by Daniella DeMauro

As any avid book reader knows, sometimes the hardest part about loving to read is finishing your book and figuring out what new adventure to move on to. If that is the case with you, here are a variety of interesting books you might want to check out:

A Court of Thorns and Roses

A Court of Thorns and Roses is a magical series following Feyre, a poor girl from the village and the sole provider of her family, and her growth as she is forced to travel from her homeland to the land of the Fae. Her whole life she has heard stories of the Fae terrorizing humans and enslaving them hundreds of years ago. When she breaks the Treaty between the humans and the Fae, she must travel to their lands, maybe even end up liking it a bit more than she had expected. Throughout the five book series, there are many interesting twists and turns that will keep you wanting to keep reading until the very end.

Song of Achilles

Song of Achilles is an alternate story to the traditional story of the Trojan War. Achilles and Patroclus in Pythia. Achilles is the perfect son of the King Peleus and a goddess named Thetis; meanwhile Patroclus is just an exiled prince living in their vast kingdom. Achilles takes the exiled prince under his wing and they begin to develop a blossoming friendship. As they grow up, their friendship begins to develop into more, much to Achilles’ parents dismay. With hope of glory, Achilles decides to join the war and out of fear for his friend, Patroclus follows – which will test everything they’d been through until that point.

Daughters of Jubilation

This story focuses on a girl named Evalene “Evvie” Deschamps, who is living in the Jim Crow South where tensions regarding race are still high, but she still has to deal with her two little sisters and a crush that she’s had for years that finally is beginning to notice her. As a girl in high school, she must learn to navigate life as a teenage girl, racism, and a magic that runs in her family called “jubilation”. “Jubilation” is a power that was passed down for generations since times of slavery to the women in her family on her mothers side, but has proved hard to control and master, not that her mother is a fan of their power. As she learns about her “jubilation”, she must prepare for something dark that has entered the town and find out what it is and summon the power inside her to help.

Red, White, and Royal Blue

Alex Claremont-Diaz is the son of the president of the United States, and is not a fan of the English prince Henry. Though Alex, his sister, and the vice president’s granddaughter are the golden trio for marketing, news photos of an altercation between Alex and his nemesis Henry have leaked out, causing a rift between American and British relations. What is the plan to fix this might you ask? Staging a fake friendship between the two sons. As they begin to have a secret relationship, they must face what would happen if news of their relationship were to get out to the public. How much could this derail the relationship between the two countries and his mother’s reelection campaign if the news got out?

The Hate U Give

Sixteen year old Starr Carter lives in two worlds: a poor neighborhood where her family lives and her fancy high school. The balance between the two for her has always been keeping the two worlds separate. When she witnesses her friend Khalil get shot and killed by the police, this balance is completely disrupted. With the incident making headlines everywhere, her family being threatened, protests popping up, and redirection away form the fact that Khalil was unarmed during the shooting, Starr has to figure out whether she should speak about what really happened that night, knowing it could cause tensions to rise in her community and threaten her family’s lives.