Book picks similar to
Brightflame Accension by D.B. Penner
fantasy
magic
old
3
The Oathbreaker's Shadow
Amy McCulloch - 2013
Break that promise and you are scarred for life, and cast out into the desert.Raim has worn a simple knot around his wrist for as long as he can remember. No one knows where it came from, and which promise of his it symbolises, but he barely thinks about it at all—not since becoming the most promising young fighter ever to train for the elite Yun guard. But on the most important day of his life, when he binds his life to his best friend (and future king) Khareh, the string bursts into flames and sears a dark mark into his skin.Scarred now as an oath-breaker, Raim has two options: run, or be killed.A gripping YA action-adventure fantasy, the first part of a planned duology.
Origin
Lan Chan - 2020
Mine begins with an underground cage fight and ends in a secret identity.By day I'm Willow Nguyen, not so mild-mannered teenager searching for her missing mother. By night...okay, I'm the same, but it's easier to break into banks under cover of darkness.My world is divided into the Academy and the Kings: the law and the thugs. At the centre of their power are the espers like me: the telepaths, psychics and illusionists.What I can do could change the balance of power in Melbourne. So it makes sense for me to keep a low profile. It's not my fault that I get drawn into an illegal cage fight. Yes, I did have to become a psychotic King's nemesis. No I won't stop fighting until one of us is dead.With great power comes great pain in the backside. I just have to make sure it hurts them more than me. Willow Nguyen might just be a girl, but Spectra will become a legend.Origin is the first novel in the Spectra Series. It is an Australian young adult urban fantasy series with slight Academy overtones. There are flavours of X-men and Dark Angel with a big helping of snark and a slow burn romance.
Soul Bonds
E.M. Sinclair - 2007
When that death seems all too likely, she is found by one of the Dragon Kindred and Tika's life takes a twist she could never have imagined in her wildest dreams - or her worst nightmares.
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
The Pioneer
A.R. Holloway - 2019
A world that operates similar to the video games Daniel has always enjoyed, Ethria is a place where power can be found in many forms, both light and dark, and whose true purpose is unknown even to most of its denizens. Taking the long way home, Daniel will make another choice, to help a group of persecuted people whose story mirrors that of his pioneer ancestors. But In a time when Gods are changing, the people of every race suffer, the foundations of nations shift, and change and danger are in the very air, what can one under-leveled, foreign wizard do? All the while at the roof of the world, at the base of the Sawtooth Mountains a darkness grows, a creature plots, and an ancient evil from the foundations of the world seeks to re-emerge onto Ethria.”
SunRider
Rafael Hohmann - 2017
These individuals have been dubbed the Star-Children, and their magical suits of armor can reshape land, nations, and the future of man. Each of them wield a seemingly random and distinctive power: thecapability to create clouds of gems, the skill to bend lightning by command, the means to suck the air out of one’s lungs. They are marked by the bracers they wear: a single piece donning their arm, a piece which shifts and slides, forming their unique armored suits of might.No one knows why these bracers have fallen from Lenova’s skies, picking seemingly random individuals to hold such power. In the absence of knowledge and with superior beings now in existence, chaos reigns. The few Star-Children with morals wield their powers with honor, those with darker intentions...seek blood and conquest.In the midst of this emerging chaos, teenager Finn SunRider only cares for escaping the mines within the burning desert of the Crust and exploring the world he lives in. When an ancient bracer different from those which have fallen from the sky grafts onto Finn’s arm and the last of a dead racewarns that albeit no future is certain, he will be thrust in the middle of godly battles and mystery, Finn’s plans of freedom take a different turn.
Condition Evolution
Kevin Sinclair - 2020
One with the power to repair his mind and body while he lives out his wildest dreams.What could possibly go wrong?It turns out fighting monsters and obesity is tough wherever you are! Then there’s the unrequited love. Weren’t the women supposed to fall head over heels with the hero? Not in Anatoli, a brutal and unforgiving land on the brink of apocalypse.If Shaun can survive this very real experience, he might just get to be a hero back in the real world!Warning, lots of profanity and gratuitous violence.
Path of the Necromancer
Deck Davis - 2019
In an RPG-like world, he makes his magic stronger by practising his spells and using them in clever ways. When he takes his first academy assignment, he finds trouble. Cut off from the protection of the academy and in a hostile land, he'll have to improvise if he wants to survive. He needs to level up, learn new spells, and use them in creative ways. Necromancers have the power to cheat death...but that doesn't mean they can escape it.Read Path of the Necromancer now!
Nightblade
Garrett Robinson - 2014
Following the fugitive sorcerer Xain out of her forest home, she wears a stolen noble's cloak of fine black cloth and carries a dagger the world has not seen in centuries—a blade that can turn enemies to allies when she least expects it.Yet something keeps her from using that dagger to take a life.Soon she crosses paths with the smuggler family of Yerrin, invoking their wrath by stealing their most precious treasure. Yerrin’s reach is long, and they will not stop until they silence Loren forever.If she can survive, Loren may become the most infamous thief in the world. But if she fails, she will be only the first to burn in a war that threatens all the nine lands.
A Throne for Sisters
Morgan Rice - 2017
Orphans, unwanted and unloved, they nonetheless dream of coming of age elsewhere, of finding a better life, even if that means living on the streets of the brutal city of Ashton. Sophia and Kate, also best friends, have each other’s backs—and yet they want different things from life. Sophia, a romantic, more elegant, dreams of entering court and finding a noble to fall in love with. Kate, a fighter, dreams of mastering the sword, of battling dragons, and becoming a warrior. They are both united, though, by their secret, paranormal power to read other’s minds, their only saving grace in a world that seems bent to destroy them. As they each embark on a quest and adventure their own ways, they struggle to survive. Faced with choices neither can imagine, their choices may propel them to the highest power—or plunge them to the lowest depths.
Chosen
Lauren Chow - 2017
Clara Evans’ needs a fresh start. Exhausted from the taunts of her classmates and the neglect of her careless foster parents, she is counting down the days until graduation when she can move away and leave her miserable life behind. When swoon-worthy Jay Woods transfers to Ford High School, Clara’s eyes are opened to a universe she never knew existed. As the life she once knew shatters and ancient secrets are revealed, Clara must learn to control her newfound powers while defeating a raging darkness that will change the world forever. Could “The Freak” from Ford High be the key to saving the human race?
Dominion
Melody Manful - 2013
In her nightmare, she was murdered by a magical creature. As she gets to know Gideon, she begins to remember pieces of her nightmare, and was shocked when Gideon turned out to be the creature from her nightmare. Who is Gideon really? Should Abby allow herself to fall completely for him, or is he the next disaster waiting to happen?
Firecracker
A.L. Knorr - 2020
Welcome to Arcturus Academy.98% of fire magi who attempt the agonizing forbidden ritual known as The Burning don’t survive. Those who do… level up in ways undreamt of by the Unburned.I survived.Now I've got other problems.Headmaster Chaplin charges me with tutoring struggling student April, but when a bully targets April, I feel my control slipping. It doesn't help that he is my crush's evil twin, who--for reasons no one can explain--I share a powerful mage-bond with.It might be enough to push me into darkness. Will I emerge a hero or a fiend? Even I cannot say.Arcturus Academy is an action-adventure series of five books by a USA Today and Amazon best-selling author. Saxony is a strong female heroine swept into a world of dizzying plot twists, sweet romance and intriguing mythology, all woven against a backdrop of elemental magic. Perfect for fans of Kelley Armstrong, Maria V Snyder, and Shannon Mayer. If you like magical power plays, page-turning action, and the high of first love, then you’ll adore A.L. Knorr’s explosive series.
Court of the Shifter
Logan Jacobs - 2021
I liked my job, but my life wasn’t particularly exciting.Then I fell into an underground spring and landed in another world.A fantasy world full of vampires, shifters, and monsters.Turns out I’m the prophesied shifter who is destined to unite the different paranormal species by killing all my rivals, marrying and breeding with all of the noble firstborn daughters, and establishing my own kingdom.
Empyrean Witch
J.S. Malcom - 2019
Then again, I thought the same thing about witches. I'm no stranger to darkness. I've been dealing with it all my life. That's just part of being a "mutant psychic." I see things and know things that, most of the time, I'd be better off not seeing or knowing. But when my witch powers start to manifest, my life takes a new direction entirely. Suddenly, I’m recruited by the Shadow Order, a supernatural agency dedicated to the protection of the covens. My primary task? To read supernatural murder scenes. Trust me, at that point the word “dark” takes on a whole new meaning.When one of those crime scenes opens a door between me and a trio of dark goddesses hunting for a talisman, I seriously start to reconsider my life choices. Especially when those same goddesses start hunting me. Maybe it's a case of mistaken identity. I'd really like to think so. But the feeling I’m getting is that they know just who and what I am, while I'm still trying to figure that part out for myself. And when I meet an irresistibly alluring stranger who seems to know me better than I do, I really have to wonder. Because if what he tells me is true, I too carry the blood of the gods in my veins, and only I can unlock the magic needed to save the human race.