Archives de catégorie : Fantasy

INNAMORATA d’Ava Reid

A visionary and atmospheric gothic fantasy about necromancy, vengeance, and soul-consuming love, the first in a duology from the Sunday Times bestselling author of A Study in Drowning and Lady Macbeth.

INNAMORATA
by Ava Reid
Del Rey Books, March 2026
(via Sterling Lord Literistic)

Once there was an island where the dead walked the earth, and seven noble houses ruled by the arcane secrets of necromancy.

A conqueror’s blade brought them low, burning their libraries, killing their lords, and extinguishing their eldritch magic.

But defiant against the new order stands the House of Teeth and its last living members: beautiful Marozia, the heiress to the House, and her cousin, the uncanny Lady Agnes.

Though she has not spoken a word in seven years, Agnes is the true carrier of the House’s legacy. And she has her orders. She must recapture the secrets of death magic and avenge her family’s fallen honor. She must arrange the betrothal of her beloved cousin Marozia to Liuprand, heir to the conqueror’s throne, for access to the forbidden library in his grotesquely grand castle.

Revenge burns in Agnes’s heart but so do stranger passions—and it is Liuprand, the golden prince, who speaks to her soul. This passion is as treasonous as it is powerful, poisoning the kingdom’s roots and threatening to tear the already shattered realm in two.

For Agnes’s final order is the gravest: She must not fall in love.

Ava Reid is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Study in Drowning, Lady Macbeth, and other novels. Her books have been published in more than fourteen territories. She lives in the New York area.

STRANGE ANIMALS de Jarod K. Anderson

An ordinary man discovers a hidden world of supernatural creatures—and an unexpected home—in this enchanting contemporary fantasy debut.

STRANGE ANIMALS
by Jarod K. Anderson
Ballantine, February 2026
(via Wolf Literary)

Green trips on the curb, falls flat into the street, and sees the city bus speeding toward him. And then . . . blink. He’s back on the curb, miraculously still alive. A five-foot-tall crow watches him from atop a nearby sign, somehow unseen by the rushing crowd of morning commuters.

Desperate for answers and beset by more visions of impossible creatures, Green finds his way to a remote campsite in the Appalachian Mountains, where he meets a centuries-old teacher and begins an apprenticeship unlike anything he could imagine.

Under his new mentor’s grouchy tutelage, Green studies the time-bending rag moth, the glass fawn, and the menacing horned wolf. He begins to see past hidden nature’s terrors and glimpse its beauty, all while befriending fellow misfits—and finding connection and community.

Along the way come clues about the forces that set him on this path—and, most incredibly, a sense of purpose and fulfillment like nothing he’s felt before.

But Green’s new happiness promises to be short-lived, because alongside these marvels lurks a deadly threat to this place he’s already come to love.

Creepy, cozy, and beautiful, Strange Animals is a fantasy about home, belonging, and the fearfully wonderous nature all around us.

“Unique, haunting, riveting, and beautifully magical—this is the kind of strange and wonderful book that you carry around in your heart. You’re in for a special and wondrous ride!”—Sarah Beth Durst, New York Times bestselling author of The Spellshop

Jarod K. Anderson is a strange mix of fantasy nerd, nature writer, podcaster, poet, and erstwhile academic. He once accidentally picked up a rattlesnake and has slept in the branches of a maple tree more than most writers. He created and voices The CryptoNaturalist, a podcast about real love for imaginary nature, and has published three books of poetry as well as a memoir about his lifelong struggle with depression and the healing power of the natural world. He has an MA in early modern English literature and insists he’s more fun than that makes him sound. He lives with his wife and son in a little white house tucked between a park and a cemetery.

THE TOWER OF THE TYRANT de J.T. Greathouse

In a terrorized kingdom where the ghosts of the past do not rest in peace, a sorceress comes calling.

THE TOWER OF THE TYRANT
by J.T. Greathouse
November 2025
(via JABberwocky)

Some flee from wraiths. Others are drawn to them. Fola is both.

Cast out from the City of the Wise, Fola embarks on a journey to explore her interests in the barriers between life, death, and undeath. It has been a lifelong passion for Fola and she has the magical skills to help those in this world as well as comfort the restless souls from beyond. When Fola hears word of a kingdom plagued by darkness, she knows what she must do.

Pervading all of Parwys are rumors of a haunting that drove its king mad. Upon arrival, Fola’s greater challenge may be among the living. Hostile nobles, political machinations, and a growing rebel faction have shaken the stability of the court. And as the threat of a templar invasion looms, Fola’s quest to rid the vulnerable Parwys of a sinister scourge has just begun.

As chaos threatens the kingdom, Fola must rely on her uncanny talent, outwit conspiracies, and trust unlikely new allies to survive what lies ahead.

J.T. Greathouse has been writing fantasy and science fiction since he was eleven years old. He holds a BA in history and philosophy with a minor in Asian studies as well as a Master’s in Teaching from Whitworth University, and spent four months of intensive study in Chinese language and culture at Minzu University of China in Beijing. His short fiction has appeared, often as Jeremy A. TeGrotenhuis, in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Writers of the Future 34, Deep Magic, Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show, and elsewhere. In addition to writing, he has worked as an ESL teacher in Taipei, as a bookseller at Auntie’s Bookstore in Spokane, and as a high school teacher. He currently lives in Spokane, Washington with his wife Hannah and several overflowing bookshelves.

THE FIRST STEP by Tao Wong

In a spectacular world of immortals, spirit beasts, and mystical martial arts, a young farmer’s life will be changed forever when he is unexpectedly invited to join an elite school of cultivation.

THE FIRST STEP
(A Thousand Li Series: Book 1)
by Tao Wong
Ace, March 2026
(via The Gernert Company)

It is said that a journey of a thousand li begins with a single step. . . .

Long Wu Ying never expected to become a real cultivator, never dreamed of having the chance to train and develop wondrous martial arts skills and magic of his own. As a farmer’s son in a rural village, his days were spent studying, planting rice, and spending time with his friends. Fate, however, has different plans for him.

Conscripted into the army and taken from everything he knows, Wu Ying’s chance observation of an incoming ambush prevents a bloody rout—and brings him to the attention of the powerful Verdant Green Waters sect, an elite school of cultivation. Invited to join the sect as a novice, Wu Ying is thrown into a world he is utterly unprepared for, one filled with demonic beasts, haughty nobles, and, most of all, the very real possibility of reaching immortality—if he’s brave enough to seize it.

Tao Wong is the author of the A Thousand Li progression fantasy series and the System Apocalypse LitRPG series, among others. When he’s not writing and working, he’s practicing martial arts, reading, and dreaming up new worlds. He lives in Toronto, Canada.

TO OUR UNTAMED CORE de Sonora Reyes

The stunning first YA fantasy novel from award-winning author Sonora Reyes! The Hunger Games meets Chain Gang All Stars in this tournament to the death.

TO OUR UNTAMED CORE
by Sonora Reyes
HarperCollins, September 2026
(via Writers House)

Centuries after a plague arrived alongside the conquistadores, Temo’s people are left largely infertile and with a fraction of their former strength. But as a gift from the people of El Centro, where many of the conquistadores now live, Temo and all other residents of the afueras take a daily capsule that allows them to live a civilized life, uninhibited by their untamed nature.

But the sacrament doesn’t work on everyone and every ten years, El Centro hosts El Torneo, where any afueras who were unable to be tamed by the sacraments must fight to the death in a labyrinth of a temple that once belonged to their ancestors. Hundreds of afuereños compete against each other and one conquistador champion. And each games, the conquistador champion from El Centro inevitably wins, earning his title as their next king, and proving to the people of the afueras how barbaric and inferior they are without the sacraments.

Everything changes when Temo’s boyfriend, Ollin, is unjustly arrested and sent to a certain death in El Torneo. But instead of hiding, Temo gets himself arrested too, willingly entering El Torneo knowing this will be the only way to save his gentle boyfriend from a gruesome fate, if Temo even manages to survive himself.

Sonora Reyes is the bestselling and award-winning author of The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School, The Luis Ortega Survival Club,  The Broposal, and The Golden Boy’s Guide to Bipolar. Born and raised in Arizona, they write fiction celebrating queer and Mexican stories in a variety of genres, across ages. Outside of writing, Sonora loves breaking their body and vocal cords by playing with their baby niblings and dancing/singing karaoke at the same time.