Sit down with these series and stand alone books during COVID-19

By Olivia Runkle

Book Series To Read:

• The Vampire Kisses Series

This book series is similar to Twilight but has your classic vampire atmosphere coffins, garlic allergy, no sunlight, drinking human blood and much more. It is one of my all-time favorite series that I have ever read, also perfect for Halloween. You will find mystery, supernatural, romance and drama perfectly crafted into one series. I will warn you that you will not be able to stop reading once you have started reading the series. I am reading it for the second time and still couldn’t put it down.

• Twilight Saga

Yas, I know a lot of people hate this series, but it is a great supernatural love story because of the fact that Stephanie Meyer actually got the idea for this series from a dream she had. This series also means a lot to me because I read it after a family tragedy that happened when I was in elementary.  It has the classic rivalry between werewolves and vampires, and your classic stupid main character in horror movies. Perfect for Halloween and readers of romance. 

• The Selection Trilogy

This is one of my favorite dystopian novels; however, I would also put it in the romance section because it is literally The Hunger Games crossed with The Bachelor. The main character America Singer enters the Selection even though she hates Prince Maxon and ends up having an epic love story. 

• The School For Good And Evil

Though I haven’t read this series since sixth grade, I would highly recommend it due to the fact that it is similar to Descendants and Ever After High with the idea of fairytale characters having children and going to different schools. But beware. The character you expect to be bad is the one who is good and the character you expect to be good is bad. 

• Nancy Drew 

Do you love mystery but without all the gore and death? Then this classic series by Carolyn Keene is for you; however, you will have to pay close attention to the dates that the books were published in order to get the correct series. Some might say 1930 or 1960 something, so if you have those copies, they are the ones you will want to read. Follow Nancy Drew and her lawyer father Carson Drew on mysteries that need solving and travel around the world with Nancy and her girlfriends Bess Marvin and George Fayne.   

• The Hardy Boys

Are you a fan of Sherlock Holmes but wish there were more child-friendly scenes and better mystery? Then try the male version of Nancy Drew: the Hardy Boys.  Two brothers named Frank and Joe Hardy, who’s father Fenton Hardy is a detective, help their father solve mysteries, and unlike Nancy Drew, all you have to do is look for blue spines that look like they were written for the masculine crowd. 

Books To Read:

• Avalon High 

The stand-alone book Avalon High written by Meg Cabot is very underrated because it was written in 2007; however, I have found that books that are older are often more interesting because the writing was actually not the same subject-wise. In the book, Elaine moves from her old town to a new town called Bay Port where she meets A. William Wagner and her medieval obsessed professor parents, and she discovers that King Arthur has been reincarnated.

• Everything, Everything

I have read this book many times because it is relatable but also one of the most well-written romance novels I have ever read and has such a great main character. Madeline F. Whitter has a life-threatening disease called SKID which keeps her from going outside because if she does she could die. She has been kept in her house for 18 years until she meets Olly, the boy next door, and discovers a secret that her mother never shared with her.

• By Your Side

As someone with anxiety, I could really relate to the main character because she has anxiety, and when she gets trapped in the library with the school’s bad boy Dax, she has to adapt to being locked in the library with him. When they get out of the library will they become more than friends?