Book picks similar to
Revolutionary Magic by Thomas K. Carpenter


fantasy
steampunk
historical-fiction
historical

Spellbreaker


Charlie N. Holmberg - 2020
    But as an unlicensed magic user, her gift is a crime. Commissioned by an underground group known as the Cowls, Elsie uses her spellbreaking to push back against the aristocrats and help the common man. She always did love the tale of Robin Hood.Elite magic user Bacchus Kelsey is one elusive spell away from his mastership when he catches Elsie breaking an enchantment. To protect her secret, Elsie strikes a bargain. She’ll help Bacchus fix unruly spells around his estate if he doesn’t turn her in. Working together, Elsie’s trust in—and fondness for—the handsome stranger grows. So does her trepidation about the rise in the murders of wizards and the theft of the spellbooks their bodies leave behind.For a rogue spellbreaker like Elsie, there’s so much to learn about her powers, her family, the intriguing Bacchus, and the untold dangers shadowing every step of a journey she’s destined to complete. But will she uncover the mystery before it’s too late to save everything she loves?

A Study in Silks


Emma Jane Holloway - 2013
    In a Victorian era ruled by a ruthless steam baron council, mechanical power is the real monarch, and sorcery the demon enemy of the empire. Evelina has secretly mastered a coveted weapon - magic that can run machines. Should she trust the handsome, clever rake who speeds her breath, or the dashing trick rider who would dare anything she would ask?

The Change


Teyla Branton - 2013
    By fluke of a recessive gene, she has become Unbounded, a nearly immortal being with paranormal abilities. Erin’s Change separates her from her loved ones and alters everything she believes to be true. A week earlier she was considering a marriage proposal; now she contemplates the best way to stay alive. Caught in a battle between two Unbounded groups, she is also hunted by a secret mortal society sworn to eradicate the Unbounded gene. Worse, a new identification software could mean death for all Unbounded—or enslavement for the entire mortal world. As Erin plunges into this dangerous new life, she must carve out her own place in the madness, protect her mortal family, and decide which group she should join. Her powerful attraction to Ritter Langton, whose family was massacred by opposing Unbounded two hundred and forty years ago, complicates her choices. There are no second chances. Death, life, or love—Unbounded always play for keeps. Non-stop action, terrifying consequences, and powerful romance make this an exciting addition to the world of urban fantasy.

A Cast of Stones


Patrick W. Carr - 2013
    Eager for coin, Errol agrees to what he thinks will be an easy task, but soon finds himself hunted by deadly assassins. Forced to flee with the priest and a small band of travelers, Errol soon learns he's joined a quest that could change the fate of his kingdom. Protected for millennia by the heirs of the first king, the kingdom's dynasty nears its end and the selection of the new king begins--but in secret and shadow. As danger mounts, Errol must leave behind the stains and griefs of the past, learn to fight, and discover who is hunting him and his companions and how far they will go to stop the reading of the stones. 2014 Carol Award Winner for Speculative

Comes the Night


Norah Wilson - 2012
    They are also all students at Streep Academy, a boarding school just one step away from juvie, where they've come to complete high school. The three have been relegated to Harvell House, the residence reserved for the hardest cases, the so-called Rejects from Reject Row. In the forbidden attic of the old Victorian house-turned-residence, the girls discover the diary of Connie Harvell, a young woman who was confined and abused there some 50 years ago. In the end, Connie’s attic prison couldn't hold her—not completely. She found a way out. At least a dark part of her did. And after reading her diary, the girls discover they can escape at will too. A terrifying, thrilling flight from their bodies and their troubles. But God help them, their pain isn't all they leave behind when they join with the night. And God help anyone who’s wronged them...

Dreamlander


K.M. Weiland - 2012
    Every night, she begs him not to come to her. Every night, she aims her rifle at his head and fires. The last thing Chris expects—or wants—is for this nightmare to be real. But when he wakes up in the world of his dreams, he has to choose between the likelihood that he’s gone spectacularly bonkers or the possibility that he’s just been let in on the secret of the ages.Only one person in a generation may cross the worlds. These chosen few are the Gifted, called from Earth into Lael to shape the epochs of history—and Chris is one of them. But before he figures that out, he accidentally endangers both worlds by resurrecting a vengeful prince intent on claiming the powers of the Gifted for himself. Together with a suspicious princess and a guilt-ridden Cherazii warrior, Chris must hurl himself into a battle to save a country from war, two worlds from annihilation, and himself from a dream come way too true.

Shadows of Asphodel


Karen Kincy - 2013
    She’s the only one who can save him.1913. Austria-Hungary. Wendel may be devilishly handsome, a charming bastard with the manners of disinherited royalty, but he's an abomination. His skin shivers with the icy fire of necromancy. With one touch, he can raise the dead. Worse still, he's being hunted by assassins from Constantinople, and he would rather die than confess why.Ardis escaped her own dark past, fleeing from America as a fugitive to become a mercenary for the Archmages of Vienna. When she discovers Wendel bleeding out on the battlefield, she saves his life with a ransom in mind. She never asked for him to fall to one knee and declare his undying loyalty, or for tension to smolder hot between them. Especially once she discovers his scars run much deeper than his skin.Shadows of Asphodel is a fast-burn fantasy romance novel with lush worldbuilding and gritty fight scenes. Perfect for fans of enemies to lovers, secret royalty, and tortured bad boys who might not be redeemable.

The Legend of the Bloodstone


E.B. Brown - 2013
    Will I still want to touch you when your blood is on my hands? Or will it chase your ghost from my thoughts?" He held his hands out and considered his open palms for a moment, shaking his head. "I think not. I think still you would haunt me." TIME WALKERSMaggie is a modern day woman with all her flaws, thrust back into a time when men were carving out the history of America. She has just enough knowledge of the past to know trouble is coming, yet soon she is kicking herself for not paying better attention in history class. When she is captured by Winn, a warrior who is torn between his duty to kill her and his desire to keep her, she must adapt to a life she had only read about in history books.Winn is a seventeenth century Paspahegh warrior, born in a time before the English settlers arrived on the shores of Tsenacomoco. He has learned the ways of the English and uses his knowledge to ensure the survival of his people, but when he finds a wounded woman in the woods his loyalty is put to the ultimate test.Hunted and feared by both the Powhatan and the English, Maggie struggles to find a way home while Winn plots to keep her there. Maggie fights to survive as she finds herself entangled in the Massacre of 1622, and Winn sees everything he ever believed in shattered by the knowledge she holds. With ties to both the past and future, their lives unfold among the stirrings of a new nation. Maggie and Winn risk everything to survive as the once powerful Powhatan Nation crumbles and the English build a country from the ashes.Praise for the Time Walkers series: The Legend of the Bloodstone - 2013 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award, QuarterfinalistA Tale of Oak and Mistletoe - 2013 RWA/NYC We Need a Hero Contest, Finalist"Time travel and romance converge in this tale of star-crossed love" - Publishers Weekly on The Legend of the Bloodstone"This was beautiful! Time Travel at its best!"- Romance Novels in Color"Absolutely consuming" - Amazon reviewer"I love this series. I didn't want it to end!" - Amazon Reviewer"I can easily see where this story could be a fantastic movie." - Amazon Reviewer"My complaint with this book is I couldn't stop reading this one and the next one in the series which resulted in late nights and tired mornings!!" - Amazon Reviewer"An epic historical saga in brilliant cinematic technicolor" - Amazon reviewer

The Final Formula


Becca Andre - 2013
    When a fiery explosion destroys the Alchemica, the premier alchemy institute in the United States, she’s left with nothing. No home, no colleagues, and no memory. Learning what happened seems impossible, but she still has one strength, and in her opinion, it’s the only one she needs. She hasn’t forgotten a thing about alchemy.Addie brews a potion to restore her lost past, but remembers only the flames of the Alchemica’s destruction—and a man among the ashes. A man with the elemental power of fire, who just happens to be the leader of the magical community. He might know what happened, but getting him to tell her will require some…creativity. The magical aren’t fond of alchemists. Some say it borders on hatred, but Addie isn’t one to back down from a challenge, even if that challenge happens to be a man who can turn her to ash with a thought.

Bronze Gods


A.A. Aguirre - 2013
    The native fae who refused to treat with the invaders faded; their bodies withered and died, stranding them as hungry, angry spirits that haunt the countryside.That means there’s always trouble brewing in Dorstaad.Janus Mikani and Celeste Ritsuko work for the Criminal Investigation Department, keeping citizens safe from things that go bump in the night. He’s a hardboiled cynic with an uncanny sixth sense; she’s determined to justify her promotion as the first female detective in her division. Together, they’re trying to keep a black tide from drowning the city.But when the second body surfaces, murdered with the same type of infernal device, the entire CID must face the truth. There’s a madman on the loose, twining magic and blood… and only Mikani and Ritsuko can unravel the intricate, lethal conspiracy before the Royale killer completes his macabre plan, unleashing old, forbidden magic on an unsuspecting populace. If the maniac succeeds, it could mean the end of everything…

Flame Moon


K.J. Jackson - 2012
    She had no idea that the man who had saved her from drowning, the man she now depended on, Aiden, was more than mere mortal. A warrior of ancient.No memory, nowhere to go, Skye stays in the mountain town, only to discover she herself, has unexplained powers. Her life, her destiny, are soon out of her control, as are her feelings for Aiden. The deeper Skye gets sucked into Aiden’s hidden world, the more the past, and who she really is, threatens her future, her love, her sanity.

Sojourn


Jana Oliver - 2006
    An aged Queen Victoria rules. The threat of anarchy hovers in the air. A new kind of evil lurks in the back alleys of Whitechapel. Enter Jacynda Lassiter, a Time Rover on a mission find an overdue tourist' and return him to 2057 before he changes history. Victorian London is a dangerous place for the unwary. Mysterious shape-shifters haunt the streets, making friend and foe indistinguishable. When a fellow Time Rover is murdered, Jacynda's mission becomes personal. Can she trust the two gentlemen who come to her aid, or do they harbor their own dark secrets? In a few days, Jack the Ripper will add to his bloody legacy. But old Jack isn't the only threat in Whitechapel. Unless Jacynda can outwit a madman, her Victorian sojourn will rewrite history and end at the point of a blade.

The Change


Angela White - 2011
    Men have been enslaved for their own protection and the only way to get a mate is to enter the Network Games and fight for one. The catch? It's a live battle to the death and the competition is fierce. Who's ready to play? Are ya? Are ya really?

Frozen Prospects


Dean Murray - 2011
    When his sponsors are killed in an ambush a short time later, he instead finds his probationary status revoked, and becomes a pawn between various factions inside the Guadel ruling body. Jain's never known any life but that of a Guadel in training. She'd thought herself reconciled to the idea of a loveless marriage for the good of her people, but meeting Va'del changes everything. Their growing attraction flies against hundreds of years of precedent, but as wide-spread attacks threaten their world, the Guadel have no choice but to use even Jain and Va'del in their fight for survival. Publisher's Note: Frozen Prospects is followed by Thawed Fortunes.

Nolander


Becca Mills - 2012
    They're wrong. Amateur photographer Beth Ryder is in trouble. She's taking pictures of things she can't see, things that aren't human. Beth has her own dreams, but people like her don't get to go free. She's seized by a dangerous organization dedicated to keeping Earth's shadow world -- and its frightening inhabitants -- a secret. Forced into otherworldly politics and uncertain whom to trust, Beth must come to terms with a radically altered future -- one in which her own humanity seems to be draining away.