Teen Reads: Fantasy

Raisa of Upper Earth has only lived a life of privilege and acquiescence. Ever dutiful, she accepts her father's arrangement of her marriage to Lein, Crown Prince of the corrupt, volatile lands of Lower Earth. Though Lein is a stranger, Raisa knows the wedding will unite their vastly different worlds in a pact of peace: an infusion of Upper Earth technology will usher in the final age of enlightenment, ending war between humans forever. Or is justice more urgent? Newly released from imprisonment, Nada of Lower Earth has found her own calling: disrupting the royal wedding. Convinced her cousin Lein's alliance with Upper Earth will launch an invasive, terrifying form of tyranny, Nada sets out undercover to light the spark of revolution. When Raisa goes missing a week before the wedding, all eyes turn to the rebels, including Nayf, Nada's twin brother, a fugitive on the run. In Nayf and Raisa meeting, the long-simmering animosity between their worlds slowly burns away into something unexpected. But the Crown Prince wants his bride -- and future -- back. And he will go to the ends of the earths to reclaim them

When you grow up in a funeral home, death is just another part of life. But for Jaxon Santiago-Noble, it's also part of his family's legacy. Most dead bodies in the town of Jacob's Barrow wind up at Jaxon's house; his mom is the local mortician, after all. He doesn't usually pay them much mind, but when Christian Reyes is brought in after a car accident, Jaxon's world is turned upside down. There are a lot of things Jaxon wishes he could have said to his once best friend and first crush. When he accidentally resurrects Christian, Jaxon might finally have that chance. But the more he learns about his newfound necromancy, the more he grasps that Christian's running on borrowed time--and it's almost out. As he navigates dark, mysterious magics and family secrets, Jaxon realizes that stepping into an inherited power may also mean opening up old family wounds if he wants to keep the boy he may be falling for alive for good.

Jalissa and Kim Vasquez are cousins who move to the city of Los Aguaceros together. When a curious incident on the beach leaves them with supernatural powers and monsters start attacking the city, Kim decides that using their powers to stop them is the perfect way for them to become famous.

Elsa is used to hiding the most important parts of herself--her feelings for Rye, her distaste for a world ruled by men, and, most crucially, her gift of songlight. She buries that secret deep inside. In Brightland, those with songlight are called Unhumans and are abhorred. Rye is the only other person Elsa has known with songlight, and their shared bond has brought them together. Elsa's world begins to fall apart one desperate, heart-wrenching day and she doesn't know where to turn until a girl appears before her. But the girl isn't really there--her songlight has been drawn to Elsa's frantic grief. Elsa lives in a remote seaside village; Nightingale, her new friend, lives in a city hundreds of miles away with her father, a government official responsible for rooting out Unhumans. The two never expected to connect via songlight. But when they do, and when they realize the extent of their power, they'll be thrust in the middle of a war that threatens their very existence.

"Saoirse, tasked with bringing down the barrier around Keirdre and creating a more just society, uncovers a plot that threatens the entire kingdom.

Selected by the royal matchmaker to marry the crown prince, Ying Yue finds her husband-to-be stoic and infuriating, leading her to escape into a secret parallel world through palace mirrors where a kinder prince awaits, but the two worlds have a long andbloody history and Ying has a part to play in the future of both.

A cozy fantasy romance about a teen witch who must complete her magical training by breaking a powerful family's curse. But her own affliction--to never find true love--gets in the way when she falls for the girl she's trying to save.

Hazel Trépas has always known she wasn't like the rest of her siblings. A thirteenth child, promised away to one of the gods, she spends her childhood waiting for her godfather--Merrick, the Dreaded End--to arrive. When he does, he lays out exactly how he's planned Hazel's future. She will become a great healer, known throughout the kingdom for her precision and skill. To aid her endeavors, Merrick blesses Hazel with a gift, the ability to instantly deduce the exact cure needed to treat the sick. But all gifts come with a price. Hazel can see when Death has claimed a patient--when all hope is gone--and is tasked to end their suffering, permanently. Haunted by the ghosts of those she's killed, Hazel longs to run. But destiny brings her to the royal court, where she meets Leo, a rakish prince with a disdain for everything and everyone. And it's where Hazel faces her biggest dilemma yet--to save the life of a king marked to die. Hazel knows what she is meant to do and knows what her heart is urging her toward, but what will happen if she goes against the will of Death?

It's 1926 and reapers, the once-human vampires with a terrifying affliction, are on the rise in New York. But the Saint family's thriving reaper-hunting enterprise holds reign over the city, giving them more power than even the organized criminals who run the nightclubs. Eighteen year-old Elise Saint, home after five years in Paris, is the reluctant heir to the empire. Only one thing weighs heavier on Elise's mind than her family obligations: the knowledge that the Harlem reapers want her dead. Layla Quinn is a young reaper haunted by her past. Though reapers have existed in America for three centuries, created by New World atrocities and cruel experiments, Layla became one just five years ago. The night she was turned, she lost her parents, the protection of the Saints, and her humanity, and she'll never forget how Elise Saint betrayed her. But some reapers are inexplicably turning part human again, leaving a wake of mysterious and brutal killings. When Layla is framed for one of these attacks, the Saint patriarch offers her a deal she can't refuse: to work with Elise to investigate how these murders might be linked to shocking rumors of a reaper cure. Once close friends, now bitter enemies, Elise and Layla explore the city's underworld, confronting their intense feelings for one another and uncovering the sinister truths about a growing threat to reapers and humans alike.

In the kingdom of Fantome, where shade-magic is controlled by rival guilds, Seraphine seeks revenge for her mother's murder while navigating her forbidden attraction to Ransom, heir to the enemy guild, as they become embroiled in a power struggle for control of the city's underworld.

Told in multiple points of view, Quell confronts hidden secrets as she tries to find her mother, while assassin Jordon faces the dilemma of protecting the source of all magic by potentially destroying the girl he once loved, as their conflicting loyalties threaten the future of magic.

Fourteen short stories to revel in, that center faeries of varying genders and cultures.

Nineteen-year-old orphan Kidan Adane, heiress to a fallen House of humans tethered to vampiric creatures called draniacs, navigates her duty to foster human-draniac relations, but when her sister is kidnapped, Kidan suspects a draniac and will do anythingto find her.

When headstrong Blythe Hawthorne finds herself bound to the insufferable deity Fate, she begins to uncover the truth about their connection and her own astonishing powers.

Living in a Regency England beset with a mist that turns humans into monsters, Merrick is summoned home from London by her sister, but her sister has secret plans that may threaten their lives, and the lives of the ruling Manor families.

Cursed to haunt the river where she drowned, Gisela, a water nymph longing for humanity, strikes a deal with Kazik, a spirit-hunter losing his magic, to help her gain a mortal's kiss, but complications arise when both fall for Aleksey, an enigmatic young man with ties to Gisela's past.

When Selly and Prince Leander honor the Goddess Barrica, the ritual goes awry, and a now-possessed Leander needs Selly's fledgling magic skills as he also tries to prevent a devastating war between the gods.

Jane Vandermaker-Cook would like her mother back. As Jane's mother tours the world to support the family, Jane lives and goes to school in a Victorian mansion with her younger brother and their mendacious father who confines Jane's mother to a system of pneumatic tubes whenever she's at home. And then there's weirdly ever-present Aunt Finch, Milorad the gardener, and his rat, Brutus. For Jane, this all seems normal until she suddenly gains access to the files for a lifetime of security-camera videos--her lifetime.

Lila Rose Li arrives at her aunt's cottage with dashed dreams. For years, she pushed herself to become the perfect ballerina her parents would approve of, but after collapsing on stage, she snapped and lashed out violently. Now, exiled to Luna Island, with its sparkling blue waters and rose-covered boutiques, Lila struggles to believe that a girl like her-a natural disaster-deserves good and gentle things. As the islanders gear up for their beloved tradition, the Angel of the Sea pageant, Lila vows to remain on the sidelines. But the more she learns about the island's lore, the more she grows suspicious. Luna Island was nothing more than a failed fishing village before angels supposedly came and blessed them with abundance. The pageant is a competition to seek a High Priestess for their commune. To win is to be loved and adored by all, the ultimate blessing. However, the Angel of the Sea is supposed to reign for seven years, and the previous winner only reigned for one. Something is haunting the island, throwing off the balance the pageant ensures. And as an eerie voice calls to Lila, drawing her closer to the ocean-to its depths-she worries its haunting her, too. The only way to discover what's really going on, and protect herself, is to win the pageant. But how can a monstrous girl like her ever hope to be crowned by angels?

Before he can be reborn, Zan has spent 499 years bound in a 500-year curse to process souls for the monstrous Ferryman--and if he fails he dies. In Portland, Bastian is grieving. He survived a car accident that took his mother and impulse-purchased a crumbling bookstore with the life insurance money. But in sleep, death's mark keeps dragging Bastian into Zan's office. It shouldn't be a problem to log his soul and forget he ever existed. But when Zan follows Bastian through his memories of grief and hope, Zan realizes that he is not ready for Bastian to die. The boys borrow time hiding in the memories of the dead while the Ferryman hunts them, and Zan must decide if he's willing to give up his chance at life to save Bastian--and Bastian must decide if he's willing to keep living if it means losing Zan.

Kurara has barely escaped the grasp of Princess Tsukimi. Reeling from her Crafter mentor's grim betrayal, Kurara and her friends are desperate to catch up with their old airship, even if it means they have to do it on foot. But after everything she's been through, Kurara refuses to give up on understanding and freeing the shikigami, origami creatures enchanted to life, nor will she stop at anything to understand her mysterious past, no matter who tries to interfere . . . or what dark truths about her role in the war may surface, the farther south she goes. Her goal is the Grand Stream, where Suzaku, the greatest shikigami of all, likes in furious wait. But Kurara isn't the only one searching for Suzaku. Traveling through forests, seas and the ruins of an underground Crafter city, there is no shortage of enemies who wish to control Kurara and the shikigami of the world for their own ends. When a bloody confrontation leads to horrifying revelations about the true nature of shikigami and Kurara's past, Kurara will need all the support she can muster just to carry on.

Sally has mostly loved her creepy hometown of Halloween Town. But lately, she can't help but want something more. She knows she could do so much more if she wasn't always stuck in the lab of her creator, Dr. Finkelstein. Soon Sally is surprised to learn that the Pumpkin King, Jack, is longing for a change of his own. Determined to find a solution for them both, Sally follows a vision that could be the key to changing their fates. But the more time Sally spends in the strange, jolly land of Christmas Town, the more suspicious she grows of the seemingly idyllic winter wonderland. What is lurking behind those dancing sugar plums? And what exactly does it mean to be put on the Naughty List? Will Sally be able to save the best of both towns--before it's too late?

What happens when a struggling witch meets an angsty vampire? Either love or war. Morgana belongs to a long line of witches, and Oz to the rival vampire clan. After a chance encounter . . . and maybe a few stray spells . . . these two need to find a way to work together, or risk all-out war between coven and clan. It's a Romeo and Juliet story where a boy and a girl from two rival clans, one a vampire and one a witch, meet cute, like each other, but then the girl makes a serious mistake and turns the boy into a cute kitty.

The mythical Vase of Venus Aurelia hasn't been seen since 1932, but Margot Rhodes is determined to change that. Drawn by the vase's supposed magical properties, Margot embarks on her school's archaeological trip to Pompeii. Sure, it's her first time holding a shovel, but she's got something no one else does: lost teenage explorer Van Keane's journal. Poring over the poetic entries that serve as a map to the vase's missing shards, Margot finds herself falling in love with the boy who wrote it a century ago. She's shocked when her search leads her to a statue that looks exactly like Van, and then the statue comes to life. Catapulted into the present, Van is nothing like the wordsmith Margot imagined. He's all sharp edges, intent on retrieving the relic for all the wrong reasons. But it takes two to survive Venus's death-defying challenges, and, together, Margot and Van must excavate the treasure--and their buried pasts--before their story ends in ruins.

Wren grapples with the revelation that her mother is the Corpse Queen, and must navigate treacherous alliances and the return of her long-lost twin brother in order to stop her father and mother and prevent war in the Dominions.

The Empire Wars is a powerful new YA fantasy in which magic may be a young woman's only hope for survival. Coa, who was born feral in the North Transatlantic wilds, has been captured. Now, Coa is subject to public humiliation and execution in a gruesome spectacle known as the Great Hunt. If participators die in the Great Hunt, their entire families will be executed--in front of everyone. The nationalist regime known as the Allied Force will not rest until all foreigners are exterminated. Coa's best hope of survival might be Princess Ife--born of privilege but newly married into the authoritarian lineage. Her riskier choice is an alliance with a gorgeous, cunning fellow participator, marked as a traitor to his militarized nation. Coa entangles herself with the captivating young man but soon finds he could be her ultimate downfall.

Fritzi is a champion. After escaping the clutches of Dieter Kirch, the sadistic leader of the witch hunters, Fritzi and Otto have taken refuge among the witches of the Black Forest. Fritzi is finally ready to assume her place on the council as the coven's goddess-chosen champion. Plagued by distrust and self-doubt, Fritzi throws herself into her duty to serve the goddesses . . . until she uncovers a powerful secret that could mean the very undoing of magic itself. Otto is a warrior. He swears himself to Fritzi as her bonded protector, certain the peaceful unity of a witch and hunter will heal the wounds he helped make. But as the horrifying plot that threatens the Black Forest's magic comes to light, Otto will have to face his both his past and what it means to bind himself to a magic he does not fully understand. Shadows loom. Truths are revealed. And as dangers new and old arise, Fritzi and Otto must stand together against everything that threatens magic--even if the biggest threat might be the very bond they share.

Seventeen-year-old Nell knows two things for sure--she's never going to get out of her rural, dead-end hometown of Clawson, NY and her best friend Stevie B and longtime boyfriend Cole are never going to leave her. That is until Charlotte, a new girl, arrives at their school and their lopsided friend triangle is turned on its axis. While Nell and Stevie B are certain that Charlotte isn't who she says she is, Cole is caught fully in her thrall. There are secret calls and meetings between the two, and Nell knows Cole is keeping something big from her. Now, for the first time in their lives, Nell worries she could lose Cole. When Nell and Stevie B finally confront Cole and Charlotte, they learn the impossible--Charlotte is actually from the future, and for life altering reasons none of them could have imagined, she wants Cole to jump to the future with her, leaving Nell behind. It's dangerous, it's reckless, but Charlotte convinces them that it's the only choice they have. The trio's future has always seemed set--but with the knowledge that time travel is real, and with a multiverse of futures before them, they now have the option to live lives they could have only dreamed about. The only questions are, who will take the leap and who will be left behind?

Nicole Palmer and her family have been in hiding for years from the Wake--a shadowy organization that governs all supernatural creatures. If the Wake discovers that Nicole is an Empyreal--a rare kind of creature that can shapeshift into any creature's natural predator--they'll force her to join them or kill her for resisting. Like they did her mother. Nicole is close to uncovering a secret message hidden in a supernatural art collection--a message from her mother about how to destroy the Wake for good. But when the collector is murdered and a key painting stolen, the Wake sends their best Empyreal assassin to track down the dangerous creature on the loose. Kyan McCarter is handsome, perceptive, and the last person Nicole wants to work with to find the stolen painting. Their search sparks a powerful connection between them, but if Kyan finds out that Nicole is a rogue Empyreal, he'll have no choice but to hunt her next. After all, no one disobeys the Wake and survives.

Within Tiveden Forest, bloodthirsty monsters known as draugr lurk behind every tree, and secrets run through the soil like twisted roots. When her grandmother vanishes into the forest, Astrid won't let Crohn's disease get in the way of finding her. But in searching for her lost loved one, Astrid soon uncovers an even greater mystery: A conflict that's haunted her village and family for generations. An ancient blood oath her ancestor made to protect them. A deadly draugr imprisoned for centuries...who Astrid accidentally awakens. Newly revived, Soren first mistakes Astrid for her ancestor, his ex-lover turned enemy. Astrid can't tell if he would rather kill her or kiss her. But Soren knows the forest better than anyone, and Astrid quickly realizes that she'll need his help to rescue her grandmother. The deeper they venture into Tiveden, the closer Astrid gets to the cold, alluring Soren and the truth behind her grandmother's disappearance. To save her home, a dark ritual must be performed before Midwinter--and only Astrid can fulfill her ancestor's blood oath...or break it. That is, if Soren--or the forest--doesn't break Astrid first.

Told in alternating voices, three teens, whose fates intertwine to stop the murder of innocent children, journey across two warring nations to ensure a better future for their people.

Transgender demigod Teo and his friends must battle the Obsidian gods and steal back the sun stone in order to free their fellow semidioses and return Sol to the sky.