Summer is the season of escapism, whether that means literally jetting off to new and exciting locations or just mentally checking out a bit from the worries and stresses of your day-to-day grind. And a good fantasy book is a perfect accessory for either occasion, offering readers a chance to immerse themselves in thrilling new worlds full of compelling characters, intricate magical systems, and complex internal histories.
While June is a bit of a slower month than some when it comes to new releases (buckle up for July, folks!), there are still plenty of intriguing titles hitting shelves, with stories featuring everything from magical circuses to failed Chosen Ones.
Here are our picks for the best fantasy books of June 2023.
The Grimoire of Grave Fates edited by Hanna Alkaf and Margaret Owen
Release Date: June 6 from Delacorte Press
Why You’ll Love It: Told from more than a dozen different and diverse perspectives, this half-anthology, half-fantasy adventure set in a magical school full of chosen ones is this month’s most unique release. When a teacher is murdered, 18 students (each written by a different author) will have to join forces to solve the crime. Though each character feels like the primary protagonist of their owns stories Grimoire’s individual threads still manage to weave together to form a cohesive and thoughtful whole.
Publisher’s Description: Professor of Magical History Septimius Dropwort has just been murdered, and now everyone at the Galileo Academy for the Extraordinary is a suspect.
A prestigious school for young magicians, the Galileo Academy has recently undergone a comprehensive overhaul, reinventing itself as a roaming academy in which students of all cultures and identities are celebrated. In this new Galileo, every pupil is welcome–but there are some who aren’t so happy with the recent changes. That includes everyone’s least favorite professor, Septimius Dropwort, a stodgy old man known for his harsh rules and harsher punishments. But when the professor’s body is discovered on school grounds with a mysterious note clenched in his lifeless hand, the Academy’s students must solve the murder themselves, because everyone’s a suspect.
Told from more than a dozen alternating and diverse perspectives, The Grimoire of Grave Fates follows Galileo’s best and brightest young magicians as they race to discover the truth behind Dropwort’s mysterious death. Each one of them is confident that only they have the skills needed to unravel the web of secrets hidden within Galileo’s halls. But they’re about to discover that even for straight-A students, magic doesn’t always play by the rules. . . .
The Evergreen Heir by A.K. Mulford
Release Date: June 13 from Harper Voyager
Why You’ll Love It: BookTok favorite A.K. Mulord’s inclusive The Five Crowns of Okrith series continues with The Evergreen Heir, the story of a nonbinary, neurodivergent bookwork who must step out of their comfort zone to save their mother and their kingdom.
Publisher’s Description: If allowed, Neelo Emberspear would never leave the library. Reluctant to take the throne despite their mother’s faltering health, the neurodivergent bookworm craves escape from their arranged marriage to charming fae warrior Talhan Catullus. But they know their duty can be put off no longer when their mother, the drug-addled queen, disastrously lights the castle on fire.
Fighting to save their mother’s life and keep her on the throne, Neelo is astonished when bonding over the written word brings them closer than ever to their cavalier, soon-to-be husband. But the non-binary heir’s growing affections may be cut short with witch uprisings threatening to topple the entire continent.
The First Bright Thing by J.R. Dawson
Release Date: June 13 from Tor Books
Why You’ll Love It: A time-traveling historical tale of a circus full of magical misfits seeking a safe haven in the aftermath of World War I, The First Bright Thing is a surprisingly heartfelt tale that mixes dark threats and hopeful optimism in a story about the value of doing small things with great love.
Publisher’s Description: Ringmaster — Rin, to those who know her best — can jump to different moments in time as easily as her wife, Odette, soars from bar to bar on the trapeze. And the circus they lead is a rare home and safe haven for magical misfits and outcasts, known as Sparks.
With the world still reeling from World War I, Rin and her troupe — the Circus of the Fantasticals — travel the midwest, offering a single night of enchantment and respite to all who step into their Big Top.
But threats come at Rin from all sides. The future holds an impending war that the Sparks can see barrelling toward their show and everyone in it. And Rin’s past creeps closer every day, a malevolent shadow she can’t fully escape.
It takes the form of another circus, with tents as black as midnight and a ringmaster who rules over his troupe with a dangerous power. Rin’s circus has something he wants, and he won’t stop until it’s his.
The Surviving Sky by Kritika H. Rao
Release Date: June 13 from Titan Books
Why You’ll Love It: A Hindu-inspired fantasy/sci-fi/dystopian story that completely speaks to the helpless anxiety many of us feel when we think about the impending threat of climate change, Kritika H. Rao’s debut is one part magical cautionary tale and one part philosophical treatise. You’ll read nothing else like it this summer.
Publisher’s Description: High above a jungle-planet float the last refuges of humanity—plant-made civilizations held together by tradition, technology, and arcane science. Here, architects are revered deeply, with humanity’s survival reliant on a privileged few. If not for their abilities, the cities would plunge into the devastating earthrage storms below.
Charismatic and powerful, Iravan is one such architect. His abilities are his identity, but to Ahilya, his archeologist wife, they are a method to suppress non-architects. Their marriage is thorny and fraught—yet when a jungle expedition goes terribly wrong, jeopardizing their careers, Ahilya and Iravan must work together to save their reputations. But as their city begins to plummet, their discoveries threaten not only their marriage, but their entire civilization.
The Combat Codes by Alexander Darwin
Release Date: June 13 from Orbit
Why You’ll Love It: A gritty fantasy where fights known as Grievars face off in single combat to settle national disputes, this one is of the more action-heavy titles we’ve seen in recent months. (And bonus: the fight scenes are great.)
Publisher’s Description: In a world long ago ravaged by war, the nations have sworn an armistice never to use weapons of mass destruction again. Instead, highly-skilled warriors known as Grievar Knights represent their nations’ interests in brutal hand-to-hand combat.
Murray Pearson was once a famed Knight until he suffered a loss that crippled his homeland — but now he’s on the hunt to discover the next champion.
In underground and ruthless combat rings, an orphaned boy called Cego is making a name for himself. Murray believes Cego has what it takes to thrive in the world’s most prestigious combat academy – but first, Cego must prove himself in the vicious arenas of the underworld. And survival isn’t guaranteed.
Garden of the Cursed by Katy Rose Pool
Release Date: June 20 from Henry Holt & Co.
Why You’ll Love It: A noir-ish fantasy from the author of the excellent There Will Come a Darkness series, it follows the story of a reluctant cursebreaker who has to pretend to be in love with a powerful nobleman to gain entry into the high society world that just might hold the answers to her mother’s disappearance. (And we love a fake dating trope!)
Publisher’s Description: Since fleeing the gilded halls of Evergarden for the muck-filled canals of the Marshes, Marlow Briggs has made a name for herself as the best godsdamn cursebreaker in Caraza City. But no matter how many cases she solves, she is still haunted by the mystery of her mother’s disappearance.
When Adrius Falcrest, Marlow’s old friend and scion of one of Caraza’s most affluent spell-making families, asks her to help break a life-threatening curse, Marlow wants nothing to do with the boy who spurned her a year ago. But a new lead in her mother’s case makes Marlow realize that the only way to get the answers she desperately seeks is to help Adrius and return to Evergarden society—even if it means suffering through a fake love affair with him to avoid drawing suspicion from the conniving Five Families.
As the investigation draws Marlow into a web of deadly secrets and powerful enemies, a shocking truth emerges: Adrius’s curse and her mother’s disappearance may just be clues to an even larger mystery, one that could unravel the very foundations of Caraza and magic itself.
The Book of Gems by Fran Wilde
Release Date: June 20 from Tordotcom
Why You’ll Love It: The third installment of Fran Wilde’s Gem Universe series features both detailed worldbuilding and a thoughtful exploration of the tensions between science and myth.
Publisher’s Description: Some truths are shatterproof…
It’s been centuries since the Jeweled Valley and its magical gems were destroyed. In the republics that rose from its ashes, scientists craft synthetic jewels to heat homes, power gadgetry, and wage war.
Dr. Devina Brunai is one of these scientists. She also is the only person who believes true gems still exist. The recent unearthing of the Palace of Gems gives her the perfect opportunity to find them and prove her naysayers wrong.
Her chance is snatched away at the last moment when her mentor steals her research and wins the trip for himself. Soon, his messages from the field transform into bizarre ramblings about a book, a Prince, and an enemy borne of the dark. Now Dev must enter the Valley, find her mentor, and save her research before they, like gems, become relics of a time long forgotten.
Gods of the Wyrdwood by R.J. Barker
Release Date: June 27 from Orbit
Why You’ll Love It: A unique spin on the traditional Chosen One trope, Gods of the Wyrdwood follows the story of a young boy trained for years to fulfill a specific destiny only to find another has taken his place. Slow-paced and occasionally episodic, this one doesn’t turn out anything like you expect.
Publisher’s Description: The northlands of Crua are locked in eternal winter, but prophecy tells of the chosen child – who will rule in the name of their God, and take warmth back from the South. Cahal du Nahere was raised to be this person: the Cowl-Rai, the saviour. Taken from his parents and prepared for his destiny.
But his time never came.
When he was fifteen he ceased to matter. Another Cowl-Rai had risen, another chosen one, raised in the name of a different God. The years of vicious physical and mental training he had endured, the sacrifice, all for nothing. He became nothing.
Twenty years later, and Cahal lives a life of secrecy on the edges of Crua’s giant forests – hiding what he is, running from what he can do. But when he is forced to reveal his true nature, he sets off a sequence of events that will reveal secrets that will shake the bedrock of his entire world, and expose lies that have persisted for generations.
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