Six Four-Star (and Up) Fantasy Novels I Loved in the Past Year
- The Bossy Bookworm
- Mar 13
- 8 min read
Six More Favorite Fantasy Reads
This is the third of three fantasy-favorite lists I've developed as I've scoured my reading for the Bossy best of the best from the past year. You can find my first list of favorites from the past year here and my second list here.
You can also 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 Katabasis by R. F. Kuang
I loved the dark--and often darkly funny--journey of Cambridge postgraduate magick students Alice and Peter to hell, a quest they undertake because their advisor has died and they really need his recommendations. Also, they each fear they're the one who killed him.
In Kuang's dark academia fantasy novel Katabasis, Alice Law is a postgraduate student in a ruthlessly competitive analytic magick program at Cambridge. She is intrigued by and also deeply irritated by her academic rival, Peter Murdoch, who seems to be showing her up at every turn in their relentless slog of blood, sweat, and tears. Luckily, recommendations from their selfish, brilliant advisor, Professor Grimes, should set them up for successful careers.
But Grimes dies a grisly death while trying to enter the underworld, and Alice and Peter are separately, secretly convinced that they are each the one who killed him.
What else is there to do but journey to hell together to try to get him back--and preserve their precious recommendations?
This is a clever, strange, dark, and often darkly funny fantasy. The pacing flagged for me throughout the middle of the story, during the slog through various avenues of hell, and the worldbuilding felt slim and glossed over during some of the many courts of hell.
I was, ultimately, here for the character development and redemption, which Kuang provides in satisfying fashion.
The bendable, undefined rules of hell (which I didn't understand and which kept being sprung upon the reader) turned out to be quite convenient, and after Peter's disappearance, Alice shines as the sole problem solver, capable of sacrifice and dealmaking.
R. F. Kuang is also the author of Yellowface, The Poppy War, Babel, The Burning God, and The Dragon Republic.
Another book that involves an attempted escape from hell is Leigh Bardugo's Hell Bent.
For my full review of this book please see Katabasis.
02 Blood of the Old Kings by Sung-Il Kim
In this first installment of The Bleeding Empire, Kim sets three characters on paths to discover their worth, their purpose, and their power. When the protagonists' journeys intersect, the story ramps up in intensity and in epic scope.
In Blood of the Old Kings, dead sorcerers power the empire, which has long been run on a system of necromancy and sacrifice.
Arienne knew since she was a young girl that because she was born with magic, her future would end with her locked in chains in a casket, an essential, dark end used to benefit others by generating immense power.
But when a long-dead sorcerer takes the shape of a voice in her head and pushes her to question the rules she's always lived by, Arienne dares to dream of defying her fate.
Cain is savvy, street-smart, and living in the capital. When his best friend goes missing, he'll do anything to find out what's happened to her.
Loran is a brokenhearted widow and a skilled swordswoman willing to make deep sacrifices to ally with the fated, powerful, dangerous dragon who might empower her and save them all.
This three-character-driven plot sets the scene by exploring the unrest within the empire, the desperate struggles of its people; and the dark intents of those ruling it all.
Each of the three main protagonists begin to understand their own power--and when their paths intersect, they realize that together, they are more formidable than they could have ever imagined.
For my full review, please see The Blood of the Old Kings.
03 Voyage of the Damned by Frances White
This wonderfully creepy lesbian vampire story is largely about female empowerment, but also about love, discovery, reinvention, and revenge. I loved each time period and the evolution of each strong female character.
Schwab's lesbian vampire tale spans centuries, beginning in 1532 Santo Domingo de la Calzada as a young woman named Maria makes choices to shield her from being a man's pawn and vessel for children until her death--then enters into a future she never could have imagined.
In 1827 London, naive young Charlotte lives a sheltered, lovely pastoral life, until an indiscretion results in her banishment to London society. There she encounters an intriguing widow with promises of freedom with deep repercussions.
And in 2019 Boston, Alice is trying to break out of her shell at college, and a one-night stand feels like a daring start. But the evening leaves her forever changed, and she's bent on finding answers--and revenge.
I loved that the women of each time insist upon creating situations in which they have autonomy and agency.
The storyline threading the three timelines together is deliciously intriguing, and a character that was initially a wilting flower finds her strength, her purpose, and her desire for vengeance, all of which is satisfying to witness.
For my full review please check out Bury My Bones in the Midnight Soil.
Schwab is also the author of The Fragile Threads of Power, Vengeful, and the wonderful Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, as well as the Shades of Magic series. (The first two books in that series are A Darker Shade of Magic and A Gathering of Shadows, each of which I gave four Bossy stars. You can check out my review of book 3, A Conjuring of Light, here.)
04 A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher
This was dark, sometimes wryly funny, haunting, and intriguing, and the resolutions to the significant dangers at hand required the messy found-family to employ their collective intelligence, creativity, and teamwork.
For some reason this was my first T. Kingfisher (this is Ursula Vernon's pen name) read, and I loved this retelling of the Grimm Brothers' story Goose Girl.
Young Cordelia is becoming aware of her mother's significant power and reach, and she is terrified senseless. She is made to be magically "obedient" to her mother, and as such she is incapable of warning others about how dangerous her sorceress of a mother is--and how extensive and dastardly her plans are for those around her.
The novel is sometimes funny, and it's consistently suspenseful and character-driven. I appreciated that resolutions weren't obvious or easy, that friendship and bonds were key, and that some overlooked, unlikely-seeming characters played important roles in the undoing of the evil at hand.
Kingfisher's characters love, but they're never swoony. In an extreme version of keeping a stiff upper lip, they sometimes carry on wryly funny conversations, even in the midst of the quite dark forces threatening them. And the found-family element is a favorite of mine; Kingfisher builds this aspect poignantly, messily, and wonderfully.
This story felt smart, strange, and intriguing.
I can't wait to read more books by this author. I listened to this novel as an audiobook.
Kingfisher/Vernon is a prolific author who has published many standalone novels as well as multiple series.
For more fantasy novels I've loved, please check out the titles at this link.
For my full review of this book please see A Sorceress Comes to Call.
05 The Knight and the Moth by Rachel Gillig
The shadowy, eerie tone of the first title in Gillig's Stonewater Kingdom series gives way to heartwarming, sometimes funny moments as an unlikely pack of allies sets out on a journey of discovery, complete with battles, evolving loyalties, and an increasingly high-stakes quest. The romantic aspect is less essential than the fantasy elements, which I appreciated.
The first book in Rachel Gillig's Stonewater Kingdom series, The Knight and the Moth, considers Sybil Delling ("Six") and a group of five other foundling girls who have given up ten years of their lives to serve as Diviners, dedicating themselves wholly to being submerged in magical waters and conveying their visions and dreams of Omens at her abbess's whim.
But the shrouded girls, who have bonded over the years like family, begin to disappear, and Sybil doubts for the first time whether their collective purpose is holy and noble after all. She starts to question the motivations of those with influence, including the abbess who has tasked them with the violent drowning dreams and the Omens themselves.
I don't love an overly swoony, melodramatic "romantasy" story in which characters' energy is spent on pining and obsessing, where dramatic declarations overshadow a novel's fantasy elements. The Knight and the Moth is built on a spare yet satisfying fantasy world with a limited number of characters and an essential engaging romance aspect that is far more than a swoony distraction. I really, really liked this balance. I can't wait for the next books in this series.
For my full review, please check out this link.
06 The Summer War by Naomi Novik
Novik's novella The Summer War reads like a fable, with unexpected twists and turns; duty, clever evasion, and curses; a strange world full of vengeful creatures; and satisfyingly proud, brave moments for each of our main protagonists.
The Summer War is a novella by one of my favorite authors.
The day young Celia's oldest brother Argent left the house in their war-torn homeland, determined to head to battle, he did so with barely a backward glance, and she was furious with her idol. But she didn't know that her enraged curses, uttered in the heat of the moment, carried immense weight.
Until that moment Celia didn't understand that she held magical powers, nor that in spouting off angry words, she would dooming her brother to a life spent seeking fame for brave acts without the possibility of feeling love.
Celia must try everything she can to undo the hex she placed on her beloved Argent. The key might lie within the centuries-old war her people have waged against the ruthless summerlings--and the ferocious grudges those mysterious creatures have nurtured against the humans.
The story dives into the plot with little hesitation (we do have to get going, after all--we only have 144 pages!), and its somewhat spare, streamlined structure made it feel like a fable or fairy tale.
I don't read very many novellas, and regarding Novik and her rich world-building, charming supporting characters, and intriguing subplots, it was probably inevitable that I was going to be left wanting more at the conclusion of this short work. But that's due to my greedy reading habits and my active denial throughout reading this that this was always going to be fewer beloved Novik words than I wanted.
Naomi Novik is the author of richly wrought fantasy novels featuring main protagonists I love: Uprooted and Spinning Silver as well as the story collection Buried Deep and the Scholomance trilogy: A Deadly Education, The Last Graduate, and The Golden Enclaves.
Novik has also written the Temeraire series of nine fantastic books about dragons, their riders, their friendships, and their wryly funny interactions.
I received a prepublication edition of this title courtesy of NetGalley and Del Rey.
Click here for my full review.
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