Book picks similar to
First Project by Jennifer Rose McMahon


fantasy
paranormal
read-and-reviewed
5-star-books

Wicked Betrayal


Marty Mayberry - 2020
    Wizards sent there are never heard from again.The moment I arrive, I'm forced to complete a series of initiation tests with a snarky, too-hot fae. If the creatures trying to kill us don't do him in, I just might. Yet my birth father is on Darkwater Island, and while he could be just about anyone, I'm determined to track him down. He stole something from me when I was a baby, and I want it back.Once I get what I came for, there are two ways out. Survive the Challenge--another series of trials that take place in the ever-changing, magical catacombs beneath the island. Or I can fulfill the secret blood bond I made with the Master Seeker. Eliminate someone and the Master Seeker will transport me home....Except the person I must kill is the wizard I'm falling for.This book is 71,000 words.

Druid Magic


C.S. Churton - 2019
     The letter she gets changes her life in ways she can’t believe. At 18, Lyssa’s days are pretty normal. Get up, eat, and stress about what’s next. Lyssa’s friends know where they’re going to school and she’s desperate to go to university. The only acceptance letter she gets seems like a cruel joke. What is the Dragondale Academy of Druidic Magic? It can’t be real. At Dragondale, they take only the brightest students with the most potential. She doesn’t fit in at all, but does make two friends, Sam and Kelsey. They make life at school better. Lyssa is determined to prove herself. It won’t be easy. As she learns about her powers, a few oddities catch her eye. Where does Kelsey keep disappearing to? What’s going on with the cat who’s always hanging around? There’s one secret, though, she can’t figure out. Why does it seem that the professors are hiding something? You’ll love this Academy fantasy, because of the twist, turns, and magical surprises. Get it now.

A Gift of Magic


Julianne Berokoff - 2020
    Vienna is sick of her bloodthirsty, throne-stealing parents. So when she's Chosen by an advanced academy she's never heard of, she thanks the gods above. When she realizes the school isn't supposed to exist, and that it's in fae territory...Well... bring it on.--Tavi is oath-sworn to keep his powers secret. And for most of his life, he's done so.But once the Carthian Princess invades his world, the walls he's built so high begin to crumble.Vienna is reckless, and trouble clings to her like perfume. No sooner does she arrive at the Fae Academy than a cloud of darkness threatens to sweep them all away.If not for her stubborn spirit, battle skills, and a group of powerful new friends, she wouldn't stand a chance.--This is Book 1 of a complete series (trilogy). This story is full of friendship, epic adventure, and the trials of finding your true self - a slow-burn enemies-to-lovers academy fantasy for young adult & new adult readers. Includes some adult language and intimate scenes later on in the series.

Night Shade Academy


Kelly Carrero - 2019
    Night Shade Academy should’ve been easy for me, but nothing could prepare me for the moment when I’m kicked out of my birthright House and placed with the evil witches known as the Darks—despite being born a Light. Now, I’m stuck with a bunch of evil witches who compete in this crazy tradition where they pit the first years against each other, fighting for their place in the hierarchy at the Academy. The only rule, try not to die. Oh, and did I mention it’s not just witches we have to contend with? There’s also Vampires and Lycans, as well. Thanks to the help of a gorgeous Dark that I find myself a little too attracted to, I’m able to keep my ass-whoopings to a minimum, until someone pushes me too far, and I find out exactly why my magic affinity is Dark.

Snakes and Shadows


Amy Hopkins - 2019
    Together, we've been recruited into the Academy of Myth and Legend. Who's Boots? A rainbow serpent--magical creature come to life--no big. It's actually not so unusual these days. Mythical creatures are tumbling through the Veil every two seconds. The Academy not only teaches us how to fight the bad ones, but to protect the good ones as well.That's why I joined. I'm only here to make sure Boots stays safe. Once we figure out a plan, I'm out. At least, that's what I'm trying to convince myself — and my new friends, including Cisco. It's only a coincidence that I blush when he talks to me, I swear.It's exciting to be recruited as one of the first wave of students at the Academy, but it's no joke. There are the classes, of course. And then there are poltergeists, bigfoot hunting expeditions, and psychotic gnomes. Just staying alive is a challenge. But together with Boots, I can face anything. And I will. No matter what happens.

Surviving Magic


Chloe Garner - 2019
    In high school, she was popular, smart, happy.But all that changes when her mother's former life - a life kept hidden from Valerie - collides into Valerie's reality.Forced to walk away from everything she's always known, Valerie finds herself in a magic school where she may be protected, but she certainly isn't liked.Facing classmates who resent her for being there and a faculty who are caught up in the same secret war that threatened her mother, Valerie is going to have to flourish or perish in her new reality.

Trial One


Annabel Chase - 2019
    At the academy, these offspring are protected and their talents nurtured. It's the one place they're safe. Until now.

Sacrifice Me, Season Two: Part 2


Sarra Cannon - 2018
    A nearly impossible task handed down from the Brotherhood of Darkness, but one that Rend is determined to carry out in order to save himself and the lives of his fellow vampires. Only, the Mother Crow has plans of her own. Terrifying plans for Franki that will send Rend on a dangerous journey and leave them both with an impossible choice. Will Franki sacrifice everything to save the demon she loves? Or will Rend stop at nothing--even death--to keep Franki alive? This is Part 2 and contains the final three episodes in the Sacrifice Me series, a new adult paranormal fantasy romance series. Fans of the Shadow Demons Saga will love this spin-off story. Read the entire series: 1. Sacrifice Me, Season One (Episodes 1-6) 2. Sacrifice Me, Season Two: Part 1 (Episodes 1-3) 3. Sacrifice Me, Season Two: Part 2 (Episodes 4-6)

The Culling Trials


K.F. Breene - 2019
    The Academy Chooses You. I had no idea how those words would change my life. Or how they’d changed my life already… Until the day the most dangerous man I’ve ever met waltzed onto my farm and left us a death sentence. In an invitation. My younger brother has been chosen for the prestigious, secret magical school hidden within the folds of our mundane world. A place so dangerous, they don’t guarantee you’ll make it out alive. If he doesn't go our entire family will be killed. It’s the same invitation my older brother received three years ago—the same place he mysteriously died. The academy has already killed one sibling. I’ll be damned if they take another. I do the only thing an older sister can: chop off my hair, strap on two bras to flatten the girls, and take my brother’s place. Magic and monsters are real. Assassins are coming for me, and the dead are prone to rise. What’s a girl faking it as a boy supposed to do? That’s right—beat the academy at its own game. Or die trying. Shadowspell Academy Book 1 and Shadowspell Academy Book 2 end with a cliffhanger.

Newcomer


Emilia Zeeland - 2020
    That is, until they show their teeth during class at the Academy.And then there are the hunters—the humans trying to uncover our secrets. I’m talking about Mason Fowler, my next-door neighbor with smoldering, brandy-colored eyes, who has taken a sudden interest in me.In a whirlwind of magical twists, I must learn to tell friend from foe, master my abilities before I lose them, and figure out how to hide my powers from Mason. Because revealing the truth could lead to war…No wonder they call me the harbinger of death.Newcomer is a young adult fantasy novel about a magical academy and the creatures it hides—the good, the bad and those in between. If you like complicated friendships, dark family secrets, and slow-burn romance, this story will pull you in and leave you wanting more.Step into a world of magical intrigue now!

Something Wicked


Emma Dean - 2019
    Kenzie Kavanagh exposed her father and brother's betrayal. So Mika is starting at the University of Morgana a semester late and praying to the Fates that she'll be able to catch up and graduate with her class. But as a witch with an undeclared specialty she's trying not to bring too much attention to herself. Because Mika has a secret and if she doesn't learn to control her powers, people will die.

School of Magical Arts: New York City Campus Novellas 1-3 (The Coven)


Chandelle LaVaun - 2020
    

Obsidian


Kimberly Loth - 2016
    If she knew who he was, she might act differently. But to her, Sid is just a reminder of a past she’d rather forget.Sid won’t leave Aspen alone, because she’s the one girl that might be able to help save him and the rest of the dragons.He hadn’t planned on falling love…

Paranormal Public


Maddy Edwards - 2011
    . .Charlotte Rollins is an elemental, but she doesn't know it yet. Now, with the help of her old friend Cale and her new friend Keller, she will fight against an evil whose only goal is to consume her.From Kobo:There is no such thing as a mage. There is certainly no such thing as a vampire, pixie, werewolf, or fallen angel. And they certainly do not all attend a college together called Paranormal Public University.One minute Charlotte Rollins is a normal girl about to go to a normal college. She is at once excited and nervous, getting ready to start this new phase in her life. The next minute she is a freshman not at a normal college, but at Paranormal Public University, a school where paranormals of all kinds must co-exist. Charlotte must learn magic, that is, if she could actually do magic, which unlike every other mage at Public she can’t seem to manage.Her transition to this new and wonderful world is difficult. On top of trying to learn magic, make new friends, and confront forbidden love, the archenemy of the paranormals, the demons, are getting stronger. They are looking for something. It turns out that Charlotte might just hold the key to finding it.Can Charlotte get a handle on her powers in time to save the school she loves? Can she fulfill a destiny the paranormals scarcely dared to hope for? Or will she be too late?

Redcap


Amanda Booloodian - 2018
     Working for the clandestine Agency of Interdimensional Regulation is amazing, until you’re stuck behind a desk. My first day back in the field finds me face to face with gremlins and those little creatures love their metal. I should have thought of that because losing your clothes at work is hard to live down. Back at the office, news surfaces of goblins on the march. Aggressive, territorial, and downright mean, the goblins appear to be out for blood. Investigation leads us to the middle of nowhere in the dead of winter to see if the pixies are tormenting the surrounding population. When we find the pixies missing and their glen dying, our situation becomes more dire. My powers and Rider’s keen werewolf nose sense a creature that doesn’t belong but our progress slows to a crawl when the wicked winter weather makes an appearance. Can we find the pixies, stop the goblin rebellion, and identify this new threat before I freeze to death?