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In a world where trends catch on like wildfire, books are no exception. While TikTok has increased the ease of convenience for finding book recommendations, one just has to hop onto the app and type in “book recs,” I find that people seem to be recommending the same trending books over and over again. And while these books are a good place to start, especially if you’re getting back into reading, as so many people have with the rise of BookTok, it can be difficult to find more. Something similar. Something unique. Something that isn’t one of the books recommended over and over again as you scroll through TikTok looking for your next read.
Let me help you!
Here are five books I would recommend you read based on the popular BookTok books you’ve read and enjoyed.
If you like Throne of Glass…
Looking for your next epic adventure in a world with fae turmoil and an FMC learning to harness the power in her blood so she can venture on a quest to bring peace to the world? Try The Call of the Sea by Kate Schumacher. It’s like Throne of Glass, but instead of assassins, you get pirates!
If Holly Black is the queen of the fae, then Kate Schumacher is the queen of the ocean fae. The Call of the Sea follows Jenyfer, a girl living in a land where magic is outlawed, who has begun to lose the battle to resist the magic in her blood, Ordes, the half-fae charming pirate who whispers promises of magic and freedom, and Arthur, the son of the Chif who has only ever wanted to escape his father before it’s too late.
Join Jenyfer, Ordes, and Arthur on the first part of their quest to find the Holy Grail and free the realm from the clutches of the One God and his religious zealots, a quest that will bring them all the way to the faerie lands of Avalon and into the deep sea kingdom of the deadly syrens. The Call of the Sea is the first book in The Grail Cycle. Books 2 and 3, A Song of Magic and On This Broken Earth are both out and ready to read on Kindle Unlimited!
If you like The Song of Achilles…
Hear me out. If you like this beautiful, tragic tale of romance and heartbreak that is essentially one of the most popular published pieces of Greek mythology fanfiction, have you ever thought about trying Bible fanfiction? No? You should. Because if you liked The Song of Achilles then you will most certainly like Angels Before Man.
Rafael Nicolás revisits the fall of Satan in this queer retelling of Lucifer’s story as he navigates the painfully idyllic nature of Heaven while struggling with feelings of shame and repressed desire. As the most beautiful angel in Heaven, Lucifer is given attention he doesn’t think he deserves, attention he doesn’t even really want. Especially from the God who created him. That is, until Michael.
Living in eternal paradise should be easy. It should be anything and everything any angel or man has ever dreamed of. But for Lucifer, every day holds a struggle of its own. It is only through his relationship with Michael that he is able to endure, and he will do anything to preserve the one person in this world, Heaven and Earth, who truly understands him. Who might even love him for everything he is, the good and the bad.
Angels Before Man has the same poetic prose you know and love from The Song of Achilles and the most beautiful descriptions of physical intimacy that I have ever had the pleasure of reading.
Disclaimer: please make sure to check the trigger warnings before reading Angels Before Man.
If you like A Certain Hunger…
If you like unhinged women writing about their escapades killing and eating men, what do you think about a gender fluid, shape-shifting alien seducing and eating the desperate singles stalking the internet of South Korea?
Dating is awkward. Pretending to be human is awkward. Dating while pretending to be human, while secretly on the hunt for your next meal is even more awkward. And try being disabled by Earth’s gravity and having to relearn how to walk on top of it. Luckily, Earth has lots of tools that can help, including torture devices and dating apps!
Life isn’t easy for an alien on Earth, but it wasn’t easy for the humans living there to begin with. When the alien’s latest date and tastiest prey gets away, they start to question the meaning of what it means to be human and the struggle of survival in a world that seems built against them.
Walking Practice by Dolki Min is just as cynical and hilarious as A Certain Hunger. While the world of Walking Practice is more fantastical in nature, it hits the same humorous yet critical notes as A Certain Hunger and will satisfy all of your violent feminist needs.
If you like The Priory of the Orange Tree…
If you like high fantasy stories with deep lore, a unique magic system, and multiple points of views that span across the entirety of the world, try reading The Bone Shard Daughter by Andea Stewart!
“Father told me I’m broken,” says Lin as the opening line to her story. Lin is the daughter of the Phoenix Emperor, though she is a prisoner in her own home, forced to wander a palace of locked doors until she can remember what she has forgotten and master the forbidden art of bone shard magic. Only then will she be recognized as heir to her father’s throne.
Across the world, Jovis sails the Endless Sea, chasing rumors to get revenge for the death of his wife. What he finds among the waves isn’t revenge, but a strange creature. He can’t explain why, but the longer he spends with the creature, the more his strength grows until he is no longer just a simple smuggler, but a hero to many. This creature may hold the secrets Jin is looking for, nevermind the secrets Phalue and Sandu unearth in their separate corners of the empire.
The Bone Shard Daughter is perfect for anyone who loves an intricate fantasy world with complex characters each traversing their own individual struggles, discovering secrets that connect them and slowly bring them together throughout the series. This is book one of The Drowning Empire trilogy.
If you like Of Jade and Dragons…
Do you like competitions? An FMC in disguise? A morally grey love interest? Then you should try A Magic Steeped in Poison!
Ning’s mother died and it’s all her fault. Now her sister is going to die too, if she doesn’t succeed in winning the kingdom’s competition to find the greatest shennong-shi, a tea magician, in the realm. The only problem is that she is long out of practice in the art of tea making. She wasn’t the one chosen to inherit her mother’s talent. That was her sister. But she will do anything to save her sister, so she is going to try.
Follow Ning as she journeys far away from home for a chance to win a favor from a princess and save the life of her sister, and possibly uncover a threat far worse than anything she could have imagined. A Magic Steeped in Poison is filled with beautiful descriptions of tea and the magic it holds, containing one of the most unique magic systems I’ve read in a long time.
Like Of Jade and Dragons, there is a wonderful juxtaposition between the whimsical nature of the world and its magic and the intensity of the competition and the threat of the political turmoil Ning has suddenly found herself at the center of. Not to mention a mysterious man who is as handsome as he is full of secrets.
