Leslye Penelope Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Leslye Penelope is an award-winning and bestselling fantasy fiction novelist. Laslye who also writes as L. Penelope was born in the Bronx a few years after hip hop came into being. However, she moved out of New York before she could acquire the accent and spent much of her childhood in Maryland.

Equally right and left-brained, she studied computer science and film production at Howard University. She would then get a post-graduate degree in multimedia before she began working as a website developer. Leslye is also an alumnus of the Wright/Hurston Writers Workshop and Voices/VONA.

Penelope made her fiction writing debut with the publishing of “Song of Blood and Stone.” This was a work that was named on the list of the Best 100 Fantasy Books of All Time by “TIME Magazine.”

It was a work that was also the winner of the first edition of the American Library Association’s Black Caucus Best Self-Published Fiction. The novel then attracted the interest of St. Martin’s Press which then published it too.

In addition to her day job and her writing, she also hosts “My Imaginary Friend,” a podcast and weekly journal of her life as a publisher perfect for writers and readers alike. She currently makes her home in Maryland where she lives with her husband and several furry dependents.

She was just a child when she fell in love with writing the fantastical and weird. Just like many kids, this is not unusual since the many stories that we tell our kids make it possible for them to understand the world of wizards, monsters, witches, and fairies all around them.
As a kid, she used to hear stories of creatures with magic powers who lived in very interesting worlds. While many people usually leave the fantastical worlds behind when they start getting into their teenage and adult years, Leslye did not leave it behind completely, even though she stopped writing and reading fantasy for a while.

Life got in the way as she got into her other interests and this resulted in a website development career. The reason for this is that Leslye Penelope was always intrigued by tech and science and when she was a child, she dreamed of one day becoming a chemist.
Back then, she was always putting strange concoctions of ingredients together and doing all manner of experiments. By the time she was in the tenth grade and got a B despite so much effort, she realized that his future did not lie in chemistry.
While she loved science, the practical application was too difficult and it often lowered her GPA too much.

Despite being bad at science, Leslye Penelope somehow found herself in computer science. By the time she turned eight, she had become the de facto technical support in her home, as she often worked on the family’s rickety IBM computer. She learned DOS commands and learned how to fit the printer when it would not print.

When her father got their first modem she began getting involved in early online chat boards. In school, she studied programming languages such as C++ and Basic in addition to Fortran, even if the latter had by then fallen out of regular use.
Her writing practice started growing even as she developed her interest in programming and computers, with most of her stories often containing aspects of speculative fiction. Her works have now become known for their magical adventures, ghostly doppelgangers, and dystopian settings.

She has said that some of her earlier influences include the likes of Gloria Naylor, Virginia Hamilton, and Edgar Allan Poe.

Leslye Penelope’s novel “Savage City” is the brilliant story of Talia and Ryin. Talia is not the princess everyone thinks she is as she fell out of the sky and into a world where she soon got attacked by a monster. Most of people believe she is the daughter of the dragon Nimali even though they could not be any more wrong.

When the king assigns her a healer, she comes to know the truth of the new world she lives in. Meanwhile, a bloody war is raging between the shifter clans as the Fai and Nimali engage in bloody battles. The Nimali are known for not tolerating outsiders and if they learn the secret of her origin, they are sure to kill her.

The healer hates her for who he thinks she is as he is a Fai captive in the land. However, something pulls her to him and every look, every touch and stolen moment is too sweet.

On his part, Ryin is a Fai warrior who works for the Nimali king trying to heal the princess. But secretly he is working to free her people in collaboration with her people. He hates the Nimali and despises the uncaring, aloof, and cold princess until they get up close.
He never expected the spark between them or expected to crave her since she is a prince and he is a prisoner. It does seem that their lies are the only thing keeping them alive.

The novel “Beastly Kingdom” is a fascinating work that tells the story of Xipporah and King Shad.

To save her clan Xipporah was forced to marry her enemy. According to prophecy, the shifter clans will be in danger soon and this would eclipse the war between the Nimali and the Fai. The only thing they can do is to bond their clans to ensure peace and avoid destruction.
She has a month and intends to use it to ruin the Nimali from the inside, only to find that her husband is not the man is not who he was.

As for King Shad, he may have to marry the woman who tried to kill him to save his kingdom. He has lived a life full of pain and blood but is now the new Nimali dragon king and he does not intend to follow in the footsteps of his stepfather.

He never expected to marry for love but also did not expect to marry the woman who days earlier tried to kill her. He is well aware that she is a spy determined to ruin him but he cannot help wanting to be near her and wanting to protect her.
They were destined to be enemies but fate seems to have other plans since duty and love never go hand in hand.

“Brutal Fortress” by Leslye Penelope is the story of a woman who needs to risk everything to become the queen her people need. It is also the story of a man who needs to walk in darkness to free himself from a curse.

As the Nimali princess, everyone expects her to turn into a dragon shifter but since she has already failed, she is under a lot of pressure to get it right. However, it is a dangerous world outside of her pampered existence, as she gets attacked by deadly creatures and all her well-laid plans fall apart.

The man who saves her life becomes a terrible beast who ignites a fever under her skin and has unbelievable power. He believes she is destined for him and locks her away in his fortress. Since her people depend on her, she knows she has to escape since every day in captivity brings him closer to capturing her heart.

On his part, he had been feeling hopeless as he battled terrifying creatures and lived in a brutal uncivilized world until he found her. There is no way he will let her go since he believes she is the one he has been waiting for. Even though she behaves like a haughty princess, she shines light into his heart and awakens intense desire in him.

Still, an overwhelming force is threatening the land with total annihilation and it would need some sacrifices to save the world. But now that he has her the world could burn for all he cares.