Buckle up, fantasy fans because it feels like October may be the biggest month of the year when it comes to must-read new releases in this particular genre. Thanks to the particular idiosyncrasies of this year’s publishing schedule, we have multiple big name fantasy books arriving this month, including two of YA’s most successful stars crossing over into the adult market, multiple highly touted debuts, and the conclusion to an enormously popular trilogy. Whew!
Plus, it’s spooky season, and while that is less evident this month than you might have expected, there are still a few magically-tinged Gothic stories and witchy romances to dig into as that crisp Halloween weather rolls in.
Here are our picks for the best new fantasy books hitting shelves this October.
Throne of the Fallen by Kerri Maniscalco
Release Date: October 3 from Little, Brown & Company
Why You’ll Love It: The highly anticipated adult fantasy debut from bestselling YA author Kerri Maniscalco takes us back to the megapopular world of her Kingdom of the Wicked trilogy for a story about Wrath’s brother, the Prince of Envy that’s steamier than anything that’s come before. Fans of the Wicked series will find plenty to enjoy here as Maniscalco gleefully pushes boundaries and tries new things, but those who are unfamiliar with her world’s history and character dynamics may find this one a difficult starting point.
Publisher’s Description: Sinner. Villain. Ruthless. These are wicked names the Prince of Envy welcomes. They remind him what he isn’t: a saint. And when a cryptic note arrives, signaling the beginning of a deadly game, he knows he’ll be called much worse before it ends. Riddles, hexed objects, anonymous players, nothing will stand in his way. With a powerful artifact and his own future at stake, Envy is determined to win, though none of his meticulous plans prepare him for her, the frustrating artist who ignites his sin—and passion—like no other…
Talented. Darling. Liar. The trouble with scoundrels and blackguards is that they haven’t a modicum of honor, a fact Miss Camilla Antonius learns after one desperate mistake allows notorious rake—and satire sheet legend—Lord Phillip Vexley to blackmail her. And now it seems Vexley isn’t the only scoundrel interested in securing her unique talents as a painter. To avoid Vexley’s clutches and a ruinous scandal, Camilla is forced to enter a devil’s bargain with Waverly Green’s newest arrival, enigmatic Lord Ashford ‘Syn’ Synton, little expecting his game will awaken her true nature . . .
Together, Envy and Camilla must embark on a perilous journey through the Shifting Isles—from glittering demon courts to the sultry vampire realm, and encounters with exiled Fae—while trying to avoid the most dangerous trap of all: falling in love.
The Hurricane Wars by Thea Guanzon
Release Date: October 3 from Harper Voyager
Why You’ll Love It: Complicated political intrigue, a unique magical system, and a satisfying slow-burn enemies-to-lovers romance are just some of the narrative threads at the heart of this highly anticipated debut. A buzzy release that lives up to the hype—and that will likely obsess fantasy romance fans everywhere.
Publisher’s Description: All Talasyn has ever known is the Hurricane Wars. Growing up an orphan in a nation under siege by the ruthless Night Emperor, Talasyn has found her family among the soldiers who fight for freedom. But she is hiding a deadly secret: light magic courses through her veins, a blazing power believed to have been wiped out years ago that can cut through the Night Empire’s shadows.
Prince Alaric, the emperor’s only son and heir, has been forged into a weapon by his father. Tasked with obliterating any threats to the Night Empire’s rule with the strength of his armies and mighty Shadow magic, Alaric has never been bested. That is until he sees Talasyn burning brightly on the battlefield with the magic that killed his grandfather, turned his father into a monster, and ignited the Hurricane Wars. In a clash of light and dark, their powers merge and create a force the likes of which has never been seen.
Talasyn and Alaric both know this war can only end with them. But a greater threat is coming, and the strange new magic they can create together could be the only way to overcome it. Thrust into an uneasy alliance, they will confront the secrets at the heart of the war and find, in each other, a searing passion–one that could save their world…or destroy it.
Starling House by Alix E. Harrow
Release Date: October 3 from Tor Books
Why You’ll Love It: This Gothic story about a lost girl, a lonely heir, a haunted house, and the dark family history that stalks them both contains both literal and figurative magic.
Publisher’s Description Eden, Kentucky, is just another dying, bad-luck town, known only for the legend of E. Starling, the reclusive nineteenth-century author and illustrator who wrote The Underland–and disappeared. Before she vanished, Starling House appeared. But everyone agrees that it’s best to let the uncanny house―and its last lonely heir, Arthur Starling―go to rot.
Opal knows better than to mess with haunted houses or brooding men, but an unexpected job offer might be a chance to get her brother out of Eden. Too quickly, though, Starling House starts to feel dangerously like something she’s never had: a home.
As sinister forces converge on Starling House, Opal and Arthur are going to have to make a dire choice to dig up the buried secrets of the past and confront their own fears, or let Eden be taken over by literal nightmares.
If Opal wants a home, she’ll have to fight for it.
Curious Tides by Pascale Lacelle
Release Date; October 3 from Margaret K. McElderry Books
Why You’ll Love It: Described as Ninth House meets A Deadly Education, Curious Tides is a fantasy set in a world where magical abilities are assigned based on the moon’s phase during the day of their birth, and follows the story of a student who is somehow the only survivor of an event that left a half dozen of her other classmates dead. An eerie, ethereal setting, an intriguing magical system, and deftly drawn personal relationships between the story’s characters help this sometimes familiar story stand out from the pack of fantasy books releases.
Publisher’s Description: Emory might be a student at the prestigious Aldryn College for Lunar Magics, but her healing abilities have always been mediocre at best—until a treacherous night in the Dovermere sea caves leaves a group of her classmates dead and her as the only survivor. Now Emory is plagued by strange, impossible powers that no healer should possess.
Powers that would ruin her life if the wrong person were to discover them.
To gain control of these new abilities, Emory enlists the help of the school’s most reclusive student, Baz—a boy already well-versed in the deadly nature of darker magic, whose sister happened to be one of the drowned students and Emory’s best friend. Determined to find the truth behind the drownings and the cult-like secret society she’s convinced her classmates were involved in, Emory is faced with even more questions when the supposedly drowned students start washing ashore— alive —only for them each immediately to die horrible, magical deaths.
And Emory is not the only one seeking answers. When her new magic captures the society’s attention, she finds herself drawn into their world of privilege and power, all while wondering if the truth she’s searching for might lead her right back to Dovermere…to face the fate she was never meant to escape.
Night of the Witch by Sara Raasch and Beth Revis
Release Date: October 3 from Sourcebooks Fire
Why You’ll Love It: Let’s face it: a fantasy romance about a witch and a witch hunter that incorporates elements of real history from 16th century German witch trials is perfect for spooky season.
Publisher’s Description: Fritzi is a witch. A survivor of a brutal attack on her coven, she’s determined to find her only surviving family member and bring the hexenjägers—zealot witch hunters—to justice for the lives they ended. To do this, she will need to take down their leader—Kommandant Dieter Kirch.
Otto is a hexenjäger and a captain, the second in command to Dieter Kirch—but that’s just his cover. Years ago, the hexenjagers burned his innocent mother alive and since then, he has been planning a move against the witch hunters that tore his family apart. And now the time has come for them to pay for what they’ve done.
When Fritzi and Otto are unexpectedly thrown together, neither is sure they can trust the other, despite their common enemy. But all they have is one another, and they both crave revenge. As truths come to light and trust shifts, Fritzi and Otto uncover a far more horrifying plot at the center of the hexenjäger attacks . . . but their own growing feelings for each other may be the most powerful magic of all.
Sword Catcher by Cassandra Clare
Release Date: October 10 from Del Ray Books
Why You’ll Love It: Cassandra Clare joins the growing ranks of popular YA fantasy authors who are making the leap to adult fiction with Sword Catcher, the first in a brand new series of fantasy books. Free to craft a new universe that has nothing to do with her popular Shadowhunters series, Clare tells a sweeping story about a pair of outcasts in the city-state of Castellane, a crossroads for the wealthy and influential elite. Fast paced and full of twists, Sword Catcher’s Immersive worldbuilding and memorable characters will leave readers chomping for the sequel.
Publisher’s Description: In the vibrant city-state of Castellane, the richest of nobles and the most debauched of criminals have one thing in common: the constant search for wealth, power, and the next hedonistic thrill.
Kel is an orphan, stolen from the life he knew to become the Sword-Catcher—the body-double of a royal heir, Prince Conor Aurelian. He has been raised alongside the prince, trained in every aspect of combat and statecraft. He and Conor are close as brothers, but Kel knows he has one destiny: to die for Conor. No other future is possible.
Lin Caster is one of the Ashkar, a small community who still possess magical abilities. By law, they must live behind walls in the city, but Lin, a physician, ventures out to tend to the sick and dying of Castellane. Despite her skills, she cannot heal her best friend Mariam without access to forbidden knowledge
After a failed assassination attempt brings Lin and Kel together, they are drawn into the web of the mysterious Ragpicker King, the criminal ruler of Castellane’s underworld. He offers them each what they want most; but as they descend into his world of intrigue and shadow, they discover a conspiracy of corruption that reaches from the darkest gutters of Castellane to the highest tower of its palaces. As long-kept secrets begin to unravel, they must ask themselves: Is knowledge worth the price of betrayal? Can forbidden love bring down a kingdom? And will Lin and Kel’s discoveries plunge their nation into war—and the world into chaos?
Two Twisted Crowns by Rachel Gillig
Release Date: October 19 from Orbit
Why You’ll Love It: Rachel Gillig’s One Dark Window was a fascinating debut, and its darker and even more atmospheric sequel, Two Twisted Crowns, picks up right where its predecessor left off. A satisfying end to the Shepherd King duology.
Publisher’s Description: Elspeth and Ravyn have gathered most of the twelve Providence Cards, but the last, and most important one remains to be found: The Twin Alders.
If they are going to find it before the Solstice and cure the kingdom of the dark magic infecting it, they will need to journey beyond the dangerous mist-cloaked forest that surrounds their kingdom.
And the only one who can lead them there is the monster that shares Elspeth’s head. The Nightmare. And he’s not eager to share any longer.
A Curse for True Love by Stephanie Garber
Release Date: October 24 from Flatiron
Why You’ll Love It: The highly anticipated final installment in Garber’s Once Upon a Broken Heart trilogy is a fight for happily ever after that puts the idea of true love to the test.
Publisher’s Description: Evangeline Fox ventured to the Magnificent North in search of her happy ending, and it seems as if she has it. She’s married to a handsome prince and lives in a legendary castle. But Evangeline has no idea of the devastating price she’s paid for this fairytale. She doesn’t know what she has lost, and her husband is determined to make sure she never finds out . . . but first he must kill Jacks, the Prince of Hearts.
The Queen of Days by Greta Kelly
Release Date: October 24 from Harper Voyager
Why You’ll Love It: A high stakes magical heist story about a ragtag group of thieves, you’ll come for the action sequences and stay for the rich relationships and found family vibes.
Publisher’s Description: For Balthazar and his family of thieves, stealing a statue during the annual celebration of the god Karanis was just a good bit of fun…or a way to stick it to the governor who murdered his parents. And yeah, the small fortune in reward doesn’t hurt—even if his boss also hired the mysterious Queen of Days to join the crew as “the weapon of last resort…”
Whatever that means.
But Bal doesn’t know the ceremony isn’t simply empty words and dusty tradition; it’s true magic. The kind of magic that rips open a portal for the god himself. Only the idol that Karanis planned on using for a body now lies broken at the Queen of Days’ feet. And half of it is missing.
With the aid of a lovable brawler, a society lady turned bomb maker, a disgraced soldier, and a time-eating demon, Bal must hunt down the missing half of the statue if he has any hope of earning his money, keeping his crew alive…and perhaps even saving all of humanity. But as his journey sends him racing through the city—and across realities—he discovers that doing all this might just doom the city.
The city be damned. It’s time to kill a god.
Dark Moon Shallow Sea by David R. Slayton
Release Date: October 31 from Blackstone Publishing
Why You’ll Love It: From the author of the Adam Binder series, Dark Moon Shallow Sea sees David R. Slayton shift focus from urban to epic fantasy, drawing inspiration from Greek mythology and the story of the Titans and building an immersive world that’s entirely its own.
Publisher’s Description: Raef wants revenge on the knights who killed his goddess, the moon. Her death darkened the night sky, stopped the tides, and left the shades of the dead without a path to the underworld.
Seeking revenge, Raef breaks into the knights’ temple and opens a box, expecting to find gold and jewels among the bones. Instead, he finds a living man, Kinos, sleeping inside.
Raef steals Kinos.
As they run from the knights and grow closer, Raef thinks he’s found a friend, love, and perhaps a secret that may lead to his goddess’s return. If they can’t solve the mystery of Kinos’s imprisonment, the moon will never rise again and the world will drown in ghosts.
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