Legal Thrillers

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  • Legal thrillers, similar to those by John Grisham

Absolute Power
By David Baldacci
F BALDACCI
Although David Baldacci does not write legal thrillers, his books have intricate plots that deal with conspiracy and corruption. He offers sympathetic protagonists, multiple plot twists and ethical dilemmas similar to John Grisham. In Absolute Power a likable professional cat burglar is on his last case when he witnesses the murder of the president’s mistress and becomes the one piece the subsequent cover-up can’t seem to eliminate or control.

Compelling Evidence
By Steve Martini
F MARTINI
In a courtroom drama, Talia Porter, indicted for the murder of her judge husband, turns to Paul Madriani—her husband’s ex-law partner—to defend her. This is book one in the Paul Madriani series.

Dead Even
By Brad Meltzer
F MELTZER
Legal skullduggery abounds as husband and wife face each other in court, forced into this situation by blackmail and politics. How they extricate themselves from the threats of their powerful foes and effect justice makes exciting, satisfying storytelling.

Everywhere That Mary Went
By Lisa Scottoline
F SCOTTOLI
While trying to become a partner at the cutthroat Philadelphia law firm where she works, Mary DiNunzio receives threatening phone calls from a dangerous stalker. This is the first title in the Rosato and Associates series.

And Then You Die
By Iris Johansen
MYSTERY JOHANSEN
When Bess Brady gets the assignment to photograph the small Mexican village of Tenajo for a travel magazine she expects it to be a nice, easy job. She even takes her sister along with her and is planning to make a vacation of it. The “vacation” is cut short when she arrives in Tenajo to find everyone has been killed by a new form of Anthrax.

Clean Mysteries

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  • Mysteries
  • Clean reads
The War against Miss Winter
By Kathryn Miller Haines
MYSTERY HAINES
Struggling with missing her enlisted boyfriend, a lack of employment, and the growing impact of World War II on her New York City home, aspiring actress Rosie Winter reluctantly accepts work with a lowbrow detective agency and is caught up in a high-society mystery when her new boss is murdered.

Bellfield Hall, or the Observations of Miss Dido Kent
By Anna Dean
MYSTERY DEAN
Visiting Bellfield Hall to comfort her niece, who has been seemingly abandoned by her wealthy fiancĂ©, Miss Dido Kent investigates the possibly related death of a young woman, a situation that is complicated by surprising secrets. It’s an English country house murder set in the 19th century with a decidedly Austen-esque atmosphere.
Finding Nouf
By Zoe Ferraris
F FERRARIS
Finding Nouf tells of the mysterious disappearance of the daughter of a well-to-do Saudi family. Nayir al-Sharqi, a Palestinian desert guide and friend of the family tries to help locate the missing girl. He is aided in his search for the truth about Nouf’s disappearance by Katya Hijazi, who works in the state medical examiner’s office and is the fiancĂ© of Nouf’s brother.
Heresy
By S. J. Parris
MYSTERY PARRIS Giordano #1
Giordano Bruno spent 15 years as a monk before being excommunicated and hunted for reading books banned by the Pope. After escaping, Bruno became a philosopher, scientist, magician and poet seeking the protection and patronage of powerful men throughout Europe as he seeks for truth. On assignment from a patron, Bruno is sent to Cambridge to debate the nature of the universe and search for papists plotting against Queen Elizabeth. Soon after his arrival, a series brutal murders capture his attention and his life is, once again, in grave danger.

Teen Fantasy with Romance

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  • Teen books
  • Fantasy
  • Romance
Paranormalcy
By Kiersten White
YA F WHITE
Evie just wants a normal life. But since she has a special talent for finding paranormals, she's a member of the International Paranormal Containment Agency. Add in the fact that there's a faerie after her soul and a newly captured paranormal who thinks there's more to Evie than she realizes, and Evie definitely isn't normal. And when a creature starts killing paranormals-- and communicating with Evie-- normal is pretty much out of the question.

On Fortune’s Wheel
By Cynthia Voigt
YA F VOIGT
Birle, the innkeeper’s daughter, pursues a would-be thief only to fall in love with him. They are shipwrecked, rescued by pirates, sold into slavery, eventually escape and head home. This is a great adventure and a well-crafted “fairy tale” which features strong characters and a surprising ending.

The Blue Sword
By Robin McKinley
YA F MCKINLEY
Harry Crewe is a young woman living a quiet ordinary life in a country occupied by the Homelanders and the Hillfolk. She lives among the Homelanders who view the Hillfolk with fear and suspicion. When she is kidnapped by Corlath, the Hillfolk King, her life starts off in entirely new directions: she learns the Hillfolk language, is trained in the arts of war, and begins developing certain magical abilities she hadn't known she had.

Elantris
By Brandon Sanderson
SCI-FI SANDERSO
Raoden, the prince of Arelon and Sarene, a princess from a nearby kingdom, are supposed to wed, but when Sarene arrives in Arelon, she’s informed that Raoden has died (not exactly true—but he has fallen victim to the “Shaod” and placed within the walled city of Elantris). Neither Raoden or Sarene acquiesce to their circumstances. Raoden organizes the hordes afflicted with the Shaod and Sarene begins teaching the ladies of the Arelon court how to fence.

Leviathan
By Scott Westerfeld
YA Fiction Westerfe Leviatha #1
In this steampunk alternate history, World War I is on the horizon, Deryn Sharp masquerading as a boy in order to join the British Air Service, and Alek is a Prince’s son in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Fate brings them together on Leviathan, the British fleet’s largest airship. (This is SCI-FI, not fantasy.)

Orson Scott Card read-alikes

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  • Books similar to those by Orson Scott Card
Halo: the Fall of Reach
By Eric S. Nylund
SCI-FI NYLUND Halo #1
Before the Human-Covenant War engulfed Halo, the planet-colony Reach came under attack by the Covenant, and Earth's specially trained and augmented warriors, code-named SPARTANs, stood alone to fight for humanity's survival.


The Dangerous Days of Daniel X
By James Patterson
YA F PATTERSO Daniel X #1
Fifteen-year-old Daniel has followed in his parents' footsteps as the Alien Hunter, exterminating beings on The List of Alien Outlaws on Terra Firma, but when he faces his first of the top ten outlaws, the very existence of Earth and another planet are at stake.

Emperor
By Stephen Baxter
SCI-FI BAXTER Time’s #1
A first installment of a four-book alternate history epic traces the rise of a powerful family whose successes are linked to an ancient prophecy that guides their financial and political choices.

Contact
By Carl Sagan
SCI-FI SAGAN
December, 1999, the dawn of the millennium. A team of international scientists is poised for the most fantastic adventure in human history. After years of scanning the galaxy for signs of somebody or something else, this team believes they've found a message from an intelligent source, and they travel deep into space to meet it. Who or what is out there?

Hidden Empire
By Kevin J. Anderson
SCI-FI ANDERSON Seven Su #1
Captain Cole becomes increasingly concerned about new U.S. President Averell Torrent's tough-handed foreign policy stance, a perspective that causes him to be targeted and prompts his investigation into the president's role in an assassination plot.

Happy-ending Fiction

Try these books if you're looking for:
  • Fictional books with happy endings
Saving CeeCee Honeycutt
By Beth Hoffman
F HOFFMAN
Twelve-year-old CeeCee Honeycutt has spent her whole life in Ohio, taking care of her mentally ill mother after her father abandons them. When her mother is tragically killed, CeeCee's great aunt shows up to whisk her away to Savannah, Georgia. Once there she is surrounded by strong southern women who show her love and wisdom in the face of life's trials.

Eyre Affair
By Jasper Fforde
SCIFI FFORDE Thursday #1
In a world where one can literally get lost in literature Thursday Next, a Special Operative in literary detection, tries to stop the world’s Third Most Wanted criminal from kidnapping characters, including Jane Eyre, from works of literature.

Heist Society
By Ally Carter
YA F CARTER
A group of teenagers uses their combined talents to re-steal several priceless paintings and save fifteen-year-old Kat Bishop’s father, himself an international art thief, from a vengeful collector.

The Singer of All Songs
By Kate Constable
YA F CONSTABL
Calwyn has lived her entire life with the priestesses of Antaris learning the chantment of Icesong, one of the Nine Powers of chantment that creates magic using song. When Calwyn stumbles across a strange man who was able to get inside the protective ice wall of the city, she is drawn to him and is soon on a dangerous adventure as they join with others to defeat the sorcerer Samis who is trying to united all Nine Powers and become the Singer of All Songs.

The Princess Academy
By Shannon Hale
YA F HALE
This story tells of Miri, a 14-year-old living in a small mining village, whose only desire is to work in the quarry like the generations before her. The prince unexpectedly announces that he will marry a girl from the village and all the eligible girls are sent to a strict academy for potential princesses. There, Miri faces many challenges but also discovers unexpected talents.

Wednesday Wars
By Gary Schmidt
YA F SCHMIDT
During the 1967 school year, on Wednesday afternoons when all his classmates go to either Catechism or Hebrew school, seventh-grader Holling Hoodhood stays in Mrs. Baker's classroom. He is convinced that she hates him because she makes him do menial tasks and then he knows it for sure when she makes him read Shakespeare.

Epic Fantasy

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  • Epic fantasy
  • Books similar to those by Robert Jordan, Brandon Sanderson or Michael Crichton
  • Books over 400 pages long
The Red Wolf Conspiracy
By Robert Redick
SCIFI Redick
Scant years after a terrible war that shook empires, a 600-year-old ship sails for enemy lands and must deal with deadly assassins, treacherous mermaids, and monstrous slavers in order to deliver a young woman whose marriage will seal the peace.

Under Heaven
By Guy Gavriel Kay
SCIFI Kay
To honor the death of his father, an Imperial general, Shen Tai spends two years burying the dead at a battle site on the empire's border. When he receives a gift of 250 coveted Sardian horses from former enemies, he travels homeward to seek an audience with the emperor, knowing that the gift has not only conferred great power upon him but terrible danger as well.

The Gilded Chain
By David 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.

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.

The Grid
By Philip Kerr
F Kerr
During the grand opening of an ultra-modern, computer-controlled building in downtown Los Angeles the architects discover to their horror that the computer has programmed itself to kill. (This one is science fiction, not fantasy.)

Psychological Thrillers

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  • Psychological thrillers
Lock Artist
By Steve Hamilton
MYSTERY HAMILTON
Traumatized at the age of eight and pushed into a life of crime by reason of his unforgiveable talent--lock picking--Michael sees his chance to escape, and with one desperate gamble risks everything to return home to the only person he ever loved, and to unlock the secret that has kept him silent.

Odd Thomas
By Dean R. Koontz
F KOONTZ Odd Thom #1
Over the course of two days, Odd Thomas, his soulmate Stormy Llewellyn, and an assortment of allies make their way through a dark, terrifying world in which past and present, and life and death collide as they try to avert a cataclysm.

The Redbreast
By Jo Nesbo
MYSTERY NESBO
1942: Daniel, a soldier among the Norwegians fighting at the Eastern front, is killed. Eighteen months later, a wounded soldier becomes involved with a young nurse. The consequences will ripple forward to the end of the century. 1999: After an embarrassment in the line of duty, Harry Hole is lumbered with monitoring neo-Nazi activity, until reports of a rare weapon being fired attract his interest. Meanwhile, an ex-soldier has been found with his throat cut. Pursuing both his assignment and his hunches, Harry embarks on an investigation in which he has much to gain and everything to lose.

I’d Know You Anywhere
Laura Lippman
F LIPPMAN
Eliza Benedict's peaceful suburban life is shattered after she is contacted by Walter Bowman, the man who kidnapped and held her hostage as a teen in 1985, and who now claims to want forgiveness while on death row.

The Passage
By Justin Cronin
F CRONIN
The latest test subject in a covert government experiment, abandoned six-year-old Amy is rescued by an FBI agent who hides them in the Oregon hills, from which Amy emerges a century later to save the human race from a terrifying virus.

Fast-paced Fantasy with Absorbing Plotlines

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  • Fantasy
  • Fast-paced books
Need
By Carrie Jones
YA F JONES
Depressed after the death of her stepfather, high school junior Zara goes to live with her grandmother in a small Maine town, where new friends tell Zara the strange man she keeps seeing may be a pixie king, and that only "were" creatures can stop him from taking souls.

Storm Glass
By Maria V. Snyder
SCIFI SNYDER
As a glassmaker and a magician-in-training, Opal Cowen understands trial by fire. Now it's time to test her mettle. Someone has sabotaged the Stormdancer clan's glass orbs, killing their most powerful magicians.

Summers at Castle Auburn
By Sharon Shinn
SCIFI SHINN
Coriel Halsing has spent many summers with her half-sister at Castle Auburn chasing and falling in love with a handsome prince who can never be hers, but now that she is grown she begins to understand the dark side of the magical palace.

The Hourglass Door
By Lisa Mangum
YA F MANGUM
Dante, a prisoner sent from fifteenth-century Italy into the present time as punishment, meets and falls in love with Abby, a high school senior who may be the only one who can save him.

Incarceron
By Catherine Fisher
YA F FISHER
To free herself from an upcoming arranged marriage, Claudia, the daughter of the Warden of Incarceron, a futuristic prison with a mind of its own, decides to help a young prisoner escape.

Hunger Games Read-alikes

Try these books if you're looking for:
  • Teen books
  • Compelling stories
  • Interesting characters
  • Read-alikes for The Hunger Games
Uglies
By Scott Westerfeld
YA F WESTERFE
Just before their sixteenth birthdays, when they will will be transformed into beauties whose only job is to have a great time, Tally's best friend runs away and Tally must find her and turn her in, or never become pretty at all.

Wicked Lovely
By Melissa Marr
YA F MARR
Seventeen-year-old Aislinn, who has the rare ability to see faeries, is drawn against her will into a centuries-old battle between the Summer King and the Winter Queen, and the survival of her life, her love, and summer all hang in the balance.

Graceling
By Kristin Cashore
YA F CASHORE
In a world where some people are born with extreme and often-feared skills called Graces, Katsa struggles for redemption from her own horrifying Grace, the Grace of killing, and teams up with another young fighter to save their land from a corrupt king.

Knife of Never Letting Go
By Patrick Ness
YA F NESS
Pursued by power-hungry Prentiss and mad minister Aaron, young Todd and Viola set out across New World searching for answers about his colony's true past and seeking a way to warn the ship bringing hopeful settlers from Old World.

Unwind
By Neal Shusterman
YA F SHUSTERM
In a future world where those between the ages of thirteen and eighteen can have their lives "unwound" and their body parts harvested for use by others, three teens go to extreme lengths to uphold their beliefs--and, perhaps, save their own lives.



Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children
By Ransom Riggs
YA F RIGGS
After a family tragedy, Jacob feels compelled to explore an abandoned orphanage on an island off the coast of Wales, discovering disturbing facts about the children who were kept there.


Divergent
By Veronica Roth
YA F ROTH
In a future Chicago, sixteen-year-old Beatrice Prior must choose among five predetermined factions to define her identity for the rest of her life, a decision made more difficult when she discovers that she is an anomaly who does not fit into any one group.

Humorous Teen Fantasy Adventures

Try these books if you're looking for:
  • Adventure
  • Fantasy
  • Humor
  • Teen books
Amulet of Samarkand
By Jonathan Stroud
YA F STROUD
Nathaniel, a magician's apprentice, summons up the djinni Bartimaeus and instructs him to steal the Amulet of Samarkand from the powerful magician Simon Lovelace.

Ruins of Gorlan
By John Flanagan
YA F FLANAGAN
When fifteen-year-old Will is rejected by battleschool, he becomes the reluctant apprentice to the mysterious Ranger Halt, and winds up protecting the kingdom from danger.

Sebastian Darke: Prince of Fools
By Philip Caveney
YA F CAVENEY
Accompanied by his sardonic buffalope Max, seventeen-year-old Sebastian Darke meets a spoiled princess and a diminutive soldier who aid in his quest to become court jester to the evil King Septimus.

Airborn
By Kenneth Oppel
YA F OPPEL Matt, a young cabin boy aboard an airship, and Kate, a wealthy young girl traveling with her chaperone, team up to search for the existence of mysterious winged creatures reportedly living hundreds of feet above the Earth's surface.