Books like 'The Poet Empress'

Readers who enjoyed The Poet Empress by Shen Tao also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.

historical  fantasy  romance  high fantasy  horror  historical-fiction  epic  myths  sword-sorcery  dark

  • Kushiel's Avatar by Jacqueline Carey

    Kushiel's Avatar by Jacqueline Carey

    Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars
    · 44 ratings
    The land of Terre d'Ange is a place of unsurpassed beauty and grace. It's inhabited by the race that rose from the seed of angels, and they live by one simple rule: Love as thou wilt. Phèdre nó Delaunay was sold into indentured servitude as a child. Her bond was purchased by a nobleman who recognized that she was pricked by Kushiel's dart, chosen to forever experience pain and pleasure as one...
  • Winterlight by Kristen Britain

    Winterlight by Kristen Britain

    Rated: 4.51 of 5 stars
    · 26 ratings
    This seventh novel of the Green Rider series follows the adventures of messenger, magic wielder, and knight Karigan G'ladheon as she fights to save king and country from dark magic and a looming war.After her capture at the hands of Grandmother and the Second Empire, Karigan G'ladheon is making halting progress towards recovery...
  • The Reckoning by Vanessa Nelson

    The Reckoning by Vanessa Nelson

    Rated: 4.63 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    Missing girls. A plea for help she can’t ignore. An ancient enemy with plans of his own. Nine-year-old girls are missing from across the lands. Yvonne has promised to find them, and she always keeps her promises. Even when she doesn’t know where to start looking. There’s more trouble around. Mercenaries are disappearing...
  • The Six Deaths of the Saint by Alix E. Harrow

    The Six Deaths of the Saint by Alix E. Harrow

    Rated: 4.45 of 5 stars
    · 21 ratings
    The Saint of War spares the life of a servant girl so she can fulfill her destiny as the kingdom’s greatest warrior in this short story of love and loyalty by New York Times bestselling author Alix E. Harrow.Always mindful of the debt she owes, the girl finds her worth as a weapon in the hand of the Prince. Her victories make him a king, then an emperor...
  • Magic's Price by Mercedes Lackey

    Magic's Price by Mercedes Lackey

    Rated: 4.27 of 5 stars
    · 41 ratings
    The final chapter in Mercedes Lackey's spellbinding fantasy trilogy! The Herald-Mage, Vanyel, and his Companion, Yfandes, are alone responsible for saving the once-peaceful kingdom of Valdemar from the forces of a master who wields a dark, forbidding magic. And if either Vanyel or Yfandes falters, both Valdemar and its Herald-Mage must pay the ultimate price...
  • The Wonder Engine by T. Kingfisher

    The Wonder Engine by T. Kingfisher

    Rated: 4.27 of 5 stars
    · 37 ratings
    Pull three people out of prison--a disgraced paladin, a convicted forger, and a heartless assassin. Give them weapons, carnivorous tattoos, and each other. Point them at the enemy. What could possibly go wrong? In the sequel to CLOCKWORK BOYS, Slate, Brenner, Caliban and Learned Edmund have arrived in Anuket City, the source of the mysterious Clockwork Boys...
  • Clockwork Boys by T. Kingfisher

    Clockwork Boys by T. Kingfisher

    Rated: 4.26 of 5 stars
    · 38 ratings
    A paladin, an assassin, a forger, and a scholar ride out of town. It’s not the start of a joke, but rather an espionage mission with deadly serious stakes. T...
  • King's Warrior by Frost Kay

    King's Warrior by Frost Kay

    Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    Revolution and war come with a price in the fourth volume of USA Today Bestselling Author Frost Kay’s The Aermian Feuds Series. Returning to Aermia should’ve been easy, but nightmares and death haunt her, leaving Sage as an outsider, even in her own family...
  • Swordheart by T. Kingfisher

    Swordheart by T. Kingfisher

    Rated: 4.27 of 5 stars
    · 35 ratings
    Halla is a housekeeper who has suddenly inherited her great-uncle's estate... and, unfortunately, his relatives. Sarkis is an immortal swordsman trapped in a prison of enchanted steel. When Halla draws the sword that imprisons him, Sarkis finds himself attempting to defend his new wielder against everything from bandits and roving inquisitors to her own in-laws..
  • Inferno by Kat Ross

    Inferno by Kat Ross

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    In the last volume of the Fourth Talisman series, the worlds of the living and the dead collide in a final confrontation that will leave Nocturne and Solis forever changed....Three talismans adrift.Two mad kings. One poisonous crown.As dark forces gather at the Rock of Ariamazes in Samarqand, Nazafareen discovers that there are worse places than the afterlife...
  • The Searching by Vanessa Nelson

    The Searching by Vanessa Nelson

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    Oath-sworn to help those in need, Yvonne has been framed for murder.Tracking down those responsible for the destruction of the Stone Walls was a difficult enough task, but someone has made it much harder. The King is dead, and Yvonne is accused of his murder...
  • This Gilded Abyss by Rebecca Thorne

    This Gilded Abyss by Rebecca Thorne

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    Sergeant Nix Marr is a damn good soldier. She’s also desperate to leave her haunted past deep in the bioluminescent ocean, buried alongside her best friend, Quian. So, when Subarch Kessandra, Valkesh’s favorite royal–and Nix’s loathed ex–requests Nix’s help investigating a massacre in the abyssal city of Fall, Nix refuses. Vehemently.She should have known Kessandra would fight back...
    Categorized as:
    epic  dark  romance  wlw  fantasy  horror  lgbtq  mystery
  • By Dark Deeds by Miranda Honfleur

    By Dark Deeds by Miranda Honfleur

    Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    Her hands shackled. An assassin hunting the man she loves. Will she save him in time?Elementalist Rielle needs to get to the man she loves before the assassin pursuing him finds her mark. There's only one problem: she's chained aboard a ship bound for a foreign land.And her new life is harsh, with her movements watched, food scarce, and safety even scarcer...
  • Autumn of the Grimoire by J.L. Vampa

    Autumn of the Grimoire by J.L. Vampa

    Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    Some witches cast spells. Others slay kings.A mysterious Grimoire. A marriage full of dark secrets. A History sculpted by a quartet of ancient Sister witches.For three hundred years, Sister Autumn has incited wars, burnt villages, killed kings, and released plagues at the bidding of the Grimoire. Meanwhile, her Sister Winter, Sister Spring, and Sister Summer have brought forth only peace...
  • Touch of Power by Maria V. Snyder

    Touch of Power by Maria V. Snyder

    Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars
    · 31 ratings
    Laying hands upon the injured and dying, Avry of Kazan assumes their wounds and diseases into herself. But rather than being honoured for her skills, she is hunted. Healers like Avry are accused of spreading the plague that has decimated the Territories, leaving the survivors in a state of chaos...
  • Masque by W.R. Gingell

    Masque by W.R. Gingell

    Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    Beauty met the Beast and there was . . . Bloody murder? It’s the Annual Ambassadorial Ball in Glause, and Lady Isabella Farrah, the daughter of New Civet’s Ambassador, is feeling pleasantly scintillated. In the library is Lord Pecus, a charming gentleman whose double mask hides a beastly face, and who has decided that Isabella is the very person to break the Pecus curse...
  • Spy's Mask by Frost Kay

    Spy's Mask by Frost Kay

    Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    War and freedom from tyranny comes with a price in the fifth volume of the USA Today Bestselling Author Frost Kay's Aermian Feuds Series.No one could have prepared Sage and Tehl for the ruin the Warlord would wreak on the world to get to Aermia. Sage thought she knew how to play his deadly games, but his warped crimes prove she's out of her depth...
  • The White Song by Phil Tucker

    The White Song by Phil Tucker

    Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    The White Song is the final installment in a gripping new epic fantasy series.The hour of reckoning is at hand. The skies darken with the forces of the enemy while the hopes of the armies of the light dwindle to but a candle flame. Morals, compunctions, oaths - all must be set aside, every sacrifice made, every advantage and ally sought if there is to be any chance for survival...
  • Paladin's Grace by T. Kingfisher

    Paladin's Grace by T. Kingfisher

    Rated: 4.23 of 5 stars
    · 34 ratings
    Stephen's god died on the longest day of the year…Three years later, Stephen is a broken paladin, living only for the chance to be useful before he dies. But all that changes when he encounters a fugitive named Grace in an alley and witnesses an assassination attempt gone wrong...
  • Heir to Sevenwaters by Juliet Marillier

    Heir to Sevenwaters by Juliet Marillier

    Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars
    · 35 ratings
    A brand new novel in the beloved world of Sevenwaters, a fantasy series that should appeal to "Lord of the Rings" fans (VOYA). The chieftains of Sevenwaters have long been custodians of a vast and mysterious forest. Human and Otherworld dwellers have existed there side by side, sharing a wary trust...
  • Oathbreakers by Mercedes Lackey

    Oathbreakers by Mercedes Lackey

    Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars
    · 38 ratings
    When Idra, leader of the crack mercenaries known as the Sunhawks, failed to return from a journey to her home kingdom of Rethwellan, Tarma and Kethry, warrior and mage, set out in search of their vanished leader. Sisters of sword and spell, their fates bound together by Goddess-sworn oath, they were eternally pledged to fight the forces of evil...
  • Terciel and Elinor by Garth Nix

    Terciel and Elinor by Garth Nix

    Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    Bestselling novelist Garth Nix returns to the Old Kingdom for the never-before-told love story of Sabriel’s parents, Terciel and Elinor, and the Charter magic that brought them together—and threatened to tear them apart. A long-awaited prequel to a classic fantasy series...
  • Winter's Fury by A.E. Rayne

    Winter's Fury by A.E. Rayne

    Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    IN A WORLD RULED BY MEN, ONE WOMAN WILL RISE Jael Furyck isn’t happy.Her father is dead. Her uncle has stolen the throne.And now he wants to marry her off to the fallen son of her arch-enemy.But Jael is a battle-hardened warrior, trained to kill since she was ten-years-old.She doesn’t plan on being anyone’s wife.Eadmund Skalleson is drunk.His father is threatening him with a wife again...
  • Enemy's Queen by Frost Kay

    Enemy's Queen by Frost Kay

    Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    Beauty and perfection come at a price… Abducted and thrust into a court obsessed with perfection, scarred Sage Ramses’ dream of peace and happiness is no longer a possibility. An ancient creature of darkness rules the land along with a people that are no longer human, and she’s forced to learn how to survive despite her inadequacies...
  • Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold

    Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold

    Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars
    · 40 ratings
    In a land threatened by treacherous war and beset by demons, royal dowager Ista, released from the curse of madness and manipulated by an untrustworthy god, is plunged into a desperate struggle to preserve the endangered souls of a realm...
  • Lavish Destruction by Myra Danvers

    Lavish Destruction by Myra Danvers

    Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    “It’s the fight, isn’t it? The struggle. The idea that I’ll pin you down and take what I want…” He smiled, slow and dangerous. Watching me struggle to deny him. Watching me fail… Enslaved to a man I hate, I’m bound. All that I was is gone. Taken. Stripped away, only to feed the beast who dares to call himself my equal, while having the gall to leave me helpless to his whims...
  • Queen & Conqueror by Isabelle Olmo

    Queen & Conqueror by Isabelle Olmo

    Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    How does one conquer a kingdom without spilling blood? You offer your hand in marriage to the king who killed your husband. Almira was raised by a calculating father who forged her in political cunning. She’s prepared for this moment since childhood. Like pieces on a board, she lays out the players one by one. One. King Alton, the brother-killer...
  • Queen & Conqueror by Isabelle Olmo

    Queen & Conqueror by Isabelle Olmo

    Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    How does one conquer a kingdom without spilling blood? You offer your hand in marriage to the king who killed your husband. Almira was raised by a calculating father who forged her in political cunning. She’s prepared for this moment since childhood. Like pieces on a board, she lays out the players one by one. One. King Alton, the brother-killer...
  • Ghost in the Cowl by Jonathan Moeller

    Ghost in the Cowl by Jonathan Moeller

    Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    OverviewCaina Amalas was a nightfighter of the Ghosts, the spies and assassins of the Emperor of Nighmar, and through her boldness and cunning saved the Empire and the world from sorcerous annihilation.But the victory cost her everything.Now she is exiled and alone in the city of Istarinmul, far from her home and friends...
    Categorized as:
    dark  epic  myths  action-adventure  adult  assassins  book  demons
  • Sacrifice by Tara Maya

    Sacrifice by Tara Maya

    Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    Reviews"I was enchanted by Initiate, drawn into a world that felt as comfortably recognizable and uniquely untried as Narnia, Hogwarts orMiddle Earth."--Casee Marie, The Girl Who Stole the Eiffel Tower"Wow. Holy smoking wow. This is one of the few books I've read that I canhonestly say was totally, 100% original.... However, as unique as it is, it was insanely easy to slip into the story..
    Categorized as:
    dark  epic  book  fae  fiction  high-fantasy  historical  horror
  • Illuminance by Kara Douglas

    Illuminance by Kara Douglas

    Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    A brewing war, and a prophecy to doom them all. Lu’s life as she knows it is over. Her wishes of freedom have finally come to fruition, but at what cost? Her worst nightmares have become reality as monsters, fae, and dark magic corrupt the only home she’s ever known. Old, broken memories come to light, and the war from long ago seems doomed to repeat itself, with Lu stuck in the middle...
  • The Wolf in the Whale by Jordanna Max Brodsky

    The Wolf in the Whale by Jordanna Max Brodsky

    Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars
    · 32 ratings
    A sweeping tale of clashing cultures, warring gods, and forbidden love: In 1000 AD, a young Inuit shaman and a Viking warrior become unwilling allies as war breaks out between their peoples and their gods-one that will determine the fate of them all."There is a very old story, rarely told, of a wolf that runs into the ocean and becomes a whale...
  • The Black Shriving by Phil Tucker

    The Black Shriving by Phil Tucker

    Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    When invasion looms...After a harrowing battle Lady Kyferin and her stalwart followers have earned themselves a brief respite from Lord Laur's fury. They know, however, that the next assault will be impossible to resist. Their sole hope of survival lies in forging an alliance with the only force capable of resisting the empire's might: the Agerastian heretics themselves.But time is running out..
  • Bryony and Roses by T. Kingfisher

    Bryony and Roses by T. Kingfisher

    Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars
    · 17 ratings
    Bryony and her sisters have come down in the world. Their merchant father died trying to reclaim his fortune and left them to eke out a living in a village far from their home in the city. But when Bryony is caught in a snowstorm and takes refuge in an abandoned manor, she stumbles into a house full of dark enchantments...
  • The Oracle's Queen by Lynn Flewelling

    The Oracle's Queen by Lynn Flewelling

    Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars
    · 29 ratings
    Under the rule of a usurper king, the realm of Skala has suffered famine, plague, and invasion. But now the time for the rightful heir has come, a return to the tradition of warrior queens. And the Lightbearer's prophecy is to be upheld at last: so long as a daughter of the royal line defends and rules, Skala will never be subjugated...
  • The Rebels of Gold by Elise Kova

    The Rebels of Gold by Elise Kova

    Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars
    · 25 ratings
    A new rebellion rises from the still-smoldering remnants of the five guilds of Loom to stand against Dragon tyranny. Meanwhile, on Nova, those same Dragons fight amongst themselves, as age-old power struggles shift the political landscape in fateful and unexpected ways...
  • Uprooted by Naomi Novik

    Uprooted by Naomi Novik

    Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars
    · 83 ratings
    “Our Dragon doesn’t eat the girls he takes, no matter what stories they tell outside our valley. We hear them sometimes, from travelers passing through. They talk as though we were doing human sacrifice, and he were a real dragon...
  • Bright Familiar by Jeffe Kennedy

    Bright Familiar by Jeffe Kennedy

    Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    He wanted her with consuming passion... and so did the monster within.Lady Veronica Elal has been freed from her tower—and entered a life of servitude. It doesn’t matter that her wizard master has odd ideas about circumventing Convocation tradition and making their relationship equal. Nic prides herself on her practicality and that means not pretending her marriage is full of hearts and flowers...
  • The Traitor's Mercy by Iris Foxglove

    The Traitor's Mercy by Iris Foxglove

    Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    In the court of Staria, mercy is rarely a blessing…Sabre de Valois is the last of his line. Saved from the gallows while his family hangs for treason, Sabre is given the chance to pay off their debt and clear his family name...
  • The Empire of Empty Wars by S.M. Gaither

    The Empire of Empty Wars by S.M. Gaither

    Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    Death. Betrayal. Destruction. This was Alaya's destiny, written in the stars on the night she was born. She should have been killed because of it.She wasn’t.The once crown prince of the highest throne in Sundolia is now the high king, and all of his advisors agree on one thing: He should have destroyed that dangerous Dragon woman when he had the chance.He didn’t...
  • The House of Diamond by Ursula Vernon

    The House of Diamond by Ursula Vernon

    Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    Black Dogs: The House of Diamond is the first of two volumes chronicling the adventures of young Lyra, sole survivor of the massacre of her family's estate. Along with a wandering dog-soldier, she is swept up on a mission for the elven nation of Anu'tintavel in its war against a powerful sorcerer...
  • Piper Prince by Amber Argyle

    Piper Prince by Amber Argyle

    Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    Can you hear him? The beast is coming for you. Long ago, a curse fell upon the land—a curse of forgetting and wraiths, a curse that ensured no daughters were born to the pied pipers in over three centuries. The pipers were all that stood between humanity and utter destruction, so they did the only thing they could: they stole the daughters of the nearby kingdom with their hypnotizing melodies...
  • Blood Song by Hollee Mands

    Blood Song by Hollee Mands

    Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    She owes her blood. He’ll pay with his life.Ruthless assassin Gabriel has little fear and even fewer scruples. Every head has a price, and every hunt is a thrill. He saunters through life on a tightrope, mocking fate and defying death with every step. So when he’s forced to hunt down and deliver a prophesied blood sacrifice, Gabriel has no reason to expect trouble...
  • Lullaby Scars by Hollee Mands

    Lullaby Scars by Hollee Mands

    Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    He’s the only man she’s ever wanted. She’s everything he can never have.Killian’s scars are all people see, but with his wretched past, he doesn’t want them to look closer. He resigned himself long ago to living as an indentured slave to a powerful and capricious high mage—until a chance meeting with a temptress outside a brothel teaches him to want…If only he hadn’t asked her price for the night...
    Categorized as:
    sword-sorcery  myths  dark  romance  fantasy  magic  fae  paranormal
  • Bitterthorn by Kat Dunn

    Bitterthorn by Kat Dunn

    Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    Blumwald is a town overshadowed by an ancient curse: in a sinister castle in the depths of the wild wood lives a monstrous Witch. Once a generation, she comes to claim a companion to return with her – never to be seen again. Now that time is drawing near once more...Mina, daughter of the duke, is grieving and lonely. She has lost all hope of any future for herself in Blumwald...
  • Corambis by Sarah Monette

    Corambis by Sarah Monette

    Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    In the spellbinding conclusion to the brilliant fantasy series, Doctrine of Labyrinths, two brothers discover their ultimate destiny.Exiled from Melusine for the crime of heresy, Felix Harrowgate and his half-brother Mildmay journey to the land of Corambis to face judgement from a ruling body of wizards. Both brothers carry memories, regret, and-hidden deep in their hearts-hope...
  • The Architect of Song by A.G. Howard

    The Architect of Song by A.G. Howard

    Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    A lady imprisoned by deafness, an architect imprisoned by his past, and a ghost imprisoned within the petals of a flower – intertwine in this love story that transcends life and death. For most of her life, Juliet Emerline has subsisted – isolated by deafness – making hats in the solitude of her home...
  • Small Favors by Erin A. Craig

    Small Favors by Erin A. Craig

    Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - From the critically-acclaimed author of House of Salt and Sorrows comes a mesmerizing and chilling fairy-talesque novel about Ellerie Downing, a young woman in a small town with monsters lurking in the trees and dark desires hidden in the shadows--in Amity Falls, nothing is more dangerous than a wish come true. Unique, enchanting, and haunting...
  • Bring Me Their Hearts by Sara Wolf

    Bring Me Their Hearts by Sara Wolf

    Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars
    · 20 ratings
    Zera is a Heartless – the immortal, unageing soldier of a witch. Bound to the witch Nightsinger ever since she saved her from the bandits who murdered her family, Zera longs for freedom from the woods they hide in. With her heart in a jar under Nightsinger’s control, she serves the witch unquestioningly...
  • Curse of the Dark Prince by Ariana Nash

    Curse of the Dark Prince by Ariana Nash

    Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    With the powerful cities of Seran and Loreen having fallen to elves, and the dark flame escaping its bonds, Prince Vasili Caville’s plight has never been more desperate. But for the first time in his lifetime, he’s not alone. With the formidable Nikolas Yazdan at his side, not all is lost. But Nikolas has changed...
The Poet Empress by Shen Tao
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