Books Amy Always Recommends

Kelley Armstrong is an author who has become a must-read for me.

Her body of work truly deserves more recognition.

Her Cainsville series is my absolute favorite, although the Rockton series is equally captivating.

What I like most about Omens is the blend of folk superstitions, fantasy elements, and gripping mystery.

Olivia Taylor Jones has grown up in the perfect family with the perfect parents.

Then she finds out she was adopted and her parents were notorious serial killers.

Have you ever read a book that blew your mind?

That you sat thinking about for days and weeks after?

Dark Matter is that book for me.

Jason Dessen is knocked unconscious and wakes up in a room full of strangers, strangers who seem to know him.

As he navigates this world, he realizes that this is not the world he knew.

In this life, he never married his wife, and his son was never born.

Most people know Jennifer Lynn Barnes for her Inheritance Games series, but this stand-alone gem should not be overlooked.

It is one of my favorite reads from recent years.

Kira Bennett was found wandering the woods as a small child.

Adopted by the woman who found her, she becomes part of a search-and-rescue family training canines for service.

When a child goes missing, Kira’s family is called upon to mount a rescue.

Memories of her lost days in the woods start rushing back, and Kira begins to question everything about her life and her family.

As a writer, I’m always studying story structure as I read, and Holly Black nails the three-act story structure with this YA vampire tale.

If you enjoy writing fiction, this is a masterclass of setting, worldbuilding, and structural elements.

If you are a reader only, you will be pulled into this paranormal romance.

Tana lives in a dystopian world where vampires are quarantined in cold towns.

Tana has always avoided the Coldtowns because once you enter you can never leave.

When she wakes up from a party surrounded by the dead, she finds her ex-boyfriend infected and a mysterious boy in dire need of help.

I’m sure I’ve recommended this book to hundreds of middle school students over the years.

When a meteor knocks the moon closer to Earth, tsunamis, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions have everyone huddling in their homes trying to survive.

That premise alone is enough to pick up this book and turn to page one.

Miranda is a high-school sophomore who shelters with her mother and two brothers trying to survive the catastrophic events.

As illness, extreme cold, and lack of food threaten, Miranda clings to hope that things will eventually get better.

I recommend this book for the grocery list alone. Miranda’s mother knows how to shop for an apocalypse.

When I think about what kinds of books I would like to write myself, I think about this series.

Stroud is so talented at creating interesting, unique worlds and characters.

I first encountered Stroud’s work with the Bartimaeus series which is excellent, so I knew I wanted to read Lockwood & Co when it came out.

The first book, The Screaming Staircase, introduces us to an alternative London where the dead are rising.

The only way to stop the onslaught of ghosts who can kill with a touch is to hire a psychic detection agency, consisting of children, the only ones who can see the ghosts and banish them.

How can I describe a book as beautiful as this modern-day classic by Grace Lin?

This novel with its blend of folklore and fantasy has been compared to The Wizard of Oz.

Minli has always loved her father’s tales of the Jade Dragon and the Old Man in the Moon.

Her mother has never had time for dreams and stories as the family is desperately poor.

Minli sets off to find a way to change her family’s fortune and seek out the Old Man in the Moon.

An amazing story of overcoming life’s challenges.

Bradley deftly immerses the reader in the world of London during WWII.

We follow Ada, a ten-year-old, whose mother is embarrassed by her child’s twisted foot.

Abused and forced to stay inside, Ada hears that her brother Jamie is being evacuated to the country.

Determined to escape her situation, she sneaks away from her home and finds herself on the doorstep of Susan Smith, who has been forced to take in the two children as part of the war effort.