10 Urban Fantasy Books That Inspire Magic In The Mundane

Aziza El-Amin is her Massachusetts town of Blackthorn’s only hedgewitch, and she’s seen just about everything there is to see in their strangely magical town.

However, when she discovers the invisible barrier between the human world and fae-land, she realizes it may be more than she can handle on her own.

With Leo Merritt, a cursed teen looking for a way to regain the lost memories of the love of his life, and a necromancer they aren’t sure they can trust, Aziza uncovers secrets about her town that she never knew. 

The dynamic trio in this story is distinct in character and comes together to form such a powerful team. There’s so much fae-based chaos in this little town that you can feel a tad overwhelmed, but the resolution is so satisfying.

After a vampire murders their mother, Ava and her brother are sent to live with various foster families until they are placed with one that accepts them both with open arms. But to Ava, no home is ever home, and the only family she needs is her brother.

Set on seeking revenge, Ava spends most of her spare time working to uncover who murdered her mother. Her search brings her to a magic show in her local town with acts that defy logic and are more akin to magic.

When she sneaks backstage in search of answers, she finds they were waiting for her and seek a bargain: they’ll teach her the skills she needs to avenge her mother if she joins their crew and performs in a deadly competition held by a secret society of magic users.

As she trains, she learns that her mother’s death wasn’t exactly what she thought and that the people she has given herself over to may not be the people she thinks they are. 

After being abandoned by her guardian, Tamsin Lark had no choice but to work with the arcane underground of Boston–known as Hollowers–in their search for magical artifacts, even with no magic of her own.

One such artifact is a ring, rumored to be found by her guardian, and the only hope she’ll have of breaking her brother’s curse. Reluctantly, she works alongside her rival Emrys to find it.

The first place they need to look is a place Tamsin never thought she’d ever see: the magical realm of Avalon. But what she doesn’t know is that evil lurks in Avalon, and looking for the ring could cost her more than her life. 

After the mysterious death of his cousin, Yadriel sets out to not only help his family find his cousin’s body, but also prove to his traditional Latinx family that he’s a real brujo.

With the help of his cousin Maritza, he performs a ritual in an attempt to summon the ghost of the deceased. Instead of his late cousin, Yadriel finds he has summoned the ghost of his school’s resident bad boy, Julian Diaz. Together, they attempt to solve both deaths and find that there’s more at work in their community than they had expected. 

A story about a transman proving his worth to his traditional family, an unlikely love interest, and community, Cemetery Boys is heartwarming and humorous.

Set in Los Angeles around the Day of the Dead,  the story focuses heavily on Latinx culture and incorporates Spanish elements into the dialogue, which helps immerse you further in the story.

After her mother’s death, Bree Matthews wants to escape her childhood home and small town and pretend like she’s not still grieving. Desperate to get away, she joins a residential youth program for outstanding high schoolers to attend UNC-Chapel Hill.

While there, unfortunately for her, she witnesses a demon attacking students on campus during her first night and begins to question her decision, mainly when she finds herself mixed up in the world of the Legendborn, a secret society of students descended from King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table.

One Legendborn, a Merlin, tries to wipe her memory of the attack, but instead unlocks a memory from the night her mother died and a Merlin who might have been involved.

Together with a former Merlin named Nick, they dive into the world of the Legendborn, and Bree discovers there’s more to her family history than she ever thought possible, including magic of their own.

Shadows are more than they seem in Charlie Hall’s version of the Berkshires. They can be altered. Memories can be erased. Faces can be changed. And sometimes, shadows can be taken... But all for a price.

Charlie is a bartender and low-level con artist who is just trying to get by without entering back into the seedy world of shadow trading. But when her past comes back to haunt her, she has no choice but to dive back in and steal the Book of Night from a world where everyone is out to control the magic of the shadows– including her own sister. 

Holly Black’s  adult debut novel, Book of Night, is full of heist planning, secret societies, and a unique magic system centered around shadows.

This story is full of twists that keep you guessing who you can trust and who you can’t. It also may or may not include a mansion with a secret door…

Galaxy “Alex” Stern’s life hasn’t been easy. Raised in Los Angeles, Alex dropped out of school early and fell into a bad crowd full of drugs, parties, and dead-end jobs.

After surviving a multiple homicide, she decides to turn her life around when she’s given a chance to enter one of the most prestigious schools in the country–Yale–on a full ride. Her entry hinges on her ability to monitor Yale’s secret societies and find what they’re doing in the “tombs.”

When Daniel Arlington (nicknamed Darlington) goes missing and a girl named Tara is discovered dead, Alex finds herself deep in a situation she cannot begin to understand the gravity of. 

Ninth House is beloved author Leigh Bardugo’s adult debut and is full of secrets... Secret societies, secret pasts, and even secret powers that Alex herself doesn’t fully understand. This dark urban fantasy tale is told from two different POVs and features flashbacks.

A decade before the story unfolds, five teenagers fought against a great villain known as The Dark One on the outskirts of Chicago. They were brought together by a government agency looking to discover “The Chosen One” among them who was destined to save the world.

Once The Dark One was defeated, the five teenagers, Sloane, Matt, Ines, Albie, and Esther, returned to their lives and tried to find their new normal as they mourned the dead and lived the life of notoriety.

As the tenth anniversary of their victory approaches, one of them turns up dead. The others gather for the funeral and compare their lives and how they’ve dealt with the trauma of herodum.

Soon, they discover that not only has The Dark One not been vanquished as they had been led to believe, but there’s a whole other world at stake. Will our heroes take up the mantle once more?

Lyra Keres is a clerk for Hermes’ thieves, but she wants nothing to do with the gods. In San Francisco, which is Zeus’ domain, that’s easier said than done.

However, her plans to lay low are thwarted when she runs into Hades and finds herself pulled into the Crucible, a contest the gods participate in to see who rules Olympus.

In the past, the gods fought amongst themselves, but over the centuries, they found it more entertaining to choose humans to compete in their place.

For the first time, Hades has chosen to enter the Crucible with Lyra as his Champion for reasons he refuses to share with anyone, even Lyra. The games are deadly, and alliances might just save her life.