Here are 93 books that Lord of Snow and Shadows fans have personally recommended if you like
Lord of Snow and Shadows.
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Ever since childhood, I have been enthralled by dragons. The stories of these mythical creatures can be told in so many ways, from dragons as pets to bonding with them or even shapeshifting into them. I chose these books because they are memorable, they have stuck with me, and they have fascinated and inspired me for years. All of these writers have influenced my own work, and they are sure to resonate with you, too.
This is a four-book series, and once I read the first one, I had to read the rest! Robin Hobb’s version of dragons is unique and imaginative, unlike the dragons in any other book I’ve read.
I immersed myself in her detailed, creative world. This series offered me an escape unlike any other.
Return to the world of the Liveships Traders and journey along the Rain Wild River in this standalone adventure from the author of the internationally acclaimed Farseer trilogy.
Guided by the great blue dragon Tintaglia, they came from the sea: a tangle of serpents fighting their way up the Rain Wilds River, the first to make the perilous journey to the cocooning grounds in generations. Many have died along the way. With its acid waters and impenetrable forest, it is a hard place for any to survive.
People are changed by the Rain Wilds, subtly or otherwise. One…
A moving story of love, betrayal, and the enduring power of hope in the face of darkness.
German pianist Hedda Schlagel's world collapsed when her fiancé, Fritz, vanished after being sent to an enemy alien camp in the United States during the Great War. Fifteen years later, in 1932, Hedda…
Being of Eastern European origins, and also a child of the 80s, definitely had a say in what my likings and my character would become growing up. From the cold long winters and the white landscapes, Fantasy genre, and everything Might and Magic have shaped my childhood, my studies, my art (traditional oil painting and clay sculpting) and lingered until now (and definitely beyond).
The Dwarves series (especially the first two books) bring the readers back in time and sets them up, straight from the beginning, on a simpler way of seeing things and also a simpler way of writing, while also being able to convey the true values of the fantasy genre with class.
For countless millennia, no man or beast has ever succeeded in breaching the stone gateway into Girdlegard. Until now . . .
Abandoned as a child, Tungdil the blacksmith is the only dwarf in a kingdom of men. But when he is sent out into the world to deliver a message and reacquaint himself with his people, the young foundling finds himself thrust into a battle for which he has not been trained. Not only his own safety, but the life of every man, woman and child in Girdlegard depends upon his ability to embrace his heritage.
Fantasy has been at the heart of our friendship for as long as we can remember. We are Adelina Cortese Pons and Valentina Branca, co-authors of our book, listed below, and our journey as writers began when we were eleven, sharing a single copy of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, reading it aloud, taking turns with each chapter. That love for fantasy only grew stronger over the years—through travels, studies in International Relations, and countless late-night writing sessions. Today, despite living an ocean apart, we still meet every Friday to write together, crafting new worlds and unforgettable stories because, for us, fantasy is more than a genre—it’s home.
Reading this book feels like soaring through the skies on Dragonback, experiencing a world filled with magic, danger, and destiny. From the moment Eragon discovers Saphira’s egg, we’re thrown into an adventure that takes us across vast landscapes—towering mountains, ancient forests, and bustling cities full of secrets.
The bond between dragon and rider is at the heart of this story, and it’s impossible not to feel a sense of awe as they grow together. Christopher Paolini builds a world so rich and immersive that every battle, every piece of lore, and every new land explored feels like stepping into something legendary. It’s a book that makes us want to go on our own epic journey—if only we had a dragon to take us.
When poor farm boy Eragon finds a polished stone in the forest, he thinks it's a lucky discovery. Perhaps, he will be able to buy his family food for the winter.
But, when a baby dragon hatches out of the stone, Eragon realises he's stumbled upon a legacy nearly as old as the Empire itself.
His simple life is shattered, and he's thrust into a perilous new world of destiny, magic and power. To navigate this dark terrain, and survive his cruel king's evil ways, he must take up the mantle of the…
Separating the true stories from the myths, The Duty of Memory provides a deeper understanding of the diverse motivations that drove ordinary people to join an underground network of French Resistants despite terrible odds and horrifying consequences.
This book takes the reader inside the true story of men and women…
I have a passion for reading and telling tales. But I am a Christian first and foremost, and when I am not studying the Bible, I love to write when my mind is at rest and not too busy with life’s responsibilities. I love fantasy as it has a rich capacity for symbolism, and Jesus taught with parables. Symbolism in storytelling is such a potent way to convey truths and stimulate thought as thoughts work like seeds. It only takes one seed to germinate and sprout. It takes a humble heart to listen and consider something new we haven’t thought of before. And epic tales have a strong impact for touching hearts, for it had truly reached mine.
While yes, this is another work of Tolkien and this story is covered in the already mentioned The Silmarillion, this book expands in greater detail in the much closer look from the eyes of one Turin, son of Hurin.
I love how this book took an already tragic yet beloved story and fed my appetite with all of the particulars involved therein. The Children of Hurin is such a tragic story of poetic justice, curse, and irony. The main character is as equally frustrating as he is pitiable, and I see him as being quite relatable as any common, fallible human being.
And therein, its work of poetry is rich with matters that can be very relatable to the reader. These matters include lessons to learn, lessons of virtue and anti-virtue, lessons of vice, lessons of pride and its fall, what happens when we approach evil directly without having…
Painstakingly restored from Tolkien's manuscripts and presented for the first time as a fully continuous and standalone story, the epic tale of The Children of Hurin will reunite fans of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings with Elves and Men, dragons and Dwarves, eagles and Orcs, and the rich landscape and characters unique to Tolkien.
There are tales of Middle-earth from times long before The Lord of the Rings, and the story told in this book is set in the great country that lay beyond the Grey Havens in the West: lands where Treebeard once walked, but…
I am a university president, and I work daily among young people with very diverse stories, but one common theme is the brokenness we all share, whether as a product of our individual identities and histories, or simply the result of life’s cruel circumstances. Classic fantasy takes on the realities of evil, suffering, and brokenness, and in that imaginative process engages us deeply. But in so doing it thereby allows us to reimagine through story what our own possibilities and hopes for healing might be.
In this story, Swanson seeks to answer the question: what would happen if Peter Pan was stranded in modern-day London? And what if he started to age? And what if he met a girl who didn’t realize she could create pixie dust? It captures the spirit of the original tale while also delving deeper into the lore of both Peter and Neverland itself. It was an exciting and creative read from beginning to end. I loved how it felt simultaneously nostalgic and new.
The truth about Neverland is far more dangerous than a fairy tale.
Claire Kenton believes the world is too dark for magic to be real—since her twin brother was stolen away as a child. Now Claire’s desperate search points to London... and a boy who shouldn't exist.
Peter Pan is having a beastly time getting back to Neverland. Grounded in London and hunted by his own Lost Boys, Peter searches for the last hope of restoring his crumbling island: a lass with magic in her veins.
The girl who fears her own destiny is on a collision course with the…
I write books for intelligent, adventurous, globally-minded teens who aren’t afraid to fall in love with someone different from themselves. I started as a journalist, so it is no surprise that my YA books contain a lot of facts to go along with the fiction. Whether you want to know about Japan (Tanabata Wish), the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918 (Breathe), what it’s like to be an Olympic-caliber skater (Every Reason We Shouldn’t), or how unscripted television works (Faking Reality), I take readers on swoony journeys to unusual places. So, if you like books that educate as they entertain, I hope you’ll check this book list—plus my books—out.
I wasn’t sure how Cornwell could possibly make a Cinderella retelling fresh and unique, but she did. She roots Nicolette—who her evil stepsisters call Mechanica—deep enough in the classic fairytale that we get all the satisfying beats, but then Cornwell turns them on their head. I love steampunk stories, and Cornwell replaces the Disney-fied animal helpers with mechanical insects and a metal horse fueled by coal and outlawed faery magic. She also addresses some outdated ideas in earlier renditions for a modern twist set in a Victorian-ish time period. Though Nicolette is not the first mechanical Cinderella on the YA bookshelf, Mechanica is not a rip-off of Marissa Meyer’s Cinder. I enjoyed both of them.
Nicolette's awful stepsisters call her "Mechanica" to demean her, but the nickname fits: she learned to be an inventor at her mother's knee. Her mum is gone now, though, and the Steps have pushed her into a life of dreary servitude. When she discovers a secret workshop in the cellar on her sixteenth birthday and befriends Jules, a tiny magical metal horse. Nicolette starts to imagine a new life for herself. And the timing may be perfect: There's a technological exposition and a royal ball on the horizon. Determined to invent her own happily-ever-after, Mechanics seeks to wow the prince…
What were America's first prisons like? How did penal reformers, prison administrators, and politicians deal with the challenges of confining human beings in long-term captivity as punishment--what they saw as a humane intervention?
The Deviant Prison centers on one early prison: Eastern State Penitentiary. Built in Philadelphia, one of the…
I have a passion for fairy tale stories especially ones for adults because they are often the first stories we learned as kids. The ability to look back at how we interpreted them and how our understanding changes over time and culture makes for something that is truly timeless, and therefore like a beloved trope is never the exact same thing twice. Each time only builds on our enjoyment and the many possibilities we can imagine. Not only in worlds of magic, but our own.
While my series tend to be on the shorter end, if you want something to really sink your teeth into try Angela J. Ford’s interracial romance collection full of action, adventure, and steam. Celtic Mythology is the theme for this six standalone novel collection that tops out at over 600 hundred pages! In a world like it is now, sometimes I just want to escape into a fantasy world a fantasy series is so perfect for that.
This collector's edition includes six stand-alone adult fairy tales blending fantasy action-adventure with steamy fantasy romance.Tales of the Enchanted Forest is a collection of six fantasy romance short stories. The series is inspired by fairy tales with a hint of Celtic Mythology and a nod to the TV show, Once. However, you won’t find your traditional damsels in distress. The women you’ll meet in these tales take the future into their own hands, regardless of the challenges. They also have magic. Some of it beautiful, like the magic of the healer, but others have dark magic which torments them as…
I’ve always had a soft spot for history—in particular, mysteries, myths, and legends. If it’s strange, unexplained, obscure, supernatural, or downright weird, I’m all in. And Celtic folklore, it turns out, excels at exploiting the dark intrigue of human antiquity. Backdropped by a landscape that makes literally anything seem impossible, these stories tell us as much about fairies, merfolk, and other mystical creatures as they do about ourselves. Like so many legends around the world, Celtic mythology is a mirror. One that exposes our deepest fantasies. Reflecting the dark, dangerous side of humanity’s desires back onto itself, and making us question who the real monsters really are.
Three sisters vanish as kids and mysteriously return with no memories of what happened and a lot of strange quirks… in other words, the perfect set-up for a modern story about changelings! Initially, I was skeptical about this one because—while I shamelessly loved Twilight back in the day—I’ve also been kinda burned out from all the froofy falling-in-love-with-magical-creatures/worlds books that surfaced in its aftermath. (And c’mon. That cover? It practically screams froofy tortured teen magic.)
But let’s just say the marketing team failed here because while this book was beautiful, it was also kinda rotten, incredibly atmospheric, and genuinely creepy in places. The perfect read for a dark, modern twist on a traditional myth.
'A gorgeous, grisly modern fairy tale.' - THE GUARDIAN
'Dark and delicious. House of Hollow hums with malice and mystery. I devoured it whole.' - KIRAN MILLWOOD HARGRAVE
** SHORTLISTED FOR THE YA BOOK PRIZE 2022 **
The Hollow sisters - Vivi, Grey and Iris - are as seductively glamorous as they are mysterious. They have black eyes and hair as white as milk. The Hollow sisters don't have friends - they don't need them. They move through the corridors like sharks, the other little fish parting around them, whispering behind their backs.
I've always loved stories. After years of observing the importance of stories, and their role in creating our reality, the determination to write my own clicked into place. Storytelling is very much at the heart of my first novel, Strange Gods. Strange Gods features a multiverse of powerful gods, but humans still stand out for their ability to tell self-defining stories. From the inciting incident where Carcass kidnaps Spooky to be his storyteller, to the decisions she makes along her journey, the stories Spooky tells others and herself determine her outcomes. I hope the books on this list inspire you to reflect on the power of any stories you tell, as they've inspired me.
I read The Hazel Wood while writing my own book, and the vibe immediately struck me as similar. It takes the protagonist, Alice, on a journey between our world and a world of dark, original fairytales, where stories are the very fabric of the universe. The more entangled the story becomes in the fairytale world, the more the book itself reads like one...it feels like a dream, with events unfolding unpredictably as we learn the rules of the new world and what the characters from it want.
One of The Observer's Best Children's Books of 2018!
Fans of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children and The Children of Blood and Bone have been getting lost in The Hazel Wood...
"The Hazel Wood kept me up all night. I had every light burning and the covers pulled tight around me as I fell completely into the dark and beautiful world within its pages. Terrifying, magical, and surprisingly funny, it's one of the very best books I've read in years". -Jennifer Niven, author of All The Bright Places
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Seventeen-year-old Alice and her mother have spent most of…
Pioneer Paddles of the Colonial South
by
William D. Auman,
Award-winning novelist William Auman, author of If Trees Could Testify..., takes the reader on a time-traveling odyssey featuring 345 bodies of water in six states within the historical context through which they unfold.
Journey into remaining Colonial-era wilderness with stories of pirate treasure, epic frontiersmen, Indigenous Peoples, and Revolutionary…
I’m a science fiction and fantasy author with a love of fairytales. I enjoy genre-bending, genre-blending, and new takes on old stories. As a child, I had a book of fairytales illustrated with embroidered illustrations. In high school and college, when I had the opportunity, I always chose to read fairytales—I've even taken classes that exclusively explore fairytales. Now as an author, I’ve leaped feet first into fairytale retellings. My first series, Rove City, features fairytale retellings set in an intergalactic spaceship, and my second series is made up of collections of original fairytales. Next, I’m planning to take the original fairytales and turn them into my own retellings.
This story kicks off a series of fairytale retellings filled with intrigue and adventure by sweeping the main character into a world of complex political machinations. She’s offered an opportunity for freedom from her conniving and overbearing family—all she has to do is deliver a message in exchange. But it turns out, the message was more dangerous than she could have imagined. This Cinderella retelling is unique in that there isn’t much magic in it, but it is filled with mystery, conspiracy, and swirling political machinations.
She has one job—attend a masqued ball and dance with a handsome prince. What could possibly go wrong?
Everything, that’s what.
After years of submitting to her stepmother’s unreasonable demands, Trystan finally has a chance to be free. The promise of a new life, in exchange for her help. Simple, right? After all, the old woman has only asked for one night. One night, one beautiful gown, one dance… and one message to be delivered to a mysterious recipient.
It should be easy. Maybe even fun. Especially when she can slip away into the night after the dance, leaving no…