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A Girl Walks Into the Forest

Madeleine Roux

Midsommar meets The Shadows Between Us in this alluring mash-up of horror and fairy tale from New York Times bestselling author Madeleine Roux, where a girl must embark on a harrowing journey through a deadly forest filled with otherworldly creatures, supernatural forces, and one maniacal villain who will stop at nothing to bring her down.

For as long as she can remember, Valla's been told her beauty would give her a life most people only dreamed of. So when the mysterious Count Leonid calls on her to be his betrothed, Valla jumps at the chance to leave her small, bleak village. The only thing standing in her way? The journey through the dangerous Gottyar Wood that many don't survive.

Filled with deadly and cunning creatures, the Gottyar immediately delivers on its reputation with an attack that leaves Valla injured; her face torn to shreds. Barely making it to the castle in one piece, Valla is relieved to finally be safe. But things have changed. Valla's face is no longer beautiful. And the Count is not happy...Valla thought making it through the Gottyar was a victory, but when she sees what awaits beyond the palace walls, the true battle begins.

In this ruthlessly female-forward narrative that borrows from the best of horror, fairy tales, and folklore, a chewed-up-and-spit-out heroine must lean on the brutality of nature and her biggest fears in order to win back what's she's been robbed of: her life.

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Come Home to My Heart

Riley Redgate

Gorgeous in its sincerity and its precision--in its raw, honest depiction of what it feels like to be a gay teen in a world that says that you don't deserve a home.



Gloria Forman and Xia Harper go to the same high school in a small South Carolina town, but they couldn't be more different. While Gloria is part of the popular, Christian crowd, Xia sleeps through class, antagonizes anyone who dares talk to her, and buries herself in books that help her pretend she's somewhere else--anywhere that being lesbian wouldn't be a waking nightmare.



When the two form an accidental friendship, they begin noticing each other in ways they promised themselves they'd avoid. After all, Xia's isolation is self-imposed for a reason, and the last thing Gloria needs is more upheaval, especially after her parents kicked her out of the house for being gay. Ever since, she has spent her nights under the stage in the school auditorium and her days terrified of being discovered.



Xia just wants to keep her head down until the end of senior year. Gloria just wants to keep her living situation quiet until her parents come around. But as their feelings for each other intensify and the truths they've hidden work their way to the surface, what they truly want will change forever.

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Daring

Jordana Pomeroy

The dramatic life story of Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, one of the greatest portrait painters of all time

Supremely talented and strategically charming, Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun (1755-1842) overcame tragedy and broke gender barriers to reach the height of success as a portrait painter, first in Paris, and then across Europe. After losing her father at age twelve and facing financial insecurity, she fought to gain access to artistic training and opportunity. She was coerced into marriage at age twenty, to an art dealer who both helped and harmed her career. Vigée Le Brun deployed her intelligence and beauty to attract powerful clients, who relied on her to style the personal identities they projected to the world.

Vigée Le Brun's salons were the talk of Paris, and she became court painter to Marie Antoinette. Then came the French Revolution, when marginalized groups demanded change to centuries-old systems of oppression. Vigée Le Brun was forced to reexamine her alliances and run for her life, taking her young daughter but leaving her husband behind. Making her way through the countrysides and capitals of Europe and Russia--including a stay at the imperial court of Catherine the Great--the artist conquered fear and adversity to refashion her life and her art.

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The Haunted Blizzard

Aviaq Johnston

A teenage girl walks home in a burgeoning blizzard, happy to have an unexpected snow day. Ignoring an Elder's warning about the terror the blizzard holds, she finds herself alone in her home with an unseen presence stalking and tormenting her. What does it want? And will she survive?
 

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A Most Perilous World

Kristina R. Gaddy

The stories of the four teenage children of prominent abolitionists before and during the Civil War combine to form a surprisingly familiar tapestry of struggle, disappointment, and ultimately hope.

"Impeccable research and incredible details bring the stories of these four young people to life as they come of age in the years leading up to and during the Civil War."—Kip Wilson, award-winning author of White Rose

Flowers in the Gutter author Kristina R. Gaddy tells the story of America’s tumultuous years leading up to the Civil War and of the war itself from the viewpoints of four children of famous abolitionists, including those of Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison. Gaddy crafts a surprisingly contemporary coming-of-age narrative, supported by meticulous research and featuring dozens of primary documents. Each of these four young people—two white, two Black—was strongly committed to the anti-slavery cause but felt just as keenly a need to make their own names, away from the often over-protective or disapproving shadows of the famous adults in their lives. This is a true story of how a torch of resistance is passed and how a new generation makes its mark.

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