Spring has sprung, and along with it, one of the most exciting periods in the publishing calendar. As we all count down the days to Memorial Day and the official kick-off of summer at the end of the month, bookstore shelves are growing full to bursting with a wide variety of excellent fantasy titles to keep us reading throughout long summer evenings, pool time, or long weekend vacations.
From thrilling sequels, highly anticipated debuts, and new stories from established favorites in subgenres ranging from spicy romantasy to dystopian doorstoppers, fantasy readers are truly spoiled for choice this month.
Here are our picks for the best fantasy books hitting shelves in May.
Silver Elite by Dani Francis
Release Date: May 6 from Del Ray
Why We’re Excited: A debut that kicks off a buzzy new dystopian fantasy romance series, Silver Elite mixes tropes we love in new and intriguing ways. Described as perfect for fans of Fourth Wing and Divergent, it follows the story of Wren, a Silverblood whose hidden psychic powers would see her killed if they were discovered. Forced to join the Continent’s most elite training program, she’s determined to burn it all down from within—if she can just ignore her attraction to her very attractive (and extremely dangerous) commanding officer.
Publisher’s Description: Wren Darlington has spent her whole life in hiding, honing her psychic abilities and aiding the rebel Uprising in small ways. On the Continent, being Modified means certain death—and Wren is one of the most powerful Mods in existence. When one careless mistake places her in the hands of the enemy and she’s forced to join their most elite training program, she’s finally handed the perfect opportunity to strike a devastating blow from inside their ranks.
But training for Silver Block can be deadly, especially when you’re harboring dangerous secrets and living in close quarters with everyone who wants you dead.
As the stakes grow ever higher, Wren must prove herself to Silver Block. But that’s easier said than done when your commanding officer is the ruthless and infuriatingly irresistible Cross Redden, who doesn’t miss anything when it comes to her. And as war rages between Mods like her and those who aim to destroy them, Wren must decide just how far she’s willing to go to protect herself . . . and how much of the Continent is worth saving.
Shield of Sparrows by Devney Perry
Release Date: May 6 from Entangled/Red Tower Books
Why We’re Excited: A high-stakes slow burn romantasy debut from bestselling romance author Devney Perry, Shield of Sparrows boasts an addictive enemies-to-lovers romance and worldbuilding featuring everything from ancient treaties and cursed kingdoms to monster-infested wilds and dark magic.
Publisher’s Description: The gods sent monsters to the five kingdoms to remind mortals they must kneel.
I’ve spent my life kneeling—to their will and to my father’s. As a princess, my only duty is to wear the crown and obey the king.
I was never meant to rule. Never meant to fight. And I was never supposed to be the daughter who sealed an ancient treaty with her own blood.
But that changed the fateful day I stepped into my father’s throne room. The day a legendary monster hunter sailed to our shores. The day a prince ruined my life.
Now I’m crossing treacherous lands beside a warrior who despises me as much as I despise him—bound to a future I didn’t choose and a husband I barely know.
Everyone wants me to be something I’m not—a queen, a spy, a sacrifice.
But what if I refused the role chosen for me? What if I made my own rules? What if there’s power in being underestimated?
And what if—for the first time—I reached for it?
A Letter from the Lonesome Shore by Sylvie Cathrall
Release Date: May 6 from Orbit
Why We’re Excited: An enchanting conclusion to one of last year’s best cozy fantasies, A Letter From the Lonesome Shore is a warm, whimsical box of steadily unfolding delights.
Publisher’s Description: Former correspondents E. and Henerey, accustomed to loving each other from afar, did not anticipate continuing their courtship in an enigmatic underwater city. When their journey through the Structure in E.’s garden strands them in a peculiar society preoccupied with the pleasures and perils of knowledge, E. and Henerey come to accept—and, more surprisingly still, embrace—the fact that they may never return home.
A year and a half later, Sophy and Vyerin finally discover one of the elusive Entries that will help them seek their siblings. As the group’s efforts bring them closer to E. and Henerey, an ancient, cosmic threat also draws near…
A Curse Carved in Bone by Danielle L. Jensen
Release Date: May 13 from Del Ray
Why We’re Excited: The highly anticipated conclusion to Danielle Jensen’s Saga of the Unfated series, A Curse Carved in Bone sees shield maiden Freya battling to break the chains of destiny and choose her own fate—for both herself and her people.
Publisher’s Description: The secret of her divine heritage revealed, Freya finds herself on a path that will see thousands of lives lost to the magic in her blood. Desperate to avoid this dark fate, she risks an alliance with Skaland’s greatest enemy to seek answers from the seer who foretold her future—the same seer who sent Bjorn to kill her.
While Freya still seethes with rage over Bjorn’s betrayal, the blood oaths that bind her demand that she keep him close as she hunts for a way to avert the looming war. Her magic draws her to the front lines of an old enmity, embroiling her with Nordeland’s Unfated—children of the gods who serve the king she was raised to fear. The same king who, unlike Bjorn, is now willing to fight at her back. For despite the desire that burns hot between Bjorn and Freya, his growing distrust of her chosen path threatens to drag them further apart.
As war approaches, gods and mortals must choose their weapons. Yet the fiercest battle will be the one Freya wages within herself. With the magic of two goddesses burning in her veins, she must weave the threads of destiny to decide her own fate: Will she be the shield that protects her people or the curse that destroys them?
The Devils by Joe Abercrombie
Release Date: May 13 from Tor Books
Why We’re Excited: Joe Abercrombie’s highly anticipated new novel, The Devils, deftly blends a high fantasy adventure with gripping elements of heist, spy, and thriller fiction to form something that feels entirely new and thoroughly exciting. With its breakneck plot, compelling cast of intriguing antiheroes and misfits, and thoughtful worldbuilding, its doorstopper of a length will fly by.
Publisher’s Description: Holy work sometimes requires unholy deeds.
Brother Diaz has been summoned to the Sacred City, where he is certain a commendation and grand holy assignment awaits him. But his new flock is made up of unrepentant murderers, practitioners of ghastly magic, and outright monsters. The mission he is tasked with will require bloody measures from them all in order to achieve its righteous ends.
Elves lurk at our borders and hunger for our flesh, while greedy princes care for nothing but their own ambitions and comfort. With a hellish journey before him, it’s a good thing Brother Diaz has the devils on his side.
Sestia by G.R. Macallister
Release Date: May 13 from S&S/Saga Press
Why We’re Excited: The final installment in one of the most underrated female-focused fantasy series out there right now, Sestia brings G.R. Macallister’s excellent Five Queendoms trilogy to a close in truly epic style.
Publisher’s Description: While a fragile peace has begun to settle across the Five Queendoms of the known world, trouble brews beneath the smooth façade. The first gate between the Underlands, where Eresh rules over the shades of the dead, has already been opened—and the scheming shade of a dead sorcerer has evil plans he hopes to unleash on the world. In the world Above, the Scorpicae struggle to find a path forward in defeat, the embattled regent of Paxim gets more than she bargained for, and a young woman who barely survived the Sun Rites finds herself the indispensable right hand of a priest-queen whose sanity appears to be slipping away.
As living women across the Queendoms take desperate action to stay alive, and dead women plot to regain what they’ve lost, the time for the next Sun Rites nears. When five queens gather in the Holy City of Sestia for the most important ritual of their lives, who will be left standing?
The Incandescent by Emily Tesh
Release Date: May 13 from Tor Books
Why We’re Excited: A sapphic dark academia fantasy that’s described as Naomi Novik’s Scholomance series meets Plain Bad Heroines sounds pretty perfect to me, is all I’m saying.
Publisher’s Description: Doctor Walden is the Director of Magic at Chetwood School and one of the most powerful magicians in England. Her days consist of meetings, teaching A-Level Invocation to four talented, chaotic sixth formers, more meetings, and securing the school’s boundaries from demonic incursions.
Walden is good at her job―no, Walden is great at her job. But demons are masters of manipulation. It’s her responsibility to keep her school with its six hundred students and centuries-old legacy safe. And it’s possible the entity Walden most needs to keep her school safe from―is herself.
Isabella Nagg and the Pot of Basil by Oliver Darkshire
Release Date: May 13 from W. W. Norton & Company
Why We’re Excited: A hilarious and heartfelt debut novel from memoirist Oliver Darkshire, Isabella Nagg and the Pot of Basil features a lead character lifted straight from the pages of The Decameron, a depressed donkey, a sentient plant, a useless husband, and the sort of consequences that lead to deeply satisfying growth. A story with frequent Terry Pratchett vibes and lots of heart.
Publisher’s Description: In a tiny farm on the edge of the miserable village of East Grasby, Isabella Nagg is trying to get on with her tiny, miserable existence. Dividing her time between tolerating her feckless husband, caring for the farm’s strange animals, cooking up “scrunge,” and crooning over her treasured pot of basil, Isabella can’t help but think that there might be something more to life. When Mr. Nagg returns home with a spell book purloined from the local wizard, she thinks: what harm could a little magic do?
The Knight and the Moth by Rachel Gillig
Release Date: May 20 from Orbit
Why We’re Excited: The latest novel from the author of the Shepherd King duology, The Knight and the Moth follows the story of a young prophetess who must be repeatedly drowned to see visions of the future. But when the newly crowned king arrives at her abbey, and her sister Diviners begin to go missing, the nameless Six begins a search that will challenge everything she knows. Full of haunting, Gothic-tinged prose and boasting what is likely the most gorgeous cover of anything hitting shelves this year, Gillig’s latest is stunning in every way.
Publisher’s Description: Sybil Delling has spent nine years dreaming of having no dreams at all. Like the other foundling girls who traded a decade of service for a home in the great cathedral, Sybil is a Diviner. In her dreams she receives visions from six unearthly figures known as Omens. From them, she can predict terrible things before they occur, and lords and common folk alike travel across the kingdom of Traum’s windswept moors to learn their futures by her dreams.
Just as she and her sister Diviners near the end of their service, a mysterious knight arrives at the cathedral. Rude, heretical, and devilishly handsome, the knight Rodrick has no respect for Sybil’s visions. But when Sybil’s fellow Diviners begin to vanish one by one, she has no choice but to seek his help in finding them. For the world outside the cathedral’s cloister is wrought with peril. Only the gods have the answers she is seeking, and as much as she’d rather avoid Rodrick’s dark eyes and sharp tongue, only a heretic can defeat a god.
Behooved by M. Stevenson
Release Date: May 20 from Bramble
Why We’re Excited: Maybe it’s just that I’m really missing My Lady Jane, but this story about an noblewoman who accidentally turns her new husband into a horse on her wedding night, is framed for his murder, and then must join forces with him to solve the case is arriving at precisely the right time for me, personally.
Publishers’ Description: Bianca knows her duty comes before her heart. So when the threat of war looms, she agrees to marry the neighboring kingdom’s heir. But not all royal weddings are a fairytale, and Prince Aric, Bianca’s betrothed, is cold, aloof, and seems to hate her on sight.
To make matters worse, on their wedding night, an assassination attempt goes awry―leaving Aric magically transformed into a horse. Bianca does what any bride in this situation would do: she mounts her new husband and rides away to safety.
Sunset returns Aric to human form, but they soon discover the assassination attempt is part of a larger plot against the throne. Worse, Bianca has been framed for Aric’s murder, and she’s now saddled with a husband who is a horse by day and a frustratingly attractive man by night.
As an unexpected romance begins galloping away with their hearts, Bianca and Aric must rely on each other to unravel the curse and save the throne.
A Fate Forged in Fire by Hazel McBride
Release Date: May 27 from Dell
Why We’re Excited: This story of a powerful, fire-wielding blacksmith looking to reclaim her kingdom’s formerly matriarchal throne that also features a scorching (literally) enemies-to-lovers romance, political betrayal, and dragon riding is like a Venn diagram of what’s hot right now.
Publisher’s Description: Once a territory built on matriarchal rule and values, Tìr Teine has since grown frail from a long line of fruitless kings, the most recent of which have ruled under the influence of the True Religion, an oppressive group who have steadily poisoned the region with their anti-magic teachings.
Born to rule and blessed by fire, Aemyra has begrudgingly lived in hiding rather than risk her life in court, waiting in anticipation for the current king’s death so she can bond to his dragon, claim her throne, and protect her people. But when the king dies and Aemyra is ready to take what is rightfully hers, her ambitious plan is foiled, and she is thrust into a game of vicious politics and plots.
Her biggest adversary is Prince Fiorean, a dragon rider and one of the most powerful fire wielders in the territory. Cold, arrogant, and blindly supportive of his corrupt family, he is everything Aemyra despises. But as chaos engulfs the court, they find themselves reluctantly entwined, forced to forge an uneasy alliance—one that quickly ignites into something more dangerous than either of them expected.
Behind enemy lines and slowly falling for her so-called adversary, Aemyra uncovers just how far the rot of corruption has spread, and what she may have to sacrifice to claim her throne.
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 and Bluesky at @LacyMB
