Fantasy and Romantasy 2026

[CoubousAndTourmaIet]

A thread for discussion or sharing recommendations.

Following! Currently reading A court of Thorns and Roses and finished Throne of Glass before Christmas. I need recommendations!

I am in. I have bashed through ACOTAR (twice), Crescent City, Fourth Wing, and just finished Quicksilver (which I liked) and Brimstone (Which I liked less, especially the ending - no spoilers but it really didn't land well with me). I have also loved the outlander series and the All Souls books, which aren't quite romantasy, but i feel they're adjacent.

I'm looking for what's next, open to recommendations. But I definitely want something that's a bit more than Mills and Boon with pointy ears (to coin a fabulous phrase from the other thread!). I enjoy a bit of smug, but it needs to have some.plt around it, decent half believable characters and something actually happening.

Ok I’m going to share this years favourites

this one for outlander with werewolves vibes

This one is like fourth wing but with wolves

This one for vampire smut with little story except well …. Smut . It was a fun read though

Vampires and trials to win , medium smut

Cosy cottage witch vibes , zero smut , tiny bit of romance. would happily give to a younger teen as well as an adult

Viking type fantasy, bit of smut , magic and gods

No / very little smut . But good romance . Witch in hiding and her hunter .

I'm intrigued by Outlander @katmarie but also slightly afraid to try it because of my Scots heritage. I don't want to come over all Celtic snob by finding fault with it.

Have read Acotar, TOG, Grishaverse, as well as All Souls.

Three of those were already on my Amazon wish list @Embarrassednamechang but the others have been duly noted.

I have The Crimson Moth, but as yet, I haven't read it.

Kushiels Dart by Jaqueline Carry. One of my favourite series ever. Recently read Alchemised and enjoyed that.

My favourite read of 2025 was The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson. Great characters & great writing.

I have to admit that Alchemised was a DNF for me, by 200 pages in, it was giving me nightmares.

The Raven Scholar is already at the top of my wish list!

Have to recommend The Unlikely Ones by Mary Brown. There is some sex in it, but it's not gratuitous, and is part of the plot. A great adventure and full of soul.

I won't touch Outlander with a bargepole because of its setting - I'm from the Highlands. I'm sure I'm missing out, but it's just not going to happen.

Yet another recommendation for The Raven Scholar here though, absolutely loved it! One of my other top books of 2025 was a very different fantasy, The Incandescent by Emily Tesh. The main character is a teacher, it's great! And a quick recommend for a fantasy with a 40 something main character - The Glowing Life of Leann Wu.

I do love a decent romantasy but they were all getting a bit samey so I've taken a break. The problem is that they're often very readable so it's very tempting to rattle through them when I need something not too challenging to read! I will be taking a look at some of the recommendations here for sure.

Discovered in 2025
So doesn’t fit either criteria but is sci fi, Slow Gods by Clare North absolutely brilliant
A fun fantasy series with a tiny bit of romance is The Hipposync Archives, really enjoyable
Witches of Woodville series by Mark Stay

The Rose by Tiffany Reisz is good. Well written but probably bordering more on erotica. The sex scenes in ACOTAR and TOR seemed very vanilla after reading that first.

‘Red Queen’ series by Victoria Aveyard.

‘Caraval’ trilogy/‘Once upon a broken heart’ trilogy by Stephanie Gerber

‘When the moon hatched’ by Sarah A. Parker (Sequel is being released to this in a few months as well I think)

If you want less YA vibes, there’s ‘The Night Circus’ by Erin Morgenstern, which is beautifully written, kind of mystical/dreamlike.

Also recommend ‘Strange the Dreamer’ and ‘Muse of Nightmares’ by Laini Taylor

Following with interest.
My favourite fantasy ready of 2025 was Shield of Sparrows, rated it higher than Onyx Storm and Acotar. Very fast plot, medium smut . Sequel should be out in a few months I think.

The raven scholar, The poppy war and a few more are on my tbr for this year.

Haha, just seen on your other thread you hate Stephanie Gerber 😫😂

Scratch those then 🤣

Red Queen is similar vibes, I love it though, it was released back in 2015, so one of the first Romantasy books I really read. (I haven’t read that many really).

If you want a light easy read The mermaid by Christina Henry is another good one, About a mermaid who falls in love with a fisherman, until he’s lost at sea.

She does retellings of fairy tales as well that I quite enjoyed ( Lost boy, and Alice)

The paper magician by Charlie N Holmberg is another light read I enjoyed, a young apprentice who wanted to be a metal magician, but she assigned to be a paper magician instead.

Also The Wolf King is 99p on kindle deals at the moment if anyone is interested (apologies if it’s already been mentioned)

Following with interest! I loved the Naomi Novik books mentioned on the previous thread, and the ‘Winternight’ trilogy by Katherine Arden.

If you like a bit of myth / history woven in, I enjoyed ‘The Story Spinner’ by Barbara Erskine - set in Wales, and the main character is definitely not a teenager.

The Adventures of Amina al-Siradi by Shannon Chakraborty was good too.

Really enjoyed Broken Souls and Bones recently

I always recommend Ilona Andrews.

The Magic Bites series is excellent. There's romance in it (eventually) but it's not shoved in your face from chapter 1.

The Innkeeper series is lovely and q light. Very interesting concept.

And the most Mills and Boon type is the series all named after different gemstones. Ruby Fever/Emerald Blaze etc are all v enjoyable.

She has excellent world-building and frequently writes about well known fantasy species (Vampires/Werewolves) but with a completely different take on them.