10 new YA books to kick your summer off right this June

Ordinary Girls – Blair Thornburg

Blair Thornburg’s Ordinary Girls is a contemporary take on Jane Austen’s famous novel Sense and Sensibility, following the tale of two sisters – responsible, self-contained Plum and the brilliant but often exhausting Ginny. As with most sisters, their relationship is a complicated one, but no less real or warm.

But when a financial crisis hits the family, the siblings drift apart. Ginny becomes even more dramatic, while Plum strikes up a secret friendship with the class jock that may blossom into something more. But if Plum has something in her life that doesn’t revolve around Ginny, will she still be there for her older sibling when she needs her?

In this coming of age story, two sisters must decide who they are for themselves, outside of the shadow of their late father — and their relationship with each other.

Ordinary Girls will be released on June 4.

Stranger Things: Runaway Max – Brenna Yovanoff

Before Stranger Things season 3 hits Netflix this summer, a prequel novel will drop, giving us the backstory of Max Mayfield, the latest addition to the teen gang of video-game loving, monster fighting friends.

Stranger Things: Runaway Max provides something important that the series itself has often lacked: a female focus, particularly within the core teen group. (The show frequently had a problem presenting female friendship in season 2, setting Max and the mysterious Eleven at odds with one another almost immediately.)

Runaway Max aims to provide season 2’s new girl in town with some much-needed backstory prior to her arrival in Hawkins, fleshing out the character further before the series’ third season begins. (And she hopefully has a larger role to play within it.)

Stranger Things: Runaway Max hits shelves on June 4.