1. Karen Memory – Elizabeth Bear
This one comes out next week. The way I’ve been selling it to my friends is two words: steampunk lesbians. It’s set in the Wild West, with an Indian love interest (that’s Indian from India, not American Indian) and is in first person with a voice that’s been getting raves in early reviews. Bear’s one of my favorite authors and I’ll be picking this one up as soon as it’s out.
2. The Shadow Cabinet – Maureen Johnson
Book two of The Shades of London ended on a major cliffhanger– how will Johnson resolve it? Though I only skimmed The Madness Underneath, I really liked The Name of the Star and am curious to see where this series goes.
3. Black Dove, White Raven – Elizabeth Wein
I had some issues with Code Name Verity and skipped Rose Under Fire due to the implausibility of the premise, but Wein did write the absolutely lovely The Winter Prince and I love that her latest is set during the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, a lesser-known but fascinating and disturbing time period. 
4. Until the Beginning – Amy Plum
In this sequel to After the End, the final book in the duology, Juno and Mike find Juno’s people, who have been kidnapped due to their discovery of a drug that prevents aging. Juno is such a great character, naive after being raised isolated in the Alaskan wilderness but fiercely competent as a result of the same circumstances.
5. The Traitor Baru Cormorant – Seth Dickinson
Disclaimer: I know the author. But you want to read this book– it’s a heartrending lesbian love story, a brutal exploration of the effects of imperialism, a great secondary-world fantasy, and much more. Much love for the cover art; the crumbling mask refers both to the Empire of Masks which conquers Baru’s home and to the question of Baru’s own identity as she navigates a sea of intrigue.
Maya Chhabra 
Thank you for the reminder to read elizabeths Wein and Bear, as both sound excellent! Plus to tread on all my feelings again with Seth Dickinson. What are the books preceding the other two like? (Shades of London and After the End?)
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Sorry, your comment got stuck in moderation. Anyway, Shades of London is a YA series about an American in London who can see ghosts, and works with other people who have the same ability to stop a serial killer. At least, that’s book one, The Name of the Star.
After The End is another YA book, about a girl raised to believe that everything outside her remote town was devastated by war. When her whole town is kidnapped, she goes on the run in the outside world and discovers she was lied to and the war never happened. There’s also a science fiction element as she has certain powers which she believes come from a nature force, but are actually due to a drug.
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