Six Fantasy Novels I Loved in the Past Year
- The Bossy Bookworm
- 19 hours ago
- 7 min read
Six Favorite Fantasy Reads
This is the first of three fantasy-favorite lists I'll have for you as I mine my reading for the best of the best from the past year.
You can explore the twelve titles on My Very Favorite Bossy 2025 Reads to find out about my overall favorite reads from last year, or you can read about past Bossy fantasy favorites here.
If you've read any of these titles, I'd love to hear what you think!
What are some of your favorite fantasy reads, whether from the past year or beyond?
01 The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow
The Everlasting involves jaunts through multiple versions of the same story, as our fantastic main protagonists shift and change, bravely outsmart those who would control them, dare to hope for a future together, and fight dark forces until the bitter end. This is adventure-heavy, sometimes tender, and always intriguing. I loved it.
Centuries after the death of the legendary Sir Una Everlasting, spindly, awkward, cowardly historian Owen Mallory unearths her story--and becomes inexorably intertwined with the events of Una's life as they occur in the past.
Harrow's tale involves multiple do-overs and attempts to shift events and alter reality--while the unlikely couple of Una and Owen fall in love again and again.
The Everlasting is filled with rich adventure; twisty jaunts through time; tragedy and loss; dark turns, boundless hope; messy, happy discoveries; outsmarting those in power; and noble victories. It ticked a million boxes for me as a reader.
This is the type of romantic fantasy I adore. No swooning, childish behavior, or foolishness, just hard-won connections, deep character development, bravely defying expectations, and absolutely lovely love. This broke my heart and mended it over and over, in the best ways possible.
For my full review, please check out The Everlasting.
The Everlasting was one of my favorite reads across all genres in 2025. You can check out my full list of favorites here.
02 The Book of Love by Kelly Link
In Kelly Link's wonderfully oddball debut novel The Book of Love, she uses every bit of the book's 640 pages to build realities, possibilities, magical developments, quirky fun, deep connection, and second chances you'll be cheering for.
Teenagers Mo, Daniel, and Laura have tragically disappeared from their hometown of Lovesend, Massachusetts, and have been presumed dead.
One year later, they find themselves sitting in a fluorescent-lit classroom in their seaside town with Mr. Anabin, their high school music teacher, before them. They soon realize that Mr. Anabin is capable of powerful magic, that he knows where the teens have been trapped for the past year and why, and he's advising them on what to do next.
Along with a quirky, sassy magical being whose intentions are unclear, Mr. Anabin offers them a chance to compete in magical tasks in order to reclaim their lives.
I wasn't completely satisfied with the ending, but I also appreciate that Link didn't take an easy way out in which the teens and their allies fix everything, voila! Some aspects are resolved, while others are left in a limbo that feels appropriate in its uncertainties and dark shadows.
This is twisty and odd, quirky and fun, and has lots of heart. At almost 650 pages long, there's enough page time for Link to build various realities, tear them down, and reimagine new ones while the reader scrambles to keep up. The Book of Love explores reality, connections, loyalty, possibilities, and second chances. I was hooked.
I received a prepublication edition of this book (which was published the year prior, oops!) courtesy of NetGalley and Random House.
For my full review, please check out this link.
03 Spellslinger (Spellslinger #1) by Sebastien de Castell
Kellen begins as a principled, headstrong young man lacking in the magic crucial for power, familial stability and social standing in his world. By the end of the book he is satisfyingly resolved, stronger, and accepting of his complicated fate.
“I’m a woman, kid. You probably haven’t met one before, coming as you do from this backward place, but it’s like a man only smarter and with bigger balls.”
Kellen is struggling in his mage's trials aimed at earning him a name among his privileged people, the Jan'Tep. And the struggle feels even worse because his younger sister is living up to the family's powerful name by demonstrating more powerful magic than any student in their school. But Kellen's magic hasn't come in--and he fears that it never will.
But as he uses his smarts, his unlikely allies, and his loyalty to get by, he finds himself discovering uncomfortable truths about his family and his community--and questioning everything he thought he knew.
I loved the characters' dynamics, the outsider Ferius Pargosi who becomes a mentor and deeply loyal friend, the quest, the uprising of the downtrodden, and the setup to book two, Shadowblack, which I definitely want to read.
I also appreciated witnessing Kellen's tough road to self-acceptance--particularly in light of his discovery that his parents have hidden, tamped down, and diminished his particular type of magic, deeming it destructive to Kellen and to the family's status. I can't wait to see him come into his own in book two.
For my full review please check out Spellslinger.
04 Hemlock & SIlver by T. Kingfisher
Based on my two Bossy reads so far, T. Kingfisher writes my favorite kind of fantasy novel: a wonderfully oddball main protagonist, a strange adventure, a mystery to be solved, and simmering romance with No Swooning or Annoying Drama whatsoever. I loved this story about an expert in poisons, with banter and clever deduction in an imagined world.
In Hemlock & Silver, Anja is a healer who since her young cousin's preventable death has obsessively focused on learning about, combating, and teaching others about poisons. To determine antidotes and treatments, she must regularly ingest deadly substances, but duty calls.
She's somewhat of a loner, part of a beloved family, and a merchant's daughter, but she's plainly dressed, tall, work-driven, and uninterested in social niceties, so she spends her time exhaustively researching and trying to help those who have ingested a potentially harmful substance.
But when the king personally arrives at her workshop, desperate for help with his sole surviving daughter, who he suspects is being poisoned, Anja must not only navigate the ins and outs of royal customs, adjust her practical wardrobe, and leave her personal research behind to travel to the king's distant palace.
I am allllll in on Kingfisher's novels. Everyone who recommended this author's work to me was correct, and I have no one to blame but myself for the delay in diving in.
Kingfisher imagines richly imagined fantasy worlds, and within them she slots fantastically imperfect and wondrous main protagonists whose thoughts, dialogue, motivations, and actions have me completely hooked. Romantic undercurrents are wonderful, and there is No Swooning or Ridiculousness. This is my fantasy sweet spot.
For my full review of this book please see Hemlock & Silver.
05 The Raven Scholar (Eternal Path #1) by Antonia Hodgson
The first book in Hodgson's trilogy is smart, mysterious, charming, and layered. I loved the dark academia setting; the brilliant, socially awkward, unlikely heroine Neema; and the strange elements, such as talking, opinionated, sensitive ravens that are not only linked to Neema but a part of her.
Neema Kraa has been keeping busy as High Scholar in the land of Orrun, and her focus hasn't been on making friends. The imperious genius is eager to preserve the peace that has reigned for twenty-four years--but forces that she doesn't yet understand are tearing apart the kingdom.
A representative from each of the seven regions must compete to replace their ruler, who is about to step down. The ruthless young competitors are warriors and strategists who have been cultivating the skills and cunning for this their whole lives. And after a series of unlikely, unfortunate events, bookworm Neema becomes one of them--the least threatening, as she is clearly doomed to fail the dangerous challenges and battles and probably won't survive the ordeal.
The Raven Scholar is smart, charming, and wonderfully weird. I love the headstrong, unyielding, unlikely-heroine Neema and the dark-academia elements.
There is a romantic element, but this is, happily for me, a richly built fantasy and not a romantasy. The romance is lovely, poignant, and just enough.
Click here for my full review of The Raven Scholar.
06 Shield of Sparrows (Shield of Sparrows #1) by Devney Perry
This first installment in the series sets up an overlooked princess who becomes a heroine; deadly monsters who may be being treated unfairly; an enemies-to-lovers romance; and shifting loyalties. The dialogue is often dramaaaatic, but I'm in for the next book.
Odessa is the oldest daughter of a king, but she has always felt like a placeholder; her father has always focused on vigorously teaching and training her younger sister May as his heir.
You might predict that Odessa will be the unlikely heroine of this story when you find out that she has red hair. This character is not going to go along with the plans set out for her, everyone!
Dear reader, she is going to end up being brave, and finding love, and and Doing the Right Thing. I knew all of this was coming, but I didn't mind it. I did, however, grow weary of Dess's repeated rhetorical questions and revisiting of the same issues over and over, neither of which felt like it moved the plot forward. The dialogue is sometimes dramaaaaatic, but generally the pacing rolled right along in this one.
This first romantasy in Perry's planned trilogy offers monsters, royalty, secrets, hidden identities, battle training, some oddly modern-seeming profanity, and, abruptly, some steamy scenes. The swearing felt modern, but the setting felt more medieval.
I listened to this as a TWENTY-HOUR audiobook.
For my full review of this book please see Shield of Sparrows.
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