There’s nothing quite like reading about a fun, magical quest. Here are 8 books that follow the characters as they head off on a quest to save themselves or their world.

If I Have to Be Haunted – Miranda Sun

Cara Tang has always done her best to be the perfect daughter and that includes trying to ignore all of the ghosts that she sees every single day. But one day, Cara stumbles across the body of her school rival, Zach, and accidentally talks to his ghost. 

After consulting her ghost-grandmother, they learn that he was most likely killed by a magical snake and they can bring him back if they find the cure within a week. So Cara and Zach head off on a quest through a mystical world full of monsters and find the cure together.

If I Have to Be Haunted is a fun young adult paranormal book with entertaining characters and a fantastic rivals-to-lovers romance.

Percy Jackson & the Lightning Thief – Rick Riordan

Percy Jackson is a nice kid but struggles to focus at school and often loses his temper pretty easily. And lately, weird things have been happening. His algebra teacher has just turned into a monster and tried to kill him – except that no one else could see it happening.

Percy is about to find out that he is actually a demigod. His mother is human and his father is a Greek God. Yes, a literal God. For his own protection, Percy is sent off to Camp Half-Blood, a summer camp for demigods where he is sent on a magical quest to save the world.

The Percy Jackson & the Olympians series is a fun, middle-grade series that follows Percy Jackson and his friends from age 12 to young adulthood. 

Beasts of Prey – Ayana Gray

Koffi is indentured to the notorious night zoo where she cares for its magical creatures to pay off her family’s debts. When her family is threatened by the Zoo’s cruel master, she unleashes a power she doesn’t understand.

Ekon is destined to become an elite warrior and uphold his family legacy but on the night of his final rite of passage he encounters the Shetani, a deadly creature that has plagued his city for a century, and Koffi saves his life. When he lets her flee, he dooms his hopes of becoming a warrior.

Ekon and Koffi become reluctant allies as they agree to enter the deadly Greater Jungle to catch the Shetani. Ekon vows to hunt the creature down to redeem himself and Koffi wants to sell it to pay off her debts.

Beasts of Prey is the first book in a young adult fantasy trilogy inspired by African folklore and mythology.

We Hunt the Flame – Hafsah Faizal

People lived because she killed. People died because he lived.

Zafira is a hunter, forced to disguise herself as a man in order to find food to feed her people. Nasir is an assassin working on behalf of his father.

Zafira is sent on a quest to uncover a lost artifact that can restore magic to her suffering land. Nasir is sent on a similar mission to find the artifact and kill Zafira. But as their journey unfolds, ancient evil begins to stir.

We Hunt the Flame is the first book in a fantasy duology inspired by ancient Arabia.

An Enchantment of Ravens – Margaret Rogerson

Isobel creates beautiful portraits of the dangerous fair folk. And one day she receives her first royal patron – Rook, the autumn prince. but she paints mortal sorrow in his eyes, which proves to be a dangerous mistake.

She’s swept away to his kingdom to stand trial for her crime, where they are forced to depend on each other for survival when they are attacked from every side.

An Enchantment of Ravens is a standalone, young adult fantasy that features a great enemies-to-lovers relationship.

The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea – Axie Oh

Deadly storms have ravaged Mina’s homeland for generations. In an attempt to appease the Sea God, once a year they sacrifice a beautiful maiden to him with the hopes that he will find his true bride and stop the storms.

But this time the sacrifice is Mina’s brother’s beloved… so Mina decides to sacrifice herself instead. She’s swept away to the Spirit Realm, a magical city of lesser gods and mythical beasts where she discovers that the Sea God is trapped in an enchanted sleep.

The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea is a beautiful, standalone fantasy.

Daughter of the Pirate King – Tricia Levenseller

Alosa is a 17-year-old pirate captain and the daughter of the most ruthless pirate captain there is. She has been sent on a mission to retrieve an ancient treasure map that will lead her to a legendary treasure trove. 

But to get the map, she needs to find access to the enemy’s pirate ship so Alosa and her crew deliberately get captured by the enemy. 

Daughter of the Pirate King is the first book in a fantasy duology.

Six Crimson Cranes – Elizabeth Lim

Magic is forbidden in the kingdom of Kiata, but the only princess, Shiori, can secretly do magic. She’s usually very good at keeping it a secret, but on the morning of her betrothal ceremony to a man she has never met, she loses control. 

Her stepmother, an evil sorceress, finds out and banishes Shiori and turns her 6 brothers into cranes. Shiori is warned that if she ever speaks again, her brothers will die.

Shiori heads out into the world for the first time where she stumbles across a dark conspiracy to seize the throne. With a magical paper bird, a dragon, and the boy she fought so hard against marrying, she attempts to save her kingdom.

Six Crimson Cranes is the first in a fantasy duology and magically retells the tales of The Wild Swans, the legend of Chang E, and the Tale of the Bamboo Cutter.