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Hear ye, hear ye.
Doth thou wish to embark on a magical journey with a lady knight? Doth thou wish to hear tales of great adventure, of sweet temptation, and fates doomed to a cycle of violence and death? Of conquering the odds and of love worth re-writing history for?
Well, look no further, for I will be your herald on this journey to womanly knightdom. ‘Tis the year of the lady knight, let it be known across the lands! But be warned, for even though these tales hold great love and desire within their hearts, the threat of death will be ever-present as it bares down these brave ladies’ necks and threatens to take not just their lives, but the fates of kingdoms as well.
Here there be monsters. Travel at your own risk.
The Isle in the Silver Sea by Tasha Suri
Genres: fantasy, romance, LGBT, historical
This story is always the same. The knight and the witch will fall in love and their love will doom them. Such is their fate and the cycle has yet to be broken. So when Simran, a witch of the woods, and Vina, a knight of the Queen’s court, begin to fall in love, they know how it will end: with their deaths. Still, that doesn’t stop them from longing for each other, body and soul.
As Simran and Vina fall deeper into the cycle they are so scared of repeating, they become desperate to break it before it can claim both of their lives. But the more they fight to change the story that was pre-written for them, it becomes unclear who presents a bigger danger to their lives: the pale assassin targeting stories, like theirs, that have allowed the island to flourish, or the archivists who have preserved history in the way they wished to construct the nation.
The Second Death of Locke (The Hand and the Heart # 1) by V.L. Bovalino
Genres: fantasy, romance, gothic
Grey Flynn would do anything for Kier. Fight for him. Bleed for him. Die for him. Such is the nature of their relationship. She is his blade. His healer. His protector. She is everything for him and he is everything to her. But she isn’t just his knight, ready to protect him at all hours with the swing of her sword. She is also his well of magic, and together they are just what their kingdom needs when a quest to protect a child lands them at the center of their nation’s war.
But Grey has a secret, and when she and Kier are pulled into the dangers of the war, it is not just their lives on the line, but all the magic of the land, because Grey is the heir to the island of Locke and without her, magic will cease to exist. As they fight to stop a war, they must decide how much her life is worth risking when her death could doom them all.
The Starving Saints by Caitlin Starling
Genres: horror, fantasy, historical fiction, LGBT
Under siege for six months, the people of Aymar Castle had begun to lose hope. That is, until the divine figures of the Constant Lady and her Saints arrived. In return for the castle’s adoration, they will heal the sick, replenish their food, and help them forget all about the war threatening to bang down their door. Such a simple bargain, their love in return for their lives. It was too good to be true. Almost.
Amidst the bacchanalian madness that descends upon the castle, three women can see through the illusion the Constant Lady has spun for them. Ser Voyne, a war hero, Phosyne, a nun-turned-sorceress, and Treila, a serving girl with a desire for vengeance. While the three must work together in order to save the castle, they are not immune to temptation. Not from the Constant Lady and not from each other. If they are to fail, it is not just the castle and the Constant Lady they ought to fear, for if they aren’t devoured by the castle, then they might just be devoured by each other.
The Fireborne Blade (The Fireborne Blade #1) by Charlotte Bond
Genres: fantasy, LGBT, novella
The only way for Maddileh to reclaim her honor is to retrieve the Fireborne Blade from its deadly keeper, the White Lady. It’s simple. Slay the dragan. Retrieve the sword. Restore her honor. But countless knights have sought the Fireborne Blade’s glory and all have died trying. By all accounts, this quest will kill her, but Maddileh has always lived with the odds against her and while this quest might be her most dangerous one yet, she is not one to back down from a challenge.
If Maddileh is being honest, the straightforward nature of the dragon and its dangers will be a welcome change from the judgement of her peers. But if she thinks the backstabbing and double-crosses were over just because she is most certainly marching towards her death, she will be sorely mistaken.
The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow
Genres: fantasy, romance, historical fiction
Owen Mallory has fallen in love with a story: the tale of Una Everlasting, the knight who sacrificed herself to save the Dominion. As a scholar and historian, he has been following her his whole life, through the words of the songs sung in her honor and across the pages of every book written about her. But when Owen finds a book with blank pages, he never expected to be pulled into her story and to be the one to write it to its end.
Owen and Una’s lives are bound together, through the twists and turns of time, around its everlasting loop, and their story always ends the same, with Una dying in his arms. As it was written. As it was meant to be. The only way to change the story is to rewrite history itself, and no one is more qualified than a historian who is desperate to save the love of his life.
If The Everlasting is a little too long for your taste, try The Six Deaths of the Saint, Harrow’s novella that was loved so much she turned it into this full-length novel.
