Brenna Bustamante

The palace is owed taxes. Alex Mauricio needs to pay it and keep her brother out of the army. It should be a simple exchange-her freedom for a clean slate. But nothing is simple when you can speak to animals in a kingdom that wants to use its dragons as weapons. As a handmaid, Alex expected the nobles' cruelty. What she didn't expect was catching the attention of the kingdom's ruthless ruler, who sees her gift as the key to controlling his prized dragons. Now trapped in a deadly game, Alex must survive trials to prove her worth or face consequences. As Alex fights for her freedom, she discovers that the greatest threat may not be the dragons she fears, but the humans who wish to rule them. With her family's fate hanging in the balance and a King who will stop at nothing to control her, Alex faces an impossible choice: refuse the king, and her family pays, or submit, and risk betraying the very creatures who have chosen to trust her.

In Taiamen, where worth is measured by bloodline, and power is held by the elite, an outsider carries the spark that can shatter an empire built on cruelty and silence. Kenna has spent her life unseen. Forced to protect her siblings under the violent hand of her adoptive father in the starving district of Madyor, she has learned to trade pieces of herself just to live. Her world is one of endless work, sacrifice, and bruises, until one day, rage burns hotter than her fear, and a brilliant light erupts from her body, awakening something ancient and terrifying, and forcing her and her best friend, Zander, to escape into the world outside the only home they know. Now hunted by the government, Kenna discovers she's not just any Conjurer—she's a Dominum, the first in five hundred years to wield all four elements. But Kenna doesn’t feel powerful; instead she feels like a woman with ashes and guilt on her hands. Haunted by fear of what she is and what she must become, Kenna must choose whether to keep running from her power or embrace it—even if it consumes her. When Her Power Awakens is a saga of survival and sacrifice, where reluctant heroes are forged in fire and loyalty is tested against the pull of destiny. Threaded with slow-burn romance, enemies-to-lovers tension, and the fierce bonds of found family, it explores the fragile line between devotion and betrayal, illusion and truth. Lush landscapes, elemental magic, and the relentless echo of prophecy will whisk you into realms both perilous and enchanted. Readers who have lost themselves in the epic sweep of Sarah J. Maas or Helen Scheuerer will discover a kindred world as their protagonists gamble with loyalties, sorcery, and the daunting question of what it truly means to be chosen.