Books Like Book Thief Novels & Stories

I couldn't leave the girls alone, unaware of the threat lingering around. "Ana." Jaxon's call halted me again. I heard his footsteps near before a book was stretched to me. "Read this, and you'll have all your answers." *** Sitting in the small table in our kitchen with a large mug of coffee, I pulled out the book from my backpack. Dark color, leather binding and bold golden title; it was the same book Mr. Valerious took away from me in the library. The book of the forbidden creatures of night. It looked old, yet neat enough to know it had always been taken care of. Greatly.

“Now you’ve got me intrigued.” My lips curved faintly. “Intrigued?” “How does a thief know how to navigate corporate negotiations and contract presentations?” I let out a quiet laugh. “Just because I’m a thief doesn’t mean I’m dumb.” I continued, “If anything, thieves are some of the smartest people alive.” That earned a quiet laugh from him, low and unexpected. “Is that so?” “Of course,” I replied. “You think stealing is easy? One wrong move and everything falls apart. You learn to think ahead and read people before they read you.”

Something Liam recommended after asking him for books my mother must have read. It was filled with stories of queens who lost everything, kings who broke under the crown and kings who abdicated the throne and the constant war between packs. I turned the pages without really reading, constantly rubbing my eyes to soothe the ache in them. After hours of flipping through the pages in silence, the first noise came from the jangling keys of a librarian. She was leaving. She brought me a cup of tea and placed it by my side. “You’ve been here all day. Are you sure you won’t leave and return tomorrow?”

Liora Vale had always loved the quiet. At twenty-one, she worked the night shift at the old city library. Most people thought the job was boring, but Liora loved being alone with the books after midnight. The tall shelves felt like old friends. One rainy night, while sorting the rare books section, she found a strange leather book hidden behind others. It had no title. When she opened it, the pages glowed softly. Words appeared. Choose a story. Bring him to life. One night only.

The quiet librarian? The proxy bride? The girl who bleached her soul to save a library?

Valentina held her breath, pulse pounding against her throat, the ledger heavy in her hand. The shadow didn’t move. The shadow loomed just beyond the stall door. A pair of shoes—black leather, scuffed at the toes—angled toward her. Valentina’s breath snagged in her chest. Her fingers tightened on the ledger, her red nails biting into the leather. A soft rattle at the lock. Her pulse thundered. The handle jiggled harder this time, the lock straining against the force. Then— A muffled grunt. A scuffle, quick and low. The sound of air being driven from lungs, the faint scrape of leather on tile.

We head back towards the house and he bumps into my leg repeatedly, trying to get me to turn around. "Stop trying to herd me. I'm not a sheep." I tell him firmly, tossing him a treat as I walk into the bathroom to brush my teeth before bed. I lay down, thinking about the book as I stare at my ceiling. Basil jumps on the bed, spinning a few times before he lays down next to me. I run my fingers through his fur absentmindedly, my brain refusing to stop spinning as I think about the first few pages of the book. It started out with the beginning stages of a war, the main character building an army of werewolves to defeat their arch nemesis.

It’s not a particularly good smell—no one would make a cologne out of it—but it eases my chest and makes me feel languid and weightless, like I’m floating in space. I’m hardly paying attention as Justus takes all the books out of the crate to get a hardback at the very bottom. I hadn’t noticed it earlier. It’s an old children’s book. Thumbelina. The fabric cover is threadbare in places, and the gold embossed lettering is tarnished. I remember the story vaguely from the early years at Moon Lake Academy. It’s a human fairy tale.

he questions. I nod my head. "Yes," I say again. "I've always loved reading." "Book," he says in a gruff voice. "Liffatin. Can you repeat that back to me?"Liffatin," I repeat. "That's a beautiful word. You know, back in my kingdom there was a little shop called a library and it harbored many, many books. Some were sad, some were happy, some were full of action and tales of courageous princes and princesses, fictional tales of fire-breathing dragons and fairies and demons. A book is where imagination takes flight."

She took the book from Vida’s hand and playfully kept it out of her reach. “Hey!” Vida giggled. “Stop it, Tessa. You’ll get my page messed up.” Tessa would not actually lose Vida’s progress in the book. She still sensibly kept her finger where Vida was reading and turned to take a look at the cover. “Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief,” Tessa rolled her eyes. “Ugh, again? How many times have you read this book?” Vida looked up and actually thought about it. Fantasy books have always enthralled her. There is something about these stories that make her fall in love a hundred or maybe even a thousand times.