Suspenseful Teen Adventures

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Action
• Adventure
• Clean reads
• Suspense
• Teen books

Legend
By Marie Lu
YA F LU
In a dark future, when North America has split into two warring nations, fifteen-year-old Day, a famous criminal, and prodigy June, the brilliant soldier hired to capture him, discover that they have a common enemy.

Peak
By Roland Smith
YA F SMITH
A fourteen-year-old boy attempts to be the youngest person to reach the top of Mount Everest.

Dark Life
By Kat Falls
YA F FALLS
When fifteen-year-old Ty, who has always lived on the ocean floor, joins Topside girl Gemma in the frontier's underworld to seek and stop outlaws who threaten his home, they learn that the government may pose an even greater threat.

Downriver
By Will Hobbs
YA F HOBBS
Fifteen-year-old Jessie and the other rebellious teenage members of a wilderness survival school team abandon their adult leader, hijack his boats, and try to run the dangerous white water at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.

The Secret Hour
By Scott Westerfeld
YA F WESTERFE Midnight #1
Upon moving to Bixby, Oklahoma, fifteen-year-old Jessica Day learns that she is one of a group of people who have special abilities that help them fight ancient creatures living in an hour hidden at midnight; creatures that seem determined to destroy Jess.

Historical Fiction Set in England

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Historical fiction
• Books set in England
• Read-alikes for Jane Austen or Philippa Gregory

Green Darkness
By Anya Seton
F SETON
A 16th-century Benedictine monk Stephen Marsdon falls in love with Celia de Bohun and forsakes his vows only to be reincarnated 400 years later in a similar situation.

Innocent Traitor
By Alison Weir
F WEIR
A fictional portrait of Lady Jane Grey, the great-niece of Henry VIII, follows her turbulent life against the backdrop of Tudor power politics and religious upheaval, from her youth, to her nine-day reign as Queen of England, to its tragic aftermath.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
By Mary Ann Shaffer
F SHAFFER
In 1946, writer Juliet Ashton finds inspiration for her next book in her correspondence with a native of Guernsey, who tells her about the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, a book club born as an alibi during German occupation.

Katharine of Aragon
By Jean Plaidy
F PLAIDY
An evocative historical novel chronicles the life of Henry VIII's first wife, Katharine of Aragon, from her early days in England after being sent from Spain to marry Henry's sickly older brother, through her subsequent marriage to Henry, to the divorce that ignited a storm of controversy that changed history.

Rebecca
By Daphne du Maurier
F DU MAURIER
A classic novel of romantic suspense finds the second Mrs. Maxim de Winter entering the home of her mysterious and enigmatic new husband and learning the story of the house's first mistress, to whom the sinister housekeeper is unnaturally devoted.

Fast-Paced Adventures

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Fast-paced books
• Adventure with a historical setting
• Fantasy
  

Steel
By Carrie Vaughn
YA F VAUGHN
When Jill, a competitive high school fencer, goes with her family on vacation to the Bahamas, she is magically transported to an early-eighteenth-century pirate ship in the middle of the ocean.

The Naming
By Alison Croggon
YA F CROGGON BooksPe #1
A manuscript from the lost civilization of Edil-Amarandah chronicles the experiences of sixteen-year-old Maerad, an orphan gifted in the magic and power of the Bards, as she escapes from slavery and begins to learn how to use her Gift to stave off the evil Darkness that threatens to consume her world.

Mistborn
Brandon Sanderson
SCIFI Sanderso Mistborn #1
Experiencing an epiphany within the most daunting prison of the monstrous Lord Ruler, half-Skaa Kelsier finds himself taking on the powers of a Mistborn, and teams up with ragged orphan Vin in a desperate plot to save their world.

Well-Written Adventures

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Adventure
• Beautiful language
• Strong sense of place

Mistborn: The Final Empire
By Brandon Sanderson
SCI-FI SANDERSO Mistborn #1
Experiencing an epiphany within the most daunting prison of the monstrous Lord Ruler, half-Skaa Kelsier finds himself taking on the powers of a Mistborn, and teams up with ragged orphan Vin in a desperate plot to save their world.

Dovekeepers
By Alice Hoffman
F HOFFMAN
A tale inspired by the tragic first-century massacre of hundreds of Jewish people at Masada presents the stories of a hated daughter, a baker's wife, a girl disguised as a warrior, and a medicine woman who keep doves and secrets while Roman soldiers draw near.

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption
By Laura Hillenbrand
BIO ZAMPERIN
On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood. Then on the ocean surface, a face appeared – Lt. Louis Zamperini. Captured by the Japanese and driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve and humor.

The Night Circus
By Erin Morgenstern
F MORGENST
A fierce competition is underway, a contest between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood to compete in "a game," in which each must use their powers of illusion to best the other. Unbeknownst to them, this game is a duel to the death, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will.

Storm Front
By Jim Butcher
SCI-FI BUTCHER Dresden #1
A modern-day mage and consultant to the police finds his stale life suddenly enlivened by the presence of a rival in the black arts.

Romantic Tales of Everyday Life

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Character-driven fiction
• Great plots
• Stories of everyday life
• Romance

The Peach Keeper
By Sarah Addison Allen
F ALLEN
Returning to the hometown of her youth after a failed marriage, Willa struggles to find her place in a community where she no longer feels like she belongs. She uncovers a 60-year family feud and falls for a strangely secretive man.

Very Valentine
By Adriana Trigiani
F TRIGIANI Valentin #1
Valentine Roncalli struggles to save her decades-old family business, finding love and the life she wants along the way.

Treasures of the North
By Tracie Peterson
F PETERSON
Torn between her desire to obey her parents and her fear of the man they've arranged for her to marry, young Grace opts to leave Chicago for the untamed Alaskan frontier.

A Thousand Tomorrows
By Karen Kingsbury
ROMANCE KINGSBURY
A young couple faces the challenge of falling in love, while seemingly doomed to repeat the negative patterns they have established for most of their lives.

These Is My Words
Nancy Turner
TURNER Sarah Ag #1
Written in diary format, this is the compelling story of Sarah Agnes Prine. Only 17 when the story begins, she goes from New Mexico to Texas and back, protecting her family with her rifle. Along the way she experiences danger and hardship, romance and heartache.