Persianality by Michael Benzehabe

Best written YA novel of 2019. Love exists in Iran, but so does melancholy. Privileged daughters, like Jamileh Delkash, pine away behind twenty-foot walls. Jamileh has a teen crush, and she’s only fifteen (almost fifteen). She can only dodge the Basij (Moral Police) for so long, and she’s already floundering in Islamic propriety.

Her budding independence is fueled by visits to the infamous Monkey Bar, where local teens gamble on monkey bicycle races. Here, she attempts to fan the flames of love with Armand Ducasse, the son of Iran’s Ambassador to France.

Being good and being happy proves difficult to reconcile. The ever-watchful Basij and Armand’s call to war, triggers their flight to Paris. But so-called friends, caprice, and Afghan slavers threatens their midnight escapade.

Purchase $12.92: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/109550844X

Release date: April 29, 2019

Internment by Samira Ahmed

Layla Ahmed and her family are forced into an internment camp for Muslim citizens. While there, she makes some new friends and tries to keep in contact with her boyfriend on the outside. With the help of everyone around her, she tries to start a revolution for their freedom against those who put her there in the first place.

Purchase $17.99: https://www.amazon.com/Internment-Samira-Ahmed/dp/0316522694

Release date: March 19, 2019

You Must Not Miss by Katrina Leno

After her world turns upside down in one whole night, Magpie Lewis starts to write and creates a world called Near, a place where everything and everyone is perfect. But when a door to Near actually appears in her backyard, she soon finds out that perfect world that she had imagined, isn't so perfect after all.

Purchase $17.99: https://www.amazon.com/You-Must-Miss-Katrina-Leno/dp/0316449776

Release date: April 23, 2019

Starworld by Paula Garner

Sam Jones and Zoe Miller meet by chance, but soon become best friends thanks to their texting conversations and the new world they created called Starworld. There, everything is safe and they can be whoever and whatever they want. Their conversations help each other realize more about their lives, even things that might break their friendship apart.

Purchase $17.99: https://www.amazon.com/author/paulagarner

Release date: April 16, 2019

The Raven’s Tale by Cat Winters

A young Edgar Allen Poe meets the mysterious and dark Lenore. Despite the fact that he is currently with Elmira Royster, Poe can't help but be drawn to Lenore and he finds himself down a dark path that inspires him in his teenage years.

Purchase $17.99: https://www.amazon.com/Ravens-Tale-Cat-Winters/dp/1419733621

Release date: April 16, 2019

Descendant of the Crane by Joan He

After her father's murder, Princess Hesina is named Queen of Yan, a kingdom that is currently unstable and has also banned magic. In order to figure out who killed him, she must use magic in order to start her investigation, an act that can get her killed in the process. Working together with a criminal turned investigator, she tries to figure out who killed him and what she has to do in a world where she can't trust anyone.

Purchase $17.99: https://www.amazon.com/Descendant-Crane-Joan-He/dp/0807515515

Release date: April 9, 2019

White Rose by Kip Wilson

Based on the true story, Sophie Scholl distributed pamphlets asking the public to go against the Nazi regime in 1942 as a part of the White Rose resistance group. However, a year later she is sentenced to death alongside her brother. Kip Wilson tells her life story through a novel-in-verse that will leave you wondering why you didn't learn of Sophie and the other members of the White Rose when you were younger.

Purchase $17.99: https://www.amazon.com/White-Rose-Kip-Wilson/dp/1328594432

Release date: April 2, 2019

Unassimilated by Michael Benzehabe

Zoe Mousa thinks immigrating to the U.S. is her key to happiness. After arriving, she works hard to repay an emotional debt owed to Sarah and Jamileh, two Muslim sisters who provided love and family after her Jewish parents were murdered in Iran. Despite Zoe’s best efforts, their reunion is sidetracked when she uncovers an emerging cyber war.

Immigration isn’t the solution to everything. Her unrealistic expectations melt away with time and maturity. “Why did I bother to come,” Zoe asks. "In a world on fire, maybe America is nothing more than the last burning house on the block."

I kept turning pages because of the humor, but half way through, I realized I was knee-deep in a plot as exciting as the Fight Club.

Purchase $12.92: https://www.amazon.com/Unassimilated-Michael-Benzehabe/dp/1535350318

Release date: August 16, 2016

The Child in Time by Ian McEwan

Stephen Lewis, a successful writer of children's books, is confronted with the unthinkable: his only child, three-year-old Kate, is snatched from him in a supermarket. In one horrifying moment that replays itself over the years that follow, Stephen realizes his daughter is gone.

Ian McEwan takes us into the dark territory of a marriage devastated by the loss of a child. Kate's absence sets Stephen and his wife, Julie, on diverging paths as they each struggle with a grief that only seems to intensify with the passage of time. Eloquent and passionate, the novel concludes in a triumphant scene of love and hope that gives full rein to the author's remarkable gifts. The Child in Time is a serious novel.

Purchase $16.99: https://www.amazon.com/Child-Time-Ian-McEwan/dp/0385497520

Release date: November 11, 1999