67 books like The Mortal Instruments

Although heists and team-driven stories are difficult to mess up, I rarely find a gem with fun, snarky, and interesting characters like those delivered by Bardugo.

Clever banter effortlessly drives the storyline from beginning to end. When you start to feel the characters are proving to be one-dimensional and predictable, they begin to change and evolve (albeit a bit slowly for my tastes), which made for a surprisingly satisfying read (I’m including book two in this observation).

Worldbuilding is intelligent enough to keep you trusting the author when you grow concerned that the ending will be unrealistically implausible. Okay, maybe that last observation is my personal pet peeve with modern authors, but Six of Crows pulled off the credibility factor reasonably well.

Marie Lu knows how to craft an adventure and the premise of The Young Elites is fascinating: what if the hero of the story might be a villain?

The struggles of this novel’s characters draw the reader in and never flag in their authenticity. The world is brutal and beautiful with Lu keeping readers on their toes every step of the way. 

This is my all-time favorite of the Twilight series. The fantasy in this book was mystical, and I did not put the book down. I wanted to know more about Edward and how he eventually expressed his love for Isabella.

The descriptions in the book really allowed your imagination to flow. The love expressed between two people was to die for. 

I love Anita Blake, the feisty, insecure, kick-butt heroine of this story. She’s everything I want in a protagonist: Strong and clever enough to solve her own problems, naive enough to think that will always be the case, and a stranger to her own heart. Lots of room for growth. And grow, she does.

This book (and series) lean more toward the paranormal romance side of urban fantasy, but it also has a dark and gritty noir feel that walks the line of horror. This genre mash-up checked all the boxes for me, keeping me invested in the characters, the world, and the heart-pounding plot.

This book took me into an amazing and often terrifying world. It was absolutely fascinating—the way the town worked and all the rules. I loved being a newcomer in Morganville, along with the main character, Claire. I loved seeing her grow into herself, become more confident, and so very clever. I also loved the dynamics between Claire and her roommates and the relationships that bloomed between them. So many characters are amazing or fear-inducing, and some are both, but none are more swoon-worthy than Shane and Michael.

Claire encounters many dark, dangerous, and heart-wrenching moments throughout the series, and I was engrossed in each one, holding my breath at times and laughing out loud at others. I really love this series, and it’s another that’s stayed with me vividly.

I was obsessed when I read ACOTAR, but this book brought my obsession to a whole new level. Why am I recommending this book? Rhysand. I love a complex, layered character, and he is one complicated male.

What I loved most about this book is that it started out going in one direction but then spun on its axis and went in a totally different direction than I anticipated. When a book can surprise me in every way, that’s special.

I. Love. This. Book.

The only Young Adult book on this list but firmly deserving of its place, this book is the perfect example of how to successfully blend science fiction and fantasy. 

Colfer takes a traditional fantasy fairy society and gives them advanced weaponry, surveillance gadgets, and time-stopping devices. It works incredibly well, and through convincing world-building I was immediately bought into the idea of fantasy creatures with sci-fi technology. 

A standout feature of the novel is the characters, whose backstories, motivations, and behaviours all help to build this science fantasy world. We get an elf “LEPRecon” officer with access to bionic wings, a centaur who heads the technology department of the “Lower Elements Police,” and a dwarven thief who sells stolen human property on the black market. They were all enormously fun to read.

In this book’s setting, firstborns rule, secondborns are government property, and thirdborns are non-existent. This story follows Roselle St. Sismode, a secondborn, and her journey into the next phase of her life as an adult as a soldier in the Fate of Swords military branch during a bloody rebellion. Being the daughter of a high-ranking firstborn mother and father, her privileges earn her the ire of some of the other soldiers in her command post, making her transition less than ideal, and her decision to spare an enemy on the battlefield puts an even larger target on her back. This puts her on a path that she’d never imagined she’d find herself on, working against her command and even her own family to fight for what she believes is right and bring justice to the secondborns of the world.

This story resonated with me on a personal level. Going against… show more.

Ryan Carroll is a young woman who has recently moved back home to rural Mississippi to live in her childhood home. A home where, as a young child, she became lost in the surrounding woods one winter night and was saved by a mysterious young man who was gone by the time rescuers were able to find her. All these years later, she finds she is irresistibly drawn to these woods.

I love it when a character can feel a calling to something, and they follow that instinct, which leads them to an epic adventure. One day, while she is taking a dip in a pond tucked back into the thick of these woods, she sees him, the boy who saved her. She soon learns that there is an entire secret world hidden in the woods surrounding her childhood home, and it’s not one populated by humans. Once this story… show more.

I can tell you I CONSUMED this series; it was delicious in all ways!

Fallen angels who thrive on being bad influences, yes, please! It gave me all the bad boy trope feels! Kaidan Rowe had me hooked from the moment he entered the scene. Then you have the good girl Anna, who is just prime for corruption! Honestly, I adored the tension between the two.

High stakes! Twist on Nephilim. A must-read, in my opinion!