Here are a couple you might enjoy:
- Graceling by Kristin Cashore, is the story of Katsa, who has been able to kill people with her bare hands since she was eight. Katsa lives in the seven kingdoms, where very occasionally, a person is born with an extreme skill called a Grace. Gracelings are feared and exploited in the seven kingdoms, and none moreso than Katsa, who's expected to do the dirty work of torture and punishment for her uncle, King Randa. But then she meets a mysterious stranger named Po, who is also a Graced fighter and the first person ever to challenge her in a fight. The two form a bond, and each discovers truths they never imagined about themselves, each other, and a terrible danger that is spreading slowly through the seven kingdoms. (Like the Hunger Games, it has a strong female character, with romance, fantasy, action... And if you're a KP fan (Katniss x Peeta fan in Hunger Games) then you'll love the other KP couple (Katsa x Po in Graceling))
Katsa is a strong female character who knows how to live in the wild, can hunt, feed herself, knows how to use all sorts of different weapons etc. Po is a sweet guy who is there for her when she doesn’t believe in herself, and is also very good at surviving. There’s also a cute romance in it, and jealousy – another guy is in love with Katsa, and he wants to win her back from Po. A very interesting fantasy with a touch of romance!
- Beautiful Creatures by Margaret Stohl and Kami Garcia. Blurb on the back of the book: There were no surprises in Gatlin County.
We were pretty much the epicenter of the middle of nowhere.
At least, that’s what I thought.
Turns out, I couldn’t have been more wrong.
There was a curse.
There was a girl.
And in the end, there was a grave.
Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she’s struggling to conceal her power and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever.
Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When Lena moves into the town’s oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them.
In a town with no surprises, one secret could change everything.
This is a very sweet paranormal romance, and the characters are so cute together. Ethan is a down-to-earth guy who wants something more than the country life he has grown up with, and will risk anything to keep Lena safe. Lena is an outsider who has special power and is destined to either turn dark and sinister or the opposite at her birthday, and is terrified that she will lose Ethan if she goes ‘dark.’ Neither want to lose the other, and it seems that their love will be the only thing that can save them. A very charming, innocent love story.
- White Cat by Holly Black. Blurb on the back of the book: Cassel comes from a family of curse workers -- people who have the power to change your emotions, your memories, your luck, by the slightest touch of their hands. And since curse work is illegal, they're all mobsters, or con artists. Except for Cassel. He hasn't got the magic touch, so he's an outsider, the straight kid in a crooked family. You just have to ignore one small detail -- he killed his best friend, Lila, three years ago.
Ever since, Cassel has carefully built up a façade of normalcy, blending into the crowd. But his façade starts crumbling when he starts sleepwalking, propelled into the night by terrifying dreams about a white cat that wants to tell him something. He's noticing other disturbing things, too, including the strange behavior of his two brothers. They are keeping secrets from him, caught up in a mysterious plot. As Cassel begins to suspect he's part of a huge con game, he also wonders what really happened to Lila. Could she still be alive? To find that out, Cassel will have to out-con the conmen.
Holly Black has created a gripping tale of mobsters and dark magic where a single touch can bring love -- or death -- and your dreams might be more real than your memories.
This book is absolutely amazing. The whole fantasy angle is so different from other books, and so intriguing with the spin of magic workers being con-artists and criminals, as workings are illegal, but people still want their touch which brings luck, their curses, their magical killings, their transformations. Cassel’s entire family can work magic, all except him, which makes him vulnerable. He finds out that his family have ‘worked’ him, and must uncover the truth about what they don’t want him to know, and what they have done to him. This book is absolutely brilliant.
Hope I helped!