Ley-line engineer Merula keeps the energy powering her continent flowing, all for the money to keep her chronically ill sister alive. But when the most dangerous repair of her career means working alongside her old rival, falling for an imprisoned woman, and untangling a magical prison, she might instead have to watch it all burn.

Themes/Tropes:

Sentient nature/pollution
Capable MC
Sapphic women in STEM
A multi-dimension prison break
The complicated cost of resources extraction
Fantasy Engineering

First 300:

There were two rules every Infodia learned before submerging themselves in the ley-lines.

The first, to never lose the battle to temptation and power, to becoming frenzied and desperate like the Creatures roaming the land, seeking to satiate their unending thirst.

The second…

Well, technically there was no second rule, but Merula had made up her own.

Never listen to the whispers.

Merula’s blood seemed to rush faster through her veins at the thought. Only here, beneath the boughs of ancient trees, on a ridge next to the pinnacle of human creation, did she ever feel powerful. Every sensation was amplified—every heartbeat sent a jolt of energy through her body. Here, she almost believed she could conquer Creatures, could be more than the poor girl from the mountains who played with her tools instead of mastering her ether.

“Lift it up higher, I can’t see,” Merula said. She pocketed her wrench and let her arm relax, muscles heaving with relief. This section of the ley-line was so damn old that the bolts on the access panels had rusted through.

“Your head is in the way.”

“My head is in the same place it always is. You’re standing in a hole.” Merula shot a glare toward Rumi, who stood a few paces behind her, an ether-powered lantern casting a whitish-blue light over their cheeks. Their other hand was angled on their hip, rosy lips the only hint of color on their pale face.

“Take it yourself then, I’m supposed to be keeping watch.”

Keeping her scoff of annoyance to a minimum, Merula stepped down from the rock she’d been using to boost her high enough to reach the ley-line’s access panel and snatched the lantern from Rumi. “I wasn’t aware holding the light precluded you from using your ears.”

All Fen wants is to find a legendary magic sword. All Headmaster Saros wants is to find his father’s killer. Good thing a string of murders (committed by the magic sword) will bring them together. Too bad they drive each other crazy (in more ways than one) 

Themes/Tropes:

An aries and a scorpio solve a murder
Grumpy academic and plucky ex-solider
REAL slow burn romance
Mushroom-based magic/religion system
Lost ancient civilization
Fake kiss to avoid detection

First 300:

Only the far reaches of the Sporewood could ever make Fen rethink her name.

Her given name, Fenwyn, rolled off the tongue in a way her parents hoped would help her attract a suitor and adopt the family business of trading in illegal spores. But then, their darling Fenwyn turned six, picked up a sword and a bow at a traveling exhibition, and all hope of wooing anyone evaporated, along with the second half of Fen’s name.

Only with her boots sodden and insects biting a map across her face did she ever wonder what it would be like to be Fenwyn instead.

“We’re lost, damn it. This is the sixth time we’ve passed these same bones.”

Fen eyed the bones, then the man who had spoken. Grizzled and sun-scarred but with a heart so saccharine it sometimes made Fen’s teeth ache, Rafferty was a lot of things. A navigator was not one of them.

“The last bones were obviously mammalian in nature,” she said. “But look at how the femur on these is angled. Only a human could manage to die in such a…provocative position.”

Rafferty snorted. “Get your mind out of the swamp. Provocative position or no, I swear we’ve been here before.”

“No, there just happen to be a lot of bodies out here.” Fen gave a low whistle, signaling to the remaining members of Erranance Seven, who had fallen behind in the muck.

“Thank Cantheron, we’re finally stopping?” Bramwell offered his arm to Nasrin, helping her climb over a rotted log teeming with mushrooms.

Status: Outlining/Dreaming
Genre: Romance/Magical Realism

Maisie, the daughter of the infamous front man of the 80s rock band After the Sun, has always been desperate to escape his shadow. But when her father tells her that he only has a year to live and wants her to join him on one last farewell tour, she meets Jude, and everything changes.