Books like Gabriel's Moon

This book is a fantasy romance novel that takes place in a world where humans live alongside fae. Except the fae and humans are at war and living in a divided world. The lives of the king of the fae and the daughter of a human general end up intertwined and the story that develops between them is wonderful. This book is for those who love enemies-to-lovers tropes and new magic systems.

This is the most recent of the books I’ve picked, just released in May 2023. When I read the jacket blurb, I knew I’d have to read it since it was another story about a troubled veteran suffering from PTSD and a woman forced by circumstances to return to her hometown.

I like second-chance romance stories and that’s an element here, along with Jax’s PTSD issues. He’s isolated himself from most people except a few family members, but some old sparks ignite when Natalie returns home. Jax needs to find some forgiveness and redemption before he can move forward and that’s where Natalie comes in.

Saving Jake made me cry in places and warmed my heart in others. Sharon Sala (one of my favorite authors) handled this troubled veteran’s homecoming with skill and accuracy.

As Jake returns to his hometown to heal, he also finds love and a way to triumph over a bully from his past. I have a soft spot for veterans with PTSD because my late grandfather, Claude Roberts, suffered from it, long before it had a name or diagnosis. It made his life more difficult than should have been necessary, but he still loved his little granddaughter, “the kid” as he called me, very much.

Saving Jake made me cry in places and warmed my heart in others. Sharon Sala (one of my favorite authors) handled this troubled veteran’s homecoming with skill and accuracy. As Jake returns to his hometown to heal, he also finds love and a way to triumph… show more.

I highly recommend the Torpedo Ink series by Christine Feehan for its exceptional portrayal of characters who face trauma head-on.

Savage Road is the book in the series that I love the most. It shows that even someone so far gone from their past can have redemption. It was hard for me to put these books down. I needed to know how they would overcome the trials that trauma introduced into their relationships. Would they be able to persevere?

It made me hopeful that I would find someone despite my PTSD. 

In the nineteenth-century setting of Snowpelled, the proper role of a lady is politics, and magic is the domain of men. Cassandra Harwood is the one scandalous exception—but something’s gone wrong. At the start of the story, all we know is that even the simplest spell is now out of her reach.

The mystery unfolds as Cassandra attempts to outsmart an elf lord and avoid her (absolutely delightful) ex-fiancé, the latter task no less difficult than the former. 

I love third-person point of view, but one of the joys of this book is getting the story directly from Cassandra—a woman who became a magician by “utterly refusing to give up on my great plans until the world around me finally saw sense and accepted them.” 

For those Regency romance purists and Georgette Heyer fans out there, it would be criminal to leave this tale off the list. Known as the Queen of Regency, Heyer weaves an interesting tale about two masters of disguise. Both brother and sister dress and conduct themselves as the opposite sex in this adventure! Do you enjoy witty banter? Me too! I love lighthearted, humorous moments, and I was not disappointed.

This book is very true to regency form in terms of language, vocabulary, and sentence structure. That being said, you’ll enjoy this book more if you already have a solid understanding of Regency societal rules and peerage, codes of conduct, etc.

Helena of Rivenloch is a feisty, sword-wielding wench who refuses to be tamed by any man.

When an unsuitable suitor wishes to wed her younger sister, Helena attempts to slay the bridegroom, abducts his right-hand man, and demands her sister’s freedom. But her plans go awry when her captive captures her fiery, rebellious heart.

I loved how Helena was as fierce a fighter as any knight, capable of capturing Sir Colin du Lac. I loved her independent, fierce spirit, as she forged her own destiny. And I especially loved the passionate romance that bloomed between Helena and Colin, who respected her as his equal as she won his heart.

I love this book because it is well-written and utilises characters from some of Jane Austen’s novels without having a wildly improbable plot, as so many Austen variations do.

The characters are fleshed out and very realistic. It impressed me that the characters chose to perform a play by a playwright of the era whom I’d never heard of. The book is well-researched, and the language used by the characters and in the book’s narration is very authentic to the era, without trying to ape Jane Austen’s writing, which is impossible today, and when authors attempt it, it isn’t enjoyable.

I enjoyed the pace and style of the book and could imagine myself back in the Regency era, having to deal with Lady Catherine de Bourgh and the Reverend Collins.

In my youth, the “Age of Discovery” launched by Columbus’s 1492 arrival in the “New World” and perpetuated by European imperialism through the mid-20th century, was characterized as a “civilizing mission.”

McClintock’s superb interdisciplinary scholarship provides a markedly different assessment of settler colonialism, a global order that legitimates white, male control of colonized women and men. Attained by violence, these stratified systems are sustained through capitalist economic relations secured by “voluntary” contract.

The book illuminates how the invention of race not only enabled European men to own and manage 85% of the earth’s surface by the end of the 19th century but also police the “dangerous classes,” the working class, the Irish, Jews, prostitutes, feminists, gays and lesbians, criminals, and anti-imperialists within their own nations.

Alexis Hall is the most well-known author on this list, and this sapphic Regency fantasy will not disappoint readers who like a Byronic love interest.

I loved the way the novel is narrated by the very opinionated Robin Goodfellow (aka “Puck”), who has been kicked out of the fairy court. Robin describes how Maelys Mitchelmore’s social life becomes complicated when an unknown ill-wisher curses her.

A chance encounter introduces her to the dark, brooding, and attractive Lady Georgianna Landrake, who helps Maelys discover and defeat her adversary. But Lady Georgianna suffers from her own family curse, and magical forces nearly tear the two lovers apart.

It takes courage, wisdom, and the help of Maelys’ friends to free Lady Georgianna and allow love to triumph.