Twenty-four fantasy novels, one shared obsession: a woman in armour with something to prove. The list runs from Tamora Pierce's Alanna: The First Adventure, the opening book of Song of the Lioness, to Hannah Kaner's Godkiller, Samantha Shannon's The Priory of the Orange Tree and Rachel Gillig's The Knight and the Moth. Every title is in the table below.

Every title on the lady-knight list

Which names on this list will you already know?

Samantha Shannon's The Priory of the Orange Tree carries a New York Times bestseller line on its cover, and it is the doorstop of the group — the kind of book you clear a long weekend for rather than an evening.

Tamora Pierce's Alanna: The First Adventure is the oldest guard here, the first book of Song of the Lioness and the reason a great many readers went looking for lady knights in the first place. Holly Black's The Darkest Part of the Forest sits alongside it as the other familiar shelf-friend.

Hannah Kaner's Godkiller and Christopher Buehlman's The Blacktongue Thief round out the recognisable names. The Blacktongue Thief wears a Robin Hobb endorsement on its jacket, which is not a bad calling card to have.

Where do the knights meet the romance?

Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner's Lady's Knight announces itself on the cover with "Lock up your dragons" — a title doing exactly what it says on the tin, in hot pink no less.

Cait Jacobs's The Princess Knight and Mariah Rae Birch's Her Pretty Knight both put the knight-and-lady pairing front and centre, Jacobs in storybook colour and Birch behind a single upright sword.

Lex Croucher's Gwen & Art Are Not in Love comes with the line "the path to true love never did run straight," and Catherine Bakewell's Where Shadows Bloom is billed on its cover as "a magical blend of romance and whimsy, equal parts devastating and hopeful."

Which of these come with dragons?

Charlotte Bond's The Fireborne Blade puts an armoured figure against an enormous pale dragon, and the cover copy confirms a dragon is very much part of the arrangement.

Sara Wolf's Heaven Breaker goes cosmic instead, with a vast winged creature wrapped around a golden moon. Neon Yang's Brighter Than Scale, Swifter Than Flame keeps its dragon in the coils framing a white-haired knight.

And Lady's Knight, again, is the one telling you outright to shut the stable door.

Which titles are part of something bigger?

K. Godin appears twice: Ballad of Broken Banners is marked Book One of the Anointed Duet, and Legend of the Huntress sits beside it with a heart-and-blades crest on a dark green cover.

Sara Omer's The Gryphon King belongs to a sequence called The Chaos Constellation, so there is more where that came from.

Alanna: The First Adventure is the first of Tamora Pierce's Song of the Lioness, which makes it the natural starting point if you want a whole quartet rather than a single night's reading.

Which covers are worth staring at?

Alix E. Harrow's The Everlasting wraps a sword in flowers, which is a fair summary of what this whole list is doing. Griffith's Spear is the quietest of the set: a spear standing in a bowl of flame, and nothing else.

Victoria Mier's Holy Wrath goes maximalist with swans and a black horse. Caitlin Starling's The Starving Saints frames a veiled figure in gold like an altarpiece, with a blurb from Ava Reid to match.

Rachel Gillig's The Knight and the Moth and V. L. Bovalino's The Second Death of Locke are the two most straightforwardly armoured covers here — Bovalino's carries a Tasha Suri line calling it "gritty, romantic, and breathlessly fierce." Of Deeds Most Valiant and Fate's Bane close out the list, both leaning forest-dark.

If you want to argue about the order, that is what a book club is for, and The Bookclub Boutique has opinions.

Frequently asked questions

Which author appears twice on this list?

K. Godin appears twice, with Ballad of Broken Banners and Legend of the Huntress. Ballad of Broken Banners is labelled Book One of the Anointed Duet on its cover, so it is the one to begin with if you want to read Godin in order rather than picking whichever cover catches your eye first.

Are the authors of every title on the list known?

Two titles here are listed without an author: Of Deeds Most Valiant and Fate's Bane. Both are included because they belong on a lady-knight shelf, but the attribution is left blank rather than guessed at. Fate's Bane does carry a cover endorsement from Alix E. Harrow, which tells you something about the company it keeps.