Title: You Asked for Perfect
Author: Laura Silverman
Pages: 288
Release Date: March 5 2019
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Senior Ariel Stone is the perfect college applicant: first chair violin, dedicated community volunteer, and expected valedictorian. He works hard – really hard – to make his life look effortless. A failed Calculus quiz is not part of that plan. Not when he’s number one. Not when his peers can smell weakness like a freshman’s body spray.
Figuring a few all-nighters will preserve his class rank, Ariel throws himself into studying. His friends will understand if he skips a few plans, and he can sleep when he graduates. Except Ariel’s grade continues to slide. Reluctantly, he gets a tutor. Amir and Ariel have never gotten along, but Amir excels in Calculus, and Ariel is out of options.
Title: Thomas Wildus and the Book of Sorrows
Author: J. M. Bergen
Pages: 352
Release Date: February 2 2019
Publisher: Elandrian Press
Genre: Fantasy
Thomas thinks he’s an ordinary twelve year old, but when a strange little man with gold-flecked eyes gives him an ancient text called The Book of Sorrows, the world he knows is turned upside down. Suddenly he’s faced with a secret family legacy, powers he can hardly begin to understand, and an enemy bent on destroying everything he holds dear. The more he reads and discovers, the deeper the danger to himself and the people he loves. As the race to the final showdown unfolds, Thomas must turn to trusted friends and uncertain allies as he seeks to prevent destruction at an epic scale.
Title: They Both Die at the End
Author: Adam Silvera
Pages: 373
Release Date: September 5 2017
Publisher: HarperTeen
Genre: Realistic Fiction
On September 5, a little after midnight, Death-Cast calls Mateo Torrez and Rufus Emeterio to give them some bad news: They’re going to die today.
Mateo and Rufus are total strangers, but, for different reasons, they’re both looking to make a new friend on their End Day. The good news: There’s an app for that. It’s called the Last Friend, and through it, Rufus and Mateo are about to meet up for one last great adventure—to live a lifetime in a single day.
Title: Kringle
Author: Tony Abbott
Pages: 324
Release Date: October 1 2005
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Genre: Fantasy
Unlike the traditional Santa Claus myth, KRINGLE is a coming-of-age story about an orphan who becomes a force for good in a dark and violent time. It is a tale of fantasy, of goblins, elves, and flying reindeer — and of a boy from the humblest beginnings who fulfills his destiny.
Our tale begins in 500 A.D., when goblins kidnapped human children and set them to work in underground mines. Kringle is one such child…. until he discovers his mission – to free children from enslavement. His legend lives on today, as he travels the earth every Christmas Eve to quell the goblins once more.
Title: Illegal
Author: Eoin Colfer, Andrew Donkin
Pages: 144
Release Date: August 7 2014
Publisher: Sourcebooks Young Readers
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Ebo is alone.His brother, Kwame, has disappeared, and Ebo knows it can only be to attempt the hazardous journey to Europe, and a better life–the same journey their sister set out on months ago.
But Ebo refuses to be left behind in Ghana. He sets out after Kwame and joins him on the quest to reach Europe. Ebo’s epic journey takes him across the Sahara Desert to the dangerous streets of Tripoli, and finally out to the merciless sea. But with every step he holds on to his hope for a new life, and a reunion with his family.
Title: Ghost Boys
Author: Jewell Parker Rhodes
Pages: 214
Release Date: April 17 2014
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Twelve-year-old Jerome is shot by a police officer who mistakes his toy gun for a real threat. As a ghost, he observes the devastation that’s been unleashed on his family and community in the wake of what they see as an unjust and brutal killing.
Soon Jerome meets another ghost: Emmett Till, a boy from a very different time but similar circumstances. Emmett helps Jerome process what has happened, on a journey towards recognizing how historical racism may have led to the events that ended his life. Jerome also meets Sarah, the daughter of the police officer, who grapples with her father’s actions.
Title: Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock
Author: Matthew Quick
Pages: 288
Release Date: August 13 2013
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Today is Leonard Peacock’s birthday. It is also the day he hides a gun in his backpack. Because today is the day he will kill his former best friend, and then himself, with his grandfather’s P-38 pistol.
But first he must say good-bye to the four people who matter most to him: his Humphrey Bogart-obsessed next-door neighbor, Walt; his classmate, Baback, a violin virtuoso; Lauren, the Christian homeschooler he has a crush on; and Herr Silverman, who teaches the high school’s class on the Holocaust. Speaking to each in turn, Leonard slowly reveals his secrets as the hours tick by and the moment of truth approaches.
Title: Feed
Author: M. T. Anderson
Pages: 308
Release Date: February 23 2004
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Genre: Science Fiction
For Titus and his friends, it started out like any ordinary trip to the moon – a chance to party during spring break and play with some stupid low-grav at the Ricochet Lounge. But that was before the crazy hacker caused all their feeds to malfunction, sending them to the hospital to lie around with nothing inside their heads for days. And it was before Titus met Violet, a beautiful, brainy teenage girl who has decided to fight the feed and its omnipresent ability to categorize human thoughts and desires
Title: Exit Plans for Teenage Freaks
Author: ‘Nathan Burgoine
Pages: 242
Release Date: December 11 2018
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Genre: Science Fiction / Realistic Fiction
Being the kid abducted by old Ms. Easton when he was four permanently set Cole’s status to freak. At seventeen, his exit plan is simple: make it through the last few weeks of high school with his grades up and his head down.
When he pushes through the front door of the school and finds himself eighty kilometers away holding the door of a museum he was just thinking about, Cole faces facts: he’s either more deluded than old Ms. Easton, or he just teleported.
Now every door is an accident waiting to happen―especially when Cole thinks about Malik, who, it turns out, has a glass door on his shower. When he starts seeing the same creepy people over his shoulder, no matter how far he’s gone, crushes become the least of his worries. They want him to stop, and they’ll go to any length to make it happen.
Title: Deposing Nathan
Author: Zack Smedley
Pages: 400
Release Date: May 7 2019
Publisher: Page Street Kids
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Nate never imagined that he would be attacked by his best friend, Cam.
Now, Nate is being called to deliver a sworn statement that will get Cam convicted. The problem is, the real story isn’t that easy or convenient—just like Nate and Cam’s friendship. Cam challenged Nate on every level from the day the boys met. He pushed him to break the rules, to dream, and to accept himself. But Nate—armed with a fierce moral code and conflicted by his own beliefs—started to push back. With each push, Nate and Cam moved closer to each other—but also spiraled closer to their breaking points.
What are your fave male-led books?
Book Princess Reviews 
HELL YES TO YOU ASKED FOR PERFECT. That was such a beautiful, heartfelt read, and I’m so happy it’s on your list!
❤ Aimee @ Aimee, Always
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I need to read you asked for perfect it sounds like such a wonderful read and I’m excited to feel all the feels!! And my library has they both die at the end and I want to pick it up even if I am slightly scared about all the emotions I will feel!! 😂
Great post– I think my favourite male protagonists book is Aristotle and Dante discover the secrets of the universe– I loved it so much!!! 😍
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This is great. I feel like I do not read a lot of books with male protagonists! My most recent favourite is definitely Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead. It is such a powerful but difficult read.
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Right now, Strange the Dreamer takes the cake for me 🙂 Also, the Rithmatist and the Reckoners series by Sanderson have male protagonists. We really do need more in YA 🙂
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Illegal is on my TBR! I loved the author’s Artemis Fowl series as a kid, so I wanna check out what he’s up to. 😉 Oh, and Kringle strangely sounds appealing to me? Maybe it’s that Christmas-y cover that yanks nostalgia within me, but I kind of want to read it now!
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I find that it’s always harder to find male-led YA books than it is to find female-led ones! I loved You Asked for Perfect and Deposing Nathan, they were both so good!! I also really like The Knife of Never Letting Go and This Book is Not Yet Rated.
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I know I lack in reading male led books so Imma just write a few of these down
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