Book picks similar to
The Royal Cleaner: Books 1-3 by L.C. Mawson


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Sigil Fire


Erzabet Bishop - 2014
    Sonia is a succubus with one goal: stay off Hell’s radar. But when succubi start to die, including her sometimes lover, Jeannie, she’s drawn into battle between good and evil and a past that isn’t ready to let her go.Fae is a blood witch turned vampire, running a tattoo parlor and trading her craft for blood. She notices that something isn’t right on the streets of her city. The denizens of Hell are restless. With the aid of her nest mate, Perry, and his partner, Charley, she races against time before the next victim falls. The killer has a target in his sights, and Sonia might not live to see the dawn.**Includes First Christmas: A Sigil Fire Holiday Story**

Plain Bad Heroines


Emily M. Danforth - 2020
    Flo and Clara, two impressionable students, are obsessed with each other and with a daring young writer named Mary MacLane, the author of a scandalous bestselling memoir. To show their devotion to Mary, the girls establish their own private club and call it The Plain Bad Heroine Society. They meet in secret in a nearby apple orchard, the setting of their wildest happiness and, ultimately, of their macabre deaths. This is where their bodies are later discovered with a copy of Mary’s book splayed beside them, the victims of a swarm of stinging, angry yellow jackets. Less than five years later, The Brookhants School for Girls closes its doors forever—but not before three more people mysteriously die on the property, each in a most troubling way. Over a century later, the now abandoned and crumbling Brookhants is back in the news when wunderkind writer, Merritt Emmons, publishes a breakout book celebrating the queer, feminist history surrounding the “haunted and cursed” Gilded-Age institution. Her bestselling book inspires a controversial horror film adaptation starring celebrity actor and lesbian it girl Harper Harper playing the ill-fated heroine Flo, opposite B-list actress and former child star Audrey Wells as Clara. But as Brookhants opens its gates once again, and our three modern heroines arrive on set to begin filming, past and present become grimly entangled—or perhaps just grimly exploited—and soon it’s impossible to tell where the curse leaves off and Hollywood begins. A story within a story within a story and featuring black-and-white period illustrations.

How to Grow Up: A Memoir


Michelle Tea - 2015
    She writes about passion, about her fraught relationship with money, about adoring Barney’s while shopping at thrift stores, about breakups and the fertile ground between relationships, about roommates and rent, and about being superstitious (“why not, it imbues this harsh world of ours with a bit of magic.”)  At once heartwarming and darkly comic, How to Grow Up proves that the road less traveled may be a difficult one, but if you embrace life’s uncertainty and dust yourself off after every screw up, slowly but surely you just might make it to adulthood.

The Crimson Dragon


Cinnamon Jay - 2021
    Year after year, the only thing that changes is the number of human-eating fey that stalk the night. Each night, Bryn ventures out to reduce those numbers and protect a family she's no longer sure deserves protecting. But if the last member of the bloodline of Arthur dies, darkness will fall and the earth will crumble.Elaine Hughes is just a regular young woman with a regular job who lives in a regular house in Los Angeles. Each weekend, she comes home to an empty house, and each Monday she drives back to her nine-to-five with chagrin that nothing has changed. When she's attacked in the same parking garage she's been using for years, she's saved by a beautiful warrior maiden with red wings and golden eyes, and she's confronted with the possibility that things in this world are not as they seem.The Crimson Dragon combines the real world of Los Angeles with the magical world of dragons and the legends of King Arthur. As Bryn and Elaine face their worst fears and emotional trauma, they also face the real chance that the two of them are in for more than they bargained for.

Black Girl, Call Home


Jasmine Mans - 2021
    With echoes of Gwendolyn Brooks and Sonia Sanchez, Mans writes to call herself—and us—home. Each poem explores what it means to be a daughter of Newark, and America--and the painful, joyous path to adulthood as a young, queer Black woman.Black Girl, Call Home is a love letter to the wandering Black girl and a vital companion to any woman on a journey to find truth, belonging, and healing.

Trolling for Trouble


Olivia Hardin - 2012
    I make my living at keeping the world from discovering magic, but tonight my best friend and I are trolling into territory we might not be able to escape from… My name is Lynlee, and I'm a Neutralizer. It's my job to keep magical and undead creatures out of sticky situations. What kind of sticky? The kind where humans find out that we really do exist. The kind that derails the great big train of our happy coexistence.It might sound like I'm complaining, but I love what I do. Still, sometimes a girl just needs a break from all of the supernatural chaos. Tonight, I want to collapse into my bed and forget the day… until I discover two little kids scavenging through my refrigerator. One look at the motley pair, and my heartstrings get a good, hard tug. Imagine my surprise when I discover that their father is the one human I've spent years trying to forget. This is the sort of trouble I certainly never bargained for. It might just change things forever…***My name is Rhiannon, and I might not be a Neutralizer like my friend Lynlee, but that doesn't mean I get to take it easy. When Magical And Undead Creatures cross paths with humans, sometimes they get hurt. That's when this doctor to the paranormal world, steps into action. What I never expected was to get an urgent call from my secret crush.Risking my life to grant Sandy a favor might not be the smartest decision I've ever made, but sometimes love means taking chances.

Lobizona


Romina Garber - 2020
    As an undocumented immigrant who's on the run from her father's Argentine crime-family, Manu is confined to a small apartment and a small life in Miami, Florida.Until Manu's protective bubble is shattered.Her surrogate grandmother is attacked, lifelong lies are exposed, and her mother is arrested by ICE. Without a home, without answers, and finally without shackles, Manu investigates the only clue she has about her past--a mysterious "Z" emblem—which leads her to a secret world buried within our own. A world connected to her dead father and his criminal past. A world straight out of Argentine folklore, where the seventh consecutive daughter is born a bruja and the seventh consecutive son is a lobizón, a werewolf. A world where her unusual eyes allow her to belong.As Manu uncovers her own story and traces her real heritage all the way back to a cursed city in Argentina, she learns it's not just her U.S. residency that's illegal. . . .it's her entire existence.

The Shattering


Karen Healey - 2011
    Each death was ruled a suicide, but there were no notes, no warnings, and no explanations.So they've worked out a theory: Their brothers were murdered - and weren't the only victims.As the search for the serial killer goes on, mysterious forces are unearthed and suspicion is cast on the those the three trust most. When secrets shatter around them, can they save the next victim? Or will they become victims themselves?This supernatural thriller from award-winning author Karen Healey (Guardian of the Dead) teems with suspense, loss, revenge, and magic.

Amelia Westlake


Erin Gough - 2018
    So when she risks it all by creating a hoax to expose the school's many problems – with help from notorious bad-girl Will Everheart, no less – Harriet tells herself it's because she's seeking justice. And definitely not because she finds Will oddly fascinating. But as Will and Harriet's campaign heats up, it gets harder for them to remain sworn enemies – and to avoid being caught. As tensions burn throughout the school, how far will they go to keep their mission – and their feelings for each other – a secret?

The Hand That Cradles the Rock


Rita Mae Brown - 2010
    

Louis & Louise


Julie Cohen - 2019
    The day they were born is when their story began.In one, Louis David Alder is born a male.In the other, Louise Dawn Alder is born a female.Louis and Louise are the same in many ways - they have the same best friends, the same parents, the same dream of being a writer and leaving their hometown in Maine as soon as they can. But because of their gender, everything looks different. Certain things will happen in their lives to shape them, hurt them, build them back up again. But what will bring them back home?

Silver Wood Coven: The Complete Series


Hazel Hunter - 2016
    ;-)” Rescued (Silver Wood Coven #1) Templar Michael Charbon has been watching the young witch for months. Homeless, beautiful, and living in Central Park, she seems to charm everyone she meets. They shower her with kindness, and yet he never witnesses magic. Only when he rescues her from a rapist, does he understand why: Summer has no memory, not even of her real name. Though he barely resists her inexplicable pull on him, he would gladly break his vows to make her his own. Magus Corps Major Troy Atwater is surprised to hear from Michael. But their long past together puts Michael’s word beyond doubt. Troy collects the beautiful, young witch from the Templar, before her strange attraction drives half of New York wild. A powerful warlock in his own right, Troy manages to veil her seductive appeal, so that he and the coven can help her. But a passionate bond quickly envelopes them that goes far beyond her charms. For her part, Summer’s head is swimming. With barely a memory, she can hardly comprehend the ancient world of Wiccans and Templars. More than that she finds herself torn between two very different men. But as the extent of her powers reveal themselves and her deadly past returns in painful snippets, she finds that she isn’t meant to choose between Michael or Troy. She must have them both. Stolen (Silver Wood Coven #2) Just as Summer settles into her new life with the Silver Wood coven, her world is upended. Templar Michael Charbon inexplicably kidnaps her from the very place he’d sent her for safety. Though still suffering from amnesia, Summer has learned of the long enmity between Wiccans and Templars, and tries everything to escape him. But as he thwarts her every attempt, the fierce desire that has always bonded them surfaces. United (Silver Wood Coven #3) Still reeling from the brutal attack that has left Templar Michael Charbon fighting for his life, Summer and warlock Troy Atwater flee with him from New York. As they head to the Silver Wood Coven for refuge, they know two things: they will not be welcome, and the coven harbours a traitor. Betrayed (Silver Wood Coven #4) As the winter solstice gathering draws closer, and the other covens converge, the stakes couldn’t be higher. But when Summer’s memories begin to return, she glimpses her terrible purpose. Not only will she need to summon her power and her courage, she must ask the ultimate of her two men. Revealed (Silver Wood Coven #5) In a breathtaking vision shared by the three of them, Summer, Michael, and Troy finally learn the truth. But not only is Summer’s birth name revealed, so is her heritage and the real purpose of their passionate union. As deadly forces close in on the winter gathering, Silver Wood coven has never been more vulnerable. Templars intent on finding the Emerald Tablet will stop at nothing to get to Summer, aided by a traitor in their midst. When the traitor finally reveals themselves, the depth of their vicious intent becomes clear.

In the Shadow of Darkness


Nicole Stiling - 2020
    As a newly turned vampire, the only one she can turn to for help is the vampire who becomes her worst nightmare.Meghan Denham is in the wrong place at the wrong time. After ending up the victim of a robbery-gone-wrong, her life is turned upside down by the strange and beautiful Angeline. If Angeline is telling the truth about who she is, then everything Megan believes about the world is a lie. If Angeline is lying, then she will have to walk away from the first person to set her heart on fire. When suspicious deaths begin to occur in their small town of Fog Hollow, Angeline and Megan find themselves as unlikely allies, with an even more unlikely attraction.Cover Artist: Tammy SeidickGenres: Paranormal & Urban Fantasy / Romance

The Wild Ones


Nafiza Azad - 2021
    Morris Finalist Nafiza Azad comes a thrilling, feminist fantasy about a group of teenage girls endowed with special powers who must band together to save the life of the boy whose magic saved them all.Meet the Wild Ones: girls who have been hurt, abandoned, and betrayed all their lives. It all began with Paheli, who was once betrayed by her mother and sold to a man in exchange for a favor. When Paheli escapes, she runs headlong into a boy with stars in his eyes. This boy, as battered as she is, tosses Paheli a box of stars before disappearing. With the stars, Paheli gains access to the Between, a place of pure magic and mystery. Now, Paheli collects girls like herself and these Wild Ones use their magic to travel the world, helping the hopeless and saving others from the fates they suffered. Then Paheli and the Wild Ones learn that the boy who gave them the stars, Taraana, is in danger. He’s on the run from powerful forces within the world of magic. But if Taraana is no longer safe and free, neither are the Wild Ones. And that…is a fate the Wild Ones refuse to accept. Ever again.

Life of the Party


Olivia Gatwood - 2019
    In Life of the Party, she weaves together her own coming of age with an investigation into our culture's romanticization of violence against women. In precise, searing language—at times blistering and riotous, at times soulful and exuberant—she explores the boundary between what is real and what is imagined in a life saturated with fear. How does one grow from a girl to a woman in a world wracked by violence? Where is the line between perpetrator and victim? What is the meaning of bravery? Visceral and haunting, this multifaceted collection illustrates that what happens to our bodies makes us who we are.