Arcana Chronicles by Kresley Cole

Imagine that the gods were bored. And that the goddess of the magic invented a game: 22 contestants fight against each other until only one survives. Each contestant has certain powers from the god or the gods he or she represents. And the losers are reincarnated before the next game begins… with a devastating catastrophe, linked to one of them.

The gods were so entranced that they created a world in which the game could take place – and the contestants became so famous that a game was made in their honour: Arcana. The contestants are the Major Arcana, and the Minor Arcana are the ones who clean up after them.

Evie Greene didn’t know about all of this – because her family’s chronicler, the one who would prepare the next Arcana incarnation, was shipped off to a lunacy. But when she is haunted by nightmares and hallucinations about the end of the world, she knows something is off… Especially after her visions come true and she finds out that her blood makes plants grow.

Evie is The Empress. Her power is everything that roots and blooms, thorns and poison. Her card is the most vicious of all – and her nickname is Poison Princess.

But this Empress will be different, she will refuse to play the game… won’t she?

Cassia & Ky by Ally Condie

Take a second and try to imagine waking up everyday to a set time – holidays or not – eat the same breakfast, go to work, eat the same lunch, work some more and then to have an hour of free time in which you can choose from various options before you eat the same dinner and go to bed at a set time. These options are playing one of the 100 games, looking at one of the 100 pictures, hearing one of 100 songs, watching a movie you have probably seen at least twice as well, or sport: cardiac training in different packages. Now, imagine, that in this world, no one gets diseases or older than 80. At a set age, you can decide whether you want to have a partner or stay single – if you want one, the system will match you with someone else you've probably never met. You can decide whether you want children, but only until you've reached a certain age – and then you can have no more than two. You can not choose your own job. You have no control over when you leave school. Even your dreams are monitored. Imagine living like this. Can you? This unimaginable life is Cassia's world. With just one tiny difference. When she's matched with her best friend, Xander, and receives a micro chip with the etiquette rules and his personal data, a different person is on the screen: another friend of hers, Ky. Ky, who never talks about himself, came at the age of ten, disappeared from school early and tries everything in his power to not be noticed, to be average, overlooked. As time passes, Cassia has to see that the system she loves is a golden cage, one that imprisons everyone – and kills the ones who won't sit back and cooperate.

Covenant by Jennifer L. Armentrout

The Greek gods adored having affairs with mortals. And their children mix with humans as well. When Zeus began to fear the demi-gods, that they’d copy what he did to his father, he decided to kill them all. But he forgot their offspring. The so-called Pures, have special powers: They can control one of the four elements and are stronger and faster than mortals. When they themselves get children with humans, the offspring – Half-Bloods – are fast healing, have a very good immune system and are as fast and strong as their Pure parent. Together, they make the Hematoi, the children of the demi-gods.

At one point, Dionysos, God of wine, madness and lots of other stuff, found out that you can get high on the Aether, the stuff that runs through the gods' veins and makes them powerful. But what can make you high can make you addicted as well, and when the word spread, the daimons came into existence: Pure’s high on Aether, loosing themselves, loosing their mind skills, but not their control over the elements. They kill everything that moves and hunt for Aether – whenever a Pure gets in contact with Aether, they are turned.

And daimon’s are a huge, huge threat.

While the Pure’s rule the council and thus the supernatural world, the Half’s can choose to become a Sentinel – which means to be a daimon hunter – a Guard – which means to protect Pure’s from daimons – or a servant on drugs. Placed on the Elixir means to be robbed off their own will… they will do whatever their masters tell them to do.

Because the gods have forbidden the mixing of Pure’s and Half’s blood, the Breed Order says clearly that the blood has to stay pure, and that the Half’s aren’t worth anything. Pure's are matched with Pure's only (without exception, even though affairs with mortals do happen frequently) and a relationship between a Pure and a Half is punishable by death – of both participants and their potential offspring.

But Zeus has another safety measure. The Apollyon. Capable of controlling all four elements plus a fifth called akasha and even stronger and faster than the Pure's and Half's they are supposed to make sure the gods’ will is enforced in the Hematoi world. There's only one Apollyon per generation – well, except for that one time. But they didn’t survive very long, the Hematoi, furies and gods saw to that.

But history always repeats itself.

When Alex’ mother is killed, she has no choice but to go back to the place they fled – totally oblivious to the reason why they did leave in the first place. But when this generation’s Apollyon shows up, Alex is about to find out, why… meanwhile, the daimons organise themselves, a god turned rogue and Alex has to make sure she’s not placed on the Elixir. And then there’s Aiden… And the prophecy, that she will die.

Fallen by Lauren Kate

Once upon a time all the angels were worshipping god, or "the Throne" as they call Him/Her here. As many of you might know, the angel Luzifer didn't want to worship and serve any more, but be worshipped. So he called out some kind of election, where every angel should decide whether he or she would want to be with the Throne, or with him. At the end of the election the Throne kicked out those who decided against him, or didn't decide at all. They fell. And because Daniel did something very stupid (even though others would call it romantic) he and his love, Lucinda, were cursed: They meet, when she gets 17, they fall in love and because of that she dies and is born again. While they try to get along, the angels on earth have still the choice to fight for the Throne, and get real angels again, or for Luzifer, and get demons. Most of the time the amount of power is balanced on each side, until one angel discovered how to make special arrows which can kill angels and demons. The only kind of fallen angels who can create them are the Outcasts, who are cursed by both sides and have no choice at all. Additionally, there are the Scale and the Zsmalin. The Scale helps everyone, but consists of "good" angels, and the Zsmalin tell everyone what being a (fallen) angel means. This is how everything started.

House of Night by P.C. & Kristin Cast

The mysterious, beautiful and talented vampyres live between mortals, civilized, peacefully. As humans mature, they can be marked with a half-moon shaped tattoo on their foreheads by the goddess Nyx, which means that they will become vampyres in up to four years – or die. The goddess is honoured in services with rituals of the five elements, water, fire, earth, air and spirit. There women rule the society as priestesses and are served by their partners: a warrior for her protection, with whom she shares an emotional bond, a human companion she loves and feeds from, and an immortal mate – a vampyre.

The children of Nyx are gifted beyond measure – and no talent is ever taken away from them, least of all the free choice the ruler of the Otherworld grants her beloved race. The balance between good and evil mustn't be destroyed – even though it hurts her to see her chosen ones turn against her – like her warrior did once.

But the balance is about to be destroyed, old nightmares will resurface – and Nyx' gifts will be used against her. While her most beloved daughter aligns with evil to create a new race, the goddess marks a 16 year old girl to be her eyes and ears in the human world...

Percy Jackson & Heroes of the Olympus by Rick Riordan

The Greek Gods have always been there, at the heart of civilisation. Each time the centre of culture and power changed, the gods moved with it and adapted to the society – until they were primarily their gods. They still spawn children and leave them in the mortal world, where they have to fight monsters and protect both gods and humanity - which they learn at Camp Half Blood or Camp Jupiter. Because gods need their children to do their bidding on earth, one of the few restrictions they have. Unfortunately, there are a few problems in this. Since most demi gods are left alone by their divine parents after their birth, they usually die way too young. Plus, the secondary gods (meaning gods you probably never heard of before reading the series) are neglected and, therefore, do not like the Big 12 (Ares, Apollo, Athena, Artemis, Aphrodite, Hephaestus, Dionysos, Demeter, Hera, Poseidon, Hades and Zeus) very much. Besides, there are dire conflicts between the camps in which demi gods are taught...

Now, the myth of the making of the world says (in brief) the following: Gaia, the earth, Uranos, the sky, and Tartarus, the void, were first. Gaia and Uranos loved each other and spawned the titans and other monsters – but Uranos abused Gaia and imprisoned some of their children, which made her angry. She gave the titans a weapon to kill there father, and Kronos ruled the world. For a while, everything was relatively peaceful, even though Kronos did not free his brothers. But he was cruel – he ate his children to prevent that his children, the gods, would do what he did to his father – but someday, his wife tricked him. Zeus survived and overthrew Kronos, made him spit out his other children and then go into Tartarus.

Gaia was very angry about this. With Tartarus help, she spawned the giants to kill the gods and free the titans again. Legends say that a giant can only be killed when a demi-god and a god work together. The gods won in the end, and continued to rule the earth and multiply as they wish.

But now, history is going to repeat itself: Because someone wants to free Kronos from Tartarus...

Shadowhunters by Cassandra Clare (and Sarah Rees Brennen & Maureen Johnson)

Once upon a time, there were only humans on Earth. But then the demons came seeping through the holes of the dimensions to overran the planet.

When the Archangel Raziel was summoned to help mankind against the chaotic army, he mingled his blood with one human’s and, through this, gave him special powers. Jonathan Shadowhunter was the first of the so-called Nephilim – a half-angel, blessed with more strength and speed than humans. But most importantly: He could mark his skin with the runes, the language of the angels, and, through this, get more power. The Archangel gave Jonathan Shadowhunter three other relics to help spread the new race: A mirror, a cup and a sword. The sword makes people say the truth, the cup can transform a human to a Shadowhunter – or kill the one who tries, if (s)he’s not worthy. But no one knows what the mirror can do – it was lost long ago.

Ever since the day Jonathan Shadowhunter became a Nephilim, he and the others of his kind fought against demons. Hidden from the humans’ eyes, their angelic powers and magic led them grow in powers, even though most died young.

But they weren’t alone. Vampires and werewolves might be products of demon diseases on humans, but they hate their ultimate ancestors – as do warlocks and witches, the ultimate product of a human and demon union. The fair folk, said to be half angel and half demon, want to protect the Earth as well.

But the Downworldlers and the Nephilim didn’t get along. Crimes were committed, both sides were wronged, and an animosity grew between the species.

Centuries passed.

The Shadowhunters blocked their country, Idris, from the humans and their capital, Alicante, from demons. Their children were taught at the local boarding school and then, as adults, sent to different institutes all over the world to fight against the demons. Even after their deaths, their ashes help protect Alicante and the City of Bones, in which the few immortal Nephilim guard their secrets in endless silence and rituals.

The Downworldlers and the Shadowhunters finally hammered a very weak truce, but they were too late: The Infernal Devices were already born.

A century later, a young Shadowhunter called Valentine Morgenstern would become obsessed with the idea of the evilness in the Downworldlers… and start a rebellion that would eventually unite his species with the half-demons – and kill him in the process. Or so the Nephilim thought…

But Valentine’s inheritance would, one day, lead to a war no one saw coming.

And through it all, one warlock sees it all...

Worldwalker by Josephine Angelini

When a person in universe A makes a decision, a parallel universe B is born, in which you made a different decision. Three to four hundred years ago, in Salem, the witch hunters decided to hang people here and burn people in Lillian's universe. BUT there are witches with the ability to firewalk – meaning to draw energy directly from the flames and thus becoming immune to heat and very very powerful. They still had no means against the gallows. So in our world (A), they died. But in world B, they don't. Lillian's world grows into a mixture of Medieval and Science Fiction. The witches run the world, literally, because they are capable of drawing energy from everything and transforming this into force and other stuff. This means that they can fuel a machinery – or people, making them as fast, strong etc. as they want to be. But they can also change the energy they produce and bind them to objects – which means you eat the object and get the energy. And since witches work on a molecular level, they can make the energy do certain stuff, like heal a person. And they can even adapt their eyes until they see electrons and even smaller stuff.

Okay. So far, so good. We have a world of parallel universes and one of them has inhabitants who can mess with energy on a molecular level. Wonderful. But that's not all. This energy-messing can go in different intensities: Crucibles can make a little energy. Mechanics can go further, but to unlock their full powers, they have to bond with someone, preferably a witch. Witches themselves can do almost everything they want to, and the real powerful ones (like Lillian and Lily) can jump between the worlds, if they know how to do it.

The powers of every person are amplified through willstones. And now it gets really complicated. Willstones are like a computer inside your mind. It saves memories like a hardrive and otherwise works like an extra limb. If you touch someone's willstone, the person is either extremely happy or really in pain. Depending on whether he/she wants it. Additionally, you can bond with a will stone, which is very intimate (since it has side-effects like telepathy and such). A witch can channel the force she produces into the claimed (meaning bonded) person's willstones and like that in their bodies. Or she can hack the willstone and therefore manipulate the person and control his/her mind.

Mechanics are almost always bonded. The witch gives the mechanics superpowers and the mechanics make sure that the witch's body has everything it needs in order to work.

This means that in society, the witches (as the most powerful) are on top and the mechanics follow suit. In theory, there is a council of non-witches to function as check-and-balances, but since the witches are responsible for food, clothes and healthcare for all citizens, the council can't challenge them without dire consequences.

There's another group which isn't a fan of the witches rule, either: The outlanders, the people who are not allowed to live inside the thirteen walled cities and therefore have no rights. They have no access to the healing powers or food, and the results of a genetical experiment by the witches make survival outside of the thirteen cities very hard.

Now, the outlanders have to try to meddle in science in order to survive. Which Lily's alter ego helped with, she was the most liberal head of the witches ever. But then, she first world jumped... into a Cinder universe, a universe which was destroyed. And ever since then, she's become so cruel that the love of her life literally rather destroyed one of his limbs than to stay with her. And that's when she transfers Lily to her world and our story begins.