Book picks similar to
The Clockwork Ice Dragon by Liz Delton


steampunk
christmas
s-f
scifi-and-steampunk

The Night King


Bethany Anne Lovejoy - 2021
    It had been stolen from us, blocked long ago by the spiteful fae king.There is a glimmer of hope when the Night King announces to the country that his son will take a human bride. A contest is to be held to decide the future queen, one which draws in hundreds of entrants from across the country. But only nineteen will be chosen to go to the palace and meet the prince. I am thrown into the competition against my will, the first one chosen.Unfortunately, I have no wish to marry a fae, let alone one like Prince Edwyn who by his own admission is incapable of love.But once I am there I find I cannot leave, not that easily. I am tested by the bonds of friendship and devotion to my country. I can not let the kingdom of Whynne remain shrouded in darkness, not when I alone hold the key to lifting the veil of darkness.

Home for Chistmas


Josie Eccles - 2019
    After losing everything and having no choice but to move back to her childhood home just in time for the festive season, Effie has finally reached rock bottom. But maybe this year, something – or someone – can make Effie believe in Christmas all over again… One December night three years ago, Effie Thomas’s life was turned upside down when she discovered the truth about her cheating fiancé, Todd. Since then, her life has basically been a series of unfortunate events, culminating in one awful day in which she loses both her job and her home. There is nothing for it but to return home to her mother’s poky little cottage in the sleepy village of Effisham. Effie, a self-professed Christmas hater is forced to accept the first job she can find… which just happens to be working as an elf in a grotto at the local garden centre. She is immediately driven mad by Jack, the happy-go-lucky “Head Elf” who doesn’t take life too seriously… but he also makes her laugh. And he just happens to be extremely good-looking. Effie begins to wonder if Jack might be the one who can help her forget Todd.Effie is surprised when she actually starts enjoying herself – and when the grotto is vandalised and she rebuilds it overnight, she discovers she might actually have a hidden talent for design. When more visitors than ever come to the garden centre, Effie wonders if finally, at the age of 28, she can at last make her mother proud.Ah yes, Effie’s mum… determined to set Effie up with a nice lad from the village. But not everyone is what they may seem. It seems everyone has a secret – Jack included. And can Effie forgive and forget when Todd arrives back on the scene full of regret and promises?For Effie, Christmas is the season of hurt and heartbreak, even if everyone else is celebrating joy and goodwill. Surely it’s about time she turned it all around?The perfect festive romantic comedy to curl up with in front of the fire.

Strings Attached


Amanda Harte - 2000
    Attached to the will is one small condition: Rachel must live in her grandmother's home with her husband for one year in order for both women to receive their inheritance. With her sister's little boy in dire need of an expensive heart operation, Rachel decides to find a husband quickly in order to get the money and save the little boy's life. Scott, a high school acquaintance and owner of a successful gas station, decides to step up to the plate and marry her—with his own condition: he wants half the money to build a house for the real love of his life, Justine. Can Rachel and Scott live in a false marriage yet act like newlyweds without falling in love? Can they have a real marriage without strings attached?

Thief


Jane Glatt - 2012
    Forced to live in the shadows, she’s caught stealing from the Church of the One-God and comes to the attention of Kane Rowse. But Kane is more than the Captain of the Kingsguard, he’s also a senior member of the Brotherhood of the Throne, a secret society that follows the old gods and was formed generations ago to safeguard the bloodline of the first king.And with the childless king dying, the Brotherhood is convinced that Brenna is the one prophesied – the one they have waited two millennia for. Despite her new-found magical abilities, Brenna doesn’t believe in the Brotherhood’s prophecy. But when the Church of the One-God tries to kill her, she’s forced to accept their offer of a safe haven. After stealing her mother’s knife from Duke Thorold, Brenna realizes that it is made of the same old steel as the ancient weapons of the Brotherhood. Is she really the one prophesied? And can the Brotherhood keep her safe from both Duke Thorold and the church of the One-God?

Unforgettable Christmas Joy: Hope and Promises (The Unforgettables Book 20)


Mimi BarbourSuzanne Jenkins - 2020
    

Dakota Brides Boxed Set: Books 1-4


Linda Ford - 2019
    Read this collection of heartwarming historical romances from an award-winning author with more than one million books sold. TEMPORARY BRIDE Lena Stevens has lost everything. Everything except her son. When her neighbor Anker proposes a marriage of convenience, she has no choice but to accept, but makes him vow to annul it come spring. Anker has longed for a wife--but not like this. A forced marriage with an end date. Can what started as a pretense turn into something more? ABANDONED BRIDE Elin Hanson has traveled across the ocean as a mail-order bride. When she arrives in the Dakota Territory, she finds the man she has planned to marry has abandoned her--and left her to care for his young son. Sam Andrews has his hands full running his ranch. The last thing he needs is a woman and little boy getting in his way. When Elin’s groom-to-be comes home, she must make the choice: settle for a loveless marriage? Or hold out for love? SECOND-HAND BRIDE America was supposed to provide a new life, but Freyda has found only bitterness since making the treacherous journey from Norway. She has no choice but to strike a reluctant bargain with her neighbor. In exchange for his help, she will care for his two little boys. The more she is forced to work with Ward, the more she begins to realize that maybe God didn’t intend her to be alone. But Ward’s walls of distrust and past hurts are high--maybe too high for her to scale. Can she, and two little boys, open his heart to love again? RELUCTANT BRIDE Agnes Bland has learned the hard way just how crushing it can be to trust in someone else. When she is made guardian to three little girls, the boarding house refuses to rent to them, and Agnes and the girls are left with nowhere else to go. Nels Hanson has an empty house. When Agnes and the girls fill up the structure--and his life--with their giggles and tears, he decides a marriage of convenience isn’t the worst thing in the world. Until Agnes rejects his proposal…

A Sonday Kind of Love


Tucora Monique - 2020
    

Christmas at the Red Door Inn


Liz Johnson - 2018
    Two friends. Three days to fall in love. Lifelong islander Brooke Kane doesn’t know what to do with her college degree, her dreams, or her future, but she knows better than to venture far from home when there’s a storm brewing. But a promise to check on Rose’s Red Door Inn prompts Brooke to venture out. By the time she arrives at the inn, the snow is knee-deep and visibility almost non-existent. She settles in to spend a few days alone at the inn until a familiar figure appears at the door. Father Chuck O’Flannigan has never felt like a bigger fool. So focused on his recent decision to leave Prince Edward Island, he’s caught unaware by the blizzard while on a walk. He can only see the inn’s red door, a promise of safety. But when he discovers that Brooke—the only woman who could tempt him to stay on the island—is also taking refuge there, he knows he’s in trouble. With Christmas only three days away, Brooke is determined that they’ll celebrate—even if it’s just the two of them. Happy to play Scrooge to her Tiny Tim, Chuck wiles away his hours dreaming of a return to Ireland—praying that God may have plans for him there. After all, God seems to have forgotten him in North Rustico. But as Brooke brings Christmas to life, her joy makes him wonder if God may not have forgotten him. In fact, God may have big plans for both of them—if they can only survive Christmas at the Red Door Inn.

Santa, Baby


Cassandra B. - 2020
    When trauma wrecks Cartier’s world with an added insult to injury a rift is caused that may never be healed.Will Cartier and Berkleigh make the holidays unbearable for the entire family or will Santa grant a last-minute wish?

A Daddy Thing


Kendra Reeves - 2016
    Check Five Year Plan. Check Buy Home. Check Plan Wedding. Check Baby….??? In love with her fiancé and her life organized for Rachel Hendricks things were going as planned, but that all changes when life throws a curveball. Letting her guard down landed her here three years later ready to live her life with the one man who swept her off her feet until the unexpected happens shattering her picture perfect world into pieces. With a career he loves, being engaged to the love of his life, and some unexpected good news things couldn’t be better for Errick Martin. Errick realizes some things are too good to be true once the news is revealed of a baby…. Torn between staying or leaving Errick makes a rash decision changing everyone’s future. Will it make things better or worse? An accidental meeting with a mystery woman leaves a lasting impression on Saxon Carmichael. After running into the mystery woman, he finds himself with an attraction to her that he just can’t shake. Determined to find the relationship his heart desires, not perfect but containing a love so strong it is unbreakable, he goes after her. Fighting through the barriers around her heart, can Saxon prove that he will love her and someone else’s unborn child? What happens between two men and a woman when one never wanted to be a father, and the other one always has? Any man can father a child but when you love that child unconditionally… that’s A Daddy Thing

Footprints In The Snow (Wyoming Christmas Book 1)


Vivian Sinclair - 2016
     After his longtime girlfriend marries another man, Tom Gorman, owner of a large ranch in southeastern Wyoming, thinks there will never be a happy ending for him. To avoid people’s knowing stares and nosy questions, he rarely comes to town and then only briefly. Working on his ranch and taking care of his two siblings becomes his life. As a favor to an old friend, he invites a young widow with her two little boys to stay at his ranch. Lottie Donovan grew up as an orphan raised in foster care, and she has been alone for most of her life. Now at thirty years of age, she is alone again after her husband Wyatt, a police officer, is killed during a bank robbery. She struggles to take care of her two boys from her income as a schoolteacher. When her house sells faster than she expected, she has no place to live. Tom Gorman offers her temporary shelter at his ranch and Lottie wants to pay him back by transforming his house into a home and making his family happy. The approaching Christmas celebration is a great opportunity to bring his family together. If only she could ignore the attraction she has felt for Tom ever since they were in high school when Tom was the high school quarterback. Lottie was secretly in love with him then, while Tom had eyes only for his beautiful girlfriend Faith Parker. Will the magic of Christmas bring together these two lonely people who are so much in need of true love?

Chock Full of Christmas (Heartsprings Valley Sweet Romance #5)


Anne Chase - 2019
    A lesson in chocolates -- and love! Eight years after her painful divorce, Abby Donovan is passionately devoted to making her little chocolate shop in Heartsprings Valley a delicious success.When widower John Buckley and his two adorable kids sign up for a chocolate class, Abby finds herself surprised by the immediate connection she feels with them -- and by the realization that the little shop of her dreams may no longer be enough to keep her fulfilled.With a gentle push from the Christmas spirit, can Abby overcome her wounded heart and embrace a future filled with love and happiness?The Heartsprings Valley Sweet Romance series celebrates love and romance during the most wonderful time of the year.Christmas to the Rescue! (Book 1)A Very Cookie Christmas (Book 2)Sweet Apple Christmas (Book 3)I Dream of Christmas (Book 4)Chock Full of Christmas (Book 5) It's always Christmas in Heartsprings Valley!

The Christmas Promise


Nikki Larson - 2020
    But now that her dear husband has died and her money is running out, she reluctantly returns home to the small town of Crystalline Falls.Hunter Flynn is restless. Expected to work on his dad’s Christmas tree farm with his older brothers, he dreams instead of traveling and settling in some tropical location where he can enjoy the sun and the surf and keep his troubles at bay.Sabrina Townsend knows what she wants, and nothing will stop her from getting it. And this year, she’s decided, she wants Hunter Flynn back. If only Elise Silverstein would get out of the way.When Hunter runs into Elise, who broke his heart several years ago when she married Wesley, he is reeled in once again by her captivating personality. They were so young the last time they fell in love, and foolish. Now he is tempted to let himself become all wrapped up in her again. But wouldn’t that be a colossal mistake? An enchanting story about the joy of Christmas, the importance of family, and falling in love in the most magical holiday season of the year. This is a Sweet Contemporary Clean Romance with Christian themes, perfect for holiday reading.

Mischief Under the Mistletoe (A Holiday Romance Boxed Set)


Stephanie Rowe - 2021
    

Island County Series Special Collection: Includes Books 1-3, Plus Beyond the Mistletoe


Karice Bolton - 2016
    Tori's a strong woman who didn't need love in the first place. She's above it all and can't wait to go home to Fireweed Island to escape the drama for the summer. She's thrilled to teach summer school and remodel her family home in peace and quiet. So why is it that if Tori is so over love, she notices the hot owner of the construction company? Okay, she doesn't just notice him. She lets him sneak right into her fantasies where he does amazing things to her.It isn't until Mason shows her how a real man is supposed to be that she allows herself to believe in love again. But will the pain from her past ever let her truly experience a happily-ever-after?*Love Redone* (Book 2) Natalie Jennings loves nothing more than waking up and going into work at the florist shop she owns in the heart of Fireweed Island. Every morning is pleasant and filled with sunshine and rainbows. That is until she sees an email for a wedding consult slide right into her inbox with the sender's name of Cole Hill.Her hands get clammy and the cold winter's day suddenly feels like it's ninety degrees and climbing. It couldn't be the same Cole Hill from high school. The universe isn't that cruel.But as she opens the email and reads the message, she realizes that it is, indeed, the Cole Hill from high school, and it is the universe's turn to not only be cruel but downright evil. Cole broke her heart, but not in the normal fashion. He ensured the process was a long one filled with plenty of ups and downs. It all started in first grade and didn't finally end until the second year of college. And now he is coming back to get married on Fireweed Island.The perks of being the only florist in town! It's a good thing she got over him years ago...*Tangled Love* (Book 3) Sophie Bristol works two jobs--sometimes three--and is surrounded by people falling in love and that's great. Really, it's great. It's not like she ever thought she'd find that perfect someone. After all, she learned he probably only exists in some far away land with talking wildlife and glass slippers, and that works perfectly for her busy schedule. Not to mention she experienced the worst divorce in island history between her parents, and she got to be there for every painful second to warp her view on the subject. And let's not forget her stepmom has only learned to like Sophie once she began helping take care of her dad after his stroke.So to say love isn't a priority is an understatement. Life hasn't been easy, not that she ever expected it to be, and she's fine with the hand she's been dealt.Really, she is fine. But when Sophie falls for a rock star, it will take more than a fairy godmother to make love work in the real world.Anthony Hill is the lead singer of the Crimson Strings and his band has hit it big. Really big. Huge, actually. And he should be thrilled. It's what he's always wanted. However, sometimes there is a big disconnect between dreams and reality. With his nonstop touring schedule and pressure to repeat success on his next album, he flees to the one place that scarred him the most, Fireweed Island.