NOVL Newsblast: Fresh Covers, Fresh Books!

Poems for Tortured Souls

by Liz Ison

Soothe your spirit with this emotional, romantic, must-have collection, an homage to some of the poets and writers who have inspired Taylor Swift.
 
This collection of timeless poems is a beautiful introduction to the passionate words that have inspired artists and lyricists for generations. Discover poetry that overflows with folklore, love, heartbreak, revenge, and peace – the perfect balm for any tortured soul.
 
Featuring poems by William Wordsworth, Emily Dickinson, William Shakespeare, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Lewis Carroll and more, this moody and melancholy anthology celebrates the English language’s most famous poets, and the emotions that unite us.
 
Warning: these poems might make you cry!

Royal Heirs Academy

by Lindsey Duga

American Royals meets Elite in this contemporary YA set in a glamorous boarding school where four teens compete to inherit a European kingdom.

For fifty years, King Leander Eldana has ruled Ashland without naming an heir to the crown. After sending away his grandchildren to be raised out of the public eye, it’s finally time to secure his nation’s future by appointing one definitive heir. The best way to appraise his successor? In the halls of Almus Terra Academy, a boarding school infamous for breeding the world’s next generation of leaders—and liars.

Titus Eldana has always known he’d inherit Ashland’s future. Now he must prove he has what it takes. Alaric Eldana was not raised with a silver spoon. His secondhand clothes might not be fit for a king, but he knows how to rule: with his fist. Emmeline Eldana only wants to please her neglectful parents. If that means securing the crown, she won’t hesitate to destroy anyone in her way. Sadie Aurelia has no idea why she’s been given a chance to bring new blood to the throne. With nothing left to lose back home, she’s ready to take it. 

Filled with competition, secret alliances, enemies-to-lovers romance, and cunning revenge, Royal Heirs Academy is a breathless, entertaining read set in modern-day. This gossip-filled school for the global elite is inspired by UWC of the Atlantic, which Vanity Fair has described as “Hippie Hogwarts.”
For fans of the breakout television hit Maxton Hall — The World Between Us.

Dropping Beats

by Nathanael Lessore

A hilarious and heartfelt young YA contemporary debut about the misadventures of an aspiring young rapper as he navigates school, family, and friendship.

Thirteen-year-old Growls (aka Shaun) is an aspiring (awful) rapper who hopes to enter this year’s Raptology competition with his best friend, Shanks (aka Zachariah), over the summer holidays. But a misguided attempt to impress Growls’s first crush epically backfires on the two wannabe rappers making them a laughingstock at school.
 
They’ve finally gone viral – but not in the good way. Shanks can’t cope with the backlash and goes MIA, leaving Growls terribly alone at school.
 
Then Growls meets Siobhan, a smart, home-schooled girl who has her own secrets. Siobhan shows Growls that there’s more to life than the pursuit of fame and that “gang-gang life”, and Growls, in turn, shows her that she never needs to feel lonely. Just when things seem to be looking up for Growls, Siobhan tells him some devasting news and his mum tells him his family are facing eviction.
 
Can Growls be a hero to both Siobhan and Shanks? Can he save his home and his friendships? Can he drop the best bars and win the Raptology competition?
 
Either way, he’s ready for this. He’s steady for this. It’s comeback season and they call him comeback king for a reason.

To Steal From Thieves

by M. K. Lobb

In Devil’s Acre, London’s deadliest slum, an alchemologist and a conman team up to steal a priceless necklace, but not before complicated feelings and deception threaten to destroy everything and everyone they love.

Within the dazzling halls of London’s Crystal Palace, the event of the season has arrived: The Great Exhibition. An opportunity for the greatest minds of the century to come together under one roof in an unprecedented display of wealth, magic, and power. And for two unlikely partners in crime, it’s about to become the score of a lifetime.

Charming conman Kane Durante works alone—or on occasion with his adopted brother, Fletcher. But when his boss, the infamous Kingpin of London’s magical dark market, gives him the impossible task of stealing a priceless artifact from the Great Exhibition, he knows it’s a job he can’t pull off alone. Enter Zaria Mendoza, daughter of one of London’s greatest alchemologists. Ever since her father’s death, Zaria’s been struggling to keep her underground business afloat, and impatient clients are becoming violent. When the infuriatingly handsome Kane offers her the promise of enough money to get out of debt and leave London entirely, she knows she can’t walk away from this dangerous partnership.

But robbing one of the most public, heavily-guarded buildings in London isn’t going to be easy, especially when love and betrayal threaten to ruin everything they’ve worked so hard for.

Renegade Girls

by Nora Neus, illustrated by Julie Robine

A swoonworthy queer romance set against a riveting story of social change in the 1880s, this historical graphic novel reimagines the life of America’s first stunt girl—a young undercover reporter—and her whirlwind summer of romance and fighting injustice. 
Seventeen-year-old Helena “Nell” Cusack came to New York this summer looking for a story—a real story. She dreams of one day writing hard-hitting articles for the New York Chronicle, but so far she’s only managed to land a job as a lowly society reporter. That is, until Alice Austen strolls into her life, an audacious street photographer who encourages Nell to shake up polite society…and maybe also take a chance on love.
 
When her best friend, Lucia, is injured while working in a garment factory, Nell is determined to crack the story wide open. Posing as a seamstress, she reports on the conditions from the inside, making a name for herself as the Chronicle’s first ever stunt girl. But as Nell’s reporting gains momentum, so do the objections of those who oppose her. Will Nell continue to seek justice—even if it hurts her in the end?
 
Based on real-life stunt girl Nell Nelson and photographer Alice Austen, this tenderly drawn narrative is about bringing buried stories to light and the bravery of first love.