As the chapter closes on the eventful year that was 2024, bookworms are already scrambling to get their hands on the next best read. Although it might seem easy to jump into what the new year has in store, enjoying what the past offered is important too. Here are three of my favorite page-turning YA fiction books of 2024.
Nothing Like the Movies: Ready. Set. Swoon. If you’re obsessed with the ever-so appealing 2000s romance trope, “Nothing Like The Movies” by Lynn Painter is for you. “Nothing Like the Movies” is the final installment of a duology that follows the story of quirky Liz Buxbaum and the loving jock Wes Bennett. Next door neighbors since childhood, Wes and Liz lived their lives with one goal in mind: to annoy the other. When they finally come to their senses about their feelings for each other, the banter suddenly becomes endearing, and the flirting becomes more than just a game. But after a blissful summer, tragedy strikes, ending their relationship. Heartbroken, Wes follows Liz to college and fills her life with romantic gestures in the hopes of getting his dream girl back. Will she fall for him all over again, or is their relationship over forever?
The Reappearance of Rachel Price: This true-crime fueled mystery thriller centers around Bel Price, a girl who will do anything to find out the shocking truth about her missing mother. 18-year- old Bel had lived her whole life in her missing mother’s shadow. She wishes everyone would forget about the women who abandoned her, but when her story catches the eye of a director, a documentary works its way into her life. In the middle of filming, Rachel Price herself appears, with a story too news worthy to be true. Is the story of what happened 16 years ago true, or is there more to her story? This action packed story by Holly Jackson tells the shocking tale of the horror of finding out who your family really is.
Powerless: Only the extraordinary belong in the kingdom of Ilya – the elite, the powerful and the unique. Paedyn Gray lacks all of these qualities. She is Ordinary, a person with no powers, and she’s had to adopt a thieving lifestyle to survive in the slums of Ilya. Having been trained by her father as a fake “Psychic,” Paedyn has escaped the law by pretending to be an Elite; someone with powers. When Paedyn unknowingly saves one of Ilya’s princes, she finds herself in the middle of the Purging Trials. This competition is meant to show off the Elite’s powers, the one thing Paedyn doesn’t have. If her competitors don’t kill her, a certain prince she’s combating feelings for will, when he discovers what she is- Ordinary.
The Reappearance of Rachel Price by Holly Jackson is one of my favorite mystery-thriller books. I have always loved Jackson’s writing style, and the way I can almost never see what’s coming. (Photo/Camila Doerffler)
