I've always been fascinated by the idea of the war in Heaven. As a storyteller, the eternal struggle between angels and demons fighting for the fate of creation has been a source of perpetual inspiration for me. But finding stories about angels that aren't YA or paranormal romance can be challenging. So, channeling my love of historical fiction and action-packed adventure, I set out to craft a thrilling, realistic tale that puts the reader right on the front lines beside a peaceful angel forced into becoming a warrior fighting against his former brothers. This list reflects my favorite books that paved the way and inspired my own work.
One of the key references I used in writing The Sabrael Confession, this book is a comprehensive list of all the named angels throughout history, good or bad, complete with their rank in the angelic host and all mentions of them across the world's religions. My copy looks like it's been through a war with dog-eared pages, sticky notes protruding from the sides, and little scribbles in the margins. Whenever I needed a new angel in my book, I scoured this amazing resource to find the perfect fit. All my fallen angels are fallen angels found here. All my good angels are listed here. It's a truly fascinating read, and does well to point out inconsistencies where an angel has been listed as good by some, evil by others.
Gustav Davidson's classic text, A dictionary of Angels: Including the Fallen Angels, is the result of sixteen years of research in Talmudic, gnostic, cabalistic, apocalyptic, patristic, and legendary texts. The classic reference work on angels is beautifully illustrated and its reissue coincides with the resurgence of belief in angels in America. This well researched and exquisitely illustrated dictionary is a wonderful collectable for all those who believe in angels, miracles, lore, and faith.
This book was a wonderful blend of historical fiction, contemporary fiction, and fantasy. It also has some literary history thrown in, as it deals with John Milton's three put-upon daughters, and it explains how he came to be "of the Devil's party without knowing it."
It was one of those books that resulted in several sleepless nights. Though it's over 500 pages, I flew through it in only a few days.
From Australia's Queen of supernatural fiction comes a tale of an angel's demonic intentions...Sophie needs to pay the rent and a story on the occult would sell around Hallowe'en time. the Lodge of the Seven Stars is good for research but Sophie's a sceptic and doesn't believe in any of the rituals. Until she meets the Wanderer who has a story to tell her: a story of three sisters in 17th-century London, their love for each other torn apart by an angel. Not plague, nor Paradise Lost, nor the Great Fire of London can prevent the youngest from trying to…
I write about aloneness and individuals, what it takes to connect to family and community, and how to hang on to the people we hold dear. This means I think a lot about points of view and personal perception. We often wonder: Have I got this right? Did they get my meaning? Does everybody feel this? And more often than not, everybody does. These interpretations are both personal and universal at the same time. We all fear loss; we all have to be brave to hold onto people we love and principles we value.
Book 1 in a 4-book series, and our hero is Kaidance Monroe. I love the world the author hascreated and I really connected with Kaidance and the challenges she faces. This story is amodern-day take on the ancient Greek myth about The Fates who control our lives, and I lovethis retelling because the core message holds true for each and every one of us, that we canonly control so much of our lives, that there are forces bigger than us that we have to deal with,but it's how we cope that's important. I’ve read the entire series. The author doesn’t drop thepace. I loved experiencing this fantastical world on a rollercoaster ride, clinging on until the end.
My name is Kaidance Monroe, and sometimes when I touch people, I see how they die.
"Love, betrayal, mythology, mystery, you name it this has it! Hold onto your horses and Minotaurs people as this ride is definitely going to get bumpy." ★★★★★
After I saw my little brother's death but failed to stop it, my parents abandoned me to a juvenile detention facility. I don't let people touch me anymore. Not my fingertips, not my skin, not my heart. Just before I turned 18, I got a visit from a cute guy, who tricked me into giving up my…
As we watch the news–the increasing number of earthquakes, volcanoes, wars, inflation, the rapid progress of AI, unelected elites deciding they know best for the world, and more–we don’t know how to process it all, and it leaves us feeling anxious. My passion for helping my readers not just escape but actually live better fuels me. I created this retelling of the Book of Revelations from the POV of celestial warriors and fallen angels in the unseen realms of our world to allow my readers to “make more sense” of the world and be at peace.
Ee, the author, presents a very different image of angels, which is what I love about it. We usually see angels as protective of humans, willing to help us out of jams. In this series, Ee puts angels in the role of destroyers who hunt humans down to kill them.
I fell in love with the main characters. The story features a courageous girl raised by a “whacko” mother who must rescue her wheelchair-bound sister from angels who have abducted her. She encounters a fallen angel who has had his wings hewn off, and together, they form an unlikely alliance, overcoming their own inner demons on the way to “saving the world.” I loved both of their defiant spirits and unwillingness to quit despite the odds.
I have always been enamored with myth and the fantastic, even as a child. They offer an escape from the mundane, but also deliver a fine method to guide our moral compasses, learn about other cultures, and assign meaning to those things that vex us. I studied literature and history in college and found myself delving more and more into theology and mythology as I went because literature is filled with their essence. My exploits have guided me to the desk as a language arts and special education teacher, but my heart always whisks me back to the bookshelf or the desk to visit these fantastic worlds of the supernatural.
This history of myths, folklore, and legend is a must-own for any reader who fancies themselves a fan of the supernatural genre. Written in the form of a field guide to help travelers traversing the landscape pocked with these entities, A Field Guide is a phenomenal read and lends insights into the myths and religious entities of various cultures. Equipped with a section for how to ward off each, this guide may prove to be more useful to the reader than just a bit of reference material.
“Scouring the face of the earth, Carol and Dinah Mack have come up with an array of the most dreaded demons mythology has to offer.” —Robert L. Carniero, former Curator of South American Ethnology, American Museum of Natural History
If you met a werewolf on the eve of a full moon, would you know how to tell what he really was? Could you resist the dark charms of a vampire or the lure of a fallen angel? Did you know the Mbulu of South Africa has a razor-sharp tail with a mind of its own? Or that the Kuru-Pira of…
“Is Father good because He is good, or because
He says He is good?” Angels Before Man is a gorgeous queer retelling of the
fall of Lucifer.
God creates Lucifer to be the most beautiful and loved of all
angels. Lucifer struggles in this role until the strongest of angels, Michael, comes into his life and teaches him to love himself. Why should Lucifer not
revel in his own beauty and talents, for is it not what he was created for? But
Lucifer soon learns his God is a jealous one and does not like to be questioned.
This is a beautifully tragic novel, and Nicolás interweaves religious trauma
with a forbidden love story. I couldn’t put it down and was left thinking about
it for days after I finished it.
It’s such an unusual story—a fallen angel (now a demon) spies on the Israelites for Satan during their captivity under Pharaoh, the plagues that follow, and the Exodus.
The “reluctant” demon is a fidgety/nervous sort who ended up a demon because he was too slow choosing sides when war broke out in Heaven. Definitely an underdog, and the butt of the other demons’ jokes. You wouldn’t think a story like this would be layered with humor, but it’s the element that stood out the most. That, and the surprising “humanity” of the lead character.
I loved seeing the Biblical retelling through his eyes, especially as he isn’t like a demon at all. A faith-filled read wrapped in an entertaining and funny delivery.
Ancient language expert Samantha Yale returns to translate a new batch of scrolls written by the fallen angel from Lucifer’s Flood. Samantha Yale has taken on a daunting translation project. A set of scrolls, delivered by a man she knows nothing about, tells a fascinating and frightening tale of what went on behind the scenes of biblical history. What is even more incredible is who is telling the tale, a fallen angel who immediately regretted his decision to side with Lucifer.
An avid reader my whole life, I jumped into epic fantasy at age eleven. Anne McCaffrey, David Eddings, and Robert Jordan were all high school favorites (and they are wonderful) but by the time I had reached the age that I was supposed to be reading their books, my palette was fairly jaded. The thrill of discovering new worlds and surprising magic was growing elusive, but wonder remains my favorite beat as a reader. I consider it the ultimate challenge in my own writing, and I greedily collect books that surprise me with their scope and imagination, leaving me awed and wonderstruck.
Starlessis a classic epic—a band of characters undertakes a dangerous quest to fulfill an ancient prophesy—but its creativity will keep you gasping. I dare not enumerate the many marvels Carey created lest I ruin the surprise for readers, but I can tell you that it features thousands of fallen stars who become deities in the world, and manifest their power and identities in varied and unpredictable ways. Besides the magic itself, Starlessalso features many different cultures and lands that make me think Carey’s mind must be a beautiful and dangerous place! This book might be telling the oldest story, but it does so in revolutionary ways.
I was nine years old the first time I tried to kill a man...
Destined from birth to serve as protector of the princess Zariya, Khai is trained in the arts of killing and stealth by a warrior sect in the deep desert; yet there is one profound truth that has been withheld from him.
In the court of the Sun-Blessed, Khai must learn to navigate deadly intrigue and his own conflicted identity. But in the far reaches of the western seas, the dark god Miasmus is rising, intent on nothing less than wholesale destruction.
I’ll admit I’m a terribly picky reader. My specific taste doesn’t seem to fit in one genre and is sometimes hard to nail down—literary prose with genre tropes, softly-integrated worldbuilding, adventure that leaves room for reflection, and a love story subplot that’s more mental than physical. I love anti-heroes and angst and stories that get a bit dark—but not too dark. When I find it, I’m hooked and obsessed, and I feel like I’m twelve years old again, reading late into the night with a flashlight under the covers. That exprience is what I’m always hunting for, and what I attempt to recreate in my own writing.
I love books that start in the world we know and gently transport the reader into the supernatural. The magic in The Scribe is ancient and the war is underground, but everything feels so natural and real. And how the hero and heroine interact—the reluctance, the tension, the life-or-death alliance. This isn’t instalove, it’s the inescapable love that connects them soul to soul. And when it’s not just the hero who’s haunted but also the heroine, there’s an added dimension to the story that feeds what I crave. The dialogue feels true to life, and the characters come alive on the page. The blend of these elements—fantasy, adventure, and romance—is perfect here, and how they play off one another is like magic.
"Sexy, well-written, and suspenseful." Hidden at the crossroads of the world, an ancient race battles to protect humanity, even as it dies from within.
To the outside world, Ava Matheson is a successful travel photographer from a privileged background. But Ava's spent a lifetime battling voices in her mind she can't understand, and her fractured family has convinced her she'll never belong.
Malachi is an Irin scribe, descended from an angelic race and sworn by blood and magic to defend humanity from the Grigori, the sons of fallen angels who could ravage the world. A chance meeting in Istanbul will…
This book was the winner of the 2022 Official Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off. This may not seem like a big deal, but to indie authors it is. This book was recognized by the author's peers as damned good.
Subplots, turning tropes on their heads, and unexpectedly rooting for the "bad" guy -- these are all things I love in a book. Chocolate and a running sin counter can only make a book better.
Fallen angel Gadriel must get human people-pleaser Holly Harker to sin to get himself out of a gambling debt with another angel. How hard could it be? With the sin counter keeping track of every good deed and every fractional sin (chocolate included), this book kept me chuckling and rooting for the "bad stuff" all the way. Never had being bad felt so good.
A “charming tale of little temptations” (Jacquelyn Benson), this feel-good comedy by fantasy author Olivia Atwater mixes angels, demons, romance, and chocolate into a perfectly petty and wickedly entertaining novel.
A little bit of sin is good for the soul.
Gadriel, the fallen angel of petty temptations, has a bit of a gambling debt. Fortunately, her angelic bookie is happy to let her pay off her debts by doing what she does best: All Gadriel has to do is tempt miserably sinless mortal Holly Harker to do a few nice things for herself.
