Feast Your Eyes: 8 YA Book Covers Foodies Will Crave

By Jaye Robin Brown

Summer is the season of peach juice dripping down your chin. This adorable cover makes us want to bite into a peach right now. Let the mouth watering commence.

Joanna Gordon has been out and proud for years, but when her evangelist father remarries and decides to move from Atlanta to the more conservative Rome, Georgia, he asks Jo to do the impossible: lie low for the rest of her senior year. And Jo reluctantly agrees.

Although it is (mostly) much easier for Jo to fit in as a straight girl, things get complicated when she meets Mary Carlson, the oh-so tempting sister of her new friend at school. But Jo couldn’t possibly think of breaking her promise to her dad, even if she’s starting to fall for the girl. Even if there’s a chance Mary Carlson might be interested in her, too. Right?

By Carrie Firestone

Give us all the frozen goodness. Ice cream, fro yo, Popsicles—all are welcome here, and it is UNLIKELY that we will be able to resist. #pun

Five teens embark on a summer of vigilante Good Samaritanism in a novel that’s part The Breakfast Club, part The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, and utterly captivating.

Rising high school senior Sadie is bracing herself for a long, lonely, and boring summer. But things take an unexpected turn when she steps in to help rescue a baby in distress and a video of her good deed goes viral.

Suddenly Internet-famous, Sadie’s summer changes for the better when she’s introduced to other “hometown heroes.” These five very different teens form an unlikely alliance to secretly right local wrongs, but when they try to help a heroin-using friend, they get in over their heads and discover that there might be truth in the saying “no good deed goes unpunished.” Can Sadie and her new friends make it through the summer with their friendships—and anonymity—intact?

This rich and thought-provoking novel takes on timely issues and timeless experiences with a winning combination of romance, humor, and wisdom.

By Suzanne Nelson

Who doesn’t love a good donut pun? Actually, who doesn’t love donuts? Donut act like you don’t wish YOU took the bite out of this sprinkled piece of heaven.

Sheyda is a behind-the-scenes girl. She loves helping out in the kitchen of Doughlicious, the New York City donut shop run by the parents of her best friend, Kiri. And Sheyda loves designing stage sets while Kiri performs in the spotlight.

Then lights, camera . . . surprise! Tween heartthrob Cabe Sadler is filming his next big movie in Doughlicious! Kiri is sure this will lead to stardom . . . and perhaps even a date with Cabe. But somehow it’s Sheyda who gets picked for a small part in the movie.

To make matters worse, Cabe is spoiled and rude. Too bad he’s so cute. Can Sheyda overcome her stage fright to get to know the real Cabe . . . and find her own kind of stardom?

By Morgan Matson

Ice cream. Cannot stress this enough. What is better than eating an ice cream cone on a hot summer day? Eating one with your bestie.

It was Sloane who yanked Emily out of her shell and made life 100 percent interesting. But right before what should have been their most epic summer, Sloane just . . . disappears. All she leaves behind is a to-do list.

On it is thirteen Sloane-inspired tasks that Emily would normally never try. But what if they could bring her best friend back?

Apple picking at night? Okay, easy enough.

Dance until dawn? Sure. Why not?

Kiss a stranger? Um . . .

Emily now has this summer and the help of Frank Porter (totally unexpected) to check things off Sloane’s list. Who knows what she’ll find?

Go skinny-dipping? Wait . . . what?

By J. C. Davis

Did someone say cheese? All foodies love cheese! The thought of a perfectly wrapped individual cheese snack like the one on this cover is almost too much for a hungry book lover to handle.

Sixteen-year-old Delaney Delgado knows miracles aren’t real—if they were, her kid sister wouldn’t be dead. So when the image of baby Jesus appears on a Babybel cheese wheel, she’s not buying the idea that God’s got a dairy obsession. But when religious signs begin turning up all over Del’s hometown, tiny Clemency, Texas, news vans fill the streets and religious pilgrims start searching for God in the discount aisle of the grocery store.

Hell-bent on proving the so-called miracles are fake, Del convinces her best friend, Gabe, to help her find the truth. While Gabe’s willing to play detective, as a preacher’s son he’s more interested in finding evidence that supports the miracles. And when the whole town becomes caught up in religious fervor and even the late-night talk show hosts have stopped laughing and started to believe, finding the truth might cause more trouble than Del can handle. This novel is neither pro- nor anti-religion and will appeal to fans of contemporary YA novels that explore deep themes with an element of humor. The voice and characters are funny, strong, and full of heart. This is a book for anyone who loved Saved!

By Katie Finn

There doesn’t even have to be a real photo of a popsicle to make our craving kick in. This illustration does the trick just fine. And that heart drip? Delicious.

The war rages on between Gemma and Hallie in the second installment of the Broken Hearts and Revenge series.

After the humiliating events on the Fourth of July, Gemma’s trying to handle the fact that Hallie knew who she was all along and that she was the one who stole Teddy from her. Gemma vows revenge, but things get more complicated than she planned. Ford, Gemma’s long-time crush, has arrived in the Hamptons cuter than ever. Josh is refusing to speak to her after she lied to him, and Teddy is playing champion to his beloved Marsh Warbler (in Gemma’s backyard, no less).

Gemma and Hallie find themselves locked in an escalating revenge cycle. Just when Gemma thinks she has the upper hand, the biggest bombshell of all is dropped. And it’s one that threatens to change her life forever. This exciting sequel to Broken Hearts, Fences, and Other Things to Mend will leave you begging for the third installment.

By Sandhya Menon

Okay, so this technically doesn’t feature food, but that iced coffee looks so creamy and refreshing that we had to include it. Plus, the pure joy on her face has us running to the nearest coffee bookshop.

Told in alternating perspectives, this laugh-out-loud YA romantic comedy is about two Indian-American teens whose parents have arranged for them to be married.

Dimple Shah has it all figured out. With graduation behind her, she’s more than ready for a break from her family and from Mamma’s inexplicable obsession with her finding the “Ideal Indian Husband.” Ugh. Dimple knows they must respect her principles on some level, though. If they truly believed she needed a husband right now, they wouldn’t have paid for her to attend a summer program for aspiring web developers . . . right?

Rishi Patel is a hopeless romantic. So when his parents tell him that his future wife will be attending the same summer program as him—wherein he’ll have to woo her—he’s totally on board. As silly as it sounds to most people in his life, Rishi wants his marriage to be arranged and believes in tradition, stability, and being a part of something much bigger than himself.

The Shahs and Patels didn’t mean to start turning the wheels on this “suggested arrangement” so early in their children’s lives, but when they noticed them both gravitate toward the same summer program, they figured, why not?

Dimple and Rishi may think they have each other figured out. But when opposites clash, love works hard to prove itself in the most unexpected ways.