Climb

In 2020, PW trumpeted “The Return of the YA Vampire” and cited authors including Tracy Wolff, who’d just launched a planned trilogy with Crave. Six books and 868K print units later, the series concludes with Cherish, the #3 book in the country.

Girls on Film

Actor, musician, and debut YA novelist Hayley Kiyoko takes the #5 spot on our children’s fiction list with Girls Like Girls, inspired by her music video—151 million views and counting—of the same name. “Kiyoko crafts a pitch-perfect tale about a grieving teen in 2006 grappling with first love,” our review said. The author explained her story’s roots in an interview with PW. “This comes from me desperately needing to feel seen and comes from my truth of navigating my whole life—the need to prove my worth, and to feel seen as a person,” she said. “Growing up, even though loving women is not my entire personality, it was a huge part of my life.”

In Clubland

The Celebrants by Steven Rowley got the June nod from Read with Jenna and the Good Housekeeping Book Club. “Rowley offers another winning story of a friend group held together by an unusual bond,” according to our review. “Rowley admirably avoids sentimentality along the way, and there’s plenty of fresh and witty dialogue.” It debuts at #14 on our hardcover fiction list.

Barnes & Noble Book Club tapped Good Night, Irene, which lands one notch below. Luis Alberto Urrea “transports readers to the Western Front of WWII in his stunning latest,” per our starred review. “It’s a moving and graceful tribute to friendship and to heroic women who have shouldered the burdens of war.”

NEW & NOTABLE

DROWNING
T.J. Newman
#4 Hardcover Fiction
Newman, a former bookseller and flight attendant, follows her 2021 debut, Falling (112K print copies sold), with another thriller that may as well bear the coverline “and you thought flying coach was the stuff of nightmares.”

CENTRAL PARK WEST
James Comey
#20 Hardcover Fiction
“Former FBI director Comey makes a sturdy crime fiction debut with this twisting account of the murder of a disgraced former New York governor,” according to our review. The author brings “a sense of authenticity to the setting and plot machinations, though he’s occasionally guilty of leaning a bit too much toward education over entertainment.” Still, “a sequel would be welcome.”