Sky's End

Sky's End by Marc J Gregson

In a universe, status is important. People can challenge others to achieve their status. There are special creatures as well as a bit of hidden technology. People have conflicts. Family relationships are important. People have opportunity to audition to be selected for jobs. There is a crew of people that work together. They want to work together to make things right and win competition to kill bad things. It is really hard to distinguish from other YA "crew" science fiction/fantasy books.

A Whisper in the Walls

A Whisper in the Walls by Scott Reintgen

A girl is set to avenge the death of her father. To keep things interesting, she is bonded to the son of the leader that had her father killed. There are various romantic conflicts involved along with castle intrigue. There is also the interesting case of what is essentially a "magical research compact" with various houses. As part of their mandate, they have the ability to look into the minds of each person. It is all a fairly typical work of "revenge" with some magic and fantasy in there to carry it out.