For readers who grew up on C. S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia and/or Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials and want something that gives the same feeling of faith and religion being treated seriously - but for a more mature, critical, nuanced, feminist, and open-hearted you. You want to understand more about the different ways to relate to the divine - but you want it alongside an action/romance/found family story that can stand on its own. The Acolyte’s Heresy is for you.

A political fantasy of faith and duty - and challenging preconceived notions of what that even means - for readers who love found family, arranged marriage stakes, and heroines who rewrite their own destiny.

Prompts:

• A fantasy novel with strong female leads

• A fantasy novel with complicated, platonic relationships between women

• A fantasy novel for ex-vangelicals

• A fantasy novel for former “Blessed Children”

• A fantasy novel about recovering from purity culture

• A fantasy novel about leaving cults

• A fantasy novel about leaving high-control religions

• A fantasy novel about impostor syndrome

• A fantasy novel about eldest daughter syndrome

• A fantasy novel that takes religion and faith seriously

Comp Titles:

• C. L. Clark’s The Unbroken

• Rachel Hartman’s Tess of the Road

• Tasha Suri’s The Jasmine Throne

• Brandon Sanderson’s Tress of the Emerald Sea

• According to Claude (on August 10, 2026):

  • Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson

  • Furyborn by Claire Legrand

  • The Grace Year by Kim Liggett

  • Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan

  • Vessel by Sarah Beth Durst

  • I will be reading these over the coming weeks and update it if I agree it is a good fit!

Tropes:

• Slow burn

• Secret identity

• Murder mystery

• Court intrigue

• Found family