Book picks similar to
The Secret of Mago Castle by Rebecca Tinkle


fiction
fantasy
prose-and-or-poetry-and-or-plays
first-read-giveaway-entries

Nimbus


B.J. Keeton - 2013
    NIMBUS is steampunk for people who don't know they like steampunk, as well as being steampunk for people who already love steampunk!--Seedy corporations and airship factions, demons and rogues, zealots and thieves…Nimbus is an epic tale of power, greed, and corruption.Jude Finley is a new recruit aboard the Gangly Dirigible, an airship that extracts water from rainclouds. While working aboard the ship, Jude and his friends uncover a secret which may or may not help them against a growing uprising that could spell doom for everyone on the planet. Meanwhile, Demetrius Rucca, the wheelchair-bound son of a prominent religious leader, begins recruiting followers for his own subversive cause. As allegiances are sworn to him and his followers grow, he begins to discover the new powers that lie within him. This power could be the salvation Demetrius is looking for–or it could be the destruction of the known world.

The Atlantis Girl


S.A. Beck - 2015
     Sixteen-year-old Jaxon Andersen doesn’t know anything about her origins and has been shuffled around different foster homes ever since she can remember. Trouble follows her, but bullies underestimate her small stature; she has an inexplicable strength, and she can kick some serious butt. She tries for a fresh start at the Forever Welcome Group Home for Juveniles. Dr. Hollis, her psychiatrist, is fascinated by her intelligence and astounded by her strange powers. However, Jaxon is still an easy target for bullies. She seeks refuge in the company of Otto Heike, an eighteen-year-old athlete and boys’ resident assistant. Will Otto think Jaxon’s a freak when he discovers her secrets? Meanwhile, the US military, which is performing terrifying genetic experiments, is closing in on Jaxon… The Atlantis Girl is the first book in the thrilling Atlantis Saga. This is a planned 7-book series about the girl with the Atlantis gene.

The Antagonists: Book Two


Burgandi Rakoska - 2015
    Yet she wasn't prepared for the consequences of doing so. It isn't long before Minnie finds herself being torn apart by everything and everyone. It seems that everyone is against her. Her friends. Her enemies. Herself. Everyone is determined to cause her to crumble to a pile of ash. It's going to take everything that Minnie has to rise from those ashes.

The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists


Gideon Defoe - 2004
    No, not since Treasure Island... Actually, not since Jonah and the Whale has there been a sea saga to rival The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists, featuring the greatest sea-faring hero of all time, the immortal Pirate Captain, who, although he lives for months at a time at sea, somehow manages to keep his beard silky and in good condition. Worried that his pirates are growing bored with a life of winking at pretty native ladies and trying to stick enough jellyfish together to make a bouncy castle, the Pirate Captain decides it's high time to spearhead an adventure. While searching for some major pirate booty, he mistakenly attacks the young Charles Darwin's Beagle and then leads his ragtag crew from the exotic Galapagos Islands to the fog-filled streets of Victorian London. There they encounter grisly murder, vanishing ladies, radioactive elephants, and the Holy Ghost himself. And that's not even the half of it.

Heap House


Edward Carey - 2013
    He lives in the Heaps, a vast sea of lost and discarded items collected from all over London. At the centre is Heap House, a puzzle of houses, castles, homes and mysteries reclaimed from the city and built into a living maze of staircases and scurrying rats.The Iremongers are a mean and cruel family, robust and hardworking, but Clod has an illness. He can hear the objects whispering. His birth object, a universal bath plug, says ‘James Henry’, Cousin Tummis’s tap is squeaking ‘Hilary Evelyn Ward-Jackson’ and something in the attic is shouting ‘Robert Burrington‘ and it sounds angry.A storm is brewing over Heap House. The Iremongers are growing restless and the whispers are getting louder. When Clod meets Lucy Pennant, a girl newly arrived from the city, everything changes. The secrets that bind Heap House together begin to unravel to reveal a dark truth that threatens to destroy Clod’s world.

The Complete Gideon Trilogy: The Time Travelers; The Time Thief; The Time Quake


Linda Buckley-Archer - 2014
    It turns out that traveling through time has catastrophic consequences, but in 1763 London, Lord Luxon only has eyes for time travel’s awesome possibilities. He has his sights set on capturing the prize of America, and he abducts Peter and Kate from the present day in order to enact to his plan. Suddenly in another century, Peter and Kate begin to understand that history has arrived at its tipping point. And as they pursue their nemesis through the dark streets of eighteenth-century London, they realize that a monster may hold the fate of the world in his hands.Ideal for fans of J.K. Rowling and with the lively thrills of Quantum Leap and Back to the Future, this boxed set includes paperback editions of The Time Travelers, The Time Thief, and The Time Quake.

To Sleep in a Sea of Stars


Christopher Paolini - 2020
    Now she's awakened a nightmare. During a routine survey mission on an uncolonized planet, Kira finds an alien relic. At first she's delighted, but elation turns to terror when the ancient dust around her begins to move.As war erupts among the stars, Kira is launched into a galaxy-spanning odyssey of discovery and transformation. First contact isn't at all what she imagined, and events push her to the very limits of what it means to be human. While Kira faces her own horrors, Earth and its colonies stand upon the brink of annihilation. Now, Kira might be humanity's greatest and final hope...

Age of Darkness


Brandon Chen - 2014
    When his village is attacked and his adopted family slaughtered, Keimaro must join with his only friend, Yata, to find vengeance for those he loved most. Hounded by a terrorist organization known as the Bounts, Keimaro travels far from his simple, shielded home into a world filled with espionage, magic, and betrayal. He gains allies along the way—others who have been wronged by the Faar Empire and who possess mystical powers that offer unique possibilities. Along the way, he faces temptation in the form of the enchanting Princess Aika and his own dark desires to overthrow the very gods who condemned his people. Keimaro faces the demon within himself and presses on, learning that vengeance can be found in many forms. Age of Darkness is about one man’s struggle to find the good within himself and to protect those he loves.

Bordeaux


Matthew Thayer - 2012
    With stirring imagination and an eye for colorful detail, award-winner Matthew Thayer transports readers back to a European continent that is a sea of green, a sensory overload of natural beauty. Home to woolly mammoth, hairy rhino, wolf pack and forests without end, it is a land unspoiled.There is also danger and adventure at every turn. The book series 30,000 B.C. Chronicles begins with Bordeaux. Strong women, brave men and despicable villains, the characters rise to meet the many challenges of the ancient world. The memories they share of home and the scarred Earth they left behind paint an intriguing picture of mankind’s future.

The Book of the Dun Cow


Walter Wangerin Jr. - 1978
    What the animals did not know was that they were the Keepers of Wyrm, monster of evil long imprisoned beneath the earth ... and Wyrm, sub terra, was breaking free.

The Boy Who Dreamt the World


Jethro Punter - 2018
    Adam is living a very ordinary life until he becomes aware of the link between the worlds and discovers that, as a Daydreamer, he is one of the very few people who can travel freely between the two and achieve impossible things. You would think that being in control of your dreams would be fun. But when both worlds are threatened by a new and growing danger and when Nightmares not only roam the dream world but also start chasing him even while he is awake, Adam realises that he will need all of his new found powers just to survive the night. With the help of a very unusual band of friends Adam now has to save both worlds, discover more about his past and, if he can, try and avoid yet another detention.The Boy who Dreamt the World is the first book in the Daydreamer Chronicles series.

Dark Wizard's Case


Kirill Klevanski - 2019
    At first, everyone thought it was just a new game, however... Alexander Dumsky, or Alex Doom, was a dark wizard. At the age of seventeen, he was convicted of a litany of crimes so long that even the seasoned investigators, judges, and prosecutors involved in the case could only shudder. Not a single attorney could be found to defend him in court. But four years later, Alex was released from prison to become the Professor of Dark Magic. They'd thrown him into the deepest hole they could find, one built for the sole purpose of holding wizards, and then they let him back out again... Why him? Why then?

The Lost World: A Retelling


Brent Saltzman - 2010
    Expeditions have turned up enormous, dinosaur-like footprints while others have not come back at all. No one is quite sure what's hiding in the unexplored regions of the African jungle, but one thing is for certain. It is a place like no place on Earth. A world lost in time. A place where monsters dwell. A modern retelling of Arthur Conan Doyle's classic novel, full of thrills, action, and suspense along with extensive research regarding the very real Mokele-Mbembe legends of the Congo region, "The Lost World: A Retelling" is an adventure not to be missed.

City of Broken Magic


Mirah Bolender - 2018
    An infestation that ate magic—and anything else it came into contact with. Enemies and allies were equally filling.Only an elite team of non-magical humans, known as sweepers, can defuse and dispose of infestations before they spread. Most die before they finish training.Laura, a new team member, has stayed alive longer than most. Now, she’s the last—and only—sweeper standing between the city and a massive infestation.

Satellite


Nick Lake - 2017
    It travels 17,500 miles an hour, making one full orbit every ninety minutes. It’s also the only home that fifteen-year-old Leo and two other teens have ever known.Born and raised on Moon 2, Leo and the twins, Orion and Libra, are finally old enough and strong enough to endure the dangerous trip to Earth. They’ve been “parented” by teams of astronauts since birth and have run countless drills to ready themselves for every conceivable difficulty they might face on the flight.But has anything really prepared them for life on terra firma? Because while the planet may be home to billions of people, living there is more treacherous than Leo and his friends could ever have imagined, and their very survival will mean defying impossible odds.