Book picks similar to
Night Dwellers by Morgan Ashbaugh


urban-fantasy
ya-dystopian
ya-indie-authors
young-adult

The Secret of Spellshadow Manor


Bella Forrest - 2017
    But when he sees the mysterious man following Natalie again the very next day, he can no longer disbelieve his eyes.Although Natalie denies the man's existence, Alex sees her walking with him down a road in his neighborhood he's never seen before - and can't help but follow. After a bizarre, but strangely short journey, he finds himself standing before a towering iron gate wreathed in gray ivy, behind which looms a decrepit old mansion named Spellshadow Manor.Spellshadow, with its beautiful yet sinisterly decorated hallways, ever-changing outdoor scenery and very unusual residents... Alex will quickly learn it is a place that is as wondrous as it is deadly.Especially for a normal person like him.What if you found yourself recruited to an institute of magic, only to discover you really couldn't do magic?What if your enrollment there was all one big, terrible mistake?If you were at Spellshadow, you'd keep it a secret. A deep, dark, deadly secret...Because Spellshadow's elusive Head is hiding a secret of his own, one that Alex soon realizes he and Natalie must uncover at all costs if either of them wishes to leave the Manor alive... and before it's too late.Mystery, suspense, and oodles of twists and turns; an unforgettable experience awaits you in Spellshadow Manor... Welcome in.

Audrey's Guide to Witchcraft


Jody Gehrman - 2012
    When her mother goes missing and her twenty-one-year-old witchy cousin shows up out of the blue, Audrey knows something’s gone horribly, dangerously wrong. Now it’s up to her to get her own magical powers up to speed before everyone she loves is destroyed by the sorcerer intricately connected to her mother’s secret past.

The Edinburgh Seer


Alisha Klapheke - 2017
    It might just work out.Until she realizes the man she trusts the most, her father's genius apprentice, is a spy.

The Ice Witch


Lauren Quick - 2015
    But when Ren fails to show up for their rendezvous at The Wolf’s Den Tavern, Honora, always the investigator, goes searching for him and is pulled into a dangerous adventure where elemental magic rules. She will need all her Mayhem talents—and some help from tavern owner Roslyn Van Harbor and an eccentric gang of magical ax-wielding earth wizards—if she’s going to rescue Ren and set things right in the fabled North Woods. The Ice Witch is a stand-alone, short story that fits perfectly between the second Mayhem Sisters Novel, Fly By Midnight, and Midsummer Night’s Mayhem, the third in the series.

Sages Of The Underpass


Aaron Michael Ritchey - 2019
    Thanks to his damaged core and crazy family, he never stood a chance anyway. With money, fame, and untold power on the line, the corporations decide who wins. End of story.But when a mysterious group, calling themselves the Sages of the Underpass, threaten to upend the entire system with their unorthodox training and cultivation methods, Niko soon learns that what was once a handicap might be his greatest asset. The only thing standing in his way is a bitter, hard-hearted veteran, who would like nothing more than to see Niko stay in his place. Right at the bottom.Rocky meets Dragon Ball Z in this underdog redemption story from Dragon Award Finalist Aaron Michael Ritchey. Sages of the Underpass is an epic blend of Urban Fantasy, Cultivation, and Magical MMA that captures the passion, the power, and the perseverance it takes to follow your dreams—no matter what kind of artist you are.

One Word Kill


Mark Lawrence - 2019
    And it isn’t even the strangest thing to happen to him that week.Nick and his Dungeons & Dragons-playing friends are used to living in their imaginations. But when a new girl, Mia, joins the group and reality becomes weirder than the fantasy world they visit in their weekly games, none of them are prepared for what comes next. A strange—yet curiously familiar—man is following Nick, with abilities that just shouldn’t exist. And this man bears a cryptic message: Mia’s in grave danger, though she doesn’t know it yet. She needs Nick’s help—now.He finds himself in a race against time to unravel an impossible mystery and save the girl. And all that stands in his way is a probably terminal disease, a knife-wielding maniac and the laws of physics.Challenge accepted.

Chasing Daybreak


Sherry D. Ficklin - 2015
    But when the unexpected death of her father leaves her at the helm of the family business, things quickly go from weird to worse. Vampires are on the loose and out of the coffin, and only Isabel can walk the fine line between the world of the living and the world of the undead. Torn between letting go of her past and embracing her future, Isabel will have to decide who she can trust, and be willing to use all the weapons at her disposal, to get to the bottom of a terrifying string of deaths that lead right to her doorstep—before she becomes the next victim. In a city where nothing is what it seems, ending up the target of a deranged killer might actually be the high point of her week. Because in this town, the things that go bump in the night… just might kill you.

The Elites


Natasha Ngan - 2013
    Only one city has survived: Neo-Babel, a city full of cultures – and racial tension. Fifteen-year-old Silver is an Elite, a citizen of Neo-Babel chosen to guard the city due to her superior DNA. She’d never dream of leaving – but then she fails to prevent the assassination of Neo Babel’s president, setting off a chain of events more shocking and devastating than she could ever have imagined. Forced to flee the city with her best friend Butterfly (a boy with genetically-enhanced wings), Silver will have to fight to find her family, uncover the truth about Neo-Babel and come to terms with her complicated feelings for Butterfly.Packed full of adventure, romance, exoticism and the power of friendship, The Elites is a highly compelling and beautifully written novel from a supremely talented debut author.

First Year


Rachel E. Carter - 2014
    Romance. War. Perfect for fans of Throne of Glass, Falling Kingdoms, and Tamora Pierce.Before the age of seventeen, the young men and women of Jerar are given a choice —pursue a trade or enroll in a trial year in one of the realm’s three war schools to study as a soldier, knight, or mage…For fifteen-year-old Ryiah, the choice has always been easy. Become a mage and train in Combat, the most prestigious faction of magic.Yet when she arrives, Ry finds herself competing against friend and foe for one of the exalted apprenticeships. Everyone is rooting for her to fail—first and foremost among them is Prince Darren, the school prodigy who has done nothing but make life miserable since she arrived.Will Ry survive, or will her dream go down in flames?

Dungeon Goddess


Gideon Caldwell - 2020
    But at what cost?A former MMA fighter with a crippling case of insomnia, Jake is finally able to get some shut-eye for the first time in his life. Sort of.As soon as he falls asleep, Jake is transported to a dreamworld known as the Orange Vale. Able to wander his dreamscape at will, Jake sets off to conquer the dungeons of the Orange Vale, facing off against hybrid monsters and eerie shadow dragons.Alongside a beautiful beast tamer named Catriona and his pitbull, Bruno, Jake challenges these dungeons with the hopes of capturing their dungeon cores and freeing the beautiful dungeon maidens trapped within.As things get more complicated in both worlds, Jake faces an existential crisis.Can he sort his dream life from his real life? And when his two lives inexplicably cross paths, can he solve the riddle before the Darkness destroys the Orange Vale?Who is the mysterious Dungeon Goddess, and how is she related to both worlds?With the help of friends old and new, join Jake on his epic journey to get the answers he so desperately needs.Dreams really can become a reality, and as Jake is about to discover, nightmares can too.Reader discretion is advised: Dungeon Goddess contains multiple romantic partners/undefined relationships.

Six Moon Summer


S.M. Reine - 2011
    forever.Rylie Gresham hates everything about summer camp: the food, the fresh air, the dumb activities, and the other girls in her cabin. But the worst part is probably being bitten by a werewolf. Being a teenager is hard enough, but now she's craving raw flesh and struggles with uncontrollable anger. If she doesn't figure out a way to stop the transformation, then at the end of summer, her life is worse than over. She'll be a monster.

Falling


Amber Jaeger - 2012
    Her mother’s death, her grandmother’s Alzheimer’s and her father’s despair and distance have robbed her of the family she once had. With only her brother Lincoln and her imaginary friends from the town she dreams of every night on her side, she struggles on.But then Lincoln is killed in a suspicious car accident and Bixby is devastated to lose her best—and only—friend. Desperate to have him back, she accepts an offer from a stranger from her nightmares.Jordan delivers on his promise and Bixby finds she must deliver on hers. The problem is she doesn’t know who—or what—Jordan really is or what exactly she promised in returned. Each evening they spend together in her dreams brings them closer together and tears Bixby further from her own reality. What does Jordan really want and what is Bixby going to lose in return for the only thing she thought she wanted most in the world?Look for the sequel, Winter’s Dream, due out soon.

Radiant


Karina Sumner-Smith - 2014
    Born without the power that everyone else takes for granted, Xhea is an outcast—no way to earn a living, buy food, or change the life that fate has dealt her. Yet she has a unique talent: the ability to see ghosts and the tethers that bind them to the living world, which she uses to scratch out a bare existence in the ruins beneath the City’s floating Towers.When a rich City man comes to her with a young woman’s ghost tethered to his chest, Xhea has no idea that this ghost will change everything. The ghost, Shai, is a Radiant, a rare person who generates so much power that the Towers use it to fuel their magic, heedless of the pain such use causes. Shai’s home Tower is desperate to get the ghost back and force her into a body—any body—so that it can regain its position, while the Tower’s rivals seek the ghost to use her magic for their own ends. Caught between a multitude of enemies and desperate to save Shai, Xhea thinks herself powerless—until a strange magic wakes within her. Magic dark and slow, like rising smoke, like seeping oil. A magic whose very touch brings death.With two extremely strong female protagonists, Radiant is a story of fighting for what you believe in and finding strength that you never thought you had.

Zarox


Louis Smith - 2016
     Take a journey to the world of Zarox, where the impossible becomes realistic and danger becomes customary.

Gilded


Christina Farley - 2014
    When her widowed dad uproots her to Seoul from her home in L.A., Jae thinks her biggest challenges will be fitting in to a new school and dealing with her dismissive Korean grandfather. Then she discovers that a Korean demi-god, Haemosu, has been stealing the soul of the oldest daughter of each generation in her family for centuries. And she's next.But that’s not Jae’s only problem.There's also Marc. Irresistible and charming, Marc threatens to break the barriers around Jae's heart. As the two grow closer, Jae must decide if she can trust him. But Marc has a secret of his own—one that could help Jae overturn the curse on her family for good. It turns out that Jae's been wrong about a lot of things: her grandfather is her greatest ally, even the tough girl can fall in love, and Korea might just be the home she's always been looking for.