At Scholomance, a cutthroat school of magic, students are expected to graduate or die. The main rule: don't ever walk the hallways alone for monsters lurk everywhere. A standoffish loner, El doesn't have the advantages of the bigger cliches, but she does have a powerful magic that tends toward destruction. When she befriends the popular hero of the school, El must balance her survival with the survival of the other students in one of the best dark magic books out there.

My husband told me I had to try the "Dirty Harry Potter" series he was reading, and I quickly fell in love with Novik's fantasy series. With top-notch world-building and a great premise, A Deadly Education blends the perfect mix of teenage angst and romance to make it a perfect YA series to read.