While the month of February is almost universally associated with love—whether that comes in the form of flowers, chocolate, or some other form of indulgence is up to you—but that doesn’t mean that the world of publishing is only concerned with romance this month. Don’t get me wrong, there are some big romance titles hitting shelves during this shortest month of the year (Ali Hazelwood’s Deep End, Brynne Weaver’s Ruinous Love finale Scythe & Sparrow) but love stories aren’t the only must-read stories headed our way. Fantasy lovers have a couple of heavy hitters to look forward to, as well as a handful of highly anticipated sequels and new series starters.
It’s been five years since we last stepped into the world of Scion, but Samantha Shannon’s latest Bone Season installment arrives this month, along with a cozy fantasy from T. Kingfisher, a sequel we’ve all been dying to read from Kristen Ciccarelli, the latest Emily Wilde novel from Heather Fawcett, and more.
Here are the best new fantasy books of February.
Grave Empire by Richard Swan
Release Date: February 4 from Orbit
Why We’re Excited: The first installment in a new series from Richard Swan, Grave Empire is set in the same world as his Empire of the Wolf trilogy but offers an easy entry point for new readers who haven’t sampled the previous books. Set in an empire on the edge of an industrial revolution but in which magic is now outlawed, a prophecy heralding the end of days will send a low-level ambassador searching for answers across a wide and frighteningly detailed landscape.
Publisher’s Description: A new age of exploration and innovation has dawned, and the Empire of the Wolf stands to take its place as the foremost power in the known world. Glory and riches await.
But dark days are coming. A mysterious plague has broken out in the pagan kingdoms to the north, while in the south, the Empire’s proxy war in the lands of the wolfmen is weeks away from total collapse.
Worse still is the message brought to the Empress by two heretic monks, who claim to have lost contact with the spirits of the afterlife. The monks believe this is the start of an ancient prophecy heralding the end of days—the Great Silence.
It falls to Renata Rainer, a low-ranking ambassador to an enigmatic and vicious race of mermen, to seek answers from those who still practice the arcane arts. But with the road south beset by war and the Empire on the brink of supernatural catastrophe, soon there may not be a world left to save…
Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales by Heather Fawcett
Release Date: February 11 from Del Ray
Why We’re Excited: The charming third (and final) installment in the Emily Wilde series cements Heather Fawcett as the queen of cozy, low-stakes fantasy.
Publisher’s Description: Emily Wilde has spent her life studying faeries. A renowned dryadologist, she has documented hundreds of species of Folk in her Encyclopaedia of Faeries. Now she is about to embark on her most dangerous academic project yet: studying the inner workings of a faerie realm—as its queen.
Along with her former academic rival—now fiancé—the dashing and mercurial Wendell Bambleby, Emily is immediately thrust into the deadly intrigues of Faerie as the two of them seize the throne of Wendell’s long-lost kingdom, which Emily finds a beautiful nightmare filled with scholarly treasures.
Emily has been obsessed with faerie stories her entire life, but at first she feels as ill-suited to Faerie as she did to the mortal world: How can an unassuming scholar such as herself pass for a queen? Yet there is little time to settle in, for Wendell’s murderous stepmother has placed a deadly curse upon the land before vanishing without a trace. It will take all of Wendell’s magic—and Emily’s knowledge of stories—to unravel the mystery before they lose everything they hold dear.
The Forest King’s Daughter by Elly Blake
Release Date: February 11 from Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Why We’re Excited: The first installment in a new series from the author of the Frostblood Saga, The Forest King’s Daughter has a little bit of everything: Forbidden love, former friends turned enemies, the threat of war, a quest, and vivid worldbuilding.
Publisher’s Description: Once upon a time, among the bloodred trees of Thirstwood, a young forest princess became friends with a lonely boy from underground. He gifted her an amber ring, a worthless trinket—or so he thought—because no sooner did he slide it onto her finger than the queen of the underground and the forest king declared war.
Years later, Cassia is a crucial force in her father’s army, wielding her ring of light that can blind and disorient hundreds of enemies at a time. Then battle-hardened Zeru abducts her, planning to steal the ring back to fix his costly childhood mistake. Exhausted, terrified, and more than a little mistrusting, Cassia is forced to travel with Zeru to a place they both believed only existed in storybooks, one where their childhood friendship slowly rekindles into something much more. But it’s only a matter of time before the war they’ve escaped comes for them, and a hidden threat to forest and underground folk alike grows in the shadows.
Cursebound by Saara El-Arifi
Release Date: February 18 from Del Ray
Why We’re Excited: This second installment in Saara El-Arifi’s Faebound Trilogy adds two additional POV characters, turns the world building up to eleven, and throws in some twists you won’t see coming. It is a solid middle book that builds toward what will surely be a thrilling finale.
Publisher’s Description: Yeeran was born for war but is unprepared for love. She has left her new lover, the Queen of the fae, to return to her homeland, only to find that her former lover now threatens war against the fae.
Left behind, her sister Lettle is determined to break the curse that binds the fae to their realm. When a stranger appears in the city, Lettle is convinced he’s the key. But the Fates that once spoke to her have fallen silent.
Can Lettle and Yeeran discover the secret behind the curse—and unite these two worlds before they destroy each other?
Rebel Witch by Kristen Ciccarelli
Release Date: February 18 from Wednesday Books
Why We’re Excited: This highly anticipated sequel to the (excellent) Heartless Hunter, brings Kristen Ciccarelli’s Crimson Moth duology to a thrilling conclusion. Two months after the dramatic betrayals and world-changing revelations at the end of the first book, witch Rune and witch hunter Gideon find themselves on opposite sides of a war for the future of their republic, with their positions complicated by their genuine, conflicting feelings for one another. Enemies to lovers perfection with a breakneck narrative pace.
Publisher’s Description: A WITCH…Rune Winters is on the run. Ever since the boy she loved, Gideon Sharpe, revealed who she was and delivered her into enemy hands, everyone wants her dead. If Rune hopes to survive, she must ally herself with the cruel and dangerous Cressida Roseblood, who’s planning to take back the Republic and reinstate a Reign of Witches—something Cressida needs Rune to accomplish.
A WITCH HUNTER…Apparently it wasn’t enough for Rune to deceive Gideon; she’s now betrayed him by joining forces with the witch who made his life a living hell. Gideon won’t allow the Republic to fall to the witches and be plunged back into the nightmares of the past. In order to protect this new world he fought for, every last witch must die—especially Rune Winters.
AN IMPOSSIBLE CHOICE… When Rune makes Gideon an offer he can’t refuse, the two must pair up to accomplish dangerous goals. The more they’re forced into each other’s company, the more Gideon realizes the feelings he had for Rune aren’t as dead and buried as he thought. Now he’s faced with a terrible choice: sacrifice the girl he loves to stop a monster taking back power, or let Rune live and watch the world he fought so hard for burn.
Upon a Starlit Tide by Kell Woods
Release Date: February 18 from Tor Books
Why We’re Excited: Boasting a very unique premise that mashes up elements from Cinderella and The Little Mermaid with period historical details, Upon a Starlit Tide is a lush tale of a shipowner’s daughter who longs to escape her sheltered life — and discovers her inner (magical) power along the way.
Publisher’s Description: Saint-Malo, Brittany, 1758. To Lucinde Leon, the youngest daughter of a wealthy French shipowner, the high walls of Saint-Malo are more hindrance than haven.
While her sisters are busy trying to secure advantageous marriages, Luce spends her days secretly being taught to sail by Samuel, her best friend―and an English smuggler. Only he understands how the waves call to her. Then one stormy morning, Luce rescues a drowning man from the sea.
Immediately drawn in by the stranger’s charm, Luce is plunged into a world of glittering balls and faerie magic, seduction and brutality. Secrets that have long been lost in the shadowy depths of the ocean begin to rise to the surface, but as Luce wrestles with warring desires, she finds that her own power is growing brighter and brighter, shining like a sea-glass slipper.
Or the scales of a sea-maid’s tail.
Swordheart by T. Kingfisher
Release Date: February 25 from Bramble
Why We’re Excited: This cozy fantasy romance from the author of such bangers as Thornhedge, Nettle & Bone, and A Sorceress Comes to Call has slightly softer edges than some of T. Kingfisher’s recent works. But the love story between a bodyguard (who is also an enchanted sword, it’s complicated) and a widow is charming and the story is full of Kingfisher’s trademark banter and delightfully well-drawn supporting characters.
Publisher’s Description: Halla has unexpectedly inherited the estate of a wealthy uncle. Unfortunately, she is also saddled with money-hungry relatives full of devious plans for how to wrest the inheritance away from her.
While locked in her bedroom, Halla inspects the ancient sword that’s been collecting dust on the wall since before she moved in. Out of desperation, she unsheathes it―and suddenly a man appears. His name is Sarkis, he tells her, and he is an immortal warrior trapped in a prison of enchanted steel.
Sarkis is sworn to protect whoever wields the sword, and for Halla―a most unusual wielder―he finds himself fending off not grand armies and deadly assassins but instead everything from kindly-seeming bandits to roving inquisitors to her own in-laws. But as Halla and Sarkis grow closer, they overlook the biggest threat of all―the sword itself.
The Dark Mirror by Samantha Shannon
Release Date: February 25 from Bloomsbury
Why We’re Excited: The highly anticipated fifth book in Samantha Shannon’s epic Bone Season series, The Dark Mirror arrives four years after its predecessor, meaning most fans are probably already positively feral with their need to find out what’s next for prickly heroine Paige Mahony. The book promises to shake things up in Shannon’s sprawling series, erasing six months of Paige’s memory and allowing her to step outside the Republic of Scion and imagine a new world of both immense and frightening possibilities. (Also, if you are a fan of the relationship between Paige and Warden Arcturus Mesarthim, all I can say is, Buckle up.)
Publisher’s Description: Paige Mahoney is outside the Republic of Scion for the first time in more than a decade but she has no idea how she got to the free world. Half a year has been wiped from her memory.
Her journey back to the revolution soon takes her to Venice, where the Domino Programme has uncovered evidence of a secret Scion plan. Before Paige can return to London, she must help the network unravel the sinister Operation Ventriloquist, which threatens to bring Europe to its knees in weeks.
And it soon becomes clear that the one person who could recover her memories—Arcturus Mesarthim—might also hold the key to thwarting Scion, allowing the revolution to strike an unprecedented blow.
Greenteeth by Molly O’Neill
Release Date: February 25 from Orbit
Why We’re Excited: Molly O’Neill’s debut boasts what is perhaps the most original premise on this list, thanks to its narrator: An ancient water-dwelling monster named Jenny Greenteeth, who finds herself drawn into a magical quest after she decides to save a witch who has been thrown into her lake. The Arthuriana-infused mission to defeat the nefarious Erl King and save all the magical and mortal creatures of Great Britain is charmingly drawn, but in this book more than most the point really is the friends we make along the way.
Publisher’s Description: Beneath the still surface of a lake lurks a monster with needle sharp teeth. Hungry and ready to pounce.
Jenny Greenteeth has never spoken to a human before, but when a witch is thrown into her lake, something makes Jenny decide she’s worth saving. Temperance doesn’t know why her village has suddenly turned against her, only that it has something to do with the malevolent new pastor.
Though they have nothing in common, these two must band together on a magical quest to defeat the evil that threatens Jenny’s lake and Temperance’s family, as well as the very soul of Britain.
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