What to get for the book lover in your life? Here are some of Hypable’s top picks in the Young Adult Fantasy novel category. Check back all week as we will be highlighting books in different categories each day including Picture and Middle Grade books.

 

Young Adult Fantasy Books

‘The Queen’s Thief’ series by Megan Whalen Turner

The Thief- The king’s scholar, the magus, believes he knows the site of an ancient treasure. To attain it for his king, he needs a skillful thief, and he selects Gen from the king’s prison. The magus is interested only in the thief’s abilities; what Gen is interested in is anyone’s guess. Gen and the magus’s journey toward the treasure is both dangerous and difficult, lightened only imperceptibly by the tales they tell of the old gods and goddesses. The first in a sequence of richly imagined, carefully nuanced fantasy novels, The Thief and subsequent installments will engage readers of all ages and demand to be revisited once the last page is turned.

Followed by: The Queen of Attolia, The King of Attolia, A Conspiracy of Kings

‘The Daughter of Smoke and Bone’ by Lainie Taylor

Karou is a young art student living in Prague; she is also an enigma. With her strange proliferation of tattoos, uncanny knack for granting wishes, and lapis-blue hair which never seems to need a touch-up, Karou is a mystery to those who know her– and a threat to those who do not. When her paths cross with an otherworldly seraph named Akiva all the strange and discordant threads of Karou’s life begin to unravel as she discovers the truth about her past, her present, and her future. Gorgeously written and brimming with unrivaled imagination, The Daughter of Smoke and Bone deftly draws readers through accelerating surprises, and leaves them wishing for more.

Followed by: Days of Blood and Starlight

‘The Girl of Fire and Thorns’ by Rae Carson

The Girl of Fire and Thorns has an immediately-engaging, rich, thought-out world. From castles to jungles to hillsides to desert, the world building is filled with texture and life. Elisa is the chosen one. But she is also the younger of two princesses, the one who has never done anything remarkable. She can’t see how she ever will. Elisa represents a different kind of heroine—a little overweight, studious, lacking in self-confidence and her story is one of transformation and self discovery.

Followed by: Crown of Embers

‘Lumatere Chronicles’ by Melina Marchetta

Finnikin of the Rock and his guardian, Sir Topher, have not been home to their beloved Lumatere for ten years. Not since the dark days when the royal family was murdered and the kingdom put under a terrible curse. But then Finnikin is summoned to meet Evanjalin, a young woman with an incredible claim: the heir to the throne of Lumatere, Prince Balthazar, is alive.

Followed by: Froi of the Exiles

‘Defiance’ by CJ Redwine

Within the walls of Baalboden, beneath the shadow of the city’s brutal leader, Rachel Adams has a secret. While other girls sew dresses and obey their male Protectors, Rachel knows how to survive in the wilderness and deftly wield a sword. When her father, Jared, fails to return from a courier mission and is declared dead, the Commander assigns Rachel a new Protector, her father’s apprentice, Logan-the same boy Rachel declared her love for two years ago, and the same one who handed her heart right back to her. Left with nothing but a fierce belief in her father’s survival, Rachel decides to escape and find him herself. But treason against the Commander carries a heavy price, and what awaits her in the Wasteland could destroy her.

‘Eon’ by Alison Goodman

Eon has been studying the ancient art of Dragon Magic for four years, hoping he’ll be able to apprentice to one of the twelve energy dragons of good fortune. But he also has a dark secret. He is actually Eona, a sixteen-year-old girl who has been living a dangerous lie for the chance to become a Dragon-eye, the human link to an energy dragon’s power. It is forbidden for females to practice the Dragon Magic and, if discovered, Eon faces a terrible death. After a dazzling sword ceremony, Eon’s affinity with the twelve dragons catapults him into the treacherous world of the Imperial court, where he makes a powerful enemy, Lord Ido.

Followed by: Eona

‘For Darkness Shows the Stars’ by Diane Peterfreund

A brilliant retelling of Jane Austen’s Persuasion set in a future where technology is banned. Generations early a genetic experiment decimates humanity and gives rise to a Luddite nobility. Elliot North has done everything for her family including giving up her true love Kai. Now Kai has returned successful and full of secrets. For Darkness Shows the Stars is a breathtaking romance about opening your mind to the future and your heart to the one person you know can break it.

‘Grave Mercy’ by Robin Lafevers

Seventeen-year-old Ismae escapes from the brutality of an arranged marriage into the sanctuary of the convent of St. Mortain, where the sisters still serve the gods of old. Here she learns that the god of Death Himself has blessed her with dangerous gifts—and a violent destiny. If she chooses to stay at the convent, she will be trained as an assassin and serve as a handmaiden to Death. To claim her new life, she must destroy the lives of others.

‘Shadow and Bone’ by Leigh Bardugo

Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life—a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling.

Yet nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. With darkness looming and an entire kingdom depending on her untamed power, Alina will have to confront the secrets of the Grisha…and the secrets of her heart.

‘Seven Realms Series’ by Cinda Williams Chima

Times are hard in the mountain city of Fellsmarch, and reformed thief Han Alister must rely on all his skills to provide for his mother and his sister.

While out hunting one day, Han and his Clan friend, Dancer, discover three young wizards using a magical amulet to set fire to the sacred mountain of Hanalea. Han wrestles it from them, but without realising that his heroism has put him and his family in great danger. For the young arsonist is Micah Bayar, son of the High Wizard, and the amulet a treasure with immense power; it once belonged to the Demon King, the legendary wizard who nearly destroyed the world a millennium ago. The Bayars will stop at nothing to get it back.

Followed by: The Exiled Queen, The Gray Wolf Throne, The Crimson Crown