Cambridge High School Library 2025

 By: Charlotte Bond Location: FIC BON Genre: Fantasy and Dragon s COVER ART ALERT- BEST IN 2025 SO FAR!!! Kill the dragon. Find the blade. Reclaim her honor. It’s that, or end up like countless knights before her, as a puddle of gore and molten armor. Maddileh is a knight. There aren’t many women in her line of work, and it often feels like the sneering and contempt from her peers is harder to stomach than the actual dragon slaying. But she’s a knight, and made of sterner stuff. A minor infraction forces her to redeem her honor in the most dramatic way possible, she must retrieve the fabled Fireborne Blade from its keeper, legendary dragon the White Lady, or die trying. If history tells us anything, it's that “die trying” is where to wager your coin. Maddileh’s tale contains a rich history of dragons, ill-fated knights, scheming squires, and sapphic love, with deceptions and double-crosses that will keep you guessing right up to its dramatic conclusion. Ultimately, The Fireborne Bl...

 By: Kristy Boyce  Location: FIC BOY Genre: Romance Nilufer said this: ..This book brought me so much joy and even sparked my interest in the D&D game universe. The characters are well-crafted, genuine, and compelling, making it impossible for me to put down. When it comes to romance, sometimes it doesn't hurt to play games. A fun YA romcom full of fake dating hijinks! Musical lover Riley has big aspirations to become a director on Broadway. Crucial to this plan is to bring back her high school’s spring musical, but when Riley takes her mom’s car without permission, she's grounded and stuck with the worst punishment: spending her after-school hours working at her dad’s game shop. Riley can't waste her time working when she has a musical to save, so she convinces Nathan—a nerdy teen employee—to cover her shifts and, in exchange, she’ll flirt with him to make his gamer-girl crush jealous. But Riley didn’t realize that meant joining Nathan's Dungeons & Dragons game...

 By: Charlie Holmberg Location: FIC HOL Genre: Romantasy Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Readers' Favorite Romantasy (2023) For a young woman who wields the power of fear, humanity’s greatest enemy is her only hope in a new fairy-tale adventure by Amazon Charts and  Wall Street Journal  bestselling author Charlie N. Holmberg. Seven years on the run from her abusive father, and with no hope of sanctuary among the dwindling pockets of human civilization, Lark is out of options. Her only leverage is a cursed power: she can thrust fear onto others, leaving all threats fleeing in terror. It’s a means of survival as she searches for a place to call home. If the campfire myths of her childhood are true, Lark’s sole chance for refuge could lie in Cagmar, the city of trolls—a brutal species and the sworn enemies of humanity. Valuing combat prowess, the troll high council is intrigued. Lark could be much more useful than the low-caste humans who merely labor in Cagmar. Her gift ...

 By: Jamie Pennell Location: 920 PEN Genre: New Zealand- War Great insight into a career & life as a Special Forces soldier with the NZSAS Jamie Pennell is an amazing man! After 18 years as a soldier and leader within the NZ Defence Force's elite NZSAS Regiment he has transitioned to build a very successful civilian career in high performance coaching and outdoor education. This is an insightful, honest and well written account of his life and experiences getting into, successfully operating within & getting out of the NZSAS. Highly recommended as not only a great read but has some powerful insights into human potential and high performance: Stuart A gripping memoir by a former NZSAS commander on serving in Afghanistan over five deployments and operating at the edge of his limits In 2011, following the Taliban siege on Kabul's Intercontinental Hotel, an SAS soldier identified only as Serviceman J was awarded New Zealand's second highest military honour by showing ou...

 By: Makiia Lucier Location: FIC LUC Genre: Fantasy Lucier has combined Pacific Islander mythology with a beautifully crafted plot and characters you’ll want to be friends with. From acclaimed author Makiia Lucier, a dazzling, romantic fantasy inspired by Pacific Island mythology. In the old tales, it is written that the egg of a seadragon, dragonfruit, holds within it the power to undo a person’s greatest sorrow. An unwanted marriage, a painful illness, and unpaid debt ... gone. But as with all things that promise the moon and the stars and offer hope when hope has gone, the tale comes with a warning. Every wish demands a price. Hanalei of Tamarind is the cherished daughter of an old island family. But when her father steals a seadragon egg meant for an ailing princess, she is forced into a life of exile. In the years that follow, Hanalei finds solace in studying the majestic seadragons that roam the Nominomi Sea. Until, one day, an encounter with a female dragon offers her what s...

 By: Laura Purcell  Location: FIC PUR Genre: Fantasy, Gothic From award-winning bestseller Laura Purcell comes her YA debut, MOONSTONE, a sparkling, chilling gothic romance with real bite… Following a scandal at Vauxhall pleasure gardens, Camille is sent away to her reclusive godmother, who keeps a strict watch over her and her own sickly daughter, Lucy. Camille must stay away from everything she has known until the scandal is forgotten, keeping strictly to the small farmhouse in the woods. Away from the corsetry and curtsies of polite society, Camille finds herself surprisingly…free. She is also strangely drawn to Lucy, a pale, fragile girl who dreams of stars, but has never left the farm. Yet as Camille and Lucy grow close and cross forbidden boundaries, the fine balance of their woodland home begins to death stalks between the trees, claw-marks rake the doors and the moon rises to the song of a creature Camille has never heard before. Camille begins to realise her godmother...

 By: Ransom Riggs Location: FIC RIG Genre: Fantasy  The much-anticipated new fantasy series from Ransom Riggs, his first since introducing the #1 global phenomenon Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children series. Seventeen-year-old Leopold Berry is seeing weird things around Los Angeles. A man who pops a tooth into a parking meter. A glowing trapdoor in a parking lot. A half-mechanical raccoon with its tail on fire that just won’t leave him alone. Every hallucinatory moment seems plucked from a cheesy 1990s fantasy TV show called Max's Adventures in Sunderworld—and that’s because they are. Not a good sign. In the blurry weeks after his mother’s death, a young Leopold discovered VHS tapes of its one and only season in a box headed for the trash—and soon became obsessed. Losing himself in Sunder was the best way to avoid two things: grieving his mother and being a chronic disappointment to his overbearing father. But when the strange visions return—at the worst possible time on the wo...

 By: Hafsah Faizal Location: FICFAI- Genre: Fantasy “Why save the world when you can have tea?!” A Tempest of Tea by bestselling author Hafsah Faizal, first in a duology pitched as  King Arthur  meets  Peaky Blinders  with vampires. The novel follows a gang of outcasts in a deadly heist led by Arthie Casimir to save her tearoom—which fronts an illegal blood house, where local vampires can purchase fresh blood. Publication of the first novel is set for Fall 2022; Josh Adams at Adams Literary did the two-book deal for world English rights. Nilufer says this about this books and her reviews are the best: A Tempest of Tea blends the grit of a heist with the allure of vampire intrigue, set against a backdrop of colonial tension and societal divisions. Arthie Casimir’s tearoom, which secretly doubles as a bloodhouse for the city's vampires, makes for a unique and fascinating setting, although it feels somewhat underexplored at times. When her sanctuary is threatened, ...

 By: Yume Kitasei   Location: FIC KIT Genre: Sci Fi A very strong debut! This is a page turning space thriller of espionage and intrigue, chock full of commentary on climate change, existential dread, and mommy issues. Yume Kitasei's The Deep Sky is an enthralling sci fi thriller debut about a mission into deep space that begins with a lethal explosion that leaves the survivors questioning the loyalty of the crew. They left Earth to save humanity. They’ll have to save themselves first. It is the eve of Earth’s environmental collapse. A single ship carries humanity’s last eighty elite graduates of a competitive program, who will give birth to a generation of children in deep space. But halfway to a distant but livable planet, a lethal bomb kills three of the crew and knocks The Phoenix off course. Asuka, the only surviving witness, is an immediate suspect. As the mystery unfolds on the ship, poignant flashbacks reveal how Asuka came to be picked for the mission. Despite st...

 By: Tananarive Due Location: FIC DUE Genre: Horror The Reformatory is a dark, emotional, scary, powerful and thrilling read . Heartbreaking, devastating, and horrifying - yet also, somehow, hopeful. A gloriously creepy Deep South horror story based on the infamous Dozier School for boys, perfect for fans of The Only Good Indians and Nothing But Blackened Teeth. Jim Crow Florida, 1950. Twelve-year-old Robert Stephens Jr., who for a trivial scuffle with a white boy is sent to The Gracetown School for Boys. But the segregated reformatory is a chamber of horrors, haunted by the boys that have died there. In order to survive the school governor and his Funhouse, Robert must enlist the help of the school's ghosts – only they have their own motivations... This was a great book. It’s a historical fiction about a 12 year old boy, Robbie, living in Florida in 1950 when he is sent to a reformatory school for a crime that is not actually a crime… but Robbie is poor and black and that’s w...

 By: Scott Reintgen Location: FIC REI Genre: Fantasy Series: Waxways #1 Take one part Harry Potter (magical school sorted into cliques), one part One of Us is Lying (one student in the group is un-alived early in the story and everyone is hiding something) with a dash of Hunger Games (group of kids fighting for survival in the wild). What does that add up to? Absolute Perfection! ! An instant New York Times bestseller! “For readers who have just finished Naomi Novik’s The Golden Enclaves and are ravenous for more dark academia” ( Booklist ), this “pulse-pounding” ( Publishers Weekly , starred review) fantasy thriller follows six teenage wizards as they fight to make it home alive after a malfunctioning spell leaves them stranded in the wilderness. Ren Monroe has spent four years proving she’s one of the best wizards in her generation. But top marks at Balmerick University will mean nothing if she fails to get recruited into one of the major houses. Enter Theo Brood. If being rich w...

 By: Andrea Portes Location: FIC POR Genre: Romantasy From the bestselling author of  Anatomy of a Misfit  comes a subversive and feminist take on  Sleeping Beauty ,   sure to appeal to fans of  Damsel  and  To Kill a Kingdom.  The dark and deadly world of  Heartless  meets the empowering twist of  Cruel Beauty  in this thrilling, unpredictable, multigenre retelling of one of the most beloved fairy where instead of falling asleep to await her prince, this sleeping beauty finally wakes up. Bitsy is no one’s ideal princess. She’s heard it that it’s a shame she’s so plain, so lacking in grace. That the best thing for her to do is simply wait (and wait some more) and hope some prince will grant her a happy ending. Then Bitsy pricks her finger on a spindle and falls down,  down ,  down . Into a world where cutthroats and con artists are more common than curtsies. Where no one ages and everyone is beautiful. Where an i...

 By: Sarah Street Location: FIC STR Genre: Romantasy Beauty and the Beast in a Pirates of the Caribbean world Prepare for stormy seas and swoony romance in this addictive retelling of Beauty and the Beast . .. Perfect for fans of Brigid Kemmerer's Cursebreakers series and Sarah J Maas's A Court of Thorns and Roses. A heartless king trapped by a curse A brave sister searching for answers And a love so strong it will drown the raging sea ... THIS FAIRYTALE IS CURSED Prepare for stormy seas and swoony romance in this addictive retelling of Beauty and the Beast set on board a cursed ship where love blooms in the darkest of hearts ... A heartless beast A sister's sacrifice And a love so strong it will drown the raging sea ... THIS FAIRYTALE IS CURSED In a kingdom that fears the sea, Ria Lucroy longs to be brave. Bodies are washing ashore and everyone knows who's to blame. Legends of the Heartless King shroud the continent in fear; they call him a pirate, a monster, a god. Wh...

 By: Amber Chen  Location: FIC CHE Genre: Fantasy Series: Fall of the Dragon #1 ‘A lamp can light up the darkness around you, but a story lights up the darkness within.' When I first laid eyes on the cover, I was immediately captivated by its stunning design! As soon as I read the synopsis, I was hooked. A girl disguising herself as a man to enter an engineer’s guild trial and solve her father’s murder? My mind screamed, "Mulan retelling with a twist!" Being a huge fan of Mulan retellings, I knew I had to dive into this book, and I absolutely LOVED IT!- Sakura review Eighteen-year-old Aihui Ying dreams of becoming a brilliant engineer just like her beloved father - but her life is torn apart when she arrives a moment too late to stop his murder, and worse, lets the killer slip out of reach. Left with only a journal containing his greatest engineering secrets and a jade pendant snatched from the assassin, Ying vows to take revenge into her own hands. Disguised as her broth...

 By: Livia Blackburne  Location: FIC BLA Genre: Romance You’ve Got Mail  gets a YA twist in this rom-com that spotlights the power of activism and community organizing in the face of gentrification. Clementine Chan  believes in the power of the written word. Under the pseudonym Hibiscus, she runs a popular blog reviewing tea shops and discussing larger issues within her Chinatown community. She has a loyal, kind following, save for this one sour grape named BobaBoy888. Danny Mok  is allergic to change, and the gentrification seeping into Chinatown breaks his heart. He channels his frustration into his internet alter ego, BobaBoy888, bickering with local blogger Hibiscus over all things Chinatown and tea. When a major corporation reveals plans that threaten to shut down the Mok’s beloved tea shop, Clementine and Danny find themselves working together in real life to save this community they both love. But as they fall hard for this cause—and each other—they have ...

 By: David Walliams Location: EAS WAL Genre: Walliams of course! Dilly loves a good murder. Not a REAL murder. A made-up murder. One you would find in a murder-mystery novel. Sherlock Holmes is her favourite detective. She even named her dog Watson after his faithful companion, and trained him to sniff out clues and follow trails. So far, Dilly and Watson haven’t cracked many cases – beyond lost cats, or missing biscuits that turned out to have been eaten all along. But now the detective duo find themselves on a luxury ocean liner bound for London. A thousand passengers. A thousand miles of ocean around them. It's the perfect place for a murder… Or two. Or three. Or four. Or MORE! Shannon said... I absolutely loved this book. It's a fun, quick and gripping read I found myself very lost within the book. The story is extremely gripping with all it's quck going ons. There's always something happening. Small clues being dropped, bread crumbing the reader to the awnser. It...

 By: Marie Lu Location: FIC LU Genre: Romance T he most famous person in the world is going undercover ... NILUFURs REVIEW:  When one of my favorite fantasy authors decides to create a new novel in different genre like Ya action packed spy thriller meets romance, I can only say “bring it on!” And honestly I’m truly intrigued by Bodyguard meets Mission Impossible theme blended in my favorite trope; enemies to lovers! This book makes you breathe heavily, squirming in your seat, keeping you on your toes as you hurrying your head into your e- reader! ( let’s rephrase: you just keep hitting your head to your e-reader screen with full of excitement) I loved it so much! And I loved those characters! I want them back! I hope dear Marie Lu brings them back sooner with another breathtaking, exciting adventure! Fingers are already crossed! Global phenomenon Winter Young is the pop star of a generation. With sell-out tours and smash-hit records, everyone wants him, or wants to be him. Tha...