Published in 2015, V. E. Schwab’s A Darker Shade of Magic is a young adult fantasy novel and the first installment of the Shades of Magic series. Kell Maresh, one of the last Antari magicians, possesses the rare ability to travel between parallel worlds. When a dangerous artifact from a forbidden realm falls into Kell’s possession, he and a thief named Lila Bard become entangled in a perilous adventure. The novel—which received a Goodreads Choice... Read A Darker Shade of Magic Summary

Initially self-published in 2020, A Game of Fate is a fantasy romance novel by Scarlett St. Clair. The book accompanies the author’s popular Hades x Persephone saga but is the first in a parallel subseries, retelling the events of the first book, A Touch of Darkness, from the perspective of Hades, the god of the Underworld. Set in a modern world where Greek deities live among mortals, the story follows Hades after he discovers that... Read A Game of Fate Summary

A Little Life, published in 2015, is the second novel by American author Hanya Yanagihara. Shortlisted for the 2015 Man Booker Prize, it was both a critical success and a best seller. The novel explores the life of Jude St. Francis, a talented and successful lawyer in New York City, as he struggles to cope with his traumatic childhood. Though it explores many themes, it is first and foremost a meditation on the psychology of... Read A Little Life Summary

All the Bright Places (2015) is a young adult novel with elements of romance written by Jennifer Niven that deals with the topic of teen suicide. The book was winner of the Goodreads Choice award and has become a popular read among the BookTok community. Niven tells the story from two different voices, those of high school students Theodore Finch (who goes by “Finch”) and Violet Markey. The characters first meet at the top of their... Read All The Bright Places Summary

All the Light We Cannot See is a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Anthony Doerr published in 2014. This historical fiction novel alternates between the lives of its two central characters: Marie-Laure Leblanc, a girl who grows up in Paris and loses her eyesight to cataracts at age six, and Werner Pfennig, a boy from a German mining town who joins the Nazi military to escape working in the mines.In August 1944, Marie-Laure and Werner are... Read All the Light We Cannot See Summary

Book DetailAn Ember in the Ashes, published by Razorbill in 2015, is the first in Sabaa Tahir's An Ember in the Ashes series. The novel debuted at number two on the young adult New York Times best seller list and was also a USA Today and international bestselling book. In addition, TIME magazine named it one of the 100 Best Fantasy Books of all Time. It won the People’s Choice Award for favorite fantasy in... Read An Ember in the Ashes Summary

A Not So Meet Cute is a 2021 novel by Meghan Quinn, a prolific contemporary writer. Quinn has penned dozens of romances, many of which fall within the romantic comedy subgenre, including this novel. It is a USA Today bestseller that takes inspiration from the 1990 film Pretty Woman. In it, a young woman named Lottie is coerced into an arrangement with the handsome, wealthy businessman Huxley Cane wherein she pretends to be his pregnant... Read A Not So Meet Cute Summary

Apprentice to the Villain (2024) by Hannah Nicole Maehrer is the sequel to her 2023 novel Assistant to the Villain, which became a New York Times bestseller and a Goodreads Choice Award finalist. The series is inspired by Maehrer’s viral TikTok series that launched her writing career. Both works blend the genres of adult fantasy with romantic workplace comedy, exploring the complexities of morality, power dynamics, and the blurry line between good and evil. Building... Read Apprentice to the Villain Summary

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz is a young adult fiction novel published in 2012. The novel won a Lambda Literary Award, a Pura Belpre Award, and a Stonewall Book Award. It was also named a Printz Honor Book and has achieved popularity on BookTok. Told from a first-person point of view, the book is a work of realistic fiction set in El Paso, Texas, in the late... Read Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe Summary

A Ruin of Roses by K.F. Breene (Hazy Dawn Press, Inc, 2021) is the first installment of the Deliciously Dark Fairy Tales series, followed by A Throne of Ruin. The novel retells the classic fairy tale Beauty and the Beast through a modern lens, offering commentary on societal norms, gender roles, and trauma. K.F. Breene has appeared on the bestseller lists of The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Washington Post, and Amazon. She has... Read A Ruin of Roses Summary

A Short Stay in Hell is a 2009 thriller fantasy novella by Steven L. Peck, a professor of biology at Brigham Young University, whose literary works are widely acclaimed within Mormon literary circles. It follows Soren Johansson, a devout Mormon who, upon his own death, discovers that Zoroastrianism is the “one true religion” and is temporarily sent to Hell for his lifelong belief in the wrong religion (7). His hell takes the form of a... Read A Short Stay in Hell Summary

Assassin’s Apprentice is a 1995 high fantasy novel by Robin Hobb, the pseudonym of Margaret Ogden. It is the first novel in the Farseer trilogy, followed by Royal Assassin and Assassin’s Quest; the Farseer trilogy was in turn followed by the Liveship Traders trilogy, the Tawny Man trilogy, the Rain Wilds Chronicles, and the Fitz and the Fool trilogy. These collections, all comprising the overall series called The Realm of the Elderlings, total 16 novels... Read Assassin's Apprentice Summary

A Thousand Splendid Suns is a 2007 novel by Afghan-born Khaled Hosseini, who was granted asylum in the US as a child during the Soviet-Afghan War in 1980. It is the story of Mariam and Laila, two women married to the same man, Rasheed, while the Taliban comes to power. The novel was chosen as one of the American Library Associations’ Best Books for Young Adults in 2008, was number one on the New York... Read A Thousand Splendid Suns Summary

A Touch of Darkness is the first novel in the Hades X Persephone Saga written by Scarlett St. Clair. The romance novel follows young Persephone, the Goddess of Spring, as she poses as a mortal and becomes entangled with Hades, the God of the Underworld. As their relationship blooms, Persephone challenges her preconceived notions of power, love, and worship. The novel is also popular among the BookTok community. Other books in the series include A... Read A Touch of Darkness Summary

A Touch of Ruin is the second book in the New York Times and USA Today best-selling Hades x Persephone series (the first being A Touch of Darkness) by Scarlett St. Clair, who is a citizen of the Muscogee Nation. In a modern New Athens where the Olympian gods have the status of wealthy celebrities, Persephone, a young woman still learning the extent of her power as the Goddess of Spring, navigates her career as... Read A Touch of Ruin Summary

The original Japanese version of Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s Before the Coffee Gets Cold hit the shelves in 2015, with the English translation by Geoffrey Trousselot being published in 2019 by Picador. In 2018, the novel was adapted into a film called Café Funiculi Funicula, and in October 2021, SK Global and the Jackal Group were set to develop a television series based on the novel. Before the Coffee Gets Cold is also a popular BookTok book.Prior... Read Before the Coffee Gets Cold Summary

Betty by Tiffany McDaniel is a novel based on the childhood of the author’s mother, Betty. The story is fictional but loosely tied to McDaniel’s mother’s real life, even using the names of her family members. McDaniel grew up in Circleville, Ohio, a town similar to the fictional Breathed where the novel takes place. Betty was originally published in 2020 by Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. This guide refers to the Kindle edition published in 2020... Read Betty Summary

Binding 13 by Chloe Walsh, first published in 2018, is the first novel in The Boys of Tommen series. A new adult romance novel, it explores the relationship between Shannon Lynch and Johnny Kavanagh, two teenagers living in rural Ireland. Shannon deals with emotional and physical abuse from her father as well as bullying from her peers, while Johnny is the star of the school’s rugby team with dreams of playing for the Irish national... Read Binding 13 Summary

Birthday Girl (2018) by Penelope Douglas is a racy age-gap romance for adult readers and features taboo themes and steamy sequences. The novel tells the story of 19-year-old Jordan Hadley, who, along with her boyfriend, Cole, is forced to move in with Cole’s father, the handsome and controlling Pike Lawson. As Cole drifts apart from Jordan, Jordan and Pike experience an intense attraction. Torn over his desire for the much younger woman, Pike fears that... Read Birthday Girl Summary

Cora Reilly’s novel Bound by Honor (2014) is a mafia romance and the first installment in the Born in Blood Mafia Chronicles series. The story follows Aria Scuderi, the daughter of a high-ranking member of the Chicago Outfit, who is forced into an arranged marriage with Luca Vitiello, the fearsome future head of the New York Famiglia. The union is a political maneuver designed to create peace between the rival crime families, forcing Aria to... Read Bound by Honor Summary