Book picks similar to
First Project by Jennifer Rose McMahon


paranormal
fantasy
supernatural-academy
read-and-reviewed

The Gathering Darkness


Lisa Collicutt - 2012
    She’s been here before, twice in fact, and an evil demon-witch wants her dead a third time.When Brooke is forced to leave Boston for the small town of Deadwich, she thinks her life is over. Before long, her new friends start acting strange—downright evil. But worse than that, nightmares she’s had her whole life become reality.Enter Marcus Knight; popular, hot, and the only person Brooke can trust. Not to mention, they’ve shared the same nightmares.With the discovery of an ancient Celtic amulet, Brooke and Marcus unravel the secrets of her past, which reveals the key to her future.As the equinox approaches:Darkness and light merge for the first time in a century.Soul-mates reunite.Magic awakens.

Good Witches Don't Lie


S.W. Clarke - 2020
    Welcome to my new life.I'm Clementine Cole. I thought I was a normal nineteen-year-old with anger issues, but I was wrong. I’m not angry, I'm just a witch.After my cat started talking to me one night, I made a few discoveries:First, magic is real and nightmares aren’t just in your dreams.Second, I'm the last witch in the world.Third, there's an academy for magic users just like me.Trouble is, I don't quite fit in at the academy. Witches get a bad rap, and everyone thinks we're destined to turn evil. Okay, maybe I've been in a few fights and speak my mind, but I'm no villain."Good witches don't lie," my teachers tell me. If I don't want to get kicked out of the academy, I have to follow the rules. No fighting, no lying, and definitely no secrets.But what if the one keeping secrets is the headmistress herself?Welcome to the Academy of Shadowed Magic.

Ancient Magic


Linsey Hall - 2016
    Lying low is a close third—but not because I want to be good at hiding. I have to be. I’m a FireSoul, one of the unlucky few to inherit a piece of the dragon’s soul. Being born with the dragon’s covetousness should be a sweet gig - I have the power to find and steal any type of treasure, including the powers of other supernaturals.But it doesn’t come without a price - stealing powers requires that I kill, and others would destroy me if they discover what I am. In a world full of magic, hiding my species is the only way to survive. Finding magical artifacts is the only way to pay the bills. It’s a dangerous job when you can barely use your magic, but that’s one of the things I like about it.When Aidan Merrick, the most powerful shifter in the city, hired me to find an ancient scroll, I didn’t want to take the job. His immense amount of power reminds me of too much of murky memories from a past I can’t remember. But I don’t have a choice. The scroll reveals what I am. And if anyone finds out, I’m dead.

Queen of the Lycan: The Crown (Mackenzie Grey Book 10)


Karina Espinosa - 2021
    With my arrival to Scotland and my coronation right around the corner, I’d never been more nervous than I am now. Known for having enemies, I didn’t realize becoming Queen would garner even more. I’m not the only one after the throne and the battle for the crown might cost me my life. The Summits on one side and the Council on the other, it’s a fight to stay on top and protect the lunas from a man’s world. But I’ve never been one to back down, especially when it comes to the lunas. The Summits and Council are in for a rude awakening when I shake things up and turn their worlds upside down. On top of all that, there’s an evil lurking in the forest and it’s after one thing—me. With my mating ceremony coming up, I don’t know how I’m going to survive it all. The goal is the crown, but can I keep it?

Hex on the Beach


Gina LaManna - 2016
     Lily Locke has never believed in witches and wizards, ghosts and magic, shifters and vampires—especially cute blonde vamps with blood-intolerance issues. A rising star at a hotshot marketing agency in Minneapolis, Minnesota, all Lily knows is that she’s a PowerPoint guru, an Excel ninja, and a coffee-maker extraordinaire. Not to mention she’s next in line for a huge promotion. All that changes when Lily’s assistant delivers a strange quiz to her, one titled A Magical Assessment for Normal Folks. With it comes the promise of a land she's never known existed. A land where Lily not only discovers her biological family for the first time, but a place where she can make a difference, change lives, and step into the role she’s destined to fulfill. But first, Lily must admit she’s a witch. Then, she has to acknowledge that the tall, dark, and mysterious man who offers his help is strictly focused on business...at least, for now. When a body turns up dead and the next target is Lily, she must trust her powers and accept the help of her newfound friends. Otherwise, she'll never survive the trials of the magical island tucked far, far away in the frigid waters of Lake Superior. Welcome to The Isle. ** ** This novel is a full-length, humorous cozy mystery featuring a splash of magic, a handful of witches, and a dash of romance. It's rated PG-13 due to mild language and some romance.

Tales & Time


G. Bailey - 2019
    Madilynn almost wishes she hadn't, when it reveals she is a descendant of a fairy tale, and her parents tell her it's time for her to attend Lost Time Academy... Being thrown into a world that is literally full of fairy tales, the last thing she expects is to see the four guys she grew up with! Four guys who have grown from boys to now geeky, dark, passionate men who rule the Academy… and they never forgot Madilynn... Time makes all tales come true, including the dark ones...

The Line


J.D. Horn - 2014
    Some might even call it magical… To the uninitiated, Savannah shows only her bright face and genteel manner. Those who know her well, though, can see beyond her colonial trappings and small-city charm to a world where witchcraft is respected, Hoodoo is feared, and spirits linger. Mercy Taylor is all too familiar with the supernatural side of Savannah, being a member of the most powerful family of witches in the South.Despite being powerless herself, of course.Having grown up without magic of her own, in the shadow of her talented and charismatic twin sister, Mercy has always thought herself content. But when a series of mishaps—culminating in the death of the Taylor matriarch—leaves a vacuum in the mystical underpinnings of Savannah, she finds herself thrust into a mystery that could shake her family apart…and unleash a darkness the line of Taylor witches has been keeping at bay for generations.

A Throwback Witch


Holly Ice - 2020
    Maybe magic. Not monsters.In an Edinburgh graveyard on Halloween, Bianca Nash is waiting for a monster to strike a deathblow. Instead, strange men appear, desperate for her to stick around.Within days she’s forced on a plane to Latvia – and magic school. But her first student welcome comes with a glare. What does devastatingly handsome bad boy Shane McKee have against throwback witches like her?The deeper Bianca gets into life at Wildes Witch Academy, the more questions she has – and the more she has to hide. This school is swimming in secrets, but who can she trust to help her find the truth?A Throwback Witch is the first book in a brand-new urban fantasy series featuring a strong, snappy heroine, a tattooed and deliciously bad-for-you hero, and serious romantic tension.Click now to join Bianca on her whirlwind introduction to magic and the infuriating Shane McKee.

Nightworld Academy: Term One


L.J. Swallow - 2019
    A place filled with harmony and mutual respect between the supernatural races. Sometimes.I'm told my curse is a gift. A valuable one that could cost me my life. My visions of the future are weird, but my new school is weirder. All lessons take place in the evening and the majority of students are on an advanced program where they take extra classes late into the night. I enrolled at the academy because my last school expelled me for punching another student. Nobody believed that I knocked Tyler unconscious to stop somebody else dying. But why would they believe the crazy girl?I expected to meet other troubled teens here, but the pupils are predictable for an English boarding school. There's Ash, the rugby team captain and the academy's most popular guy. Then there's Andrei, the moody guy with a bad attitude who takes pleasure in annoying me. And Jamie who's studious and friendly but intense. I thought I had the academy figured out: the mean girl, the quirky friend, the nerd, the emo, and the jock. But on the evening I swear allegiance to my new school house, everything spins out of control and I realise I'm dealing with more. Much more. One of us will die, and I know who..

Stealing Embers


Julie Hall - 2020
    A world of lies. She belongs to both.My name is Emberly, and everything I’ve ever been told is a lie.Monsters don’t exist. Wrong.The nightmarish spectrum world is just my imagination. Wrong.In a few months, I’ll finally be free. Wrong.It takes being dragged to a secret training academy in the mountains to unravel the truth. My captors--an elite race of angel-born warriors called Nephilim.The deadliest of them all is an arrogant shape shifter, Steel. He’s gorgeous, lethal, hot-headed . . . and convinced I’ll be the death of them all.Maybe he’s right. As soon as I show up, the monsters that have haunted me my entire life breach the academy walls. My only hope of saving my new friends is learning how to control my powers, but when a stunning betrayal hurts someone I care about, I have an impossible choice.Stay and fight for a place to belong . . . or decide once and for all that I’m better off alone.Enter the spectrum world, a realm in-between worlds where shadow beasts draw blood, reality is a maze of twisted lights and sounds, and life goals are whittled down to just one: survive.Fans of Jennifer L. Armentrout and Cassandra Clare will love this Crescent City meets Crave mash up!

Secret Lives


Gabriella Poole - 2009
    The Darke Academy is a school like no other. An élite establishment that moves to an exotic new city every term, its students are impossibly beautiful, sophisticated and rich. And the more new scholarship girl Cassie Bell learns about the Academy, the more curious she becomes. What sinister secrets are guarded by the Few — the select group of students who keep outsiders away? Who is the dark stranger prowling the corridors at night? And what really happened a year earlier, when the last scholarship girl died in mysterious circumstances? One thing Cassie will discover is that a little knowledge may be a dangerous thing, but knowing too much can be deadly...

Van Helsing Academy


Stacey O'Neale - 2021
    All she knows is what she's been told: she got separated from her team during a mission and turned up two months later covered in cuts and bruises alongside two dead vampires.After being blamed for their deaths, she is sentenced to three years at the supernatural rehabilitation center, the Van Helsing Academy.As Mina searches for answers, lies are slowly unraveled and alliances forged. Soon she will uncover a secret plot that threatens to destroy her family legacy and ignite a war between the supernatural factions.Van Helsing Academy is the first book in a new YA paranormal romance series. No harem. Perfect for fans of Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead, Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins, and Mythos Academy by Jennifer Estep.

The Last Academy


Anne Applegate - 2013
    But the manicured grounds of Lethe Academy are like nothing Cam has ever known. There are gorgeous, preppy boys wielding tennis rackets, and circles of girls with secrets to spare. Only . . . something is not quite right. One of Cam's new friends mysteriously disappears, but the teachers don't seem too concerned. Cam wakes up to strangers in her room, who then melt into the night. She is suddenly plagued by odd memories, and senses there might be something dark and terrible brewing. But what? The answer will leave Cam—and readers—stunned and breathless, in this thrilling debut novel.

The Witch & the Bounty Hunter (Federation of Magic Book 1)


Rachel Medhurst - 2020
    until someone wanted me dead.Here I am, Lyla Ford, broke and starving, minding my own business, when twin sorcerers Tinniel and Nazeriah claim that I’m a witch from an ancient line. Not only that, they request an audience. Who do they think I am? Royalty?I would never entertain the idea of magic, let alone the request to become a tracker for the two paranormal bounty hunters who work for the Federation of Magic. That is, until the ridiculously handsome Tinniel tells me that my missing mother is the leader of the Federation. Who knew?When Tinniel gets kidnapped, a compulsion to find them both overtakes me, forcing me to work with the Federation. I have a feeling that if I don’t do as I’m told, the ancient line I descend from will die out. With my brutal, bloody murder.

The Beautiful and the Damned


Jessica Verday - 2013
    She’s a witch who casts spells on men so she can steal their cars. He spends his time being judge, jury, and executioner to the truly evil in the supernatural realm.When the blackouts Cyn’s been having ever since her time in Sleepy Hollow start escalating, she finds herself unable to remember where she’s been or what she’s been doing. Frightened, she seeks guidance at a local church, and it’s there she meets Avian.The unlikely pair soon discovers that her blackouts are a side effect of what she truly is—an Echo—a conduit for souls of the dead. The only way to prevent Cyn from losing complete control is to return to Sleepy Hollow and vanquish the source of her power—but she may not survive the process. And if she does? She won’t ever be the same...