You know that feeling when you finish the last page of a book you love and you just stare at the wall for a moment? Not sad, exactly – just full. Like the story has settled into you and you’re not quite ready to let it go?
If you’re a reader who lives for that feeling – especially when there are five more books in the series still waiting for you – then this list was written for exactly you.
Whether you’re into mythological chaos, dystopian romance, ghost-hunting adventures, spine-chilling mysteries, or elves with superpowers, there is an author on this list whose work is about to take over your shelf, your reading app, and approximately three weeks of your life.
Let’s go.
1. Rick Riordan – For the Mythology Lover Who Can’t Get Enough
Start with: The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 1)
If you’ve somehow not yet read Rick Riordan, please put this article down immediately and go fix that. And if you have – welcome to a club you never leave.
Riordan’s Percy Jackson universe is one of the greatest achievements in YA fiction. The original five-book series introduces Percy Jackson, a kid with ADHD and dyslexia who discovers he’s the son of Poseidon, and proceeds to drag him through Greek mythology in the most chaotic, hilarious, high-stakes way imaginable. The writing is genuinely funny – not “trying to be funny” funny, but snort-out-loud funny — and the characters feel real in a way that sticks with you for years.
Once you finish Percy Jackson and the Olympians, the fun doesn’t stop. There’s The Heroes of Olympus series (five books), The Trials of Apollo (five more books), The Kane Chronicles (Egyptian mythology), Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard (Norse mythology), and the most recent additions – The Chalice of the Gods (2023) and The Wrath of the Triple Goddess (2024) – which follow a now-senior Percy trying to earn college recommendation letters from the gods. Chaos ensues, naturally.
Why you’ll be obsessed: The humour. The friendships. The sense that being different – dyslexic, ADHD, messy, impulsive – is actually exactly what makes you the hero. Riordan has also consistently written inclusive, diverse characters across his whole universe, and his Rick Riordan Presents imprint has introduced dozens of mythologies from around the world. There is genuinely no end to the reading material.
2. Tahereh Mafi – For the Reader Who Wants Romance, Action, and Feels All at Once
Start with: Shatter Me (Shatter Me Series, Book 1)
Tahereh Mafi writes the kind of books you read with your heart in your throat. The Shatter Me series begins with a girl named Juliette who has been locked in a cell by a totalitarian government because her touch can kill. And then things get complicated.
The original six-book series – Shatter Me, Unravel Me, Ignite Me, Restore Me, Defy Me, and Imagine Me — is an absolute rollercoaster of action, romance, betrayal, and growth. The writing style is distinctive and beautiful, with crossed-out text that gives you access to what Juliette is really thinking even when she’s trying not to. It’s the kind of series where you will absolutely have a character you’re ride-or-die for — and that person will probably be Warner, but we won’t argue about it here.
Mafi has also launched a brand-new spinoff series – Watch Me (2025) is the first book, followed by Release Me (2026) – set ten years after the original series ends, following new characters in the changed world. If you’ve already read the originals, this is your excuse to come straight back. If you haven’t started yet: lucky you.
Why you’ll be obsessed: The prose is genuinely gorgeous. The enemies-to-lovers tension is executed perfectly. And Mafi has a gift for writing characters who are deeply flawed and deeply loveable at the same time.
3. Shannon Messenger – For the Reader Who Wants an Epic Series That Never Ends (in a Good Way)
Start with: Keeper of the Lost Cities (Book 1)
If you want a series so long and so detailed that it consumes your entire personality for months — congratulations, you’ve found it.
The Keeper of the Lost Cities series follows Sophie Foster, a girl who has always felt like she doesn’t belong – until she discovers she’s actually an elf, and has been living among humans her whole life. She’s immediately swept into a world of Lost Cities, powerful abilities, complicated politics, and extremely confusing feelings about several different boys.
There are nine main books (plus novellas, spin-off perspectives, and graphic novel adaptations), and the most recent release – Unravelled (2024) – is told entirely from fan-favourite Keefe’s perspective. The tenth and final book in the series, Elysian, is on the way. Each book is enormous and detailed and leaves you desperately needing the next one.
Why you’ll be obsessed: The world-building is extraordinary. The cast of characters feels like a real friend group. The romance is genuinely slow-burn in a way that makes the payoff deeply satisfying. And if you’re the kind of reader who loves annotating, highlighting, and building theories – you will be very, very busy.
4. Karen M. McManus – For the Reader Who Loves a Mystery That Actually Keeps You Guessing
Start with: One of Us Is Lying (Bayview High, Book 1)
Five students walk into detention. Only four walk out. The fifth dies – and each of the survivors had a reason to want him dead.
One of Us Is Lying is a YA mystery thriller so compulsively readable that it got turned into a Netflix series, and it’s only the beginning of what Karen M. McManus does. The Bayview series continues with One of Us Is Next and One of Us Is Back, each raising the stakes and adding new twists. McManus also writes brilliant standalone thrillers – Two Can Keep a Secret, The Cousins, You’ll Be the Death of Me, Nothing More to Tell, and most recently Such Charming Liars (2024), in which a mother-daughter pair of jewel thieves find themselves tangled up in a murder at a billionaire’s birthday party.
Every McManus book has the same irresistible quality: just when you think you’ve figured it out, she pulls the rug out from under you. Again.
Why you’ll be obsessed: The pacing is perfect – you tell yourself “just one more chapter” at 11pm and wake up at 2am having finished the whole thing. The characters are smart, complicated, and genuinely fun to read. And the twists are the real deal.
5. Jonathan Stroud – For the Reader Who Wants to Be Scared and Charmed at the Exact Same Time
Start with: The Screaming Staircase (Lockwood & Co., Book 1)
Imagine a version of London where ghosts – called Visitors – have become a genuine epidemic. The Problem, as it’s known, has been growing for fifty years, and only young people with psychic abilities can fight back. Most agencies are run by adults, but Lockwood & Co. is a team of three teenagers operating out of a slightly run-down townhouse, armed with rapiers, ghost-repelling iron, and an almost irresponsible amount of confidence.
The Lockwood & Co. series spans five books (The Screaming Staircase, The Whispering Skull, The Hollow Boy, The Creeping Shadow, The Empty Grave), and it’s one of those rare series where every single book is as good as the last. Lucy Carlyle, the narrator, is sharp, self-aware, and genuinely funny. Anthony Lockwood is charming in ways that are occasionally infuriating. George is the chaos researcher you didn’t know you needed. The skull in the jar… is a lot. If you’ve seen the Netflix adaptation – it’s great, but the books go so much deeper.
Stroud’s other major series, Bartimaeus, is also brilliant – a trilogy plus prequel following a sarcastic, morally grey djinn forced to serve a young magician in an alternative historical London.
Why you’ll be obsessed: The atmosphere is incredible – Stroud builds tension the way the best horror writers do, but keeps it funny enough that you’re smiling even when you’re nervous. The friendships and the slow-burn connections between characters are deeply satisfying. And the world-building is the kind that makes you want to live inside the books – which, given the ghosts, is saying something.
The Takeaway
If there is one thing all five of these authors have in common, it’s this: they write characters who feel like people you actually know. Not perfect heroes – complicated, occasionally wrong, often struggling people who grow through the stories in ways that feel earned.
Pick one series, start from the beginning, and see where it takes you. You can always come back for the others. And when you finish one series and stare at the wall for a moment – full of a story that’s settled into you – you’ll already know where to reach next.
The shelf is full. The reading life is good. Let’s go.