There’s plenty of enchantment to be found when it comes to the best fantasy books of March 2026! This month’s most magical new releases take you to worlds of witches and gods, cozy hotels and twisted mirror universes, and so much more. It’s a feast for the imagination, and it’s all coming to our shelves very soon!
Don’t miss out — here are our top picks for March’s best new fantasy reads!
The Witch Without Memory by Maithree Wijesekara
Release date: March 3
Read it if: You want sprawling storytelling and mythological inspiration in the best fantasy books of March 2026. A prince and a witch must find allies to build a better future from the ashes of empire.
Publisher’s synopsis: An empress with vengeance in her heart
Prince Ashoka’s sister, Aarya, has named herself empress and is determined to reverse her brother’s mercy for the mayakari.
A witch lost in dreams
Shakti is being held by shadowy figures, drugged and forced to commit an unspeakable crime. When she wakes, she finds herself prisoner. But gaps in her memory around the curse she has cast trap her more thoroughly than any cage.
The prince trying to change the world
Ashoka must find allies and quickly if he is to usher in a new dawn for the mayakari, but the tougher the decision he makes, the farther he gets from his true self. He must determine what he is willing to lose in pursuit of his vision of the future.
The first blow has been dealt by Ashoka and Shakti. But the empire not only remains, it appears stronger—and more brutal—than ever. Both must find ways to fight back before nature is deprived of its spirits and guardians, and the reign of the new empress spreads its destruction and oppression to lands beyond.
Get it on Amazon or support your local bookstores through Bookshop.org.
Black as Diamond by U.M. Agoawike
Release date: March 3
Read it if: You love complicated worldbuilding and equally complicated characters. A warrior embarks on a dangerous (and cursed) journey after his brother goes missing.
Publisher’s synopsis: Like the rest of the winged eresh keyel, warrior Asaru has spent his life fighting the remnants of a long-dead enemy. When his brother’s squadron disappears from a border keep, Asaru travels into the human realm to investigate, only to become ensnared by a fatal—and unbreakable—curse that could wipe out his people.
When he inadvertently commits a terrible crime, Asaru is thrown into the path of Wren, an emotionally tortured former healer playing with dangerous magic. Bound to one another by a spell gone wrong, and on the run from freelance killers, they set out to find the Chronicler, keeper of the eresh keyel’s history who could bring them answers, redemption, and the cure to Asaru’s curse. But the truths they uncover about the past have the power to break the world into pieces, ending human civilization and settling its remnants into something entirely new.
Get it on Amazon or support your local bookstores through Bookshop.org.
Magic and Mischief at the Wayside Hotel by Elizabeth Everett
Release date: March 10
Read it if: You’re in the mood for something cozy from the best fantasy books of March 2026. The manager of a magical hotel unexpectedly bonds with a single mom who moves in during a chaotic time.
Publisher’s synopsis: Manager of the Number Five Wayside Inn and World Travel Hub, Pax Nomen has one of the easiest jobs in all the known universes, unless you count the occasional plumbing disaster. When Number Five Wayside gets stranded on a non-magical world, even Pax’s trusty Wayside Handbook can’t help him. How is he going to “reboot” the hotel and keep it on its magical journey?
Josie LaChusia is a single mom experiencing debt, having parenting doubts, and tipping dangerously toward depression when an ad pops up on her phone that an apartment is available in a building she’s never seen before.
Pax needs a new guest to restart his hotel, and Josie needs a nudge to restart her life. In a building occupied by faeries, gargoyles, and a gnome with a bad attitude, two souls from very different places come together to create a home like no other.
Get it on Amazon or support your local bookstores through Bookshop.org.
The Somewhat Wicked Witch of Brigandale by C.M. Waggoner
Release date: March 17
Read it if: You like tongue-in-cheek humor and a lighter touch for the best fantasy books of March 2026. A “wicked” witch raises an abandoned baby… who may or may not be a lost prince.
Publisher’s synopsis: Once upon a time, a somewhat wicked witch named Gretsella lived in a cozy little cottage in the Dark Forest of Brigandale. She dispensed herbs and tinctures at reasonable prices, met with her slightly oddball coven on a regular basis, and had absolutely no need of any further company whatsoever, thank you very much. But then one afternoon, Gretsella came home to find a screaming infant on her doorstep.
Against all her better judgement, she took the baby in. She named him Bradley.
Eighteen years later, Bradley has grown into a bafflingly likable young man under Gretsella’s extremely tolerant—one might even say doting—eye. But the witch’s hopes for an unremarkable yet fulfilling life for her son are shattered when small woodland animals start prophesying that he is the lost prince and should ascend to the throne. Bradley ignores Gretsella’s advice that prophecies and talking chipmunks are to be avoided at all costs, and sets off for the capital. But soon confusion and chaos are reigning, and scheming courtiers are using Bradley for their own ends. Sometimes a witch has to roll up her sleeves and take matters into her own cauldron. So Gretsella resolves to bring about the downfall of her darling son…
Get it on Amazon or support your local bookstores through Bookshop.org.
Innamorata by Ava Reid
Release date: March 17
Read it if: You love reading gothic fantasy full of family secrets and dark magic. The heiress of a nearly-destroyed house sets her revenge in motion, even as she falls for the conqueror’s heir.
Publisher’s synopsis: Once there was an island where the dead walked the earth, and seven noble houses ruled by the arcane secrets of necromancy.
A conqueror’s blade brought them low, burning their libraries, killing their lords, and extinguishing their eldritch magic.
But defiant against the new order stands the House of Teeth and its last living members: beautiful Marozia, the heiress to the House, and her cousin, the uncanny Lady Agnes.
Though she has not spoken a word in seven years, Agnes is the true carrier of the House’s legacy. And she has her orders. She must recapture the secrets of death magic and avenge her family’s fallen honor. She must arrange the betrothal of her beloved cousin Marozia to Liuprand, heir to the conqueror’s throne, for access to the forbidden library in his grotesquely grand castle.
Revenge burns in Agnes’s heart but so do stranger passions—and it is Liuprand, the golden prince, who speaks to her soul. This passion is as treasonous as it is powerful, poisoning the kingdom’s roots and threatening to tear the already shattered realm in two.
For Agnes’s final order is the gravest: She must not fall in love.
Get it on Amazon or support your local bookstores through Bookshop.org.
Queen of the Night Sky by Amalie Howard
Release date: March 17
Read it if: You’re looking for romantasy with a mythological twist in the best fantasy books of March 2026. As corruption takes root in her kingdom, a young woman escapes assassination only to discover the figure who haunts her dreams.
Publisher’s synopsis: The Kingdom of Oryndhr has been saved by the will of the Royal Stars. But King Roshan, once Sura’s best friend and chosen love, has changed. She can sense corruption growing in him, and her own magic is being twisted by his command to dangerous ends. As dreams of her strange shadow guardian return in force, she is left unsure of her path—and of her heart.
When an attempt on her life leads to her rescue on the back of an azdaha, the dragon-like creature she once thought a myth, Sura truly finds herself in uncharted territory—in a land far beyond Oryndhyr’s borders. Everlea is full of magic, ruled by the deadly and enigmatic Night King, Darrius. And to Sura’s shock, Darrius is none other than the man in her dreams…and possibly her soul fated mate.
As a prophecy unfolds, the old gods awaken, and a war between kingdoms looms, Sura has no choice: she must fully embrace her destiny as Starkeeper and the entirety of her power before it’s too late. But all power comes at a cost…and darkness has a way of slithering into the smallest spaces.
Get it on Amazon or support your local bookstores through Bookshop.org.
The Fortune Tellers of Rue Daru by Olesya Salnikova Gilmore
Release date: March 24
Read it if: You prefer a historical setting and mystical vibe for the best fantasy books of March 2026. In 1920s Paris, a fortune teller summons the spirit of a dead royal… who seems to know secrets about her family.
Publisher’s synopsis: Spirited Zina and her secretive grandmother, Baba Valya, own a tearoom on rue Daru in Paris, where they have lived quietly since Zina’s mother’s untimely death. By day, the women serve tea, mostly to members of the bustling Russian émigré community, but when dusk falls, they divine fortunes and perform séances for their loyal clientele.
Then the charming Princess Olga and her brother arrive, searching for knowledge about the disappearance of their father, the exiled Grand Duke, cousin of the last Tsar of Russia. Zina, eager to learn more about the spirit world and her powers, performs the séance. She is able to summon the Grand Duke, but to her horror, he starts to haunt the shop, and he seems to know something sinister about her mother’s death.
As Zina delves into her family’s hidden past, dark secrets are unearthed, threatening the home and tearoom Zina and her grandmother have worked so hard to build, not to mention their very lives.
Get it on Amazon or support your local bookstores through Bookshop.org.
Aicha by Soraya Bouazzaoui
Release date: March 24
Read it if: You love stories of warrior women and rebellion against empire. A Moroccan rebel taps into a power that could burn the world down — and she might let it.
Publisher’s synopsis: The Portuguese empire has planted its flag across Morocco, ruling with an iron fist. But eventually, all empires must fall.
Aicha, the daughter of a Moroccan freedom-fighter, was born for battle. She has witnessed the death of her people, their starvation and torture at the hands of the occupiers, and it has awakened an anger within her. An anger that burns hot and bright and that speaks to Aicha’s soul.
Only Aicha’s secret lover, Rachid, a rebellion leader, knows how to soothe her. But as the fight for Morocco’s freedom reaches its violent climax, the creature that simmers beneath Aicha’s skin begs to be unleashed. It hungers for the screams of those who have caused her pain, and it will not be ignored.
Get it on Amazon or support your local bookstores through Bookshop.org.
A Widow’s Charm by Caitlyn Paxson
Release date: March 31
Read it if: You want a touch of morbid whimsy in the best fantasy books of March 2026. A widow blackmails a necromancer to use his powers for her benefit.
Publisher’s synopsis: Lady Hildegarde Croft is accustomed to changes in position. After all, she rose from maidservant to lady of the manor when she married Lord Thorgoode Croft. But when he dies unexpectedly, the plans that would have protected her and the people of Croftholde die along with him. What’s a widow to do?
Potential salvation arrives in the form of Lord Elmwood, who is fleeing the consequences of using his forbidden Charm to raise the dead. Now he’s injured, destitute, and hiding out at the neighboring estate.
For Hilde, blackmailing Lord Elmwood to resurrect Thorgoode seems like the perfect solution. For Elmwood, beautiful Lady Croft seems like the ideal distraction from his troubles. The problem is, all she wants from him is the horrifying power he knows he can never use again.
Get it on Amazon or support your local bookstores through Bookshop.org.
The Faraway Inn by Sarah Beth Durst
Release date: March 31
Read it if: You prefer cozy, quirky fantasy over dark, thrilling epics. A teenager girl spends the summer at her aunt’s B&B, only to uncover the enchanting secrets beneath the decrepit exterior.
Publisher’s synopsis: When sixteen-year-old Calisa arrives at her great-aunt’s B&B in rural Vermont for the summer, she’s shocked to find a rundown inn rather than the cozy bed-and-breakfast she was expecting. Grumpy and eccentric, Auntie Zee is determined to keep anyone from messing with her beloved inn . . . even though she clearly needs the help.
To convince her great-aunt to keep her around, Calisa sets to work fixing up the inn, enlisting extra help from the groundskeeper’s (handsome) son. But the longer she stays, the surer she is that there’s something strange about the B&B—and its guests. Something almost . . . otherworldly.
The inn is keeping a magical secret—but to protect the place she’s come to love, Calisa must unravel the truth before it’s too late.
Get it on Amazon or support your local bookstores through Bookshop.org.
Steel Gods by Richard Swan
Release date: March 31
Read it if: You’re in the mood for steampunk vibes in the best fantasy books of March 2026. A sprawling cast attempts to confront a plague that threatens the mind and the fabric of reality itself.
Publisher’s synopsis: The true horror of the Great Silence has been revealed. As nation after nation succumbs to the mind-plague and Sova scrambles to enlist help from across the globe, Ambassador Renata Rainer has been given a simple task: save the world. While she travels to the Principality of Casimir to enlist the help of the Empire’s oldest enemy, Lieutenant Peter Kleist returns to the haunted forests of the New East to search for ancient answers—and finally confront the terrible fate that awaits him.
In their wake, a task force of engineers, soldiers, and arcane experts will try and unpick the final secrets of the Great Silence—on both sides of the mortal plane. But time is running out. Count Lamprecht von Oldenburg has returned to the capital, armed with a terrible vision and enough madness to see it through. Those who stand in his way face a simple choice: join the revolution, or die.
As the world tips towards chaos, all paths converge on the Eye of the Sea, where the fabric of reality wears thin—and where the Empire of the Wolf must confront the most terrible enemy it has ever known.
Get it on Amazon or support your local bookstores through Bookshop.org.
