Best of 2018 – Fantasy
Welcome to the 4th, and final, post in my “Best of 2018” series. These are the fantasy novels that I read and really loved in 2018.
Click on the image to go to Goodreads to read more about the book. Or you can click on the link above/below the image to see my review of that book.
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Wings of Fire by Tui T. Sutherland
This was a fantastic continuation of the Wings of Fire series. I loved being introduced to a whole new continent and new types of dragons. These books are always easy to read, engaging, and well written. I would definitely recommend to middle grade and older readers who love dragons, adventure, war, and magic.
Book 11: The Lost Continent
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The Glass Spare by Lauren DeStefano
This young adult fantasy is an amazing blend of magic, curses, fantasy, action, and adventure. The story was creative, engaging, fast-paced, and fun to read. I can’t wait to see what happens next.
Book 1: The Glass Spare
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The Rebel of the Sands Series by Alwyn Hamilton
This is a wonderful YA fantasy series and I loved how it wrapped up this year. This series had amazing world-building and amazing characters. The story is fast-paced and easy to follow. I really enjoyed the middle eastern setting and all the djinni based magic.
Book 3: Hero at the Fall
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The Queens of Renthia series by Sarah Beth Durst
An amazing and imaginative fantasy world, couple with an easy to love heroine made this a wonderfully engaging read. The plot is fast-moving and this book was so much fun to read.
Book 3: The Queen of Sorrow
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Five Kingdoms by Brandon Mull
This is a very creative middle grade fantasy series. I enjoyed how fast-paced the story was and how much adventure there was. The story keeps you guessing and the characters are wonderfully done as well. Highly recommend this whole series to those who enjoy middle grade adventure fantasy.
Book 5: Time Jumpers
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The Waking Land series by Callie Bates
This is an excellent fantasy series. The world-building was spectacular, in this story we journey to a whole new part of this fascinating world. The plot was very well done; engaging and never predictable. I really enjoyed the magic too and how nature based it is.
Book 2: The Memory of Fire
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The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill
This is an amazingly well crafted story with a very classic folk tale feel to it; something that you don’t see a lot of these days. I would highly recommend to those who enjoy books that are excellently crafted classic feeling folk tales or fairy tales.
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Daughter of the Pirate King series by Tricia Leveseller
Overall I really loved both books in this series and can’t wait to see what Levenseller writes next! I would highly recommend to those who enjoy fast-paced YA adventure fantasy featuring a strong heroine.
Book 2: Daughter of the Siren Queen
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Wild Beauty by Anne-Marie McLemore
The story is lush and glittering, full of beauty and flower petals. Somehow it also remains real, true, poignant and earthy. There is a lot of magical realism in here as well.
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Sweep: The Story of a Girl and Her Monster by Jonathan Auxier
I loved the setting and characters in this book. I also really enjoyed the “monster” that emerges from the coal. Reading about the struggles that Nan and friends go through was also engagin. The book was perfectly paced, fun to read, and very well written. I learned a ton about chimney sweeps in historical London that I didn’t know about before.
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Boneless Mercies by April Genevieve Tucholke
This book was an absolutely amazing blend of classic Viking-style epic and adventure fantasy. I loved the adventure these girls fight through. In addition to all of this it’s a heart-warming tale of friendship, survival, and coming of age. The writing style is beautiful and just perfect. This is one of those rare books you come across that just does everything right.
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Air Awakens series by Elise Kova
This is a sweet YA fantasy romance series with a lot of magic, war, and adventure. I enjoyed the characters and world a lot. It made for a very entertaining and quick fantasy read
Book 1: Air Awakens
Book 2: Fire Falling
Book 4: Water’s Wrath
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The Wrath and the Dawn series by Renee Ahdieh
This is another excellent YA fantasy series . I loved the characters; they are smart, confident, and determined. The writing flowed beautifully and was easy to read. This is some humor throughout to lighten things up. I also really enjoyed the exotic world and setting.
Book 1: The Wrath and the Dawn
Book 2: The Rose and the Dagger
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The Conqueror’s Saga by Kiersten White
This was an excellent conclusion to this historical fantasy series and I really loved it. I would recommend to those interested in YA historical fiction/fantasy featuring a strong heroine.
Book 3: Bright We Burn
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Frostblood Saga by Elly Blake
This series was a good ole fantasy series and I enjoyed it immensely. There are some politics, some adventure, and of course an evil magic to subdue. I loved how everything finally came together between the different races of this world and the history of the Gods of this world.
Book 3: Nightblood
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Caraval series by Stephanie Garber
This is seriously one of my favorite books of the year and I struggle to explain why because I connected with this story so easily. I would recommend to those who enjoy darkly magical fantasy YA reads. I think it was mainly the beautifully descriptive writing and the amazingly magical setting.
Book 1: Caraval
Book 2: Legendary
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Fate series by Elisabeth Waters
This is an incredibly well done fantasy story. There is some neat magic in here and I enjoyed the world as well. This was a pretty quick read and it looks like the sequel follows the next generation of characters. Things do tie up nicely here and I enjoyed it a lot.
Book 1: Changing Fate
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Temeraire series by Naomi Novik
This is an amazing story that I really enjoyed a lot. I loved the characters and the alternate history setting. I would recommend to those who enjoy fantasies about dragons in historical settings. I definitely plan on continuing the series.
Book 1: His Majesty’s Dragon
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The Founders Trilogy by Robert Jackson Bennett
I loved all the characters in this book (even the side characters) and really enjoyed the unique world and fast-paced plot as well. The idea of scriving items, and even people, to give them special abilities and makes them do certain things was really unique and interesting. The story has a blend of traditional fantasy and steampunk in it (the idea of scriving items is very steampunkish and there is a lot of blending mechanical/magical with biology).
Book 1: Foundryside
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Love, Sugar, Magic by Anna Meriano
I enjoyed this book immensely. I loved the humor, the discussion of Mexican culture, the magic, and the interactions between the members of Leo’s family. The book is witty, heartfelt, and engaging and made a quick read for me. The biggest problem with this book is that it made me soooo hungry for baked goods!
Book 1: A Dash of Trouble
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Heart of Iron by Ashley Poston
This was an amazing start to a new sci-fi YA series. I really enjoyed this book a lot and found it to be an easy, engaging, and highly entertaining read. There is a great balance of action, adventure, politics, world-building, interesting characters, and romance in here.
Book 1: Heart of Iron
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Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin
This was an incredibly well done book. It’s written in a somewhat classic fairy tale style but has heavy Asian influence. The writing and the illustrations throughout are both very beautiful. After finishing this I immediately went and put some of Lin’s other books on my wishlist. I would recommend to all ages, but particularly kids and adults who enjoy fairy tales and adventure.
