We’re back with another month of new book releases! From star-crossed lovers in Ramon and Julieta by Alana Quintana (yep, you guessed it, a modern, Latinx remix of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet) to three black women living with albinism in Shreveport, Louisiana in Destiny O. Birdsong’s Nobody’s Magic, February’s book list is sure to satisfy your craving for solid storytelling and captivating characters.

Ophelia After All by Racquel Marie

Ophelia Rojas likes her friends, Cuban food, rose-gardening, and boys. ALL THE BOYS. Her friends and family often make fun of her endless stream of crushes. So when she suddenly finds herself thinking more about cute and quiet Talia Sanchez than the loss of her perfect prom with her ex-boyfriend, doubt snakes its way into Ophelia’s life. Accompanied by the impending end of high school and the fracturing of her friend group, things suddenly feel out of control for Ophelia. As her secrets come to light, Ophelia finds that she must choose between the fantasy version of herself – the one everyone expects her to be – and who she is.

 

 

Ramon and Julieta by Alana Quintana

Ramon Montez consistently achieves his goals. Nothing can knock Ramon off course, from collecting Ivy League degrees to growing his father’s fast-food empire. So when a beautiful stranger kisses him on the Day of the Dead before disappearing into the night, he becomes determined to find her again.

Celebrity chef Julieta Campos is struggling to save her sea-to-table taqueria when she realizes her new landlord is the magnetic mariachi she kissed on Dia de los Muertos – and his father is the man profiting off the taco recipe he stole from her mother decades ago. She soon has no choice but to work with the man who has both destroyed her life’s work and tempts and inspires her.

Ramon and Julieta’s story is set in an outraged San Diego community protesting the Taco King takeover, threatening to further divide their two families beyond repair.

 

What the Fireflies Knew by Kai Harris

Kenyatta Bernice (KB) and her sister are sent to live with their estranged grandfather after their father’s sudden death. Almost-eleven-year-old KB tells the story of her and her sister’s new life in Lansing, Michigan, throughout one summer.

Everyone in KB’s life seems to be keeping secrets: her fiendish father, her mother whose smile no longer reaches her eyes, and her sister who feels like a stranger. Amid the many changes in KB’s life, she navigates through feelings of resentment, abandonment, and loneliness as she begins to carve out a new identity for herself and find her voice.

 

 

Required Reading for Disenfranchised Freshman by Kristen R. Lee

Savannah Howard made great sacrifices throughout her high school career to ensure her acceptance to a top college. She originally had her sights set on an HBCU. Still, she finds it hard to pass up the opportunity for a full ride to Wooddale University.

When she arrives, she finds that Wooddale is far from the perfect, manicured community it sells on its brochures. She is met by racist and elitist microaggressions on campus before she’s fully unpacked. And then, a statue on campus is vandalized with blackface. The campus’s most popular student – the son of a locally prominent family – is the prime suspect. As Savannah begins to unearth the secrets of Wooddale’s racist history, her future dreams seem to be in peril. What will doing the right thing cost her?

 

Nobody’s Magic by Destiny O. Birdsong

Suzette, Maple, and Agnes, three black women with albinism, each find themselves at a crossroads in their lives.

Suzette, a pampered twenty-year-old, has been sheltered from the world since a dangerous childhood encounter. A budding romance with a sweet mechanic encourages Suzette to seek independence but discovering her autonomy brings out dark reactions in those closest to her.

Maple is reeling from the unsolved murder of her mother. She flees the media circus and her judgmental grandmother and shuts herself off from the world, staying in a spare room at the motel where she works. She meets Chad one night at a party and finds he might understand her pain more than anybody.

Agnes is far from home and working a mind-numbing job when she attracts the attention of a lonely army veteran in search of traditional life for him and his son. He’s convinced of Agnes’s “magic,” but she soon unleashes a power that shocks them both, sending her on a trip to confront her family, her past, and herself.