If you’re looking for a friends-to-enemies-to-lovers fantasy romance that is inspired by the true story of the authors’ grandparents in Korea, look no further.

Set in a colonized land, tigers are being hunted to extinction. It’s here where Lee Seung, a servant who wants freedom, and Choi Eunji, a noble girl seeking to defy what’s expected of her, meet and team up to change their futures.

Things get complicated, though, and Seung and Eunji find themselves becoming rivals, rivaling over who will save the final tiger in the kingdom. The tiger represents so much to each of them and their people. Things only get more challenging for the two when a princeling of the empire tries to court Eunji. That would seal her fate–but does she even want that?

As Seung and Eunji work independently to find the final tiger, they’ll find themselves realizing that they need to take their futures into their own hands. That future might involve coming back to one another again.

Reading the description of this book made me immediately think of books like Ally Condie’s Matched, and that is for good reason. This one’s being compared to that book, as well as Neal Shusterman’s Scythe.

It’s 200 years after World War III and the whole world is at peace. This is thanks to the soul-identification system, wherein every 18 year old takes part in the kirling: the government tells them about their past lives. If those past lives are good, teens get money, a career path, and sometimes even their soulmate. For those whose past lives weren’t good, they’re put in handcuffs and escorted away.

Sivon is worried about her future, given feelings she’s always had (not to mention her uncanny chess skills). When she gets her results, the entire world is shocked. She becomes an object of scrutiny to the public.

She’s now forced to not only have a bodyguard, but she’s pushed into a game where souls are pawns and there are no rules for survival. But survive she must, and she’ll have to do so while carefully navigating who is friend, who is enemy, and the knowledge that if she makes one wrong move, everything and everyone she loves will see their worlds changed forever.

A murder-mystery game turned actual murder mystery? This sounds excellent.

J. Everett High stages a murder mystery game annually for its criminology students, and Dulce Castillo is going to win this year. She’s a crime junkie and knows she has what it takes.

But Xavier Torres, who is playing the victim of the game, isn’t playing the game this time. He’s really been poisoned and he’s really dead.

The police are now involved, and the main suspect is Xavier’s ex-girlfriend Sierra; Sierra is also Dulce’s ex-best friend. Desperate to prove her innocence, Sierra turns to Dulce for help.

Can Dulce solve the actual crime or will bad blood between her and Sierra turn something up for which neither of them–nor the school or town–are prepared?

Believe it or not, this gem of a horror novel has not been available in paperback until now. This is one of those situations where the long lag between hardcover and paperback is likely a good one–the book did really well in hardcover. If you haven’t yet picked this one up, here’s your sign to do so now.

Set over Halloween and into Día De Los Muertos, Thomas’s debut novel follows Yadriel, who is determined to prove himself a powerful brujo despite the gendered expectations of his traditional Latine family. He employs the help of two friends to perform a ritual that will help him find the ghost of his murdered cousin and set him free.

This was a lot of fun while also being packed with so much interesting stuff about gender, about Brujería and how gendered it is, about family, and a sweet, humorous romance. 

Adya is a political pawn. She doesn’t want to be—all she wants is to find her missing sister Priya and make enough money to keep her family afloat in Southern India. But she has a power that is deeply coveted. She can wake electric machines. All of those machines were wiped out 500 years ago so Adya’s power is rare.

So when enemies in this political war claim they know the whereabouts of Priya, Adya wants to get her home. The problem is she has to team up with a thief to get to her sister…and the entire country’s future may rest squarely in Adya and her own power.

Kate Alice Marshall writes excellent horror/survival stories, and this one is hitting shelves as a paperback original–perfect for readers who love a more portable book and/or who want a good read on a smaller budget.

Mercy Gray was a hero during a mall shooting two years ago. While she survived and helped others survive, it wasn’t without pain. She has a bullet in her back, medical debt, and a lot of guilt for not listening to her sister’s warnings about the boy next door.

Damien Dare is a billionaire who has become a TV host. He’s eager to have Mercy on his new survival show, and Mercy knows this is an opportunity to make a lot of money and help her sister go to college.

But when Mercy and the other contestants are brought to an off-grid set, it doesn’t look like a set at all. They’re trapped inside a set of gates, and it’s not long before one of the contestants shows up dead. It’s no accident, made evident as more contestants die off and quick. This will truly be testing everyone’s survival skills–who, if anyone, can Mercy trust? Will she even make it out alive? (Is there a TV show being filmed at all?).