Book picks similar to
Finding Thor by Kai Strand


romance
young-adult
contemporary
stand-alone

The Girl in the Wall


Daphne Benedis-Grab - 2012
    The only person who's dreading the party is Sera, Ariel's former best friend, whose father is forcing her to go. Sera has been the school pariah since she betrayed Ariel, and she now avoids Ariel and their former friends. Thrown together, Ariel and Sera can agree on one thing: this could be one very long night.They have no idea just how right they are.Only moments after the concert begins and the lights go down, thugs open fire on parents and schoolmates alike, in a plot against Ariel's father that quickly spins out of control. As the entire party is taken hostage, the girls are forced apart. Ariel escapes into the hidden tunnels in the family mansion, where she and Sera played as children. Only Sera, who forges an unlikely alliance with Hudson Winters, knows where her friend could be. As the industrial terrorist plot unravels and the death toll climbs, Ariel and Sera must recall the sisterhood that once sustained them as they try to save themselves and each other on the longest night of their lives.

Boone Shepard


Gabriel Bergmoser - 2016
    You might have heard the rumours—whispers of an evil plot involving time travel, dangerous experiments, a secret fortress, a terrible book, famous authors and, regrettably, murder. You might also have heard of heroes who were caught up in this plot, fighting to do the right thing. That sounds a lot more impressive than it actually was. My name is Boone Shepard. I’m here to set the record straight.”Boone is taking a break from writing for The Chronicle newspaper to hunt down and destroy every last copy of a very rare, very dangerous book. But then his editor calls to demand he investigate a missing persons case deep in the Scottish Highlands—in the company of his rival, photographer Promethia Peters—and he is forced to abandon his personal goals and get back to work. Restless and begrudging, Boone is unprepared when this hunt leads him back to the one story that won’t stop chasing him—his own. Boone Shepard is the first in a series of young adult novels following the adventures of an Australian expat, errant journalist and accidental hero.

Pop Princess


Isabelle Merlin - 2009
    At first she is more than excited, but soon Lucie finds herself entangled in mysterious happenings that put her and Arizona in terrible danger. Lucie must discover the source of her troubles before it’s too late. Who can she trust? Will the holiday of a lifetime in Paris turn into her last days on Earth?

ONE MISSION: Something you knew isn't something you know


Manith J. - 2016
    She went on this secret journey to pursue a nuclear weapon and it brought her to meet two good men who changed her life from bad to good and from good to bad at the same time.

How She Died, How I Lived


Mary Crockett - 2018
    The five girls Kyle texted that day. The girls it could have been. Only Jamie--beautiful, saintly Jamie--was kind enough to respond. And it got her killed.On the eve of Kyle's sentencing a year after Jamie's death, all the other "chosen ones" are coping in various ways. But our tenacious narrator is full of anger, stuck somewhere between the horrifying past and the unknown future as she tries to piece together why she gets to live, while Jamie is dead.Now she finds herself drawn to Charlie, Jamie's boyfriend--knowing all the while that their relationship will always be haunted by what-ifs and why-nots. Is hope possible in the face of such violence? Is forgiveness? How do you go on living when you know it could have been you instead?

Liberty: The Spy Who (Kind of) Liked Me


Andrea Portes - 2017
    And her journalist parents, who were captured by terrorists while telling stories of the endangered and oppressed—they were heroes, too. Or are—no one has ever told Paige if they’re still alive, or dead.Not heroes? Anyone in the government who abandoned her parents, letting them rot somewhere halfway across the world.And certainly not Paige herself, who, despite her fluency in five languages and mastery of several obscure martial arts (thanks, Mom!), could do nothing to save them.Couldn’t, that is, until she’s approached by Madden Carter, an undercover operative who gives her a mission: fly to Russia, find Raynes, and discover what other government secrets he’s stockpiled. In exchange, he’ll reopen the case on her missing parents.She’s given a code name and a cover as a foreign exchange student.Who is a hero? Not Paige Nolan, but maybe, just maybe, Liberty is.

Girl Last Seen


Heather Anastasiu - 2016
    She and her best friend, Lauren DeSanto, watched their songs go viral on YouTube, then she launched a solo career when a nasty throat infection paralyzed Lauren's vocal chords. Everyone knows Lauren and Kadence had a major falling-out over Kady's boyfriend. But Lauren knows how deceptive Kadence could be sometimes. And nobody believes Lauren when she claims she had nothing to do with the disappearance. Or the blood evidence… As the town and local media condemns Lauren, she realizes the only way to clear her name is to discover the truth herself. Lauren slowly unravels the twisted life of Kadence Mulligan and sees that there was more to her than she ever knew. But will she realize she's unknowingly playing a part in an elaborate game to cover up a crime before it's too late?

The Oak Tree Letters


Lora Lindy - 2014
    She loves their new home called Oakley Plantation, especially when she finds old love letters dated back to the Civil War. Unfortunately, she has only one side of them—letters from Lt. Stanton Winston Tate. Little does she know that across the state, a young man named Trevor Whitfield finds the other half—letters from Constantine Oakley. They both research the couple and find lots of history of the old plantation—and some not so good. In the meantime, Sheriff Carlton Adams is trying to solve all the cold cases before he retires. Three murders are left; all were in the late 1800s, and all involve the Oakleys. Fate intertwines their lives and research. When all seems to come to a dead end, a century year old lady named Mable Carter helps. However, her help unveils a curse and the spirits. Can Issy, Trevor and the Sheriff solve the case? Can they undo the curse?

The Almost Truth


Eileen Cook - 2012
    To escape her backwards small town, delusional mom, jailbird dad, and the tiny trailer where she was raised, she also must leave Brendan. Sadie wants a better life, and she has been working steadily toward it, one con at a time, until her mother wipes out her savings. Brendan helps devise the ultimate con. But the more lies Sadie spins, the more she starts falling for her own hoax, and perhaps for the wrong boy. Sadie wanted to change her life, but she wasn't prepared to have it flipped upside down by her own deception. With her future at stake and her heart on the line, she suddenly has more than just money to lose.

Careless


Anne Cassidy - 2007
    Lesley Cozens wrote Nicky a letter before she died, the contents of which the reader does not know until much later in the novel, but the letter triggers a rage in Nicky that could have had tragic consequences if Chloe had not got involved. When Nicky begins hanging around Chloe's house with a mixture of curiosity and anger that she has had a happy life compared with his, he is prepared to hate her, but instead the two of them form a strange kind of bond. Chloe is her mother's daughter, and finds herself wanting to help Nicky find his real mother, the one who abandoned him at birth. Ironically, the clues she pieces together about what happened lead her back to her mother's home town, and to her childhood friend, Sonia, who is keeping a painful secret of her own. Chloe finds comfort in helping Nicky, a boy who is almost like a brother in that her own mother looked out for him for so long, and Nicky discovers that sometimes you have to trust in people in order to move on and build a life...

Out of Control


Sarah Alderson - 2014
    But when the police station is attacked and bullets start flying it becomes clear that Liva is not just a witness, she’s a target.Together with a car thief called Jay, Liva manages to escape the massacre but now the two of them are alone in New York, trying to outrun and outwit two killers who will stop at nothing to find them.When you live on the edge, there’s a long way to fall.

Notes to Self


Avery Sawyer - 2011
    Two fell down. One woke up.Robin Saunders is a high school sophomore with an awesome best friend, a hard-working single mom, and a complicated relationship with a sweet guy named Reno. She's coasting along, trying to get through yet another tedious year of high school, when Em suggests something daring. They live in Florida-- tourist central--and Emily wants to sneak into a theme park after midnight and see what they're made of.When things get out of control, Robin wakes up in a hospital bed and Emily doesn't wake up at all. Just getting dressed becomes an ordeal as Robin tries to heal and piece together the details of that terrible night. Racing to remember everything in the hopes of saving Emily, Robin writes a series of notes to herself to discover the truth.

The Riddle of Prague (The QuickSilver Legacy Series)


Laura DeBruce - 2013
    She discovers a riddle that leads to a long-lost flask that could change the fate of the world. When a ruthless enemy kidnaps her family, Hana has to find the flask to rescue them. On her quest she meets a mysterious man with a penchant for poetry, a Gypsy girl with a haunting past, and Alex, the motorcycle-riding son of a U.S. diplomat. Alex -- who's trying to save his sister from a crippling disease -- joins Hana on her race across Bohemia to find the hidden flask. It's hard to trust anyone when the stakes are this high -- especially when surrounded by experts at deception. There's only one flask and Hana desperately needs to find it. The Riddle of Prague is the first of the Quicksilver Legacy Trilogy. Kirkus Reviews describes Laura DeBruce's debut novel as "[a]n exciting...thriller with supernatural elements and a brave, enterprising heroine." Clarion Reviews gives The Riddle of Prague five-stars and calls it "[a] fast-paced, edge-of-your-seat mystery-adventure."

The Burning of Juniper Slaide


Johanna Handley - 2016
    Nine years later, she's worked hard at putting the past behind her. She clings to her best friend James, the only person she's been able to trust since the fire. But one day James disappears. Juniper tries to find her friend, but she uncovers more than she bargained for. As tensions grow and friendships are tested, she begins to realise that James wasn't who she thought he was. And worst of all, his disappearance is connected to her somehow, and what happened to her all those years ago... An exciting, page turning thriller you wont want to put down!

The Black Coats


Colleen Oakes - 2019
    And Thea has just received an invitation to join them. This is the opportunity she’s been waiting for to finally get justice for her cousin Natalie, whose killer went free.Thea dives head first into the group, training every day with other girls whose stories rival hers. Together they carry out Balancings—acts of revenge guaranteed to teach a lesson. With every predator threatened, every blackmailer exposed, and every date rapist punished, Thea can feel herself getting closer to avenging Natalie’s death.But then the Balancings begin to escalate in brutality, and Thea discovers that the Black Coats are not all they seem to be. Thea must confront just how far she’s willing to go for justice—and what kind of justice Natalie, and Thea herself, deserve. Because when the line between justice and revenge is razor thin, it’s hard not to get cut.