Humorous-Action-Fantasy-Clean-Romances

Try these books if you're looking for:

• humor
• action
• fantasy
• romance
• clean read

The Shades of Milk and Honey 
By Mary Robinette Kowal
F KOWAL Shades #1
In a Jane Austen-inspired alternate universe, two sisters, one beautiful and the other skilled in the glamour arts, test the limits of their gifts on an unscrupulous suitor.

The Girl of Fire and Thorns
By Rae Carson
YA F CARSON
A fearful sixteen-year-old princess discovers her heroic destiny after being married off to the king of a neighboring country in turmoil and pursued by enemies seething with dark magic.

Summers at Castle Auburn
By Sharon Shinn
SCI-FI 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 False Princess 
By Ellis O’Neal
YA F O’NEAL
For sixteen years, Nalia has been raised as the princess of Thorvaldor, but one day she learns that her real name is Sinda and that she is part of a complicated plot that would change the future of her country forever.

Clean YA Sci-Fi

Try these books if you're looking for:

• clean
• sci-fi
• young adult/teen

Matched
By Ally Condie
YA F CONDIE Matched #1
Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her, so when Xander appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows he is her ideal mate--until Ky Markham's face appears for an instant before the screen fades to black.

Across the Universe
By Beth Revis
YA F REVIS
Amy, a cryogenically frozen passenger aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed, is nearly killed when her cryo chamber is unplugged fifty years before their scheduled landing.

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.

Fast-paced Dragon Fantasy

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Fantasy
• Dragons
• Fast-paced

Spellwright 
By Blake Charlton
SCI-FI CHARLTON Spellwri #1
Young, gifted wizard Nicodermus feels a failure when it comes to casting spells due to his problem with dyslexia, but when an evil power claims the lives of his fellow wizards and his mentor, he must find the true villain behind their deaths--or be destroyed.

Flying Blind 
By Deborah Cooke
YA F COOKE Dragon #1
When a fifteen-year-old Pyr reveals that she is the Wyvern, the one female dragon shape shifter with special powers, she must fight to prevent the Mages from eliminating all the Pyr shape shifters.

The Dragon's Path 
By Daniel Abraham
SCI-FI ABRAHAM Dagger #1
General Marcus Wester would far rather guard humble caravans than cruel kings, and orphaned Cithrin bel Sarcour's loyalty is not to her long-dead noble parents but to the Medean Bank that took her in. Cithrin and Marcus must smuggle the treasury of the lost city of Vanai through a war zone in which every army seeks new sources of funds and every king wants them dead.

Dragons of Autumn Twilight 
By Margaret Weis
SCI-FI WEIS Chronicl #1
Lifelong friends, they went their separate ways. Now they are together again, though each holds secrets from the others in his heart. They speak of a world shadowed with rumors of war. They speak of tales of strange monsters, creatures of myth, creatures of legend. They do not speak of their secrets. Not then. Not until a chance encounter with a beautiful, sorrowful woman, who bears a magical crystal staff, draws the companions deeper into the shadows, forever changing their lives and shaping the fate of the world. No one expected them to be heroes. Least of all, them.

Cast in Shadow
By Michelle Sagara
SCI-FI SAGARA Chronicl #1
Kaylin, a Hawk who patrols and polices the City of Elantra, must face her greatest fear when children become the prey of a serial killer, forcing her to return to Nightshade, where she must team up with a powerful Dragon lord she knows she cannot trust.

Suspense, mystery, action thriller, true crime

Try these books if you're looking for:

• suspense
• mystery
• action thriller
• true crime
• read like Mary Higgins Clark and Harlan Coben

New York Dead 
By Stuart Woods
MYST WOODS Stone Ba #1
On disability leave from the New York City Police Department, Detective Sergeant Stone Barrington witnesses the murder of network news star Sasha Nijinsky, who is pushed from her penthouse terrace.

The Monkey’s Raincoat 
By Robert Crais
MYST CRAIS Elvis #1
When Los Angeles private detective Elvis Cole investigates the disappearance of Ellen Lang's husband and young son, he stumbles into a bizarre nightmare of high-level intrigue, missing drugs, and murder in Hollywood's underworld.

The Tiger in the Smoke 
By Margery Allingham
MYST ALLINGHA
A jail breaker and knife artist is at large in London and it falls to Albert Campion to hunt him down -- classic British crime writing at its best.

The Face of Deception 
By Iris Johansen
MYST JOHANSEN Eve Duncan #1
Forensic sculptor Eve Duncan is persuaded by billionaire magnate John Logan to reconstruct the face of an adult murder victim. It turns out to be a very dangerous job yet as she is left in a specially equipped lab in rural Virginia. Surveillance cameras are everywyhere, the phones are tapped and Logan himself acts at once--ruthless, charming and desperate.

A Cool Breeze on the Underground 
By Dan Winslow
MYST WINSLOW Nea Car #1
Neal Carey is not your usual private eye. A graduate student at Columbia University, he grew up on the streets of New York, usually on the wrong side of the law. Then he met a P.I. who introduced him to the Bank, an exclusive institution with a sideline in keeping its wealthy clients happy and out of trouble. They pay Neal's college tuition, and Neal gets an education that can't be found in any textbook, from learning how to trail a suspect to mastering the proper way to search a room.

If you like Robert Crais and Stuart Woods, they both have good stand alone novels: Palindrome by Stuart Woods and Demolition Angel by Robert Crais. You may also enjoy Summer of Storms by Judith Kelman, whose style is close to Mary Higgins Clark. For a couple of good true crime novels, you may want to try The Great Train Robbery by Michael Crichton and The Devil in the White City by Erika Larson.

Books with humor, romance and fantasy

Try these books if you're looking for:

• humor
• romance
• fantasy
• strong message

Keturah and Lord Death 
By Martine Leavitt
YA F LEAVITT
When Lord Death comes to claim sixteen-year-old Keturah while she is lost in the King's Forest, she charms him with her story and is granted a twenty-four hour reprieve in which to seek her one true love.

Countess Below Stairs 
By Eva Ibbotson
YA F IBBOTSON
After the Russian Revolution turns her world topsy-turvy, a young Russian countess, flees to England and takes a job as a servant in the household of the esteemed Westerholme family, determined to keep her identity a secret but secretly in love with young Rupert Westerholme.

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.

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, and that the society she lives in is not perfect after all.

Ship Breaker 
By Paolo Bacigalupi
YA F BACIGALU
In a futuristic world, teenaged Nailer scavenges copper wiring from grounded oil tankers for a living, but when he finds a beached clipper ship with a girl in the wreckage, he has to decide if he should strip the ship for its wealth or rescue the girl.

Teen adventure books with interesting plots

Try these books if you're interested in:

• adventure books
• books with interesting plots
• teen books

Deathwatch
By Robb White
YA F White
A hunting trip turns into a test if survival as Ben fights for his life after taking a dangerous businessman in to the desert. The main character has to find shelter, water and the road as well as avoid being shot by Madec who is just playing games with him. This is definitely an adventure story to remember.

The Maze Runner 
By James Dashner
YA F Dashner Maze Run #1
Boys come to the Glade via an empty freight elevator with no memory of how they got there or of their prior lives. This disorientation is made more frightening when they realize that to survive they must lock themselves in every night to avoid the horrors of the Grievers, beings that are part machine, part animal—and altogether deadly. The boys in the Glade send out Runners each day to find a way out through the Maze that surrounds their one patch of safety, with no success. You will probably like the adventurous suspense the book has.

Raven’s Gate 
By Anthony Horowitz
YA F Horowitz Gatekeep #1
Rejected by his only living relative, betrayed to the police by a supposed friend, Matt Freeman chooses to serve a probationary sentence on an English farm near York rather than in a juvenile detention center. Shortly after he arrives at Hive Hill—the farm owned by his sinister guardian—a thoroughly terrified Matt discovers that he can't escape either the farm or the mysterious destiny facing him. In this page-turner, Horowitz constantly jacks up the tension, ricocheting from catastrophe to disaster. (Kirkus Reviews, June 1, 2005)

Clean Realistic Fantasy

Try these books if you're looking for:

• fantasy (with some realistic elements)
• teen reads
• clean reads
• reads like Brandon Mull, Rick Riordan, Star Wars

Leviathan 
By Scott Westerfeld
YA F WESTERFE Leviatha #1
In an alternate 1914 Europe, fifteen-year-old Austrian Prince Alek, on the run from the Clanker Powers who are attempting to take over the globe, forms an uneasy alliance with Deryn, who disguised herself as a boy to join the British Air Service.

The Alchemyst 
By Michael Scott
YA F SCOTT Secrets #1
Having discovered the secret to eternal youth, 14th-century alchemist Nicholas and his wife are alive and well in the present day. But they won’t be if 15-year-old twins Sophie and Josh don’t fulfill their prophesied role of either saving or destroying the world.

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.

Artemis Fowl 
By Eoin Colfer
YA F COLFER Artemis #1
When a twelve-year-old evil genius tries to restore his family fortune by capturing a fairy and demanding a ransom paid in gold, the fairies fight back with magic, technology, and a particularly nasty troll.

Things Not Seen 
By Andrew Clements
YA F CLEMENTS
When fifteen-year-old Bobby wakes up and finds himself invisible, he and his parents and his new blind friend Alicia try to find out what caused his condition and how to reverse it.

Adventure books

Try these books if you're looking for:

• adventure books

The Monstrumologist
By Richard Yancy
YA F YANCY Monstrum #1
In 1888 New England, monster-hunting doctor Pellinore Warthrop and his apprentice Will Henry encounter an Anthropophagus -- a headless, supposedly extinct monster that has teeth in its belly and feeds on humans -- and the two of them must track and kill an entire pod of the beasts.

Maze Runner 
By James Dashner
YA F DASHNER Maze Run #1
Sixteen-year-old Thomas wakes up with no memory in the middle of a maze and realizes he must work with the community in which he finds himself if he is to escape.

Chronicles of Vladimir Tod: Eighth Grade Bites 
By Heather Brewer
YA F BREWER Chronicl #1
For thirteen years, Vlad, aided by his aunt and best friend, has kept secret that he is half-vampire, but when his missing teacher is replaced by a sinister substitute, he learns that there is more to being a vampire, and to his parents' deaths, than he could have guessed.

Tempest 
By Julie Cross
YA F CROSS
After his girlfriend Holly is fatally shot during a violent struggle, nineteen-year-old Jackson uses his supernatural abilities and travels back in time two years, where he falls in love with Holly all over again, learns that his father is a spy, and discovers powerful enemies of time who will stop at nothing to recruit him for their own purposes.

Nonfiction, historical, cultural books

Try these books if you're looking for:

• nonfiction
• historical
• cultural
• similar to books by Anne Fadiman or Timothy Tyson

Guns, Germs and Steel 
By Jared Diamond
303.4 DIA 2005
The author dismantles racially based theories of human history by revealing the environmental factors he feels are responsible for history's broadest patterns.

The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America 
By Eric Larson
364.1523 LAR 2003
An account of the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 relates the stories of two men who shaped the history of the event--architect Daniel H. Burnham, who coordinated its construction, and serial killer Herman Mudgett.

Crazy Like Us: The Globalization of the American Psyche 
By Ethan Watters
616.89 WAT
Journalist Watters explores the American exportation of how the world goes mad, arguing that as we introduce Americanized ways of treating mental illnesses, we are in fact spreading the diseases.

Civilization: The West and the Rest 
By Niall Ferguson
909.0982 FER 2011
A history of Western civilization's rise to global dominance offers insight into the development of such concepts as competition, modern medicine, and the work ethic, arguing that Western dominance is being lost to cultures who are more productively utilizing Western techniques.

Paranormal books

Try these books if you're looking for:

• paranormal books
• books similar to Anne Rice novels
• books similar to Richelle Mead novels

The Historian 
By Elizabeth Kostova
F KOSTOVA
Discovering a medieval book and a cache of letters, a motherless American girl becomes the latest in a series of historians, including her late father, who investigate the possible surviving legacy of Vlad the Impaler.

Dark Descendant
By Jenna Black
SCI-FI BLACK Descenda #1
Nikki Glass, an immortal huntress and descendant of Artemis, and her new friends--a descendant of Eros, a descendant of Zeus and a descendant of Loki--are plunged into the eternal battle between good and evil when a rival clan of immortals sets out to destroy all descendants who refuse to bow down to them.

Marked 
By P.C. Cast
F CAST House of #1
In 16-year-old Zoey Redbird's world, vampyres not only exist but are also tolerated by humans. Those whom the creatures "mark" as special enter the House of Night school where they will either become vampyres themselves, or, if their body rejects the change, die. To Zoey, being marked is truly a blessing, though she's scared at first. She has never fit into the human world and has always felt she is destined for something else. Her grandmother, a descendant of the Cherokee, has always supported her emotionally, and it is she who takes the girl to her new school. But even there the teen stands apart from the others. Her mark from the Goddess Nyx is a special one, showing that her powers are very strong for one so young.

Dead Until Dark 
By Charlaine Harris
F HARRIS Southern #1
Sookie Stackhouse is a cocktail waitress in small-town Louisiana, but she keeps to herself and doesn't date much because of her "disability" to read minds. When she meets Bill, Sookie can't hear a word he's thinking. He's the type of guy she's waited for all of her life, but he has a disability, too--he's a vampire with a bad reputation. When one of Sookie's coworkers is killed, she fears she's next.

Witches of East End 
By Melissa de la Cruz
F DE LA CRUZ Beaucham #1
Joanna and her daughters Freya and Ingrid live in North Hampton, out on the tip of Long Island. All three women lead seemingly quiet, uneventful existences. But they are harboring a mighty secret-- they are powerful witches banned from using their magic.When mysterious, violent attacks begin to plague the town and a young girl disappears over the Fourth of July weekend, they realize it's time to uncover who and what dark forces are working against them.

Historical Fiction

Try these books if you're interested in:

• historical fiction (1800's to present)
• inspirational story
• based on a true story
• clean

Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker 
By Jennifer Chiaverini
NB F CHIAVERI
Elizabeth Keckley was born a slave, but thanks to her skills as a dressmaker she was able to purchase her freedom. Eventually she worked her way to Washington D.C. and becomes one of the most sought after ‘modistes’ in the city. After Lincoln’s election, Elizabeth was hired by First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln. The two women began their relationship on a professional level, but Mrs. Lincoln comes to rely heavily on Elizabeth’s calming influence and steady support as she navigates the trials of being the First Lady during a civil war, grieves over the loss of her son, and later as she survives the horrors of her husband’s assassination. 

The Aviator’s Wife 
By Melanie Benjamin
F BENJAMIN
The Aviator's Wife tell the story of the marriage of Charles and Anne Lindbergh from Anne's perspective. Charles was a larger than life icon in the years following his historic flight. Anne was a somewhat timid ambassador's daughter who could not help but fall in love with the daring young captain, her own personal hero. Their seemingly idyllic lives, however, were never far from the public's eye. The Lindberghs were continuously hounded by the press and a never-ending stream of admirers and hangers-on. And when true tragedy struck with the loss of their infant son, the world's fascination with the famous aviators would make a horrible situation immensely worse. 

The Shoemaker’s Wife 
By Adriana Trigiani
F TRIGIANI
Inspired by the author’s own grandparents The Shoemaker’s Wife is a sweeping epic that travels from the pristine Italian Alps, to immigrant life in New York City, to the mountains of Minnesota. Ciro and Enza grow up poor in nearby villages in the Italian Alps. Just after meeting for the first time, Ciro is forced to move to America . Unbeknownst to Ciro, Enza too immigrates to New York City and works as a seamstress in a women’s clothing factory. By chance Ciro and Enza meet again, but fate once again pulls them apart as Ciro is set to go to World War I. Enza refuses to wait for Ciro and is determined to make a better life for herself. With her talent for sewing she soon finds herself in the New York Opera House making costumes for the famous opera singer, Enrico Caruso. Full of rich detail of the emigrant experience, the beauty of the Italian Alps, the rich Italian food, and more, Trigiani makes you feel like you are experiencing the characters lives right along side them. This is one of Trigiani’s best books so far. 

The Persian Pickle Club 
By Sandra Dallas
F DALLAS
The Persian Pickle club is a group of tight-knit women living in Kansas during the Depression. They meet often to work on quilts, to talk, and to help one another. When a newcomer, Rita, joins the group, Queenie, the narrator, is anxious to befriend her and make her feel at home in the group. However, Rita is an aspiring reporter, and her curiosity threatens to bring to light a secret that could be devastating for the group.