10 Best YA Lesbian Romance and Fantasy Books

There’s something about young people discovering themselves and falling in love, isn’t there? Add a dash of magic, a few adventures, a whole new world, and you have the best recipe for entertainment!

Ash / Huntress

In the wake of her father’s death, Ash is left at the mercy of her cruel stepmother. Consumed with grief, her only joy comes by the light of the dying hearth fire, rereading the fairy tales her mother once told her. In her dreams, someday the fairies will steal her away. When she meets the dark and dangerous fairy Sidhean, she believes that her wish may be granted.

The day that Ash meets Kaisa, the King’s Huntress, her heart begins to change. Instead of chasing fairies, Ash learns to hunt with Kaisa. Their friendship, as delicate as a new bloom, reawakens Ash’s capacity for love–and her desire to live. But Sidhean has already claimed Ash for his own, and she must make a choice between fairy tale dreams and true love.

Check out full review here!

Nature is out of balance in the human world. The sun hasn’t shone in years, and crops are failing. Worse yet, strange and hostile creatures have begun to appear. The people’s survival hangs in the balance.

To solve the crisis, the oracle stones are cast, and Kaede and Taisin, two seventeen-year-old girls, are picked to go on a dangerous and unheard-of journey to Tanlili, the city of the Fairy Queen. Taisin is a sage, thrumming with magic, and Kaede is of the earth, without a speck of the otherworldly. And yet the two girls’ destinies are drawn together during the mission. As members of their party succumb to unearthly attacks and fairy tricks, the two come to rely on each other and even begin to fall in love. But the Kingdom needs only one huntress to save it, and what it takes could tear Kaede and Taisin apart forever.

Girls Made of Snow and Glass

Entwining the stories of both Lynet and Mina in the past and present, Girls Made of Snow and Glass traces the relationship of two young women doomed to be rivals from the start. Only one can win all, while the other must lose everything—unless both can find a way to reshape themselves and their story.

Check out full review here!

Girls of Paper and Fire

Each year, eight beautiful girls are chosen as Paper Girls to serve the king. It’s the highest honor they could hope for…and the most demeaning. This year, there’s a ninth. And instead of paper, she’s made of fire.

Check out full review here!

Inkmistress

Asra is a demigod with a dangerous gift: the ability to dictate the future by writing with her blood. To keep her power secret, she leads a quiet life as a healer on a remote mountain, content to help the people in her care and spend time with Ina, the mortal girl she loves.

But Asra’s peaceful life is upended when bandits threaten Ina’s village and the king does nothing to help. Desperate to protect her people, Ina begs Asra for assistance in finding her manifest—the animal she’ll be able to change into as her rite of passage to adulthood. Asra uses her blood magic to help Ina, but her spell goes horribly wrong and the bandits destroy the village, killing Ina’s family.

Moribund (Circuit Fae Book 1)

Dark Fae. Romance. Evil Plots. High school. Our heroines could be in for the greatest adventure ever. If only they could decide whether to kill or kiss each other.

Check out the rest of the series!

Noble Falling

Duchess Aleana Melora of Eniva, future queen of Halvaria, is resigned to the gilded cage of her life, facing a loveless marriage to Tallak, the prospective king, and struggling under the pressure to carry on the family name despite her wish to find a woman to love.

When her convoy is attacked on the journey to Tallak’s palace, Aleana is saved by her guard, Ori, only to discover her people have turned against her and joined forces with the kingdom of Dakmor, Halvaria’s greatest enemy. Her only hope is to reach Tallak, but she and Ori don’t make it far before another attack and an unlikely rescue by Kahira, a Dakmoran woman banished from her kingdom for reasons she is hesitant to share.

Of Fire and Stars

An atmospheric and romantic debut fantasy perfect for fans of Ash and The Winner’s Curse.

Betrothed since childhood to the prince of Mynaria, Princess Dennaleia has always known what her future holds. Her marriage will seal the alliance between Mynaria and her homeland, protecting her people from other hostile kingdoms.

But Denna has a secret. She possesses an Affinity for fire—a dangerous gift for the future queen of a land where magic is forbidden.

Ship of Smoke and Steel (The Wells of Sorcery Trilogy Book 1)

Ship of Smoke and Steel is the launch of Django Wexler’s cinematic, action-packed epic fantasy Wells of Sorcery trilogy.

In the lower wards of Kahnzoka, the great port city of the Blessed Empire, eighteen-year-old ward boss Isoka enforces the will of her criminal masters with the power of Melos, the Well of Combat. The money she collects goes to keep her little sister living in comfort, far from the bloody streets they grew up on.

When Isoka’s magic is discovered by the government, she’s arrested and brought to the Emperor’s spymaster, who sends her on an impossible mission: steal Soliton, a legendary ghost ship—a ship from which no one has ever returned. If she fails, her sister’s life is forfeit.

Unicorn Tracks

When a vicious assault compels sixteen-year-old Mnemba to leave her village, she joins her cousin Tumelo as a tracker in his booming safari business. It doesn’t take her long to become one of the best safari guides in Nazwimbe. Her work allows her to escape into a new world of wondrous creatures, and to avoid thinking about what happened at home.

When Mr. Harving arrives with his daughter Kara to research unicorns, Tumelo assigns Mnemba to them as a guide. The attraction between Mnemba and Kara is almost instant, but Kara is engaged to be married when she returns home. Venturing into the savanna alone, they uncover a plot by a gang of poachers to enslave the unicorns, harnessing their supernatural strength to build a railway. They must save the creatures Kara loves while struggling not to succumb to forbidden love themselves.

 

What awesome reads did I miss? Sound off in the comments!

Top 10 Lesbian Fantasy and Romance Novels

Love fantasy? Love knights and queens and fairy tales? Love lesbian and bisexual ladies struggling in a world filled with magic, strange creatures and royal duties? These novels have everything you’re looking for!

Ash by Malinda Lo

ASh

In the world of Ash, fairies are an older race of people who walk the line between life and death, reality and magic. As orphaned Ash grows up, a servant in her stepmother’s home, she begans to realise that her beloved mother, Elinor, was very much in tune with these underworld folk, and that she herself has the power to see them too.

Ash is a fairy tale about possibility and recognizing the opportunities for change. From the deepest grief comes the chance for transformation.

Read full review here.

Girls Made of Snow and Glass by Melissa Bashardoust

Girls Made of Snow and Glass

Melissa Bashardoust’s acclaimed debut novel Girls Made of Snow and Glass is “Snow White as it’s never been told before…a feminist fantasy fairy tale not to be missed” (BookPage)!

Entwining the stories of both Lynet and Mina in the past and present, Girls Made of Snow and Glass traces the relationship of two young women doomed to be rivals from the start. Only one can win all, while the other must lose everything—unless both can find a way to reshape themselves and their story.

Read full review here.

Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan

Girls of Paper and Fire

Each year, eight beautiful girls are chosen as Paper Girls to serve the king. It’s the highest honor they could hope for…and the most demeaning. This year, there’s a ninth. And instead of paper, she’s made of fire.

Read full review here.

Gretel: A Fairy Tale Retold by Niamh Murphy

Gretel

Once in a while love gives us a fairy tale…

Will sibling bonds override the lure of a newfound love?

Find out in this exciting adult fairy tale full of action, adventure, and romance.

Gretel: A Fairytale Retold’ is a thrilling adaptation of a classic fairytale for fans of Angela Carter’s ‘Bloody Chamber‘ and Malinda Lo’s modern classic, ‘Ash‘.

Of Fire and Stars by Audrey Coulthurst

Of fire and stars

An atmospheric and romantic debut fantasy perfect for fans of Ash and The Winner’s Curse.

Forced to choose between their duty and their hearts, Mare and Denna must find a way to save their kingdoms—and each other.

Princess of Dorsa (The Chronicles of Dorsa Book 1) by Eliza Andrews

Princess of Dorsia

The fate of an empire lies in the hands of one untested princess.

Can Tasia rise to the occasion? Will she be the leader her father believes her to be? Or is the Empire doomed to fall?

For fans of epic fantasy… with an LGBTQ twist.

The Queen of Ieflaria (Tales of Inthya Book 1) by Effie Calvin

Queen of Ieflaria

Princess Esofi of Rhodia and Crown Prince Albion of Ieflaria have been betrothed since they were children but have never met. At age seventeen, Esofi’s journey to Ieflaria is not for the wedding she always expected but instead to offer condolences on the death of her would-be husband.

But Ieflaria is desperately in need of help from Rhodia for their dragon problem, so Esofi is offered a new betrothal to Prince Albion’s younger sister, the new Crown Princess Adale. But Adale has no plans of taking the throne, leaving Esofi with more to battle than fire-breathing beasts.

The Queen’s Curse (A Novel of Epic Spiritual Fantasy Adventure and Lesbian Romance Book 1) by Natasja Hellenthal

The Queen's Curse

When Commander Tirsa Lathabris finds out about her younger brother’s death sentence she is determined to face the mysterious Queen Artride who is as much feared for her immoral actions as she is admired for her beauty.

But Tirsa’s attack has an unexpected outcome. Instead of being imprisoned she is chosen to be Artride’s only bodyguard on a perilous mission.

Their country and its law-system, she soon learns, is cursed.

The Second Sister (Amendyr Book 1) by Rae D. Magdon

the second sister

ELEANOR OF SANDLEFORD’S entire world is shaken when her father marries the mysterious, reclusive Lady Kingsclere to gain her noble title. Ripped away from the only home she has ever known, Ellie is forced to live at Baxstresse Manor with her two new stepsisters, Luciana and Belladonna. Luciana is sadistic, but Belladonna is the woman who truly haunts her. When her father dies and her new stepmother goes suddenly mad, Ellie is cheated out of her inheritance and forced to become a servant.

The Sting of Victory: A Dark Fantasy Lesbian Romance (Fallen Gods Book 1) by SD Simper

The Sting of Victory

When Flowridia, a witch granted power by an unknown demon, deceives an alluring foreign diplomat, she is promoted to a position of power to conceal her falsehood. Thrust into a world of politics and murderous ambition, she has her gentle heart and her Familiar to guide her – as well as a drunk Celestial with a penchant for illusion.

 

Have any other lesbian romance and fantasy stories that you love? Post them in the comments!