Book picks similar to
Qin: Dragon Emperor of China by Brian Godawa


fantasy
christian-fiction
historical-fiction
biblical

City of Dark Magic


Magnus Flyte - 2012
    When music student Sarah Weston lands a summer job at Prague Castle cataloging Beethoven’s manuscripts, she has no idea how dangerous her life is about to become. Prague is a threshold, Sarah is warned, and it is steeped in blood.      Soon after Sarah arrives, strange things begin to happen. She learns that her mentor, who was working at the castle, may not have committed suicide after all. Could his cryptic notes be warnings? As Sarah parses his clues about Beethoven’s “Immortal Beloved,” she manages to get arrested, to have tantric sex in a public fountain, and to discover a time-warping drug. She also catches the attention of a four-hundred-year-old dwarf, the handsome Prince Max, and a powerful U.S. senator with secrets she will do anything to hide.      City of Dark Magic could be called a rom-com paranormal suspense novel—or it could simply be called one of the most entertaining novels of the year.

Ella


Samantha Evans - 2019
    King Breen, Liam's father, and Cullen, Liam's brother, believe that true honor is achieved once they slay a dragon. Liam believes that dragons are majestic and do not deserve to die. King Breen, Liam’s father, brings Liam along on an expedition to slay a dragon. On one of the nights of the expedition, Liam rescued a dragon’s egg. Liam decides to care for it, and it hatches on Liam’s birthday. Tragedy strikes, which leads to Liam having to leave Derzeli, and Liam goes on the run with the help of Ella the dragon. Ella helps him escape, and runs to a barren wasteland where he saw himself to becoming a hermit for the rest of his life. But due to an event happening with the help of a new friend, and a childhood friend he has no choice but to return home. Having to make the decision to run away from his destiny, or embrace it, the destiny of a king.

Pilate's Wife


Antoinette May - 2006
    As a rebellious child seated beside the tyrannical Roman Emperor Tiberius, she first spies the powerful gladiator who will ultimately be her one true passion. Yet it is the ambitious magistrate Pontius Pilate who intrigues the impressionable young woman she becomes, and Claudia finds her way into his arms by means of a mysterious ancient magic. Pilate is her grand destiny, leading her to Judaea and plunging her into a seething cauldron of open rebellion. But following her friend Miriam of Magdala's confession of her ecstatic love for a charismatic religious radical, Claudia begins to experience terrifying visions—horrific premonitions of war, injustice, untold devastation and damnation . . . and the crucifixion of a divine martyr whom she must do everything in her power to save.

Emperor’s Bane


S.J.A. Turney - 2016
    Tenzhin is only a boy when his tribe strikes deep into the Jin Empire and faces the might of the Jade Emperor. After his father is killed before his eyes, he is plunged into a new world: ancient, courtly – and brutal.Adopted by the Emperor, the boy must forget his old life and learn to survive the challenges of life as a prince. Tenzhin must perfect his mind, his soul and finally his body, in order to prepare for what lies ahead. Allies are few and far between, and eventually he must face the biggest trial of them all… Emperor’s Bane is a novella set in the Tales of the Empire universe. A gritty tale based on the Mongolian invasions of imperial China, it will engross readers of Guy Gavriel Kay and Conn Iggulden. The Tales of the Empire series Interregnum Ironroot Dark Empress Insurgency

Prophecy of the Sisters


Michelle Zink - 2009
    They have also become enemies. As they discover their roles in a prophecy that has turned generations of sisters against each other, the girls find themselves entangled in a mystery that involves a tattoo-like mark, their parents' deaths, a boy, a book, and a lifetime of secrets. Lia and Alice don't know whom they can trust.They just know they can't trust each other.

Coming Home


Jennifer Vander Klipp - 2019
    And avoid Seth Blake. Becca dreads seeing her girlhood crush to whom she confessed her love before she went off to college. Embarrassed by her childish behavior, she can only hope Seth has forgotten and will see her as a woman. She plans to return to school as soon as possible and make a life for herself. Rumors of ghosts, accidents at the camp, and overheard conversations convince Becca that her brother’s death was no accident. Despite evidence that she’s the next target, she puts her own feelings and college aside to stay and uncover the truth. Seth is happy to see Becca, but as a grown woman she’s a stranger to him, stirring up feelings he can’t identify. When he finds a piece of evidence implicating him in Thomas’s death, he struggles with helping Becca find answers while keeping her from learning he could have prevented it. As the stakes get higher, Seth must keep both of them alive long enough to offer a future to this grown woman he’s fallen in love with.

Born Wicked


Jessica Spotswood - 2012
    Too pretty, too reclusive, and far too educated for their own good. But the truth is even worse: they’re witches. And if their secret is discovered by the priests of the Brotherhood, it would mean an asylum, a prison ship—or an early grave.Before her mother died, Cate promised to protect her sisters. But with only six months left to choose between marriage and the Sisterhood, she might not be able to keep her word... especially after she finds her mother’s diary, uncovering a secret that could spell her family’s destruction. Desperate to find alternatives to their fate, Cate starts scouring banned books and questioning rebellious new friends, all while juggling tea parties, shocking marriage proposals, and a forbidden romance with the completely unsuitable Finn Belastra.If what her mother wrote is true, the Cahill girls aren’t safe. Not from the Brotherhood, the Sisterhood—not even from each other.

Dark Mirror


M.J. Putney - 2011
    Then she makes a terrifying discovery that will ruin her life and disgrace her family forever. Tory's blood is tainted... by magic.When a shocking accident forces Tory to reveal her despised skill, she is immediately exiled to Lackland Abbey, a reform school for young men and women in her position. Tory's greatest wish is to be cured so she can return home and perhaps recover some of her shattered life.Instead, curiosity and the lure of magic lead Tory to rebel students who have pledged their talents to protect England. As she joins them in their secret studies, she discovers her full powers - and is drawn to the handsome, enigmatic young Marquis of Allarde. But Allarde'a reserve and haunting secret keep him away, though she can see equal longing in his eyes.Then Tory's pledge sweeps her and her friends into a perilous world of danger, challenge, and a triumph that saves Britain from conquest. Can danger also bring Tory and Allarde together, despite all that stands between them?

Music From Beyond The Moon


Augusta Trobaugh - 2012
    But even their best intentions and deepest devotion can't hide the truth forever. Or soften the fate he must face with the girl he loves. Augusta Trobaugh's unforgettable novel speaks of loyalty, loss, the difficult choices we make in the name of family, and of courageous hope, each inspired by the fragile and painfully longing music of life, a song that seems to come from beyond the moon.

The Crown of Anavrea


Rachel Rossano - 2004
    Injured and losing blood with a patrol on his tail and a price on his head, he begins to wonder if he should just give up. After all, he had tried. Or, maybe that was the fever speaking.Eve faces a decision. Help the severely injured stranger she stumbled upon in the depths of a Braulian forest or return home to her slave master on time and possibly avoid a beating.Her choice will change both of their lives forever.

Guarded by Hellhounds (Hell Baited Wolves, #1)


Cali Mann - 2021
    Any man... but him. So I run.In the midst of a wild storm, three hot men save me. Men with dark secrets and a demonic nature my pack might never accept, but my heart's already claimed them. They're mine.Grab this steamy why choose shifter romance now and enter the world of Hell Baited Wolves, a sexy demon paranormal romance series by Cali Mann and Freya Black.

God Save the Queen


Kate Locke - 2012
     The undead matriarch of a Britain where the Aristocracy is made up of werewolves and vampires, where goblins live underground and mothers know better than to let their children out after dark. A world where being nobility means being infected with the Plague (side-effects include undeath), Hysteria is the popular affliction of the day, and leeches are considered a delicacy. And a world where technology lives side by side with magic. The year is 2012 and Pax Britannia still reigns.Xandra Vardan is a member of the elite Royal Guard, and it is her duty to protect the Aristocracy. But when her sister goes missing, Xandra will set out on a path that undermines everything she believed in and uncover a conspiracy that threatens to topple the empire. And she is the key-the prize in a very dangerous struggle.

The Unnaturalists


Tiffany Trent - 2012
    Syrus Reed’s Tinker family has always served and revered the Unnaturals from afar, but when his family is captured to be refinery slaves, he finds that his fate may be bound up with Vespa’s—and with the Unnaturals.As the danger grows, Vespa and Syrus find themselves in a tightening web of deception and intrigue. At stake may be the fate of New London—and the world.

Tahn


L.A. Kelly - 2005
    Trapped between his master's evil commands and his persistent conscience that tells him to do otherwise, Tahn Dorn finds himself in a twisting plot that threatens not only his life but also that of the lovely Netta.

The Banished of Muirwood


Jeff Wheeler - 2015
    As a result of her father’s ceaseless need for authority, she was left disinherited and forced to live as a servant in her enemy’s home. When the king invites chaos into the land by expelling the magical order known as the Dochte Mandar, Maia finds herself on a perilous quest to save her people. To survive, she must use magic she has learned in secret—despite the fact that women are forbidden to control it. Hunted by enemies at every turn, Maia realizes that danger lurks within her, too. Her powers threaten to steal not only her consciousness but also her sense of right and wrong. Can she set herself free and save the realm she loves—even if that realm has forgotten her?