73 books like The Cursed Doubloon

A coming-of-age fantasy romance with magical realism. The world is made up of two types of people: Typics and Divines. Typics are “typical” people, whereas Divines were born with powerful abilities.

Summer is a Divine who is supposed to teleport, but can’t. Starting over in a new place, she finds a new job, new boss, new friends, and most importantly, the romantic interest, Jonah, a muscly mechanic with a few secrets of his own.

Summer’s boss, a Divine, grows jealous as Summer and Jonah’s relationship blossoms, and they find themselves escaping his rage.

The wit and affection Jonah and Summer share are intoxicating. They are a young couple but are mature for their age and things don’t progress until she turns eighteen. Urban fantasy at its finest!

A fantasy romance where a marriage arrangement is made in hopes of bringing peace to warring nations. Medieval-type vibes and aliens (not the traditional kind) are nicely combined. Shannen and Daarik are both strong-willed and noble main characters.

I fell in love with Daarik, who is the alien in this story. He’s sweet, protective, respectful, and strong. At the beginning the flowery smell of Shannen made him gag, but that changed once he started falling for her.

This story reminded me of Beauty and the Beast, except this maiden wasn’t so innocent. I liked her.

This opened my eyes to how much I have the hots for aliens...

YA fantasy romance following a sixteen-year-old who is given the task of assassinating the prince she is supposed to marry.

Linnet is brought to Rajak’s palace in exchange for sparing her kingdom. She was trained to fight and is hyper-aware of the danger around her. Her mother instructs her to gain his trust and kill him.

Rajak isn’t what he appears to be and wants more for his people. Tough on the outside, she finds he has a soft heart.

Slow-building clean romance with great descriptions. I felt like I was immersed in the scenes. It is set in a fantasy world with “Aladdin” vibes.

One of my favorite parts was when Linnet said she felt Rajak’s protection as surely as she would have felt a shield in her hand.

This YA book is about a young woman, Ember, whose parents were murdered when she was young. They were Guardians, which are superheroes with awesome talents they use to keep the world safe. Flash forward to adulthood, and Ember goes off to a university where she meets Aiden, who knows quite a bit about Ember's past.

Ember and Aiden hang out and feelings generate between them. Aiden is keeping a secret from Ember, so he tries his best to keep an emotional distance from her, even though it's incredibly hard for him.

There are many interesting characters in the book; I enjoyed the descriptions of them sprinkled throughout. There is also a cute little rock golem named Lime who is a sidekick to one of the supporting characters. So adorable!

We’re going a little paranormal for my last recommendation! Music for a Merman is the second in the Sea of Love series. Our heroine, Charlie, is another who is confident, strong, and definitely has an attitude to boot! But that’s what you want in a main character—you want the flaws, the defiance, going against the grain. Alice captures that with Charlie. You want a main character with their own personality and opinions, to help capture and connect with readers!

This book had such a strong pitch: Attack on Titan with mermaids.

I loved that the characters had strong motivations: our female protagonist, human Kestra, wants revenge on the merfolk for killing and devouring her father. Our male protagonist, merman Rake, wants to escape his life as a breeder male so that he can raise his son in peace.

I loved the writing and felt immersed in the underwater world, and life on Kestra’s island village. I also enjoyed reading about Rake and his son when they escape to the surface, and try to find their place in the world.

This was the first time I had heard of this author, and I enjoyed her work so much that I went on to read more of her books!

I started reading this book as a webcomic on Tapas almost a decade ago, and I’m so happy to finally have the graphic novel!

I love The Little Mermaid, especially when it’s retold as a sapphic tale, so this is right up my alley. I am in awe of the unique depictions of mermaids in this world, and I can’t wait for the sequel.  

The main reason I’m recommending this book is “The Little Mermaid” (the original version, not a sanitized later edition or off-the-mark Disney interpretation). I loved fairy tales as a kid and “The Little Mermaid” is my favorite because it doesn’t have a happy ending. (Not for the mermaid, at least.) I loved that just because we think things should happen a certain way doesn’t mean they will. The mermaid thought she was fated to be with the prince. But all her planning and sacrifice and suffering didn’t change the possibility that the prince was fated to be with the woman he chose. It was an early and valuable lesson for me on seeing things from a different perspective, and inspiration for one of my own short stories.

This anthology has one of my favorite stories by Tiptree, it is called "We who stole the dream". The Joilani have long been enslaved and abused by humans. So has another race, of “delicately winged creatures”, whose sweat is a powerful intoxicant to humans. It is most potent when the donor experiences pain and fear, so humans have taken to torturing mated pairs of them, so the partners can watch each other suffer. The resulting sweat is a drug called Star Tears. Although that unnamed race plays no active role in the story, they are on my list because of the powerful manner in which they influence other species, invoking the darkest and most brutal aspects of human nature simply by existing.

The diminutive, weak, and peace-loving Joilani make a desperate break for freedom. Stealing a spaceship called The Dream, they seek out the mythical planet of their… show more.

Esen is a shapechanger, a young one. While exploring a world considered ‘safe’ by her matriarch, she is captured by the natives. Her only hope of rescue is to betray her species' strict rules and reveal her true nature to her fellow prisoner, a human.

I adore Esen as a character. She is very relatable. I also love the breadth and scope of species and habitats and worlds in this series. Julie Czerneda is one of my favorite authors. Her storytelling skills shine. Esen is definitely not human, but Czerneda creates such a warm character you can’t help but love her. Beholder’s Eye is part coming-of-age but mostly a darn good science fiction adventure.