Book cover courtesy of SyndeticsOrangeboy, Patrice Lawrence

Not cool enough, not clever enough, not street enough for anyone to notice me. I was the kid people looked straight through. NOT ANY MORE. NOT SINCE MR ORANGE. Sixteen-year-old Marlon has made his mum a promise – he’ll never follow his big brother, Andre, down the wrong path. So far, it’s been easy, but when a date ends in tragedy, Marlon finds himself hunted. They’re after the mysterious Mr Orange, and they’re going to use Marlon to get to him. Marlon’s out of choices – can he become the person he never wanted to be, to protect everyone he loves? (Publisher summary)

First lines: Man, I couldn’t stop looking at her. When I closed my eyes, I still saw her. Her hair was thick and blonde, and a curl looped over her ear to her shoulder. She wore black mascara and green eyeliner and her lips looked shiny and stick. Sonya Wilson was right there next to me and it made my brain buzz.

Book cover courtesy of SyndeticsDon’t tell the bridesmaid, Katy Birchall

Romance is in the air! Preparations for the Wedding of the Century between Anna’s dad and super famous actress Helena Montaine is in full swing (all Anna needs to do is escape having to wear the biggest meringue of a bridesmaid dress that EVER existed.) And not only that but Anna, her friends and her ACTUAL BOYFRIEND (definitely requires shouting), Connor, are about to go on a school trip in romantic Rome. So as long as Anna can avoid doing something like falling face first in the Trevi Fountain, nothing could spoil this perfect pasta-filled moment. Could it? (Publisher summary)

First lines:”You can’t keep me trapped up here forever!”
Jess folded her arms, looking very pleased with herself.
“Sure I can.”

Book cover courtesy of SyndeticsSuperpowerless, Chris Priestly

David is sixteen. A pretty ordinary boy, in most ways – he just wants to hang out in his bedroom, reading his dad’s old comics. Comics that are full of his heroes – those figures whose lives are charmed, special, unique. Life hasn’t been easy recently for David, though. His father died just a couple of years ago, he has a fractious relationship with his mum, and he has fallen out with his best friend. But, David has a secret, which he hasn’t told anyone. He has superpowers. He can soar through the air, he has superhearing, he feels and hears everything super-keenly. So life should be easier, then, shouldn’t it? But somehow it’s not – and when David gets involved with the girl next door, gorgeous Holly Hunter, he begins to realise just how very complicated it can get. David’s harbouring another secret, a deeper darker one, and on this journey from boyhood to manhood, will he have the courage to face up to it? (Publisher summary)

First lines: David is halfway to the shop when he spies a group of girls he knows from school. He doesn’t usually employ his superpowers for such trivial things, but as they draw near he engages his power of invisibility and they walk on past as though he doesn’t even exist.

Book cover courtesy of SyndeticsLabyrinth lost, Zoraida Cordova

Alex is a bruja and the most powerful witch in her family. But she’s hated magic ever since it made her father disappear into thin air. When a curse she performs to rid herself of magic backfires and her family vanishes, she must travel to Los Lagos, a land in-between as dark as Limbo and as strange as Wonderland, to get her family back. (Publisher summary)

First lines: The second time I saw my dead aunt Rosaria, she was dancing.
Earlier that day, my mom had warned me, pressing a long, red fingernail on the tip of my nose,
“Alejandra, don’t go downstairs when the Circle arrives.”

Book cover courtesy of SyndeticsThe girl in between, Sarah Carroll

A homeless girl and her Ma, always hiding from the authorities, take shelter in an abandoned mill in the center of a big city, but when developers make plans to knock the mill down, everything changes, prompting the girl to wonder what kind of ghosts are haunting both the mill and her mother. (Publisher summary)

First lines: I’m invisible. Ma says I’m supposed to be so the Authorities don’t get me. She goes out into the streets almost every day but I’m not allowed. I’ve got to stay inside the mill so they don’t see me.

Book cover courtesy of SyndeticsCity of saints and thieves, Natalie C. Anderson

After fleeing the Congo as refugees, Tina and her mother arrive in Kenya. Her mother quickly finds work as a maid for the Greyhills, a prominent family. When her mother is found shot to death in Mr. Greyhill’s personal study, Tina knows exactly who’s behind it. Tina spends the next four years surviving on the streets alone, working as a master thief for the Goondas, Sangui City’s local gang. Finally, Tina gets a chance for vengeance but as soon as she steps inside the lavish home, she’s overtaken by the pain of old wounds and the pull of past friendships, setting into motion a dangerous cascade of events that could, at any moment, cost Tina her life. (Publisher summary)

First lines: If you’re going to be a theif, the first thing you need to know is that you don’t exist. And I mean, you really have to know it. You have to own it. Bug Eye taught me that. Because if you do exist, you might snag someone’s eye who will frown and wonder who you are.

Book cover courtesy of SyndeticsSolo, Kwame Alexander

Seventeen-year-old Blade endeavors to resolve painful issues from his past and navigate the challenges of his former rockstar father’s addictions, scathing tabloid rumors, and a protected secret that threatens his own identity. (Publisher summary)