Book picks similar to
First Shift by J.L. Weil


fantasy
shifters
shifter
young-adult

Vampire's Kiss


Ella Summers - 2016
     Leda Pierce is working as a paranormal bounty hunter on the Frontier, the dividing line between human civilization and the plains of monsters. Life is simple and the pay modest, but at least she has her family. That is, until a vampire hunt goes wrong and her brother goes missing, captured by the dark angels of hell. With no magical powers of her own and no way to find him, Leda’s only option is to go to New York and join the Legion of Angels, an elite unit of supernatural soldiers with powers gifted to them by the gods themselves. If she can survive long enough to make it up the ranks, she will gain the magic she needs to find her brother. But Leda soon finds herself on the wrong side of a conspiracy that will shake up the supernatural world—and at the mercy of a fiercely powerful and tempting angel.

Descendants Academy


Belle Malory - 2020
    Monsters. Super sexy gladiators. Welcome to Arcadia, where bloodlines are divided and power reigns supreme.It all starts after I try to kill my sister…I know, I know. What a terrible thing to do. I have issues, okay? The magical kind. AKA, I'm cursed. I'm also a descendant of Ares, the God of War. Except he wasn’t really a god, just a regular dude with supernatural powers.Since my family no longer trusts me, they ship me off to a place called Arcadia, or the academy for descendants. Full of booby traps, plotting professors, and conniving students, this place is not for the faint of heart. This one gladiator, Xander, is sort of, almost nice to me, but even he wants to keep our friendship or whatever it is a secret. The worst part? In order to manage my violent bloodlust, the Fates decide I’m better off in House Aphrodite. Yep, the Goddess of Love. Eck. My soul craves something more, something fierce, and love magic is not it. If I’m going to survive this place, there’s a lot I need to learn. Starting with figuring out where I belong. Choose a side.Choose a house.Choose a magic.Descendants Academy is an upper Young Adult Fantasy series with a slow-burn romance. This is Book One of three: Descendants Academy, Deviant Descendants (September 2020), and Eternal Descendants.

Some Girls Bite


Chloe Neill - 2009
    They healed me. They changed me.Sure, the life of a graduate student wasn’t exactly glamorous, but it was Merit’s. She was doing fine until a rogue vampire attacked her. But he only got a sip before he was scared away by another bloodsucker–and this one decided the best way to save her life was to make her the walking undead.Turns out her savior was the master vampire of Cadogan House. Now she’s traded sweating over her thesis for learning to fit in at a Hyde Park mansion full of vamps loyal to Ethan Sullivan. Of course, as a tall, green-eyed, four-hundred-year-old vampire, he has centuries’ worth of charm, but unfortunately, he expects her gratitude–and servitude.But an inconvenient sunlight allergy and Ethan’s attitude are the least of her concerns. Someone’s still out to get her. Her initiation into Chicago’s nightlife may be the first skirmish in a war–and there will be blood.

The Prophecy


Kylie Price - 2014
    But a prophecy foretold thousands of years before her birth is about to come into play.‘A time will come when the final descendent will rise, and you will be forced out of hiding. On the first hour of her eighteenth birthday, she will be scratched by the beast. In the final hour, bitten by the monster.’The road to adulthood has never been easy, but Trinity’s is beset with secrets and lies, warring worlds, and impossible choices. Yet there is one choice that will change everything: will she become the beast or the monster?

The Wilds


Donna Augustine - 2015
    When the virus first hit the world, it ravaged the human race. I thought I was lucky to survive it but survival comes at a cost. Ever since the sickness, I see things and I’m hunted for these visions. Some seek me out because they want to keep their secrets safe. They don’t want the world to know the truth of what they are. Others, like Dax, want my knowledge. Dax has secrets of his own but as long as he helps me evade the Dark Walkers, he can keep them. This book is for all the Plaguers, the truth sayers branded and marked as liars, often hunted and sometimes forgotten. This book is for the girl who was right.

Magic Bites


Ilona Andrews - 2007
    But then technology returns, and the magic recedes as unpredictably as it arose, leaving all kinds of paranormal problems in its wake.Kate Daniels is a down-on-her-luck mercenary who makes her living cleaning up these magical problems. But when Kate’s guardian is murdered, her quest for justice draws her into a power struggle between two strong factions within Atlanta’s magic circles.The Masters of the Dead, necromancers who can control vampires, and the Pack, a paramilitary clan of shapechangers, blame each other for a series of bizarre killings—and the death of Kate’s guardian may be part of the same mystery. Pressured by both sides to find the killer, Kate realizes she’s way out of her league—but she wouldn’t have it any other way…

Becoming Alpha


Aileen Erin - 2013
    Then again, it isn’t easy for a girl with visions to ignore what she sees. Luckily Tessa and her family are leaving California and moving halfway across the country, giving her the perfect opportunity to leave her reputation as “Freaky Tessa” behind. But Tessa doesn’t realize that kissing the wrong guy in her new Texas town could land her in far more trouble than she ever imagined. Like being forced to attend St. Ailbe’s Academy, a secret boarding school for werewolves. Even if the wrong guy did accidentally turn her into one of “them” and doom her to attending the weirdest high school ever, Tessa can’t help her growing attraction to the mysterious Dastien Laurent.When vampires attack St. Alibe’s and her visions pinpoint an enemy in their midst, Tessa realizes that boy drama and her newfound canine tendencies might just be the least of her problems.

V Games


Caroline Peckham - 2017
    But with her stepfather's blood fresh on her hands, she finds herself walking into an eight by six prison cell where she'll live out the next twenty five years of her life.Or so she thought...When a man as beautiful as he is terrifying walks into the prison, Selena is the only one seemingly unaffected by his charms. But Varick's impossibly dark eyes are trained on her and her alone, frightening Selena of what his presence forewarns. It's not long before she finds out as she wakes on a ship in the dead of night, a captive of the forbidding Varick who seems more beast than man.But when she arrives at a barren and isolated island in the stormy north sea, she soon realises that the obnoxious Varick may be her only hope of survival. Because, in a place where polar night reigns for the next six months, a powerful and cruel family are about to start this year's season of the V Games. And Selena is marked to participate in the blood sport, hunted by ravenous vampires and surviving the harsh terrain of the bleak island. And, not only that, but Selena just became the highest bid on contestant in a century...Find out why in Book 1 of the V Games Trilogy - 0.99 release price for a limited time only!

Alice in Demonland


RaShelle Workman - 2018
    That means no distractions, especially not from the gorgeous Kade Everett. He's a warrior at the compound with secrets she wants to discover, but doing so might cost her life.In the last millennia a deadly game has raged between demons and their half-human creations. Known as Moths, a select few were born with distinctive marks on their hands. They possess the same powers as their demon parent. Over the years an elite group of warriors formed The Dark Moth Society. Their sole purpose to slay their demon sires. Alice Blackburn is a Dark Moth trainee. Some of her classmates call her the Queen of Hearts because she doesn’t share hers. So when Kade Everett shows up at the compound, Alice is surprised by her feelings. But there isn't time to act on them. In just a few days, her creator, the foul demon that slaughtered her mom will come to kill her. That’s part of their sick and twisted game, and Alice intends to win. ___DEMONLAND SERIES:Alice in Demonland Alice Fights Demonland Alice Takes Demonland Alice Ignites Demonland (coming 6/2020)

Relentless


Karen Lynch - 2013
    Now at seventeen, she is still haunted by memories of that day and driven by the need to understand why it happened. She lives a life full of secrets and her family and friends have no idea of the supernatural world she is immersed in or of Sara’s own very powerful gift.In her quest for answers about her father’s death, Sara takes risks that expose her and her friends to danger and puts herself into the sights of a sadistic vampire. On the same fateful night she meets Nikolas, a warrior who turns Sara’s world upside down and is determined to protect her even if it’s the last thing she wants.Sara’s life starts to spin out of control as she is hunted by an obsessed vampire, learns that her friends have secrets of their own and reels from the truth about her own ancestry. Sara has always been fiercely independent but in order to survive now she must open herself to others, to reveal her deepest secrets. And she must learn to trust the one person capable of breaking down the walls around her.

Midnight Poison


A. Kirk - 2017
    No Mind. No Mercy. Kiara Blackwood has a few problems.She's older than she looks - by several centuries. She can't remember who she is. She doesn't know why she's the target of Oleander, an immortal serial killer, or why she's held prisoner by the undead, or where to find the Midnight Poison, the one thing that could grant her freedom. And best of all, her psych meds have stopped working, because, oh yeah, she's borderline insane. Well, maybe not so borderline.When Oleander's killing spree threatens to rip the supernatural world apart, Kiara has no choice but to hunt him down. Forced to rely on a dashing vampire with questionable motives, she plunges into a world of lies, betrayal, deadly deceptions, and secrets that could tear what's left of her mind to shreds. And because that's such a piece of cake, while she's at it, she might as well search for the Midnight Poison, that legendary potion she can't remember creating, let alone hiding. Well...Crazy or not, here she comes.A&E Kirk, bestselling authors of the #1 Divinicus Nex Chronicles, have created a new series with all the usual action, adventure, and laugh-out-loud humor fans love, plus they've added a bit of dark, twisted, and dangerous.Be brave. Try some Midnight Poison. Lethal to the last drop.To all our amazing fans, we just wanted to mention that Midnight Poison has a bit more language and sexuality than the Divinicus Nex Chronicles, but other than that, you can expect the same type of exciting roller-coaster ride of action, suspense, and fun!

Playing with Fire


Gena Showalter - 2006
    . .Used to be my greatest achievement was holding a job more than three days. Now suddenly I can shoot fireballs, chill your drink, or blow-dry your hair at fifty paces with a blink of my eye! It all started when this crazy scientist dropped something in my Grande Mocha Latte. Of course I got wicked sick. Next morning I'm waking up with this total hottie bending over me. He tells me 1)his name's Rome Masters, 2)he's a government agent and 3)I can control the four elements with a thought. He seems even less pleased by my (apparently irreversible) transformation than I am . . . Because now he'll have to kill me.

Vampires Rule


K.C. Blake - 2011
    Unhappy as a vampire and forever stuck at age 17, he dreams of a life without fangs. So when a freak event gives him back his mortality, he sees it as a second chance to be normal. But what's normal about a werewolf English teacher, a girlfriend who is the werewolf hunter, and a brother that can't decide if he should welcome Jack home or stake him through the heart to be on the safe side?  Vampires just got fun again.(Alternate cover edition can be found here.)

Red


Kait Nolan - 2011
    Any day, she'll become a wolf and succumb to the violence that's cursed her family for centuries. For seventeen years she's hidden who and what she is. But now someone knows the truth and is determined to exterminate her family line. Living on borrowed time in the midst of this dangerous game of hide and seek, the last thing Elodie needs is to do is fall in love. But Sawyer is determined to protect her, and the brooding, angry boy is more than what he seems. Can they outsmart a madman? And if they survive, will they find a way to beat the curse for good?

No Remorse


MaryLynn Bast - 2012
    On the run since childhood, the lone wolf avoids contact with other werewolves at all cost, continually moving, constantly looking over her shoulder and always alone. Everything changes when Amber saves a werewolf from the mere brink of death, Blake, the only werewolf to ever protect her. Love blossoms, but not without tribulations when Amber realizes she must help her new pack rescue a member who is being held hostage by a rival pack. Warring with emotions of going from lone wolf to the pack leader's mate, Amber must decide if she is willing to risk Blake's life to know true family and friendship despite the fact that the Council is hell bent on locating her and will stop at nothing until she is found. Will Amber's special abilities be enough to keep everyone safe?