Thanks to Valentine’s Day, when most of us think of February, we think about love stories. And while romance is likely dominating the displays at your local bookstore this month, you might be surprised to discover just how many fantasy titles are hitting shelves right alongside them.
And not just any books, either—big name sequels and buzzy debuts, including the finale of Victoria Aveyard’s blockbuster Realm Breaker series and Pulitzer nominee Kelly Link’s debut novel. But not to leave the romance lovers out, there’s are also several powerhouse romantasies arriving as well. We’re really spoiled for choice, is what I’m saying.
Here are our picks for the best fantasy books arriving this February.
All This Twisted Glory by Tahereh Mafi
Release Date: February 6 from Harper Collins
Why You’ll Love It: The third installment in Tahereh Mafi’s Woven Kingdom series not only has one of the most gorgeous covers of any book hitting shelves this month but takes things to the next level storywise, as allegiances and relationships shift in unexpected and surprising ways.
Publisher’s Description: As the long-lost heir to the Jinn throne, Alizeh has finally found her people—and she might’ve found her crown. Cyrus, the mercurial ruler of Tulan, has offered her his kingdom in a twisted exchange: one that would begin with their marriage and end with his murder.
Cyrus’s dark reputation precedes him; all the world knows of his blood-soaked past. Killing him should be easy—and accepting his offer might be the only way to fulfill her destiny and save her people. But the more Alizeh learns of him, the more she questions whether the terrible stories about him are true.
Ensnared by secrets, Cyrus has ached for Alizeh since she first appeared in his dreams many months ago. Now that he knows those visions were planted by the devil, he can hardly bear to look at her—much less endure her company. But despite their best efforts to despise each other, Alizeh and Cyrus are drawn together over and over with an all-consuming thirst that threatens to destroy them both.
Meanwhile, Prince Kamran has arrived in Tulan, ready to exact revenge…
Tales of the Celestial Kingdom by Sue Lynn Tam
Release Date: February 6 from Harper Voyager
Why You’ll Love It: If you enjoyed Sue Lynn Tam’s Celestial Kingdom duology, you’ll love this slim collection of stories set at various points in time across the two novels and told from the perspectives of multiple characters. There’s even an epilogue to the series, as well.
Publisher’s Description: Tales from the Celestial Kingdom collects nine spellbinding stories—two previously published, seven original, including the epilogue to the duology—set in the enchanting world of Sue Lynn Tan’s stunning debut. Filled with magic and mythology, friendship and love, these stories intertwine through the past, present, and future of the two novels, told from the perspectives of multiple characters, including Chang’e, Shuxiao, Liwei, and Wenzhi.
The Book of Love by Kelly Link
Release Date: February 13 from Random House
Why We’re Excited: The debut novel from short story author and Pulitzer finalist Kelly Link, The Book of Love follows the story of four teenage friends who disappear from a small Massachusetts down, only to suddenly return a year later. This is more shocking than it initially sounds given that they’re dead, and must compete in a series of magic-based challenges for a chance to return to the world of the living.
Publisher’s Description: Late one night, Laura, Daniel, and Mo find themselves beneath the fluorescent lights of a high school classroom, almost a year after disappearing from their hometown, the small seaside community of Lovesend, Massachusetts, having long been presumed dead. Which, in fact, they are.
With them in the room is their previously unremarkable high school music teacher, who seems to know something about their disappearance—and what has brought them back again. Desperate to reclaim their lives, the three agree to the terms of the bargain their music teacher proposes. They will be given a series of magical tasks; while they undertake them, they may return to their families and friends, but they can tell no one where they’ve been. In the end, there will be winners and there will be losers.
But their resurrection has attracted the notice of other supernatural figures, all with their own agendas. As Laura, Daniel, and Mo grapple with the pieces of the lives they left behind, and Laura’s sister, Susannah, attempts to reconcile what she remembers with what she fears, these mysterious others begin to arrive, engulfing their community in danger and chaos, and it becomes imperative that the teens solve the mystery of their deaths to avert a looming disaster.
A Flame in the North by Lilith Saintcrow
Release Date: February 13 from Orbit
Why We’re Excited: An action packed series opener about an elemental witch and her shieldmaiden, it’s got dense worldbuilding and a complicated journey, all fully steeped in the magic and myth of Norse mythology. Fans of epic fantasy should take special note of this one.
Publisher’s Description: The Black Land is spent myth. Centuries have passed since the Great Enemy was slain. Yet old fears linger, and on the longest night of the year, every village still lights a ritual fire to banish the dark.
That is Solveig’s duty. Favored by the gods with powerful magic, Sol calls forth flame to keep her home safe. But when her brother accidentally kills a northern lord’s son, she is sent away as weregild—part hostage, part guest—for a year and a day.
The further north Sol travels, the clearer it becomes the Black Land is no myth. The forests teem with foul beasts. Her travel companions are not what they seem, and their plans for her and her magic are shrouded in secrecy.
With only her loyal shieldmaiden and her own wits to reply upon, Sol must master power beyond her imagination to wrest control of her fate. For the Black Land’s army stirs, ready to cover the world in darkness—unless Sol can find the courage to stop it.
They thought the old ways were dead. But now, the Enemy awakens…
The Book of Doors by Gareth Brown
Release Date: February 13 from William Morrow
Why We’re Excited: Books about books—literal magical books, the power of reading, ancient libraries full of secret tomes—are always fascinating, and Gareth Brown’s debut promises magic, adventure, and romance in spades.
Publisher’s Description: Cassie Andrews works in a New York City bookshop, shelving books, making coffee for customers, and living an unassuming, ordinary life. Until the day one of her favorite customers—a lonely yet charming old man—dies right in front of her. Cassie is devastated. She always loved his stories, and now she has nothing to remember him by. Nothing but the last book he was reading.
But this is no ordinary book… It is the Book of Doors. Inscribed with enigmatic words and mysterious drawings, it promises Cassie that any door is every door. You just need to know how to open them. Then she’s approached by a gaunt stranger in a rumpled black suit with a Scottish brogue who calls himself Drummond Fox. He’s a librarian who keeps watch over a unique set of rare volumes. The tome now in Cassie’s possession is not the only book with great power, but it is the one most coveted by those who collect them. Now Cassie is being hunted by those few who know of the Special Books.
With only her roommate Izzy to confide in, she has to decide if she will help the mysterious and haunted Drummond protect the Book of Doors—and the other books in his secret library’s care—from those who will do evil. Because only Drummond knows where the unique library is and only Cassie’s book can get them there. But there are those willing to kill to obtain those secrets. And a dark force—in the form of a shadowy, sadistic woman—is at the very top of that list.
The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden
Release Date: February 13 from Del Ray
Why We’re Excited: The latest novel from the author of the (truly excellent) Winternight trilogy, Katherine Arden’s The Warm Hands of Ghosts is a complicated historical fantasy about war, trauma, love, and the strangely mysterious hotel whose owner seems can keep the horrors of battle at bay for the price of a memory. Time-bending and heartfelt, the melancholy feel of Arden’s prose will stay with you long after the book’s last page.
Publisher’s Description: January 1918. Laura Iven was a revered field nurse until she was wounded and discharged from the medical corps, leaving behind a brother still fighting in Flanders. Now home in Halifax, Canada, Laura receives word of Freddie’s death in combat, along with his personal effects—but something doesn’t make sense. Determined to uncover the truth, Laura returns to Belgium as a volunteer at a private hospital, where she soon hears whispers about haunted trenches and a strange hotelier whose wine gives soldiers the gift of oblivion. Could Freddie have escaped the battlefield, only to fall prey to something—or someone—else?
November 1917. Freddie Iven awakens after an explosion to find himself trapped in an overturned pillbox with a wounded enemy soldier, a German by the name of Hans Winter. Against all odds, the two form an alliance and succeed in clawing their way out. Unable to bear the thought of returning to the killing fields, especially on opposite sides, they take refuge with a mysterious man who seems to have the power to make the hellscape of the trenches disappear.
As shells rain down on Flanders and ghosts move among those yet living, Laura’s and Freddie’s deepest traumas are reawakened. Now they must decide whether their world is worth salvaging—or better left behind entirely.
Heartless Hunter by Kristen Ciccarelli
Release Date: February 20 from Wednesday Books
Why You’ll Love It: An addictive romantic fantasy about the cat-and-mouse game between a witch and a witch hunter that develops into something more, Heartless Hunter seems destined to be one of the buzziest releases of winter. (The chemistry! Whew!)
Publisher’s Description: On the night Rune’s life changed forever, blood ran in the streets. Now, in the aftermath of a devastating revolution, witches have been diminished from powerful rulers to outcasts ruthlessly hunted due to their waning magic, and Rune must hide what she is.
Spending her days pretending to be nothing more than a vapid young socialite, Rune spends her nights as the Crimson Moth, a witch vigilante who rescues her kind from being purged. When a rescue goes wrong, she decides to throw the witch hunters off her scent and gain the intel she desperately needs by courting the handsome Gideon Sharpe – a notorious and unforgiving witch hunter loyal to the revolution – who she can’t help but find herself falling for.
Gideon loathes the decadence and superficiality Rune represents, but when he learns the Crimson Moth has been using Rune’s merchant ships to smuggle renegade witches out of the republic, he inserts himself into her social circles by pretending to court her right back. He soon realizes that beneath her beauty and shallow façade, is someone fiercely intelligent and tender who feels like his perfect match. Except, what if she’s the very villain he’s been hunting?
To Cage a God by Elizabeth May
Release Date: February 20 from DAW
Why You’ll Love It: I can’t be the only person with an extreme weakness for fantasy that’s inspired by Imperial Russia, can I? A bloody, political romantasy about two sisters who are raised to be living weapons, it’s a story that’s grounded in sacrifice and family bonds.
Publisher’s Description: To cage a god is divine. To be divine is to rule. To rule is to destroy.
Using ancient secrets, Galina and Sera’s mother grafted gods into their bones. Bound to brutal deities and granted forbidden power no commoner has held in a millennia, the sisters have grown up to become living weapons. Raised to overthrow an empire―no matter the cost.
With their mother gone and their country on the brink of war, it falls to the sisters to take the helm of the rebellion and end the cruel reign of a royal family possessed by destructive gods. Because when the ruling alurea invade, they conquer with fire and blood. And when they clash, common folk burn.
While Sera reunites with her estranged lover turned violent rebel leader, Galina infiltrates the palace. In this world of deception and danger, her only refuge is an isolated princess, whose whip-smart tongue and sharp gaze threaten to uncover Galina’s secret. Torn between desire and duty, Galina must make a choice: work together to expose the lies of the empire―or bring it all down.
A Fate Inked in Blood by Danielle Jensen
Release Date: February 27 from Del Ray
Why We’re Excited: The buzzy new series opener from the author of the Malediction and Bridge Kingdom series, A Fate Inked in Blood is set in a Norse-inspired universe where “unfated” humans can defy the destinies laid out for them. Action-packed, angsty, and almost certainly destined to be our winter fantasy romance obsession.
Publisher’s Description: Bound in an unwanted marriage, Freya spends her days gutting fish, but dreams of becoming a warrior. And of putting an axe in her boorish husband’s back.
Freya’s dreams abruptly become reality when her husband betrays her to the region’s jarl, landing her in a fight to the death against his son, Bjorn. To survive, Freya is forced to reveal her deepest secret: She possesses a drop of a goddess’s blood, which makes her a shield maiden with magic capable of repelling any attack. It was foretold such a magic would unite the fractured nation of Skaland beneath the one who controls the shield maiden’s fate.
Believing he’s destined to rule Skaland as king, the fanatical jarl binds Freya with a blood oath and orders Bjorn to protect her from their enemies. Desperate to prove her strength, Freya must train to fight and learn to control her magic, all while facing perilous tests set by the gods. The greatest test of all, however, may be resisting her forbidden attraction to Bjorn. If Freya succumbs to her lust for the charming and fierce warrior, she risks not only her own destiny but the fate of all the people she swore to protect.
Fathomfolk by Eliza Chan
Release Date: February 27 from Orbit
Why We’re Excited: An early frontrunner for the best fantasy cover of 2024, Fathomfolk is an ambitious debut with one of the year’s most unique premises. Set in a half-submerged city where war is brewing between sea dwellers (a.k.a. fathomfolk) and humans, it’s a fantasy that also wrestles with all too real issues of xenophobia and social injustice.
Publisher’s Description: Welcome to Tiankawi – shining pearl of human civilization and a safe haven for those fleeing civil unrest. Or at least, that’s how it first appears.
But in the semi-flooded city, humans are, quite literally, on peering down from skyscrapers and aerial walkways on the fathomfolk — sirens, seawitches, kelpies and kappas—who live in the polluted waters below.
For half-siren Mira, promotion to captain of the border guard means an opportunity to reform. At last, she has the ear of the city council and a chance to lift the repressive laws that restrict fathomfolk at every turn. But if earning the trust and respect of her human colleagues wasn’t hard enough, everything Mira has worked towards is put in jeopardy when a water dragon is exiled to the city.
New arrival Nami is an aristocratic water dragon with an opinion on everything. Frustrated by the lack of progress from Mira’s softly-softly approach in gaining equality, Nami throws her lot in with an anti-human extremist group, leaving Mira to find the headstrong youth before she makes everything worse.
And pulling strings behind everything is Cordelia, a second-generation sea witch determined to do what she must to survive and see her family flourish, even if it means climbing over the bodies of her competitors. Her political game-playing and underground connections could disrupt everything Nami and Mira are fighting for.
When the extremists sabotage the annual boat race, violence erupts, as does the clampdown on fathomfolk rights. Even Nami realizes her new friends are not what they seem. Both she and Mira must decide if the cost of change is worth it, or if Tiankawi should be left to drown.
The Butcher of the Forest by Preeme Mohamed
Release Date: February 27 from Tor.com
Why You’ll Love It: A grimdark fantasy novella, The Butcher of the Forest mixes fairytale and horror elements to create a lush world that feels entirely new. In the twisted world of the Elmever forest nothing is as it seems, and nightmarish forces lurk behind what feels like every corner. Its brisk length lends its story a propulsive, inevitable feel, and readers will fly through its pages.
Publisher’s Description: A world-weary woman races against the clock to rescue the children of a wrathful tyrant from a dangerous, otherworldly forest.
At the northern edge of a land ruled by a monstrous, foreign tyrant lies the wild forest known as the Elmever. The villagers know better than to let their children go near—once someone goes in, they never come back out.
No one knows the strange and terrifying traps of the Elmever better than Veris Thorn, the only person to ever rescue a child from the forest many years ago. When the Tyrant’s two young children go missing, Veris is commanded to enter the forest once more and bring them home safe. If Veris fails, the Tyrant will kill her; if she remains in the forest for longer than a day, she will be trapped forevermore.
So Veris will travel deep into the Elmever to face traps, riddles, and monsters at the behest of another monster. One misstep will cost everything.
Fate Breaker by Victoria Aveyard
Release Date: February 27 from HarperTeen
Why We’re Excited: The final installment in Victoria Aveyard’s Realm Breaker series features a devastating final battle for the literal fate of the world—and the lives of the companions we’ve come to care so much about along the way.
Publisher’s Description: The Companions are scattered and hopeless, torn from each other. After Corayne barely escapes with her life, she must forge on alone, leaving her blade broken and her allies behind her. Her only consolation—Corayne now has Taristan’s sword, the only Spindleblade left in existence. Without it, he can’t rip open any more Spindles. Without it, he can’t end the world.
But Taristan and Queen Erida will not be defeated so easily. Both will burn the world to bring down Corayne—and bring forth their demon god, What Waits, ready to claim the realm of Allward for his own. In a final clash between kingdoms and gods, all must rise to fight—or be destroyed.
Lord of the Wilds by Analeigh Sbrana
Release Date: February 27 from Harper Voyager
Why You’ll Love It: The story of a human girl who strikes a deal with the fae to save her family, this romantic fantasy ticks a lot of boxes: Cottagecore vibes, an enchanted library, forbidden romance, and a broody love interest. You’ve seen a lot of this before, but Analeigh Sbrana makes it feel brand new.
Publisher’s Description: A library with a deadly enchantment.
A Fae lord who wants in.
A human woman willing to risk it all for a taste of power.
In a land ruled by ruthless Fae, twenty-one-year-old Lore Alemeyu’s village is trapped in a forested prison. Lore knows that any escape attempt is futile—her scars are a testament to her past failures. But when her village is threatened, Lore makes a desperate deal with a Fae lord. She will leave her home to catalog/organize an enchanted library that hasn’t been touched in a thousand years. No Fae may enter the library, but there is a chance a human might be able to breach the cursed doors.
She convinces him that she will risk her life for wealth, but really she’s after the one thing the Fae covet above all: magic of her own.
As Lore navigates the hostile world outside, she’s forced to rely on two Fae males to survive. Two very different, very dangerous, very attractive Fae males. When undeniable chemistry ignites, she’s not just in danger of losing her life, but her heart to the very creatures she can never trust.
Lacy Baugher Milas is the Books Editor at Paste Magazine, but loves nerding out about all sorts of pop culture. You can find her on Twitter @LacyMB