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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

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

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.

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

Riley has crafted a middle-grade fantasy book with humor, adventure, characters to root for, and heart In James Riley's middle-grade fantasy book Story Thieves, young introvert Bethany and impulsive Owen I was surprised by the heart and depth in this fantasy book. and their allies, and loved the twists and turns and realizations--as well as the resolutions and the fantastic

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.

In Nethercott's Thistlefoot, estranged siblings Bellatine and Isaac Yaga find their way back to each other within this odd, dark story that is steeped in Jewish folklore. "It's wild, isn't it...how there are all these stories that played out before we even existed. And their residue is all around us, all the time, but we don't even know it. Sometimes I wonder how much of me is my own, you know?" This recently published debut novel from Gennarose Nethercott is heavy on Eastern European folklore and feels like an immersive fairy tale with modern references (for example, cell phones). In Thistlefoot, estranged siblings Bellatine, a woodworker with mysterious powers, and Isaac, a con artist and street performer with his own magic, are reunited to claim a mysterious, bizarre inheritance: a sentient house on chicken legs. You're going to have to roll with that premise for Thistlefoot to work for you, and if you're up for it, there are a lot of delights here. Thistlefoot is a strange, epic, often dark adventure tale with roots in Jewish folklore, and puppets (which may or may not come to life at times) and the story they're used to tell are central to the plot. Bellatine and Isaac find their way back to each other, bonded by trying to untangle the dangerous, sentimental, mysterious circumstances surrounding the house's existence. They find unlikely allies who are also seeking the truth about the house--and who want to protect its legacy from those who would destroy it. This, as always, is only one version of the memory. Funny, how truth changes in the telling. How a person becomes a myth, how a myth becomes a hero. Do not mistake Baba Yaga for the hero of my stories. She is not. She is not the villain, either. She is only a woman. Sometimes, one cannot know until retelling what was right and what was wrong. Thistlefoot includes some scenes in which World War II atrocities are central; delves into the desperation and cruelties of those who have struggled to America, imagining their salvation; and explores the binds of family and history. I received a prepublication edition of this book courtesy of Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group and NetGalley. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? If you like magical realism and folklore, you might also like the books on my Greedy Reading List Six Magical Fairy Tales Grown-Ups Will Love.

If so, I'd love to hear what you thought. Do you have any favorite books set where you live? He has a precious old girl of a dog, a fascination with (and healthy fear of) coyotes, a love of reading When an important telegram arrives, they fear the worst. The Last Child appears in the Greedy Reading List The Six Best Mysteries I Read Last Year.

Last year I read fascinating science fiction reads centering around artificial intelligence, extraterrestrials You might also like the Greedy Reading lists of past years' Bossy favorites: Six Four Star (And Up) Science Fiction and Fantasy Reads I Loved in the Past Year Six More Science Fiction and Fantasy Reads I Loved in the Past Year Six Four-Star (and Up) Science Fiction Reads I Loved Last Year Six More Science Fiction Did you read any other science fiction novels in the past year (or otherwise) that you loved?

I listened to this romantic fantasy about a chosen one, a long-lost family, portals to a magical world She tracks down the truth behind the story of her father (who abandoned her years earlier so that she But possibly the most fantastical aspect of the story is the ease with which she secures an agent and

When Zeus, fearful of what she might be capable of, banishes her to a deserted island, Circe perfects

Fifteen-year-old loyal Republic citizen June has been groomed her whole life for a military position Meanwhile, fifteen-year-old Day was born in a slum and is the Republic's most-wanted criminal. Check out this Bossy Greedy Reading List for Six Fantastic Dystopian and Postapocalyptic Novels I loved

I adored the romantic setup and seemingly ill-fated attraction in Saft's young adult fantasy-mystery, I loved the setup of Saft's romantic young adult fantasy novel Down Comes the Night. The great young adult fantasy elements are all in place here: magic, healing, a defiant main protagonist Saft is also the author of another romantic young adult fantasy novel, A Far Wilder Magic. I loved her character-building, her balance with the young romance, her fantastic, detailed setting,

He's a fantastic character I loved. This great book by C.A. I thought this was wonderful. 02 The Grace Year by Kim Liggett It feels like freedom, but we know it's The Grace Year is the type of book I could’ve stayed up all night reading. also want to read Carey's The Boy on the Bridge, which is a standalone book in the same series, is fantastic

The first book in Marske's duology is full of Edwardian England detail, gay love, mystery, magic, wonderful dialogue and banter, and plenty of heart. I adored it. A Marvellous Light, the first in Freya Marske's Last Binding duology, starts with a devastating ending (the demise of a character, caused by nefarious magicians) and a less-than-promising beginning (Robin Blyth's first day in his civil service job, for which he doesn't feel remotely qualified nor interested). Robin is trying to keep the household afloat after the deaths of his parents, to support his bright, ambitious younger sister, and to date some handsome men along the way. He soon realizes that (a) magic exists (!), (b) he's mistakenly been assigned the job of liaison to a secret magical society, (c) his office has been ransacked and a curse has been placed on him, (d) his curmudgeonly, book-smart coworker Edwin may be the key to saving them all, and (e) maybe he's falling for Edwin just the tiniest bit, despite himself. Marske offers immersive Edwardian England detail in this adorable, captivating, magical, queer book. Robin and Edwin's love is romantic and sweet and heartbreaking and sexy; the mystery at the heart of the book seems only to be solvable by the biggest book nerd in existence; and the story's magical details are fascinating and odd. I was completely hooked by A Marvellous Light, and I tried to slow down my reading to make it last. The amount of heart in this book was exquisite. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? I didn't see a mention anywhere in the book of a sequel, and some aspects felt tantalizingly unresolved, so I was relieved to find out that another book is coming. The second and final book in Marske's duology, A Restless Truth, is scheduled for publication in November.