The Absolutist


John Boyne - 2011
    But the letters are not the real reason for Tristan's visit. He can no longer keep a secret and has finally found the courage to unburden himself of it. As Tristan recounts the horrific details of what to him became a senseless war, he also speaks of his friendship with Will - from their first meeting on the training grounds at Aldershot to their farewell in the trenches of northern France. The intensity of their bond brought Tristan happiness and self-discovery as well as confusion and unbearable pain. The Absolutist is a masterful tale of passion, jealousy, heroism, and betrayal set in one of the most gruesome trenches of France during World War I. This novel will keep readers on the edge of their seats until its most extraordinary and unexpected conclusion, and will stay with them long after they've turned the last page.

Notes of a Crocodile


Qiu Miaojin - 1994
    Told through the eyes of an anonymous lesbian narrator nicknamed Lazi, Qiu Miaojin's cult classic novel is a postmodern pastiche of diaries, vignettes, mash notes, aphorisms, exegesis, and satire by an incisive prose stylist and countercultural icon.Afflicted by her fatalistic attraction to Shui Ling, an older woman who is alternately hot and cold toward her, Lazi turns for support to a circle of friends that includes the devil-may-care, rich-kid-turned-criminal Meng Sheng and his troubled, self-destructive gay lover Chu Kuang, as well as the bored, mischievous overachiever Tun Tun and her alluring slacker artist girlfriend Zhi Rou.Bursting with the optimism of newfound liberation and romantic idealism despite corroding innocence, Notes of a Crocodile is a poignant and intimate masterpiece of social defiance by a singular voice in contemporary Chinese literature.

刺青 Tattoo


不问三九 - 2018
    The person he shared the table with was a cool man who fit all of his aesthetic desires. It was practically love at first sight.He was thirty; he had reached that age where he was no longer the awkward twenty-something youth. He would pursue the one he liked without hesitation, no questions asked.“I want you to give me a tattoo. I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”

The Path of the Cannon Fodder’s Counterattack


Mao Niao
    As long as your golden finger is bigger than Mo Qi’s.But how did Mo Qi’s Mary Sue halo end up in his body! He is still a straight man who likes beauties! He definitely, definitely doesn’t want to turn bent!

A Marvellous Light


Freya Marske - 2021
    Norrell in debut author Freya Marske’s A Marvellous Light, featuring an Edwardian England full of magic, contracts, and conspiracies. Robin Blyth has more than enough bother in his life. He’s struggling to be a good older brother, a responsible employer, and the harried baronet of a seat gutted by his late parents’ excesses. When an administrative mistake sees him named the civil service liaison to a hidden magical society, he discovers what’s been operating beneath the unextraordinary reality he’s always known.Now Robin must contend with the beauty and danger of magic, an excruciating deadly curse, and the alarming visions of the future that come with it—not to mention Edwin Courcey, his cold and prickly counterpart in the magical bureaucracy, who clearly wishes Robin were anyone and anywhere else.Robin’s predecessor has disappeared, and the mystery of what happened to him reveals unsettling truths about the very oldest stories they’ve been told about the land they live on and what binds it. Thrown together and facing unexpected dangers, Robin and Edwin discover a plot that threatens every magician in the British Isles—and a secret that more than one person has already died to keep.

Wolf Totem


Jiang Rong - 2004
    There has been much international excitement too-to date, rights have been sold in thirteen countries. Wolf Totem is set in 1960s China-the time of the Great Leap Forward, on the eve of the Cultural Revolution. Searching for spirituality, Beijing intellectual Chen Zhen travels to the pristine grasslands of Inner Mongolia to live among the nomadic Mongols-a proud, brave, and ancient race of people who coexist in perfect harmony with their unspeakably beautiful but cruel natural surroundings. Their philosophy of maintaining a balance with nature is the ground stone of their religion, a kind of cult of the wolf. The fierce wolves that haunt the steppes of the unforgiving grassland searching for food are locked with the nomads in a profoundly spiritual battle for survival-a life-and-death dance that has gone on between them for thousands of years. The Mongols believe that the wolf is a great and worthy foe that they are divinely instructed to contend with, but also to worship and to learn from. Chen's own encounters with the otherworldly wolves awake a latent primitive instinct in him, and his fascination with them blossoms into obsession, then reverence. After many years, the peace is shattered with the arrival of Chen's kinfolk, Han Chinese, sent from the cities to bring modernity to the grasslands. They immediately launch a campaign to exterminate the wolves, sending the balance that has been maintained with religious dedication for thousands of years into a spiral leading to extinction-first the wolves, then the Mongol culture, finally the land. As a result of the eradication of the wolves, rats become a plague and wild sheep graze until the meadows turn to dust. Mongolian dust storms glide over Beijing, sometimes blocking out the moon. Part period epic, part fable for modern days, Wolf Totem is a stinging social commentary on the dangers of China's overaccelerated economic growth as well as a fascinating immersion into the heart of Chinese culture.

Luck in the Shadows


Lynn Flewelling - 1996
    But one thing he never expected was his cellmate. Spy, rogue, thief, and noble, Seregil of Rhiminee is many things–none of them predictable. And when he offers to take on Alec as his apprentice, things may never be the same for either of them. Soon Alec is traveling roads he never knew existed, toward a war he never suspected was brewing. Before long he and Seregil are embroiled in a sinister plot that runs deeper than either can imagine, and that may cost them far more than their lives if they fail. But fortune is as unpredictable as Alec’s new mentor, and this time there just might be… Luck in the Shadows.

The Last Sun


K.D. Edwards - 2018
    But as they investigate, they uncover more than a missing man: a legendary creature connected to the secret of the massacre of Rune's Court. In looking for Addam, can Rune find the truth behind his family's death and the torments of his past?

Hua Hua You Long [花花遊龍]


Xing Bao Ni
    * Note: There's a manhua adaptation here - Hua Hua You Long 1

Chongfei Manual


风荷游月
    Before her rebirth, Wei Luo was an innocent little girl.After rebirth, she appeared lovable on the outside but was a different person on the inside.Those who learned of her true nature yielded to her.Only the prince regent regarded her as a treasure; no matter how much he pampered her, it was not enough for him.Anything she wanted, he gave her, including the princess position that she didn’t want, which he stubbornly pushed onto her.

Found at Sea


Jaclyn Osborn - 2018
    All men fear him, and even more so, they fear what the myths make him out to be. The demon of the sea who sails with no mercy and who won’t hesitate to slit a man’s throat if challenged. But there is more to him, and the curse upon him will someday consume him whole. Unless he finds the key to breaking it. Fletcher has always dreamed of adventure, of sailing the high seas. But he’s never even left his town of Helmfirth. He spends his days atop his favorite hill overlooking the sea and strumming his lute, wishing for another life. He spends his nights working in the tavern, listening to sailors weave tales of adventure he yearns to experience for himself. That is, until pirates make port and enter the tavern one night. After being press-ganged to join the crew, Fletcher is both afraid and intrigued by what awaits him aboard the Crimson Night. And it is aboard this legendary ship that he finds something he never expected to find: a pirate captain who awakes desires he’s never felt. Captain Flynn is captivated by the auburn haired beauty, but he doesn’t want his wickedness to taint someone as innocent and pure as Fletcher. Fletcher knows the captain is dangerous, and yet he can’t stay away. Life on the sea puts every man to the test, and with time running out, sacrifices have to be made. Can two men who are so different ever find their happily ever after? *This is an adult m/m romance based in a fantasy world. You'll find pirates, romance, mermaids, and adventure.*

The Peach Blossom Debt 桃花债


Da Feng Gua Guo - 2008
    However, Yao Xiang has affinity for a poor scholar. Driven to despair, Song Yao mistakenly eats an elixir pill of immortality by chance, soaring into the heaven.Meanwhile, in heaven, Tianshu Xing and Nanming emperor are involved in a love affair. Because of this, they are demoted and forced to descend to earth by the Jade Emperor as a punishment. The Jade Emperor then ordered Song Yao to descend to Earth and break up the two lovebirds. Song Yao’s close friend, Hengwen Qing, accompanied him back to Earth. Decreed by fate, Song Yao is reborn as the eldest son of a feudal lord and brought the weak and fragile scholar, Tianshu Xing, into his mansion. The entanglement in his past life, the cause and effect of his reincarnation... Song Yao plays the role of a bridge connecting people with the red string of fate, while being destined to live a lonely life forever.丞相公子宋珧迷恋花魁瑶湘,瑶湘却与一个穷书生情投意合。失魂落魄的宋珧因缘际会误食了仙丹,就此飞升成了神仙。天庭的天枢星君和南明帝君犯了错,被玉帝贬下凡界,玉帝钦点宋珧下凡将他二人进行折磨。宋珧的知己好友衡文清君也随其来到人间,却遇上了命中注定的劫数。宋珧在下界做了一个藩王世子,把文弱的天枢星君强抢入府…前世纠葛,因果轮回,宋珧在别人的情戏里扮演搭线的桥,自己确是个永世孤鸾的命。

A Hero Born


Jin Yong - 1957
    Half its territory and its historic capital lie in enemy hands; the peasants toil under the burden of the annual tribute demanded by the victors. Meanwhile, on the Mongolian steppe, a disparate nation of great warriors is about to be united by a warlord whose name will endure for eternity: Genghis Khan.Guo Jing, son of a murdered Song patriot, grew up with Genghis Khan's army. He is humble, loyal, perhaps not altogether wise, and is fated from birth to one day confront an opponent who is the opposite of him in every way: privileged, cunning and flawlessly trained in the martial arts.Guided by his faithful shifus, The Seven Heroes of the South, Guo Jing must return to China - to the Garden of the Drunken Immortals in Jiaxing - to fulfil his destiny. But in a divided land riven by war and betrayal, his courage and his loyalties will be tested at every turn.

The CEO's Villainess Childhood Friend 穿成总裁蚊子血[穿书]


诸葛锦
    As for the other problems, she’ll just take it easy!However, a few months later ~President: “You’re not some disgusting mosquito blood, you’re my white moonlight (first love).”Luo Luo: “Mama, he’s not Baobei’s father. Baobei doesn’t want him.”A certain Film Emperor: “I want both you and the child.”Online fans: “Qiao Moyu is ours!”

Iron Widow


Xiran Jay Zhao - 2021
    It doesn't matter that the girls often die from the mental strain. When 18-year-old Zetian offers herself up as a concubine-pilot, it's to assassinate the ace male pilot responsible for her sister's death. But she gets her vengeance in a way nobody expected—she kills him through the psychic link between pilots and emerges from the cockpit unscathed. She is labeled an Iron Widow, a much-feared and much-silenced kind of female pilot who can sacrifice boys to power up Chrysalises instead.​ To tame her unnerving yet invaluable mental strength, she is paired up with Li Shimin, the strongest and most controversial male pilot in Huaxia​. But now that Zetian has had a taste of power, she will not cower so easily. She will miss no opportunity to leverage their combined might and infamy to survive attempt after attempt on her life, until she can figure out exactly why the pilot system works in its misogynist way—and stop more girls from being sacrificed.