New YA to look for 2022

 I don't often read YA but two showed up on my Netgalley list this week, how lucky!  They couldn't be more different, but they were both terrific!

The first one is called Mere Mortals written by Erin Jade Lange.  It's about two vampires, Charlie (Charlotte) and Reg, sister and brother, who have been expelled from being vampires because of an unfortunate incident.  They are dropped off at a halfway house of sorts, where they can learn to be human again.  Charlie and Reg are very unhappy about this, particularly since the town where they've landed is a small town in Iowa that seems completely empty of culture or shopping or any of the things that Charlie and Reg think are fun.  They are staying with a man named Sal, who is meant to help them with the transition and they have been registered to attend the local high school.  They send out appeals to different groups of vampires to try to get their punishment cancelled but either get a negative response or no response at all.  Things can't seem to get any worse for the pair but they find that being human is kind of interesting and eventually fun.  So when the baddest of the vampire clans comes back with an offer to bring Charlie and Reg back as vampires, their response is a bit surprising.  Charlie's voice is so strong and so fresh and so funny that I kept wanting to go back and hear what happened next!  The other characters also had strong, well developed voices and the plot line was so interesting.  I really liked this one.   Don't miss it!

The second one is called the Gilded Mountain written by Kate Manning.  This one is a historical fiction set in Colorado in the early 1900s.  The main character is Sylvie, a teenager, who moves across country with her mother and two younger brothers to the Colorado mountains to join her father, who has taken a job in a marble mine in Colorado.  Her father is a larger than life character who has lived in lots of different places, trained in a circus and loves performing, but loves his family more.  The mining operation is hard work without much pay and the family struggles to make ends meet.  In school, Sylvie wins an essay contest and is approached by the editor of the local newspaper to come to work for her.  Sylvie jumps at the chance to write and learn more about the community.  It turns out that the owner of the mine lives in a huge mansion and while the miners are forced to work in dangerous conditions for a minimal amount of money and tend to end up owing the owner money because the only place to purchase things in town is also controlled by the mine owner.  Sylvie is offered a summer job at the mansion and jumps at the chance.  She is to be the secretary for the mine owner's wife and the newspaper editor hopes Sylvie will continue supplying her with stories for the newspaper.  Sylvie is hoping to find romance and she does, but it's not all it's cracked up to be.  Sylvie ends up learning some bitter truths about the labor movement, about people's desire to help others as well as her own romantic inclinations.  It's an interesting story to read, particularly because of the current political situation, which has some pretty strong parallels to the this story.  I thought this one was great too!