A new year means new book releases, and January is full of exceptional stories focusing on diverse characters from a variety of backgrounds. Check out the 2023 new book releases we’ve selected for you and let us know which ones you’re adding to your TBR list!

 

Sun Keep Rising by Kristen R. Lee

B’onca’s rapidly gentrifying Memphis neighborhood has resulted in higher prices and an eviction notice for her family, sending her fragile world into a spiral. B’onca always knew how to get by, but she’s a mom now. She will need to do everything she can to help keep her family afloat. So, she forges a risky plan to help pay the bills. But one wrong move could cost B’onca—and her family—everything.

 

 

 

 

Central Places by Delia Lai

Returning to Hickory Grove is complicated. Audrey Zhou left her old life behind to start the one she always dreamed of in New York. She and her Manhattan-bred fiance are planning to build a life together in the dream home his parents will pay for. But Audrey can longer hide him or the person she’s become from those she left behind. One disastrous week is all it takes for Audrey to confront the past. She reexamines her fraught connection to her roots, undoing everything she’s worked toward and imagined for herself.

 

 

 

Friday I’m in Love by Camryn Garrett

Instead of a Sweet Sixteen, Mahalia wants to plan a coming-out party. A singing, dancing, rainbow-cake-eating celebration of queerness on her own terms. She begins scrimping and saving, taking on extra hours at her after-school job, trying on dresses, and awkwardly flirting with Siobhan, the super-cute new girl at school. She’s hoping for the coming out of her dreams. Still, before long, Mahalia is buried in a mountain of bills, unfinished school work, and enough drama to make her English teacher blush.

 

 

 

 

Viva Lola Espinoza by Ella Cerón

Lola meets Rio while spending the summer with her grandmother in Mexico City and discovers that what she’d always written off as bad luck is a curse. She’ll have to break the curse if she ever wants to fall in love without suffering the consequences. While working in her cousin’s restaurant, she meets Javi, her unlikely curse-breaking companion. Over one summer, Lola explores Mexico City, while learning about herself, her heritage, and the magic around us all.

 

 

 

Breakup From Hell by Ann Dávila Cardinal

Miguela Angeles is tired of Vermont. She’s tired of hanging out in the same places and seeing the same faces. And she’s especially tired of her abuela keeping secrets about their heritage. When Mica runs into Sam, a new hottie in town on vacation, she can’t help but want to get closer to him. Soon, she’s doing things she’s never done before, like winning her martial arts sparring matches and lying to her favorite people. She’s also having weird, end-of-the-world-type visions. When Mica discovers Sam’s family roots, she realizes their relationship is a real-life horror story. She has to leave Sam, but will that mean bringing an end to everything and everyone she loves?