3 to Watch: Rising Books You Should Know 📚🧐 - Issue #7

Hi,

Thanks for joining us for the seventh edition of our newsletter!

This week, we've found three YA titles that are gaining serious attention: a love story set during Ireland's Great Famine, a horror tale about transgender teens facing monsters and their past, and a thriller where family secrets turn deadly.

This week’s selection:

Where the Heart Should Be
In Where the Heart Should Be, Carnegie Medal-winning author Sarah Crossan tells a love story set during Ireland's devastating famine of 1846. Nell works as a kitchen maid in the Big House, serving the wealthy Sir Philip Wicken while people starve around them. When she meets Johnny Browning, the English heir who will inherit the land her family has lost, an unlikely bond develops between them. As hunger and disease destroy their community, their forbidden connection offers hope amid the darkness of one of Ireland's most tragic periods.

Old Wounds
In Old Wounds, Logan-Ashley Kisner's 2024 YA horror thriller, transgender teens Erin and Max embark on a journey to California when their trip takes a terrifying turn in rural America's isolated woods. Max seeks the chance to finally transition, while Erin struggles to understand their complicated past after Max ended their relationship two years earlier. When they become stranded and separated, they must confront both a legendary creature that hunts girls and hostile locals searching for a female sacrifice. To survive until sunrise, both teens must stop running from their attackers, each other, and ultimately themselves in this story about identity, survival, and facing one's past.

Tender Beasts
In Tender Beasts, Liselle Sambury's March 2025 release, Sunny Behre's wealthy family falls apart after her mother's death leaves her with one mysterious message: "Take care of Dom." The problem is Dom, her youngest brother, is almost a stranger to her and he's accused of murder. When a classmate is killed and Sunny finds Dom with blood on his hands, she must decide whether to trust his claims that he's innocent. As more people die and Sunny digs deeper, she learns her other siblings are hiding dangerous secrets too. This thriller puts Sunny in an impossible position: protect her family's reputation or save the brother she barely knows.

If you want to work together, we’d love to hear from you.

👋 Get in touch, ask us anything, or just say hi.

Until next week,

The NextSeller Team (Stan & Bo)

Follow NextSeller on LinkedIn