From daring urban fantasy to epic, enchanted worlds, the best fantasy books of March 2024 are here to whisk readers away on incredible journeys.
The fantasy genre just keeps expanding, with new and exciting takes on classic tropes and plots. This month’s new releases are no exception! We’ve got highly-anticipated debuts, new entries from beloved authors, creative retellings, and more.
No matter what kind of fantasy books you like, we’ve got recommendations you’ll love. Keep reading for our picks for the best fantasy books of March 2024!
The Poisons We Drink by Bethany Baptiste
Release date: March 5
Read it if: You love urban fantasy with rich world-building, revenge tales, and stories of complicated families. After her mother’s death, an illicit potion-brewer agrees to make poisons to use against politicians in exchange for revenge.
Publisher’s synopsis:
Love potions is a dangerous business. Brewing has painful, debilitating side effects, and getting caught means death or a prison sentence. But what Venus is most afraid of is the dark, sentient magic within her.
Then an enemy’s iron bullet kills her mother, Venus’s life implodes. Keeping her reckless little sister Janus safe is now her responsibility. When the powerful Grand Witcher, the ruthless head of her coven, offers Venus the chance to punish her mother’s killer, she has to pay a steep price for revenge. The cost? Brew poisonous potions to enslave D.C.’s most influential politicians.
As Venus crawls deeper into the corrupt underbelly of her city, the line between magic and power blurs, and it’s hard to tell who to trust…Herself included.
Get it on Amazon or support your local bookstores through Bookshop.org.
The Prisoner’s Throne by Holly Black
Release date: March 5
Read it if: You’re hooked on Black’s sprawling world of faerie courts, betrayals, and epic romance. This sequel centers on an imprisoned prince with a hard choice to make as a new war looms.
Publisher’s synopsis: Prince Oak is paying for his betrayal. Imprisoned in the icy north and bound to the will of a monstrous new queen, he must rely on charm and calculation to survive. With High King Cardan and High Queen Jude willing to use any means necessary to retrieve their stolen heir, Oak will have to decide whether to attempt regaining the trust of the girl he’s always loved or to remain loyal to Elfhame and hand over the means to end her reign—even if it means ending Wren, too.
With a new war looming on the horizon and treachery lurking in every corner, neither Oak’s guile nor his wit will be enough to keep everyone he loves alive. It’s just a question of whom he will doom.
Get it on Amazon or support your local bookstores through Bookshop.org.
The Encanto’s Daughter by Melissa de la Cruz
Release date: March 5
Read it if: You want to read a Filipino-inspired YA fantasy, or you grew up loving de la Cruz’s books. A half-human girl becomes the heir to a magical kingdom in this fantasy riff on Filipino mythology.
Publisher’s synopsis: MJ Rodriguez has spent her life hiding in the human world, keeping a heavy secret: She’s half-encanto. As the only child of King Vivencio of the Sirena Court, she’s also next in line for the throne. And now, upon her estranged father’s sudden death, MJ must claim her place as rightful heir.
In wondrous Biringan, the road to the throne is paved with thorns. Without a reigning monarch, the realm has spiraled into disarray. MJ has to win over a backstabbing council that objects to a half-human ruler. And when it looks like her father’s passing wasn’t natural but possibly inflicted by a curse, she must hunt down the sorceress behind this merciless magic.
In a bind, MJ forges an unlikely alliance with the striking Sir Lucas of the feared Sigbin Court, and soon, she loses her heart to the mysterious knight. But with peril looming over Biringan, the princess must decide if she can both open herself to love and carry the weight of the crown.
Get it on Amazon or support your local bookstores through Bookshop.org.
A Feather So Black by Lyra Selene
Release date: March 12
Read it if: You’re a sucker for fae fantasy, Swan Lake retellings, and/or a touch of Celtic mythology. This fantasy reimagines faerie and changeling lore with mission to rescue a cursed princess.
Publisher’s synopsis: In a kingdom where magic has been lost, Fia is a rare changeling, left behind by the wicked Fair Folk when they stole the High Queen’s daughter and retreated behind the locked gates of Tír na nÓg.
Most despise Fia’s fae blood. But the queen raises her as a daughter and trains her to be a spy. Meanwhile, the real princess Eala is bound to Tír na nÓg, cursed to become a swan by day and only returning to her true form at night.
When a hidden gate to the realm is discovered, Fia is tasked by the queen to retrieve the princess and break her curse. But she doesn’t go alone: with her is prince Rogan, Fia’s dearest childhood friend—and Eala’s betrothed.
As they journey through the forests of the Folk, where magic winds through the roots of the trees and beauty can be a deadly illusion, Fia’s mission is complicated by her feelings for the prince…and her unexpected attraction to the dark-hearted fae lord holding Eala captive. Irian might be more monster than man, but he seems to understand Fia in a way no one ever has.
Soon, Fia begins to question the truth of her mission. But time is running out to break her sister’s curse. And unraveling the secrets of the past might destroy everything she has come to love.
Get it on Amazon or support your local bookstores through Bookshop.org.
The Hedgewitch of Foxhall by Anna Bright
Release date: March 12
Read it if: You prefer a cozy, cottagecore tone to your fantasy books. In a Welsh kingdom where magic is fading, the anti-magic royals seek the help of the last hedgewitch in tune with nature.
Publisher’s synopsis:
Magic is fading from Wales—choked off by King Offa’s Dyke, the enemy earthworks that spans the entire border. Even the dragons have disappeared. And now an attack is imminent.
Prince Taliesin would love to watch magic die. Prince Dafydd fears it, and the throne. But when their father promises the crown to whichever son can destroy the dyke and restore magic to Wales, the brothers are forced into an uneasy rivalry.
Ffion works hedgewitch magic for poor folk, not princes. Unlike the power-hungry Foxhall coven, she uses only what nature can spare. But when the coven’s greed costs Ffion everything, she will need power beyond her wildest dreams to get back what she’s lost.
So when Prince Taliesin arrives, begrudgingly seeking a witch’s aid, Ffion agrees to help him—even if it means walking from one end of Wales to the other with the most use-less peacock she’s ever clapped eyes on. Even if it means striking a bargain with Dafydd behind Tal’s back. The fate of Wales depends on their quest… and so might the fate of Ffion’s heart.
Get it on Amazon or support your local bookstores through Bookshop.org.
Empire of the Damned by Jay Kristoff
Release date: March 12
Read it if: You like your fantasy — and your vampires — more grimdark and epic than sparkly and broody.
Publisher’s synopsis: Gabriel de León has saved the Holy Grail from death, but his chance to end the endless night is lost. Drawn into an uneasy alliance with the mysterious vampire Liathe, Gabriel must now deliver the Grail to ancients of the Blood Esani, and learn the truth of how Daysdeath might be finally undone.
But the Last Silversaint faces peril, within and without. Pursued by terrors of the Blood Voss, drawn into warfare between the Blood Dyvok and duskdancers of the frozen Highlands, and ravaged by his own rising bloodlust, Gabriel may not survive to see the Grail learn her truth.
And that truth may be too awful for any to imagine.
Get it on Amazon or support your local bookstores through Bookshop.org.
Sunbringer by Hannah Kaner
Release date: March 12
Read it if: You love epic, far-flung tales of gods and mortals. After the vanquishing of one god, a kingdom waits on knife’s edge for a vengeful war yet to come.
Publisher’s synopsis:
ods are forbidden in the kingdom of Middren—but now they are stirring, whispering of war. Godkiller Kissen sacrificed herself to vanquish the fire god Hseth, who murdered her family and endangered her friends. But gods cannot be destroyed so easily, and Hseth’s power threatens to reform with even greater strength and a thirst for vengeance. As tensions rise throughout the land, the kingdom needs its Godkiller more than ever.
Still reeling from the loss of Kissen, young noble Inara and her little god of white lies, Skedi, have set out to discover more about the true nature of their bond. As the divide between gods and humans widens, Inara and Skedi will uncover secrets that could determine the fate of the war to come.
Meanwhile, Elogast, no longer a loyal knight of King Arren, has been tasked with killing the man he once called friend. The king vowed to eradicate all gods throughout the land, but has now entered into an unholy pact with the most dangerous of them all. And where his heart once beat, a god now burns. . .
Get it on Amazon or support your local bookstores through Bookshop.org.
Song of the Huntress by Lucy Holland
Release date: March 19
Read it if: You love feminist retellings of mythology, or you enjoy an epic, lyrical style of writing. The novel reimagines an ancient folktale as a story of magic, battles, and court politics.
Publisher’s synopsis: Britain, 60AD. Hoping to save her lover, her land, and her people from the Romans, Herla makes a desperate pact with the king of the Otherworld. But years pass unheeded in his realm, and she escapes to find everyone she loved long dead. Cursed to wield his blade, she becomes Lord of the Hunt. And for centuries, she rides, leading her immortal warriors and reaping wanderers’ souls. Until the night she meets a woman on a bloody battlefield—a Saxon queen with ice-blue eyes.
Queen Æthelburg of Wessex is a proven fighter. But when she leads her forces to disaster in battle, her husband’s court turns against her. Yet King Ine needs Æthel more than ever. Something dark and dangerous is at work in the Wessex court. His own brother seeks to usurp him. And their only hope is the magic in Ine’s bloodline that’s lain dormant since ancient days.
The moment she and Æthel meet, Herla knows it’s no coincidence. The dead kings are waking. The Otherworld seeks to rise, to bring the people of Britain under its dominion. And as Herla and Æthel grow closer, Herla must find her humanity—and a way to break the curse—before it’s too late.
Get it on Amazon or support your local bookstores through Bookshop.org.
