It’s hard to believe we’re almost halfway through 2024 already! The best fantasy books of June 2024 bring magic of all sorts to our shelves with creative storytelling and incredible characters.
Sprawling epics, intriguing retellings, and real-life inspirations take shape in this month’s buzziest fantasy releases. From much-anticipated sequels to brand-new titles you’ll love, there’s a lot to look forward to among the best fantasy books of June 2024.
Don’t miss out on the month’s best new arrivals! Here are our top picks for fantasy books this June.
Daughter of the Merciful Deep by Leslye Penelope
Release date: June 4
Read it if: You enjoy when fantasy concepts are inspired by real-world history. An all-Black town faces extinction with the construction of a dam, as one young woman faces down possibly-literal ghosts from her past.
Publisher’s synopsis: “Our home began, as all things do, with a wish.”
Jane Edwards hasn’t spoken since she was eleven years old, when armed riders expelled her family from their hometown along with every other Black resident. Now, twelve years later, she’s found a haven in the all-Black town of Awenasa. But the construction of a dam promises to wash her home under the waters of the new lake.
Jane will do anything to save the community that sheltered her. So, when a man with uncanny abilities arrives in town asking strange questions, she wonders if he’s might be the key. But as the stranger hints at gods and ancestral magic, Jane is captivated by a bigger mystery. She knows this man. Only the last time she saw him, he was dead. His body laid to rest in a rushing river.
Who is the stranger and what is he really doing in Awenasa? To find those answers, Jane will journey into a sunken world, a land of capricious gods and unsung myths, of salvation and dreams made real. But the flood waters are rising. To gain the miracle she desires, Jane will have to find her voice again and finally face the trauma of the past.
Get it on Amazon or support your local bookstores through Bookshop.org.
The Wren in the Holly Library by K.A. Linde
Release date: June 4
Read it if: You love a good urban fantasy, heist plots, and Beauty and the Beast. A thief makes a bargain with a monster in a universe plagued by wars between species.
Publisher’s synopsis: Some things aren’t supposed to exist outside of our imagination.
Thirteen years ago, monsters emerged from the shadows and plunged Kierse’s world into a cataclysmic war of near-total destruction. The New York City she knew so well collapsed practically overnight. In the wake of that carnage, the Monster Treaty was created. A truce…of sorts.
But tonight, Kierse―a gifted and fearless thief―will break that treaty. She’ll enter the Holly Library…not knowing it’s the home of a monster. He’s charming. Quietly alluring. Terrifying. But he knows talent when he sees it; it’s just a matter of finding her price.
Now she’s locked into a dangerous bargain with a creature unlike any other. She’ll sacrifice her freedom. She’ll offer her skills. Together, they’ll put their own futures at risk. But he’s been playing a game across centuries―and once she joins in, there will be no escape…
Get it on Amazon or support your local bookstores through Bookshop.org.
Mirrored Heavens by Rebecca Roanhorse
Release date: June 4
Read it if: You love elemental fantasy, or you’ve been eagerly awaiting the finale to this trilogy. Gods and kings collide in the finale to Roanhorse’s Between Earth and Sky epic trilogy.
Publisher’s synopsis: Serapio, avatar of the Crow God Reborn and the newly crowned Carrion King, rules Tova. But his enemies gather both on distant shores and within his own city as the matrons of the clans scheme to destroy him. And deep in the alleys of the Maw, a new prophecy is whispered, this one from the Coyote God. It promises Serapio certain doom if its terrible dictates are not fulfilled.
Meanwhile, Xiala is thrust back amongst her people as war comes first to the island of Teek. With their way of life and their magic under threat, she is their last best hope. But the sea won’t talk to her the way it used to, and doubts riddle her mind. She will have to sacrifice the things that matter most to unleash her powers and become the queen they were promised.
And in the far northern wastelands, Naranpa, avatar of the Sun God, seeks a way to save Tova from the visions of fire that engulf her dreams. But another presence has begun stalking her nightmares, and the Jaguar God is on the hunt.
Get it on Amazon or support your local bookstores through Bookshop.org.
Fate of the Sun King by Nisha J. Tuli
Release date: June 4
Read it if: You’re very into the fae-romantasy trend, with all the glitter and danger it entails. An heir on the run fights for her family’s legacy, her own magic, and her very heart.
Publisher’s synopsis:
With the Heart Crown now in her possession, Lor must navigate the dangers of being an heir on the run, knowing more than one power-hungry ruler is after her blood. When she returns to Aphelion to unlock her magic and recover her family’s legacy, it becomes clearer than ever that all that’s gold doesn’t sparkle. No stranger to battles, she continues to fight her attraction to the Aurora Prince, understanding this might be the one she finally loses.
As the past mixes with the present, Lor uncovers the truth about the Artefacts and their role in shaping her destiny. Now, her future hangs in the balance, leaving her closer than ever to getting everything she’s ever wanted… or losing it all forever.
Get it on Amazon or support your local bookstores through Bookshop.org.
Running Close to the Wind by Alexandra Rowland
Release date: June 11
Read it if: You really miss Our Flag Means Death, and you appreciate characters and plots with pure chaos-gremlin vibes. A bizarrely-lucky former agent absconds with top-secret documents and seeks aid from his exasperated pirate-captain-ex. Mayhem, naturally, ensues.
Publisher’s synopsis: Avra Helvaçi, former field agent of the Araşti Ministry of Intelligence, has accidentally stolen the single most expensive secret in the world―and the only place to flee with a secret that big is the open sea.
To find a buyer with deep enough pockets, Avra must ask for help from his on-again, off-again ex, the pirate Captain Teveri az-Ḥaffār. They are far from happy to see him, but together, they hatch a plan: take the information to the isolated pirate republic of the Isles of Lost Souls, fence it, profit. The only things in their way? A calculating new Araşti ambassador to the Isles of Lost Souls who’s got his eyes on Avra’s every move; Brother Julian, a beautiful, mysterious new member of the crew with secrets of his own and a frankly inconvenient vow of celibacy; the fact that they’re sailing straight into sea serpent breeding season and almost certain doom.
But if they can find a way to survive and sell the secret on the black market, they’ll all be as wealthy as kings―and, more important, they’ll be legends.
Get it on Amazon or support your local bookstores through Bookshop.org.
The Fire Within Them by Matthew Ward
Release date: June 11
Read it if: You get geeky about tales of eerie magic systems and the mere mortals who get in the way. In a land ruled by an immortal king, a rebellion brews at great personal cost.
Publisher’s synopsis: For the first time in a millennium, the kingdom of Khalad is divided. The Battle of Athenoch has fanned the spark of Bashar Vallant’s rebellion to a raging flame. Tyzanta, jewel of the east, has declared for his cause, and other cities have followed. Vallant, the people’s hero, may soon be powerful enough to challenge Caradan Diar, Khalad’s immortal king.
But such power demands great personal sacrifice.
Afflicted with omen rot after channeling the Deadwinds to save Athenoch from the koilos army, Kat searches for a means to stop the disease killing her as it did her mother. Her journey will uncover secrets long since buried––secrets concerning her past, her family and the kingdom itself. Eventually she’ll learn that the past never stays buried in Khalad––and that the truth can cut deeper than any blade.
Get it on Amazon or support your local bookstores through Bookshop.org.
Of Jade and Dragons by Amber Chen
Release date: June 18
Read it if: You’d enjoy a less-violent Iron Widow or a STEM-themed riff on Mulan. After her father’s death, a young woman disguises herself to join an engineers’ apprenticeship and uncover the truth.
Publisher’s synopsis: Eighteen-year-old Aihui Ying dreams of becoming a world-class engineer like her father, but after his sudden murder, her life falls apart. Left with only a journal of her father’s engineering secrets and a jade pendant snatched from the assassin, a heartbroken Ying follows the trail to the capital and the prestigious Engineers Guild—a place that harbors her father’s hidden past—determined to discover why anyone would threaten a man who ultimately chose a quiet life over fame and fortune.
Disguised as her brother, Ying manages to infiltrate the guild’s male-only apprenticeship trial with the help of an unlikely ally—Aogiya Ye-yang, the taciturn eighth prince of the High Command. With her father’s renown placing a target firmly on her back, Ying must stay one step ahead of her fellow competitors, the jealous guild masters, and the killer still hunting for her father’s journal. Complicating everything is her increasingly tangled relationship with the prince, who may have mysterious plans of his own.
The secrets concealed within the guild can be as deadly as the weapons they build—and with her life and the future of her homeland at stake, Ying doesn’t know who to trust. Can she avenge her father even if it means going against everything he stood for, or will she be next in the mastermind’s line of fire?
Get it on Amazon or support your local bookstores through Bookshop.org.
Children of Anguish and Anarchy by Tomi Adeyemi
Release date: June 25
Read it if: You enjoy reading fantasy with real-world symbolism, and you’ve been waiting for ages to see how this series would end. After being taken captive, a courageous heroine must seek out new allies to save her people.
Publisher’s synopsis: New allies rise. The Blood Moon nears. Zélie faces her final enemy. The king who hunts her heart.
When Zélie seized the royal palace that fateful night, she thought her battles had come to an end. The monarchy had finally fallen. The maji had risen again. Zélie never expected to find herself locked in a cage and trapped on a foreign ship. Now warriors with iron skulls traffic her and her people across the seas, far from their homeland.
Then everything changes when Zélie meets King Baldyr, her true captor, the ruler of the Skulls, and the man who has ravaged entire civilizations to find her. Baldyr’s quest to harness Zélie’s strength sends Zélie, Amari, and Tzain searching for allies in unknown lands.
But as Baldyr closes in, catastrophe charges Orïsha’s shores. It will take everything Zélie has to face her final enemy and save her people before the Skulls annihilate them for good.
Get it on Amazon or support your local bookstores through Bookshop.org.
Saints of Storm and Sorrow by Gabriella Buba
Release date: June 25
Read it if: You love the idea of a bisexual nun with magic powers and a connection to vengeful gods. In this Filipino-inspired fantasy, a young woman tries to hide from those who would hunt her, but a devastating secret throws her life into upheaval.
Publisher’s synopsis: María Lunurin has been living a double life for as long as she can remember. To the world, she is Sister María, dutiful nun and devoted servant of Aynila’s Codicían colonizers. But behind closed doors, she is a stormcaller, chosen daughter of the Aynilan goddess Anitun Tabu. In hiding not only from the Codicíans and their witch hunts, but also from the vengeful eye of her slighted goddess, Lunurin does what she can to protect her fellow Aynilans and the small family she has created in the convent: her lover Catalina, and Cat’s younger sister Inez.
Lunurin is determined to keep her head down—until one day she makes a devastating discovery, which threatens to tear her family apart. In desperation, she turns for help to Alon Dakila, heir to Aynila’s most powerful family, who has been ardently in love with her for years. But this choice sets in motion a chain of events beyond her control, awakening Anitun Tabu’s rage and putting everyone Lunurin loves in terrible danger. Torn between the call of Alon’s magic and Catalina’s jealousy, her duty to her family and to her people, Lunurin can no longer keep Anitun Tabu’s fury at bay.
The goddess of storms demands vengeance, and she will sweep aside anyone who stands in her way.
Get it on Amazon or support your local bookstores through Bookshop.org.
