From tales set in wizarding worlds to stories of angsty love, young adult novels have never been so popular. Denver’s Tattered Cover Book Store intends to rally this growing cohort of YA lovers this month at its inaugural Colorado Teen Book Con. Attendees will spend the day listening to panels featuring some of the best authors in the genre—many of whom hail from the Centennial State. In honor of the festival, we asked members of the Tattered Cover’s Teen Advisory Board to recommend a list of need-to-read new books from Colorado’s top YA authors.

1. Boys of Summer

5280 October 2016
More From The Issue

By Jessica Brody
Simon Pulse, April 2016

Remember The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants? This is the male version. Three friends return to the beach expecting their typical summer shenanigans, except each secretly bears heavy baggage. Then someone dates someone else’s sister (a total violation of the bro code), and suddenly their clambake-filled summer, not to mention their friendships, threatens to implode.

2. Signs of You

By Emily France
SoHo Press, July 2016

Four high school friends, each having lost someone close to them, touch a relic and start seeing their departed loved ones. That is, all except Noah, who goes missing. A blend of mystery and mysticism, Signs of You explores redemption, the binding power of grief, and the afterlife (in a super spooky way). Fair warning: Your final pages will be tear-stained.

3. Night Speed

By Chris Howard
Katherine Tegen Books, May 2016

Teenage criminals taking tetra—a drug that sparks nine-minute bursts of superior strength and speed but also kills adults—are terrorizing New York City. The government trains 17-year-old Alana West to harness the drug’s powers so she can go undercover, catch the crooks, and find their supplier before her 18th birthday turns the addictive tetra into her own poison pill.

If You Go

Date: October 15

Place: Littleton High School

Tickets: Free; tatteredcover.com

Don’t Miss: Keynote speaker Danielle Paige wrote Dorothy Must Die, a dystopian collection of books set in the Land of Oz.