Category: Fantasy World based on a western country

Every Heart a Doorway (Wayward Children #1)

By Seanan McGuire

When Nancy finds herself back in our world, she is sent to a boarding school for children who’ve visited other worlds and returned. On the surface the school’s aim is to reintegrate these children into their ordinary, non-magical lives. In reality, it’s about helping them move on in whichever direction they choose.

But soon after Nancy arrives at the school, her roommate is murdered. New and having visited an Underworld, Nancy is one of the prime suspects. Except… She didn’t do it.

Publisher’s Description:

Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children
No Solicitations
No Visitors
No Quests

Children have always disappeared under the right conditions; slipping through the shadows under a bed or at the back of a wardrobe, tumbling down rabbit holes and into old wells, and emerging somewhere… else.

But magical lands have little need for used-up miracle children.

Nancy tumbled once, but now she’s back. The things she’s experienced… they change a person. The children under Miss West’s care understand all too well. And each of them is seeking a way back to their own fantasy world.

But Nancy’s arrival marks a change at the Home. There’s a darkness just around each corner, and when tragedy strikes, it’s up to Nancy and her new-found schoolmates to get to the heart of things.

No matter the cost.

Genre: Fantasy

Gender:
Cis girls: Nancy, Jack, Jill, Sumi
Cis boys: Christopher
Trans boys: Kade

Sexuality:
Asexual: Nancy
Heterosexual: Christopher, Sumi

Romantic Orientation:
Heteroromantic: Nancy

Race/Ethnicity:
White: Nancy, Jack, Jill, Kade
Latinx: Christopher
Japanese: Sumi

Trigger Warnings:
Graphic descriptions of violence
Descriptions of transmisia/transphobia having occurred in the past
Allusions to suicide

Additional Notes:
Though many asexuals laud the depiction of asexuality, its reliance on a harmful stereotype may hurt certain readers. Some caution is advised.

Ownvoices: Every Heart a Doorway is ownvoices for asexuality.

Island of Exiles (The Ryogan Chronicles #1)

By Erica Cameron

Khya is a trained warrior on the island of Shiara. From day one she is told to give everything to her people, but when her brother goes missing and her council betrays her, she sets out to save him and her island home.

Publisher’s Description:

“In Khya’s world, every breath is a battle.

On the isolated desert island of Shiara, dying young is inevitable. The clan comes before self, and protecting her home means Khya is a warrior above all else.

But when following the clan and obeying their leaders could cost her brother his life, Khya’s home becomes a deadly trap. The only person who can help is Tessen, her lifelong rival and the boy who challenges her at every turn. The council she hoped to join has betrayed her, and their secrets, hundreds of years deep, reach around a world she’s never seen.”

Genre: Fantasy

Representation:
Gender:
Cis girls: Khya
Cis boys: Tessen
Intersex: Etaro, Sanii
Shiaran society includes three genders – male, female and ebet (uses  eir/ey pronouns)
According to an author tweet ebet is most closely related to our definition of intersex.

Sexual and Romantic Orientation
Bisexual or pansexual: Khya
Asexual: Etaro
Romantic orientation is not mentioned in the book, it is presumed to be the same as the characters’ sexual orientation.

Race/Ethnicity: Not mentioned.

Disability:

Additional Notes: In Shiaran society bisexuality and pansexuality are the most common sexuality, though other orientations exist. Asexuality is known as ‘ushimo’. Shiaran society also includes three sexes: male, female and ebet (intersex; ey/eir pronouns).

The Uncrossing

By Melissa Eastlake

Magic mafias control New York, and Luke works for his family undoing curses. He discovers Jeremy, prince of Kovrov family, is under a curse, and he hopes to break it with true love’s kiss.

Publisher’s Description:

Luke can uncross almost any curse—they unravel themselves for him like no one else. So working for the Kovrovs, one of the families controlling all the magic in New York, is exciting and dangerous, especially when he encounters the first curse he can’t break. And it involves Jeremy, the beloved, sheltered prince of the Kovrov family—the one boy he absolutely shouldn’t be falling for.

Jeremy’s been in love with cocky, talented Luke since they were kids. But from their first kiss, something’s missing. Jeremy’s family keeps generations of deadly secrets, forcing him to choose between love and loyalty. As Luke fights to break the curse, a magical, citywide war starts crackling, and it’s tied to Jeremy.

This might be the one curse Luke can’t uncross. If true love’s kiss fails, what’s left for him and Jeremy?

Genre: Fantasy

Representation:
Gender:
Cis boys: Luke, Jeremy

Sexual Orientation:
Gay/Queer: Luke, Jeremy

Romantic Orientation:
Not explicitly mentioned.

Race/Ethnicity:
White: Luke, Jeremy

 

That Inevitable Victorian Thing

By E.K. Johnston

In another future, colonialism didn’t happen, multi-cultural diversity was revered, and Queen Victoria I had an heir in the form of her daughter. Now Victoria-Margaret is Crown Princess, spending her last season as Margaret Sandwich, where she meets two women she bonds with forever.

Publisher’s Description:

Victoria-Margaret is the crown princess of the empire, a direct descendent of Victoria I, the queen who changed the course of history. The imperial tradition of genetically arranged matchmaking will soon guide Margaret into a politically advantageous marriage. But before she does her duty, she’ll have one summer of freedom and privacy in a far corner of empire. Posing as a commoner in Toronto, she meets Helena Marcus, daughter of one of the empire’s greatest placement geneticists, and August Callaghan, the heir to a powerful shipping firm currently besieged by American pirates. In a summer of high-society debutante balls, politically charged tea parties, and romantic country dances, Margaret, Helena, and August discover they share an extraordinary bond and maybe a one-in-a-million chance to have what they want and to change the world in the process.

Set in a near-future world where the British Empire was preserved not by the cost of blood and theft but by the effort of repatriation and promises kept, That Inevitable Victorian Thing is a surprising, romantic, and thought-provoking story of love, duty, and the small moments that can change people and the world.

Genre: Science Fiction

Representation:
Gender:
Cis girls: Margaret, August
Intersex: Helena

Sexual Orientation:
Bisexual but leaning toward Pansexual: Helena
Heterosexual but still new at this: August
Queer and Demisexual: Margaret

Romantic Orientation:
Biromantic but leaning toward Panromantic: Helena
Heteromantic: August
Queer and Demiromantic: Margaret

Race/Ethnicity:
Helena is white.  Margaret is multi-racial. August is Chinese-Irish.

Other notes:
At the end of the novel Margaret, August and Helena are in a polyamourous relationship as confirmed by the author on Goodreads.  Author confirmed character representation.

 

 

Girls Made of Snow and Glass

By Melissa Bashardoust

Mina had her heart replaced with glass by her magician father and was told she could never love or be loved. She goes to court to become queen, where she meets Lynet, who is similarly made of snow as a replacement for her lost mother. The two are rivals for the same crown, but respect and love may win out.

Publisher’s Description

Frozen meets The Bloody Chamber in this feminist fantasy reimagining of the Snow White fairytale

At sixteen, Mina’s mother is dead, her magician father is vicious, and her silent heart has never beat with love for anyone—has never beat at all, in fact, but she’d always thought that fact normal. She never guessed that her father cut out her heart and replaced it with one of glass. When she moves to Whitespring Castle and sees its king for the first time, Mina forms a plan: win the king’s heart with her beauty, become queen, and finally know love. The only catch is that she’ll have to become a stepmother.

Fifteen-year-old Lynet looks just like her late mother, and one day she discovers why: a magician created her out of snow in the dead queen’s image, at her father’s order. But despite being the dead queen made flesh, Lynet would rather be like her fierce and regal stepmother, Mina. She gets her wish when her father makes Lynet queen of the southern territories, displacing Mina. Now Mina is starting to look at Lynet with something like hatred, and Lynet must decide what to do—and who to be—to win back the only mother she’s ever known…or else defeat her once and for all.

Entwining the stories of both Lynet and Mina in the past and present, Girls Made of Snow and Glass traces the relationship of two young women doomed to be rivals from the start. Only one can win all, while the other must lose everything—unless both can find a way to reshape themselves and their story.

Genre: Contemporary

Representation:
Gender:
Cis girls:  Lynet, Nadia

Sexual  Orientation:
Lesbian/Queer: Lynet, Nadia

Romantic Orientation:
Homoromantic: Lynet, Nadia

Race/Ethnicity:
Lynet is described as having light brown skin