20 Amazing Book Series Teens Can’t Get Enough Of

This is a full-on historical romance for teens, BUT it’s squeaky clean in terms of language and features four Black sisters who stumble into love in different ways. It’s also about the Davenport family business and features side characters who are dealing with compelling issues, like a maid trying to start a business and a best friend whose parents are forcing her to form a relationship with the Davenport’s only son. The Davenports is an exhilarating romance that manages to still be appropriate for older teens ages 12+

Whitney Curry is doing a semester abroad in this first book in the Love in Translation series. Whitney is obsessed with Josephine Baker and is planning a showcase inspired by her. She’s in France and is a major Francophile obsessed with Paris, but the one thing not going according to plan? Her French tutor Thierry Magnon. He’s grumpy and thinks Whitney is dramatic, but soon, the two really start to get along, beginning a swoony love story involving making chocolate together, sightseeing, meeting family, and navigating ex-girlfriend drama. There are so many things I loved about this book: extroverted Whitney who’s sometimes too much for people who meet her for the first time, grumpy-sunshine trope, Black girl in Paris, French words interspersed throughout, Black girl hair, the friendships and tight family connections for each character, and the literary tourism of it all This is a great fit for readers who loved Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and Love and Gelato.

I LOVED this series (my favorite is book 2, The Boy Next Story – I reviewed it here). You don’t even have to read them in order. It’s a series of classic literature retellings, including Pride and Prejudice and Little Women.

Sixteen-year-old Lara Jean Song keeps her love letters in a hatbox her mother gave her. They aren’t love letters that anyone else wrote for her; these are ones she’s written. One for every boy she’s ever loved—five in all. When she writes, she pours out her heart and soul and says all the things she would never say in real life, because her letters are for her eyes only. Until the day her secret letters are mailed, and suddenly, Lara Jean’s love life goes from imaginary to out of control. I watched the movie before I read this, and while I recognize that that might not have been the best order, it makes for an interesting perspective. The book and the movie feel like two different things, in a good way. It was nice to get in the minds of LJ and Peter, and I definitely feel like I understand the cast of characters better after this. Sweet, compulsively readable book, this one!

In this dystopian romance series, 35 girls vie for the love of a prince in a process called the selection. One of the girls, America, is sure she doesn’t want to be there because she’s reeling from a recent breakup and so she decides to befriend the prince… until her feelings start to change. But a wrench is thrown into their budding relationship when her ex becomes a palace guard. This Hunger Games meets The Bachelor tale is perfect for romance fans who like a side of action and dystopia.

In a world where DNA determines your future, being born a “Natural” means being relegated to the dangerous Outskirts—a life with minimal opportunity.  Lee Urban, born a Natural but adopted into a wealthy Enhanced family, must hide her true identity, especially when she’s accepted into the elite Peking University. Enhanced dives headfirst into a not-so-distant future world where gene editing creates a super-human class—if you can afford it.  

Beatrice Prior’s society is divided into five factions—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). Beatrice must choose between staying with her Abnegation family and transferring factions. Her choice will shock her community and herself. But the newly christened Tris also has a secret, one she’s determined to keep hidden, because in this world, what makes you different makes you dangerous.

This YA novel is set in a dystopian world where every part of the earth is living with frigid temperatures except for Snowglobe–akin to The Capitol in the Hunger Games. While residents of all the other settlements work hard to generate resources for Snowglobe, its inhabitants live life under the camera lens, their lives fodder for reality TV and controlled by prestigious directors. When the star of one of the most popular shows dies, another girl outside Snowglobe who resembles her eerily is recruited to take her place, opening a can of worms about the unethical misuse of power in Snowglobe.

I loved following Katniss, Peeta, and Gale through all three books in this series. It’s set in a dystopian world ruled by The Capitol. Each year, The Hunger Games are held where one raffle-drawn contestant from each of the surrounding poorer districts competes (fights through life-threatening challenges) to win a prize. The only problem is: losing means death. Book one kicks off with 16-year-old Katniss volunteering to take her little sister’s place in the Games. I was HOOKED to this book and the other two in the series when I read it.

This dystopian YA book is at once chilling, thought-provoking, and compulsively readable. Set in a world where humans have conquered sickness, death, and all threats to life but now have appointed scythes to manage the population by gleaning humans periodically, this book follows two unwilling teens selected as apprentice scythes and their journey to attaining the position — or will they?

When Thomas wakes up in the lift, the only thing he can remember is his name. He’s surrounded by strangers—boys whose memories are also gone. Outside the towering stone walls that surround them is a limitless, ever-changing maze. It’s the only way out—and no one’s ever made it through alive. Then a girl arrives. The first girl ever. And the message she delivers is terrifying: Remember. Survive. Run.

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 in order to protect her world’s future.

Evan Bright has a secret: She’s the illegitimate child of the reigning British monarch. After 17 years of boarding school hopping, she’s forced to spend her last months as a minor with her father in England to stay out of trouble. Unfortunately, when a boy who tries to assault her is found dead hours later, it seems like trouble follows her everywhere. Stuck in a country where everyone seems to dislike her and unsure who to trust, Evan must track down the real killer in this royal mystery.

Avery is a high schooler living in her car when she discovers she’s been named heiress to the fortune of Tobias Hawthorne, a man she never knew. There’s only one condition: She has to live in the family home with Hawthorne’s kids and grandsons (one of whom was heir apparent) for a year — while solving some intriguing riddles along the way. I didn’t love this one as much as many teens do, but it is a huge favorite, and I like that there’s barely any strong language. It’s also a traditional mystery with little to no gritty elements.

British teen Pippa Fitz-Amobi has decided to do her senior capstone project on a local murder case that was closed 5 years ago. Five years ago, high schooler Andie Bell went missing and her boyfriend Sal Singh sent his father a text admitting to the crime, after which he was found in what seemed like an apparent suicide. But Pip doesn’t buy it. With the help of Sal’s younger brother, Ravi, she investigates the events surrounding Andie’s disappearance and Sal’s murder. But the culprit won’t let her find the truth so easily. Can Pippa hack the crime? This was a lot of fun. It is a thrilling clean teen murder mystery with a clever, likable protagonist. Fans of true crime podcasts like Serial will love this book with a similar plot — especially if you listen to the audiobook. 

On Monday afternoon, five students at Bayview High walk into detention. One ends up dead. And according to investigators, his death wasn’t an accident. On Monday, he died. But on Tuesday, he’d planned to post juicy reveals about all four of his high-profile classmates, which makes all four of them suspects in his murder. Or are they the perfect patsies for a killer who’s still on the loose? This one has a lot of language but is great on audio and perfect for teens who love thrillers.

This London-set thriller about a boy who’s roped into joining a group of spies after his uncle (and guardian’s) death is suspenseful and especially fun on audio. I’d hand this one to readers in the 6th grade or older!

Twelve-year-old Sara Martinez is a hacker bouncing from foster home to foster home in Brooklyn, New York. After getting arrested for hacking into the NYC foster care system to expose her foster parents as criminals, she meets a man named Mother somehow gets Sara released only to join a team of kid spies operating out of a base in Scotland. This is an excellent start to an exciting mystery series that both kids and adults can enjoy. 

I was skeptical (as I am of all superhero stories) of this book, especially because I thought it was more supernatural than sci-fi. But I’m happy to report that I was hooked from the very first chapter of its audiobook. Coal is a foster kid taken in by the boisterous McKay family when his foster parent has a mental breakdown. Not long after, he realizes that his skin has camouflaging abilities, essentially making him invisible. This is more than a superhero origin story with plenty of family humor (for fans of The Vanderbeekers), lots of male friendship banter, musings on the foster care system, and a heartwarming ode to Black history and culture. I can’t wait for book two, and I expect young, hesitant readers to love this if they crack open the first couple of pages. 

What if Nazi Germany won WWII? That’s the chilling question this time-travel thriller explores. Two set of a friendship trio — on in 2023 and the other in 1944 — discover that they can communicate over a radio device present in both timelines. As the two groups figure out the differences in their timelines while trying to avoid making any changes to history, they discover that they’ve unwittingly made an enormously impactful change with shocking consequences. This is a middle grade book with a complex, cinematic plot and storytelling that wil appeal to younger and older middle schoolers alike.