Continuing from yesterday, here is part II of the SPFBO 9 (2023) Intresting Titles (in random order). We would like to reiterate that both these lists are in no way an indicator of our choices (& other judges’ choices) going forward in the contest. These simply lists titles that we (at FBC) are INTRIGUED by and WOULD like to read (time & fate permitting).
Official Book Blurb: Sergei is determined to put his broken family back together, no matter the danger.
Not-rats and bugs hiding in his walls, listening to his conversations? He can live with that. The shadowy government organization trying to dig encoded information out of his nightmares? He’ll play along to learn what they know about his mother.
If he has to destroy his college career, his love life, and the best friendship he’s ever had—with his roommate Cam—he’ll do that, too, if that’s what it takes. He’s the only one who believes his mother is still alive.
Nobody else needs to get hurt if he doesn’t tell them what he’s doing.
But however hard Sergei tries to keep his double life a secret, Cam still shows up to save him whenever he’s in trouble, like Cam has some kind of magical sixth sense—a sense that keeps them bonded together no matter what. And when Sergei finally breaks through his dreams into a world where monsters lurk and reality changes on a whim…where having magic carries a death sentence…the stakes of this game could be far higher than Sergei wants to pay. Now it’s not just his life on the line—he’s dragged people he cares about into danger with him.
He thought he could risk himself alone. But will his single-minded mission to find his mother be worth the price everyone he loves has to pay?
Official Book Blurb: The world ended—twice. Once at humanity’s hand and a second time at God’s, according to legend. Only Esther, the Eternal One, saw it all happen. Chosen by the Messiah to redeem humanity, she heads a holy sisterhood that rules Cathedral, the Last City. Except Cathedral isn’t the last city, and the source of the Revenant Sisterhood’s supernatural power is far from holy.
Two reborn nations vie for humanity’s future. In the west, Cathedral unleashes its God-engines—ancient walking war machines—in a final bid to cleanse the earth. In the east, the struggling city-state of Bastion turns to the last living AI for salvation. Between them, a tribe of technological scavengers known as the Union unwittingly holds the balance of power.
Hell is on the horizon. Who will survive?
Official Book Blurb: Yuu wants nothing more than to forget the mistakes of her past. The Gods have other plans.
Once a renowned strategist and general, five years ago Yuu made a mistake that cost her everything. Now she is on the run, royal bounty hunters snapping at her heels. But what if there was a way to get back what she lost, a way to bring back a murdered prince?
Every century, the gods hold a contest to choose who will rule from the Heavenly Jade Throne. Each god chooses a mortal champion, and the fate of all existence hangs in the balance. On a battlefield full of heroes, warriors, assassins, and thieves can Yuu survive long enough to learn the rules of the game, let alone master it?
Official Book Blurb: Sam Adams, sixteen-year-old wizard, has zero interest in saving the world—but staying out of the line of fire isn’t an option for wizards.
The only one with the skills to protect the city, Sam finds himself thrust into a conspiracy far darker and more dangerous than he ever imagined, with tentacles stretching into the criminal underworld and the wealthy elite—and into the spirit world. Fighting for his life, surrounded by enemies, Sam has to dig deeper than ever before to keep Williamsport from going up in flames.
But even magic has its limits.
Official Book Blurb: “Secrets, secrets are so fun. Secrets, secrets – cut my tongue.”
In a land where magick is heresy and ancient forces manipulate human whims, secrets will tear a fragile peace asunder. Four people stand at the heart of this burgeoning war.
An unproven prince who married a woman forbidden to him.
A sickly boy with a connection to an eldritch beast.
An outcast knight who hides the infidelity of her liege lady.
And a traitorous duke caught between the contradictions of his ideals.
Two will die. Two will rise. And the Age of Terkir will march toward its end.
Official Book Blurb: Failure is a luxury Rahelu can’t afford. Her family sold everything, left their ancestral home, and became destitute foreigners for the sake of her resonance skills. Now she can manipulate emotional echoes to discern truth from lies, conjure the past, and even foretell the future.
A slight twist of fate is enough to restore her way forward…with deadly consequences she never bargained for. The Houses make a pawn of her in their bitter struggle for control of the Dominion. A shadowy cult grows ever closer to completing an ancient ritual.
And Rahelu discovers that fulfilling her oath to her family might come at the cost of her mother’s life.
Venalia's failure to protect the village is foretold, the village that has shunned her since childhood - but Venalia is sworn to an oath, bound by the first rule of the Priesthood to stand her ground against even the most hopeless of odds. Beset by corrupt leadership and an ungrateful flock, Venalia must decide what her life is really worth.
Perhaps it is better to die for something than to live for nothing.
Official Book Blurb: When gods refuse to die, it's humans that suffer.
Safely hidden deep within the endless fields of his late wife's people, Kalen's only dream is to live the rest of his days in peace. He paid for his dream in blood, but neither his sword nor service are demanded any longer.
Chaos erupts when his daughter, Sascha, is called by Kalen's old master. Father and daughter have no choice but to leave the home they've created for the land of Kalen's birth.
But the sins of the past cast long shadows. After years of a tenuous peace, gods and humans alike resume their quest for dominance. Kalen and Sascha find themselves in the midst of a struggle that will reshape the boundaries of their world.
The warrior who wants nothing but peace will be forced to draw his sword once again. Will it be enough to protect his daughter from the whims of the gods?
Official Book Blurb: Life used to be good. I had money. I had fame. I had respect. The same thrill during work every day. A different woman in my bed every night. Best fighter to hire for dangerous jobs. Most famous thief in the Nineteen Kingdoms. Half the world sought my services when they needed the impossible done. The other half wanted to sleep with me.
Then one day this strange guy showed up with his even stranger pet, the latter a bit of a gift horse by all accounts, and turned it all upside down. They claimed to have come to save my life, and while they were at it, I got them to help out with the most important quest of my existence: finding the Supreme Key of the Dragon. Needless to say, none of it turned out quite how I expected. But we had fun, even if it was hell sometimes. In the end, what we found was worth it all.
My name is Conor Drew, the Gods destined me for great things.
But I turned them down.
Official Book Blurb: What were the Great Old Ones like before they were old?
In the shadow of cosmic horrors, newly-birthed entity Zogrusz must come to understand his true nature, learn how to wield his dreadful powers, and search for meaning in the mad spaces between the stars. Hopefully, he’ll make some friends along the way.
Also, there’s a cat.
Official Book Blurb: George Stephens is a lousy medical student. Lacking the social and financial resources to succeed in Edinburgh’s elite medical school, his dream of becoming a physician appears over before it began.
Their investigation pulls them into the murkiest, most dangerous corners of Enlightenment Edinburgh. The professors are secret wielders of fire magic, but their foes are courting even darker forces. With violence threatening to erupt, and George struggling to navigate this confusing city, getting justice for the dead will be harder than he imagined.
Official Book Blurb: This Child is not the chosen one. She is a demon to be destroyed.
Born of magic, Nerana is labeled a demon and forced into hiding by the Order of Saro. Living with a curse that binds her to their leader, Nerana seeks to free herself from their hold and soon learns that the path to redemption may prove more fatal than the Order itself.
But for Nerana, this is more than a quest for survival... It’s a promise of revenge.
Born of magic, Nerana is labeled a demon and forced into hiding by the Order of Saro. Living with a curse that binds her to their leader, Nerana seeks to free herself from their hold and soon learns that the path to redemption may prove more fatal than the Order itself.
But for Nerana, this is more than a quest for survival... It’s a promise of revenge.
Official Book Blurb: Marina is the daughter of Tsar Alexander the Cruel, the most powerful warlock. She's also a princess of the Court of White Rose. The only problem is that she's mundane—she has no magic.
With the Red Army and the Alchemist Federation on her heels, Marina runs back to the Court of White Rose, but when death follows her home she must uncover a prophecy, reconcile with the warlock, and stop an oncoming war. It's a tall order for a seamstress.
Official Book Blurb: Any adventurer worth their sword knows about Ambrose Beake. The proud, quiet half-elf sells the best, and only, potions in the city—until a handsome new shopkeeper named Eli opens another potion shop across the street, throwing Ambrose’s peace and ledgers far off balance.
The mayor commissions them to brew a potion together. The task is as complex as it is lucrative, pushing both men to the limits of their abilities and patience. Yet as the fires burn and cauldrons bubble…they find a different sort of chemistry brewing.
Official Book Blurb: I am the daughter of the king, and he is the fae monster my father sent me to kill.
He’s waiting for me, I know. But when I venture into the darkness, I find that the monster is in fact a handsome man, cursed by the fae gods to roam the maze. Trapped in the labyrinth with him, I start feeling something that I know I should not—a strange desire wells up within me.
My heart is torn between my loyalty to my kingdom and the man whose loneliness echoes my own.
As we attempt to escape the treacherous maze, secrets that were meant to remain hidden in its depths beg to be revealed, and with them comes a love so forbidden yet so powerful that it could forever change my life.
Official Book Blurb: On the run from a cursed king and his army of assassins, priest Niels Bosch seeks sanctuary in rural Briscona. What he gets is a barrage of intimate and unsettling questions from his new cantor, Beldenka Nadinov. Questions he can’t risk answering.
When Niels unearths the chilling truth and realises there’s much more at stake than just his life, it’s too late to turn back. He must lift the curse and end Night’s reign forever.
Official Book Blurb: Ser Edward, an experienced sailor, embarks on perhaps the most daring expedition of the Kingdom of Esenworth so far. His mission is to try to earn the blessing of the Reverend Sven, who is none other than his love’s father, probably the most influential man in the realm. But on his journey beset by fierce storms, he and his men encounter something that could shake to the core not only their faith, but their very concept of the world as well. Meanwhile, far from the oceans, his love, Emma, is trying to disentangle herself from the spider’s web of intrigue and scheming, into which she is being drawn ever deeper by Erick the new king.
And the dark clouds just keep gathering above – ancient beasts, stranger than ever, appear at sea, on land and even in the skies more and more frequently. They roar with a metallic screech, their eyes glow with an unnatural light, their skin hard and rigid as armor.
Can order be upheld in this age blind to divine prophecy, in the largest kingdom of the North, where the monarch’s mind is coming undone just like reality itself?
Official Book Blurb: It has been a thousand years since the last Seed abandoned their duty. The mists are closing in. Finally, the Morning Bell tolls. A new Seed is born, but is it too late?
But there is more to this tale than just the Elders and their Seeds. Four mortals will have a part to play in Minethria’s fate. A farmer girl with only love in her eyes. A warrior born to the life of a refugee. A highborn stuck between the realm of gods and men. And a woman running into front lines and away from home.
Will the cycle finally be completed? Or will the mist swallow all?
Official Book Blurb: When the gods shaped the continent into five kingdoms to be ruled by their progeny, they did not account for the greed of men. When they created the Order from their god-blessed followers to mediate between realms, they neglected to plan against the hoarding of power. War between the royalists and the godly was inevitable.
Five centuries later, the borders between kingdoms are impenetrable. No branded-born Marked can cross them without burning to ash, except the Order’s Stewards. But a damaging new war has been prophesied, one that haunts the Order, one that will come to pass if Carved traitors roam free and brandless-born Flawed are left alive.
It starts with one girl that survives the impossible. Kaianne, the Carved. It takes shape through one prince with ambition. Andreiyes, the Marked. It hinges on one grieving man who is ready to give up hope. Rau, the Steward. Three people bound by fate – whether they like it or not.
Official Book Blurb: Bastard. Killer. Husband. Father. His wife cold in the ground, and two young boys to feed, Wil Cutter turns to what he knows: Violence. But a bounty is never just a bounty, and blood is never spilled in drops. Forced to ever more violent acts, he’ll have to ask himself: Is Hell too far to ride?
Official Book Blurb: Foster kid Jack Swift remembers everything—even the horrible things he’d like to forget. To keep his guilt-ridden memories from haunting him, he buries himself in any book he can find, dreaming of his ultimate escape..
At 3:33 am on his fourteenth birthday, Jack is kidnapped by a monstrous talking rhinoceros and whisked away to another sphere of existence: the land of Keymark. Though this world is filled with pixies, monsters, pirates, samurai, and mythical wonders, it is without healing magic—a magic stolen by an evil, immortal prince hell-bent on domination.
Jack’s kidnappers ask the impossible of him: use his knowledge to save a life…or become trapped in this dangerous world with no chance of rescue.
Official Book Blurb: Princess Amikharlia wants one thing in life: control of her own fate.
On the eve of her wedding, Amika flees her homeland, seeking the truth behind the mysterious magical abilities she'd kept hidden since childhood.
Taking up the life of a demon huntress, Amika uncovers a madman's prophecy that would have her revive an ancient goddess—and destroy the world in the process.
Will Amika become a pawn in another man’s game or continue her fight against destiny’s shackles?
As a dark and dangerous power begins to rise, she must make her choice soon. But is laying the world to waste truly the way to save it?
Daughter of the Beast by E C Greaves
Official Book Blurb: When her sleepy village is raided by the Vulkari, the fearsome warrior women of the Ancient Wilds, only Zyntael Fairwinter is taken.
In the company of their unruly young, she might find sisterhood. In their unique customs and beliefs, she might find beauty. And in the violence of their raids, she might even find glory.
But it is the reason for her capture that Zyntael truly seeks. It is a truth that must be earned from the very Spirits of the dead; a future paid for in the blood of those Zyntael once called her own. It is a purpose that promises the liberation of not just she, but of all the Ancient Wilds, from an evil far greater than any marauding warrior women.
Warrior or no, however, the Vulkari are not like other women. The Vulkari are monsters. And sometimes, only the truly monstrous have what it takes to save the world.
Official Book Blurb: Destined to fail, Rossi is only a half witch. Her coven, her mom, even her troll were constantly trying to make up for lack of magic, but Rossi knows. And she’s over being a burden, but unsure how to fix it.
An annoying, but somewhat swoony warlock with plenty of his own secrets.
An unusual unicorn who had delusions of grandeur.
A monster that uses tricks of the mind to trap its prey.
And more witches than Rossi could possibly count.
All of them interested in only one thing. Rossi.
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