Well-written Teen Fantasy

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Teen books
• Fantasy

Finnikin of the Rock
By Melina Marchetta
YA F MARCHETT
Now on the cusp of manhood, Finnikin, who was a child when the royal family of Lumatere was brutally murdered and replaced by an imposter, reluctantly joins forces with an enigmatic young novice and fellow-exile, who claims that her dark dreams will lead them to a surviving royal child and a way to regain the throne of Lumatere.

Birthmarked
By Caragh M. O’Brien
YA F O’BRIEN
When her midwife mother is forcibly taken away by the very people she serves, sixteen-year-old Gaia Stone starts to question the role of the Enclave and whether it deserves the loyalty her family has so faithfully given.

The Thief
By Megan Whalen Turner
YA F TURNER
Gen flaunts his ingenuity as a thief and relishes the adventure which takes him to a remote temple of the gods where he will attempt to steal a precious stone.

The Wee Free Men
By Terry Pratchett
YA F PRATCHET
A young witch-to-be named Tiffany teams up with the Wee Free Men, a clan of six-inch-high blue men, to rescue her baby brother and ward off a sinister invasion from Fairyland.

Star Crossed
By Elizabeth C. Bunce
YA F BUNCE
In a kingdom dominated by religious intolerance, sixteen-year-old Digger, a street thief, has always avoided attention, but when she learns that her friends are plotting against the throne she must decide whether to join them or turn them in.

Steel
By Carrie Vaughn
YA F Vaughn
When Jill, a competitive high school fencer, goes on vacation with her family to the Bahamas, she is magically transported to an early-eighteenth-century pirate ship where she is surrounded by strangers and is forced to sign on as crew. She senses that the only key to getting back home is through a notorious and deadly pirate, Edmund Blane.

Light and Happy Teen Fantasy, Historical Setting

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Clean reads
• Teen books
• Fantasy
• Emphasis on characters and relationships
• Clever writing
• Non-contemporary time period
• Light reads
• Shannon Hale read-alikes
  

Princess of the Midnight Ball
By Jessica Day George
YA F GEORGE
A retelling of the tale of twelve princesses who wear out their shoes dancing every night, and of Galen, a former soldier now working in the king's gardens, who follows them in hopes of breaking the curse.

Secondhand Charm
By Julie Berry
YA F BERRY
On her journey to the royal university to become a doctor, fifteen-year-old Evie, wearing potent gypsy charms, learns of her monstrous inheritance.

Rose Daughter
By Robin McKinley
YA F MCKINLEY Beauty grows to love the Beast at whose castle she is compelled to stay, and through her love he is released from the curse that had turned him from man to beast.

Fairest
By Gail Carson Levine
YA F LEVINE
In a land where beauty and singing are valued above all else, Aza eventually comes to reconcile her unconventional appearance and her magical voice, and learns to accept herself for who she truly is.

A Curse as Dark as Gold
By Elizabeth Bunce
YA F BUNCE
Upon the death of her father, seventeen-year-old Charlotte struggles to keep the family's woolen mill running in the face of an overwhelming mortgage and what the local villagers believe is a curse, but when a man capable of spinning straw into gold appears on the scene she must decide if his help is worth the price. (This book isn't quite as light and happy as some of the others.)

Fantasy or Science Fiction with Well-Developed Characters

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Science fiction or fantasy
• Well-developed characters
• Read-alikes for Orson Scott Card

The Gilded Chain: A Tale of The King's Blades
By Dave Duncan
SCIFI DUNCAN
Sir Durendal, the leader of the King's Blades, the finest swordsmen in the magical land of Chivial, embarks on a quest for a glorious treasure that lies behind the walls of an ancient, isolated city where danger and death are everywhere. This is part of the King's Blades series, but each book stands alone.

Lord of the Isles
By David Drake
SCIFI DRAKE
Mysteriously transported one thousand years into the future after a cataclysm destroys the empire of the Isles, a woman sorcerer finds herself in a small town, far from the centers of power, where she and a small group of individuals become the focus of a new struggle for dominance.

Under Heaven
By Guy Gavriel Kay
SCIFI KAY
In the mountains of Kitai a young soldier, Shen Tai, has spent two years alone, burying the dead of both sides at a battle site. He does this to honor his late father, the commanding general in the last imperial war. At night he can hear ghosts crying. When a voice falls silent, he knows that a spirit has been granted rest. One morning he is quite surprised to learn that the court of Kitai’s recent enemy has chosen to honor him by granting him 250 coveted western horses. This is a gift fit for the emperor and can bring Tai great power—or get him killed in short order.

The Ring of Five Dragons
By Eric Lustbader
SCIFI LUSTBADE
After suffering for a century under the oppressive V'ornn invaders, the Kundalan people put their hopes on Dar Sala-at, a hero foretold by prophecy, who can wield the sorcerous power of the lost Ring of Five Dragons to save his people.

Eragon
By Christopher Paolini
YA F PAOLINI
In Alagaesia, a fifteen-year-old boy of unknown lineage called Eragon finds a mysterious stone that weaves his life into an intricate tapestry of destiny, magic, and power, peopled with dragons, elves, and monsters.