Here are 56 books that The Blue Zone fans have personally recommended if you like
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I have had a love of sci-fi and fantasy since I was twelve, and I have been an avid reader since then. I have always had an obsession with all things space and the mysteries that reside out there, and it was my dream to create a story that intermixed that with the fantasy worlds I grew up adoring. Since I released my debut book, I have broken into the indie social scene across multiple platforms. I am part of a sixteen-person author group where we share our passion and ideas for one another’s writing, and I have been on numerous BookTube channels and podcasts discussing the craft.
I recommend this book because, like many kids, it was one of my first introductions to the world of fiction. And given its popularity, it is a story I have always thought back on when thinking about my own writing. What elements of it are a reason for its popularity that I could establish in my own work?
The big one I took away was how the story is intermixed with our reality. I think contemporary urban fantasies, or those in the magical realism realm, I think a big part of the appeal is that readers find it believable and more relatable because it is set in our “reality." Of course, to reach such a status as Harry Potter, it needs to be a great story, but that was an element I tried to mimic, albeit in a space opera sense. This is the first book in the series…
Galloping gargoyles ... 2022 is the silver anniversary of J.K. Rowling's magical classic Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone!
The boy wizard Harry Potter has been casting a spell over young readers and their families ever since 1997. Now the first book in this unmissable series celebrates 25 years in print! The paperback edition of the tale that introduced us to Harry, Ron and Hermione has been updated and dressed in silver to mark the occasion. It's time to take the magical journey of a lifetime ...
Harry Potter has never even heard of Hogwarts when the letters start dropping…
I always look for an escape from reality, but it’s not always because the world gets exhausting and I need a change of scenery. Sometimes, I’m looking to learn. As an autistic person, people can be very confusing to me. I love a book that throws something new at me to try and figure out how a certain person functions, or why they think/feel the way they do, and if I can’t do it on my own, I can discuss the book with friends and family and create a discussion through the medium of storytelling and novel writing. Autism can be very debilitating at times, so an escape is always a handy thing to have!
If you want an escape to a mystery with a plot twist you’ll never see coming, then this one’s sure to be a treat! A well-kept family secret comes to light, and it’s nothing like you’d expect. This was maybe the first book to ever inspire me as a writer, particularly for my current series—a past that no one wants to come to light, but through perseverance and fresh curiosity, the main character of this book doesn’t stop until he has all the answers, all the while dealing with his own issues.
When Josh explores his grandmother's house he finds an attic up a closed-off staircase. In it is a collection of strange drawings by his uncle, Patrick, who died suddenly in his teens. But he has no grave, and his name is never spoken.
And Josh begins to uncover the dark truth his family has hidden for forty years.....
'Truth or Dare doesn't let up - and hits you with a final twist.' Daily Telegraph
I’m the author of a number of books for kids and teens, many of which imagine young characters having more influence than you might expect. My book The Museum of Lost and Found is about an 11-year-old girl who secretly curates a museum. The Campaign is about a 12-year-old who runs her babysitter’s campaign to become mayor of their town. And This Song Will Save Your Life is about a 16-year-old who secretly becomes an underground DJ. These characters have realistic and relatable kid problems, emotions, and relationships—but they also get to have responsibilities and power well beyond their years.
What if James Bond were fifteen years old? Great question; let’s find out!
I love the idea of a kid being a great spy, not despite their age but in fact because of it. Being a kid gives Alex Rider access to places and situations where an adult would arouse suspicion. Alex gets all the cinematic spy gear that you expect from spy movies. He’s constantly underestimated because of his age—and that is exactly what makes him so powerful.
I think that’s really the theme across all these books, and what makes them so appealing to me: People don’t expect much of you because you’re a kid, but secretly you are so much greater than they could ever comprehend.
The first book in the number one bestselling Alex Rider series.
In the first book in the number one bestselling Alex Rider series by Anthony Horowitz, fourteen-year-old Alex is forcibly recruited into MI6. Armed with secret gadgets, he is sent to investigate Herod Sayle, a man who is offering state-of-the-art Stormbreaker computers to every school in the country. But the teenage spy soon finds himself in mortal danger.
Truth told, folks still ask if Saul Crabtree sold his soul for the perfect voice. If he sold it to angels or devils. A Bristol newspaper once asked: “Are his love songs closer to heaven than dying?” Others wonder how he wrote a song so sad, everyone who heard it…
I always look for an escape from reality, but it’s not always because the world gets exhausting and I need a change of scenery. Sometimes, I’m looking to learn. As an autistic person, people can be very confusing to me. I love a book that throws something new at me to try and figure out how a certain person functions, or why they think/feel the way they do, and if I can’t do it on my own, I can discuss the book with friends and family and create a discussion through the medium of storytelling and novel writing. Autism can be very debilitating at times, so an escape is always a handy thing to have!
An epic love story. This novel explores a Catholic and a Protestant trying to be together when it was once inequivocally frowned upon. A huge hurdle that tries to prevent love from flourishing. And what’s a story without some kind of love angle in there somewhere? No one can know what they do, so starting a relationship with someone out with the organisation isn’t an option. Unless they’re lucky enough to find love with one of the other members, their fate was sealed when they signed their life away.
An engaging classroom playscript. Kevin is Catholic. Sadie is Protestant. In Belfast they are supposed to be enemies - so what chance do they have when they fall in love?
I’m a certified crime junkie beginning with Helter Skelter and, more recently, FBI profiler Jack Douglas’ Mindhunter. This genre is a passion, but here’s the kicker, I started my writing journey in Western historical romance. I know, right? Then I had this wild idea: a psychologist who’s got a secret – her mother is a notorious serial killer on death row, and someone is imitating her crimes. Just like that A Killer’s Daughter was born! Now I’m always reading and listening to thrillers and true crime podcasts. Check out my newsletter to see what’s grabbing me.
I had the opportunity to listen to Karin Slaughter speak at the Bouchercon Conference in St. Pete, Florida and this was her new release.
The book sounded wonderful, and my signed copy is on my keeper shelf. Pieces of Her has a crazy, explosive opening and breakneck pace with questions that pile on questions, and we hold on for dear life. I was so enthralled by this story that I bought a second copy for a friend and put it in her hands saying, “You have to read this.” She loved it and so did Netflix because it is now a series.
One of the reasons I wanted to write about and explore mental health was because I was always fascinated by how the mind works and how it can turn on you without provocation. How and why some people can power through dark times, while others struggle is a topic that, within the African American community, isn't frequently discussed. Often the advice given to someone about how to get through depression or anxiety is to pray or just dig deep and power through. It is the idea that because our ancestors suffered so much, those of us living in "easier" times should have nothing to be sad about that seems to prevent us from asking for help or getting therapy.
Evie Thomas and her family are forced to move away from her childhood home, leaving behind family and friends to protect her father from his fellow officers. Evie has to get used to a new name, life without her older sister, and most importantly, life with her father, whose deep depression has transformed him from a lively, protector to a sad man who sits by the window, gazing at nothing. Tackling depression using an African American protagonist, Woodson has written a moving coming of age novel that shines the light on what it means to live with someone suffering from mental illness. I felt a kinship with Woodson because both of our characters have fathers whose mental health deeply affects how they move about in the world.
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author picked
Hush
as one of their favorite books, and they share
why you should read it.
This book is for kids age
10,
11,
12, and
13.
What is this book about?
A powerfully moving novel from a three-time Newbery Honor-winning author
Evie Thomas is not who she used to be. Once she had a best friend, a happy home and a loving grandmother living nearby. Once her name was Toswiah.
Now, everything is different. Her family has been forced to move to a new place and change their identities. But that's not all that has changed. Her once lively father has become depressed and quiet. Her mother leaves teaching behind and clings to a new-found religion. Her only sister is making secret plans to leave.
It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan. The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced, it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to run the…
All my books, for adults and kids, include the theme that things are seldom what they seem. I link this to the slow realization when I was young that my family had an uncommon history. Novels featuring spies go deep into this theme, as a good spy is always manipulating their environment and presenting versions of themselves that may or may not be true. When my own children were little, we read so many of these novels. That reading is what inspired the Mrs. Smith’s Spy School for Girls series.
This novel exists in that sweet spot of funny, exciting, and poignant. Middle grade authors know how hard it is to hit that mark!
Jake Burt packages a coming-of-age story that feels authentic in a thrilling action-oriented page turner. I especially appreciated Nicki, the snarky, street-wise protagonist. An ordinary girl, she finds herself in extraordinary circumstances and rises to the occasion using her quick wit and being bold and brave even when that’s scary. This is a novel I wish I’d written!
Nicki Demere is an orphan and a pickpocket. She also happens to be the U.S. Marshals best bet to keep a family alive.
The marshals are looking for the perfect girl to join a mother, father, and son on the run from the nation's most notorious criminals. After all, the bad guys are searching for a family with one kid, not two. Adding a streetwise girl who knows a little something about hiding things may be just what the marshals need.
Nicki swears she can keep the Trevor family safe, but to do so she'll have to dodge hitmen, cyberbullies,…
There's something about broken people trying to do good that has always resonated with me. In basic training, a drill sergeant with debilitating PTSD told us what combat would be like through a storm of choking sobs and a haze of tears. He needed us to know. Even if it broke him. Working as an investigator in Denver and Washington, I watched people with complicated pasts and uncertain futures fight tooth and nail (sometimes literally) to put human traffickers behind bars. Literature has always been a bridle for that wildness I saw in the world. A tool for taking the ghashing, stomping, unruliness of the human experience and making it rideable, relatable, survivable.
A savage, icepick of a hitman novel that will bury itself in your cerebellum. It’s a slippery, sexy book about the making and subsequent unmaking of a contract killer, complete with all the usual trappings and a few resolutely unusual ones. halfway through this novel, I realized that there weren't any rules to this. That you just built humans from scratch and turned them loose in your world and whatever they did, they did. A guy stabs someone with his own fibula in this book. Eat that Macgyver.
Meet Peter Brown, a young Manhattan ER Doctor who has a past he'd prefer to stay hidden. When a figure from the old days emerges it looks increasingly unlikely that his secret will stay intact. Nicholas LoBrutto, aka Eddy Squillante, is given three months to live, and it's clear to Peter that the clock is ticking for both of them. He must do whatever it takes to keep him - and his patient - alive.
Having spent my youth watching dramasCrown Court andL.A. Lawon TV and reading Rumpole of the Bailey, it’s not surprising I became a lawyer and then went on to write legal thrillers myself. The courtroom is an inherently theatrical place, where emotions and tensions run high. It’s a place where egos collide, theories are propounded and punctured and the liberty (and sometimes the life) of the accused is at stake. It follows, then, that lawyers operate in a totally even-handed system, where they’ll always achieve a fair and just result and uncover the truth. All the books I’ve recommended challenge this notion in different (but equally brilliant) ways.
A young man accused of murder stands before the jury in court. Fed up with his barrister’s advice to ‘only tell the jury what they can believe’ he makes his own closing speech. He tells ‘the whole truth’ in his own words.
In setting out the details of his chaotic life, he aims to provide an innocent explanation for the eight pieces of circumstantial evidence against him. It’s only if the jury can understand what it’s like to be him (echoes here of Atticus Finch’s famous line, "You never really understand a person until you… climb into his skin and walk around in it.") that he will receive a fair trial.
A highly original angle for the modern, courtroom drama, executed to perfection. Clearly (as is only right) there’s a subtly-woven, social commentary agenda too.
2013 Christy Award winner! 2013 Carol Award finalist (ACFW) To everyone who knows her, Annalise Decker is a model wife and mother. She’s a permanent member of the PTA, never misses her kids’ sporting events, and is constantly campaigning for her husband’s mayoral race.
No one knows that Annalise was once Deidre O’Reilly, a troubled young woman whose testimony put a dangerous criminal behind bars. Relocated through the Witness Security Program to the sleepy town of Deep Haven, Deidre got a new identity and a fresh start, which began when she fell in love with local real estate agent Nathan…
I have enjoyed mysteries since childhood. Nancy Drew, Trixie Belton, and others filled my bookshelves. Mysteries continue to be one of my favorite genres, and I particularly love the way Texas is represented in these stories. Texas has a rich and unique history, culture, topography, and climate that stimulates the creative spirit but is rarely represented accurately in most genres. As a native Texan, I enjoy reading others’ take on my favorite state, and it’s where I chose to base my writings. The added benefit is that these are female authors who have inspired my own work.
Pastor Matt Hayden is trying to make a new life in the small town of Wilks, Texas, but he has a secret. Once a Miami detective, he is now in hiding from the people who destroyed his family. He can no longer be an officer, but he can assist the local sheriff in uncovering the town’s best-kept secrets.
I’ve truly enjoyed the Pastor Matt series as it’s easy for me to visualize the small Texas town and its people. Rooting for Matt and Angie, as well as the other characters, to find a little faith and happiness in the darkest parts of life keeps the pages turning. This is a series with four books, and the fifth is forthcoming.
The Preacher’s First MurderHe was a good cop until he ran into a bad one. Then, to save what was left of his family and his sanity, Michael Hogan, Jr., entered the Fed's Witness Protection Program and became Pastor Matthew Hayden.Just out of seminary, Matt takes a church in rural Texas, expecting peace, quiet and a good dose of humility. What he finds is a town ruled by the past and an old woman murdered. To make matters worse, the dead woman's daughter, Angie O'Day, runs the town's Ice House and is truly an angel by day and a devil…