As a lover of reading, I have many books that I would recommend to people who want to escape reality for a few hours. For the sake of staying away from the common titles that many people are obsessed with, I have compiled a list of my favorite books that you may not have heard of. Most of these books are within the young adult fiction genre with an emphasis on the fantasy realm. If that is not your vibe, I am not the person to give you book recommendations.
“Little Fire” by Hollee Mands
This book initially grabbed my attention because the fantasy world seemed unique compared to other books. When you’ve spent as much time in the fantasy genre as I have, you get so used to hearing about “fae” and “shapeshifters” that a novel introducing a new power system becomes a golden ticket. Mands does a beautiful job of introducing her characters and fully forming them within a few chapters, which is something to be praised considering that some books fail to do this completely.
The premise of “Little Fire” surrounds a young girl, Evangeline, attempting to solve the mystery of her life, having forgotten it due to a traumatic experience before being rescued by her “mother.” When an attack occurs on her village, Evangeline is sucked into a portal to another world. Much to her dismay, the archmage, Declan, follows her through the portal to ensure their safety. During their time together, Evangeline must learn to overcome her greatest fears and trust the brooding archmage that has taken to protecting her.
Mands successfully molds a story about a childhood trauma survivor without rushing the recovery process for the sake of romance. I enjoyed the romantic dynamic that she established between Evangeline and Declan within the first half of the book. If you are looking for a fantasy novel with tropes along the lines of forbidden lovers, “who did this to you” and the kind, yet brooding alpha-male, this book would suit you well.
“Dirty Wicked Prince” by Eden O’Neill
This book is your classic bully to lovers novel. I will admit, the bully to lovers part is not well written and rushed, but I digress. However, as a person with absolutely no patience for development outside of fantasy novels, this book was a quick read that successfully made me laugh and root for the main characters to finally get together. This is the first book of a series and ends on a cliffhanger.
In the novel, Noa Sloane and her younger brother are new to town after their father’s untimely death and must move to the home of their new guardian. Forced to attend a new school full of rich kids with hidden agendas, Noa finds herself in the middle of a plot larger than she can imagine. Her actions are perceived as a threat by the school’s figurehead jock, Dorian Prinze, and Sloane finds herself struggling to keep her head above water within her first weeks of school. However, what happens when the dark prince of school becomes obsessed with his new prey?
The main strength of this book lies in the dynamics between the characters and their friend groups. While Noa is a trustworthy protagonist, she is somewhat lackluster in comparison to the other strong female leads that can be seen in other books. However, the constant mysteries and never-ending plot turns kept me obsessed with the books series. Overall, I enjoyed O’Neill’s writing style, but I think that the first book should have been longer to properly explore the enemies to lovers trope without seeming like the plot was rushed for the sake of romance.
“Archer’s Voice” by Mia Sheridan
While I am usually not one for a contemporary romance, this book was too good to pass up. My favorite aspect of this book is the fact that it is a standalone and has a beautiful representation of the selectively mute community. Sheridan does a wonderful job of creating a likable character while maintaining the realness of the characters.
This book follows the developing romance between Bree and Archer. Fleeing from her dramatic past, Bree arrives in a small Maine town where in the first few weeks of residing within the town, she meets Archer, the town’s recluse that is selectively mute due to a mentally scarring past. As Bree and Archer slowly become friends, they realize that they are more alike than they thought and an unlikely romance begins to blossom.
This novel is a surprisingly thrilling read that explores the idea of two lost souls finding themselves alongside each other. Besides representing a marginalized community, I love the how real the content was and Sheridan’s unapologetic nature when addressing heavy topics such as childhood abuse and family death. I would recommend this book to individuals that are fans of a slow-burn romance and an unlikely male lead.
“Pestilence” by Laura Thalassa
Back to my love of fantasy and paranormal romances, we have this wonderful novel by Laura Thalassa. This book was one that I came across in passing and began reading because of my intrigue as to how individuals meant to destroy humanity could be the leads of romance novels. “Pestilence” is the first of four books in Thalassa’s four horseman series, and the books truly get better as you go on.
This book focuses on Sara Burns, a young firefighter that is attempting to prevent the first of the four horsemen, Pestilence, from raging disease in the world. Tasked with killing the horseman, Sara stays behind as her city is evacuated, eventually torturing and killing Pestilence. However, what Sara does not realize is that the horseman cannot die, and Pestilence takes the woman as prisoner as a punishment for her lack of mercy when she was killing him. Throughout their journey, the pair begin to find unlikely even ground where Sara understands Pestilence’s mission and the horseman can understand the pleas of the human to save humanity.
The premise of this novel was intriguing to begin with, and I was happily surprised to find that the book was extremely well written and did not fall into the obvious traps of creating a novel based on lore. Subsequent books in the series also avoid falling into this pitfall, especially since the premise of each book is so similar. Overall, I would recommend this book of the series to anyone who is interested in a slow-burn romance with forced proximity and enemies to lovers tropes built in.
“A Game of Fate” by Scarlett St. Clair
“A Game of Fate” is the first companion novel for Scarlett St. Clair’s “A Touch of Darkness” series. With the series being a modernized version of the Hades and Persephone myth, the main series is from Persephone’s point of view while the companion novels are from Hades’ perspective.
As a companion novel, there are many scenes in “A Game of Fate” that are exactly like those in “A Touch of Darkness.” However, St. Clair does a masterful job of providing an entirely different plot to Hades’ perspective and tying it into the original plot of the main book. While pursuing the lovely Persephone and showing his true intentions to her, Hades is embroiled in the politics of the Olympians and a bet with the goddess Aphrodite.
I would suggest you begin with “A Touch of Darkness,” as it will set up the universe much better than this companion novel. Also, I chose to read the companion novels, as I was going through the series the first time. These novels not only enhance the original plot by providing additional background to the major plot twists at the end of the book, but they also solidify the world and characters by giving additional insights into the Olympians through Hades’ perspective and developing Hades as a character by allowing the reader to delve into his thoughts. While “A Touch of Darkness” perpetuates Hades as the dark, brooding alpha male with a soft spot for one woman, “A Game of Fate” shows the three-dimensionality of Hades by exploring his kindness to his people, wit in his dealings with fellow Olympians and prowess in the games of politics that are explored in this novel. Both of these series are ideal for individuals interested in a forced proximity trope wrapped in a retelling of ancient Greek mythology with a modern twist.
“Radiance” by Grace Draven
This book is unique due to it being a romance where the male lead is not conventionally attractive in appearance. However, the lack of attractiveness of the characters is the main theme of the book. As the first installment of a trilogy series entitled “The Wraith Kings,” this novel does an excellent job of setting up the world that it takes place in and explaining the politics that will influence the subsequent novels.
With little worth in their respective kingdoms, Ildiko and Brishen are forced into a marriage to honor the treaty between their two peoples. However, each of them finds one another appallingly ugly. With Ildiko presenting as a beautiful human female and Brishen presenting as a gray-skinned and heavily muscled male from a different race of people known as the Kai, the pair must find a way to enjoy each other’s company and rule their land within the Kai’s territory.
The main things that attracted me to this book were the specific tropes. I am a sucker for an arranged marriage and forced proximity trope, both of which this book has. Draven also does a remarkable job of making the theme of the novel come alive to readers. She executes her plans perfectly as each reader will be in love with Brishen by half-way through the first book, regardless of his physical appearance. While being classified as a fantasy novel, this book would be perfect even for a lover of contemporary romance due to its overarching theme and the writing style of the first book.
“The Bridge Kingdom” by Danielle L. Jensen
I cannot explain how much I love this book. I stumbled upon this book while searching through the indie side of #BookTok and was not disappointed in the least.
As the sole survivor of her sisters that trained to become assassins, Lara is tasked with uncovering the secrets of the Bridge Kingdom, ruled by the young and handsome King Aren. Forced into a political marriage to ensure that she will have unlimited access to the kingdom, Lara finds herself questioning her mission when she falls for the charms of the king. Now, Lara is faced with the impossible decision of following her heart or following her orders.
“The Bridge Kingdom” is the first book of a series. Although the series is not finished and book two just recently came out, I am a lover of this novel and think that it is intriguing, despite the plot being relatively overused. Lara’s character has an amazing development with her treachery and confusion being believable and unrushed, which is a rarity in these types of novels. I would highly recommend this book to anyone that enjoys a plot-heavy romance with arranged marriage, forced proximity, enemies to lovers and assassin turned ally tropes.
Books are one of my favorite ways to escape reality for a bit, and these novels are some of the best options for exploring new worlds. From relieving stress to living vicariously through a strong female protagonist, books are one of the best ways to live a thousand lives in one existence. The representation of different ideals and perspectives in life are apparent in these novels, which is what makes them unique and a joy to read. I hope that these book reviews will lead to your own escape as they helped me find mine.