Books with Female Protagonists from Perpich Library

March 21, 2025

To celebrate Women’s History Month, the library TAs, Aliya and Quinn, put together a fantastic display of novels with women protagonists. These are just a few of the books on display in the library this month.

All items on this list are available at the Perpich library. Click on titles for more information.

1. The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden
A novel inspired by Russian fairy tales follows the experiences of a wild young girl who taps the mysterious powers of a precious necklace given to her father years earlier to save her village from dark and dangerous forces.

2. Circe by Madeline Miller
In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe is a strange child — not powerful, like her father, nor viciously alluring like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she does possess power — the power of witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods themselves. Threatened, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts, and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology, including the Minotaur, Daedalus, and his doomed son, Icarus, the murderous Medea, and, of course, wily Odysseus.

3. Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger
Seventeen-year-old Elatsoe (“Ellie” for short) lives in a slightly stranger America. She can raise the ghosts of dead animals, a skill passed down through generations of her Lipan Apache family. Her beloved cousin has just been murdered, in a town that wants no prying eyes. But she is going to do more than pry. The picture-perfect façade of Willowbee masks gruesome secrets, and she will rely on her wits, skills, and friends to tear off the mask and protect her family.

4. The Midnight Lie by Marie Rutkoski
Where Nirrim lives, crime abounds, a harsh tribunal rules, and society’s pleasures are reserved for the High Kith. Life in the Ward is grim and punishing. People of her low status are forbidden from sampling sweets or wearing colors. You either follow the rules, or pay a tithe and suffer the consequences. Nirrim keeps her head down, and a dangerous secret close to her chest. But then she encounters Sid, a rakish traveler from far away, who whispers rumors that the High Kith possess magic. Sid tempts Nirrim to seek that magic for herself. But to do that, Nirrim must surrender her old life. She must place her trust in this sly stranger who asks, above all, not to be trusted.

5. The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang
A war orphan rises from her humble beginnings to become a powerful military commander, and perhaps her country’s only hope for survival. Inspired by the bloody history of China’s 20th century and filled with treachery and magic.

6. The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
The House of Berethnet has ruled Inys for a thousand years. Still unwed, Queen Sabran the Ninth must conceive a daughter to protect her realm from destruction–but assassins are getting closer to her door. Ead Duryan is an outsider at court. Though she has risen to the position of lady-in-waiting, she is loyal to a hidden society of mages. Ead keeps a watchful eye on Sabran, secretly protecting her with forbidden magic. Across the dark sea, Tané has trained to be a dragonrider since she was a child, but is forced to make a choice that could see her life unravel. Meanwhile, the divided East and West refuse to parley, and forces of chaos are rising from their sleep.

7. Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake by Alexis Hall
Following the recipe is the key to a successful bake. Rosaline Palmer has always lived by those rules—well, except for when she dropped out of college to raise her daughter, Amelie. Now, with a paycheck as useful as greaseproof paper and a house crumbling faster than biscuits in tea, she’s teetering on the edge of financial disaster. But where there’s a whisk there’s a way… and Rosaline has just landed a spot on the nation’s most beloved baking show.

8. She Would Be King by Wayetu Moore
Gbessa, exiled from the West African village of Lai, is starved, bitten by a viper, and left for dead, but still she survives. June Dey, raised on a plantation in Virginia, hides his unusual strength until a confrontation with the overseer forces him to flee. Norman Aragon, child of a white British colonizer and a Maroon slave from Jamaica, can fade from sight when the earth calls him. When the three meet in the settlement of Monrovia, their gifts help them salvage the tense relationship between the African American settlers and the indigenous tribes, as a new nation forms around them.

9. Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim
Shiori, princess of Kiata, has a secret: Forbidden magic runs through her veins. On the morning of her betrothal ceremony she loses control, and it forestalls the wedding she never wanted– but it also catches the attention of Raikama, her stepmother. Using a dark magic of her own, Raikama banishes the princess, turns her brothers into cranes, and warns Shiori that for every word that escapes her lips, one of her brothers will die. Penniless, voiceless, and alone, Shiori searches for her brothers– and uncovers a conspiracy to overtake the throne. Now she must embrace the magic she’s been taught all her life to contain.

10. Woven in Moonlight by Isabel Ibañez
Ximena is the decoy Condesa, a stand-in for the last remaining Illustrian royal. Her people lost everything when the usurper, Atoc, used an ancient relic to summon ghosts and drive the Illustrians from La Ciudad. Now Ximena’s motivated by her insatiable thirst for revenge, and her rare ability to spin thread from moonlight. When Atoc demands the real Condesa’s hand in marriage, it’s Ximena’s duty to go in her stead. She relishes the chance, as Illustrian spies have reported that Atoc’s no longer carrying his deadly relic. If Ximena can find it, she can return the true aristócrata to their rightful place.

All items on this list are available at the Perpich Library.

Title descriptions are provided by Amazon and/or the publisher.