8 Wonderful Fantasy Books With The Found Family Trope

Cam wakes up on the first day of high school excited. His school has been redistricted, and he’ll finally get to attend the same high school as his best friend, Al (who’s a witch), again. Sure, Cam’s parents might not be thrilled their human son is in a high school with non-humans, but Cam doesn’t care. 

At the new school, an unexpected fight breaks out, which Cam ends up being in the middle of, and where he has a vision of a girl being murdered. 

Suddenly, he’s no longer strictly human and has to contend with not just a vision of a murder and a crush on a werewolf boy, but (gasp, the horror!) high school still. 

Will he be able to stop this murder from happening? I guess you’ll have to give it a read to find out!

Artie Casimir runs a successful tea room, Spindrift, by day, which doubles as a vampire haunt/hangout by night with her brother from another mother, Jin, and the rest of her crew/employees.

When Artie learns that Spindrift has been sold, she suddenly needs to bring in new characters: Flick, Matteo, and Laith to secure the future of her ‘teashop’. 

Crime abounds, secrets are spilled, and a reluctant crew finds themselves closer than ever.

Welcome to Blood and Tea, scoundrels! If you want a book with a vibe similar to Six of Crows, this is the one for you. The grittiness of book one reminded me of Ketterdam, while the five main characters work together as well as the Crows. However, Hafsah makes this book all her own. 

Upon Lyra’s birth, it’s immediately clear she’s different from those around her with her silver hair, violet eyes, and pale skin. Her father falls in love with her immediately, even with her oddities (her mother isn’t given a chance after dying in childbirth). 

Unfortunately for all, her paternal aunt, Griselda, is jealous because her own daughters are no longer in line for the throne. While Lyra can’t talk, her vocal cords produce enchanting, beautiful, and joyous melodies even when she wants to cry. 

When her father is killed (no!), events transpire that leave her without any voice, including the lyrical sounds she’s made in the past, or any memory, thanks in large part to Griselda.

Griselda has engineered things so that her own daughter now looks like Lyra and has her voice; this way, one of her daughters will inherit and rule. When Lyra is left for dead, will she save herself?

Gemma longs to experience the world of England that she only hears about in letters from her paternal grandmother as she continues her life in India. 

Following her mother's death, she finds herself at Spence, a finishing school for young ladies in (you guessed it) England. 

Gemma isn’t an outsider for long, befriending her roommate Ann, a charity student, as well as Pippa and Felicity, the two most popular girls at the school (much to Gemma's own surprise).

When she discovers that young girls years ago formed The Order, which could open doors between their world and others, the four decide to form their own. But what happens when power becomes too much?

Demeter is just a ship, on a typical route ferrying passengers between planets… That is, until suddenly only two human children remain after an attack from Dracula, which leaves everyone else dead.

As the trip progresses, Demeter’s personality develops to the point where she begins to love the children. She’s no longer functioning as a program. 

But who would believe that Dracula killed her passengers, especially after the video is wiped? Definitely not the people in charge of her programming.

Even after Demeter gets wiped, she slowly regains her consciousness and plots revenge on Dracula, who has tried to take everything from her.

Imagine a book that begins with the character’s death. Lily receives a terminal cancer diagnosis and dies. Thus begins For Whom the Bell Tolls. 

When Lily arrives in the afterlife, she’s blown away by all the opportunities that await her: from living in her version of Paradise, to trivia nights with Persephone, whom she befriends in line for coffee. 

In this version of the Afterlife, all the gods and goddesses exist, and Hell is not what we’ve been told. Sure, there are levels of punishment, but the demons are all pretty great, and humans can work their way up to reincarnation levels. 

Lily spends her days there, helping to direct souls (and yelling if necessary) at her Hellp Desk. But the longer Lily remains in the Afterlife, the harder her decision to reincarnate or remain in the afterlife becomes.

Celaena Sardothien has been a slave in the Endovier salt mines for a year when she’s pulled out by Crown Prince Dorian to become his champion in a competition with twenty-four other champions vying for the main prize: to become the King’s Champion… The same king who threw Celaena into the salt mines and destroyed her life.

Complicating matters for the 16-year-old is the fact that she’s falling for both the Crown Prince, son of her enemy, and his best friend, Chaol. But who has time for relationship matters when there’s a prize to be won?

While Throne of Glass, admittedly, does lay a little groundwork for future found family in the series, found family takes a back seat to the love triangle of book one. As the series progresses, though, found family becomes its cornerstone. This is especially seen in book 7, Kingdom of Ash, where many variations of found family occur and you'll struggle to pick a favorite.