A girl full of heart A thief touched by darkness A boy with a fiery temper An unwitting servant of evil The era of magic was thought to be a myth until the Reemergence unleashed powers both dark and light upon the mundane world. Now those touched by this strange magic—a specialized group of Empowered dubbed Jokers, known collectively as Cardplay—must defend their world from the malevolent forces that threaten to consume it, all the while fighting for equality in a society clinging to normalcy. But the Reemergence was only the beginning. When another influx occurs on the seventh anniversary of that fateful event, a clash at ground zero lands Iori Ryone, a teenage boy in possession of a corrupt legendary magic, in the care of recent Joker graduate Ellen Amelia Jane. From him, she learns the Reemergence may not have been the unforeseeable natural disaster it first seemed. Someone is behind these incidents, and with the criminal organization Blackjack as the prime suspect, it's up to Cardplay to find out what they're planning and stop them before it's too late. Bloody Spade is the first installment in an urban fantasy duology that follows a cat-eared thief and a scythe-wielding girl as they try to navigate his wild magic, her hotheaded brother, a sinister plot, and the feelings they're developing for each other. ________________ Content Warning - Coarse language - Blood and violence, some gore - Moments of graphic violence/torture - On-page character death - Body horror - Harassment/bullying - Vomiting - Poisoning - Amnesia - Grief/bereavement - Anxiety, PTSD, panic attacks - Trauma related to kidnapping/physical abuse - Parent death (discussed, glimpsed in flashbacks) - Car accident (discussed, glimpsed in flashbacks) - One instance of a forced kiss (not intended to be romantic or sexual)

This was no ordinary war. This was a war to make the world safe for democracy. And if democracy was made safe, then nothing else mattered - not the millions of dead bodies, nor the thousands of ruined lives... This is no ordinary novel. This is a novel that never takes the easy way out: it is shocking, violent, terrifying, horrible, uncompromising, brutal, remorseless and gruesome... but so is war. Winner of the National Book Award.

The Rowan Institute for Gifted Youth often feels more like a prison to Bailey Lowe than a spy academy. His lukewarm opinion worsens after meeting Oliver, a new student whose ties to the outside world are weaponized against him by the school. To complicate things more, Bailey forms an ill-advised friendship with Lucien, a tenderhearted barista who has taken a suspicious shine to him. This school and the people in it have taken Bailey’s ability to trust, and earning it back is a challenge he may not be brave enough for. But Bailey’s caution isn’t misplaced. An unknown entity is targeting students—Bailey included— and the Rowan Institute staff refuse to explain how or why anyone managed to bypass the so-called “fortress.” Bailey can only hope to be the ace spy the Institute wishes him to be. Otherwise, he risks failing his friends while the illusion of safety crumbles around them. If he’s lucky, they won’t run out of tea first. Silver-Lined Secrets is the first book in the Trick Questions trilogy series following an exhausted and anxious teenager as he traverses trauma and secrets, looking for a silver lining through the dark dangers that have invaded his life. Content warning: -Blood and violence -Minor character death -Kidnapping/attempted kidnapping -Car accident -Hospital scenes -Bomb explosion -Anxiety, PTSD, panic attacks -Poisoning (non-fatal and mostly harmless) -Mentions of emotional abuse -Vomiting -Brief mentions of transphobia and ableism

Gossip Girl meets Get Out in Ace of Spades, a YA contemporary thriller by debut author Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé about two students, Devon & Chiamaka, and their struggles against an anonymous bully. When two Niveus Private Academy students, Devon Richards and Chiamaka Adebayo, are selected to be part of the elite school’s senior class prefects, it looks like their year is off to an amazing start. After all, not only does it look great on college applications, but it officially puts each of them in the running for valedictorian, too.Shortly after the announcement is made, though, someone who goes by Aces begins using anonymous text messages to reveal secrets about the two of them that turn their lives upside down and threaten every aspect of their carefully planned futures.As Aces shows no sign of stopping, what seemed like a sick prank quickly turns into a dangerous game, with all the cards stacked against them. Can Devon and Chiamaka stop Aces before things become incredibly deadly?With heart-pounding suspense and relevant social commentary comes a high-octane thriller from debut author Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé.

Too many popular histories seek to establish heroes, pioneers and martyrs but as Huw Lemmey and Ben Miller argue, the past is filled with queer people whose sexualities and dastardly deeds have been overlooked. We all remember Oscar Wilde, but who speaks for Bosie? What about those ‘bad gays’ whose unexemplary lives reveals more than we might expect? Part revisionist history, part historical biography and based on the hugely popular podcast series, Bad Gays subverts the notion of gay icons and queer heroes and asks what we can learn about LGBTQ history, sexuality and identity through its villains and baddies. From the Emperor Hadrian to notorious gangster Ronnie Kray, the authors excavate the buried history of queer lives. This includes fascist thugs, famous artists, austere puritans and debauched bon viveurs, imperialists, G-men and architects. Together these amazing life stories expand and challenge the mainstream assumptions of sexual identity. They show that homosexuality itself was an idea that emerged in the nineteenth century and that its interpretation has been central to major historical moments of conflict from the ruptures of Weimar Republic to red-baiting in Cold War America. Amusing, disturbing and fascinating, Bad Gays puts centre stage the queer villains and evil twinks in history.

After a rough tumble and maybe-serious head injury, a disillusioned trans poet falls for a charming corporate lawyer in a love story that grapples with the explosive ghosts of relationships past, romantic and familial, from the Lambda Award-nominated author of Bellies, Nicola Dinan “Fell down the stairs and woke up a trad wife.” Max is thirty, a published poet and grossly overpaid legal counsel for a tech company. With a lifetime of dysphoria and fuccbois rattling around in her head, Max is plagued with a deep dissatisfaction during what should be the best years of her life. After taking a spill down the stairs at a New Year’s Eve party, she decides to make some changes. First things first: a stab at good old-fashioned heteronormativity. Max thinks she’s found the answer in Vincent, a corporate lawyer and hobby baker, whose trad friendship group may as well speak a foreign language, and whose Chinese parents never pictured their son dating a trans woman. This uncharted territory may have rough terrain, but Vincent cares for Max in a way she’d long given up on as a foolish fantasy. Yet Vincent is carrying his own baggage from his gap year in Thailand a decade prior: an explosive entanglement with a mysterious, gorgeous traveler. Voice-driven, warm, and poignant, Disappoint Me is an exploration of millennial angst, race, trans panic, and the allure of bourgeois domesticity that asks if we are defined by our worst mistakes.