Book picks similar to
Trial One by Annabel Chase


fantasy
urban-fantasy
first-in-series
tbr

Cursed by Night


Jasmine Walt - 2018
    One moment, I was convinced that magic was a hoax. The next, I’m surrounded by four winged, fanged, ridiculously hot guys who are definitely not human, and who insist that I'm the only one who can break the curse that binds them to the night.I know I should run far, far away from this hot mess, but there's a connection between us I can't deny. I'm seeing things I can't explain, feeling things that don't make sense. The detective in me has never been able to resist a mystery, and this one is just begging me to dig in.But all that will have to wait, because there’s a new threat stalking my city. One with a taste for blood and bone, unable to be killed or captured by normal human means.It’s a good thing I’ve got four new roommates to help me hunt them down. But even if I didn’t, I’d figure out a way. Because I never give up. I never give in. And I always protect what’s mine.

Gods & Monsters


Janie Marie - 2012
    In fact, she's a sad sight to behold. Afflicted by the sorrow of her tragic past and failing marriage, the young mother of two is as terrified as every other soul when humanity faces doom. Yet, when hope seems lost, Jane does something even her estranged husband fails to--she fights. And she's not alone.David and his companions are what our world has dismissed as mere legend. Their duty to the human race brings them across the country, and they all know it is no coincidence when they cross paths with Jane.As it happens, Jane is special. She's destined to rid the world of darkness.With monsters from every nightmare seeking her out, a noble immortal knight showing her what love truly feels like, a secret past that even Jane can't remember, and even more powerful beings wagering the fate of her soul, Jane will embark on an epic journey to save her family and the world.So what will happen when they realize she's the greatest monster of them all? ***If you want an instant, fearless heroine, Jane won't be your gal. If you actually want to read a deep, epic story and witness every character grow throughout their journey, give this story a chance but be prepared for realistic pacing for character growth.Book One is 155,000 words, but the entire trilogy is over 700,000. This is just the beginning. Each book completes a part of the whole journey and should be read in its entirety.Warnings: Triggers for abuse, mental health disorders. Heavy violence, horror, strong language, emotional and controversial themes, sex, rape(not praised), will have multiple loves for the heroine(stressful but worth the wait and makes sense when it's meant to)*Please do not criticize the mental health disorders in this story or how the character copes with these disorders as well as grief, trauma, and confliction. This book was written for a very specific group of readers in mind, and bashing Jane's path to heal, how she reveals her tragedies, and how she raises her children with these disorders may cause distress to these readers. Be considerate. Everyone grieves differently, loves differently, and heals from trauma in their own ways. Criticizing a survivor in any way is awful, so please be mindful with your reviews. READING ORDERThe Gods & Monsters NovelsThe Gods & Monsters Trilogy1. Gods & Monsters2. The Fallen Queen3. The Light BringerStandalone but best read as fourth Gods & Monsters Novel:Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf? Standalone Alternate reality: Jane's Team: A High School Reverse Harem Romance

Bacchanal


Veronica Henry - 2021
    But the carnival’s newest act, a peculiar young woman with latent magical powers, may hold the key to defeating it. Her time has come.Abandoned by her family, alone on the wrong side of the color line with little to call her own, Eliza Meeks is coming to terms with what she does have. It’s a gift for communicating with animals. To some, she’s a magical tender. To others, a she-devil. To a talent prospector, she’s a crowd-drawing oddity. And the Bacchanal Carnival is Eliza’s ticket out of the swamp trap of Baton Rouge.Among fortune-tellers, carnies, barkers, and folks even stranger than herself, Eliza finds a new home. But the Bacchanal is no ordinary carnival. An ancient demon has a home there too. She hides behind an iridescent disguise. She feeds on innocent souls. And she’s met her match in Eliza, who’s only beginning to understand the purpose of her own burgeoning powers.Only then can Eliza save her friends, find her family, and fight the sway of a primordial demon preying upon the human world. Rolling across a consuming dust bowl landscape, Eliza may have found her destiny.

The Devil's Detective


Simon Kurt Unsworth - 2015
    In The Devil's Detective, a sea change is coming to Hell . . . and a man named Thomas Fool is caught in the middle.    Thomas Fool is an Information Man, an investigator tasked with cataloging and filing reports on the endless stream of violence and brutality that flows through Hell. His job holds no reward or satisfaction, because Hell has rules but no justice. Each new crime is stamped "Do Not Investigate" and dutifully filed away in the depths of the Bureaucracy. But when an important political delegation arrives and a human is found murdered in a horrific manner—extravagant even by Hell's standards—everything changes. The murders escalate, and their severity points to the kind of killer not seen for many generations. Something is challenging the rules and order of Hell, so the Bureaucracy sends Fool to identify and track down the killer. . . . But how do you investigate murder in a place where death is common currency? Or when your main suspect pool is a legion of demons? With no memory of his past and only an irresistible need for justice, Fool will piece together clues and follow a trail that leads directly into the heart of a dark and chaotic conspiracy. A revolution is brewing in Hell . . . and nothing is what it seems.The Devil's Detective is an audacious, highly suspenseful thriller set against a nightmarish and wildly vivid world. Simon Kurt Unsworth has created a phantasmagoric thrill ride filled with stunning set pieces and characters that spring from our deepest nightmares. It will have readers of both thrillers and horror hanging on by their fingernails until the final word. In Hell, hope is your worst enemy.

Suspended


Sarah Noffke - 2016
    The once orderly grounds of the circus become riddled with hidden threats. And the ringmaster realizes not only are his circus and its magic at risk, but also his very life. Vagabond Circus caters to the skeptics. Without skeptics, it would close its doors. This is because Vagabond Circus runs for two reasons and only two reasons: first and foremost to provide the lost and lonely Dream Travelers a place to be illustrious. And secondly, to show the nonbelievers that there's still magic in the world. If they believe, then they care, and if they care, then they don't destroy. They stop the small abuse that day-by-day breaks down humanity's spirit. If Vagabond Circus makes one skeptic believe in magic, then they halt the cycle, just a little bit. They allow a little more love into this world. That's Dr. Dave Raydon's mission. And that's why this ringmaster recruits. That's why he directs. That's why he puts on a show that makes people question their beliefs. He wants the world to believe in magic once again.

Changeling


Molly Harper - 2018
    That is, until one day, Sarah accidentally levitates Mrs. Winter’s favorite vase in the parlor...But Snipes aren’t supposed to have magical powers…and the existence of a magical Snipe threatens the world order dictated during the Guardians’ Restoration years ago. If she wants to keep her family safe and protect her own skin, Sarah must figure out how to fit into posh Guardian society, master her newfound magical powers and discover the truth about how an ordinary girl can become magical.

Forsaken


Jana Oliver - 2011
    . . .Seventeen-year-old Riley, the only daughter of legendary demon trapper Paul Blackthorne, has always dreamed of following in her father's footsteps.  The good news is, with human society seriously disrupted by economic upheaval and Lucifer increasing the number of demons in all major cities, Atlanta’s local Trappers Guild needs all the help they can get – even from a girl. When she’s not keeping up with her homework or trying to manage her growing crush on fellow apprentice Simon, Riley’s out saving distressed citizens from foul-mouthed little devils – Grade One Hellspawn only, of course, per the strict rules of the Guild. Life’s about as normal as can be for the average demon-trapping teen.But then a Grade Five Geo-Fiend crashes Riley’s routine assignment at a library, jeopardizing her life and her chosen livelihood.  And, as if that wasn’t bad enough, sudden tragedy strikes the Trappers Guild, spinning Riley down a more dangerous path than she ever could have imagined. As her whole world crashes down around her, who can Riley trust with her heart – and her life?

Marked by the Demigod


Alessa Winters - 2019
    The last thing after that is to find out that he’s actually a Demi god on the run from his murderous brothers who view him as the last thing in their way from ruling the world. Now thrust into a world full of gods and ghosts and dryads and succubi, Aimes must learn how to navigate the craziness around her, keep her steamy relationship with her new husband a secret, and struggle to keep them both alive. But when his brothers start to kill other people in the community, slowly drawing closer and closer to everything Aimes holds dear, she is faced with the choice: does she leave with her new husband, leaving everyone she loves to face their own fates, or does she team up with him to take the murderers down?

Clockwork Angel; Clockwork Prince; Clockwork Princess


Cassandra Clare - 2013
    Passion. Power. Secrets. Enchantment. The Shadowhunters of the Victorian Age delve into all of these—in addition to darkness and danger—in the Infernal Devices trilogy, packaged in an eBook collection that includes Clockwork Angel, Clockwork Prince, and Clockwork Princess.

The Vine Witch


Luanne G. Smith - 2019
    Then the skill of divining harvests fell into ruin when sorcière Elena Boureanu was blindsided by a curse. Now, after breaking the spell that confined her to the shallows of a marshland and weakened her magic, Elena is struggling to return to her former life. And the vineyard she was destined to inherit is now in the possession of a handsome stranger.Vigneron Jean-Paul Martel naively favors science over superstition, and he certainly doesn’t endorse the locals’ belief in witches. But Elena knows a hex when she sees one, and the vineyard is covered in them. To stay on and help the vines recover, she’ll have to hide her true identity, along with her plans for revenge against whoever stole seven winters of her life. And she won’t rest until she can defy the evil powers that are still a threat to herself, Jean-Paul, and the ancient vine-witch legacy in the rolling hills of the Chanceaux Valley.

Skylark


Meagan Spooner - 2012
    For two hundred years the city has sustained this barrier by harvesting its children's innate magical energy when they reach adolescence. When it’s Lark’s turn to be harvested, she finds herself trapped in a nightmarish web of experiments and learns she is something out of legend itself: a Renewable, able to regenerate her own power after it’s been stripped.Forced to flee the only home she knows to avoid life as a human battery, Lark must fight her way through the terrible wilderness beyond the edge of the world. With the city’s clockwork creations close on her heels and a strange wild boy stalking her in the countryside, she must move quickly if she is to have any hope of survival. She’s heard the stories that somewhere to the west are others like her, hidden in secret—but can she stay alive long enough to find them?

The TriAlpha Chronicles Collection


Serena Akeroyd - 2018
     Set aside three nights because you've just found your next binge read. This boxset contains books 1 to 3 of THE TRIALPHA CHRONICLES. Books 4-6 are now available on AMAZON.

Bad Attitude


Renée Jaggér - 2020
    He could be her ticket out of her problems—if she believed in magic.Massive changes are coming down from the heavens, and Bailey Nordin is the Were in the middle.Will she figure out how to break from tradition?Go up and click Buy Now or Read for Free and join Bailey as she learns just how unique she is, and why the gods might want her.

Captivated


E.M. Jade - 2011
    Then, I somehow ignored the water and only saw him. He looked like a dark angel on a cloud of mist holding his arms out to me. I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply. Then I jumped.” MindyMindy's new best friend, Markus Medina, witnesses Dean kill two people behind a club. Mindy has a hard time believing him, especially when he mentions that the bodies disappear. Poof! Into thin air. Markus decides he has to follow Dean around in order to get evidence that he's been killing people, so he doesn't sound like a nut to the police. Despite Marcus’ crazy theories about the possibility of Dean not being human. And not to mention the fact that he's dangerous. Mindy can't help that she may be falling in love with him. Even after hiding their feelings for each other from the world. Dean and Mindy being together stirs up dangers that neither of them could ever imagine. When she finds out about what Dean really is and the world he tried to keep her away from...it's already too late.

Demonic Triangle


Joanna Mazurkiewicz - 2016
    A love triangle. Can Maxine crack the case before her heart is ripped in two? Maxine Brodeur has spent the past year recovering from a devastating breakup with Prince Arthur — the realm’s future king. She’s kept a low profile as a half-human/half-demon, spending her days running “Doomed Cases,” a private supernatural agency. After illegally revealing her powers to save a human girl from attack, she gets an ominous letter bearing the royal seal. Rather than being punished, Maxine is hired to find the young, kidnapped Prince George. Back in the secretive life of the royals, she must learn to work alongside sexy detective Zachary Quinton. Her new partner has no respect for the rules, and her ex-lover Arthur is doing everything he can to win her back. Will Maxine find the missing prince quickly or will she cause another royal scandal in the process?