Book picks similar to
The Queen’s Garden Mage by Briana Bates
fantasy
lesbian-fantasy
lesbian
lgbt
Pirates of Aletharia
Britney Jackson - 2021
Betrayed and angry, she trades her meekness for a sword and embarks on a quest for vengeance that will lead her straight into the arms of the legendary Captain Maria Welles.Captain of the famed pirate ship, the Wicked Fate, Maria is every bit as treacherous and bloodthirsty as they say. She has her own vendetta and practically jumps at the chance to trick Emilia into joining her crew.But when their animosity toward each other blossoms into a passionate romance, the two women will have to decide what they want most.Vengeance?Or love?
A Vote for Love
Jea Hawkins - 2017
That is, until she falls for glamorous Veronica Stone-McClusky, a senator's daughter. As these unlikely opposites attract, Hayley can’t deny the allure of Veronica’s world, a world she soon discovers is at odds with her ambitions. Hayley learns that dreams aren't always what they seem and sometimes, like it or not, the least likely person is the one you fall in love with. With career aspirations pulling her one way and her love life pulling her in another direction, Hayley is forced to make a choice or risk losing what she values most. This book is light on politics! It is about Hayley's and Veronica's journey, and how in the end all you really need is love.
Demons
Natalie Kiest - 2014
Opposites definitely attract, argue, and drive each other absolutely crazy when their worlds collide. What would you do if you found out you were half demon? Seventeen year old Ravyn didn’t ignore it, she embraced it. Now, at the age of twenty-three, Ravyn is one of the most feared demons in existence and a merciless assassin. When the Prophets deem Ravyn’s only childhood friend, Kara, a dangerous threat, they fail to see Kara’s life means far more to Ravyn than anything in this world. Ravyn must fight those who wish to protect the prophecy and those who wish to stop it from coming to fruition. But Ravyn has never backed down from a fight and refuses to give up on Kara no matter how horrible the odds. Ravyn never expected her human emotions to be switched back on and that’s exactly what happened when Kara re-entered her life. Fear and guilt quickly consume Ravyn while she struggles between becoming the caring friend Kara once knew and providing the much needed deadly protection. Dark secrets are revealed, friendships are betrayed, and love is tested to the breaking point.
The Traitor Baru Cormorant
Seth Dickinson - 2015
They'll conquer Baru’s island, rewrite her culture, criminalize her customs, and dispose of one of her fathers. But Baru is patient. She'll swallow her hate, prove her talent, and join the Masquerade. She will learn the secrets of empire. She’ll be exactly what they need. And she'll claw her way high enough up the rungs of power to set her people free. In a final test of her loyalty, the Masquerade will send Baru to bring order to distant Aurdwynn, a snakepit of rebels, informants, and seditious dukes. Aurdwynn kills everyone who tries to rule it. To survive, Baru will need to untangle this land’s intricate web of treachery - and conceal her attraction to the dangerously fascinating Duchess Tain Hu. But Baru is a savant in games of power, as ruthless in her tactics as she is fixated on her goals. In the calculus of her schemes, all ledgers must be balanced, and the price of liberation paid in full.
Wild Magic
May Dawney - 2018
The magical barrier known as the Veil is all that stands between our reality and the Otherworld. Those with the gift of magic can pull energy through it to perform miraculous feats of power. The Inquisitio opposes these mages, who have organized themselves within the Society for Psychical Defense. The world of magic is shaken by the awakening of a wild mage, a woman capable of manipulating the Veil itself. She has the power to either eradicate the Inquisitio or rob the mages of their abilities. Only one side can win and it will be the side that gets to the wild mage first. Ania Zaleska lives a perfectly ordinary—albeit floundering—life in Poland's second-biggest city until the day she explodes. She's dug from the rubble of her apartment building by shadow mage Noah Otieno, whose job it becomes to get Ania's wild magic under control. Noah is affiliated with the Society for Psychical Defense but she has kept herself away from magical politics as much as possible. Now she is in charge of potentially the most powerful magical weapon on either side of the war, she must decide how she can best keep her safe—especially when their magic brings them together in ways only wild magic can.
Second Nature
Jae - 2009
Novelist Jorie Price doesn't believe in the existence of shape-shifting creatures or true love. She leads a solitary life, and the paranormal romances she writes are pure fiction for her. Griffin Westmore knows better - at least about one of these two things. She doesn't believe in love either, but she's one of the not-so-fictional shape-shifters. She's also a Saru - an elite soldier, investigator, and if need be an assassin with the mission to protect the shape-shifters' secret existence at any cost. When Jorie gets too close to the truth in her latest shape-shifter romance, Griffin is sent to investigate - and if necessary to destroy the manuscript before it's published and to kill the writer.
More Than an Echo
Linda Kay Silva - 2010
But when her empathic powers kick in she becomes Echo Branson, untrained and as much a risk to herself as others. Fleeing the nightmare her life has become she seeks out a mentor, deep in the Louisiana Bayou. For the first time she learns she is not alone. Finally, a family. But it’s a family she cannot keep.Reemerging into a world where she must appear normal, Echo begins a career as an investigative reporter and immerses herself in a story that will rock the city of San Francisco. Fearing persecution—and worse-- because of her paranormal abilities, she quickly learns she must keep everyone at arm’s length, including the woman for whom her feelings are far too risky to explore.Having only her broken past to go by, Echo trusts no future. Can someone so incredibly different find safety, friends, let alone love, in a society that denies her very existence?More Than an Echo is the first in popular author Linda Kay Silva's electrifying new paranormal series featuring empath Echo Branson.
To Boldly Go
Em Stevens - 2018
Taryn's trip of a lifetime is finally happening. She's saved money, researched, planned, and created an itinerary that will allow her to travel Italy...and finally tell her best friend that she's in love with her. But those plans are ruined when she wakes up alone, her crush gone. Her plans did not include being alone and stranded in Milan. Now Taryn's dream vacation is a nightmare. Enter Holly, a fellow traveler: young, full of life, and comfortable traipsing off the beaten path. Holly feels a connection with Taryn and wants to salvage her trip. After all, they're in freaking Italy! But their radically different travel styles and age differences make for rough terrain. Together, they boldly go into unexplored territories of the heart, and may just discover love.
Fires of the Faithful
Naomi Kritzer - 2002
But beyond the conservatory walls is a land blighted by war and inexplicable famine and dominated by a fearsome religious order known as the Fedeli, who are systematically stamping out all traces of the land's old beliefs. Soon not even the conservatory walls can hold out reality. When one classmate is brutally killed by the Fedeli for clinging to the forbidden ways and another is kidnapped by the Circle--the mysterious and powerful mages who rule the land--Eliana can take no more. Especially not after she learns one of the Circle's most closely guarded secrets.Now, determined to escape the Circle's power, burning with rage at the Fedeli, and drawn herself to the beliefs of the Old Way, Eliana embarks on a treacherous journey to spread the truth. And what she finds shakes her to her core: a past destroyed, a future in doubt, and a desperate people in need of a leader--no matter how young or inexperienced....
Gossamer Axe
Gael Baudino - 1990
Chairiste alone managed to escape, and now, living in the modern world as Christa Cruitaire, a quiet harp teacher, she is all but resigned to her inability to win her beloved’s freedom . . . until she discovers that the volume and violence of the electric guitar and heavy metal might prove brutal enough to forcibly breach the barriers between the human and fairy worlds. With the aid of her bandmates—who must themselves overcome inner demons of abuse, addiction, and prejudice—Christa is determined to use her newfound musical power to rescue the woman she loves.Audacious and heartfelt, Gossamer Axe is an entirely original hero’s journey, an ode to the power of music and the human spirit alike, charged with rapier-sharp social commentary.
Ship of Smoke and Steel
Django Wexler - 2019
When her ability to access the Well of Combat is discovered by the Empire—an ability she should have declared and placed at His Imperial Majesty's service—she's sent on an impossible mission: steal Soliton, a legendary ghost ship—a ship from which no one has ever returned. If she fails, her sister’s life is forfeit.
Legacy of Love
Marianne K. Martin - 1997
"What do you want from me?" she whispered.Suzanne pressed up into Sage's embrace, her body making demands on the skillful hands, commanding pleasure from the exciting mouth. "I need you to love me...as long as you possibly can".What was it about Sage Bristo that drew women to her? Maybe it was the tall, toned body and androgynous good looks. Perhaps they liked her confidence -- her movements and manner so sure and decisive. Or was it the air of mystery, the temptation of a challenge to unravel?Sage couldn't explain the attraction, but she had certainly benefited from it, at least physically. As her reputation as a Don Juana grew, so did her black book of admiring women. Women who wanted to spoil her, to own her, to please her. Women who would do anything for her. But never the woman she needed the most -- the one woman who could lead her through the realm of desire, to the thing she desires most...
Malice
Heather WalterHeather Walter - 2021
But in this darkly magical retelling of “Sleeping Beauty,” true love is more than a simple fairy tale. Once upon a time, there was a wicked fairy who, in an act of vengeance, cursed a line of princesses to die. A curse that could only be broken by true love’s kiss. You’ve heard this before, haven’t you? The handsome prince. The happily-ever-after. Utter nonsense. Let me tell you, no one in Briar actually cares about what happens to its princesses. Not the way they care about their jewels and elaborate parties and charm-granting elixirs. I thought I didn’t care, either. Until I met her. Princess Aurora. The last heir to Briar’s throne. Kind. Gracious. The future queen her realm needs. One who isn’t bothered that I am Alyce, the Dark Grace, abhorred and feared for the mysterious dark magic that runs in my veins. Humiliated and shamed by the same nobles who pay me to bottle hexes and then brand me a monster. Aurora says I should be proud of my gifts. That she . . . cares for me. Even though it was a power like mine that was responsible for her curse. But with less than a year until that curse will kill her, any future I might see with Aurora is swiftly disintegrating—and she can’t stand to kiss yet another insipid prince. I want to help her. If my power began her curse, perhaps it’s what can lift it. Perhaps, together, we could forge a new world. Nonsense again. Because we all know how this story ends, don’t we? Aurora is the beautiful princess. And I— I am the villain.
The Eldritch Heart
Matthew S. Cox - 2017
Oh, did I mention assassins? Seers foretold the conflict would end by her hand. From the moment she drew her first breath, the neighboring kingdom has been trying to kill her so she could not grow powerful enough to destroy them. Fearing for his daughter’s life, the king has kept her confined to the castle grounds for most of her sixteen years. With the tide of war turning against them, the burden of her crown becomes too much to bear, yet one thing lifts her spirits amid the gloom. Her servant girl, Kitlyn. Alas, in a kingdom obsessed with the god of purity, she is terrified to confess her forbidden love. When her father makes a demand she cannot abide―marry a prince to forge a military alliance―Oona panics. He is handsome and honorable, but he’s not Kitlyn. Unable to admit why she cannot obey, Oona does the only thing she can think of, and runs away. Alone and unprepared in the wilderness, she prays the gods will let Kitlyn find her—before the assassins do.
Balance of Forces: Toujours Ici
Ali Vali - 2011
After accepting the opportunity to drink the elixir of the sun, Kendal becomes immortal and the Genesis Clan’s slayer. History has taught her the dangers of getting too close to anyone who hasn’t harnessed the power of time.After many years, she returns to New Orleans to finish a job she’s trained for all her life. It’s time for her to face her brother Henri, and it will have dire consequences to mankind if she fails.Piper Marmande believes Kendal has come to take over the company her family has built over generations. As Kendal prepares for the most important battle of her long life, Piper does her best to uncover every one of Kendal’s secrets, making herself a distraction Kendal can’t afford as she hunts Henri and Ora, the vampire who seduced him to a life of darkness.