Nocturna

Motayne's book isn't actually YA, but with its young protagonists and the tropes behind its dissatisfied-prince-meets-wily-thief narrative, it's definitely in that "crossover" space. It's a story whose worldbuilding draws on Latinx culture, with a colonial history for Castallan, the land where the action is set, and regular use of Spanish vocabulary within the story's dialogue and concepts. Nocturna also builds a magic system which gives each character a unique, inherent propio or magical talent, alongside a learnable system of elemental manipulation and other skills, with interesting results. The story focuses on Alfie, or Prince Alfehr, a learned prince who is grappling with the recent disappearance of his older brother in an attempted coup; and Finn, a thief whose propio is face changing and who is attempting to escape an abusive past. Together, they fight dark magic - and occasionally each other.

Nocturna takes a while to get its pieces in place, setting up its "unlikely" (though not to anyone who reads this sort of fantasy) pair to meet while pursuing their unrelated problems first, before bringing them together again and kicking off the main plot in a way that had me reaching for the "that escalated quickly" gif more than once. Despite a sticky couple of chapters where that main plot gets pulled into place, and an antagonist who plays the "I have you beaten but I'm going to let you go in order to toy with you again next time" card a little too liberally, Nocturna offers a great adventure and satisfying arcs for both Alfie and Finn, offering some great set pieces (the prison break is a particular highlight) and building their relationship in a really sweet way. Although it wraps up quite well, there's plenty of stuff left hanging for a sequel, and I'd love to see this refreshing fantasy build into a full series of adventures that flesh out the world of Castallan further.