YA Prize 2026

Seventeen-year-old Kay left her sleepy hometown after the devastating death of her friend, Ivy. But when her parents go on holiday without her, Kay is forced to come back to stay with her cousin. And her return comes with a bang. Because when Kay arrives, it's to find an anonymous letter on her bed.The letter tells her that there will be a thrill on Tuesday, a wreckage on Wednesday, treachery on Thursday, a fire on Friday, sabotage on Saturday, a stabbing on Sunday — and her murder on Monday.And if Kay can't figure out who is behind the threats, the worst day of the week is about to get deadly...Murder, mystery and mind-blowing twists: the deadly new YA thriller from Ravena Guron, perfect for fans of Holly Jackson and Karen M. McManus.

He broke her best friend's heart, so now Saachi plans to break his. May the best heartbreaker win . . .Saachi would do anything for her best friend. So when school bad boy Fahim breaks Mona's heart, Saachi is hellbent on getting revenge. It's time to put him in his place once and for all.And so begins Operation Heartbreaker: Saachi will make Fahim fall in love with her and then pull the plug on him - just like he does to every girl he's ever dated. Simple.Except as she spends more time with Fahim, against her better judgment, she finds herself falling for him. Unable to talk to Mona about her mixed emotions, and with the mission veering dangerously off course, Saachi will have to embrace her role as a heartbreaker or potentially end up with her own heart broken . . .A fiery and fun enemies to lovers romcom, for readers of Jenny Han, Joya Goffney and Adiba Jaigirdar.

Margo is a troubled schoolgirl. After the death of her father, she’s on her way to a new boarding school in a new city.Moon is a salesman. He makes his living traveling through a series of interconnected worlds on a network of barely used train lines.They never should have met. But when Margo suddenly appears one day on Moon’s train, their fates become inextricably linked. If Margo wants to survive, she has to pass as a traveling salesman, too—except it’s not that easy.Move north on the train line and time speeds up, a day passing in mere hours. Move south and time slows down—a day can last several weeks. Slow worlds are the richest: you live longer, your youth lasting decades. Fast worlds are sharp, cruel, and don’t have time for pleasantries. Death is frequent. Salesmen die young of skipshock. That is, if they’re not shot down by the Southern Guard first.As Margo moves between worlds and her attachment to Moon intensifies, she feels her youth start to slip between her fingers. But is Moon everything he seems? Is Margo?Told through the eyes of both naive Margo and desperate Moon, the unforgettable realm of Skipshock will shake the way you think about love, time, and the fabric of the universe.Set in a universe where time is key to power and privilege, this dazzlingly inventive, genre-defying fantasy romance is the first in a duology.

At just nineteen, Stephen has already survived a year at the front. Now he is returning to the trenches to lead a platoon, despite his wounds. Broken-hearted from the loss of his first love, Stephen wonders what he's fighting for. Then he meets Private Danny McCormick, a smart, talented young recruit. From their first meeting, there's something undeniable between them – something forbidden by both society and the army. Determined to protect Danny, Stephen must face down the prejudices and ignorance of his superiors as well as the onslaught of German shells and sniper fire.As the summer of 1916 ticks down to one big push on the Somme, can Stephen and Danny stay together – and will their love save them – or condemn them?EndorsementsLyrical, tender, and incredibly moving. William Hussey masterfully balances brutal realism with pockets of sincere hope and joy — Becky AlbertalliIt’s a tale from the past, with a message for today. A stunningly poignant, devastating, and ultimately beautiful tour-de-force — Simon James Green

The very day Blaze came into the world, she almost drowned it. A Rain Singer born into one of the most powerful fire-wielding families in the empire, Blaze's birth summoned a devastating storm that left thousands dead. She's been hidden away ever since with a dark secret: the same torrential power that branded her an outcast disappeared that fateful day. And she’s not sure she wants it back.When an unexpected invitation arrives for Blaze and her twin brother, Flint, to compete as future rulers of the empire, she’s suddenly thrust into the limelight again — and into battle. Threats abound at the Golden Palace, where intrigue and romance await with not one but two handsome suitors: the enchanting Crown Prince and a dangerously alluring newcomer at court.As Blaze explores her untapped power, she discovers the throne may be within her grasp. But in order to take it, she’ll have to leave behind the stories that others have told about her, and find the courage to write her own.Red Queen meets Shadow and Bone in this explosive start to a YA romantasy trilogy about dangerous magic, forbidden love, and a cut-throat competition for the throne in an empire where crowns are not inherited — they're won.

‘Maybe that’s all love is, in the end. An endless tempting of fate.’Evelyn can remember all her past lives. She can also remember that in every single one, she’s been murdered before her eighteenth birthday.The problem is that she’s quite fond of the one she’s in now, and more importantly, her sister needs her for bone marrow transplants to stay alive. So now she has to:1. Find the centuries-old enemy who hunts her through each life and destroy them forever.2. Figure out exactly why she’s being hunted in the first place.3. Try quite hard not to fall in love with them… again.

Patch Simmons has decided that this is the year he will get a boyfriend, so it's goodbye to his French pen-pal Jean-Pierre and hello to the world!Unfortunately, the only other "out" boys in his school year are dating each other, so finding a boyfriend isn't going to be easy. Until fate finally intervenes and two new mysterious boys join drama club: Peter, who’s just moved from New York (very chic), and his best friend, Sam.Patch is confident that one of them (although either of them will do!) will be his first boyfriend. So armed with his single mum’s outdated self-help books, his over-supportive best friend Jean and an alarming level of self-confidence, Patch is confident that this mission will be a complete success. Whether or not they actually like boys or him is a problem for later.The Romantic Tragedies of a Drama King is a heartfelt, laugh-out-loud comedy from rising star Harry Trevaldwyn, a story about boldly being yourself, going for what you want, but never losing sight of who truly has your back.Heartstopper meets Derry Girls in this wonderfully hilarious rom-com about finding your first love when your personality might be too big for the world around you.

Seventeen-year-old Eli has been in a near-fatal car crash. As the anniversary looms, his therapist and family struggle to help him deal with the fallout. The accident has left him emotionally numb, with no memory of the months following the crash.Desperate to feel something again, Eli winds up at an underground club called Traumaland. But this is no ordinary nightclub. Here he joins crowds of other emotionally numb people, all seeking to experience a new thrill by entering virtual reality simulations of nightmarish scenarios through the points of view of various characters.When he enters the story of a boy called Jack, he discovers a darker truth about the club that sets Eli on a dangerous journey to find the source of his own trauma.

Pandora is the first human woman – made by the gods on Olympus for one simple purpose: to love and be loved by her new husband, the titan Epimatheos.The only problem? He wants nothing to do with her.Hurt and confused, Pandora struggles to find meaning in her new life. What's the point of being given all these gifts by the gods if she can't get this infuriating, awful, frankly very rude man (with an admittedly quite nice face) to love her? Maybe she's failing at her life’s purpose. Or maybe she's destined for an entirely different one...?As Pandora and Matheos work to uncover why she was created, that fated connection between them feels increasingly difficult to ignore. And with that comes terrible risk. Because Matheos’s traitorous brother, Prometheus, is a seer — and before the gods captured him he issued a final prophecy that Pandora and Matheos’s love would be humanity’s doom.So... what do you do when faced with an all-powerful love... that just happens to threaten the end of the world?Pandora’s about to find out.A glorious sunshine/grumpy romantic re-imagining of the Pandora myth.EndorsementsBea Fitzgerald — TikTok superstar and Sunday Times bestselling author of Girl, Goddess, Queen and The End Crowns All.

The Five follows a year in the interconnected lives of five very different teenagers who forge a singular bond at their secondary school in north-west Wales.Tim — Elgan Rhys, Tomos Jones; Tami — Mared Roberts, Ceri-Anne Gatehouse; Aniq — Marged Elen Wiliam, Mahum Umer; Robyn — Iestyn Tyne, Leo Drayton; Cat — Megan Angharad Hunter, Maisie Awen