Book picks similar to
Chosen by K.E. O'Connor


young-adult
fantasy
paranormal
ya

Raising the Dead


Mara Purnhagen - 2011
    But when coffins start floating down her street during a flood, life turns extra strange. And wonderful, when her friend and crush Noah signs on to help Charlotte and her folks in the aftermath. Cemetery cleanup might not sound exciting, but as shocking discoveries and a lurking stranger come to light, Charlotte learns that sometimes, raising the dead can bring unexpected rewards.

Unstable


Rye Brewer - 2020
    Necromancers. Soul reapers. Mysterious dragons. Secret councils. Forbidden alliances. The Under Realm Academy awaits. Senior year at Under Realm Academy. Perfect, right? Should be, but isn’t. Moira Bloodworth’s got a crush on the hottest demon in school—Calder Darkmore. Lucky her, it seems he feels the same way. Cool, right? Nope. Two problems. Aidan Grimsbane, Calder’s best friend, a necromancer, and an all-around jerk of a bully. He’s one problem. The other? A secret she’s trying to keep hidden and decipher at the same time. A horrible rash between her shoulder blades. Her eyes turning black. There’s only one person who can provide the answer to her problems. Her dead mom. What kind of solution is that. You can’t talk to dead people. Unless you know a necromancer. Ugh. Aidan Grimsbane, that same jerk who’s trying to keep her from getting to know Calder better.Caution: Cliffhangers, violence can be found in this series of action-packed fantasy including necromancers, hot dragons, and fierce witches.

Breath of Air


Katie Jennings - 2012
    She was born with a gift she didn’t understand. A gift so strange, so remarkable that she had kept it secret for as long as she could remember, despising that it made her different when all she wanted was to be normal, to belong. As an orphan, belonging to someone, anyone, would have been an incredible blessing, one she would have given up all that she had just to get a taste of. But the truth was that she didn’t belong in the orphanage in Virginia, or even in the United States. In fact, she didn’t belong with human beings at all. Because she wasn’t one of them, not really. She was something much more extraordinary. She could shift the direction of the wind, create billowing clouds out of nothing, and charm birds into dancing on her open palm. She belonged to an elite group of beings, responsible for preserving the balance of nature and the safety of Earth from an underworld that deserved to be feared, and needed to be controlled. And after years of being lost, she had at last been found, and now the truth of how she had ended up so far from home was becoming horribly clear to her. But there’s someone who doesn’t want her to return; someone who knows Capri was the only witness to an act of heinous treason and violent murder. And when she begins to search her memories for details of the night she was taken from her home, details that will implicate a killer, she finds herself the unwary target of an otherworldly dark force intent on silencing her by any means possible.

Evernight


Claudia Gray - 2008
    Bianca knows she doesn't fit in. Then she meets Lucas. He's not the "Evernight type" either, and he likes it that way. Lucas ignores the rules, stands up to the snobs, and warns Bianca to be careful—even when it comes to caring about him. "I couldn't stand it if they took it out on you," he tells Bianca, "and eventually they would." But the connection between Bianca and Lucas can't be denied. Bianca will risk anything to be with Lucas, but dark secrets are fated to tear them apart . . . and to make Bianca question everything she's ever believed.

Legacy of Lies


Elizabeth Chandler - 2000
     She had seen Scarborough House only in her dreams. Now Megan was here, visiting the grandmother she'd never met, and her newfound cousin Matt, too handsome by far, who wanted her to disappear. Grandmother was so cold, so distant. Why did she finally reach out to Megan after all these years? And why was Matt so determined to call her his "almost" cousin? For all her prophetic dreams, nothing could have prepared Megan for Matt's astonishment when he first saw her...or the reaction of perfect strangers who looked at her with fascination -- and fear... Megan thought she knew who she was. Until she came to Grandmother's house. Until she met Matt, who angered and attracted her as no boy had ever done before. Then she began having dreams again, of a life she never lived, a love she never knew...a secret that threatened to drive her to the grave.

Entangled


Nikki Jefford - 2012
    Not until her diabolical twin sister decided to go on a rampage that could expose them all. To add to the aggravation, coven reject Raj McKenna catches Gray performing a complex spell and is convinced they would make a powerful couple. He can delude himself all he wants. Gray has sworn off dating warlocks, especially delinquents who play with fire.  But even Gray’s mysterious death won’t deter Raj, not after Gray is brought back from the great beyond. Only she’s not truly back. Her body’s still six feet under and she’s on borrowed time. There are forces threatening Gray’s existence and a powerful wizard willing to help . . . for a price. Gray doesn’t know who to trust or how long she has left before she vanishes for good, but she’s determined to stick around no matter what the cost.

Dark Souls


E.J. King - 2019
    Evil comes out to play at night. Your worst nightmares are real. All of the ghost stories and supernatural tales you read to yourself as a child are true. You have every reason to be scared, you just don’t know it because you can’t see it. You don’t have the gift. I do. Forces of darkness are at work, doing their very best to destroy all that is good in the world. I should know- they nearly destroyed me. My family was slaughtered, killed by the creatures we spent our lives hunting. I would have been killed, too, if it wasn’t for a mysterious man that appeared out of nowhere and saved me, then vanished just as quickly. I owe him my life. I also blame him for it. It’s been two years since that night, but it feels like yesterday. I can still hear their screams and see the blood pooled beneath their bodies. And I can still see the piercing blue eyes of the man that saved me and feel his warm, strong arms wrapped around me as he carried me to safety. I don’t expect to ever see him again. But then again, life has a way of surprising you, of kicking you in the ass right when you least expect it. *Dark & Broken Souls was originally published as two separate stories: Dark Souls & Broken Souls.

The Body Finder


Kimberly Derting - 2010
    While the sixteen-year-old is confused by her new feelings for her best friend since childhood, she is more disturbed by her "power" to sense dead bodies—or at least those that have been murdered. Since she was a little girl, she has felt the echoes that the dead leave behind in the world... and the imprints that attach to their killers.Violet has never considered her strange talent to be a gift; it mostly just led her to find the dead birds her cat left for her. But now that a serial killer is terrorizing her small town, and the echoes of the local girls he's claimed haunt her daily, she realizes she might be the only person who can stop him.Despite his fierce protectiveness over her, Jay reluctantly agrees to help Violet on her quest to find the murderer—and Violet is unnerved by her hope that Jay's intentions are much more than friendly. But even as she's falling intensely in love, Violet is getting closer and closer to discovering a killer... and becoming his prey herself.

A Hint of Magic


Claire Chilton - 2013
    If she can find some magic in the world, then maybe she will find a place she belongs. When she comes across a coven of witches, she takes on their trials to try and join them. But the witches aren’t all they appear to be, and Dora finds herself slipping into a darker world than she imagined. She has to make a choice to do the right thing, but Dora’s never been very good at doing anything right…

Bait


K.C. Blake - 2012
    One comes with a threat and the other with a warning. They know she's on her way to being the newest student at Van Helsing's school, where she will learn to be a great hunter like her father. Before she can reach her goal she will face wraiths, an angry boy with a dark prophecy hanging over his head, and her worst nightmare: werewolves. She's determined nothing will stop her, not even a pair of jungle green eyes. Her roommate is killed. Her mentor doesn't want to mentor her. A border monster tries to kill her. Nothing is the way she imagined it would be. Students whisper behind her back, saying she's cursed. They want her to go home, but Bay-Lee isn't going anywhere, not when she's this close to getting everything she's ever wanted. At Orientation, she learns she's been given the rank of Bait. Why? Because that is all new students are good for, to be used as bait to draw out monsters so the 'real' hunters can kill them. She realizes no one is going to take her seriously until she moves up to Hunter. With that in mind and a few friends at her side, Bay-Lee is going to tackle a dangerous mystery. Why are hunters dying on their birthdays? If she solves it, she will move up in rank. If she doesn't... her birthday is just around the corner.

Dreamthief


Tamara Grantham - 2015
    Forget the fairies and unicorns, most people come back with lost memories and mental problems. Olive Kennedy knows. She's the therapist who treats patients suffering from Faythander's side effects. Despite her empty bank account, she takes pride in her job as Houston’s only Fairy World medical doctor. She's never failed to cure a client—until now.Traveling back to Faythander wasn't on Olive's to-do list. But she has no choice. The fate of both Earth and Fairy depends on her ability to stop an ancient being called the Dreamthief. To complicate matters, she may be losing her heart to someone who can’t love her in return. Saving the world, she can handle. Falling in love—not so much. As if battling the forces of evil wasn't difficult enough…

The Spirit in the Crypt


Alexander Lound - 2019
    To look at skeletons decaying in their graves.To hear the voice, screaming at him. Screaming into his mind. Commanding him to leave.For weeks afterwards, he is filled with dread, terror as to what the voice might have belonged to. A demon? A ghost? In his nightmares, skeletons strangle him. And when they clear, he has the mysterious nightmare of the girl from his school, making the long walk across the graveyard, and disappearing into the crypt. Never leaving before his waking.It's when something awful happens to this girl that his fear turns to panic. Panic which will force him to unravel the mystery of the crypt, and in doing so, many mysteries about himself.Book one in the chilling Jonny Roberts series! Follow everyone's favourite teen ghost-hunter in Lound's heart-stopping stories!

Bloody Little Secrets


Karly Kirkpatrick - 2011
    She's dead. Or not quite. After discovering she's been turned into a vampire, she tries to settle into a quiet suburb of Chicago and return to a normal life. If only she could stop wanting to bite her boyfriend. Not to mention she is dying to find out who turned her, and why. She doesn't have to wait long before they come to her.

Unseen


Stephanie Erickson - 2014
    The inner thoughts of those around her intrude upon every aspect of her life, threatening to turn it into chaos. All her life, she thought she was alone as a mind reader—a freak. Then a member of a secret organization called The Unseen suddenly introduces himself, and she’s immersed in a world she never knew existed. They teach her to hone her skills as a reader, but to what end? Secrets surround her, humming just out of reach, filling her with questions. Who are they? What do they do with their mind-reading abilities? In the end, just how far will Mackenzie go to be part of The Unseen?

Family Magic


Patti Larsen - 2011
    Her dad's a demon. And she just wants to be ordinary. Sydlynn Hayle's life couldn't be more complicated. Trying to please her coven, starting over in a new town, and fending off a bully cheerleader who hates her are just the beginning of her troubles. What to do when delicious football hero Brad Peters--boyfriend of her cheer nemesis--shows interest? If only the darkly yummy witch, Quaid Moromond, didn't make it so difficult for her to focus on fitting in with the normal kids. Add to that her crazy grandmother's constant escapes driving her family to the brink and Syd's between a rock and a coven site. Forced to take on power she doesn't want to protect a coven who blames her for everything, only she can save her family's magic. If her family's distrust doesn't destroy her first."A great, inventive plot, a deeply flawed, self-deprecating, heroine . . . What more could you want?" -- Amazon reviewer Hobbitual.Don't miss the exciting sequels in the Hayle Coven Novels: Witch Hunt Demon Child The Wild The Long Lost Gatekeeper Flesh and Blood Full Circle Divided Heart First Plane Light and Shadow Queen of Darkness Dark Promise Unseelie Ties Ancient Ways The Undying Shifting Loyalties Enforcer Coven Leader The Last Call"