Book picks similar to
Spectral by Shannon Duffy


paranormal
young-adult
romance
witches

Down with the Shine


Kate Karyus Quinn - 2016
    Then she takes some of her uncles’ moonshine to Michaela Gordon’s annual house party, and finds out just how wrong she was.At the party, Lennie has everyone make a wish before drinking the shine—it’s tradition. She toasts to wishes for bat wings, for balls of steel, for the party to go on forever. Lennie even makes a wish of her own: to bring back her best friend, Dylan, who was murdered six months ago.The next morning gives Lennie a whole new understanding of the phrase be careful what you wish for—or in her case, be careful what wishes you grant. Because all those wishes Lennie raised a jar of shine to last night? They came true. Most of them came out bad. And once granted, a wish can’t be unmade…

Moonstone


Marilee Brothers - 2008
    A tiny house trailer. High school bullies and snarky drama queens. Bad-guy dudes with charming smiles. Allie has problems. And then there's that whole thing about fulfilling a magical prophecy and saving the world from evil. Geez. Welcome to the sad, funny, sometimes-scary world of fifteen-year-old Allie Emerson, who's struggling to keep her and her mom's act together in the small-town world of Peacock Flats, Washington. An electrical zap from a TV antenna sets off Allie's weird psychic powers. The next thing she knows she's being visited by a hippy-dippy guardian angel, and then her mysterious neighbor, the town "witch," gives her an incredible moonstone pendant that has powers only a good-hearted "Star Seeker" is meant to command. "Who, me?" is Allie's first reaction. But as sinister events begin to unfold, Allie realizes she's got a destiny to live up to. If she can just survive everyday life, in the meantime.

Awakened


Ednah Walters - 2010
    Orphaned as a child and raised by an eccentric grandfather, Lil is concerned with surviving high school and is unaware that she's a Guardian-a being with super powers charged with killing demons and protecting humanity. When she meets Bran, a mysterious boy with amazing abilities, his psi energy unlocks her latent powers. But Bran has a secret that can ruin their growing relationship, and the truth she discovers may destroy everything she believes in unless she finds the right balance between love and sacrifice.

Starbound


J.L. Weil - 2014
    Things couldn’t get any worse, or so she thought. After another uppity party that ends badly, she finds herself stumbling down the street with a broken heel. So when the guy she’s had a mad crush on since preschool offers Katia a ride, she couldn’t say no. But she should have. Seth Nightingale was trouble.Seth just made the biggest mistake of his life, and there is no way to fix it. He kissed Katia Montgomery. What hell had he been thinking? The problem is, when Katia is around, his mind turns to mush. Torn between his affection for Katia and his desire to not die, Seth is forced to deal with the very thing he’s been avoiding his entire life. A dark curse and deep-seated deception leads Katia and Seth closer to their ill-fated destiny. They will have to overcome ancient magick, toe-curling lust, and love if they want to survive.Genre: Teen Paranormal Romance

The Near Witch


Victoria Schwab - 2011
     If the wind calls at night, you must not listen. The wind is lonely, and always looking for company. And there are no strangers in the town of Near.These are the truths that Lexi has heard all her life. But when an actual stranger-a boy who seems to fade like smoke-appears outside her home on the moor at night, she knows that at least one of these sayings is no longer true.The next night, the children of Near start disappearing from their beds, and the mysterious boy falls under suspicion. Still, he insists on helping Lexi search for them. Something tells her she can trust him.As the hunt for the children intensifies, so does Lexi's need to know-about the witch that just might be more than a bedtime story, about the wind that seems to speak through the walls at night, and about the history of this nameless boy.Part fairy tale, part love story, Victoria Schwab's debut novel is entirely original yet achingly familiar: a song you heard long ago, a whisper carried by the wind, and a dream you won't soon forget.

Mystic City


Theo Lawrence - 2012
    Book One of the Mystic City Novels.Aria Rose, youngest scion of one of Mystic City's two ruling rival families, finds herself betrothed to Thomas Foster, the son of her parents' sworn enemies. The union of the two will end the generations-long political feud - and unite all those living in the Aeries, the privileged upper reaches of the city, against the banished mystics who dwell below in the Depths.But Aria doesn't remember falling in love with Thomas; in fact, she wakes one day with huge gaps in her memory. And she can't conceive why her parents would have agreed to unite with the Fosters in the first place.Only when Aria meets Hunter, a gorgeous rebel mystic from the Depths, does she start to have glimmers of recollection - and to understand that he holds the key to unlocking her past. The choices she makes can save or doom the city - including herself.

Throat


R.A. Nelson - 2011
    A. Nelson takes us on a supernatural thrill ride, a modern-day vampire story set on a NASA base and filled with space-and-science intrigue. Seventeen-year-old Emma feels cursed by her epilepsy—until the lost night. She's shocked to wake up in the hospital one morning, weak from blood loss. When her memories begin to return, she pieces together that it was a man—a monster—who attacked her: a vampire named Wirtz. And it was her very condition that saved her: a grand mal seizure interrupted Wirtz and left Emma with all the amazing powers of a vampire—heightened senses, rapid speed—but no need to drink blood. Is Emma now a half-vampire girl? One thing soon becomes clear: the vampire Wirtz is fierce and merciless, feared even by his own kind, and won't leave a job undone.

Lailah


Nikki Kelly - 2014
    She doesn’t age. She has no family. She has visions of a past life, but no clear clues as to what she is, or where she comes from. But there is a face in her dreams – a light that breaks through the darkness. She knows his name is Gabriel.On her way home from work, the girl encounters an injured stranger whose name is Jonah. Soon, she will understand that Jonah belongs to a generation of Vampires that serve even darker forces. Jonah and the few like him, are fighting with help from an unlikely ally – a rogue Angel, named Gabriel.In the crossfire between good and evil, love and hate, and life and death, the girl learns her name: Lailah. But when the lines between black and white begin to blur, where in the spectrum will she find her place? And with whom?Gabriel and Jonah both want to protect her. But Lailah will have to fight her own battle to find out who she truly is.

Made for You


Melissa Marr - 2014
    A killer is obsessed with Eva Tilling. Can she stop him, or will he claim her?When Eva Tilling wakes up in the hospital, she’s confused—who in her sleepy little North Carolina town could have hit her with their car? And why? But before she can consider the question, she finds that she’s awoken with a strange new skill: the ability to foresee people’s deaths when they touch her. While she is recovering from the hit-and-run, Nate, an old flame, reappears, and the two must traverse their rocky past as they figure out how to use Eva’s power to keep her friends—and themselves—alive. But while Eva and Nate grow closer, the killer grows increasingly frantic in his attempt to get to Eva.For the first time, New York Times bestselling author Melissa Marr has applied her extraordinary talent to contemporary realism. Chilling twists, unrequited obsession, and high-stakes romance drive this Gothic, racy thriller—a story of small-town oppression and salvation. Melissa’s fans, and every YA reader, will find its wild ride enthralling.

Fairy Metal Thunder


J.L. Bryan - 2011
    Even worse, Jason has a crush on their lead singer, but she doesn't seem interested in him at all.Then Jason steals instruments from the fairy world. Soon the band is enchanting crowds, and Jason is a step closer to the girl he likes, but the new gear is brimming with destructive magic they can't control.Their shortcut to success has cost a troupe of innocent fairies their livelihood and turned Jason and his band into enemies of the powerful Queen Mab, who sends hunters to track them down, including one of the most dangerous creatures in Faerie...a small unicorn named Buttercake.

Poltergeeks


Sean Cummings - 2008
    When she and her best friend, Marcus, witness an elderly lady jettisoned out the front door of her home, it's pretty obvious to Julie there's a supernatural connection. In fact, there's a whisper of menace behind increasing levels of poltergeist activity all over town. After a large-scale paranormal assault on Julie's high school, her mother falls victim to the spell Endless Night. Now it's a race against time to find out who is responsible or Julie won't just lose her mother's soul, she'll lose her mother's life.

The Childe


C.A. Kunz - 2011
    Sure, she’s taller than most girls, has a mane of fiery red hair that’s impossible to tame, is left-handed, and her eyes are two different colors, but that’s where the differences end... unless you include the minor detail of her slow transformation into a Childe. High school can definitely be challenging, and for Cat it’s no different. This is especially true when she’s faced with the daunting task of trying to hide her budding Childe traits as they begin to reveal themselves at the most inopportune times. To make matters worse, her family is oddly dead set against Ryan, the boy she grows to like. But everyone has their secrets: is Ryan really what he seems to be, and what is Cat’s family not telling her?The Childe is the first book in this coming-of-age fantasy series which follows Cat's life through the twists and turns toward finding out whom and what she really is. Come and take the plunge with Cat into a world filled with mystery, biting humor, and the paranormal.

The Peculiars


Maureen Doyle McQuerry - 2012
    Scree is inhabited by Peculiars, people whose unusual characteristics make them unacceptable to modern society. Lena wonders if her father is the source of her own extraordinary characteristics and if she, too, is Peculiar. On the train she meets a young librarian, Jimson Quiggley, who is traveling to a town on the edge of Scree to work in the home and library of the inventor Mr. Beasley. The train is stopped by men being chased by the handsome young marshal Thomas Saltre. When Saltre learns who Lena’s father is, he convinces her to spy on Mr. Beasley and the strange folk who disappear into his home, Zephyr House. A daring escape in an aerocopter leads Lena into the wilds of Scree to confront her deepest fears.This dark and thrilling adventure, with an unforgettable heroine, will captivate fans of steampunk, fantasy, and romance.

Dark Companion


Marta Acosta - 2012
    Through hard work and determination, she manages to win a scholarship to the exclusive Birch Grove Academy. There, for the first time, Jane finds herself accepted by a group of friends. She even starts tutoring the headmistress's gorgeous son, Lucian. Things seem too good to be true.They are.The more she learns about Birch Grove, the more Jane comes to suspect that there is something sinister going on. Why did the wife of a popular teacher kill herself? What happened to the former scholarship student whose place Jane took? Why does Lucian's brother, Jack, seem to dislike her so much?As Jane begins to piece together the answers to the puzzle, she must find out why she was brought to Birch Grove-and what she would risk to stay there. . . .

Gifts of the Blood


Vicki Keire - 2010
    Her parents are four years dead; everyday she watches her brother Logan fight his cancer diagnosis. Things get worse for Caspia the day she draws an angry stranger framed by planes of light and violent, bloody images. That exact same stranger walks up to her out of nowhere mere hours later knowing things he shouldn't, like her name, her brother's illness, and her strange ability. That's when Caspia discovers her hometown is a refuge for supernatural beings both Light and Dark, and she and her brother find themselves caught up in a war between the two that predates their very birth. In order to protect herself and her brother, she turns to the one who seems to have started it all: the man who walked out of her sketchbook calling himself Ethan. But Ethan has his own agenda, Logan's getting sicker fast, and Caspia finds that drawing the future isn't the only strange thing she can do. Meanwhile, someone really wants all of them dead. In a town where Dark doesn't equal Evil and Light isn't always Good, Caspia and Ethan find themselves making strange alliances and even stranger sacrifices in order to protect those they love.