When one book just isn’t enough, sometimes you need a whole series. But we also know getting into a new book series takes commitment, which is why we’ve rounded up some of our favorites for you.
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Get into your next serious literary relationship with this Amazing Book Challenge category that will keep you binge-reading long past lights out.
The Amazing Book Challenge encourages adult and teen readers to broaden their reading interests by discovering new subjects, series, or authors — something they may not have read on their own.
For the full list of recommendations and to see the rest of the categories for this year, go to www.naperville-lib.org/ABC.
“Death by Dumpling” by Vivien Chien (The Noodle Shop Mysteries Series)
The last place Lana Lee thought she would ever end up is back at her family’s restaurant, and she certainly didn’t expect the restaurant’s property manager, Mr. Feng, to turn up dead after a delivery of shrimp dumplings. How could this have happened when everyone on staff knew about Mr. Feng’s severe, life-threatening shellfish allergy? Now, with the whole restaurant under suspicion for murder and the local media in a feeding frenzy, it’s up to Lana to find out who is behind Feng’s killer order … before her own number is up.
“The Atlas Six” by Olivie Blake (The Atlas Series)
The Alexandrian Society is the foremost secret society of magical academicians worldwide. Those who earn a place among the Alexandrians will secure prestige beyond their wildest dreams, and each decade, only the six most uniquely talented magicians are selected to be considered for initiation. During initiation, they will be judged based on their contributions to various subjects of impossibility: time and space, luck and thought, life and death. Five, they are told, will be initiated. One will be eliminated. The six potential initiates will fight to survive the next year of their lives.
“Spoiler Alert” by Olivia Dade (The Spoiler Alert Series)
Marcus has a secret. The world may know him as Aeneas, star of the biggest television show, but fanfiction readers call him something else: Book!AeneasWouldNever. April has secrets of her own. A hardcore fan, she’s long hidden her fanfic and cosplay hobbies, until her plus-size cosplay goes viral. As a publicity stunt, Marcus asks her out but when he discovers she’s his closest fandom friend, he has more than one huge secret to keep from her. With love and Marcus’s career on the line, can the two of them stop hiding once and for all, or will a match made in fandom end up prematurely canceled?
“The Cruel Prince” by Holly Black (The Folk of the Air Series)
Jude was 7 when her parents were murdered, and she was stolen away to live in the treacherous High Court of Faerie. Ten years later, Jude wants nothing more than to belong there, despite her mortality. But many of the fey despise humans. Especially Prince Cardan, the youngest and wickedest son of the High King. As Jude becomes deeply embroiled in palace intrigues and deceptions, she will need to risk her life in a dangerous alliance to save her sisters and Faerie itself.
“Cinder” by Marissa Meyer (The Lunar Chronicles Series)
Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population, and from space, a ruthless Lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past to protect her world’s future.
“The Three-Body Problem” by Cixin Liu (The Remembrance of Earth’s Past Series)
Set against the backdrop of China’s Cultural Revolution, a secret military project sends signals into space to establish contact with aliens. An alien civilization on the brink of destruction captures the signal and plans to invade Earth. Meanwhile, on Earth, different camps start forming, planning to either welcome the superior beings and help them take over a world seen as corrupt, or to fight against the invasion.
Ashlee Conour is the marketing specialist at Naperville Public Library.