20 Must-Read Queer Historical Fantasy Books

A clerical accident lands baronet Robin Blythe as the latest liaison to a magical neighborhood he didn’t even know existed up till now. Unfortunately, it additionally places him within the crosshairs of a harmful band of magicians seeking to take management of the origins of all British magic. Now, Robin is cursed, and the one one who can assist him additionally hates him. It’s true that Edwin Courcey doesn’t wish to have something to do with Robin, however he doesn’t actually hate him. In reality, the extra intently the 2 work collectively, the extra Edwin finds himself falling for the ridiculous, kindhearted man.

This reimagining of a traditional Chinese novel follows a band of outlaws defying legal guidelines and gender norms in a corrupt Empire. Lin Chong is an knowledgeable arms teacher — till a strong man decides to destroy her profession. Tattooed as a legal and on the run, Lin Chong discovers a bunch residing within the mountains on the sting of society who consider in justice however have been branded criminals. Many of them really are. But Lin Chong is a legal now, too, and collectively, they simply would possibly be capable to tackle an Empire.

A thief takes on a job as a bodyguard, becoming a member of a group of girls defending a wealthy younger girl from unknown assassins. Delly doesn’t actually consider the menace is all that severe, however a collection of assaults quickly exhibits her simply what they’re all up towards. Soon, she’s teaming up with one in every of her fellow bodyguards, Winn, to battle towards a mysterious magical assailant who may be behind the murderer’s makes an attempt.

In a world very very similar to Edwardian England, a person marked by magic goes to warfare to attempt to escape his destiny. But even after surviving as a modified man and faking his personal demise, Miles Singer can’t escape the destiny magic has in retailer for him. As a health care provider, it’s his responsibility to serve his sufferers — even when which means exposing his magical powers. Now, Miles should depend on the magic he’s hidden, the household he escaped, and the limitless kindness of a beneficiant stranger to unravel the thriller of what occurred to his murdered affected person.

When Miss Maelys Mitchelmore finds herself to be the unfortunate recipient of a curse (her gown unmaking itself over the course of a night is a moderately apparent signal), she should hunt down the help of a witch. Lady Georgianna Landrake is rumored to have murdered her father and brothers to inherit their property. Definitely not the kind of particular person Maelys wish to be associating with, however then once more, while you’re cursed, wants should. Of course, the extra time Maelys spends in Georgianna’s firm, the much less she cares what anybody else has to say about it — even when her personal repute is likely to be at stake.

A prince with the flexibility to taste-detect steel together with his contact, in an effort to show his loyalty to his sister, the queen, after an embarrassing altercation with a court docket ambassador, takes duty for an investigation right into a latest guild break-in. Along together with his good-looking new bodyguard, Evemer, Prince Kadou uncovers a counterfeiting conspiracy that might cripple the dominion’s coffers and his sister’s reign.

A girl decided to avoid wasting her sister from a curse travels to Regency Britain to attend a newly established academy the place girls can prepare in magic. If Muna is to succeed, she should persuade all of the excessive society folks round her that she is a magical prodigy — an actual trick for somebody who has misplaced all their recollections after waking up on an island with their sister slowly fading away. But Muna is set to succeed, no matter it takes.

When a mysterious timepiece saves his life from a blast at Scotland Yard, Thaniel Steepleton is set to trace down its maker. Keita Mori is hiding extra than simply the secrets and techniques of how he made that watch, although, and when an Oxford physicist begins to intervene, Thaniel’s loyalties are torn between the 2. Mori isn’t who he seems to be at first, however the extra Thaniel learns about his work, the extra apparent it turns into that the world as he is aware of it isn’t precisely because it seems both.

If you’re going to be typecast, you would possibly as properly embrace being the monster. That’s what Luli decides when she lastly makes a reputation for herself at a film studio, anyway. But on this model of pre-code Hollywood, monsters aren’t simply within the films; the studios are stuffed with them. Because in a world the place offers with the satan preserve studios afloat, the worth of fame is extremely excessive. Luli is prepared to pay that value. But what kind of monster will it flip her into?

In a magical market below London’s Covent Garden, something will be bought for a value. Deri is aware of this all too properly, having been offered to a market service provider as a baby. Now, a runaway princess may very well be his probability to lastly purchase again his freedom. She needs to promote her royal future, and he may very well be the one to barter her for it. But information of the princess quickly spreads, and outmaneuvering your complete market is difficult enterprise. Especially since Deri simply met the love of his life, a person virtually as entangled out there as Deri himself.

An angel and a demon get on a ship to America. It would possibly sound like the beginning of a nasty joke, nevertheless it’s no laughing matter for Uriel and Ashmedai when a lady from their shtetl goes lacking, caught up in a scheme focusing on immigrants. The angel and the trickster don’t at all times see eye to eye, however their bond is by some means nonetheless unshakeable. Across eras and continents, altering identities and loyalties, Uriel and Ash understand that, in the end, the one factor they’ll rely on on this world is one another.

A university professor encounters a mysterious stranger on the highway in Kolkata, India, one evening. This stranger has a rare story to inform. Alok is determined to listen to this story all through and agrees to transcribe a group of notebooks recounting the stranger’s story. It’s a narrative of creatures which might be greater than human but not in contrast to beasts and of a girl torn aside by two totally different worlds. But it’s not solely the story Alok is fascinated with; this stranger is awakening one thing in Alok, one thing that may now not be ignored.

Magic exists on Crow Island, lurking simply beneath the floor. That’s what everybody says. But Annie Mason has little interest in magic. She solely needs to settle her father’s property and reconnect along with her greatest buddy. But Annie’s willpower to keep away from magic is examined when she meets Emmeline Delacroix. Emmeline is rumored to be a sorceress, and as she attracts Annie deeper into the island’s underworld of events and magic, Annie begins to comprehend that the worth of magic is as alluring as it’s lethal.

Velasin vin Aaro and Caethari Aeduria at all times knew a political marriage is likely to be of their future; they simply by no means anticipated it to be with one another as a result of such relationships are forbidden in Ralia. But they’re not forbidden in Tithena, the place Cae lives. Like it or not, the 2 are certain collectively now, and with unknown factions making an attempt to kill them, they’ll need to study to belief one another in the event that they wish to survive. But belief isn’t love, and studying to like one another will show a much more arduous problem.

A useless physique and a unadorned fae prince are the final issues Marius wants as he struggles together with his personal burgeoning magical powers, however they’re precisely what he will get. The sophisticated previous Marius shares with Prince Rakken doesn’t assist issues, both. But now, the 2 should work collectively to unravel a homicide that might fully unravel human-fae relations, all whereas conserving their emotions at bay. Because Rakken represents every part Marius is making an attempt to keep away from — doesn’t he?

A nonbinary monk storyteller tells a collection of unimaginable tales on this cycle of novellas from writer Nghi Vo. Chih is on the highway in the hunt for tales after they run into an aged girl who was as soon as a handmaiden within the court docket of an exiled Empress. Rabbit was there for the rise and fall of Empress In-yo, and he or she has a narrative to inform in contrast to some other Chih has heard.

That’s solely the beginning of Chich’s adventures, too, which proceed within the sequel, When The Tiger Came Down the Mountain.

In a fantasy world impressed by pre-colonial Vietnam, a princess returned from her time as a hostage in a overseas court docket should weigh her loyalty to her mom, her nation, and her past love when the previous catches up along with her. Returned dwelling and given a job as a diplomat in her mom’s imperial court docket, Thanh can solely hope the magical hearth that destroyed Ephteria’s palace in her time there by no means catches up along with her. But when Eldris of Ephteria, her past love, involves her dwelling, echoes of the hearth return. Can Thanh defend her folks and her coronary heart, or will selecting between the 2 reveal what she’s actually needed all alongside?

In a world impressed by Indian epics and historical past, a princess held captive by her despotic brother in an historic temple sees a approach out of her predicament when she witnesses a maidservant’s magical powers. Priya has been hiding her true nature for years, however when Malini witnesses what she will be able to do, their desires and destinies turn out to be entangled with one another. Malini needs to take again her throne. Priya needs to seek out her household. Together, they are going to change the destiny of a whole empire.

Best associates Sybil and Esme are invited to the Absinthe Underground by a girl who reveals herself to be the Green Faerie, trapped within the human world and in want of assist. All they need to do is about out on a harmful heist on this planet of Fae. In change, Maeve guarantees them sufficient cash to cowl lease for the remainder of their lives. Even if Maeve’s story and Sybil’s connection to the Fae ought to give them pause, it’s too beneficiant a suggestion to cross up. Whatever occurs, at the least they’ll have one another.

Switching in time between 4 BCE, 1740, and present-day, The Emperor and the Endless Palace tells the story of two males, reborn lifetime after lifetime, and drawn to one another in each one. Their love is timeless, however life at all times exams them, and in the event that they’re not cautious, the love that attracts them collectively by the centuries would possibly simply eat them each.