Book picks similar to
Soulfire (The Soulfire Chronicles, #1) by Chaz Harris
lgbt
fantasy
middle-grade
favorites
Loom Saga: The Complete Series
Elise Kova - 2018
Using magic in tandem with ruthlessness and unscrupulous morals, there's no job she won't take... So long as it defies her Dragon oppressors.When Arianna runs into a wounded Dragon during her latest heist, she sees the opportunity to make a little extra cash. But before she can cut out his heart, the Dragon makes her an offer she can't refuse: A wish of her greatest desire, if she embarks on the perilous journey to bring him to the Alchemists Guild.With the Dragon and her assistant in tow, the three are now on the run from the Dragon King's blood-thirsty riders. They'll traverse dangerous cities, break into the highest security prison in the world, face off against underground monsters, and battle across the skies. Arianna will let nothing stop her from reaching her goal.In fact, the only thing that could strike fear into Arianna's cold heart... is the truth of her own identity. She's not supposed to exist. And if anyone finds out what she really is, it'll change the world.
Find out why readers around the globe can't put the Loom Saga down. Save big today with this special bundle deal, nearly 50% off compared to buying the individual books!
"A beautiful merger of fantasy and steampunk fiction"- Cynthia, Goodreads Reviewer ★★★★★"I absolutely love the Loom Saga. It’s teally hard to find unique concepts these days, and yet Kova has managed to come up with a totally unique system of magic that is dark and gritty and beautiful."- Cynthia, Amazon Reviewer ★★★★★"...much beloved by fans of the Mistborn series (Sanderson), A Darker Shade of Magic (Schwab), and Six of Crows (Bardugo). If you like incredible world building, small ladies with enormous guns and brutal action sequences (with plenty of heart eating)"- Kari, Goodreads Reviewer ★★★★★"This series is absolutely amazing from start to finish! If you liked the Throne of Glass or Six of Crows series, then this series will be right down your alley. It’s packed full of action, adventure, and a romance that will bring you to your knees all set in a fantastic steampunk world."- Nhite, Amazon Reviewer ★★★★★“I HIGHLY recommend this and can see it easily placed on anyone's bookshelf, right next to the likes of Brandon Sanderson or R.A. Salvatore.”- Emi, Amazon Reviewer ★★★★★
What are you waiting for? Scroll up and click buy now to step into the dark and dangerous fantasy world of Loom!
The Marvels
Brian Selznick - 2015
After surviving a shipwreck, he finds work in a London theatre. There, his family flourishes for generations as brilliant actors until 1900, when young Leontes Marvel is banished from the stage.Nearly a century later, runaway Joseph Jervis seeks refuge with an uncle in London. Albert Nightingale's strange, beautiful house, with its mysterious portraits and ghostly presences, captivates Joseph and leads him on a search for clues about the house, his family, and the past.
The Air You Breathe
Frances de Pontes Peebles - 2018
I read The Air You Breathe in two nights. (One might say I inhaled it.). --NPR Echoes of Elena Ferrante resound in this sumptuous saga.--O, The Oprah MagazineEnveloping...Peebles understands the shifting currents of female friendship, and she writes so vividly about samba that you close the book certain its heroine's voices must exist beyond the page. -PeopleThe story of an intense female friendship fueled by affection, envy and pride--and each woman's fear that she would be nothing without the other.Some friendships, like romance, have the feeling of fate.Skinny, nine-year-old orphaned Dores is working in the kitchen of a sugar plantation in 1930s Brazil when in walks a girl who changes everything. Gra�a, the spoiled daughter of a wealthy sugar baron, is clever, well fed, pretty, and thrillingly ill behaved. Born to wildly different worlds, Dores and Gra�a quickly bond over shared mischief, and then, on a deeper level, over music.One has a voice like a songbird; the other feels melodies in her soul and composes lyrics to match. Music will become their shared passion, the source of their partnership and their rivalry, and for each, the only way out of the life to which each was born. But only one of the two is destined to be a star. Their intimate, volatile bond will determine each of their fortunes--and haunt their memories.Traveling from Brazil's inland sugar plantations to the rowdy streets of Rio de Janeiro's famous Lapa neighborhood, from Los Angeles during the Golden Age of Hollywood back to the irresistible drumbeat of home, The Air You Breathe unfurls a moving portrait of a lifelong friendship--its unparalleled rewards and lasting losses--and considers what we owe to the relationships that shape our lives.
Brother Thief
Gregory J. Downs - 2011
Among these, Gribly the thief is considered to be a rising force of destiny: he always wins, always gets what he wants, and never, ever gets caught. Most people think it's skill, and some think it's just dumb luck... but everyone is wrong. Gribly has a talent that no one knows about- not even the old gypsy who raised him. It's because of this talent that he's so good at burglary, and he makes sure no one knows his secret. Should it ever become known, he knows, his life would be imperiled... The Dunelord, ruler of Ymeer, will brook no equals. Gribly's talent makes him an equal, and that makes him a threat. This boy can control the power of sand... but even in a city built from it, that may not be enough.Into the scene stumbles a mysterious young messenger named Lauro. When Gribly finds him dying from exhaustion outside the city gates, Lauro claims he bears a message from Larion, King of Vastion in the south, to the Dunelord. Helping Lauro could be Gribly's way out of trouble... but do messengers carry royal swords? Do they control the power of the winds?Both lads soon realize the other has something to hide, but neither one knows the titanic role they will play in the world-shaking events that will soon grip Ymeer... and the entire continent of Vast.Become a legend... or die trying.
Parakeet
Marie-Helene Bertino - 2020
at the Cat's Pajamas Marie-Helene Bertino's Parakeet is a darkly funny and warm-hearted novel about a young woman whose dead grandmother (in the form of a parakeet) warns her not to marry and sends her out to find an estranged loved one.The week of her wedding, The Bride is visited by a bird she recognizes as her dead grandmother because of the cornflower blue line beneath her eyes, her dubious expression, and the way she asks: What is the Internet? Her grandmother is a parakeet. She says not to get married. She says: Go and find your brother.In the days that follow, The Bride's march to the altar becomes a wild and increasingly fragmented, unstable journey that bends toward the surreal and forces her to confront matters long buried.A novel that does justice to the hectic confusion of becoming a woman today, Parakeet asks and begins to answer the essential questions. How do our memories make, cage, and free us? How do we honor our experiences and still become our strongest, truest selves? Who are we responsible for, what do we owe them, and how do we allow them to change?Urgent, strange, warm-hearted, and sly, Parakeet is ribboned with joy, fear, and an inextricable thread of real love. It is a startling, unforgettable, life-embracing exploration of self and connection.
The Wizards of Once
Cressida Cowell - 2017
But if he's got any chance of finding one, he will have to travel into the forbidden Badwoods.Xar doesn't realise he is about to capture an entirely different kind of enemy. A Warrior girl called Wish.And inside this book, at this very moment, two worlds collide and the fate of the land is changed forever.Xar and Wish must visit the dungeons at Warrior fort, and face the evil Queen.But something that has been sleeping for hundreds of years is stirring ...
Witchy, Volume 1
Ariel Slamet Ries - 2019
Those that are strong enough are conscripted by the Witch Guard, who enforce the law in peacetime and protect the land during war. However, those with hair judged too long are pronounced enemies of the kingdom, and annihilated. This is called a witch burning.Witchy is a comic about the young witch Nyneve, who is haunted by the death of her father and the threat the Witch Guard poses to her own life. When conscription rolls around, Nyneve has a choice to make; join the institution complicit in her father's death, or stand up for her ideals?Witchy was nominated for the 2015 Ignatz for Outstanding Online Comic, the 2016 DINKy for Outstanding Web Comic, and the Danish "Pingprisen" for Best Online Series in 2017 and 2018.
The Nethergrim
Matthew Jobin - 2014
But it’s when a group of children disappear that they know for sure: The Nethergrim has returned.Edmund’s brother is one of the missing, and Edmund knows he must do something to save his life. But what? Though a student of magic, he struggles to cast even the simplest spell.Still, he and his friends swallow their fear and set out to battle an ancient evil whose powers none of them can imagine.
Death Wishing
Laura Ellen Scott - 2011
Bob Dylan sings about a journey all the way from New Orleans to Jerusalem
’ as way of apotheizing, scrutinizing, and recognizing the world we live in. Laura Scott is on the way.”Alan CheuseA story as hot, sticky, and dangerous as Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, seen through an imagination as kaleidoscopic as Kelly Link's.”Steve Himmer, The Bee-Loud GladeSomething hazy is happening in Fat City. Laura Ellen Scott dials up loads of laughs amid the local color and NOLA cuisine in this madcap romp of a novel where last wishes come true, Elvis is back under newly orange clouds, coffee cups are bottomless, and street punks wear capes.”Richard Peabody, editor Gargoyle MagazineWhat if your most fervent wish could come true, and all you had to do was
die first. Recovering from a bitter divorce, middle-aged Victor Swaim wants nothing more than to live a carefree, drunken existence in New Orleans, making capes and corsets, and lusting for Pebbles, the girl who lives across the street.But, after a series of deathbed wishes come trueincluding the curing of cancer, the elimination of cats, the return of Elvis (1967 vintage), the clouds turning orange, mothers growing third eyes and cups of coffee becoming bottomlessthe hysteria that grows around Death Wishing” forces Victor into action. Along with his entrepreneurial son Val and his libertine friend Martine, Victor must battle the apocalyptics who have seduced Pebbles away from her true vocation of singing the blues (very badly) while at the same time confronting his mortal identity: just what would he wish for the world without him in it?
Kirith Kirin
Jim Grimsley - 2000
Jim Grimsley has created a fantasy that could have come right from our world where power and greed can tempt, and sometimes conquer, even the most rightist person and where knowing who your friends and enemies are can be very difficult if not impossible. Yet it is not our world. For in Kirith Kirin's world magic is real, immortals walk the land, and people are sometimes the playthings for the dark arts. The Blue Queen, upon resuming the throne while King Kirith Kirin's eternality is renewed in the Arthen forest, has partnered with a magician of the dark arts. No longer does she need to leave the throne to renew her eternal nature. Swayed by promises of the dark magician, she has claimed the throne forever and is extending her influence to the far corners of the world. Malleable grey clouds, sidewinding wind, and intelligent lightning bolts made the trip across the vast Girdle nearly impossible. Out of nowhere, the Blue Queen's Patrols made haste to kill the boy and the warrior before they could safely reach the deep forest of Arthen. Riding upon two magnificent stallions, one a royal Prince out of Queen Mnemarra, Jessex and his uncle Sivisal reached Arthen despite a deadly storm that reeked of magic. Thus begins Jessex's new life as he enters Arthen and moves into the royal court of Kirith Kirin.
Cloaked in Shadow
Ben Alderson - 2017
But Zacriah isn’t a shapeshifter. In truth, he doesn't know what he is.Zacriah joins forces with new friends and they soon find themselves embroiled in a clash between the three Elven continents. With war looming on the horizon, Zacriah must learn to use his latent power to fight and protect those he loves before they are destroyed.
Seven Blades in Black
Sam Sykes - 2019
Among humans, none have power like mages. And among mages, none have will like Sal the Cacophony. Once revered, now vagrant, she walks a wasteland scarred by generations of magical warfare. The Scar, a land torn between powerful empires, is where rogue mages go to disappear, disgraced soldiers go to die and Sal went with a blade, a gun and a list of names she intended to use both on. But vengeance is a flame swift extinguished. Betrayed by those she trusted most, her magic torn from her and awaiting execution, Sal the Cacophony has one last tale to tell before they take her head. All she has left is her name, her story and the weapon she used to carved both. Vengeance is its own reward.
The Storm Crow
Kalyn Josephson - 2019
That terrible night has thrown Princess Anthia into a deep depression. Her sister Caliza is busy running the kingdom after their mother's death, but all Thia can do is think of all she has lost. But when Caliza is forced to agree to a marriage between Thia and the crown prince of Illucia, Thia is finally spurred into action. And after stumbling upon a hidden Crow egg in the rubble of a rookery, she and her sister devise a dangerous plan to hatch the egg in secret and get back what was taken from them.
Son of the Storm
Suyi Davies Okungbowa - 2021
Damn good stuff!" —Jenn Lyons, author of The Ruin of KingsIn the ancient city of Bassa, Danso is a clever scholar on the cusp of achieving greatness—only he doesn’t want it. Instead, he prefers to chase forbidden stories about what lies outside the city walls. The Bassai elite claim there is nothing of interest. The city’s immigrants are sworn to secrecy.But when Danso stumbles across a warrior wielding magic that shouldn’t exist, he’s put on a collision course with Bassa’s darkest secrets. Drawn into the city’s hidden history, he sets out on a journey beyond its borders. And the chaos left in the wake of his discovery threatens to destroy the empire.
A Place Called Winter
Patrick Gale - 2015
They settle by the sea and have a daughter and conventional marriage does not seem such a tumultuous change after all. When a chance encounter awakens scandalous desires never acknowledged until now, however, Harry is forced to forsake the land and people he loves for a harsh new life as a homesteader on the newly colonized Canadian prairies. There, in a place called Winter, he will come to find a deep love within an alternative family, a love imperiled by war, madness and an evil man of undeniable magnetism.If you've never read a Patrick Gale, stop now and pick up this book. From the author of the bestselling NOTES FROM AN EXHIBITION comes an irresistible, searching and poignant historical novel of love, relationships, secrets and escape.