I Read Fantasy Like It’s My Full-Time Job—Here Are the Ones I Recommend to Everyone

For my romance readers who find comfort in familiar tropes, The Second Death of Locke is, at its core, a beautiful friends-to-lovers story between a knight and the mage she has dedicated her life to. I haven’t stopped thinking about this book since I read it, and I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone looking to dip their toes into the fantasy genre.

Grey Flynn is Kier’s blade, healer, and protector. She possesses a deep well of raw power inside her that is Kier’s to wield. Though they are bound together by blood and magic, there is one truth Grey cannot reveal… not even to Kier.

When a quest to protect the child of an enemy kingdom pulls them into a dangerous mission, Grey will need to decide what she’s willing to sacrifice to protect her secret.

The Second Death of Locke is the first in a collection of interconnected standalones set in the same world.

If you still have strong opinions over whether Elena should have ended up with Stefan or Damon, We Who Will Die is the fantasy book for you. To escape the perilous Thorn district and secure a better life for her young brothers, Arvelle makes a magically binding vow to do the impossible: kill the emperor, an ancient vampire created by the god Umbros. To get close to him, Arvelle must join the Sundering, an arena where only the fastest, strongest, and deadliest survive long enough to be selected for the emperor’s elite guard.

With her brothers’ lives in the balance, Arvelle has no choice but to ally with the man who once shattered her heart… and with the emperor’s sadistic son, Rorrik. To complete her mission, Arvelle must get to the bottom of a conspiracy that will change everything she thought she knew about herself—and the two vampires who are deeply entwined with her destiny.

We Who Will Die is the first book in a series.

We chose Weavingshaw for our book club because it hooked us from the very first page. If the Wuthering Heights movie was your Super Bowl, Weavingshaw should be on your TBR.

The Saint of Silence trades coins for every sordid divulgence uttered to him: the darker the secret, the higher the price. When Leena’s brother falls deathly ill, her only option for a remedy is to seek the Saint and share the secret she keeps closely guarded—she can see the dead.

But Leena’s secret is more valuable than she could have imagined. To save her brother, she will make a deal to find the ghost the Saint has been searching for. All paths lead to Weavingshaw, a cursed estate on the moors. As Leena gets closer to the ghost—and her freedom—she is plunged into the Saint’s world of danger, deceit, and desire. The Saint is hiding his own secrets, and they just might destroy them all.

Weavingshaw is the first book in a series.

If you want your love stories filled with intense yearning and fate, you must meet Matilda and Vincent of Wild Reverence.

In the firelit under realm of a land where gods often kill each other to steal power and alliances break as quickly as they are forged, Matilda is the youngest goddess of her clan, blessed with humble messenger magic. Though she carries words and letters across realms, she harbors a secret she must hide to ensure her survival—and complicating matters, a mortal boy, known as Vincent of Beckett, dreams of her despite never having met her in the waking world. That is, until she comes tumbling into his bedroom window with a letter for him. To rewrite the deeply ingrained blood-soaked ways of the gods, Matilda will have to face something she fears even more than losing her magic: to be vulnerable, and to allow herself to finally be loved.

I read this book earlier this year and it became my entire personality for weeks afterward. In the small town of Jasper, North Carolina, the Farrow women are known for two things: their flower farm and the curse that plagues their family line.

Now, it seems that curse has found June, as she’s been plagued by visions of a mysterious door for the past year. But June is determined to end the curse once and for all. When June’s grandmother dies, leaving behind a series of cryptic clues regarding her mother’s disappearance, June is left with more questions than answers. What she does learn, though, is that she can walk through the door in her visions. The next time the door appears, she opens it, setting a story of star-crossed love in motion.

The Unmaking of June Farrow is a standalone.

The first thing I said in my Goodreads review of Rewitched was that it was DELIGHTFUL (yes, in all caps). This book really is the epitome of cozy.

Belladonna Blackthorn is a witch who’s lost her way. On her 30th birthday, her coven summons her to determine whether or not she’s earned the right to keep her magical powers. What follows is a heartwarming story of a woman who, through magic, finds herself again.

Maybe it’s because I just turned 30 and can relate to the feeling of still not really having life figured out, but I truly believe this book is perfect for anyone who found their love of reading through fantasy books when they were young.

Rewitched is a standalone.

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue remains one of the most beautiful books I’ve ever read, it’s epic, heartbreaking, and compulsively readable.

It’s 1714 in France, and in a moment of pure desperation Addie LaRue makes a bargain to live forever—but it comes with a curse. Everyone she meets will forget that she exists. Thus begins Addie’s extraordinary life. It’s a dazzling adventure that spans centuries and continents. 300 years after she makes her bargain, Addie’s invisible life is thrown off course. She meets someone who remembers her.

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is a standalone.

I had the pleasure of reading an advanced copy of Blood Over Bright Haven, which releases on October 29, 2024, and I’m so glad I did.

In Blood Over Bright Haven, we meet Sciona Freynan, a mage who is about to be appointed to the High Magistry—the first woman to be admitted to Tiran’s highest magical order ever. On her first day, her new colleagues “jokingly” assign her a janitor as her new assistant. What they don’t realize is that appointment will be their downfall.

Together, Sciona and her new assistant discover the ugly truth the High Magistry has been covering up since Tiran’s founding, and it changes their world forever.

This book is intense, has epic stakes, and really sound writing. It’s not a romance, though there is an underlying current of tension between Sciona and her assistant that wrecked me. While the fantasy element is strong, Blood Over Bright Haven forces you to think about the true cost of technological advancement in our world.

Blood Over Bright Haven is a standalone.

Belladonna is gothic-meets-Knives Out-meets-Bridgerton and I absolutely devoured the entire series. It’s fun, a little campy, and romantic.

Orphaned as a baby, Signa Farrow has been raised by a string of guardians, each one more interested in her fortune than her wellbeing. The last remaining relatives she has are the Hawthornes, who live at the eccentric Thorn Grove manor and are reeling from their own tragedy.

When Signa is visited by the ghost of Mrs. Hawthorne, who claims she was poisoned, she learns that the family she has come to depend on, and even love, is in danger—and she’s the only one who can solve the mystery. However, it’s going to take an alliance with Death, the disarming shadow that has followed her everywhere she goes, to save the Hawthornes.

Belladonna is book one of a three-book series, all of which have been released.

There’s no denying it: Linus Baker’s life is boring, and he likes it that way. As a case worker at the Department for Magical Youth, Linus is tasked with ensuring magical children in orphanages are well taken care of. He’s comfortable in the routine of his life, but when Extremely Upper Management summons him for a highly risky and classified assignment, he accepts.

His primary mission? Determine whether Arthur Parnassus’ six dangerous children, including the literal Antichrist, will bring about the end of the world. What he finds instead is the family he never had but always wanted.

The House in the Cerulean Sea is book one in a two-book series, but can be read as a standalone.

This was my favorite read of 2022. I’m big into cozy fantasy stories, and this one checked everything off my wishlist.

As one of the few witches in Britain, Mika Moon knows she must live in secret, but that doesn’t stop her from “pretending” to have magical powers all over the internet. Unfortunately for Mika, her ruse is uncovered and she is asked to travel to a remote part of England to teach three young witches how to control their magic. When she gets there, she slowly finds her place in the home, and in the family. She just can’t crack Jamie, the grumpy librarian who doesn’t trust this newcomer.

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches is a standalone.

In a kingdom where she’s forced to hide her affliction, the monster inside Elspeth’s head, called the Nightmare, is both her fiercest protector and her deadliest secret.

When Elspeth is confronted by a group of highwaymen on her way home, she’s forced to leave the comfort of her quiet existence behind and instead finds herself embroiled in a treasonous plot to undermine the King and save her kingdom—and hopefully, herself.

But if high treason wasn’t enough, with each passing day, the Nightmare grows stronger in Elspeth’s mind. Will she be able to stop him or will he succeed in taking complete control?

One Dark Window is book one in a two-book series, both of which have been released.

The Bone Season doesn’t get the attention it deserves. Samantha Shannon’s other series, The Roots of Chaos, has become a cult-favorite among fantasy readers. While I love that series too, The Bone Season is action-packed and just plain fun to read. Paige Mahoney is a clairvoyant with a rare ability. In Scion-led London, this power makes her one of the city’s most-wanted criminals. When Paige is captured and imprisoned, she finds herself in the hands of the Rephaim, a group somehow worse than Scion. As Paige works to regain her freedom, she finds herself with an unlikely ally: her Rephaite keeper, Warden.

The Bone Season is book one in a seven-book series, four of which have been released.