Sapphic Fantasy Books You’ll Love
I have been waiting all summer for autumn to come around, and we are nearly there! While fantasy books are lovely to read year-round (and believe me, I do), there’s something ✨magical✨ about curling up with one when the weather gets a bit crisp, and the sun begins setting earlier. So, whether you clicked on this post for the magic, the sapphic romance, or simply some good ol’ escapism, I’ve got you covered. These books will satisfy all your cravings.
The Second Son
The follow-up to Adrienne Tooley’s The Third Daughteris here, queer, and oh so unputdownable! Sabine and Elodie are frenemies to the highest degree, and you’ll need to read for yourself to see how this duology concludes.
The centuries-old prophecy has been fulfilled at last: the New Maiden has returned to Velle. Unfortunately, so has a malicious demi-god, whose elusive prophet is intent on converting the New Maiden’s followers. The Second Son is a vengeful, angry deity, whose psalm resonates with the disenfranchised.
With Elodie on the throne and Sabine in her own unique position of power, it should be easy enough to track down the culprit. Yet even as they’re falling in love, both girls are keeping dangerous secrets from each other. While the cult of the Second Son threatens to overthrow not only the Church of the New Maiden but also Velle’s monarchy, Elodie and Sabine must navigate impossible odds to dismantle the root of his power, all while their lives hang in the balance.
The Princess and the Grilled Cheese Sandwich
by Deya Muniz
Not to sound hyperbolic, I’m 10000% serious when I say that this is one of my favorite reads of all time. If you love graphic novels, cheesy rom-coms… or just cheese in general, please, please, please, I implore you to stop whatever you’re doing and run to the bookstore. Reading this masterpiece is far more important than anything else (like homework, chores, etc.).
Lady Camembert wants to live life on her own terms, without marriage. Well, without marrying a man, that is. But the law of the land is that women cannot inherit. So when her father passes away, she does the only thing she can: She disguises herself as a man and moves to the capital city of the Kingdom of Fromage to start over as Count Camembert.
But it’s hard to keep a low profile when the beautiful Princess Brie, with her fierce activism and great sense of fashion, catches her attention. Camembert can’t resist getting to know the princess, but as the two grow closer, will she able to keep her secret?
A romantic comedy about mistaken identity, true love, and lots of grilled cheese.
So Witches We Became
Witchy girls (and guys, and all folk) here’s a book to satisfy your spookiest of cravings. Between the jaw-dropping cover and hair-raising text, this horror/fantasy will be your new favorite rage read.
For high school senior Nell and her friends, a vacation house on a private Florida island sounds like the makings of a dream spring break. But Nell brings secrets with her—secrets that fuse with the island’s tragic history, trapping them all with a curse that surrounds the island in a toxic, vengeful mist and the surrounding waters with an unseen, devouring beast.
Getting out alive means risking her friendships, her sanity, and even her own life. In order to save herself and her friends, Nell will have to face memories she’d rather leave behind, reveal the horrific truth behind the encounter that changed her life one year ago, and face the shadow that’s haunted her since childhood.
Easier said than done. But when Nell’s friends reveal that they each brought secrets of their own, a solution even more dangerous than the curse begins to take shape. Reading like a YA feminist spin on Stephen King’s The Mist, So Witches We Became is a diverse, queer horror about female friendship, the emotional aftermath of surviving assault, and how to find power in the shadows of your past.
Step into your witchy power or be swallowed by the curse–the choice is yours.
So Let Them Burn
by Kamilah Cole
Dragons, Jamaican-inspired fantasy, sisterly tensions, sapphic romance. Yes. Yes. YES! Kamilah Cole has knocked it out of the park with her debut novel. And when you finish reading and are crying for more, don’t fret—book two is on the way!!
Faron Vincent can channel the power of the gods. Five years ago, she used her divine magic to liberate her island from its enemies, the dragon-riding Langley Empire. But now, at seventeen, Faron is all powered up with no wars to fight. She’s a legend to her people and a nuisance to her neighbors.
When she’s forced to attend an international peace summit, Faron expects that she will perform tricks like a trained pet and then go home. She doesn’t expect her older sister, Elara, forming an unprecedented bond with an enemy dragon—or the gods claiming the only way to break that bond is to kill her sister.
As Faron’s desperation to find another solution takes her down a dark path, and Elara discovers the shocking secrets at the heart of the Langley Empire, both must make difficult choices that will shape each other’s lives, as well as the fate of their world.
The Winter Duke
Frozen scenery, unwanted power, an inherited bride, an elopement!?!?! Need I say more? If you’re looking for world building that truly sparkles, a unique magic system, and fascinating politics, you will find all that and more in this book.
All Ekata wants is to stay alive — and the chance to prove herself as a scholar. Once Ekata’s brother is finally named heir to the dukedom of Kylma Above, there will be nothing to keep her at home with her murderous family. Not her books or her experiments, not her family’s icy castle atop a frozen lake, not even the tantalizingly close Kylma Below, a mesmerizing underwater kingdom that provides her family with magic. But just as escape is within reach, her parents and twelve siblings fall under a strange sleeping sickness, and no one can find a cure.
In the space of a single night, Ekata inherits the title of duke, her brother’s captivating warrior bride, and ever-encroaching challengers from without — and within — her ministry. Nothing has prepared Ekata for diplomacy, for war, for love…or for a crown she has never wanted. If Kylma Above is to survive, Ekata must seize her family’s magic and power. And if Ekata is to survive, she must quickly decide how she will wield them both.
Beyond the Ruby Veil
I read this book and its sequel, Into the Midnight Void, in just one sitting. (Not the same sitting. Two separate sittings.) It’s bloody. It’s romantic. It’s darkly hilarious. And it will have you glued to the spot, threatening to gouge out your eyeballs until you finish reading. Does that make any sense? Read and find out.
Emanuela Ragno always gets what she wants. With her daring mind and socialite schemes, she refuses to be the demure young lady everyone wants her to be. In her most ambitious move yet, she’s about to marry Alessandro Morandi, her childhood best friend and the heir to the wealthiest house in Occhia. Emanuela doesn’t care that she and her groom are both gay, because she doesn’t want a love match. She wants power, and through Ale, she’ll have it all.
But Emanuela has a secret that could shatter her plans. In the city of Occhia, the only source of water is the watercrea, a mysterious being who uses magic to make water from blood. When their first bruise-like omen appears on their skin, all Occhians must surrender themselves to the watercrea to be drained of life. Everyone throughout history has given themselves up for the greater good. Everyone except Emanuela. She’s kept the tiny omen on her hip out of sight for years.
When the watercrea exposes Emanuela during her wedding ceremony and takes her to be sacrificed, Emanuela fights back … and kills her. Now Occhia has no one to make their water and no idea how to get more. In a race against time, Emanuela and Ale must travel through the mysterious, blood-red veil that surrounds their city to uncover the secrets of the watercrea’s magic and find a way to save their people — no matter what it takes.
Girls of Paper and Fire
by Natasha Ngan
Palace intrigue ooh la, la! This Asian-inspired, fantastical forbidden love story is the empowering read you need in your life. And when you finish book one, there are two more in the trilogy you’ll want to get your hands on ASAP.
In this richly developed fantasy, Lei is a member of the Paper caste, the lowest and most persecuted class of people in Ikhara. She lives in a remote village with her father, where the decade-old trauma of watching her mother snatched by royal guards for an unknown fate still haunts her. Now, the guards are back and this time it’s Lei they’re after — the girl with the golden eyes whose rumored beauty has piqued the king’s interest.
Over weeks of training in the opulent but oppressive palace, Lei and eight other girls learns the skills and charm that befit a king’s consort. There, she does the unthinkable: she falls in love. Her forbidden romance becomes enmeshed with an explosive plot that threatens her world’s entire way of life. Lei, still the wide-eyed country girl at heart, must decide how far she’s willing to go for justice and revenge.
It Ends in Fire
For those always looking for a new magic school story—*enthusiastically raises hand*—you need to read It Ends in Fire. This book is captivating from start to finish and will have you pumped to start your own rebellion.
Alka Chelrazi is on a mission:
1. Infiltrate Blackwater Academy
2. Win the Great Game
3. Burn Wizard society to the ground
As a child, Alka witnessed her parents’ brutal murder at the hands of Wizards before she was taken in by an underground rebel group. Now, Alka is deep undercover at the most prestigious school of magic in the Republic: Blackwater Academy, a place where status is everything, where decadent galas end in blood-splattered duels, where every student has their own agenda. To survive, Alka will have to lie, cheat, kill, and use every trick in her spy’s toolkit. And for the first time in her life, the fiercely independent Alka will have to make friends in order to recruit the misfits and the outcasts into her motley rebellion.
But even as she draws closer to victory—and to vengeance—she sinks deeper into danger as suspicious professors and murderous rivals seek the traitor in their midst, as dark revelations unravel her resolve. Can Alka destroy the twisted game…without becoming a part of it?
