Goodreads

#ausqueerya #loveozya #lgbtq #ya #YABooks #sidney khoo #the spider and her demons

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The Quiet and the Loud by Helena Fox

(2023)

From the Publisher:

OUR HOPELESS, HOPEFUL WORLD A novel about the contours of friendship, family, forgiveness, trauma and love that explores the stories we suppress and the stories we speak - and the healing that comes when we voice the things we've kept quiet for so long. George's life is loud. On the water, though, with everything hushed above and below, she is steady, silent. Then her estranged dad says he needs to talk, and George's past begins to wake up, looping around her ankles, trying to drag her under. Everything is a blaring, blazing mess. Could Calliope, the girl who has just cartwheeled into George's world and shot it through with brilliant, dazzling colour, be her calm among the chaos?

Goodreads

#AusQueerYA #LoveOzYA #Helena Fox #Queer #QueerYA #The Quiet and the Loud

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We Didn’t Think It Through by Gary Lonesborough

(2023)

From the Publisher:

From the author of the award-winning The Boy from the Mish, comes a compelling coming-of-age YA novel about sixteen-year-old Jamie Langton finding his future and navigating the challenges of racism, family and friendship in a small Australian town.

The thought comes to me: This is how I die. Dally is going to lose control and crash us into a pole or a house and we will be killed on impact.

The justice system characterises Jamie Langton as a 'danger to society', but he's just an Aboriginal kid, trying to find his way through adolescence.

Jamie lives in Dalton's Bay with Aunty Dawn and Uncle Bobby. He spends his downtime hanging out with his mates, Dally and Lenny. Mark Cassidy and his white mates - the Footy Heads - take every opportunity they can to bully Jamie and his friends. On Lenny's last night in town before moving to Sydney, after another episode of racist harassment, Jamie, Dally and Lenny decide to retaliate by vandalising Mark Cassidy's car. And when they discover the keys are in the ignition… Dally changes the plan. Soon they are all in Mark Cassidy's stolen car cruising through town, aiming to take it for a quick spin, then dump it.

But it's a bad plan. And as a consequence, Jamie ends up in the youth justice system where he must find a way to mend his relationships with himself, his friends, his family and his future.

'A lightning bolt to the soul. The Boy from the Mish announces a bold, necessary new talent.' WILL KOSTAKIS

Goodreads

#AusQueerYA #LoveOzYA #Gary Lonesborough #We Didn't Think It Through

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A Hunger of Thorns by Lili Wilkinson

(2023)

From the Publisher:

Be swept up in this brilliant witchy tale about forbidden magic and missing girls who don't need handsome princes to rescue them. Perfect for fans of the Serpent & Dove series.

'Completely entrancing. I have never read anything like this book. It's full of magic - the real thing. And it's full of feminine power, dark mysteries and unforgettable characters. The luscious depth of the world-building and the effortless skill with which it is conveyed make me utterly jealous.' - Amie Kaufman

Maude is the daughter of witches. She spent her childhood running wild with her best friend, Odette, weaving stories of girls who slayed dragons and saved princes. Then Maude grew up and lost her magic – and her best friend. Storytelling is her only gift that remains.

Odette always hungered for forbidden, dangerous magic, and two weeks ago she went searching for it. Now she's missing, and everyone believes she's dead. Everyone except Maude.

Maude is sure she can find Odette inside the ruins of Sicklehurst, an abandoned power plant built over an ancient magical forest –a place nobody else seems to remember is there. The danger is, nobody knows what remains inside Sicklehurst, either. And every good story is sure to have a monster …

Goodreads

#AusQueerYA #LoveOzYA #Lili Wilkinson #A Hunger Of Thorns

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We Could Be Something by Will Kostakis

(2023)

From the Publisher:

A wonderful emotional rollercoaster of a novel about two young men, each on a journey of discovery. It's part coming-out story, part falling-in-love story, part relationship breakdown story, part extended Greek family story. It's warm and funny, a little bit heartbreaking, and completely satisfying.

'The enormous heart of We Could Be Something beats with a rare, thrilling authenticity. Every funny, smart, tough word of it rings true. I loved this book.' - Patrick Ness, bestselling author of A MONSTER CALLS and the CHAOS WALKING series

Part coming-out story.

Part falling-in-love story.

Part falling-apart story.

Harvey's dads are splitting up. It's been on the cards for a while, but it's still sudden. Woken-by-his-father-to-catch-a-red-eye sudden. Now he's restarting his life in a new city, living above a cafe with the extended Greek family he barely knows.

Sotiris is a rising star. At seventeen, he's already achieved his dream of publishing a novel. When his career falters, a cute, wise-cracking bookseller named Jem upends his world.

Harvey and Sotiris's stories converge on the same street in Darlinghurst, in this beautifully heartfelt novel about how our dreams shape us, and what they cost us.

Goodreads

#AusQueerYA #LoveOzYA #Will Kostakis #We Could Be Something

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The Pledge by Cale Dietrich

(2023)

From the Publisher:

Freshman Sam believes that joining a fraternity is the best way to form a friend group as he begins his college journey - and his best chance of moving on from his past. He is the survivor of a horrific, and world-famous, murder spree known as the Lake Priest Massacre - where a masked killer hunted down Sam and his friends. Sam had to do the unthinkable to survive that night, and it completely derailed his life. He sees college, and his new identity as a frat boy, as his best shot at living a life not defined by the killings. He starts to flirt with one of the brothers, cute journalism student Oren Fisher, who Sam finds is surprisingly accepting of Sam's past, and begins to think a fresh start truly is possible. But then. . . one of his new frat brothers is found dead. A masked-murderer, one clearly inspired by the original, emerges, and starts stalking, and slaying, the frat boys of Munroe University. Now Sam will have to race against the clock to figure out who the new killer is - and why they are killing - before Sam loses his second chance or the lives of any more of his friends.

Goodreads

#AusQueerYA #LoveOzYA #Cale Dietrich #The Pledge

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Dancing Barefoot by Alice Boyle

(2022)

From the Publisher:

Winner of the 2021 Text Prize for Young Adult and Children’s Writing

Evie Vanhoutte is a teachers’ pet, a basketball star and the most beautiful girl in the year level. Evie Vanhoutte is tall, has long dark hair, a great smile, and for the past four years, Evie Vanhoutte has been the object of my most ardent, heartfelt, and passionate affection. Unrequited affection, of course.

Patch is out of place at Mountford College: she wears the wrong clothes, she’s not sporty or popular, she lives in a small flat above her dad’s record shop a world away from the leafy suburb where she goes to school. And she has a secret long-term crush on basketball star Evie Vanhoutte. Evie barely knows Patch exists until an accident involving a bottle of ink and Patch’s school uniform sparks a friendship that’s equal parts exhilarating and terrifying, and very, very confusing.

As if that weren’t enough, Patch is also trying to deal with a jealous school bully, forgetting to be supportive of her transitioning best friend, Edwin, and worrying about how a potential new stepmother could throw everything off course.

Dancing Barefoot is a feel-good romance about growing up queer, figuring out your place in the world, staying true to yourself and your friends, finding love, and learning to embrace the obstacles life throws in your path.

Goodreads

#Dancing Barefoot #Alice Boyle #AusQueerYA #LoveOzYA #YA Books #Queer YA

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The Killing Code by Ellie Marney

(2022)

From the Publisher:

A young codebreaker at Arlington Hall - the secret WWII Signals Intelligence unit in Washington DC - joins forces with other female codebreakers to hunt a murderer who is killing US government girls. Another page-turning YA thriller from the author of None Shall Sleep, perfect for fans of A Good Girl's Guide to Murder.

'Miss Sutherland … what would you say if I told you I might be able to offer you a job helping the war effort?'

1943. World War II is raging across Europe and on the Pacific front. Kit Sutherland is hiding a huge secret when she is unexpectedly recruited to work as a young codebreaker at Arlington Hall, a US Signals Intelligence facility.

When Kit's roommate doesn't return home from a dance, it sparks a search that ends in a gruesome discovery. And soon it turns into a horrifying pattern: Government girls are being murdered in Washington, DC.

Kit joins forces with three other girl codebreakers, Dottie, Moya and Violet, and as they work to crack the killer's code, two things become terrifyingly clear: the murderer they're hunting is getting closer every moment … and Kit's own secret could put her in more jeopardy than she ever imagined.

Goodreads

#The Killing Code #Ellie Marney #AusQueerYA #LoveOzYA #YA Books #Queer YA

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Never Ever Getting Back Together by Sophie Gonzales

(2022)

From the Publisher:

When their now famous ex-boyfriend asks them to participate in a teen reality show, two eighteen year old girls—one bent on revenge, the other open to rekindling romance—get tangled up in an unexpected twist when they fall for each other instead in Never Ever Getting Back Together by nationally and internationally-bestselling and Indie Next Pick author Sophie Gonzales. “Wickedly funny [and] searingly sexy.”—Kelly Quindlen, author of She Drives Me Crazy It’s been two years since Maya's ex-boyfriend cheated on her, and she still can’t escape him: his sister married the crown prince of a minor European country and he captured hearts as her charming younger brother. If the world only knew the real Jordy, the manipulative liar who broke Maya’s heart. Skye Kaplan was always cautious with her heart until Jordy said all the right things and earned her trust. Now his face is all over the media and Skye is still wondering why he stopped calling. When Maya and Skye are invited to star on the reality dating show Second-Chance Romance, they’re whisked away to a beautiful mansion—along with four more of Jordy’s exes—to compete for his affections while the whole world watches. Skye wonders if she and Jordy can recapture the spark she knows they had, but Maya has other plans: exposing Jordy and getting revenge. As they navigate the competition, Skye and Maya discover that their real happily ever after is nothing they could have scripted.

Goodreads

#Never Ever Getting Back Together #Sophie Gonzales #AusQueerYA #LoveOzYA #YA books #Queer YA

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Where You Left Us by Rhiannon Wilde

(2022)

From the Publisher:

Cinnamon Prince is angry. She’s living at home with her rockstar father after his latest breakdown, and she’s stuck in a town where people have whispered that the Princes aren’t quite right ever since her Great Aunt Sadie vanished without a trace. Not that Cinnamon cares about anyone else’s opinion. Except, she might be really starting to care what her gorgeous co-worker Daisy Leung thinks.

Scarlett Prince is anxious. Most of the time, and also about spending the summer with her sister and barely there dad. She’s holding it together. Just. But when sister’s ex-boyfriend-now-best-friend Will starts helping her search for the truth about Sadie, things get all-the-ways complicated.

Can finding the truth fix their broken family?

Goodreads

#Where You Left Us #Rhiannon Wilde #AusQueerYA #LoveOzYA #YA Books #Queer YA

[auslgbtqya]

Fish Out of Water by Kate Hendrick

(2022)

From the Publisher:

Finn the Swimmer. Finn the Winner. Finn who works hard and pushes through and never gives up. Or just Finn. And whatever Finn could be. Life is pretty simple for fifteen-year-old Finn: just keep following the black line in the pool. But in a moment it all changes: distracted by a familiar face in the crowd, he falters on the blocks and loses not just the race, but the single-minded focus that has driven him this far. Did he really see what he thinks he saw? It doesn’t seem possible—not after what happened—but now Finn can’t stop wondering, and everything is starting to unravel. For the first time, he’s got no idea what he’s supposed to do or who he’s supposed to listen to. His bossy older sister, Connie, who wants to know the truth? The whip-smart and unforgiving Aaliyah? Or the unflappable Loki, who gets Finn like no one else ever has? It turns out that in life there’s no such thing as a simple choice. And sometimes there’s no choice at all.

Goodreads

#Fish Out Of Water #Kate Hendrick #AusQueerYA #LoveOzYA #YA Books #Queer YA

[auslgbtqya]

Beyond the End of the World by Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner

(2022)

From the Publisher:

Perfect for fans of Brandon Sanderson and Laini Taylor, this much-anticipated sequel to New York Times bestselling authors Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner’s The Other Side of the Sky is a thrilling race against time—with a tantalizing star-crossed love and an electric conclusion.

Time to find a way between worlds. Time to find each other again. Time to do the impossible.

Above, in the cloudlands, Nimh has no memory of her past, only an aching, undying certainty that she has left something—someone—behind. But while she struggles to recall her identity, an imposter wields her name with deadly purpose.

Below, on the surface, North looks to the sky, desperate to join the person he loves and return to his world. But with only a traitor willing to help him, and others clamoring for him to take Nimh’s place, his home seems more unreachable than ever.

Tragedy looms as the cloudland engines falter and mist rains terror on the surface, and in their desperation to reunite and save their people, Nimh and North face one ultimate question: can they defy their love and their destiny to save their homes?

Or will the spark between them ignite their worlds, and consume them all together?

Goodreads

#Beyond the end of the world #Amie Kaufman #Meagan Spooner #AusQueerYA #LoveOzYA #YA Books #Queer YA

[auslgbtqya]

Slipping the Noose by Meg Caddy

(2022)

From the Publisher:

The way out is through.

Anne Bonny is chained up in the hold of a prison ship, nursing nine-month-old Molly. The baby is all she has left of Calico Jack, the swaggering pirate captain who loved her and stole her away to sea—and who now hangs from a gibbet. When armed men rip the child from her grasp, Bonny can do nothing and Molly seems lost. But Anne Bonny was not cut out for despair. She will plan for escape and rescue, and the plan will become action. And the streets of London will belong to her and her daughter—and the ragtag remnants of Calico Jack’s crew.

Anne Bonny looms large in the history of piracy on the high seas. But history, having left the notorious female buccaneer languishing in a Jamaican jail, then carelessly mislaid her. Fortunately we have Meg Caddy to imagine her subsequent exploits and whereabouts, and to bring them so vividly and rakishly to life.

Goodreads

#Slipping the Noose #Meg Caddy #AusQueerYA #LoveOzYa #YA Books #Queer YA