Most Anticipated #LoveOzYA Releases 2024
All the Australian YA goodness I'm looking forward to this year
A whole new year of reading has commenced!
You know my deep love of Australian YA books by now, and as we head into 2024, my devotion isn’t easing. I can’t wait to discover new authors and catch up with established ones, all through their words. I’m so excited to share ten of my most anticipated #LoveOzYA 2024 releases.
Quite a few of these are sequels to books I enjoyed in 2023, and while I’m excited to dive back into old adventures, I’m also looking forward to discovering new reads this year, too.
In no particular order, here are the ten upcoming releases I’m extra excited for:
The Heart of the World (The Isles of the Gods #2) by Amie Kaufman
Magic and sacrifice will collide as lovers and gods, enemies and allies vie for the fate of the world in this heart-pounding sequel to THE ISLES OF THE GODS, which Stephanie Garber called “deliciously diabolical and full of heart.”
Deep is the Fen (A Hunger of Thorns #2) by Lili Wilkinson
Merry doesn’t need a happily-ever-after. Her life in the charming, 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 who specialize in backward thinking and suspiciously supernatural traditions—and Merry is determined to stop him. Even if it means teaming up with the person she hates most: her academic archnemesis, Caraway Boswell, an ice-cold snob who hides his true face under a glamour.
An ancient Toad ritual is being held in the sinister Deeping Fen, and if Merry doesn’t rescue Teddy before it’s finished, she’ll lose him forever. But the Toadmen have been keeping dangerous secrets, and so has Caraway. The farther Merry travels into Deeping Fen’s foul waters, the more she wonders if she’s truly come to save her friend… or if she’s walking straight into a trap. There’s nothing the Toadmen love more than a damsel in distress.
Wrong Answers Only by Tobias Madden
Marco should be at university, studying biomedicine. Instead, he’s been sent to live on a cruise ship in the Mediterranean with his estranged uncle, all because of a ‘blip’ everyone else is convinced was a panic attack. (Which it most definitely was not.) And even though Marco’s trip is supposed to provide answers – about himself, about his family – all he finds on board the Ocean Melody are more and more questions.
But then his best friend CeCe proposes a new plan: for someone who has always done the right thing, in every possible way, it’s time for Marco to get a few things wrong. And hooking up with a hot dancer from the ship is only the beginning…
Liar’s Test by Ambelin Kwaymullina
Bell Silverleaf is a liar. It’s how she’s survived. It’s how all Treesingers have survived, after they were invaded by the Risen and their gods. But now—thanks to some political maneuvering—Bell is in the Queen’s Test. She’s one of seven girls competing in deadly challenges to determine who rules for the next twenty-five years. If Bell wins, she’ll use the power to help her people and get her revenge on the Risen.
But Bell doesn’t know how much she’s been lied to. She’s part of a conspiracy stretching back generations, and she’s facing much bigger dangers than the Queen’s Test. She’s up against the gods themselves. Getting hold of that crown might just be the least of her problems.
Serpent Sea (Spice Road #2) by Maiya Ibrahim
No cover or synopsis has been released for Serpent Sea yet, but I loved Spice Road so I can’t wait to read the next book in the series.
The Sweetness Between Us by Sarah Winifred Searle
Not final cover
After health problems wiped out their first few weeks of school, Perley and Amandine are both starting their Junior year behind their classmates, and both have major changes in their lives that they’re struggling to get used to. Perley was diagnosed with diabetes over the summer, and worries that all these new medical expenses will be a hardship on his family. And Amandine, part of a venerated family of vampires, has been turned much younger than she expected to be after a car accident nearly killed her. The two of them form a fast friendship – both feel a little out of step with their old lives, and as a bonus, it turns out that Amandine’s new vampire abilities can help Perley save money on blood glucose tests. But as the year goes on, they’re forced to admit that maybe their coping strategies – and their blood-sipping-turned-romance – aren’t working out so well after all. Will they be able to get their lives back to normal? Or will both have to figure out new ways for their “normal” to look?
The Girl with No Reflection by Keshe Chow
Princess Ying Yue believed in love... once upon a time. Yet when she’s chosen to wed the crown prince, Ying’s dreams of a fairy tale marriage quickly fall apart. Her husband-to-be is cold and indifferent, confining Ying to her room for reasons he won’t explain. Worse still are the rumors that swirl around the imperial whispers of seven other royal brides who, after their own weddings, mysteriously disappeared.
Left alone with only her own reflection for company, Ying begins to see things. Strange things. Movements in the corners of her mirror. Colorful lights upon its surface. And when, on the eve of her wedding, she unwittingly tears open a gateway, she is pulled into a mirror world. This realm is full of sentient reflections, including the enigmatic Mirror Prince. Unlike his real-world counterpart, the Mirror Prince is kind and compassionate, and before long Ying falls in love—the kind of love she always dreamed of. But there is darkness in this new world, too.
It turns out the two worlds have a long and blood-soaked history, and Ying has a part to play in the future of them both. And the brides who came before Ying? By the time they discovered what their role was, it was already too late.
Fyrebirds (Nightbirds #2) by Kate J. Armstrong
Also yet to receive a cover and synopsis, Fyrebirds will conclude the Nightbirds duology. Again, I really enjoyed Nightbirds and I’m excited to see how the story ends.
Gus and the Winter Boy by Troy Hunter
Gus Smith feels out of place in the world: he’s overweight, gay, and stuck at home caring for his injured mother. His only real friends are his neighbour Kane, polar opposite to Gus, and Shell, who is dealing with her own set of 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?
Birdy by Sharon Kernot
Maddy is mute. Since the Incident she has barely spoken. And now she and her mother and brother are staying in a farmhouse on an old apricot orchard not far from town. It’s a chance to rest and recuperate – or a way to hide further away from the world.
Alice is waiting. Since Birdy, her darling daughter, disappeared forty-five years ago, she has sat in her house waiting for her to come home. Alice says Maddy reminds her of Birdy, and Maddy feels a strange connection to the long-lost girl. In the quiet not-speaking and waiting, amid the clutter of the old woman’s house, Maddy and Alice slowly become friends. Until Maddy takes something that’s not hers.
Are any of these on your list to read, too? What other releases are you most looking forward to this year?
I’m looking forward to so many of these! Especially excited about The Heart of the World, Tobias Madden’s new book and Keshe Chow’s debut 💕