My wife likes OUBH, what should I get her?

My wife is a huge fan of Stephanie Garber, and Once Upon a Broken Heart is her favourite series. I'm looking for a book to surprise her with for her birthday, and I'd love some recommendations.

I'm looking for books with:

\- Whimsical, fairytale-like vibes, whether dark and gothic or Disney-like. What matters is to be prominent part ( Unnegotiable)

\- A soft FMC ( also Unnegotiable)

\- YEARNING, LOT OF IT

\- not just whimsical magic , but Dangerous one , and curses that get in the way

\- An MMC the protagonist probably shouldn't fall in love with, whether he's dangerous, forbidden, or morally questionable.

Meeting most of these conditions is essential.

Standalones are preferred, but she would be open to series as long as the first book doesn't end on a massive cliffhanger. She's already read The Cruel Prince trilogy and Heartless, so those are off the table.

I've done some research, and my top two candidates so far are:

1. The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea , This seems to tick every box, and it's already on her TBR, so it would be an easy win!

2. The Raven Scholar , My second most promising candidate so far.

Even after confirming what book to get ,I will still read it on kindle myself first to properly confirm if it will match her taste or not. I once got misled by the marketing of a specific book that I got her and we just read it out of spite .

So please I hope you would be girl's girl to my wife and give me your best recommendation.

Thanks in advance.

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I’m reading 8 books but I’m mainly focusing on 4

full disclosure--it has been 7 years since i read this book and probably 9 or 10 since i enjoyed it. but as someone from maryland this is something i've always wondered.....

for those who don't know, hungry is a 2014 book from the depths of the ya dystopian craze set in a world where food is illegal. it stars the daughter of two scientists who work for the company which makes food replacements as she falls in with a boy from the outskirts of the city and begins to feel hunger for the first time in her life. eventually they end up in a kudzu-eating, mother-earth-worshipping cult? and take down the system. there is no love triangle though!

one of the only things i vividly remember from this book is a scene in the beginning where thalia describes a rusted-out factory sign reading "domino sugar" on the roof of a building, and baltimore notably has a domino sugar refinery with a huge sign on its roof. the wealthy inner core of the dystopian city is called the "inner loop" and the poorer outskirts are the "outer loop"--which is also how we sometimes refer to the two sides of the beltway (both 495 in dc and 695 in baltimore) as which direction is northbound or eastbound changes as you circle the loop. this is JUST for the road though but I can see how it would develop into a cool dystopian name.... and of course kudzu is invasive in maryland. i haven't thought much about this book in years upon years but if anyone else has thoughts on this (or remembers the book at all) i would love to discuss!

like not even to process it necessarily, just to exist in that weird limbo where you're still partially in the story's world and not ready to rejoin reality yet. i finished something yesterday and i genuinely couldn't start another book for hours. does that happen to anyone else or am i being dramatic

It's spooky season. Have you read any of these YA titles? What did you think?

preferably something other than a heavy “fantasy romance booktok book”

I read a book as a kid (probably 2000) about a girls baseball team in the 40s in Hawaii. I guess it’s historical fiction because Pearl Harbor is a plot device in the book. The girls were not specifically Hawaiian, I think they were “army brats”. At least one character was Japanese.

I think this might have even been an assigned book in school, or given to me by a teacher. When I try to search for this, I can’t find anything. Did anyone else read this book?

I buy too many books at once and then have a hard time deciding which to read next! Please help me pick between these few- I keep wanting to start one but then stop myself to think about starting one of the other options instead 🙃

Apologies if this was asked here countless times before as I just wanted to gush about my favorite kind of premise used in young adult fiction where a group of young people plan to set up a heist to pilfer a particular treasure.

I finished reading Aces Wild a few months ago as it was so much fun to read for being a heist novel about a teenager versus a casino owner that the novel made me interested in exploring more stories like it.

Hi all! I'm a librarian and enjoy recommending books but I'm out of my depth with YA! I'm looking for a book for a younger teen boy (13/14) that's interesting and valuable, but not fantasy and limited romance if any. Hoping to find one published in 2026 (it's for a Christmas gift). A story centered on sports would be ideal, but I can't seem to find any of those that aren't centered on queer romance (which is great, just not what I'm looking for right now!)

I was tempted by Young World, but the romance with the teacher makes me feel uncomfortable giving that to a teen.

What if we could finally see America and Maxon come to life on screen? 🥹❤️

The Selection by Kiera Cass has such an incredible world, memorable characters, and a beautiful romance between America and Maxon. ❤️

I think a TV series would be an amazing way to bring this story to life. With one season for each book in the original trilogy, the characters and their relationships could be developed properly.

There's a petition calling for another chance at adapting The Selection. If you're a fan too, consider checking it out! ✨

What would you love to see in an adaptation?

Hi,

I work as an English teacher in Sweden with ages 13-16. I want my students to have books to read during class. I’m creating my own library basically. I need the books to be very short since the students might only read for 15 minutes a week sometimes. Therefore the books need to be below 100 pages. I have a lot of books from Penguin Readers but I feel that you miss parts of the story when it has been simplified. I am looking for books/novellas that have a complete but short story written for young adults.

Do you have any suggestions? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

CanNOT have the mmc or fmc be head over heels for their love interest in the first hundred pages and or book…..also can’t be contemporary romance……or heavily “ dark fantasy romance “

haha does anyone have any recommendation?

I need to talk about the epilogue of Empire by Sabaa Tahir because I have not been okay since.

Helene died. I was SURE she died. Quil sitting with her, pouring their whole life together into her mind so she wouldn't be afraid at the end - I'm still not over it. She saved cities and armies and a whole empire and in the end it was one child she stopped for. That's our girl 😭

Then hen the epilogue gives us this "Mistress" and... she sounds like Helene?? The voice, the steel, the way she carries herself. The cropped blonde hair, the two scars on her cheeks, where a Mask once would have been. I literally had to put the book down and leaf back a few chapters to where Helene died, had a state funeral, Laila personally retrieved her body, etc.

So I have questions:Is it actually her? This world has already shown us that death isn't always final. Ruh came back. Mauth can return people if it chooses. But if it is her, HOW?????? Or is Tahir just leaving the door cracked for a future book and letting us suffer?

Sabaa has said she believes in hopeful endings that aren't always happy ones, and honestly this epilogue feels exactly like that. I don't know if I want it to be Helene (because she deserves rest) or desperately want it to be Helene (because I'm not ready to let her go).

Tell me what you think. Is the Mistress Helene? Who else could she be? I need to know I'm not alone in this 😭

This might be entirely because I’m in a bit of a reading slump but has anyone else noticed that Ya books have been feeling very millennial coded lately? It might also be because of all the smut and incorrectly labeled YA books but it feels like from the book ideas to the prose in the books, everything full of LOLXD millennial humor and it’s hard to not cringe.
Apparently most authors debut in their 30s so that would make sense and both agents and publishers are also older so it feels like they’re writing for each other instead of for a YA audience.

i know im quite late to the tsitp hype but im finally getting into it lol🗿

this is a long list of requests lol. Basically main character has bad mental health and by finding a bf/gf their mental health gets better

It's spooky season. Have you read these YA retellings/Spin Offs? What did you think?

I ADORED, the world building, the pace and the partial detectiveness of the books. and, of course, cried my heart out in the end.

now to my wishes

1. i wish the fmc was a little more confident/social.

2. i do like fmc having powers and would like to keep it like that.

3. the series must be finished.

if anyone has recommendations i will be so so grateful.

p.s as per recommendations i've also read winners curse and cruel prince, and i enjoyed both immensely.

Hello bookworms! This is Self-Promotion Sunday, a place where you can promote any of the following:

• A book you wrote
• Your blog
• Your Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, etc
• Your Discord channel
• a subreddit you created
• your Etsy shop

As a rule, individual self-promotion posts are not allowed on this subreddit, but a weekly post will now be scheduled so you can promote your projects to other bookworms.

So, I just started reading. Done with chapter one. Now I have completely forgotten the writing of the original Divergent series and the exact wordings of the chapters so I don’t know if it’s a similar narration by Beatrice. I read the original back in 2013 I think.
Just curious to know the feedback of those of you who have already read it.
🙈🙈