The Best YA Books of 2015

In Sabaa Tahir's An Ember in the Ashes, a girl and boy both beholden to a corrupt government regime — she as a slave and he as a solider — seek freedom from the tyranny and realize just how connected they really are. The second I put this down, I was already frantically searching for the release date of the sequel, because this standout book is one you will NOT be able to stop thinking about when you get to the last page.

Fans of The Fault in Our Stars and Eleanor & Park will love Jennifer Niven's YA novel All the Bright Places, a story about a girl learning how to live from a boy who wants to die.

The beloved Grisha Trilogy may be over, but the universe where we first met Alina Starkov still lives on in Six of Crows, Leigh Bardugo's latest fantasy novel about six dangerous (and talented) outcasts — led by a mysterious and cunning young man — planning an elaborate heist that could result in some significant changes.

Becky Albertalli's Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda is a coming-of-age and coming-out story about a boy who must step out of his comfort zone by choice before he is pushed out involuntarily when an email falls into the wrong hands. This geeky romance is poignant, funny, and so sweet.

A murderous boy king takes a new bride each night, then kills them, but one woman plans to fight back. She enchants and beguiles him in order to survive but in the process begins to realize that he is not the monster she thought he was. Renée Ahdieh's The Wrath & the Dawn was one of my absolute favorite new releases of the year — the setting is unique and supremely beautiful, and the story took me completely by surprise as it progressed.

In a world divided by blood — Red for the lowly and Silver for the elite — Mare Barrow, a Red, must adapt quickly when she is thrown into the royal palace and forced to pretend she is something she isn't. In Victoria Aveyard's Red Queen, power, position, and passion are all part of this world's deadly dance. Catch up on this Game of Thrones-like debut novel before the February 2016 release of the sequel.

Francesca Zappia's novel Made You Up is not your average young adult fiction. The thought-provoking story is told by a schizophrenic (and therefore unreliable) narrator who must fight to discern what is real and what isn't. Are her friends, the boy she is falling in love with, and her new life real, or is it all in her imagination?

Celaena Sardothien has finally shed her assassin identity and embraced her namesake as Aelin Galathynius, Queen of Terrasen. Queen of Shadows, the fourth installment in Sarah J. Maas's absolutely epic Throne of Glass series, is high fantasy at its very best — with witch clans, rising war, dark magic, and a beautiful queen fighting for her people with her warrior cousin and handsome Fae prince by her side to help her. This impressive installment in the series was voted by Goodreads readers as the Best YA Fantasy of 2015 and may or may not have been the inspiration for my Halloween costume this year.

Fans of Rainbow Rowell will fall in love with Simon and Baz, two rivals (and roommates) at a school for magic. Carry On is the follow-up to Rowell's heartwarming YA novel Fangirl and is an absolute must read for anyone who is a sucker for sweet love stories.

After a life of feeling like she didn't fit in with her own family, Sydney meets the Chatham family and finally feels accepted. In bestselling author Sarah Dessen's Saint Anything, one girl meets people who love her for who she is — including a quiet boy who truly sees her for the first time in her life.

Emmy and Oliver were best friends as children, until Oliver was kidnapped and taken away by his own dad. Robin Benway's YA novel deals with the aftermath of the crime and how both Emmy and Oliver cope with what's happened on their paths back to each other.

Marissa Meyer's epic steampunk fairy-tale-inspired Lunar Chronicles continue with Winter, the latest installment in the series that follows Princess Winter as she joins up with Cinder and her cyborg allies to bring down her evil stepmother, win the war, and find her happily ever after (perhaps with a handsome palace guard?).

YA readers have been enchanted by Kiera Cass's The Selection series since America Singer first entered the royal selection and won Prince Maxon's heart. The Heir is the fourth installment in the series, and the romance unfolds as the new Princess Eadlyn holds a selection of her own.

Sophie Kinsella, author of the Shopaholic series, is back with a YA novel about friendship, first love, and overcoming personal obstacles. Finding Audrey tells the sweet story of a young girl's struggle with anxiety and the boy she meets who helps her through it.

This YA novel touches on the sensitive subject of suicide — something that both the male and female protagonists bond over as they plan their own. In My Heart and Other Black Holes by Jasmine Warga, two young people begin to find a reason to live in each other, but is it enough for them?

Agnieszka lives in a village that's protected from outside evil forces by a wizard named Dragon, but the protection comes at a cost. Every 10 years, Dragon takes a village girl to serve him, and she believes her best friend is next. In Naomi Novik's fairy-tale-like fantasy Uprooted, the wizard's choice of girl is not what anyone expected, nor is what happens after.

I. W. Gregorio's groundbreaking YA book None of the Above is about a young girl who discovers she is intersex and how her friends, family, and peers deal with this revelation.

Paige Mahoney may have escaped the prison she was held captive in, but being the most wanted person in London isn't necessarily easy. Samantha Shannon's The Mime Order is the perfect follow-up to her debut novel The Bone Season, and in the second book in the captivating series we find both familiar faces and new foes. And let's be honest — if you're like me, you'll be counting the pages until Warden, Paige's former-captor-turned-occasional-makeout-buddy and foreboding-yet-intriguing-ally makes a return from his mysterious mission.

Paige's first boyfriend died in a car accident, and after two years, she's finally ready to return to high school. In Emery Lord's YA novel The Start of Me and You, her plans for a grand return go awry when she begins to fall for someone unexpected.

In a world where "memory relief" or memory-erasing science not unlike the kind in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind exists, a man who wants to forget his feelings for another man struggles with letting go of his newfound happiness or facing his obstacles head on. Teen Vogue says that Adam Silvera's More Happy Than Not is "poignant . . . so engrossing that once you start it, you won't be able to put it down."

Maddy's disease means that she is basically allergic to the world. Confined to her home, she rarely sees anyone apart from her mom and her nurse — that is, until a boy moves in next door, and life as she knows it changes. Nicola Yoon's Everything, Everything is a heartwarming journey of a girl taking huge risks to discover life and love for the first time.

A young huntress named Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, but there's more to the creature than meets the eye, and soon a beast arrives to demand retribution for his friend. Sarah J. Maas, bestselling author of the Throne of Glass series, debuted fairy-tale-like novel A Court of Thorns and Roses, where Feyre's captor becomes much more, where faeries roam, wild creatures live, and an ancient evil threatens all beings — both mortal and immortal. Think Beauty and the Beast with a way sexier, more magical twist.

Lara Jean and Peter were just pretending to be in love, until they weren't just faking it anymore. Jenny Han's P.S. I Still Love You follows Lara Jean as she begins to fall for two different boys and tries to figure out where to go from there.

Maria Dahvana Headley's YA fantasy Magonia is about a girl trapped between "two worlds, two races, and two destinies." Suffering from a lung disease her whole life, Aza discovers another world where she can finally breathe, but only one person — her best friend Jason — believes her, until she disappears into that world.