A nice compilation of upcoming YA books. I can definitely tell some of these are going to become big successes with the teens.

Wonderfully helpful for foreign rights readers. Thank you for the sneak peak into 2019's hottest titles. I'm especially looking forward to The Merciful Crow by Margaret Owen and I Wanna Be Where You Are by Kristina Forest - great concept and great writing!

A wonderful premise and very helpful for staying up to date with upcoming releases. The format is a little tricky to navigate though.

YA previews are one of my favorite thing. I always have SO many new up coming YA novels that I want to try, so I love that Buzz Books is a place I can preview them without committing to the entire read. Before I get started on which books made it on to my TBR pile, I was surprised to find that this particular Buzz Book featured some really interesting styles. Notably there was a novel told in prose, as well as a play, a diary, and a graphic novel . The novel written as a play is a Shakespearean retelling of a popular movie - a movie which some believe to have been influenced by a few Shakespeare plays to begin with. There were also a few sequels featured in this collection that I won't be talking about, but that is only because I haven't read the first books. Beyond being surprised by the unique styles which some of the upcoming novels are taking on, these are the books that most grabbed my attention:

Romanov by Nadine Brandes. This is a fantasy retelling of the Anastasia Romanov story, which by itself is fascinating - I am SO excited for the chance to read Anastasia with magic. But, beyond that, the novel is also epistolary. I was sucked in by the first two lines and I NEED to curl up with this book on a cold wintry day. "I watched my diaries burn. Pages curled in on themselves, like spider legs accepting death." UGH, BEAUTIFUL.

To Best the Boys - Mary Weber. This book is going to be such an adventure. Its a race through a Labyrinth, intended only for guys. So naturally, the heroine is going to be strong and smart and beat them all (Or at least I assume considering she is the main character) I think it will be a lot of fun to read. I love stories where a girl takes on tasks that were only intended for guys.

Bloodleaf by Crystal Smith. This is going to be a princess becomes a pauper type tale, which is always fun to read. I love reading the adjustments a rich person has to go through as they attempt to hide themselves among commoners. I'm excited to see how this one turns out.

I loved reading all the excerpts in this preview of soon to be published books! My personal favorites were Descendant of the Crane, Bloodleaf, and A Place for Wolves and I'm looking forward to reading the full versions in the future!

Every time a new issue of Buzz Books 2019: Young Adult Spring/Summer comes out I read it as soon as possible.
This one was no exception and I found many interesting books that I want to read and I cannot wait for their publication.

This was amazing. I like reading excerpts. There were a lot of great books .I added few books to my tbr list too.

Buzz Books is a great resource to get a sense of what's being released in the coming seasons. I love the quick summaries presented before each excerpt - my only wish is that all books got such summaries, whether they're also excerpted in Buzz Books or not.

The current edition introduced me to I Hate Everyone But You, which somehow slipped my radar. (Its upcoming follow-up, Please Send Help..., is featured.) William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Mean Girls by Ian Doescher sounds so fun; I hope it gets read alongside the Bard in schools. And while fantasy isn't my genre of choice, I love the premise of Mary Weber's To Best the Boys - about time!

I found some great recommendations for new YA books coming out this spring! I loved reading the excerpts and cant wait for many of these to be released!

I am always so appreciative of the work that goes into providing these seasonal resources. I am a planner and so I use these resources as a way to discover new material, new authors, and roughly plan out what book I want to read. I recommend these!

What can I say? Buzz Books always fill me with excitement.
There’s a few titles on here I’ve already got ARCs of and one or two that I’m intrigued by. As always, this is great for dipping your toes into new things and trying out ideas. Quite heavily leaning to fantasy but some wonderful tootles on here.
Much as I love these books I always end up adding to my NetGalley requests in a way that isn’t totally healthy.

This book is a very useful resource for teachers like me. You can read an excerpt from some of the upcoming YA books of this year. As a teacher who reads constantly, but still can't read everything, this book is very valuable in finding good books to share with my students.

This was a nice resource for collection development and readers' advisory. I wish there would have been even more titles featured! :)

This was an interesting mix of titles, many of which I have noted as possible future purchases for my library. I liked the excerpts and also the author info included with each title.

I both love and hate reading samplers for books. On the one hand, it's really exciting to have the opportunity to experience new books without having to make the commitment of reading the whole thing and it's even more exciting to have a sneak peak into a book that hasn't been published yet. On the other hand, I don't have the rest of the book and so if I come across one that seems especially amazing, I can't keep reading it! And that can be even more painful if the book hasn't been published yet.

The coolest thing about this sampler is that it gave me the opportunity to look at several books that I might not have picked up otherwise and add them to my to-read list. Wonderfully, I was interested in the majority of the books for which I was able to read an excerpt, especially the King Arthur reimagining.

It also offered the opportunity for me to decide to pass on some books--namely <i>Much Ado About Mean Girls</i>--that I didn't yet know I wasn't interested in and might have bought without realizing and then would have hated.

I definitely see the majority of these books as ones I would like to read. In fact, there were really only two--the one mentioned above and <i>Please Send Help</i>--that I wasn't exactly interested in. I've actually already read <i>To the Best Boys</i> as I was approved for an ARC and I loved it <i>immensely</i>, so it was really cool to see that book included in this sampler. I hope others are able to find it from reading this.

I was slightly disappointed with this edition of YA Buzz Books. There were too many series continuations of books way off the radar and not much that I had been anticipating coming up. The titles that were good were excellent, but this did very little to add to my reading and purchasing list.

Romanov – Nadine Brandes
This title was not as exciting as I was hoping. I do enjoy learning about the Romanov history, yet felt this lacked anything new (at least for this first excerpt) to make it stand apart. There was the hint of magic at the end of the chapter that may catch some reader’s attention, but I thought that the writing was to dull and dry that, by the time I reached it, I was already bored.

Once & Future – Amy Rose Capetta & Cori McCarthy
This is definitely a new spin on an old tale. Arthur (as a female) in space will absolutely draw readers is. There was a little lacking in this first excerpt though. Readers were thrown into the lives of Ari and Kay mid stride. There is not enough background to get ones footing in this opener. I did like the initial chase and return to Earth. There is diversity in the two mothers briefly discussed (but also glossed over). This one I would keep reading, but cautiously as there are a lot of expectations from an Arthur retelling this bold.

Missing of Clairedune – Christelle Dabos
Second in a series to which I did not read the first. There is a very brief summary of the first book that has no impact on the understanding of the beginning of the second. I was thoroughly confused. It is stated that all of the Dragons are dead, yet her fiancé is still alive? There was entirely too much of a magical element, that may have been explained better in the first installment, to allow me to get a feel of the landscape and people. If everyone can create their own illusions than is anything real? Always changing? The weird game thrown in was also a turn off and confusing. Just could not get interested in this one.

Much Ado About Mean Girls – Ian Doescher
Shakespeare = good. Mean Girls = good. Putting them together = not so much. This one was a definite no for me. Reading a modern movie in the style of Shakespeare, with iambic pentameter and modern reference, was thoroughly unenjoyable. It did not flow well. The writing was often hampered but the meter which made it choppy and confusing. I do not see teens rushing out to read this with the movie easily accessible and understandable to them. This might be used for an intro to Shakespeare in schools, with the movie as a reward at the end, but that is all I can see as a use for it.

Please Send Help – Gaby Dunn & Allison Raskin
This was a follow up to a book I had not read. There was no real backstory for our two main characters and I immediately felt separated from them. This was a compilation of texts and emails between two girls just out of college and entering into the work force. It felt childish and unrealistic to me. These were still high school girls with high school problems, which would have been fine, if we were still in high school. The language was familiar, which fits with emails and texts, yet lost this reader. I felt like I was reading about girls I didn’t know about and could therefore care less about their little issues. The text and email style was choppy and didn’t flow well. I have no desire to learn more about these girls.

Voices – David Elliott
Told in verse with no cohesion. These were random poems from (sometimes very) random people and objects surrounding Joan of Arc. I found the brief footnotes more interesting than the poems themselves. Without more actual history about the subject, these poems fall very short. This might be useful in a history class, but not in the general library circulation.

Descendent of the Crane – Joan He
I was not completely hooked by this title, yet I think I will read further when it is published. I like the cultural elements that were introduced. There is a short backstory of what the reader is jumping into, yet this created more confusion than understanding. I was not sure who these people were that we were following on the grand scale of things. Are these two brother and sister or just friends and collaborators? The backstory says all the dragons are dead yet there one is at the end of this snippet? I hope this is all worked out quickly or it will lose its readers, but I am intrigued by the forbidden journey that is to come.

Place for Wolves – Kosoko Jackson
This was another large mix of good and bad. The first part of this excerpt was very droning and repetitive. Most of what I got from it was that the narrator had a great gay boyfriend and that what he was thinking of doing was a bad idea. In the end, unsurprisingly, he did it anyway and starts off the novel. The riot descriptions were well done and gave a realistic vision. I started to change my mind during this section. It was intriguing to know what was going on and what was fueling the anger. The letter at the end turned me right off again. I did not like the way that it flowed and the references (Grease, spice girls, Barbie girl, and Jeopardy) were outdated and will be lost on many. I’m not sure if this is a period piece as it didn’t give a date, but this was the only reason I could think of for the references.

Operatic – Kyo Maclear
Graphic Novel. this beginning was very vague and random. There was not much to go on. The pictures were okay, but didn’t strike me as a must read. If I hadn’t had the lead in before the book started, I would have had no idea where this novel was going to go.

Outcasts – Claire McFall
Final book in trilogy that I have not read. This was an interesting start with a fast paced run to an unknown destination. Once the apartment was reached, I quickly became bored as I was not familiar with the characters, situations, or places. The “wasteland” is mentioned many times, yet meant nothing to me and didn’t peak my interest through context. The Inquisitor had the same effect. I just did not care about these characters and what was happening to them. May be a good conclusion to the series, but does not stand on its own.

Bloodleaf – Crystal Smith
Start of a series. This excerpt had a hangings, magic, and intrigue. I was excited to learn more about Aurelia’s life from what I read here. There are many interesting questions posed that peak a reader’s interest and beg to be answered. Writing flows well and characters are relatable. I have read this title in its entirety and thoroughly enjoyed it.

To Best the Boys – Mary Weber
This beginning has a lot of mysterious and mystical aspects that both intrigue and put off. The strong female lead is a great start. The morgue scene was highly exciting, gross, and funny. I definitely wanted to see more of this. Once in the city, it was a little confusing as it appeared to be a middle ages type scene, but mentioned banshees and sirens. This short excerpt left a lot to be explored and thought out. I also was able to read this full title and felt that it lived up to its beginning. It had a lot of interesting elements, but was bogged down by unnecessary additions, unresolved plots, and not enough action.

Absolutely love the opportunity to preview much anticipated titles as well as to see publication schedules in order to plan my own reading and purchases for my school library throughout the year.

A great way to find out about new YA releases and new authors. Very excited to read Gaby Dunn’s book after this.

I really look forward to these collections! I always find so many great titles to add to my TBR and this collection was no exception. There are excerpts from novels and collections that I know many of us are excited for. This will definitely add to that excitement! If you're overwhelmed by the publisher's catalogs and want something that will help you focus on the best of the best, then get your hands on a copy of Buzz Books!

As usual, I have found a few more books for my ever-growing TBR. I enjoyed a few of these excerpts and look forward to finishing those books. Much appreciated.