There’s magic to be found everywhere — especially in the best fantasy books of November 2025. This month’s new releases feature everything from cozy, quirky stories to epic worlds of gods, princes, pirates, and monsters. You’ll find new entries from Adrienne Young, Andrea Stewart, Akwaeke Emezi, and other bestselling authors — plus a few you might not know as well.
Ready to get wrapped up in the magic? Check out all our picks for the best fantasy books of November 2025!
Son of the Morning by Akwaeke Emezi
Release date: November 4
Read it if: You’re in the mood for romantasy with a Southern gothic twist. The scion of a powerful clan of women clashes with the princes of Hell.
Publisher’s synopsis: Tenderhearted Galilee was raised by the Kincaids, a formidable clan of Black women sequestered deep in the weeping willows and dark rushing creeks of their land. Galilee has always known that she’s different—that there is an old and unknowable secret around her very existence. It has been a hollow ache inside her since her childhood, something she assumes she will always have to live with.
Until she meets Lucifer Helel. He’s fronting as the head of security for her wealthy friend Oriaku’s family, protecting a mysterious, ancient artifact, but from the moment she lays eyes on him, Gali knows he’s not human. From her first incendiary touch, Lucifer knows something even Gali herself doesn’t—that she isn’t human either.
Enter: Leviathan. As Lucifer’s most trusted prince of Hell, Levi is ruthless and determined to eliminate the intolerable danger that is Galilee before she brings death and disaster to those he loves. While unseen battles rage between Hell, Heaven, and earth, Lucifer and Galilee’s attraction threatens to bring all the structures of their existence crashing down around them.
Soon, loyalties will be shattered and reformed as Kincaid secrets clash with the princes of Hell, driving even the most powerful to their knees. Galilee Kincaid must decide if she will step into herself and embrace the consequences of power.
Get it on Amazon or support your local bookstores through Bookshop.org.
Witchlight by Susan Dennard
Release date: November 4
Read it if: You’re ready for an epic series conclusion among the best fantasy books of November 2025. A magical duo call on all their allies to help them heal magic before their world falls apart.
Publisher’s synopsis: Safi and Iseult, the legendary Cahr Awen, must heal the final Origin Well. But first, they’ll have to actually reach it―and time is not on their side. With ancient figures rising from the past, with the Raider King’s armies gathering for war, and with the magic at the heart of everything dying too fast, all of the Witchlands is on the brink of collapse.
To succeed, Safi and Iseult will have to call on every favor owed and every ally they’ve ever made, from Prince Merik Nihar to the Bloodwitch Aeduan and beyond. Yet all who fight for the Cahr Awen will soon discover that Eridysi’s Lament is not the prophecy they believed it was―and their journeys are only just beginning.
Get it on Amazon or support your local bookstores through Bookshop.org.
Fallen City by Adrienne Young
Release date: November 4
Read it if: You love political intrigues and forbidden romance. A powerful heir and a magic-adjacent novice fall in love, even as they dream of a rebellion.
Publisher’s synopsis: Luca Matius has one purpose―to carry on the family name, maintaining its presence in the Forum once his powerful and cruel uncle dies. But his noviceship with the city’s Philosopher places him in the middle of a catastrophe that will alter the destiny of his people.
Maris Casperia was raised amidst the strategic maneuvers of the Citadel’s inner workings. She knows what her future holds―a lifetime of service to a corrupt city. But her years of serving as a novice to the last Priestess who possesses the stolen magic of the Old War has made her envision a different kind of future for the city. When she meets Luca, a fated chain of events is set into motion that will divinely entangle their lives.
As a secret comes to light and throws the city into chaos, Luca and Maris hatch a plot to create a calculated alliance that could tip the scales of power. But when an execution forces Luca to become the symbol of rebellion, he and Maris are thrown onto opposite sides of a holy war. As their fates diverge, they learn they are at the center of a story the gods are writing. And even if they can find their way back to each other, there may be nothing left.
Get it on Amazon or support your local bookstores through Bookshop.org.
The War Beyond by Andrea Stewart
Release date: November 4
Read it if: You want truly epic scale in the best fantasy books of November 2025. Two sisters face each other as a divine war tests everyone’s loyalties.
Publisher’s synopsis: Hakara risked her life to find her long-lost sister Rasha, only to lose her all over again. Now she and her Unanointed rebels hunt for the shapeshifter Lithuas, knowing that defeating her would strike a blow to the plans of the tyrant god Kluehnn.
Rasha once longed to be reunited with Hakara. No longer. Now she is a Godkiller and proud to serve Kluehnn’s divine will. Yet she also harbours doubts about Kluehnn’s teachings. When she is sent to destroy Hakara and her allies, Rasha will have to decide where her loyalty truly lies.
As the two sisters hurtle towards a bloody reunion, Sheuan continues her shadowy games of intrigue to uncover the secret that killed her father, while her cousin Mullayne seeks the tomb of Tolemne. There, Mull believes he’ll find the answers he desires.
Get it on Amazon or support your local bookstores through Bookshop.org.
The Burning Queen by Aparna Verma
Release date: November 4
Read it if: You love characters who are actually morally gray and rich world-building. An exiled princess plots to regain her kingdom amidst war, betrayal, and the rise of a new ruler.
Publisher’s synopsis: “So what will you become, Elena? Villain, hero, or conqueror?”
Ravence has fallen. Her enemies have ravaged her people. And now Elena Aadya Ravence must decide how far she will go to reap her revenge. As she is pulled into a bitter war that will decide the fate of her kingdom, a new tyrant rises to reclaim his home, and Elena finds that perhaps her hunger isn’t enough.
And his knows no bounds.
Get it on Amazon or support your local bookstores through Bookshop.org.
The Sacred Space Between by Kalie Reid
Release date: November 4
Read it if: You’d like a touch of the divine in the best fantasy books of November 2025. A devout iconographer intends to paint a rebel saint, only for them to discover a dangerous commonality.
Publisher’s synopsis: The Abbey has controlled the minds of its patrons for a millennium through memory magic, stolen from exiled saints. At fifteen, Jude was exiled from the Abbey to the bleak moors in the countryside, to maintain their control over his bourgeoning magic. Almost a decade later, he wants to live a normal life free from the Abbey’s oppressive gaze. When they send Maeve, a stubbornly devout iconographer, to paint an updated icon of him, Jude makes it his mission to get rid of her as soon as possible. That is, until he discovers she holds the same tainted magic of the saints as he does. And the icons she paints may be the key to destroying the Abbey’s power.
As Jude and Maeve draw closer, the two of them face a choice. They can take on the full power of the Abbey and risk their lives for freedom or escape back to exile and make the most of their fading memories. But this institution has eyes everywhere, and the only thing the Abbey loves more than a saint is a martyr.
Get it on Amazon or support your local bookstores through Bookshop.org.
Ship of Spells by H. Leighton Dickson
Release date: November 4
Read it if: Pirates of the Caribbean was a formative part of your fandom personality. After a wreck, a low-level sailor becomes entangled in dangers aboard a sentient ship.
Publisher’s synopsis: When Ensign Bluemage Honor Renn is rescued from the wreckage of her first naval post, she expects death or disgrace. Instead, she wakes aboard the Touchstone, a mythic vessel whispered of in dockside ballads and royal war rooms alike. With a crew of misfits. A mysterious, elven captain. And a mission tied to the Dreadwall, the crumbling barrier that has kept the Overland and Nethersea from open war for a hundred years.
But the tragedy that sank her last ship didn’t just take lives―it left something behind.
Now Renn carries a secret everyone wants. A magik that’s chimeric, arcane…and slowly killing her. But the captain’s mission may be her only chance to survive, even if he still doesn’t trust her.
Caught between privateers, princes, and spies, Renn knows each choice could sink her future―or set the sea on fire.
Get it on Amazon or support your local bookstores through Bookshop.org.
Break Wide the Sea by Sara Holland
Release date: November 11
Read it if: You’d like gothic fairytale vibes in the best fantasy books of November 2025. A woman makes a deal with a sailor to break her curse, if she lets go of her family’s legacy.
Publisher’s synopsis: In the treacherous waters surrounding Kirkrell, sailors hunting magic whales live in fear of the finfolk–bloodthirsty sea fae who sink ships and curse bloodlines. Nineteen-year-old Annie, as heir to the city’s preeminent whaling company, is determined to carry on her parents’ life’s work. But she keeps a secret from everyone. She’s cursed to transform into a monster, with scales spreading up her arms and claws growing from her fingertips.
Her fiancé August offers comfort, but their love falls apart when Annie discovers his plan to take over the company. Desperate, Annie makes a deal with Silas Price, a young captain rumored to be half-finfolk. He says he knows how to break the curse – but only if Annie promises to stop the practice of whaling forever.
As Annie, August and Silas sail north, Annie wrestling with her family’s legacy, the threat of the finfolk and August’s ambitions increasingly force her to put her trust in Silas. Yet Silas has secrets of his own, and they might be the most dangerous of all.
Get it on Amazon or support your local bookstores through Bookshop.org.
Brigands and Breadknives by Travis Baldree
Release date: November 11
Read it if: You need something warm and cozy among the best fantasy books of November 2025. A bookseller’s attempts to shake up life go magically awry.
Publisher’s synopsis: Fern has weathered the stillness and storms of a bookseller’s life for decades, but now, in the face of crippling ennui, transplants herself to the city of Thune to hang out her shingle beside a long-absent friend’s coffee shop. What could be a better pairing? Surely a charming renovation montage will cure what ails her!
If only things were so simple…
It turns out that fixing your life isn’t a one-time prospect, nor as easy as a change of scenery and a lick of paint.
A drunken and desperate night sees the rattkin waking far from home in the company of a legendary warrior, an imprisoned chaos-goblin with a fondness for silverware, and an absolutely thumping hangover.
As together they fend off a rogue’s gallery of ne’er-do-wells trying to claim the bounty the goblin represents, Fern may finally reconnect with the person she actually is when nothing seems inevitable.
Get it on Amazon or support your local bookstores through Bookshop.org.
The Bookshop Below by Georgia Summers
Release date: November 18
Read if if: You like fantasy books with lots of moody, bookish atmosphere. A disgraced bookseller and thief inherits a magic bookshop and investigates the death of its previous owner.
Publisher’s synopsis: If you want a story that will change your life, Chiron’s bookshop is where you go. For those lucky enough to grace its doors, it’s a glimpse into a world of powerful bargains and deadly ink magic.
For Cassandra Fairfax, it’s a reminder of everything she lost, when Chiron kicked her out and all but shuttered the shop. Since then, she’s used her skills in less ethical ways, trading stolen books and magical readings to wealthy playboys and unscrupulous collectors.
Then Chiron dies under mysterious circumstances. And if Cassandra knows anything, it’s this: the bookshop must always have an owner.
But she’s not the only one interested. There’s Lowell Sharpe, a dark-eyed, regrettably handsome bookseller she can’t seem to stop bumping into. Rival owners who threaten Cassandra from the shadows. And, of course, Chiron’s murderer, who is still on the loose.
As Cassandra tries to uncover the secrets her mentor left behind, a sinister force threatens to unravel the world of the magical bookshops entirely…
Get it on Amazon or support your local bookstores through Bookshop.org.
Violet Thistlewaite Is Not a Villain Anymore by Emily Krempholtz
Release date: November 18
Read it if: You’re in the mood for something quirkier among the best fantasy books of November 2025. A former villainous sidekick tries to start over as a hero, but her grumpy colleague is skeptical.
Publisher’s synopsis: Guy Shadowfade is dead, and after a lifetime as the dark sorcerer’s right-hand, Violet Thistlewaite is determined to start over—not as the fearsome Thornwitch, but as someone kind. Someone better. Someone good.
The quaint town of Dragon’s Rest, Violet decides, will be her second chance—she’ll set down roots, open a flower shop, keep her sentient (mildly homicidal) houseplant in check, and prune dark magic from the twisted boughs of her life.
Violet’s vibrant bouquets and cheerful enchantments soon charm the welcoming townsfolk, though nothing seems to impress the prickly yet dashingly handsome Nathaniel Marsh, an alchemist sharing her greenhouse. With a struggling business and his own second chance seemingly out of reach, Nathaniel has no time for flowers or frippery—and certainly none for the intriguing witch next door.
When a mysterious blight endangers every living plant in Dragon’s Rest, Violet and Nathaniel must work together, through their fears, pasts, and growing feelings for one another, to save their community. But with a figure from her previous life knocking at her door and her secrets threatening to uproot everything she’s worked so hard to grow, Violet can’t help but wonder…does a former villain truly deserve a happily-ever-after?
Get it on Amazon or support your local bookstores through Bookshop.org.
As Many Souls as Stars by Natasha Siegel
Release date: November 25
Read it if: You love fantasy books that span generations and centuries. A cursed witch tries to avoid her deal with a demon for centuries.
Publisher’s synopsis: 1592. Cybil Harding is a First Daughter. Cursed to bring disaster to those around her, she is trapped in a house with a mother paralyzed by grief and a father willing to sacrifice everything in pursuit of magic.
Miriam Richter is a creature of shadow. Forged by the dark arts many years ago, she is doomed to exist for eternity and destined to be alone—killing mortals and consuming their souls for sustenance. Everything changes when she meets Cybil, whose soul shines with a light so bright, she must claim it for herself. She offers a bargain: she will grant Cybil reincarnation in exchange for her soul.
Thus begins a dance across centuries as Miriam seeks Cybil in every lifetime to claim her prize. Cybil isn’t inclined to play by the rules, but when it becomes clear that Miriam holds the key to breaking her family curse, Cybil finds that—for the first time in her many lives—she might have the upper hand. As they circle each other, drawn together inescapably as light and dark, the bond forged between them grows stronger. In their battle for dominance, only one of them can win—but perhaps they can’t survive without each other.
Get it on Amazon or support your local bookstores through Bookshop.org.
