Book picks similar to
Sign of the Throne by Melissa Eskue Ousley
fantasy
young-adult
romance
first-reads
Between Ink and Shadows
Melissa Wright - 2020
Her father’s dealings with the dark society known as the Trust cost Nim her freedom. There’s one way out of the contract on her life and that’s to bide her time and pay the tithes. But when the Trust assigns Nim to a task in the king’s own castle, her freedom is not the only thing she’ll risk.Warrick Spenser has a secret. As king’s seneschal, he should be the last soul in Inara to risk association with dark magic, but long-hidden ties to the Trust are harder to shed than simply cutting the threads. When the Trust sends a thief to his rooms, Warrick thinks he’s finally found a way to be rid of them for good. But Nimona Weston is hiding secrets of her own.Magical contracts, blood-debt accountants, and a deadly game. A dark and twisty fantasy that pits magic against kings, perfect for fans of Sorcery of Thorns and Serpent & Dove.
A Cursed Kiss
Jenny Hickman - 2021
it’s a nightmare.After Keelynn witnesses her sister's murder at the hands of the legendary Gancanagh, an immortal creature who seduces women and kills them with a cursed kiss, she realizes there’s nothing she wouldn't do to get her back. With the help of a vengeful witch, she’s given everything she needs to resurrect the person she loves most.But first, she must slay the Gancanagh.Tadhg, a devilishly handsome half-fae who has no patience for high society—or propriety—would rather spend his time in the company of loose women and dark creatures than help a human kill one of his own.That is until Keelynn makes him an offer he can’t refuse.Together, they embark on a cross-country curse-breaking mission that promises life but ends in death.Perfect for fans of Holly Black's Folk of the Air series and The Falconer, A Cursed Kiss is the first book in a series of interconnected novels and novellas set on the mythical island of Airren. (This book rates a 6 on the Romantic Content Rating System (RCRS))
Frozen Hearts and Death Magic
Day LeitaoDay Leitao - 2022
But Naia has wishes of her own. They awaken when she finds a white fae almost dying in the woods. She only heard of them in stories; the dreaded race that razed cities to the ground, killed her grandparents, almost rid Aluria of humans—until they disappeared. Now, almost twenty years later, are they back? Is there another war coming?But the fae is evasive and secretive—and also alluring and fascinating, more beautiful than anyone she’s ever seen. And then it happens: Naia kisses him—and nothing will be the same again.In another kingdom, Leah, a necromancer princess, has to find a husband in less than four days, during the gathering, when royals from all over Aluria meet. Her family makes it very clear that she can pick any prince she wants—except one: Naia’s brother. And it turns out that he’s the one; the one who makes her heart beat faster.Meanwhile, war looms over the land. One of the kingdoms is amassing immense power. The White Fae might be returning. Amidst it all, Naia and her brother struggle with newfound magical powers, family secrets, and most of all, their own treacherous hearts.Frozen Hearts and Death Magic is book 1 of the Duology Of Fire and Fae, recommended for readers 16 and up.
Rising Tide: Dark Innocence
Claudette Melanson - 2014
She seems to drive her classmates away—except for the odd times they pay enough attention to torture her—but she doesn’t understand why. Maura considers herself to be a freak of nature, with her unusually pale skin and an aversion to the sun that renders her violently nauseous. Her belief is only worsened by the fact that almost everyone around her keeps their distance.Even her own father deserted her before she was born, leaving Maura alone with her emotionally distant mother, Caelyn. Even though Maura is desperate for answers about her unknown parent, Caelyn remains heartbroken and her daughter can’t bring herself to reopen her mother’s wounds. Or is there a more sinister reason Caelyn refuses to utter a word about her long-lost love?When a cruel prank nearly claims Maura’s life, one of her classmates, Ron, rushes to her rescue. Darkly handsome & mysteriously accepting, Ron doesn’t seem to want to stay away, but Maura is reluctant to get too close, since her mother has announced she’s moving the two of them to Vancouver…nearly 3,000 miles away from their hometown of Indiana, Pennsylvania.If life wasn’t already challenging enough, Maura begins to experience bizarre, physical changes her mother seems hell bent on ignoring, compelling Maura to fear for her own life. Vicious nightmares, blood cravings, failing health and the heart-shattering loss of Ron—as well as the discovery of a tangled web of her own mother's lies—become obstacles in Maura's desperate quest for the unfathomable truth she was never prepared to uncover.
Born in Flames
Candace Knoebel - 2012
My bones crack, breaking to realign. I scream. It is then that the realization of my unavoidable fate sinks in; I am of a dying race. I am dragon. Aurora Megalos, orphaned and teetering on the edge of adulthood, thought finding her past would curb the sting of being an outcast. Having no memories of the time before she awoke on her foster mother’s doorstep, she yearns for the emptiness inside her to be filled. With her fellow orphaned best friend, Fenn, by her side, she has nothing to lose and everything to gain. But something powerful stirred within her that she couldn’t explain. Something wanted out. In the dark of night, a crazed Seer, dubbed Mr.Creepy, erases everything she’s ever known with an impending prophecy. She now faces two paths. Return to her true home to protect a dying race against a growing evil, or stay hidden in the safety of our realm with a shot at a true love. With a vengeful Arch Enemy stopping at nothing to see her dead, she’s running out of time; a decision must be made. What would you choose?
Parched
Z.L. Arkadie - 2011
I nod stiffly to give no indication I know exactly, who that is. I’m shocked to hear that name in this setting, at this stage of my life, the one far away from Cambridge, Massachusetts over five years later.”Advertising Exec, Clarity Parker thought she’d never see Baron Ford again. Five years ago, they shared the date of her life and then he literally vanished into thin air. Now he’s back and has asked that she, exclusively, be assigned to his multi-million dollar account.On the day the fog rolls in, not only can she no longer avoid him but she can no longer avoid herself. See, Clarity has an ability that she’s run away from her entire life. She’s learning an ability like hers doesn’t come for free, and something or someone is trying to make her pay for it with her life.Her world is soon turned upside down after she escapes to a place called Enu. It’s here Clarity learns who and what she truly is. She also learns that Baron Ford is Baron Ze Feldis; he’s a vampire, and what bonds them runs deeper than anything she can ever imagine. Their bond is further tested when they end up not only battling Baron’s psycho ex-vampire girlfriend, who wants Clarity dead but also “the evil” as they journey in search of the book which holds the Prophecy of the Seven Seeds. One thing’s for sure, from this point on, their lives will never be the same.**Edited on 10/24/2011 – If you have the previous version, please email Customer Service to request the most updated version. If you purchased the Ebook on Smashwords, you can simply download the most up-to-date version.
Julia Vanishes
Catherine Egan - 2016
. . unseen. Not invisible, exactly. Just beyond most people's senses. It's a dangerous trait in a city that has banned all forms of magic and drowns witches in public Cleansings. But it's a useful trait for a thief and a spy. And Julia has learned--crime pays.Her latest job is paying very well indeed. Julia is posing as a housemaid in the grand house of Mrs. Och, where an odd assortment of characters live and work: A disgraced professor who sends her to fetch parcels containing bullets, spiders, and poison. An aristocratic houseguest who is locked in the basement each night. And a mysterious young woman who is clearly in hiding--though from what or whom?Worse, Julia suspects that there's a connection between these people and the killer leaving a trail of bodies across the frozen city.The more she learns, the more she wants to be done with this unnatural job. To go back to the safety of her friends and fellow thieves. But Julia is entangled in a struggle between forces more powerful than she'd ever imagined. Escape will come at a terrible price.
Banished
Liz de Jager - 2014
Because chaos won’t banish itself…Kit is proud to be a Blackhart, now she’s encountered her unorthodox cousins and their strange lives. And her home-schooling now includes spells, fighting enemy fae and using ancient weapons. But it’s not until she rescues a rather handsome fae prince, fighting for his life on the edge of Blackhart Manor, that her training really kicks in. With her family away on various missions, Kit must protect Prince Thorn, rely on new friends and use her own unfamiliar magic to stay ahead of Thorn’s enemies. As things go from bad to apocalyptic, fae battle fae in a war that threatens to spill into the human world. Then Kit pits herself against the Elder Gods themselves – it’s that or lose everyone she’s learnt to love.
The Fae & The Fallen
Brittni ChenelleBrittni Chenelle - 2020
When 80% of the population is gifted with touch magic, it’s best to keep your hands—and your lips—to yourself. Especially if you’re an ungifted serf like I am. The problem is, the most dangerous guy at Gifted Fae Academy is the one I want to touch more than anything, even as I draw the attention of the school’s most gorgeous Apprentice Fae. When my entry exam leads to the revelation that I may not be as Ungifted as I previously believed… well… surviving until graduation might prove harder than I thought—particularly when a certain fatal touch may be worth the risk.
This Upper YA/NA series will eventually be three books and is intended for mature audiences. It contains cursing, sexual situations, and violence.
White Witch
Trish Milburn - 2012
"Jax" Pherson has power, enough power to know her future will end in service to the dark coven her father controls. Unless she can stay hidden in a small community in the mountains of North Carolina. She must find a way to live without magic and deny the darkness she feels welling up inside her-the same dark power that fuels the covens around the world. All she wants is a normal life. A boyfriend. Friends. Some place to belong, but all too soon Jax's barely begun new life hangs in the balance when she discovers that the boy she's attracted to is sworn to kill her kind. He's a hunter with good reason to kill everything that goes bump in the night. Even the most fleeting use of her power is tantamount to signing her death warrant and will bring both hunter and coven down on her. But can she walk away when her friends are threatened by an old evil? Something created by the magic of witches? Jax's only hope of survival is to convince the boy she loves to forget everything he's ever been taught and help her find a way to fight the covens. To believe there is some good in her.
Blythewood
Carol Goodman - 2013
Now she’s on her way to Blythewood Academy, the elite boarding school in New York’s mist-shrouded Hudson Valley that her mother attended—and was expelled from. Though she’s afraid her high society classmates won’t accept a factory girl in their midst, Ava is desperate to unravel her family’s murky past, discover the identity of the father she’s never known, and perhaps finally understand her mother’s abrupt suicide. She’s also on the hunt for the identity of the mysterious boy who rescued her from the fire. And she suspects the answers she seeks lie at Blythewood.But nothing could have prepared her for the dark secret of what Blythewood is, and what its students are being trained to do. Haunted by dreams of a winged boy and pursued by visions of a sinister man who breathes smoke, Ava isn’t sure if she’s losing her mind or getting closer to the truth. And the more rigorously Ava digs into the past, the more dangerous her present becomes. . . .Vivid and atmospheric, full of mystery and magic, this romantic page-turner by bestselling author Carol Goodman tells the story of a world on the brink of change and the girl who is the catalyst for it all.
Of Wicked Blood
Olivia Wildenstein - 2021
or the cursed.SLATEI didn’t mean to steal the Bloodstone from the De Morel’s crypt. Scratch that, I did mean to steal it. Until I realized it was a curse-magnet that only comes off if I, along with a jolly trio, successfully defeat four curses.If any of us fail, I’m dead.I’ve never been a glass half-empty sort of person, but my glass looks in dire need of a refill right about now.The only highlight of this wicked treasure hunt: feisty, entitled Cadence de Morel.CADENCEI was raised on tales of magic, in a small town reputed to be the birthplace of French witchcraft.Did I believe all the stories I heard? Absolutely not. I mean, if magic existed, Maman wouldn’t have died, and Papa wouldn’t be stuck in a wheelchair, right?Wrong.The night Slate Ardoin waltzes into my life, wearing a ring he stole from my mother’s grave, I call him a monster.But then I meet real ones, and Slate, well . . . he becomes something else to me.Something frustrating to live with but impossible to live without.Something I will fight for, no matter the cost.*Warning: profuse cursing (and not just the magical kind).
The Last Changeling
Chelsea Pitcher - 2014
. .Elora, the young princess of the Dark Faeries, plans to overthrow her tyrannical mother, the Dark Queen, and bring equality to faeriekind. All she has to do is convince her mother’s loathed enemy, the Bright Queen, to join her cause. But the Bright Queen demands an offering first: a human boy who is a “young leader of men.” A Dark Princess In Disguise . . .To steal a mortal, Elora must become a mortal—at least, by all appearances. And infiltrating a high school is surprisingly easy. When Elora meets Taylor, the seventeen-year-old who’s plotting to overthrow a ruthless bully, she thinks she’s found her offering . . . until she starts to fall in love.
Prayer for the Dead
Nicki Scalise - 2013
Is it possible to find true love while condemned to purgatory until the end of days? Olivia Brennan isn't looking to find out. Her afterlife is nothing special — her days spent working for a division of Purgatory and Associates, her nights usually occupied with reruns or a good book. Everything changes when her best friend coaxes her into a girls' night out one fateful evening. The handsome stranger eyeing her from across the club seems too good to be true. Drake proves to be witty, charming, and considerate to a fault, despite the all-too-familiar sadness that lurks behind his eyes. It seems Fate has finally brought Olivia a kindred spirit, someone she can truly relate to. But can she move past her own dark regrets from the life she left behind? Or will falling for him demand the ultimate sacrifice—her soul?
Fearsome Dreamer
Laure Eve - 2013
There are rarer people still who can move between continents in the blink of an eye.These people are dangerous.And wanted. Desperately wanted.Apprentice hedgewitch Vela Rue knows that she is destined for more. She knows being whisked off from a dull country life to a city full of mystery and intrigue is meant to be. She knows she has something her government wants, a talent so rare and precious and new that they will do anything to train her in it.But she doesn’t know that she is being lied to. She doesn’t know that the man teaching her about her talent is becoming obsessed by her, and considered by some to be the most dangerous man alive ...