Book picks similar to
The Culling Trials by K.F. Breene
fantasy
young-adult
magic
paranormal
Cupcakes, Trinkets, and Other Deadly Magic
Meghan Ciana Doidge - 2013
Just the way I liked it.That’s what twenty-three years in the magical backwater of Vancouver will get you — a completely skewed sense of reality. Because when the dead werewolves started showing up, it all unraveled … except for the cupcake part. That’s a universal truth.
Phoenix Unbound
Grace Draven - 2018
For the last five years, one small village's tithe has been the same woman. Gilene's sacrifice protects all the other young women of her village, and her secret to staying alive lies with the magic only she possesses. But this year is different. Azarion, the Empire's most famous gladiator, has somehow seen through her illusion, and is set on blackmailing Gilene into using her abilities to help him escape his life of slavery. And unknown to Gilene, he also wants to reclaim the birthright of his clan.To protect her family and village, she will risk everything to return to the Empire and burn once more.
Trying to Live With the Dead
B.L. Brunnemer - 2016
I’m your average 17-year-old girl. Except I can see the dead. And talk to the dead. And push them away and, well, help them move on. So..okay, I’m not your average 17-year-old girl. For years I’ve been struggling to survive the souls still roaming around. The shitheads always seem to find me. Moving from town to town every few months never helped either. More dead just always find me. But things are changing for me now. I’m moving in with my uncle Rory and cousin Tara. I’m finally going to be able to do normal teenage stuff I’ve been missing out on. Right? Well, if this one bitch of a ghost could leave me alone on campus that would be great. Especially since I haven’t told my new friends about my abilities. Can you believe this? Five good looking guys practically adopt me on my first day of school, and I still think they’re a bit nuts for it. Now if I can only just keep my life with the dead from mixing with my normal life, everything would be great. Yeah...I don’t see that happening either. But I’m going to give it a shot. Who knows? It might work.
Shadow's Messenger
T.A. White - 2016
That ended when I met tall, dark and handsome in a bar and wound up in a dumpster sporting a nice set of fangs and my life flipped on its head. Now I'm a messenger for Hermes Courier Service trying to make enough to support my ice cream habit while staying below vampire radar. When this newest job of mine goes disastrously awry, it puts me on the hook to be indentured to a sorcerer for the next fifty years unless I can find a way to fix things. What's hidden can't stay in the shadow's forever and my life will never be the same.
Reborn
C.C. Hunter - 2014
As a vampire who's never fit in with her human family, it's the one place she can truly be herself. But when a mysterious new guy arrives at camp, Della’s whole world is thrown into turmoil. Chase is a vampire with secrets, who knows more than he’s telling. But the more time she spends with him, the more she begins to trust this attractive stranger—and feel drawn to him. But romance is the last thing she wants—as she keeps telling Steve, the hunky shapeshifter who won’t stop trying to win her heart. And if Della isn't careful, he just might succeed. When a new case puts everyone she cares about in danger, Della’s determined to do everything she can to save them . . . even if it means teaming up with Steve and Chase, who leave her more confused than ever. With their lives on the line, will Della and her friends survive—with their hearts intact?
A Life of Shadows
Kristen Banet - 2018
She's become a master at doing awful things with good intentions, terrible things for the sake of those who need her. She's long given up on being the hero, trying to find peace in no longer being the villain. When her past comes back and she finds herself caught by the International Magi Police Organization, she'll have to revisit her own personal hells and finally confront the very monster that made her what she is. The very monster that has already killed her once before. Will the “dead” Magi assassin Shadow finally come out of the dark to begin a fight for a redemption she doesn't believe she deserves? Or will her nightmares drag her back into the shadows that have defined her life? *This is an Urban Fantasy reverse harem series of full length novels where the leading lady doesn’t have to choose from her romantic interests. This series will have M/M content. These books are rated for mature audiences, 18+ due to violence, language, and sexual themes. This series deals with several triggering topics including, but not limited to, suicide, child abuse, rape, and PTSD.*
Prudence
Gail Carriger - 2015
But India has more than just tea on offer. Rue stumbles upon a plot involving local dissidents, a kidnapped brigadier's wife, and some awfully familiar Scottish werewolves. Faced with a dire crisis and an embarrassing lack of bloomers, what else is a young lady of good breeding to do but turn metanatural and find out everyone's secrets, even thousand-year-old fuzzy ones?
Soulbound
Heather Brewer - 2012
Seventeen-year-old Kaya was born a Healer, but she wants to fight. In Tril, and at Shadow Academy, where she is sent to learn to heal, it is against Protocol for Healers to fight. So Kaya must learn in secret. Enter two young men: One charming, rule-following Barron who becomes Bound to Kaya and whose life she must protect at all costs. And one with a mysterious past who seems bent on making Kaya's life as difficult as possible. Kaya asks both to train her, but only one will, and the consequences will change their lives forever.
Free the Darkness
Kel Kade - 2015
With no understanding of his life’s purpose and armed with masterful weapons mysteriously bequeathed to him by a dead king, the young warrior relentlessly pursues his only lead. A single elite warrior escaped during the battle and may have knowledge of who Rezkin is and who is responsible for the slaughter at the young man’s home. Rezkin must travel across Ashai to find the one man who may hold the clues to his very existence. His last orders, spoken on the lips of his dying Master, were to "Kill with conscience" and "Protect and honor your friends." Living in isolation from the outworld under a strict regimen of training and education, the young warrior has no understanding of a conscience or friends. Determined to adhere to his last orders, Rezkin extends his protection to an unlikely assortment of individuals he meets along the way, often leading to humorous and poignant incidents. As if pursuing an elite warrior across a kingdom, figuring out who he is and why everyone he knows is dead, and attempting to find these so-called friends and protect them is not enough, strange things are happening in the kingdom. New dangers begin to arise that threaten not only Rezkin and his friends, but possibly everyone in Ashai.
Cursed by Fire
Danielle Annett - 2015
The victims are innocents, chosen to pit the shifter Pack and the vampire Coven against one another.If war breaks out, humanity won’t survive.But controlling fire is my thing, and I won’t let that happen.I’m a mercenary, but this is about so much more than money. It’s my city and someone is threatening it. I won’t stop until I find them.When the good guys start to look more like villains, I have no choice but to question everything I knew, including the people I thought I could trust.It turns out the humans might not be as helpless as they seem, and I'm in more danger than I realized.If you like K.F. Breene, Annette Marie, Patricia Briggs, McKenzie Hunter, CN Crawford, Leia Stone, or Linsey Hall, then buckle up buttercup, and get ready for a fast paced adventure you won't be able to put down.
Blade & Rose
Miranda Honfleur - 2017
Which one will she save? Elementalist Rielle hasn't heard from her best friend in far too long. Yet no one at the Tower of Magic seems to care about Olivia’s silence, or the curtain of secrecy surrounding the distant capital. Before Rielle can investigate, she's assigned a strange new mission: escort a paladin named Jon across the kingdom. When whispers reveal mercenaries have killed the king, taken the capital, and that no one is coming to help, Rielle can’t leave Olivia in peril. But as infamous mages and deadly assassins hunt Jon, she can’t leave him unprotected either—especially as she finds herself falling for his strength, his passion, and his uncompromising goodness. Her past returns to haunt her, a werewolf stalks their steps, and an ancient evil is gathering, yet the restraints forbidding their love strain and snap one by one. Saving Olivia and the kingdom means defying orders and sacrificing her every ambition, and could mean losing the man who's become so much more to her than a mission. Which will she choose: her best friend and the kingdom, or the love of her life? Dive into a medieval world sensual and dark, full of magic and greed, love and blades, where factions vie for influence and there are no easy choices.
Half-Blood
G.K. DeRosa - 2019
There are three rules to survive the elite supernatural school:1. Do not talk or even look at The Seven, the uber-powerful supes that rule the academy.2. Never go into the Fae forest on a full moon… or else.3. And most definitely do not fall for one of the extremely hot and unattainable instructors.Too bad I’ve never really been a rule follower…A year ago the supernaturals came out of the closet on primetime TV, and about a minute ago I found out I was one of them—well, a half-blood anyway. So here I am at Darkhen Academy, the only human and no magical abilities to speak of. The only reason I’m here is because of my father—a man I didn’t even know existed until now. He’s crazy powerful, and they think I could be too. But what could I possibly contribute to an exclusive squad of dragon shifters, fae, witches, and vampires? I guess we’re about to find out because the merging of the supernatural and human realms isn’t going as smoothly as planned. If word gets out that humans are no longer safe from the supes, our worlds will once again be closed off. It’s up to us to stop that from happening.The "Darkblood Academy" books are a spinoff of the "Hitched" series by G.K. DeRosa. The storyline is set after the events in "Hitched". It references some of it's storyline and shares some characters that were introduced there. Therefore it is advisable to read the "Hitched" books first.
Throne of Glass
Sarah J. Maas - 2012
Deadly. Destined for greatness.In a land without magic, where the king rules with an iron hand, Celaena, an assassin, is summoned to the castle. She comes not to kill the king, but to win her freedom. If she defeats twenty-three killers, thieves, and warriors in a competition, she is released from prison to serve as the king’s champion. The Crown Prince will provoke her. The Captain of the Guard will protect her. But something evil dwells in the castle of glass—and it’s there to kill. When her competitors start dying one by one, Celaena’s fight for freedom becomes a fight for survival, and a desperate quest to root out the evil before it destroys her world.
The Princess Must Die
Everly Frost - 2018
DESTINED TO BE TORN APART.In an Elven city beneath the streets of Chicago, the perfect storm rages, kept under control only by Marbella Mercy, the Storm Princess. Now she is of age, champions from each of the elven houses will play a game of wit and strength to fight for her hand – and for the chance to control the forces of nature.Baelen Rath, a warrior and leader of the feared House of Rath, is the only male Marbella has ever trusted. He'll risk everything to be her champion. But what he and the others don't know? The princess is fighting too.Because she's discovered that the winner is cursed to kill her, not marry her, and the only way to save herself is to win.But Marbella is fighting a power greater than herself, because someone believes that the perfect storm should be unleashed and for that to happen – the princess must die.
The Grendel Affair
Lisa Shearin - 2013
Things that go bump in the night, the monsters you thought didn’t exist? We battle them and keep you safe. But some supernatural baddies are just too big to contain, even for us… When I moved to New York to become a world famous journalist, I never imagined that snagging a job at a seedy tabloid would change my career path from trashy reporter to undercover agent. I’m Makenna Fraser, a Seer for SPI. I can see through any disguise, shield, or spell that a paranormal pest can come up with. I track down creatures and my partner, Ian Byrne, takes them out—usually saving my skin in the process. Our cases are generally pretty routine, but a sickle-wielding serial killer has been prowling the city’s subway tunnels. And the murderer’s not human. The fiend in question, a descendant of Grendel—yes, that Grendel—shares his ancestor’s hatred of parties, revelry, and drunkards. And with New Year’s Eve in Times Square only two days away, we need to bag him quickly. Because if we don’t find him—and the organization behind him—by midnight, our secret’s out and everyone’s time is up.