Penguin Random House Audio

Heartstopper is what queer teen dreams are made of: a butterfly-inducing story about first love, self-discovery, identity and relationships. In Ryan and Avery, a new queer love story from David Levithan, we follow a blue-haired boy and a pink-haired boy through their first ten dates as they bridge their initial shyness and fall in love–through snowstorms, groundings, meeting parents, cast parties, heartbreak, and every day and date in between. In the same way we watch Nick and Charlie go from friendship to way more in Heartstopper, Ryan and Avery shows us the beautiful, all-consuming, sometimes awkward vignettes that make up falling in love.

Ahsoka is the latest release in the Star Wars universe, and follows Ahsoka Tano as she investigates an emerging threat to the galaxy following the fall of the Empire. Ahsoka is a spin-off of The Mandalorian, and also takes place after the events of Return of the Jedi. While you wait for the new episodes to drop, might we suggest going back in time? In celebration of Return of the Jedi‘s 40th anniversary, From a Certain Point of View brings together 40 contributors and a full cast of narrators to re-create an iconic scene from the film through the eyes of a supporting character, from heroes and villains to droids and creatures. The result is Star Wars like you’ve never heard before.

Every summer Belly Conklin and her family drive out to Cousins Beach to spend the season with her mom’s best friend Susannah, and Susannah’s sons Conrad and Jeremiah. Then Belly, seemingly all at once, turns 16 and has a glow-up that makes her summer…complicated. Jeremiah and Conrad (who Belly has been in love with forever), have both noticed that Belly is growing up, resulting in a tricky Fisher brothers love triangle. In The Moon and More by queen of the teen beach novel Sarah Dessen, Emaline finds herself spending the summer before college with her perfect boyfriend Luke, in their perfect beach town Colby. Enter Theo, a sophisticated, exciting, New Yorker who thinks Emaline is too smart for Colby. Like Belly, Emaline tries to navigate love and her dreams as best she can, but will she be able to balance it all?

Carter Ogden, much like violently-reluctant-to-admit-it Alex Claremont-Diaz, grew up fantasizing about the handsome Crown Prince of England. But even in his wildest dreams, Carter never thought he’d meet the openly gay Prince Edgar, much less do a lot more with him. In Playing the Palace, this unlikely but meant-to-be romance sets off media fireworks on both sides of the Atlantic. With everyone having an opinion on their relationship and the intense pressure of the spotlight, Carter finds ferocious obstacles to his Happily Ever After. But Carter and Price Edgar will fight for a happy ending to equal their glorious international beginning. Sounds like they’re making some “history, huh?”

Vera Wong is a little old lady who lives above her tea shop in the middle of San Francisco’s Chinatown. She likes sipping on a good cup of Wulong and doing internet detective work about what her son is up to. Then one morning, Vera finds a dead man in the middle of her tea shop. In his outstretched hand, a flash drive. Vera doesn’t know what comes over her, but after calling the cops, she swipes the flash drive (in a move that would make Charles, Oliver, and Mabel very proud). Vera is sure she would do a better job than the police possibly could, because nobody sniffs out a wrongdoing quite like a suspicious Chinese mother with time on her hands.

The latest season of Reservation Dogs has us looking back on the lives elders of the Muscogee Nation, showing how the choices ancestors and elders make throughout their lives can have massive present day impact. In Bad Cree by Jessica Johns, a young Cree woman’s haunted dreams–and a waking world that’s closing in–lead her on a perilous journey of self-discovery that ultimately forces her to confront the toll of a legacy of violence on her family, her community and the land they call home.

Ted Lasso is a warm hug of a show: while earnest and slightly corny (a pun I know Kansas-grown Ted would see as the compliment it is), it’s also the right amount of real when it comes to mental health, life experiences, and disappointments…all while making us laugh. R. Eric Thomas’s Congratulations, The Best is Over! strikes much of the same cord: Thomas moves back to his perpetually misunderstood hometown of Baltimore, a place he never wanted to return, even to be buried, and finds himself adrift (let us recall season 1 fish-out-of-water Ted). In these deeply relatable, hilarious essays, Thomas provides the nitty, and sometimes the gritty, details of wrestling with the life he thought he’d left behind while trying to establish a new one, and a not-so-gentle reminder that even when life doesn’t go according to plan, we can still find our way back home.

Mavis Beaumont and Bea Schumacher were destined to be friends. In Survival of the Thickest, Mavis is a recently single plus-sized Black woman who is struggling to keep her career as a stylist afloat while juggling her love life and her friendships. In One to Watch, Bea Schumacher is a plus-size fashion blogger who has amazing friends, a devoted family, legions of Instagram followers…and a massively broken heart. Just when Bea has sworn off dating altogether, she gets an intriguing call: the dating reality show Main Squeeze wants her to be its next star. Bea agrees, on one condition-she will not fall in love. She’s in this to supercharge her career, subvert harmful beauty standards, inspire women across America, and get a free hot air balloon ride. But when the cameras start rolling, Bea realizes things are more complicated than she anticipated.

Every pirate is in search of one fabled thing: for One Piece‘s Straw Hat Pirates it’s the One Piece treasure that will make their captain King of the Pirates, and for Mar León de la Rosa it’s the reversal to a bargain that may cost them their father’s soul. In The Wicked Bargain, narrated by Our Flag Means Death star Vico Ortiz, Mar, a transmasculine nonbinary teen pirate hiding a magical ability to manipulate fire and ice, is miraculously rescued by the sole remaining pirate crew in the Caribbean. But el Diablo is hot on their trail to collect payment on a bargain Mar’s father made. el Diablo gives them a choice: give up their soul to save their father by the harvest moon, or never see him again. The task seems impossible…but for the first time in their life, Mar may have the courage to use their magic.

Every Love Island viewer wonders what goes on in the villa when the cameras stop rolling. Lucky for us, Not Here to Stay Friends is the perfect way to satiate our behind-the-scenes daydreams. Sloane McKinney feels like a background character in her own life. But this summer will be different, because she’s spending it with her best friend Liam. Sure, she’s surprised to find that Liam just happens to have had a Hot Guy glow-up since she last saw him, but so what? A little attraction won’t ruin her plans for their fun. But what might is Liam’s producer dad’s new teen reality dating show that is one contestant short…and Sloane is the perfect last-minute addition. But it’s behind the scenes where the drama really picks up. Because wanting to kiss your best friend? That’s a plot twist neither Sloane nor Liam ever saw coming.