Teen Paranormal Reads that Have It All

Try these books if you're looking for:

• teen reads
• paranormal/fantasy
• romance
• witty writing
• comedy
• daring 
• mystery
• read like Cassandra Clare, Lauren Kate, Alexandra Andorietto

Meridian 
By Amber Kizer
YA F KIZER Meridian #1
On her sixteenth birthday, Meridian Sozu is whisked off to her great-aunt's home in Revelation, Colorado, where she learns that she is a Fenestra, the half-human, half-angel link between the living and the dead, and must learn to help human souls to the afterlife before the dark forces reach them.

The Silver Kiss 
By Annette Curtis Klause
YA F KLAUSE
Simon, a mysterious and beautiful teenage boy, frightens Zoe in the dead of night when he comes to her house. Simon harbors a dark secret, while Zoe struggles with thoughts of her dying mother. Can Simon trust Zoe with his dark and terrible secret and will she help free him?

Beautiful Creatures 
By Kami Garcia
YA F GARCIA Caster #1
In a small South Carolina town, where it seems little has changed since the Civil War, sixteen-year-old Ethan is powerfully drawn to Lena, a new classmate with whom he shares a psychic connection and whose family hides a dark secret that may be revealed on her sixteenth birthday.

Embrace 
By Jessica Shirvington
YA F SHIRVING Violet E#1
Violet Eden's life is thrown into disorder on her seventeenth birthday when Lincoln, her training partner and the object of her affection, reveals to her that they are both half angels, until the mysterious exiled angel Phoenix enters her life.

Romance in Realistic Settings

Try these books if you're looking for:

• romance
• realistic settings
• clean reads
• LDS authors
• read like Jack Weyland or Anita Stansfield

Persuasion: A Latter-day Tale 
By Rebecca Jamison
ROMANCE Jamison
When Anne broke off her engagement years ago, she thought she'd never see Neil Wentworth again. But when Neil's brother buys the house she grew up in, it seems fate has other plans.

Better Off Friends 
By Elizabeth Eulberg
YA F Eulberg
Macallan and Levi are best friends from the first day they meet in seventh grade, but over the years their close friendship keeps interfering with their dating life because everyone else regards them as a couple.

Yearbook 
By Ally Condie
YA F Condie
Students and teachers share their struggles in life, the joys they experience, and their testimonies throughout one year at Lakeview High School.

Amazing True Stories

Try theses books if you're looking for:

• real-life stories
• educational
• good story
• some adventure
• read like Into the Wild; Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks; The Stranger Beside Me

127 Hours: Between a Rock and a Hard Place 
By Aron Ralston
796.5223 RAL
Hiking into the remote Utah canyonlands, Aron Ralston felt perfectly at home in the beautiful natural world. Then, at 2:41 p.m., eight miles from his truck, in a deep and narrow slot canyon, an eight-hundred-pound boulder tumbled loose, pinning Aron's right hand and wrist against the canyon wall. Through six days of hell, with scant water, food, or warm clothing, and the terrible knowledge that no one knew where he was, Aron eliminated his escape options one by one. Then a moment of stark clarity helped him to solve the riddle of the boulder, and commit one of the most extreme and desperate acts imaginable.

In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin 
By Erik Larson
943.086 LAR
The time is 1933, the place, Berlin, when William E. Dodd becomes America's first ambassador to Hitler's Germany in a year that proved to be a turning point in history. A mild-mannered professor from Chicago, Dodd brings along his wife, son, and flamboyant daughter, Martha. At first, Martha is entranced by the parties and pomp, and the handsome young men of the Third Reich with their infectious enthusiasm for restoring Germany to a position of world prominence. Enamored of the "New Germany," she has one affair after another, including with the surprisingly honorable first chief of the Gestapo, Rudolf Diels. But as evidence of Jewish persecution mounts, confirmed by chilling first-person testimony, her father telegraphs his concerns to a largely indifferent State Department back home. Dodd watches with alarm as Jews are attacked, the press is censored, and drafts of frightening new laws begin to circulate. As that first year unfolds and the shadows deepen, the Dodds experience days full of excitement, intrigue, romance -- and ultimately horror, when a climactic spasm of violence and murder unmasks Hitler's true character and ruthless ambition.

The Violinist's Thumb: And Other Lost Tales of Love, War, and genius, as Written by our Genetic Code 
By Sam Kean
572.8 KEA
From New York Times-bestselling author Kean comes more incredible and vibrant stories of science, history, language, and music, as told by DNA.

Charles and Emma: the Darwins' Leap of Faith 
By Deborah Heiligman
YA BIO DARWIN
This biography of Charles Darwin takes a personal look at the man behind evolutionary theory. His children doubled as scientific specimens, and his wife's religious convictions made him rethink how the world would receive his ideas. What emerges is a portrait of a brilliant man, a radical science, and a great love.

Real-Life-History Fiction (and Nonfiction)

Try these books if you're looking for:

• interesting books that teach about real life history or events
• no graphic violence
• no graphic language
• read like Unbroken and The Book Thief

Stones in Water 
By Donna Jo Napoli
YAF NAPOLI
After being taken by German soldiers from a local movie theater along with other Italian boys including his Jewish friend, Roberto is forced to work in Germany, escapes into the Ukrainian winter, before desperately trying to make his way back home to Venice.

Flags of Our Fathers 
By James Bradley
940.5405 BRA 2000
In this unforgettable chronicle of perhaps the most famous moment in American military history, James Bradley has captured the glory, the triumph, the heartbreak, and the legacy of the six men who raised the flag at Iwo Jima. Here is the true story behind the immortal photograph that has come to symbolize the courage and indomitable will of America. You might also like Flyboys by this same author.

Milkweed 
By Jerry Spinelli
YAF SPINELLI
Captures the hardships and cruelty of life in the ghettos of Warsaw during the Nazi occupation of World War II, through the eyes of a Jewish orphan who must use all his wits and courage to survive unimaginable events and circumstances.

Boy in the Striped Pajamas 
By John Boyne
YAF BOYNE
Bored and lonely after his family moves from Berlin to a place called "Out-With" in 1942, Bruno, the son of a Nazi officer, befriends a boy in striped pajamas who lives behind a wire fence.

Fast-paced YA Magical Fantasies

Try these books if you're looking for:

• fast-paced plots
• YA fantasy
• magical fantasy
• new worlds

The Hero and the Crown 
By Robin McKinley
YA F MCKINLEY
Aerin is the only child of Damarian King, but has never been treated like full royalty because her mother was said to be a witch, and her father only wants to pass on the kingdom to a son. Through the guidance of the Wizard Luthe and the use of the blue sword she is finally able to win her birthright and claim her place. Make sure you read the sequel The Blue Sword, and if you like these check out some of McKinley’s other titles like Beauty, Rose Daughter, Spindle’s End and The Outlaws of Sherwood.

His Dark Materials Trilogy: The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass 
By Phillip Pullman
YA F PULLMAN His_Dark #1, PULLMAN His_Dark #2, PULLMAN His_Dark #3
In these three books, Pullman creates a rich universe made of our world and many beyond that are linked through a common, mysterious threat. Lyra, and her daemon familiar are pulled into the far North to discover what is happening to all the disappearing children. In the second book Lyra meets Will Perry, a boy from our world who has discovered a knife that allows them to tear through worlds as they seek to save the entire universe from collapse. Once you start, you won’t be able to put these books down.

The Forgotten Beasts of Eld 
By Patricia McKillip
YA MCKILLIP
Raised on Eld mountain with only her father's magical menagerie for company, a witch/wizard named Sybel is drawn irrevocably into the human world with all its sorrows and delights when a baby comes into her care. This fast paced adventure culminates when Sybel has to face the most fearsome beast of all, the Blammor, in order to survive.

Great Christian/LDS/Inspirational Fiction

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Christian/LDS/inspirational fiction
• clean reads

The Wednesday Letters 
By Jason F. Wright
F WRIGHT
After the deaths of their parents, three siblings return home to make funeral arrangements and find boxes full of love letters that their father wrote to their mother each week on Wednesday, uncovering the shocking truth about the past.

The Walk 
By Richard Paul Evans
F EVANS Walk #1
What would you do if you lost everything--your job, your home, and the love of your life--all at the same time? When it happens to Seattle ad executive Alan Christoffersen, he's tempted by his darkest thoughts but then decides to take a walk, heading for the farthest point on his map: Key West, Florida. The people he encounters along the way, and the lessons they share with him, will save his life.

The Secret Journal of Brett Colton 
By Kay Lynn Mangum
YA F MANGUM
In this coming-of-age story about the importance of loving family and nurturing faith, sixteen-year-old Kathy Colton discovers her dead brother’s hidden journal and learns about the brother she never knew. At the same time, Kathy is mortified by an assignment to tutor the popular high school quarterback Jason West, a football jock who, even worse, is a Mormon.

Agent in Old Lace 
By Tristi Pinkston
ROMANCE PINKSTON
Shannon Tanner’s boyfriend, Mark, is stealing money from her father and making millions doing it. When Shannon learns Mark’s secret, he turns on her, kidnapping her best friend. Shannon realizes that one person stands between her and certain death--FBI— agent Rick Holden—but the only way to save herself and her friend and stop Mark once and for all is by sending Rick away.

Historical Fiction...with Some Romance

Try these books if you're looking for:

• historical fiction
• some romance
• emphasis on Civil War or Victorian time periods

March: A Novel 
By Geraldine Brooks
F BROOKS
An extraordinary novel woven out of the lore of American history. From Louisa May Alcott's beloved classic Little Women, Geraldine Brooks has animated the character of the absent father, March, as he leaves behind his family to aid the Union cause in the Civil War. His experiences will utterly change his marriage and challenge his most ardently held beliefs.

Gone with the Wind 
By Margaret Mitchell
F MITCHELL
Of all the novels written about the Civil War and its aftermath, none take us into the burning fields and cities of the American South as Gone With the Wind does, creating haunting scenes and thrilling portraits of characters so vivid that we remember their words and feel their fear and hunger for the rest of our lives. In the two main characters, the white-shouldered, irresistible Scarlett and the flashy, contemptuous Rhett, Margaret Mitchell not only conveyed a timeless story of survival under the harshest of circumstances, she also created two of the most famous lovers in the English-speaking world since Romeo and Juliet.

Candle in the Darkness 
By Lynn N. Austin
F AUSTIN Refiners #1
Book 1 in the Refiner's Fire series. The daughter of a wealthy slave-holding family from Richmond, Virginia, Caroline Fletcher is raised in a culture that believes slavery is God-ordained and biblically acceptable. But upon awakening to the cruelty and injustice it encompasses, Caroline's eyes are opened for the first time to the men and women who have cared tirelessly for her. Her journey of maturity and faith will draw her into the abolitionist movement, where she is confronted with the risks and sacrifices her beliefs entail.

The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary 
By Simon Winchester
423 WIN 1998
This is a work of nonfiction, but I have included it here because it reads much like a novel. Dr. W. C. Minor, an American Civil War surgeon, disturbed by his experiences in the war, travels to London, where he kills a man and is sentenced to an insane asylum. Despite his condition and his situation in an asylum, Minor goes on to contribute more than ten thousand definitions to the great 19th century crowdsourcing project of compiling the Oxford English Dictionary.

The Bughouse Affair: A Carpenter and Quincannon Mystery 
By Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini
MYST MULLER Carpente #1
The Bughouse Affair is a fanciful mystery set in 1890s San Francisco. Former Pinkerton operative Sabina Carpenter and her detective partner, ex-Secret Service agent John Quincannon, tackle two seemingly unrelated cases that are complicated by two murders and the interference of a madman who believes he is Sherlock Holmes.

Captivating Adventure Stories

Try these books if you're looking for:

• Adventure stories
• Captivating stories
• Read like Star Wars, Leven Thumps, Lillian Jackson Braun

Eye of Minds 
By James Dashner
YA F DASHNER Mortalit #1
Michael is a skilled internet gamer in a world of advanced technology. When a cyber-terrorist begins to threaten players, Michael is called upon to seek him and his secrets out.

The Last Dragonslayer 
By Jasper Fforde
YA F FFORDE Kazam #1
Fifteen-year-old Jennifer Strange runs an agency for underemployed magicians in a world where magic is fading away, but when visions of the death of the world's last dragon begin, all signs point to Jennifer--and Big Magic.

Neuromancer 
By William Gibson
SCI-FI GIBSON Sprawl #1
Case, a burned out computer whiz, is asked to steal a security code that is locked in the most heavily guarded databank in the solar system.

The Hot Rock 
By Donald E. Westlake
MYSTERY WESTLAKE Dortmund #1
"John Dortmunder left prison with the warm words of the warden ringing in his ears and not one chance of going straight. Soon Dortmunder was riding in a stolen Cadillac with venetian blinds, reuniting with old friends and scheming to heist a large emerald belonging to a small African nation. As always, his planning is meticulous. As always, the execution is not. Undaunted, Dortmunder is now chasing the gem by plane, train, and automobile. Because this hot rock has a way of getting stolen--not just once, but again and again and again ... "--P. [4] of cover.

The Expats 
By Chris Pavone
F PAVONE
When Dexter Moore, a financial systems security expert in Washington, D.C., receives a lucrative offer to work for a bank in Luxembourg, his wife, Kate, resigns her position as a CIA operative--a job her husband knows nothing about--and vows to recreate herself as a devoted wife and mother to their two boys. But Kate soon discovers that computer geek Dexter has been living a secret life as well, and that he may be a thief being investigated by the FBI and Interpol who's stolen millions of euros in online banking transactions.

Clean Romance - with Adventures

Try these books if you're looking for:

• romance
• adventure
• clean read

Across The Nightingale Floor
By Lian Hearn
F HEARN Tales of #1
Takeo, brought up peacefully in a remote Japanese mountain village, learns that his father was a celebrated assassin, and that he, too, possesses extraordinary skills. To resolve split loyalties and his conflicted nature, Takeo embarks on a journey that will lead him to his destiny.

Shades of Milk and Honey 
By Mary Robinette Kowal
SCI-FI 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.

Against the Tide 
By Elizabeth Camden
ROMANCE CAMDEN
 Lydia Pallas works as a translator for the U.S. Navy and Lieutenant Alexander Banebridge, who is fighting the opium trade, enlists her help, but his actions against those responsible for the trade force her to deal with secrets from her past.

The Forgotten Garden 
By Kate Morton
F MORTON
Abandoned on a 1913 voyage to Australia, Nell is raised by a dock master and his wife who do not tell her until she is an adult that she is not their child, leading Nell to return to England and eventually hand down her quest for answers to her granddaughter.

The Short-Straw Bride  
By Karen Witemeyer
ROMANCE WITEMEYE
No one steps on Archer land. Not if they value their life. But when Meredith Hayes overhears a lethal plot to burn the Archer brothers off their ranch, a twelve-year-old debt compels her to take the risk. Fourteen years of constant vigilance hardens a man. Yet when Travis Archer confronts a female trespasser with the same vivid blue eyes as the courageous young girl he once aided, he can't bring himself to send her away. And when an act of sacrifice leaves her injured and her reputation in shreds, gratitude and guilt send him riding to her rescue once again.

Engaging Stories with Quality Writing

Try these books if you're looking for:

• engaging stories
• quality writing

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.

The Nanny Diaries 
By Emma McLaughlin
F MCLAUGHL
A satirical glimpse into Manhattan's upper class follows Nanny, a struggling NYU student who takes a position caring for the son of the rich and glamorous X family, as she learns how to juggle a vast array of tasks so that a Park Avenue wife never has to lift a well-manicured finger.

Just Ella 
By Margaret Peterson Haddix
YA F HADDIX
In this continuation of the Cinderella story, fifteen-year-old Ella finds that accepting Prince Charming's proposal ensnares her in a suffocating tangle of palace rules and royal etiquette, so she plots to escape.

Wildwood Dancing 
By Juliet Marillier
YA F MARILLIE
Five sisters who live with their merchant father in Transylvania use a hidden portal in their home to cross over into a magical world, the Wildwood.

Romance with Wit

Try these books if you're looking for:

• romance
• adventure
• teen
• adult
• witty writing
• clean reads

Suite Scarlett 
By Maureen Johnson
YA JOHNSON
Fifteen-year-old Scarlett Marvin is stuck in New York City for the summer working at her quirky family's historic hotel, but her brother's attractive new friend and a seasonal guest who offers her an intriguing and challenging writing project improve her outlook.

How Zoe Made Her Dreams (Mostly) Come True 
By Sarah Strohmeyer
YA STROHMEYER
Seventeen-year-old Zoe and her cousin Jess eagerly start summer jobs at New Jersey's Fairyland theme park, but Jess does not get her dream role and Zoe is assigned to be personal assistant to the park's "Queen," winning her no friends.

Something Like Fate 
By Susane Colastani
YA COLASANT
Lani and Jason, who is her best friend's boyfriend, fall in love, causing Lani tremendous anguish and guilt.

Along For the Ride 
By Sarah Dessen
YA DESSEN
When Auden impulsively goes to stay with her father, stepmother, and new baby sister the summer before she starts college, all the trauma of her parents' divorce is revived, even as she is making new friends and having new experiences such as learning to ride a bike and dating.

13 Little Blue Envelopes 
By Maureen Johnson
YA JOHNSON
When seventeen-year-old Ginny receives a packet of mysterious envelopes from her favorite aunt, she leaves New Jersey to criss-cross Europe on a sort of scavenger hunt that transforms her life.

YA Fantasy Adventures (with a nod to Jane Austen)

Try these books if you're looking for:

• books that read like Brandon Sanderson, J.K. Rowling, Rick Riordan, Jessica Day George, Brandon Mull, Lewis Sachar, Gail Carson Levine, Susan Fletcher, Shannon Hale, Jane Austen, and Elizabeth George Speare
• fantasy
• adventure
• some historical elements
• maybe some romance

For Darkness Shows the Stars 
By Diane Peterfreund
YA F PETERFRE For Dark #1
Elliot North fights to save her family's land and her own heart in this post-apocalyptic reimaging of Jane Austen's PERSUASION.

Northanger Alibi 
By Jenni James
YA F JAMES
The Russo family and Seattle, Washington, are no match for Claire Hart and her savvy knowledge of all things vampire-related. Thanks to her obsession with the Twilight series, if there is anyone who would know a vampire when she saw one, it's Claire. And she's positive totally hot Tony Russo is a vampire -- she just has to prove it!

The Grimm Legacy 
By Polly Shulman
YA F SHULMAN
New York high school student Elizabeth gets an after-school job as a page at the "New-York Circulating Material Repository," and when she gains coveted access to its Grimm Collection of magical objects, she and the other pages are drawn into a series of frightening adventures involving mythical creatures and stolen goods.

The False Prince 
By Jennifer A. Nielsen
YA F NIELSEN Ascendan #1
In the country of Carthya, a devious nobleman engages four orphans in a brutal competition to be selected to impersonate the king's long-missing son in an effort to avoid a civil war.

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 Winner's Curse 
By Marie Rutkoski
YA F RUTKOSKI
An aristocratic girl who is a member of a warmongering and enslaving empire purchases a slave, an act that sets in motion a rebellion that might overthrow her world as well as her heart.

The Thief 
By Meagan Whelan Turner
YA F TURNER Attolia #1
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.