Kayla Cottingham is a YA author and librarian. Her first book, My Dearest Darkest, was a New York Times and Publisher's Weekly bestseller, an ALA 2023 Rainbow Book List Selection, a New England Book Award finalist, made The Children’s Book Council’s 2023 Young Adult Favorites Award List, and a Barnes & Noble YA Monthly Pick. Her sophomore novel, This Delicious Death, published in April 2023 from Sourcebooks Fire and received starred reviews from Kirkus, Publisher’s Weekly, and The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books. Originally from Salt Lake City, Utah, Kayla lives in Boston where she loves to go hiking in the woods, play RPGs, and snuggle on the couch with her ridiculously large black cat, Squid.