Book picks similar to
Nightshade by a.k. anderson


fantasy
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young-adult
fantasy-scifi

Vicious


V.E. Schwab - 2013
    In their senior year, a shared research interest in adrenaline, near-death experiences, and seemingly supernatural events reveals an intriguing possibility: that under the right conditions, someone could develop extraordinary abilities. But when their thesis moves from the academic to the experimental, things go horribly wrong.Ten years later, Victor breaks out of prison, determined to catch up to his old friend (now foe), aided by a young girl whose reserved nature obscures a stunning ability. Meanwhile, Eli is on a mission to eradicate every other super-powered person that he can find—aside from his sidekick, an enigmatic woman with an unbreakable will. Armed with terrible power on both sides, driven by the memory of betrayal and loss, the archnemeses have set a course for revenge—but who will be left alive at the end?In Vicious, V. E. Schwab brings to life a gritty comic-book-style world in vivid prose: a world where gaining superpowers doesn't automatically lead to heroism, and a time when allegiances are called into question.

Alison Brownstone Omnibus #2 (Books 9-15): A Brownstone Response, A Brownstone Solution, Keep Your Enemies Closer, Rise Up, Dark Reunion, Drow Conqueror, Drow Triumphant


Judith Berens - 2020
    But Alison and her team know better. Trouble’s always coming for a Brownstone. Good thing she has an answer for them. Brownstone Security’s reputation is spreading, which means more jobs for the growing team. But more money means more mayhem looking for them. Can the team dig deeper and pull out another win? A Brownstone Solution: What could be harder for Alison than hunting magical beasties? Meeting Mason’s parents. Now she knows what Mason felt like meeting her father. Well, that was James Brownstone, so… maybe not.No time to ponder impressing the parents anyway – she has other issues to deal with.And an unknown person has reached out to Tahir and Hana about Omni’s owner. Something smells a bit fishy about the whole situation – and it’s not Omni being a fish. Keep Your Enemies Closer: Alison bloodied the Tapestry, but has she defeated them? With her foes operating under the radar, Alison thinks she has time, but when the mysterious magic-enhancing drug Ultimate arrives in Seattle, she is faced with a shocking conspiracy that might reach from Las Vegas to Seattle. Sadistic wizards willing to experiment are flocking to town. Rise Up: It’s hard to plan a wedding when the bad guys just won’t take a hint. Invite only… Brownstone Security is hired for what should be a relatively simple job. Nothing about the job is as it seems and Alison ends up working with the FBI’s first witch on the case. Dark Reunion: Sometimes even a Brownstone needs to get away from it all. Did the bad guys not get the memo? Alison Brownstone is on vacation. Do not disturb. Oh they disturbed.But when your mom is Shay Carson and she makes two requests of you, you take them seriously. 1. Go on a father-daughter bounty hunt. 2. Go on vacation. How can Alison say no? She can’t.Two Brownstone’s on a bounty. That dude’s going down hard. It’s not like Seattle will burn down because Alison isn’t there, right? Drow Conqueror: Alison Brownstone is a Drow Princess with no ordinary powers. Time to remind a few people just what that means. Kick ass, don’t bother taking names. Alison is in Mongolia to rescue Mr. D’s nephew, but things aren’t adding up. Are the other Drow trying to off Alison and her team to secure their succession? Drow Triumphant: It’s the beginning of the end. The other Drow princess and queen just don’t know it… yet. It’s business as usual for Brownstone Security. Drow threats or not, they still have work to do.

The Collector


Victoria Scott - 2013
    Dante Walker is flippin’ awesome, and he knows it. His good looks, killer charm, and stellar confidence have made him one of hell’s best—a soul collector. His job is simple: weed through humanity and label those round rears with a big red good or bad stamp. Old Saint Nick gets the good guys, and he gets the fun ones. Bag-and-tag. Sealing souls is nothing personal. Dante’s an equal-opportunity collector and doesn't want it any other way. But he’ll have to adjust, because Boss Man has given him a new assignment: Collect Charlie Cooper’s soul within ten days. Dante doesn't know why Boss Man wants Charlie, nor does he care. This assignment means only one thing to him, and that’s a permanent ticket out of hell. But after Dante meets the quirky Nerd Alert chick he’s come to collect, he realizes this assignment will test his abilities as a collector…and uncover emotions deeply buried.

Shrilugh


Myndi Shafer - 2012
    Why her left eye, instead of being blinded by the injuries she’d sustained, had simply turned a shocking shade of silver. And nothing can explain the fact that she can hear the Stranger speaking in her mind - or that she can answer him back without using her mouth.Nothing can explain it - unless he’s telling the truth.Nothing can explain the things the Stranger knows about her - things that she, until just a few hours ago, hadn’t known herself: that she’d healed faster from her injuries than was humanly possible. That the cruel family she’d been raised by isn’t biologically hers. That her stepfather is now hell-bent on bringing her to his own form of justice for a crime she didn’t commit.Nothing can explain it - unless he’s telling the truth.Nothing can explain why she so easily agreed to go with the Stranger. Why she didn’t find the notion of another world ludicrous and impossible. Why she didn’t cut and run the minute he explained where he wanted to take her.Nothing can explain it - unless she believes he’s telling the truth.Aydan knows she’s being intentionally naive. She knows her decision to follow the stranger is at best, reckless. At worst, deadly....unless he’s telling the truth.

All We Have Is Now


Lisa Schroeder - 2015
    But Emerson’s world already ended when she ran away from home. Since then, she has lived on the streets, relying on her wits and on her friend Vince to help her find places to sleep and food to eat.The city’s quieter now that most people are gone, and no one seems to know what to do as the end approaches. But then Emerson and Vince meet Carl, who tells them he has been granting people’s wishes—and gives them his wallet full of money. Suddenly, this last day seems full of possibility. Emerson and Vince can grant a lot of wishes in one last day—maybe even their own.

Shadow of the Sun


Laura Kreitzer - 2010
    As a supernatural specialist, and far more intelligent than anyone her age, she has always been ignored by her peers. Because of the isolation she has always felt, she put her life and soul into her job. Being a supernatural specialist hasn't given her the divine intervention she always longed for, until one day a shipment arrives from Italy containing three dead bodies with an uncanny ability to regenerate. Gabriella is frightened and intrigued, but not as scared as she becomes when a dark creature attacks her.As the bodies come back to life, the plot takes an unexpected twist that you won't see coming. The supernatural world only begins to unfold before her as angels appear, her dreams start to haunt her, and the very past she has forgotten comes back with startling clarity. Romance blooms, escape plans are made, an assassin is out to kill her, and death is only around the corner. But what is more terrifying than all of it is the fact she is the chosen one, the Illuminator, the one who will save them all.

Hotel Ruby


Suzanne Young - 2015
    Stay forever.When Audrey Casella arrives for an unplanned stay at the grand Hotel Ruby, she’s grateful for the detour. Just months after their mother’s death, Audrey and her brother, Daniel, are on their way to live with their grandmother, dumped on the doorstep of a DNA-matched stranger because their father is drowning in his grief.Audrey and her family only plan to stay the night, but life in the Ruby can be intoxicating, extending their stay as it provides endless distractions—including handsome guest Elias Lange, who sends Audrey’s pulse racing. However, the hotel proves to be as strange as it is beautiful. Nightly fancy affairs in the ballroom are invitation only, and Audrey seems to be the one guest who doesn’t have an invite. Instead, she joins the hotel staff on the rooftop, catching whispers about the hotel’s dark past.The more Audrey learns about the new people she’s met, the more her curiosity grows. She’s torn in different directions—the pull of her past with its overwhelming loss, the promise of a future that holds little joy, and an in-between life in a place that is so much more than it seems…Welcome to the Ruby.

Wonders of the Invisible World


Christopher Barzak - 2015
    But when Jarrod, his former best friend, suddenly moves back home, Aidan begins to see clearly for the first time—not only to feelings that go beyond mere friendship, but to a world that is haunted by the stories of his past. Visions from this invisible world come to him unbidden: a great-grandfather on the field of battle; his own father, stumbling upon an unspeakable tragedy; and a mysterious young boy, whose whispered words may be at the heart of the curse that holds Aidan’s family in its grip. Now, Aidan must find his way between the past and the present to protect those he loves, and to keep the invisible world at bay.

Keeper vs. Reaper


Jennifer Malone Wright - 2014
    She has known all of her life that she would be in line to watch over the souls of the recently passed, keeping them safe from the Reapers. The soul eating Reapers have been a plague upon the Earth, stealing souls and leaving the Keepers as the only thing that stands between Heaven and Hell. The factions despise each other and have warred for generations. Then Lucy discovers an ancient legend predicting the arrival of the Chosen One, destined to bring forth an end to the Reapers. The surprises continue when she realizes she is that person. For Lucy, being the Chosen One doesn’t change much. Fighting Reapers is just another day in the life of a Keeper. When she meets Jack Walker, they both realize they have an insane, mutual attraction. Too bad that he’s been sent to prevent the prophecy from coming true. His only mission: to kill the Chosen One.

Charm & Strange


Stephanie Kuehn - 2013
    It’s impossible to see anything, really. Not without bars . . . Andrew Winston Winters is at war with himself. He’s part Win, the lonely teenager exiled to a remote Vermont boarding school in the wake of a family tragedy. The guy who shuts all his classmates out, no matter the cost.He’s part Drew, the angry young boy with violent impulses that control him. The boy who spent a fateful, long-ago summer with his brother and teenage cousins, only to endure a secret so monstrous it led three children to do the unthinkable. Over the course of one night, while stuck at a party deep in the New England woods, Andrew battles both the pain of his past and the isolation of his present. Before the sun rises, he’ll either surrender his sanity to the wild darkness inside his mind or make peace with the most elemental of truths—that choosing to live can mean so much more than not dying.

Light Boxes


Shane Jones - 2009
    In Light Boxes the inhabitants of one closely-knit town are experiencing perpetual February. It turns out that a god-like spirit who lives in the sky, named February, is punishing the town for flying, and bans flight of all kind, including hot air balloons and even children's kites. It's February who makes the sun nothing but a faint memory, who blankets the ground with snow, who freezes the rivers and the lakes. As endless February continues, children go missing and more and more adults become nearly catatonic with depression. But others find the strength to fight back, waging war on February.

A Boy Worth Knowing


Jennifer Cosgrove - 2017
    But they aren’t the only ones making his high school years a living hell. All Nate wants is to keep his secret and keep his head down until he can graduate. That is, until the new boy, James Powell, takes a seat next to him in homeroom. James not only notices him, he manages to work his way into Nate’s life. But James has issues of his own.Between dead grandmothers and living aunts, Nate has to navigate the fact that he’s falling in love with his only friend, all while getting advice from the most unusual places.Ghosts, bullies, first love: it’s a lot to deal with when you’re just trying to survive senior year.

Just Jilted


Lila James - 2017
    True, her fiancé jilted her on their wedding day. But she’s determined to pick up the pieces of her broken heart and move on. She throws herself into her work, taking on an assignment at her magazine to collaborate with the handsome novelist Jackson Taylor on an article about finding love. As Jackson begins to fill the vacant spot in her heart left by her fiancé, Adrian comes to realize that nothing is simple when it comes to the complex realm of love...

Creatura


Nely Cab - 2011
    But what Isis discovers is something other than a menacing entity.The human-like creature offers Isis assurance that he is not a figment of her imagination. Unwilling to accept his avowal, Isis sets his words to contest by asking the entity to prove himself—a dare, he readily welcomes.It is in her dreams that Isis innocently stumbles upon the silent existence of the divine lineage of those that man has long forgotten.In a quaint town, deep in south Texas, this story leads Isis onto the path of impermissible love and captivating life-changing truths. Isis Martin's journey is sure to leave any reader ravenous for more.

The Lover's Dictionary


David Levithan - 2011
    And if the moment does pass, it never goes that far. It stands in the distance, ready for whenever you want it back. Sometimes it's even there when you thought you were searching for something else, like an escape route, or your lover's face.How does one talk about love? Do we even have the right words to describe something that can be both utterly mundane and completely transcendent, pulling us out of our everyday lives and making us feel a part of something greater than ourselves? Taking a unique approach to this problem, the nameless narrator of David Levithan's The Lover's Dictionary has constructed the story of his relationship as a dictionary. Through these short entries, he provides an intimate window into the great events and quotidian trifles of being within a couple, giving us an indelible and deeply moving portrait of love in our time.