Whatever your favorite kind of fantasy reads the best fantasy books of September 2025 have something worth getting excited for! This month’s new releases feature gods and fae, monsters and monarchs, and plenty more. We’ve got new installments from Holly Black, Samantha Shannon, Sarah Hawley, and other favorites. Plus, don’t miss some brand-new titles everyone will be buzzing about soon!
Feel the magic in the air? So do we! Find all our picks for the best fantasy books of September 2025 below.
Kingdom of Tomorrow by Gena Showalter
Release date: Sept. 1
Read it if: You’re craving a magical, Fourth Wing-esque dark-academia setting in the best fantasy books of September 2025. A young woman discovers a book about her, then trains for battle with a ruthless prince.
Publisher’s synopsis: Twenty-year-old Arden Roosa knows only Ourland. Two worlds split and stitched together, with broken pieces from each, statues of fallen gods, and heavenly artifacts that are worshipped…or feared.
But nothing is more fearsome than the night.
A strange madness haunts the darkest hours, turning innocents into gleeful killers. Arden does her best to stay safe, until she reads a book written about her life―The Book of Arden―and everything changes.
Forced to join Fort Bala Royal Academy, Arden is paired with the ruthless High Prince Cyrus Dolion. But while he trains her for combat against a mystical adversary, she can’t deny the sparks burning between them.
If her panic attacks and war games aren’t enough, Arden is also tapped to join the Tome Society, rumored guardians of an invisible library with books that foretell the future. But the more she learns about the society, the less she understands about Ourland, the gods…and the person she’s destined to be.
Get it on Amazon or support your local bookstores through Bookshop.org.
Wild Reverence by Rebecca Ross
Release date: Sept. 2
Read it if: You’d like to learn more about the gods of Divine Rivals in the best fantasy books of September 2025. The star-crossed love of a goddess and a mortal threatens to upend everything.
Publisher’s sysnopsis: Born in the firelit domain of the under realm, Matilda is the youngest goddess of her clan, blessed with humble messenger magic. But in a land where gods often kill each other to steal power and alliances break as quickly as they are forged, Matilda must come of age sooner than most. She may be known to carry words and letters through the realms, but she holds a secret she must hide from even her dearest of allies to ensure her survival. And to complicate matters? There is a mortal boy who dreams of her, despite the fact they have never met in the waking world.
Ten years ago, Vincent of Beckett wrote to Matilda on the darkest night of his life―begging the goddess he befriended in dreams to help him. When his request went unanswered, Vincent moved on, becoming the hardened, irreverent lord of the river who has long forgotten Matilda. That is, until she comes tumbling into his bedroom window with a letter for him.
As Fate would have it, Matilda and Vincent were destined to find each other beyond dreams. There may be a chance for Matilda to rewrite the blood-soaked ways of the gods, but at immense sacrifice. She will have to face something she fears even more than losing her magic: to be vulnerable, and to allow herself to finally be loved.
Get it on Amazon or support your local bookstores through Bookshop.org.
Thorn Season by Kiera Azar
Release date: Sept. 2
Read it if: You loved The Selection and fantasy court politics in general. A debutante with a magical secret must hide her true self while navigating a brutal court and a love triangle.
Publisher’s synopsis: In the Kingdom of Daradon, a persecuted few are Wielders, in possession of a magical Spectre–a shimmering thread that can extend beyond their visible body to give a loving caress, pick a lock . . . even kill. Feared for this ability, Wielders have always been Hunted.
Alissa Paine, heiress and daughter of a Hunter family . . . is also a Wielder. At eighteen, Alissa knows she’s escaped execution thus far only due to painful self-control and the efforts of her beloved father.
Summoned to the harsh and glittering royal court for the debutante season, Alissa finds herself caught in a web of intrigue and betrayal—and caught between two equally dangerous men: one a brutal ruler with the handsome face of a fairy-tale prince, who would destroy her if he knew the truth—and the other a beguiling foreign ambassador with secret agendas of his own.
With the threat of discovery lurking around every corner—and romance becoming an increasingly dangerous temptation—Alissa will find that she has more to lose than her secrets. It’s Rose Season at the palace, but to survive she’ll need to become the most vicious of thorns. . . .
Get it on Amazon or support your local bookstores through Bookshop.org.
Honeyeater by Kathleen Jennings
Release date: Sept. 2
Read it if: You’d like some gothic mystery in the best fantasy books of September 2025. A young man uncovers dark secrets as he deals with his late aunt’s mysterious house.
Publisher’s synopsis: Sub-tropical Bellworth is founded on floodplains and root-bound secrets. And Charlie, remarkable only for vanished friends and a successful sister, plans to leave for good, just as soon as he deals with his dead aunt’s house. Then Grace arrives, desperate, with roses pressing up through her skin. She drags Charlie into the ghost-choked mysteries of Bellworth, uncovering the impossible consequences of loss and desire ― and a choice Charlie made when he was a boy.
But peeling back the rumors and lies that cocoon the suburb disturbs more than complacent neighbors and lost souls. And Charlie and Grace are forced to a decision that threatens not only their lives, but all they believed those lives could be.
Get it on Amazon or support your local bookstores through Bookshop.org.
A Land So Wide by Erin A. Craig
Release date: Sept. 2
Read it if: You like fantasy books with a touch of folklore rather than purely-fictional lands. A woman from a cursed village ventures out and discovers the truth about her town and her own origins.
Publisher’s synopsis: Like everyone else in the settlement of Mistaken, Greer Mackenzie is trapped. Founded by an ambitious lumber merchant, the village is blessed with rich natural resources that have made its people prosperous—but at a cost. The same woods that have lined the townsfolks’ pockets harbor dangerous beasts: wolves, bears, and the Bright-Eyeds—monsters beyond description who have rained utter destruction down on nearby settlements. But Mistaken’s founders made a deal with the mysterious Benevolence. The Warding Stones that surround the town will keep the Bright-Eyeds out—and the town’s citizens in. Anyone who spends a night within Mistaken’s borders belongs to it forever.
Greer, a mapmaker and eccentric dreamer, has always ached to explore the world outside, even though she knows she and her longtime love, Ellis Beaufort, will never see it. Until, on the day she and Ellis are meant to finally begin their lives together, Greer watches in horror as her beloved disappears beyond the Warding Stones, pursued by a monstrous creature. Determined to rescue Ellis, she figures out a way to defy Mistaken’s curse and begins a trek through the cold and pitiless wilderness. But there, Greer is hunted, not only by the ruthless Bright-Eyeds but by the secret truths behind Mistaken’s founding and her own origins.
Get it on Amazon or support your local bookstores through Bookshop.org.
The Maiden and Her Monster by Maddie Martinez
Release date: Sept. 9
Read it if: You want Jewish folklore, sapphic romance, and revenge bargains in the best fantasy books of September 2025. A young woman strikes a deal with a monster to save her mother.
Publisher’s synopsis: The forest eats the girls who wander out after dark.
As the healer’s daughter, Malka has seen how the wood’s curse has plagued her village. But the Ozmini Church only comes to collect its tithe, not to protect heretics with false stories of monsters in the trees. So when a clergy girl wanders too close to the forest and Malka’s mother is accused of her murder, Malka strikes an impossible bargain with a zealot Ozmini priest. If she brings the monster out, he will spare her mother from execution.
When she ventures into the shadowed woods, Malka finds a monster, though not the one she expects. An inscrutable, disgraced golem agrees to implicate herself, but only if Malka helps her fulfill a promise first and free the imprisoned rabbi who created her.
But a deal easily made is not easily kept. And as their bargain begins to unravel a much more sinister threat, protecting her people may force Malka to endanger the one person she left home to save―and face her growing feelings for the very creature she was taught to fear.
Get it on Amazon or support your local bookstores through Bookshop.org.
Among the Burning Flowers by Samantha Shannon
Release date: Sept. 16
Read it if: You adore Shannon’s The Priory of the Orange Tree and want to know more about that world. This prequel follows the reawakening of dragons and the humans struggling to forge a path forward.
Publisher’s synopsis: Yscalin, land of sunshine and lavender, will soon be ablaze.
It has been centuries since the Draconic Army took wing, almost extinguishing humankind.
Marosa Vetalda is a prisoner in her own home, controlled by her cold father, King Sigoso. Over the mountains, her betrothed, Aubrecht Lievelyn, rules Mentendon in all but name. Together, they intend to usher in a better world.
A better world seems impossibly distant to Estina Melaugo, who hunts the Draconic beasts that have slept across the world for centuries.
And now the great wyrm Fýredel is stirring. And Yscalin will be the first to fall . . .
Get it on Amazon or support your local bookstores through Bookshop.org.
The Faerie Morgana by Louisa Morgan
Release date: Sept. 16
Read it if: You’d like a women-centered retelling in the best fantasy books of September 2025. When the much-mistrusted Morgan Le Fay helps King Arthur ascend the throne, she unleashes unexpected consequences.
Publisher’s synopsis: To the other priestesses of the Nine, a powerful council at the Lady’s Temple, Morgana is haughty and arrogant as she performs feats of magic no human should be capable of. Rumors start that she must be a fearsome fae.
To King Arthur, Morgana is a trusted and devoted advisor. But his court is wary of her and her prodigious talent at divination. His wife sees Morgana as a rival and a malevolent witch.
To Braithe, Morgana’s faithful acolyte, she is simply the most powerful priestess Camelot has seen.
Morgana doesn’t know why she’s so different from everyone else, and she doesn’t much care. But when she aids Arthur to ascend the throne before his time, she sets off a series of events that will change everything Morgana believes about her power.
Get it on Amazon or support your local bookstores through Bookshop.org.
Thief of Night by Holly Black
Release date: Sept. 23
Read it if: You’ve been counting down the days until Black’s latest sequel. A morally murky thief faces the fallout of what she’s done.
Publisher’s synopsis: There’d always been something wrong with Charlie Hall. Crooked from the day she was born. Never met a bad decision she wasn’t willing to double down on. She may be good enough to steal a shadow from a tower, but will she be good enough to steal back a heart?
Get it on Amazon or support your local bookstores through Bookshop.org.
The Second Death of Locke by V. L. Bovalino
Release date: Sept. 23
Read it if: You hope the best fantasy books of September 2025 include a knight-and-liege dynamic. A lady knight serves as the source of magic to her childhood friend, but there’s more to her magic than they know.
Publisher’s synopsis: Grey Flynn has dedicated her life to her mage, Kier. She will be his blade on the battlefield, his healer and protector. The deep well of raw power inside her is Kier’s to wield. They are bound together by blood and magic, but there is one truth Grey dare not reveal . . . not even to Kier.
When a quest to protect the child of an enemy kingdom pulls them into a dangerous mission, Grey will need to decide what she’s willing to sacrifice to protect her secret.
For Grey is no ordinary magical well, and if she dies, all magic dies with her.
Get it on Amazon or support your local bookstores through Bookshop.org.
Princess of Blood by Sarah Hawley
Release date: Sept. 30
Read it if: You love fae fantasy, especially court politics and romantic drama. Candidates for the fae throne vie for the support of a human-turned-fae-heir, thrusting her into danger.
Publisher’s synopsis: Kenna Heron is still reeling from her lover’s betrayal and the threat of an impending civil war. With only a sentient dagger and her two closest—and most powerless—friends by her side, she must navigate the treacherous politics of Mistei while coming to terms with her new identity as not just Fae, but princess of the reborn Blood House.
With the corrupt king dead at last, three candidates are vying for the crown: a princess who claims the throne as her birthright and two rebel princes, both of whom are courting Kenna’s support to break the stalemate between them. Old loyalties fray as new, volatile alliances form, and Kenna finds herself caught in a web of violence and deceit—and swept up in a forbidden romance as passionate as it is dangerous.
Kenna has the power to shape Mistei’s future… but someone’s willing to kill to make sure she never gets the chance.
Get it on Amazon or support your local bookstores through Bookshop.org.
The Sleepless by Jen Williams
Release date: Sept. 30
Read it if: You want the best fantasy books of September 2025 to have a different take on the love triangle. A cursed forest guardian encounters a man who shares his body with a wicked spirit.
Publisher’s synopsis: Elver is the guardian of the wild and dangerous monster forest. Saved from the brink of death by a god, her skin will poison anyone she touches.
Artair is on a mission – one that takes him face-to-face with Elver at her most ruthless. But her defenses are useless when she discovers he’s the only human impervious to her deadly gift. For Artair isn’t human: he’s one of the Sleepless, cursed to share his body with an evil spirit.
Lucian inhabits their body while Artair sleeps, and he is hell-bent on manipulating Elver for his dark purposes. But Elver is harbouring secrets too, and she has her own reasons for feigning an alliance with these two souls.
Caught in the crossfire of gods, monsters, and a dangerous magic they can barely understand, it is only a matter of time before the paths the three of them choose to take will set alight the very foundations of their world.
Get it on Amazon or support your local bookstores through Bookshop.org.
The Shocking Experiments of Miss Mary Bennet by Melinda Taub
Release date: Sept. 30
Read it if: You’ve always thought Mary Bennet deserved better! Mary’s Frankenstein-esque experiments go wrong, leading her to an unexpected bond with another unusual young woman.
Publisher’s synopsis: Awkward, plain, and overlooked, Mary Bennet has long been out of favor not only with her own family but with generations of readers of Pride and Prejudice. But what was this peculiar girl really doing while her sisters were falling in love?
As, one by one, Mary’s sisters get married, she hatches a plan. If the world won’t give this fierce, lonely girl a place, she’ll carve one out herself. In a desperate bid to avoid becoming a burden on her family or, worse, married to a controlling man, Mary does what any bright, intrepid girl would do. She takes to the attic and teach herself to reanimate the dead. If finding acceptance requires a husband, she’ll get one. . . even if she has to make him herself.
However, Mary’s genius and determination aren’t enough to control the malevolent force that she unwittingly unleashes. Soon, her attempts to rein in the destruction wreaked by her creations leads her to forge a perhaps unlikely friendship with another brilliant young woman unlike any she’s ever known. As that friendship blossoms into something passionate and all-consuming, Mary begins to realize that she may have to choose between the acceptance she’s always fought for and true happiness.
Get it on Amazon or support your local bookstores through Bookshop.org.
