I've been looking forward to this blog hop for about a month now. Shout out to Bookhounds for hosting. I'm a freaking fantasy fanatic and I always love a chance to discover new fantasy books, or win one *fingers crossed*. But one thing I love just as much as finding something new is geeking out about the great novels I've already read. I went through my Goodreads list and picked out all the ones I rated 5 stars. Not only did I realize just how many great fantasy novels I've read, I also can't narrow them down to just a handful. So, here are 15 of my favorite faerie and fantasy novels. There's also a short list at the end of free fantasy novels I've found that are fantastic. I hope you all find something worth reading!
1. The Iron Butterfly by Chanda Hahn
Imprisoned, starved and left with no memories, Thalia awakens to find
herself at the mercy of an evil cult known as the Septori. Their leader
has chosen Thalia as the test subject for a torture device of untold
power, designed to change and twist her into something that is neither
human nor Denai.
Escaping, Thalia finds an unwilling warrior to
protect her and an unlikely Denai to befriend her. After finding a home
at the Citadel as a servant, Thalia’s worst nightmare comes to life and
she begins to show signs of power. Scared and unable to control her
gifts, she tries to hide her past to fit in among the Denai. But the
Septori want their latest test subject back and will stop at nothing to
retrieve her, dead or alive.
2. Dark Descendant by Jenna Black
Nikki Glass can track down any man. But when her latest client turns out
to be a true descendant of Hades, Nikki now discovers she can’t die. . .
.
Crazy as it sounds, Nikki’s manhunting skills are literally
god-given. She’s a living, breathing descendant of Artemis who has
stepped right into a trap set by the children of the gods. Nikki’s new
“friends” include a descendant of Eros, who uses sex as a weapon; a
descendant of Loki, whose tricks are no laughing matter; and a half-mad
descendant of Kali who thinks she’s a spy.
But most powerful of
all are the Olympians, a rival clan of immortals seeking to destroy all
Descendants who refuse to bow down to them. In the eternal battle of
good god/bad god, Nikki would make a divine weapon. But if they think
she’ll surrender without a fight, the gods must be crazy. . . .
3. Midnight Thief by Livia Blackburne
Growing up on Forge’s streets has taught Kyra how to stretch a coin. And
when that’s not enough, her uncanny ability to scale walls and bypass
guards helps her take what she needs.
But when the leader of the
Assassins Guild offers Kyra a lucrative job, she hesitates. She knows
how to get by on her own, and she’s not sure she wants to play by his
rules. But he’s persistent—and darkly attractive—and Kyra can’t quite
resist his pull.
Tristam of Brancel is a young Palace knight on a
mission. After his best friend is brutally murdered by Demon Riders, a
clan of vicious warriors who ride bloodthirsty wildcats, Tristam vows to
take them down. But as his investigation deepens, he finds his efforts
thwarted by a talented thief, one who sneaks past Palace defenses with
uncanny ease.
When a fateful raid throws Kyra and Tristam
together, the two enemies realize that their best chance at survival—and
vengeance—might be to join forces. And as their loyalties are tested to
the breaking point, they learn a startling secret about Kyra’s past
that threatens to reshape both their lives.
In her arresting
debut novel, Livia Blackburne creates a captivating world where intrigue
prowls around every corner—and danger is a way of life.
4. The Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson
A princess must find her place in a reborn world.
She flees on her wedding day.
She steals ancient documents from the Chancellor's secret collection.
She is pursued by bounty hunters sent by her own father.
She is Princess Lia, seventeen, First Daughter of the House of Morrighan.
The
Kingdom of Morrighan is steeped in tradition and the stories of a
bygone world, but some traditions Lia can't abide. Like having to marry
someone she's never met to secure a political alliance.
Fed up
and ready for a new life, Lia flees to a distant village on the morning
of her wedding. She settles in among the common folk, intrigued when two
mysterious and handsome strangers arrive—and unaware that one is the
jilted prince and the other an assassin sent to kill her. Deceptions
swirl and Lia finds herself on the brink of unlocking perilous
secrets—secrets that may unravel her world—even as she feels herself
falling in love.
5. Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder
Choose: A quick death…Or slow poison...
About to be executed for
murder, Yelena is offered an extraordinary reprieve. She'll eat the best
meals, have rooms in the palace—and risk assassination by anyone trying
to kill the Commander of Ixia.
And so Yelena chooses to become a
food taster. But the chief of security, leaving nothing to chance,
deliberately feeds her Butterfly's Dust—and only by appearing for her
daily antidote will she delay an agonizing death from the poison.
As
Yelena tries to escape her new dilemma, disasters keep mounting. Rebels
plot to seize Ixia and Yelena develops magical powers she can't
control. Her life is threatened again and choices must be made. But this
time the outcomes aren't so clear...
6. The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski
Winning what you want may cost you everything you love...
As a
general’s daughter in a vast empire that revels in war and enslaves
those it conquers, seventeen-year-old Kestrel has two choices: she can
join the military or get married. But Kestrel has other intentions.
One
day, she is startled to find a kindred spirit in a young slave up for
auction. Arin’s eyes seem to defy everything and everyone. Following her
instinct, Kestrel buys him—with unexpected consequences. It’s not long
before she has to hide her growing love for Arin.
But he, too,
has a secret, and Kestrel quickly learns that the price she paid for a
fellow human is much higher than she ever could have imagined.
Set
in a richly imagined new world, The Winner’s Curse by Marie Rutkoski is
a story of deadly games where everything is at stake, and the gamble is
whether you will keep your head or lose your heart.
7. The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong
My name is Chloe Saunders and my life will never be the same again.
All
I wanted was to make friends, meet boys, and keep on being ordinary. I
don't even know what that means anymore. It all started on the day that I
saw my first ghost - and the ghost saw me.
Now there are ghosts
everywhere and they won't leave me alone. To top it all off, I somehow
got myself locked up in Lyle House, a "special home" for troubled teens.
Yet the home isn't what it seems. Don't tell anyone, but I think there
might be more to my housemates than meets the eye. The question is,
whose side are they on? It's up to me to figure out the dangerous
secrets behind Lyle House... before its skeletons come back to haunt me.
8. The Witch Hunter by Virginia Boecker
Your greatest enemy isn't what you fight, but what you fear.
Elizabeth
Grey is one of the king's best witch hunters, devoted to rooting out
witchcraft and doling out justice. But when she's accused of being a
witch herself, Elizabeth is arrested and sentenced to burn at the stake.
Salvation
comes from a man she thought was her enemy. Nicholas Perevil, the most
powerful and dangerous wizard in the kingdom, offers her a deal: he will
save her from execution if she can break the deadly curse that's been
laid upon him.
But Nicholas and his followers know nothing of
Elizabeth's witch hunting past--if they find out, the stake will be the
least of her worries. And as she's thrust into the magical world of
witches, ghosts, pirates, and one all-too-handsome healer, Elizabeth is
forced to redefine her ideas of right and wrong, of friends and enemies,
and of love and hate.
9. Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in
two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near impenetrable darkness crawling
with monsters who feast on human flesh. Now its fate may rest on the
shoulders of one lonely refugee.
Alina Starkov has never been
good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her
best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that
saves his life—a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged
country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away
to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical
elite led by the mysterious Darkling.
Yet nothing in this lavish
world is what it seems. With darkness looming and an entire kingdom
depending on her untamed power, Alina will have to confront the secrets
of the Grisha . . . and the secrets of her heart.
10. Scarlet by A.C. Gaughen
Will Scarlet is good at two things: stealing from the rich and keeping
secrets - skills that are in high demand in Robin Hood's band of
thieves, who protect the people of Nottingham from the evil sheriff.
Scarlet's biggest secret of all is one only Robin and his men
know...that she is posing as a thief; that the slip of a boy who is fast
with sharp knives is really a girl.
The terrible events in her
past that led Scarlet to hide her real identity are in danger of being
exposed when the thief taker Lord Gisbourne arrives in town to rid
Nottingham of the Hood and his men once and for all. As Gisbourne closes
in a put innocent lives at risk, Scarlet must decide how much the
people of Nottingham mean to her, especially John Little, a flirtatious
fellow outlaw, and Robin, whose quick smiles have the rare power to
unsettle her. There is real honor among these thieves and so much more -
making this a fight worth dying for.
11. Touch by Jus Accardo
When a strange boy tumbles down a river embankment and lands at her
feet, seventeen-year-old adrenaline junkie Deznee Cross snatches the
opportunity to piss off her father by bringing the mysterious hottie
with ice blue eyes home.
Except there’s something off with Kale.
He wears her shoes in the shower, is overly fascinated with things like
DVDs and vases, and acts like she’ll turn to dust if he touches her.
It’s not until Dez’s father shows up, wielding a gun and knowing more
about Kale than he should, that Dez realizes there’s more to this
boy—and her father’s “law firm”—than she realized.
Kale has been a
prisoner of Denazen Corporation—an organization devoted to collecting
“special” kids known as Sixes and using them as weapons—his entire life.
And, oh yeah, his touch? It kills. The two team up with a group of
rogue Sixes hellbent on taking down Denazen before they’re caught and
her father discovers the biggest secret of all. A secret Dez has spent
her life keeping safe.
A secret Kale will kill to protect.
12. Mind Games by Kiersten White
Fia and Annie are as close as two sisters can be. They look out for each
other. Protect each other. And most importantly, they keep each other's
secrets, even the most dangerous ones: Annie is blind, but can see
visions of the future; Fia was born with flawless intuition—her first
impulse is always exactly right.
When the sisters are offered a
place at an elite boarding school, Fia realizes that something is wrong .
. . but she doesn't grasp just how wrong. The Keane Institute is no
ordinary school, and Fia is soon used for everything from picking stocks
to planting bombs. If she tries to refuse, they threaten her with
Annie's life.
Now Fia's falling in love with a boy who has dark
secrets of his own. And with his help, she's ready to fight back. They
stole her past. They control her present. But she won't let them take
her future.
13. Born at Midnight by C.C. Hunter
One night Kylie Galen finds herself at the wrong party, with the wrong
people, and it changes her life forever. Her mother ships her off to
Shadow Falls—a camp for troubled teens, and within hours of arriving, it
becomes painfully clear that her fellow campers aren’t just “troubled.”
Here at Shadow Falls, vampires, werewolves, shapeshifters, witches and
fairies train side by side—learning to harness their powers, control
their magic and live in the normal world.
Kylie’s never felt
normal, but surely she doesn’t belong here with a bunch of paranormal
freaks either. Or does she? They insist Kylie is one of them, and that
she was brought here for a reason. As if life wasn’t complicated enough,
enter Derek and Lucas. Derek’s a half-fae who’s determined to be her
boyfriend, and Lucas is a smokin’ hot werewolf with whom Kylie shares a
secret past. Both Derek and Lucas couldn’t be more different, but they
both have a powerful hold on her heart.
Even though Kylie feels
deeply uncertain about everything, one thing is becoming painfully
clear—Shadow Falls is exactly where she belongs…
14. Touch of Power by Maris V. Snyder
Laying hands upon the injured and dying, Avry of Kazan assumes their
wounds and diseases into herself. But rather than being honoured for her
skills, she is hunted. Healers like Avry are accused of spreading the
plague that has decimated the Territories, leaving the survivors in a
state of chaos.
Stressed and tired from hiding, Avry is abducted
by a band of rogues who, shockingly, value her gift above the golden
bounty offered for her capture. Their leader an enigmatic
captor-protector with powers of his own is unequivocal in his demands:
Avry must heal a plague-stricken prince, the leader of a campaign
against her people.
As they traverse the daunting Nine Mountains,
beset by mercenaries and magical dangers, Avry must decide who is worth
healing and what is worth dying for.
15. The Pledge by Kimberly Derting
In the violent country of Ludania, the classes are strictly divided by
the language they speak. The smallest transgression, like looking a
member of a higher class in the eye while they are speaking their native
tongue, results in immediate execution. Seventeen-year-old Charlaina
has always been able to understand the languages of all classes, and
she's spent her life trying to hide her secret. The only place she can
really be free is the drug-fueled underground clubs where people go to
shake off the oppressive rules of the world they live in. It's there
that she meets a beautiful and mysterious boy named Max who speaks a
language she's never heard before . . . and her secret is almost
exposed.
Charlie is intensely attracted to Max, even though she
can't be sure where his real loyalties lie. As the emergency drills give
way to real crisis and the violence escalates, it becomes clear that
Charlie is the key to something much bigger: her country's only chance
for freedom from the terrible power of a deadly regime.
My favorite freebies
1. Sora's Quest by T.L. Shreffler
2. Demon Lord by T.C. Southwell
3. My Boyfriend Merlin by Priya Ardis
Giveaway
For my giveaway one lucky winner will get their choice of an ebook copy of any of the 15 fantasy novels shown above. The prize will be delivered through Amazon. Good luck!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
See the rest of the hop
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