Title: Ashes in the North Genre: Literary Fiction / Coming-of-Age / LGBTQ+ Historical Drama Description: Denmark, 1980s. After losing both of his parents at a young age-and later his sister in the orphanage-Nikolaj learns early that survival means shutting down. Adopted at twelve, he finds stability in the home of two kind but watchful parents, who see more fragility in him than he'll ever admit. By seventeen, he's a rising star on the football field, his discipline and drive masking years of grief and silence. But there are truths he cannot outrun. Truths about who he is, and who he longs for-his closest friend, Emil, whose openness and quiet strength make Nikolaj's own walls tremble. In a time and place where people rarely spoke of such things, Nikolaj wrestles with identity, masculinity, and the fear of breaking apart the family who chose him. Ashes in the North is a story about loss, love, and the fragile courage it takes to step out of the shadows of survival and into the light of selfhood.

Title: The Boy Without a Name Genre: YA Psychological Drama / Thriller with Romantic and Coming-of-Age elements Setting: United States, early 1980s Description: He was taken when he was three. Raised by a nameless gang, taught only one thing: lure the girls. Make them trust you. Then disappear. Sixteen-year-old Jace doesn't know what a normal life looks like. He's never been to school. Never seen a movie. Never known a family that didn't trade children for money. He doesn't know right from wrong-only the rules that kept him alive. Until his last assignment. The girl-Anneliese-is unlike the others. She asks questions he doesn't know how to answer. She doesn't run when he forgets how to lie. And worst of all... she makes him feel. When the mission begins to unravel, Jace is forced to confront a truth that was never meant for him: He was a victim, too. Caught between the only life he's ever known and the fragile new world he's beginning to see, Jace must make a choice: stay in the shadows, or risk everything for a freedom he doesn't understand-and a girl who might not survive him. The Boy Without a Name is a raw and tender story about stolen childhoods, impossible guilt, and the quiet, defiant power of choosing your own future-even if you've never had one before.

Title: Sunlight Through Lace Genre: Contemporary YA / Coming-of-Age / Soft Romance Description: Fourteen-year-old Ángel has just moved to Colorado after three years in military training overseas-years that left him with fading vision, invisible scars, and a past too heavy for his shoulders. Haunted by an accident he doesn't talk about, and the weight of a life he never chose, Ángel wants to disappear quietly into the background. But then there's Élise-his fiercely protective older sister. Amaury-the little brother who still believes he's a hero. And Reneé, the girl with ink-stained fingers, a quiet laugh, and a scent like something worth remembering. As Ángel struggles to find his place in a world that feels too bright and too sharp, he discovers healing in unexpected places: in music, in banana bread, in robot shark drawings, and in the slow rhythm of ordinary days that start to feel like something sacred. But the past doesn't let go so easily-and neither does the fear that he'll never be enough, not even for the girl who listens to his silences and sketches him like she already understands. "Sunlight Through Lace" is a tender, introspective coming-of-age novel about trauma, recovery, and the quiet power of being seen-even when you can't fully see yourself.