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Six Great Bossy Fantasy Reads I read some entertaining, imaginative, sometimes funny, fantastic fantasy in the past year--enough to make up multiple Greedy Reading List roundups. You can find other lists of favorite fantasy reads from past years here . What are some of your favorite fantasy reads? Sarah Rees Brennan is also the author of the fantastic character-driven young-adult fantasy In Other

fantasy in the past year--enough to make up multiple Greedy Reading List roundups. You can find my first list recapping last year's favorites here . You can find other lists of favorite fantasy reads from past years here . A fifteen-year-old Indigenous Masquisit girl Anequs finds a dragon egg, and when it hatches, she befriends For twenty years, Sciona has single-mindedly set out to learn enough complex, intuitive, precise, powerful

You can find last year's version of this list here: Six Favorite Bossy Fantasy Reads from the Past Year You can find my recent-ish two lists of favorite science fiction and fantasy reads from the past year here: Six Four Star (And Up) Science Fiction and Fantasy Reads I Loved in the Past Year Six More Science Fiction and Fantasy Reads I've Loved in the Past Year And you can click here for other science fiction June has been seeing and hearing visions for a year now, and she believes they're linked to the curse

: Six of My Favorite Fiction Reads Last Year Six More of My Favorite Fiction Reads from the Past Year Six Four-Star Mystery Reads I Loved Last Year Six More Four-Star Mysteries I Loved Last Year Six Four-Star Year, and Six of My Favorite Memoir Reads Last Year And check out My Very Favorite Bossy 2022 Reads for my absolute most favorite reads from last year. What are some of your favorite fantasy reads, from the past year or from this one so far?

Six More Great Bossy Science Fiction and Fantasy Reads The Obsessive Wrap-Up of Favorite Reads continues You can click here for other science fiction and fantasy books that I've reviewed on Bossy Bookworm. and the gutsy characters facing wartime struggles and challenges, but I was surprised that the book's fantasy I really liked this, but I was surprised by how light it felt on fantasy elements. housekeeping, but she doesn't tell Arthur that she's been dreaming of the decrepit, rambling house for years

Six Great Bossy Science Fiction and Fantasy Reads The Obsessive Wrap-Up of Favorite Reads continues! You can click here for other science fiction and fantasy books that I've reviewed on Bossy Bookworm. I listened to the first installment in Shannon Chakraborty's Amina al-Sirafi fantasy series, The Adventures After twenty-two years of adventuring, Viv had reached her limit of blood and mud and bullshit. Viv has spent years hunting down creatures for bounties, wielding her sword, and doing anything ruthless

The romantic aspect is less essential than the fantasy elements, which I appreciated. Moth , considers Sybil Delling ("Six") and a group of five other foundling girls who have given up ten years But the shrouded girls, who have bonded over the years like family, begin to disappear, and Sybil doubts Gillig builds a layered fantasy world on elements of stone and water, and the moth symbolism changes For more fantasy/science fiction stories I've loved, please check out these titles .

It is one thing to admit to being feared, or hated. The imperious genius is eager to preserve the peace that has reigned for twenty-four years--but forces There is a romantic element, but this is, happily for me, a richly built fantasy and not a romantasy. More from this Author--and More Fantasy Novels I've Loved Antonia Hodgson is also the author of the Thomas You might also be interested in other fantasy books I've read and reviewed .

For twenty years, Sciona has single-mindedly set out to learn enough complex, intuitive, precise, powerful I'd love to hear your Bossy thoughts about this book! M. L. Wang is also the author of The Sword of Kaigen  and the YA fantasy series The Volta Academy Chronicles

Novik's newest work, Buried Deep ,  is a collection of thirteen stories that span the worlds of her fantastic I'd love to hear your Bossy thoughts about this book! Naomi Novik is the author of richly wrought fantasy novels featuring main protagonists I love: Uprooted Novik has also written a series of nine fantastic books about dragons, the Temeraire series. battles within the books' alternate history, and the human protagonists are wonderfully faulted and fantastic

Fairy Tales and Retellings For this list, I focused on books with fantastical elements; clear good-and-evil I really liked this story and I still think about this book, years after reading it. still a man, and our fathers would band together and kill him if he wanted to eat one of us every ten years The Dragon keeps them safe from the Wood, but at a high price: each year he demands one young woman from She is taken for ten years to serve him.

But each of these series is complete , so if you haven't started them yet, you won't have to wait years White's And I Darken , the first book in her Conquerer's Saga series, has cover art that to me evokes fantasy This blend of historical fiction, fantasy, and paranormal continues with LaFevers's Dark Triumph , Mortal relationship growth. 04 The Folk of the Air series by Holly Black The Folk of the Air is a young adult fantasy These six books were published over a period of almost twenty-five years, and the story trail traces

The first in the Legends & Lattes series is a cozy fantasy story about new beginnings, the transformative After twenty-two years of adventuring, Viv had reached her limit of blood and mud and bullshit. Viv has spent years hunting down creatures for bounties, wielding her sword, and doing anything ruthless This is a sweet, cozy fantasy story that feels like a big hug; it's a love letter to coffee, to the beauty

To honor Concordia's thousand years of peace between its twelve provinces, the emperor's ship sets out The friendship between Ganymedes and dark-humored 6-year-old Grasshopper is funny and sweet, and I loved I'd love to hear your Bossy thoughts about this book! If you're interested in other Bossy reviews of fantasy mysteries I've enjoyed, check out the titles at

Also, they each fear they're the one who killed him. ...maybe going on meant believing in what she couldn't In Kuang's dark academia fantasy novel Katabasis , Alice Law is a postgraduate student in a ruthlessly Murdoch, who seems to be showing her up at every turn in their relentless slog of blood, sweat, and tears This is a clever, strange, dark, and often darkly funny fantasy.

mystery in a post-colonial West African city, but I didn't feel very connected to or invested in the fantastical In Tochi Onyebuchi's fantasy mystery, main protagonist Boubacar is a war veteran and a private investigator Harmattan Season  is a dark, broody, mysterious fantasy story that takes place in an unnamed city in "Harmattan season" refers to a months-long time that spans the end of one year and beginning of the next The denouements felt somewhat tedious to me, and the fantastical aspects (the floating buildings and

While I probably should stop reading "romantasy" because I prefer my fantasy and romance to remain separate Francis's dystopian novel, Wren Darlington is a Mod who has lived under the radar for her twentysomething years I probably need to stop reading "romantasy" or "romantasy"-adjacent books, because I love fantasy stories and I love romantic comedies , but for me, the intersection of romance and fantasy is often unsatisfying her kind is complicated by the secrets she's keeping about abilities that would make her even more feared

For more fantasy novels I've loved, please check out the titles at this link .

and the gutsy characters facing wartime struggles and challenges, but I was surprised that the book's fantasy I really liked this, but I was surprised by how light it felt on fantasy elements.

I love a historical-fiction-feeling fantasy story like this one, and Blood of the Old Kings sets up I'd love to hear your Bossy thoughts about this book!

the worldbuilding and the headstrong, powerful loose cannon of Nahri, as well as the Middle Eastern fantasy I found myself yearning for the expert pacing, intrigue setup, and rich character development of my beloved character Nahri, the complex cultural backgrounds clashing in the book, and the Middle Eastern-based, fantastical I listed Amina in the Greedy Reading List Six Four-Star (and Up) Science Fiction and Fantasy Reads I Loved in the Past Year .

battles within the books' alternate history; and the human protagonists are wonderfully faulted and fantastic I'd love to hear your Bossy thoughts about this book! Naomi Novik is also the author of richly wrought fantasy novels featuring main protagonists I love: Uprooted

After years under his strict control (he is not named as Dracula here), the forced isolation begins to

The dark humor is fantastic. But Kellen's magic hasn't come in--and he fears that it never will. I'd love to hear your thoughts about this book or other fantasy books you've loved!

In this return to the world of Elfhame (Folk of the Air trilogy), Holly Black takes us deeper into the story of characters Wren and Oak as they determine whether they can trust each other as they attempt to save Madoc. As a child, Wren read lots of fairy tales. That’s why, when the monsters came, she knew it was because she had been wicked. In The Stolen Heir, the first book in Holly Black's Stolen Heir duology, the story returns to the world of Elfhame. (It's important to first read the Folk of the Air trilogy--see link below in order to understand the plot and character development). Suren (Wren), changeling child queen of the Court of Teeth, is forced to band together with the charming, untrustworthy Oak (fae brother of Jude), to try to save Madoc from Lady Nore's Ice Needle Citadel. Wren and Oak were once betrothed, and Wren isn't sure how much of Oak's appealing vulnerability and honesty is real--or if she's being played for a fool. But Wren isn't content to let her fate be shaped by a beautiful, magical prince. She's going to need to wrest control of her own destiny. I didn't feel drawn in by Wren, who feels lost throughout much of the story, and I didn't feel as though Oak was as fully developed as I wanted him to be. I loved the return of the storm hag Bogdana! I listened to this as an audiobook. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Click here for my review of Black's The Queen of Nothing; I mentioned the great Folk of the Air trilogy in the Greedy Reading List Six Royally Magical Young Adult Series.

in a panic, she makes a magical deal in which she lives on...in the world of her sister's favorite fantasy I'd love to hear your thoughts about this book! Sarah Rees Brennan is also the author of the fantastic character-driven young-adult fantasy In Other

(Her hair is dyed brown, and Odessa is given only gray clothing to wear by her stepmother, although she Dear reader, she is going to end up being brave, and finding love, and and Doing the Right Thing. Startlingly, we hear (briefly) from the Guardian's point of view at the end of the book.

Scholomance series and I realized I haven't posted a stand-alone review of some of Novik's other standout fantasy

fiction-feeling story, a Sherlock Holmes and Watson-type investigatory relationship, and fascinating otherworldly fantasy

with ballet, an orphan's struggles, and Depression-era Chicago, but once Nocturne shifted into dark fantasy In Alyssa Wees's slim (it's 240 pages) fantasy novel Nocturne, set in the Little Italy of 1930s Chicago As the Depression rages, orphaned Italian immigrant Grace rises through the ranks of the Near North Ballet But once the fantasy elements became the focus, the story felt more like a series of ethereal concepts You can check out my Bossy reviews of other fantasy titles here.

I love a mix of historical fiction and fantasy, and while this novel isn't as layered and complex or

The cover is arresting, and the sparkles and art are a nod to the novel's fantasy genre. I listened to Bull Moon Rising in audiobook form, and hearing it all read to me may have exacerbated I loved that Aspeth is a plus-size woman who loves books and wears glasses and is the irresistible object I'd love to hear your Bossy thoughts about this book!

I'd love to hear your Bossy thoughts about this book!

housekeeping, but she doesn't tell Arthur that she's been dreaming of the decrepit, rambling house for years The supporting characters are fantastically odd, fiercely loyal, and a heartwarming support for a girl

excited to read this final installment in Freya Marske's Last Binding trilogy, a queer historical fiction fantasy-mystery and compromise, and Marske's storytelling is yet again charming, funny, sometimes dark, and always fantastic

We hear them sometimes, from travelers passing through. still a man, and our fathers would band together and kill him if he wanted to eat one of us every ten years The Dragon keeps them safe from the Wood, but at a high price: each year he demands one young woman from She is taken for ten years to serve him. battles within the books' alternate history, and the human protagonists are wonderfully faulted and fantastic

In Blanchet's young adult fantasy debut, Herrick's End, Ollie's only friend Gwen has disappeared.

“Fear stops life, not death.” Faizal combines secret identities, intricate plots, vampires!

Alternative Arthurian legends twist through this first in a young adult fantasy series, but what hooked

Only a few Antari have been born in a generation, and they have long been the only ones with the power If you've read the Shades of Magic books, you'll already be acquainted with the fantastic characters Now Kosika, a young, impressionable, fervor-driven young Antari, is taking up the mantle of the deceased

But after raving about it for two years it seemed time to stop letting this second installment languish

the unthinkable yet again: they must find their way back into the school they fought desperately for years Novik is also the author of other fantasy novels featuring main protagonists I love: Uprooted and Spinning battles within the books' alternate history, and the human protagonists are wonderfully faulted and fantastic

I listened to the first installment in Shannon Chakraborty's Amina al-Sirafi fantasy series, The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi as an audiobook, narrated by the fantastic Lameece Issaq and Amin El Gamal. irresistible main protagonist in the feminist Muslim character of Amina; and the sea adventure with various fantastical

But she's been seeing and hearing visions for a year now, and she believes they're linked to the curse

Gwynne's epic, Norse-inspired saga tracks three fascinating main protagonists through battles, shifting alliances, strengthened resolve, and revenge journeys. I loved this. In John Gwynne's Norse-inspired saga The Shadow of the Gods , it's been a century since the gods battled themselves into extinction. Only their bones hold power now--for those brave enough to seek them out. There is talk of war's return, and three warriors will shape the future of the land of Vigrid: Elvar, a noblewoman searching for fame through battle; Orka, a huntress on a quest filled with danger; and Varg, a servant who joins the mercenaries called the Bloodsworn so that he may seek revenge. The three stories run along with plenty of steam, centered around violent battles, brutal revenge, extended searches for loved ones, and the carving out of new futures by our main protagonists. The story is always shifting--shaped by betrayals and the flipped script when fate and destiny aren't what the characters thought and they must come into their own. This is epic but never melodramatic, and I was hooked on the Viking-esque elements, the badass women who find their strength, and the perfect balance of resolution and cliffhanger to build anticipation for book two. Spoiler: a dragon appears at the very end of the book, laying the groundwork for more dragon page time in subsequent books. I loved this. I listened to The Shadow of the Gods  as an audiobook. More from John Gwynne: Gwynne is also the author of book two in this series, The Hunger of the Gods , the series Of Blood and Bone, and The Faithful and the Fallen series. Gwynne is also a Viking reenactor.

loyal, lazy, creative, bright pink, mischievous hobgoblin by his side, Buck Foi ("Aye, that's what yer Paper & Blood is a quirky, lighthearted fantasy featuring copious Scottish lingo, magical creatures in Last year I really enjoyed Hearne's first book in this duology, Ink & Sigil, so much so that it made

I wished for more of a focus on the character of Tess and her personal story--and less on political strategies, power plays, and the many other broad issues Hartman explores over the course of this almost-500-page sequel to Tess of the Road. In Rachel Hartman's Tess of the Road, we followed irresistible, hardheaded, wonderfully faulted Tess as she broke from rigid medieval gender roles in favor of adventure and discovery. That book was captivating, sometimes weighty, and often playful. I loved it. In the Serpent's Wake picks up where Tess of the Road left off. We're reintroduced to the story with an introductory poem written in verse that is funny, poignant--and also extremely helpful in its recap. It's the perfect reentry to the wonderfully cheeky, strong, faulted character of Tess as she tries yet again to be a loyal friend, refrain from punching people in the nose, and save the world. But the scope of In the Serpent's Wake is far broader than that of the first book. This second installation departs from a focus on Tess and her personal growth. Instead, the almost 500 pages of In the Serpent's Wake explores enormous, broad issues: colonization, persecuted indigenous people, human rights, racism, fights for autonomy, misogyny, and more. I was more eager to read more about Tess as a character than the extensive political machinations in the book and the shifting loyalties related to control of lands and attempted control of peoples and creatures. The sharing of stories and folklore through generations and cultures was a small-scale highlight. Hartman's sabanewts are fascinating creatures--and they also demand of the book's characters a new understanding of ownership, freedom, resources, and more. I loved the feminism, the complicated but steadfast friendships, and the dogged independence that various characters exhibit against all odds. I also enjoyed Tess's recognizing shades of gray where she once saw black-and-white right and wrong. But I wanted far more of a focus on Tess and for her to play a more key role in the book's events, as she did in book one. The rest of this book felt like a distraction from the character I love, and ultimately I wasn't particularly engaged with the broader story. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Click here to check out my review of the first book in this series, Tess of the Road. Hartman is also the author of Seraphina and Shadow Scale.

In The Awakening, the first book in Nora Roberts's Dragon Heart Legacy series, she set up a romantic fantasy Why not take this fantasy all the way, after all?). the third and final book in the series, The Choice, is not set for publication until November of this year

I was captivated by Lim's fairy tale of a fantasy novel, particularly the vivid magical realism, Shiori's

A Restless Truth is the second in Freya Marske's queer fantasy mystery Last Binding trilogy that began Maud and each of her unlikely allies are fantastic characters.