There exists in this world a particular kind of magic—not the sort that flies about on wings of dust, nor the kind that lives in wands or cauldrons—but rather the quiet, fierce magic of finding one’s people. Of discovering, quite by accident or by the most determined intention, that family is not merely a matter of blood, but of choice.
The found family trope speaks to something deep within the human heart: the knowledge that somewhere, perhaps in the most unexpected corner of the universe, there are souls who will claim us as their own. These are the books that celebrate that truth, each one a doorway to worlds where misfits become kin and strangers become everything.
1. The Wendy by Erin Michelle Sky and Steven Brown
In the year 1783, there arrived at a London orphanage a baby girl who would one day become something rather extraordinary—though no one knew it at the time, least of all the baby herself. This is the tale of Wendy Darling, and it is unlike any Peter Pan story you have encountered before.
Wendy dreams of ships and sea spray and adventure, which is terribly inconvenient when one is a woman in 18th century England, where women are meant to dream of matrimony and motherhood and other such sensible things. But Wendy has never been sensible. When she joins the British Home Office’s secret service to protect England from magical threats called the Everlost, she finds herself amid a crew of loyal companions—John and Michael, her brothers in arms (though not in blood), the fierce and faithful Nana, and eventually the mysterious Peter Pan himself.
What makes this retelling sing is how Wendy builds her family one brave act at a time. Every man who would dismiss her for being a woman soon discovers that this particular woman has a habit of proving people wonderfully wrong. The writing captures the wit and whimsy of the original Barrie tales whilst giving us a heroine who earns her place at the helm through cleverness, courage, and an eyebrow so expressive it practically speaks. The complete Tales of the Wendy trilogy is now available for those who cannot bear to leave this crew behind.
2. Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
In the city of Ketterdam, where anything may be bought for the right price, a criminal prodigy named Kaz Brekker assembles a crew of six dangerous outcasts for an impossible heist. There is Inej, the Wraith, who moves like shadow and silence. There is Jesper, whose aim never wavers. There is Nina, whose magic runs through blood and bone. There is Matthias, a former enemy turned reluctant ally. And there is Wylan, whose talent for explosions proves most useful when everything inevitably goes wrong.
They are thieves and spies and dreamers, each carrying scars both seen and hidden. Yet somewhere between the scheming and the surviving, they become something more than a crew—they become family.
3. The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
Linus Baker has spent forty years as a caseworker for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth, and in all that time, he has followed every rule to the letter. But when he is sent to investigate an orphanage on a remote island housing six dangerous magical children—including a gnome, a wyvern, and the actual Antichrist—he discovers that family often grows in the most unlikely soil.
Arthur Parnassus, the orphanage’s charming caretaker, guards his charges with fierce devotion. As Linus spends his days among these extraordinary children, he learns that rules are not always wise, that different is not always dangerous, and that home is wherever love decides to dwell.
4. Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree
After a lifetime of bounties and bloodshed, Viv the orc barbarian hangs up her sword and opens a coffee shop. One imagines her fellow mercenaries thought she had gone quite mad, but Viv knew precisely what she wanted—the smell of fresh-roasted beans instead of fresh-spilled blood, and perhaps a bit of peace.
With the help of Tandri the succubus, Thimble the master baker, and Cal the carpenter, Viv discovers that building a life is rather like building a found family: it requires patience, trust, and excellent cinnamon rolls.
5. The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna
Mika Moon has spent her entire life following the rules: hide your magic, keep your head down, stay away from other witches. Then a message arrives asking her to teach three young witches at the mysterious Nowhere House, and Mika finds herself tangled in the lives of a retired actor, two devoted caretakers, and Jamie, the prickly librarian who would do anything to protect his charges.
As she begins to find her place in this peculiar household, Mika realizes she may have stumbled upon the rarest magic of all—a family she did not know she was looking for.
6. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
Rosemary Harper joins the crew of the Wayfarer seeking escape from her past, and finds instead a ramshackle family spread across every corner of the galaxy. There is Sissix the reptilian pilot, Dr. Chef who serves as both physician and cook, Kizzy and Jenks the constantly bickering engineers, and Lovey, the ship’s AI who has opinions about everything.
Their journey through space is less about the destination and more about the living—the meals shared, the arguments weathered, the quiet moments when strangers become something like kin.
7. The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
Blue Sargent comes from a family of clairvoyants, though she possesses no gift herself save one: she amplifies the magic of others. When she becomes entangled with the raven boys of Aglionby Academy—wealthy, searching Gansey, fierce and broken Ronan, proud and struggling Adam, and watchful, silent Noah—she finds a fellowship that defies explanation.
Together they hunt for a slumbering Welsh king, but what they discover is something more precious: a family forged through shared secrets and impossible quests.
8. Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire
Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children shelters those who have traveled through doorways to other worlds and returned to find they no longer fit in this one. Nancy, newly arrived from an Underworld of stillness and silence, must find her place among these portal travelers—children of Nonsense and Logic, Wickedness and Virtue.
When murder comes to Eleanor’s school, these wayward souls must work together, discovering that those who have been everywhere and belonged nowhere might just belong with each other.
9. A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
Ove is fifty-nine, widowed, and absolutely certain he wants no part of his neighbors or their noise or their incorrect parking habits. He has rules about everything, and the new family next door seems determined to break every single one.
Yet through the persistent warmth of Parvaneh and her daughters, through a stray cat and a troubled teenager and a community that refuses to let him disappear, Ove discovers that sometimes family simply refuses to leave you alone—and that this might be the greatest gift of all.
10. Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher
Princess Marra was never meant to matter. The spare to the spare, she was tucked away in a convent while her sisters married the prince of a neighboring kingdom. But when she discovers the true horror of that marriage, Marra sets out to commit regicide—armed with a cloak of nettles, a dog made of bones, and moonlight caught in a jar.
Along the way, she gathers the strangest family imaginable: a dust-wife, a disgraced knight, a demon-possessed chicken, and a fairy godmother of questionable competence. They are none of them heroes, but together they become exactly what each other needs.
11. The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi
In 1889 Paris, Séverin Montagnet-Alarie assembles a crew of expert thieves to hunt treasures for the Order of Babel. There is Laila the dancer who reads the secrets of objects, Enrique the historian who reads the secrets of the past, Zofia the engineer who speaks the language of mathematics, and Tristan the forger who sees beauty in the broken.
They steal impossible things from impossible places, but what they protect most fiercely is each other.
12. Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune
Wallace Price was not a particularly nice man when he was alive, and dying has not immediately improved his disposition. But at Hugo’s tea shop, where the dead linger before moving on, Wallace discovers what he missed in life: genuine connection, second chances, and the extraordinary ordinary miracle of being truly seen.
13. Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
When the Witch of the Waste transforms Sophie into an old woman, Sophie leaves her boring hat shop and barges into the moving castle of the dreaded Wizard Howl. There she finds not a monster but a household in chaos: Howl with his vanity and melodrama, young Michael who is learning magic, and Calcifer the fire demon bound by a mysterious contract.
Sophie takes it upon herself to clean the castle and bully its inhabitants into sense, and in doing so becomes something she never expected—the heart of an impossible family.
Whether you seek adventure among the stars or magic in a coffee shop, these found family tales remind us that belonging is not about where we come from, but who we choose to walk beside. And that, dear reader, is the truest magic of all.
