Books like Magic Tides — picked by fans

This chart-topping writing duo can do no wrong in my eyes. Their Innkeeper Chronicles series ranks amongst my all-time favorites, but when it comes to fierce female protagonists, their Kate Daniels series truly takes the cake.

I find Kate fascinating. She has a complex backstory (no spoilers here!), and she is a masterful fighter, excelling in both physical combat and magical prowess. She consistently stands up for others, often putting herself in peril to protect those around her. 

I love how her wit and humor shine through, striking the perfect balance between light and shade. 

I will always remember the way she greeted a particular deadly lion shifter with a cheeky “Here, kitty, kitty, kitty.” For me, Kate Daniels embodies everything a fierce female protagonist should be.

I recently met the author at a writing workshop. He was my facilitator—he did an excellent job! What’s more, after the week of reading and critiquing each other’s fictional stories I decided to read this book. Wow! Beautifully written. The stories are sometimes shocking, sometimes sad but always worth the time! I feel lucky to have met this author and have had him help me improve my first novel which I'm completing now. 

Will Trent is a most unlikely hero of a series, especially as a GBI (Georgia Bureau of Investigation) agent. Why? Will is severely dyslexic. He can barely read and write. So why is he a top agent? His disability gives him an unusual way of looking at crimes, making his disadvantage an important element in solving those crimes. Raised in a series of orphanages and cruel foster homes, Will is like the injured puppy you want to care for and make his life better. His relationship with women is complicated, including his first-love Angie, who shares some of the same orphanage experiences; Amanda, his demanding boss; Faith, his partner; and Sarah, his true love. Will is naïve and street-smart at the same time, which makes him a fascinating hero.

Founded as a rail center in the 1830s, Atlanta was dependent on commercial ties with the North which explains the city’s Unionism before the Civil War. In the pivotal election of 1860 where Lincoln carried the northern states and a “southern rights” candidate carried the deep South, Atlantans voted overwhelmingly for Unionist candidates John Bell and Stephen A. Douglas. Although their numbers diminished after secession, a small cadre of Unionists remained in the city during the war, including Cyrena Stone, whose secret (and fascinating) diary is both a major source for and an appendix in this book.

The 1895 Cotton States and International Exposition, a seminal moment in Atlanta’s history, is best remembered as the setting for Booker T. Washington’s opening day address in which he suggested that the races could be “as separate as the fingers” in “all things social.” Theda Perdue considers the white supremacist attitudes of the fair’s organizers and the ways in which people of color were represented. The designated Negro Building allowed Black educators and artists to showcase their accomplishments in a segregated setting, but exhibits about Native Americans by the Smithsonian and Office of Indian Affairs treated them as ancient cultures of the past and not as vibrant cultures of the present.

This book provides an excellent overview of Atlanta’s rise from humble beginnings as a rail hub before the Civil War to a thriving commercial center by the end of the century. Russell argues that the war accelerated Atlanta’s commercial and industrial development, but its path was already set before General William T. Sherman’s army arrived during the Civil War. White business elites dominated city politics until the election of Atlanta’s first Black mayor, Maynard Jackson, in 1973.

Usually, this isn’t my kind of thriller.

I struggle with passive heroines, and Claire drove me a little crazy at first—so removed, so unaware, so unwilling to look too closely. But I stuck with it, and I’m so glad I did.

I loved Lydia immediately (that first scene alone told me exactly what kind of energy she was bringing), and I enjoyed how the story shifts into something that belongs to the sisters, not the man at the center of it.

What really worked for me is the turn—when Claire stops drifting and starts choosing, and the two of them finally align. From there, it gets visceral and messy in the best way. I ended up loving it for that transformation: for the moment control is taken, not given.

This book looks at Atlanta’s role in the emergence of a “New South” and the way that journalist and civic leader Henry Grady used the story of Atlanta’s wartime burning and destruction and its postwar rebuilding to rebrand the city. While supporting segregation in the South, Grady urged northern Whites to invest in the New South economy and denied that the region had a race problem. Black Atlantans presented an alternate narrative, one that emphasized the war as a first step in the fight for freedom and equality. The Atlanta Race Riot of 1906 left Grady’s New South concept “tattered and frayed”; the term was seldom used after that.

If you love a quirky narrator, this is your perfect entry point into historical fiction. In 1890 Atlanta, our heroine—Jo Kuan—works as a lady’s maid by day and offers up wit and wisdom as a secret advice columnist by night. 

The voice in this one is what had me wrapped around Jo’s funny, sharp, insightful little finger. Expect to laugh, get angry, unravel a few mysteries, and learn a few dark things about American history along the way. There’s a reason this book was a Reese’s Book Club pick.

The title made me curious about this book but I wasn't sure what to expect.

What I found was an interesting cast of characters. The strong-willed heroine tried to use lists and logic to control her emotions (something I might have done a time or two). The hero was swoon-worthy in both physical and personality terms. There was a mystery that reached deep into the past.

The story played out with humor, emotion, and a strong sense of the Southern. All things I love in a novel.