Book picks similar to
When the Tides Held the Moon by Venessa Kelley


lgbtq
fanfiction
historical-fantasy
societal-issues

Ved Maya


Vineeta Malhotra Taneja - 2019
    A humble, helpful and gentle soul who is loved by all…except by the one woman he loves with all his heart. Maya, a young and vivacious girl, who has been challenged by fate time and again. From being left motherless at the tender age of three, to being shunned by her family at 22, Maya didn’t have it easy. While Ved opens his heart for Maya, she makes it clear to him that the only feeling she will ever have for him is hatred. Come and embark on this journey of emotions, misunderstandings, love...and be a part of their emotional rollercoaster ride.

Blackhearts


Nicole Castroman - 2016
    But once he was just a young man who dreamed of leaving his rigid life behind to chase adventure in faraway lands. Nothing could stop him—until he met the one girl who would change everything.Edward "Teach" Drummond, son of one of Bristol's richest merchants, has just returned from a year-long journey on the high seas to find his life in shambles. Betrothed to a girl he doesn’t love and sick of the high society he was born into, Teach dreams only of returning to the vast ocean he’d begun to call home. There's just one problem: convincing his father to let him leave and never come back.Following her parents' deaths, Anne Barrett is left penniless and soon to be homeless. Though she’s barely worked a day in her life, Anne is forced to take a job as a maid in the home of Master Drummond. Lonely days stretch into weeks, and Anne longs for escape. How will she ever realize her dream of sailing to Curaçao—where her mother was born—when she's stuck in England? From the moment Teach and Anne meet, they set the world ablaze. Drawn to each other, they’re trapped by society and their own circumstances. Faced with an impossible choice, they must decide to chase their dreams and go, or follow their hearts and stay.

Mortal Fire


Elizabeth Knox - 2013
    As Canny studies the magic more carefully, she realizes that she not only understands it--she can perform the magic, too, so well that it feels like it has always been a part of her. With the help of an alluring seventeen-year-old boy who is held hostage by a spell that is now more powerful than the people who first placed it, Canny figures out the secrets of this valley and of her own past.

The Inventor's Secret


Andrea Cremer - 2014
    Though they live by the skin of their teeth they have their health (at least when they can find enough food and avoid the Imperial Labor Gatherers) and each other. When a new exile with no memory of his escape from the coastal cities or even his own name seeks shelter in their camp he brings new dangers with him and secrets about the terrible future that awaits all those who have struggled has to live free of the bonds of the empire’s Machineworks.The Inventor’s Secret is the first book of a YA steampunk series set in an alternate nineteenth-century North America where the Revolutionary War never took place and the British Empire has expanded into a global juggernaut propelled by marvelous and horrible machinery.

Forged in Frost and Fire (Chronicles of Kings, #1)


Ava Minor - 2020
    It grew and grew and spread out until it spanned across my entire body. It engulfed every thought inside my head, ever feeling that was bubbling up inside of me like a virus. The cold quieted it all, until everything was still and silent… Until I felt nothing at all.” Eira Gellerts world comes crumbling down as her sister is forced to leave for the army. Now alone and desperate, Eira looks for a job in a society where if you don't have a job by nineteen you either go into the army or starve. When searching, Eira stumbles across a woman claiming to be a half fae in charge of a spy rebellion going against the king of the fae kingdom Hiraeth. She offers Eira a job to work as a spy for her. Eira reluctantly agrees, knowing she has no other options. But the deal does not come without a price, to enter the fae kingdom Eira must become fae. Now equipped with uncommon powers and other fae abilities, Eira becomes a soldier in the fae army, working as a spy. She was told to keep her powers hidden, but a mishap occurs and her powers are revealed. She's sent to the king where he tells her he'll use her powers for his own, making her his weapon. She is forced to train with the king's killer, Sable, and she learns that he isn't exactly the monster people have portrayed him to be. But when she gets a command from her spymaster to kill the king, she realizes she'll have to kill the master of the boy she has come to care for.

Jade Fire Gold


June C.L. Tan - 2021
    Ahn sees a way to finally unlock her past and understand her arcane magical abilities.But they may have to pay a far deadlier price than either could have imagined.Ferocious action, shadowy intrigue, and a captivating romance collide in June CL Tan’s debut, a stunning homage to the Xianxia novel with a tender, beating heart, perfect for fans of The Bone Witch and We Hunt the Flame.

The Red Labyrinth


Meredith Tate - 2019
    Unfortunately, living in the maze's shadow makes her feel anything but safe. Even without its enchanted deathtraps and illusions, a mysterious killer named Dex lurks in its corridors, terrorizing anyone in his path. But when Zadie's best friend vanishes into the labyrinth-and everyone mysteriously forgets he exists- completing the maze becomes her only hope of saving him. In desperation, Zadie bribes the only person who knows the safe path through-Dex-into forming a tenuous alliance. Navigating a deadly garden, a lethal blood-filled hourglass, and other traps-with an untrustworthy murderer for her guide-Zadie's one wrong step from certain death. But with time running out before her friend (and secret crush) is lost forever, Zadie must reach the exit and find him. If Dex and the labyrinth don't kill her first.

The Secret Billionaire’s Missing Date


Nia Wilson - 2019
     After a disastrous date with a creep who just wouldn’t take no for an answer, she vows to delete her internet dating profile altogether. But there’s one message that catches her eye and she decides to give online dating one final shot. With his fortune and dashing good looks, Mark Masterson always seems to attract the wrong kind of women who only want him for his money. When his secretary signs him up for a dating site, annoyance gives way to intrigue as he browses through Vanessa’s profile. Against all odds, the two of them hit it off and before they know it, sparks begin to fly. Still, Vanessa suspects he’s not being entirely honest with her and she cannot help but wonder how he can afford such a lavish lifestyle. Before she can pry the truth from him, she suddenly goes missing. As Mark embarks on a dangerous journey to track Vanessa down and save her life, will he ever find her in time? **** This is a standalone Novel with a touch of steam and HEA. ****

The House of the Four Winds


Mercedes Lackey - 2014
    As this boisterous baker's dozen approaches adulthood, the king and queen lovingly tell their daughters, "You must make your own fortune, for we cannot enrich you without impoverishing our people or leaving our lands defenceless, and that we will not do."Happily, the princesses of Swansgaard are eager to meet this challenge, for they yearn for adventures both near and far from home.Clarice, an expert swordswoman, is the first to depart. Disguising herself as Clarence, she signs on for a voyage to the New World. The captain is vile and blackhearted, and the crew soon mutinies. Clarice becomes first mate - and finds her heart captured by the new captain, Dominick, who is, to his own surprise, increasingly attracted to Clarence.Now outlaws, Dominick and his crew turn to piracy - though their hearts are not entirely in it. They soon run afoul of the Pirate Council, who orders them to retrieve the Heart of Light. All who have searched for this great treasure have vanished, with neither ships nor crews ever seen again and no sign of their fates ever discovered.But none before have carried with them the sorceress Shamal, who stakes a claim of her own on Dominick's heart.

The Art of Wishing


Lindsay Ribar - 2013
    Margo McKenna has a plan for just about everything, from landing the lead in her high school play to getting into a good college. So when she finds herself in possession of a genie's ring and the chance to make three wishes, she doesn't know what to do. Why should she put her life into someone else's hands? But Oliver is more than just a genie -- he's also a sophomore at Margo's high school, and he's on the run from a murderer. As he and Margo grow closer, she discovers that it will take more than three wishes to save him. A whole lot more.

Foreshadow: Stories to Celebrate The Magic of Reading & Writing YA


Emily X.R. PanRachel Hylton - 2020
    R. Pan and Nova Ren Suma, Foreshadow is so much more than a short story collection. A trove of unforgettable fiction makes up the beating heart of this book, and the accompanying essays offer an ode to young adult literature, as well as practical advice to writers.Featured in print for the first time, the thirteen stories anthologized here were originally released via the buzzed-about online platform Foreshadow. Ranging from contemporary romance to mind-bending fantasy, the Foreshadow stories showcase underrepresented voices and highlight the beauty and power of YA fiction. Each piece is selected and introduced by a YA luminary, among them Gayle Forman, Laurie Halse Anderson, Jason Reynolds, and Sabaa Tahir.What makes these memorable stories tick? What sparked them? How do authors build a world or refine a voice or weave in that deliciously creepy atmosphere to bring their writing to the next level? Addressing these questions and many more are essays and discussions on craft and process by Nova Ren Suma and Emily X. R. Pan. This unique compilation reveals and celebrates the magic of reading and writing for young adults.

We Rule the Night


Claire Eliza Bartlett - 2019
    When she’s caught using illegal magic, she fears being branded a traitor and imprisoned. Meanwhile, on the front lines, Linné defied her father, a Union general, and disguised herself as a boy to join the army. They’re both offered a reprieve from punishment if they use their magic in a special women’s military flight unit and undertake terrifying, deadly missions under cover of darkness. Revna and Linné can hardly stand to be in the same cockpit, but if they can’t fly together, and if they can’t find a way to fly well, the enemy’s superior firepower will destroy them–if they don’t destroy each other first.We Rule the Night is a powerful story about sacrifice, complicated friendships, and survival despite impossible odds.

Unbelievers


AgnesBellex - 2015
    However, along with his pair of cleats, a healthy dose of sarcasm and his ridiculous best friend, he’s also got a complicated family, a terrifyingly uncertain future, and a mortal enemy making his life just that much worse. Mortal enemies “with benefits” was not exactly the plan.Or: The one where Louis and Harry definitely aren’t friends, and football is everything.

His Fair Assassin: A Trilogy


Robin LaFevers - 2018
    But sanctuary comes at a price—and each of Death’s handmaidens pays it in blood.  Grave Mercy is where the story begins, when seventeen-year-old Ismae escapes the brutality of an arranged marriage by joining the convent. An assignment brings her to the high court of Brittany, where she must navigate treason and temptation—especially when the master she serves demands the life of the man she loves.   In Dark Triumph, after training as an elite killer to escape her past, Sybella must return to the home she thought she’d never see again. Her quest for justice against her violent family will bring nothing but destruction—until she meets a prisoner who gives her a reason to live.   Annith yearns to serve Saint Mortain, but has spent her life watching her far more gifted sisters dole out Death’s vengeance from the safety of the convent. In Mortal Heart, her destiny is finally revealed, and it is the one she feared most: a life as a seeress, not an assassin. But Annith refuses to give up on her dream and decides that nothing will stand in the way of her ambitions . . . not even the convent itself.   Together, these three novels make up the New York Times best-selling His Fair Assassin trilogy, where romance, magic, and political intrigue collide. Fans of Marie Lu’s The Young Elites and Kiersten White’s And I Darken will love this seductive dark fantasy collection.

The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray


Chris Wooding - 2001
    Together, he and Cathaline--his friend and mentor--track down the fearful creatures that lurk in the Old Quarter of London. It is on one of these hunts that he first encounters Alaizabel Cray. Alaizabel is half-crazed, lovely, and possessed.Whatever dreadful entity has entered her soul has turned her into a strange and unearthly magnet--attracting evil and drawing horrors from every dark corner. Cathaline and Thaniel must discover its cause--and defend humanity at all costs.