50 of Our Most Anticipated YA Fantasy Novels of 2018: July to December

The Brink of Darkness, by Jeff Giles (July 10)
In the opening pages of last year’s The Edge of Everything, Zoe was saved from a violent man by X, a bounty hunter from a hellish realm known as the Lowlands. When Zoe stops him from reaping her attacker, it sets off a chain of events that leads to first love and terrible peril. In this sequel, X is back in the Lowlands, more powerless than ever—but a search for his true identity may lead to freedom. Back on Earth, Zoe is determined to do whatever it takes to save the one she loves, including descending into the underworld and breaking him out herself.

Beast: A Tale of Love and Revenge, by Lisa Jensen (July 10)
Like Jodi Lynn Anderson’s Tiger Lily, which kicks off in a pre-Wendy Darling Neverland, this twist on Beauty and the Beast opens long before Beauty arrives at the castle. Centering on a servant girl who grows to love her formerly monstrous master, whose beastly form belies the new kindness of his heart, it imagines Beauty as an interloper who threatens not to save the man, but to restore his cruel nature.

The Traitor’s Ruin, by Erin Beaty (July 10)
In this follow-up to The Traitor’s Kiss, marriage-resistant girl-turned-spy Sage Fowler is serving in the well-respected role of royal tutor, but gives it up to take part in a dangerous secret mission—which will also bring her closer to her military fiancé. But the two butt heads in the field, and ultimately are separated. Now alone and behind enemy lines, Sage must once again draw on her inner resources to carry the day and save her own skin.

Endless Water, Starless Sky, by Rosamund Hodge (July 24)
In 2016’s Bright Smoke, Cold Fire, Hodge transformed “Romeo and Juliet” into a tale set within the walled city of Viyara, where a sphere of magical protection stands between the Viyarans and a zombie-esque plague called the Ruining. Juliet was an assassin, Mahyanai Romeo the bastard son of a rival house whom she dares to love. And barely seen Rosalind became Runajo, a member of a magical religious order. In this sequel, Juliet has become the pawn of an enemy clan, Romeo is tormented by the damage he has done to his beloved’s people, and Runajo seeks out a new way to protect her city. But it may take a trip to the land of Death itself to turn the tide that threatens to swallow their city.

Storm-Wake, by Lucy Christopher (July 31)
In this complex, mystical take on The Tempest, Moss and her Pa—and her sole childhood playmate, Caliban stand-in Callan—are humanity’s last survivors, living on an island where Pa attempts to bring the world back to life through the power of the magical stormflowers. But his abilities go deeper and darker than Moss knows, and the shipwrecked arrival of a boy from the outside world will tip the delicate balance of their lonely realm.

Grace and Fury, by Tracy Banghart (July 31)
In a fantasy-world kingdom where women are groomed to be subjugated, Serina thought she had her future mapped out: she would serve as a Grace to the royal heir, an obedient and beautiful subject. But her younger sister, Nomi, is the one the heir wants, and Serina finds herself imprisoned rather than feted for her pliancy. Now Nomi must become the perfect Grace, if she’s ever to find a way to save her sister.

Heart of Thorns, by Bree Barton (July 31)
Mia has pledged her life to ridding her home kingdom of the Gwyrach, women whose magical abilities allowed them to murder her mother without leaving a mark. When her father allies himself with the royal family, she’s expected to give up vengeance and become a lady—but far more devastating is the discovery that she herself possesses the magic of the Gwyrach. Now she must escape her unwanted present while plumbing the dark secrets of her past.

Sea Witch, by Sarah Henning (July 31)
The villain of “The Little Mermaid” gets her due in Henning’s origin story, opening on a young outcast, Evie, grieving the loss of her best friend and hiding her magical abilities from the fishing town that doesn’t accept her. When she meets a girl who looks eerily like her best friend on the beach, and the two fall in with a promising pair of princes to boot, she believes her life has changed. But her new friend has dark secrets, and Evie may find herself giving up more than she bargained for in the effort to save them both.

The Dark Beneath the Ice, by Amelinda Berube (August 7)
Is former dancer Marianne’s mental health slipping, or does a dark entity really have her in its sights? Her parents are broken up, her dancing career done, and her mother hospitalized. But that’s not all Marianne is facing, as control over even her own actions slips from her grip. After an attempted exorcism only intensifies the rage of whatever it is that’s stalking her, she must fight against unimaginable darkness to wrest back the reins of her life.

The Forest Queen, by Betsy Cornwell (August 7)
In Cornwell’s female-fronted take on Robin Hood, Sylvie is the hero fighting back against gross injustice—specifically, the power-hungry machinations of her older brother, John, their town’s new sheriff. Fed up with his abuses of the townspeople, and fleeing his attempts to marry her off to a groom she doesn’t want, Sylvie and her friends run away to the forest. Soon they’re joined by other villagers looking to escape embattled lives overseen by cruel men, in a retelling that explores the power of community, identity, and female strength.

Dance of Thieves, by Mary E. Pearson (August 7)
Returning to the world of the Remnant Chronicles, Pearson’s series starter throws together Jase, the new head of a powerful outlaw family, and Kazi, a former thief investigating Jase at the behest of a new queen. Both have much at stake and a need to prove themselves, and their first meeting sets the two up as rivals…but when they find themselves in shared peril, it’s the beginning of a slow-burn enemies to lovers romance, set against the backdrop of a politically fueled fantasy world journey.

These Rebel Waves, by Sara Raasch (August 7)
In a world where a cold peace reigns between the forces of magic and religion, a crown prince questions his forebears’ prejudice, a child soldier adjusts to postwar life, and a black-market pirate tries to fly under the radar. The richly magical island of Grace Loray is no longer under the thumb of the oppressive, magic-hating Agrid, but after the disappearance of a diplomat, the old hostilities between them threaten to reignite. Former soldier Adeluna suspects there’s more to the vanishing than meets the eye, and sets out to discover the truth before her world is thrown back into disarray.

Star-Touched Stories, by Roshani Chokshi (August 7)
Discover three new tales set in the enchanting, word-drunk world of Chokshi’s The Star-Touched Queen and A Crown of Wishes. Solitary Death and Night dream of love despite being fated for loneliness, Aasha meets a captivating Spy Mistress on the way to claiming her own destiny, and the shadowy tale of a bride without a bridegroom comes to light. Fans of Chokshi’s gorgeous debut duology cannot miss this trio of novellas.

A Touch of Gold, by Annie Sullivan (August 14)
The daughter of the infamous King Midas, Princess Kora still bears the legacy of her father’s “golden touch”—not just in her gold skin, but in the strange abilities she can no longer conceal. She lives a lonely life of luxurious exile within the palace walls, until a tentative courtship with a duke who doesn’t seem to fear her opens her heart and mind. Then a theft from her father’s kingdom sends Kora, with her ability to sense gold, on a quest to retrieve the stolen items and restore the treasury. Like her father, she’ll learn that all gifts exact a price.

The Looking Glass, by Janet McNally (August 14)
It’s been a year since Sylvie’s older sister, an injured ballerina struggling with pain pill abuse, ran away from her life, and Sylvie’s struggling. When a collection of fairy tales she remembers from her childhood shows up mysteriously—and characters from its pages seem to be slipping into the real world—Sylvie ditches dance camp and hits the road, determined to locate her lost sister. This sophomore novel by the author of luminous debut Girls in the Moon explores sisterhood, loss, and all the perils that can befall girls.

Mirage, by Somaiya Daud (August 28)
Daud’s debut is technically science fiction, but it’s so saturated with verbal and literal magic I can’t help but include it here. (I am the boss of this list.) It centers on Amani, a girl living under the occupation of the vicious Vathek Empire. When she’s abducted from the small moon her family calls home, it kicks off a perilous journey into the heart of Vathek’s royal family: she’s an exact physical match for the ruthless and despised crown princess Maram, and must serve as her body double to protect her from threat. As her heroine risks her cover and her life, forging dangerous connection with Maram’s fiancé and banished grandmother, Daud explores themes of colonialism and oppression, building a beautiful matriarchal mythology and painful interplanetary history for her embattled heroine.

Seafire, by Natalie C. Parker (August 28)
Sea captain Caledonia Styx commands an all-female crew, each of whom has lost the things and people they love to vicious warlord Aric Athair and his gang of Bullets. Now, they’re working together to take Athair and his fleet down. But when a Bullet saves her best friend’s life and seeks to join their crew, Caledonia must decide whether letting a boy from across enemy lines aboard is too dangerous, or exactly what it’ll take to destroy their enemy at last.

The Sacrifice Box, by Martin Stewart (August 28)
With its Stephen King vibes and Stranger Things-esque cover font, Stewart’s latest is looking like the perfect creepy summer read. In the summer of 1982, five friends stumble on a strange stone box in the woods. Each seals a beloved keepsake inside of it, vowing never to take back what they’ve sacrificed. Four years later, their friendships have long since fallen apart…and someone breaks the rules of the box. Stalked by increasingly dark and frightening happenings, the former friends discover that the sacrifice box will require more of them than they ever intended to give.

Toil & Trouble, edited by Tess Sharpe and Jessica Spotswood (August 28)
Throughout history few things have been considered more fearsome than a girl with power—especially the kind that can be diagnosed as witchcraft. Toil & Trouble presents fifteen YA authors’ takes on powerful girls and all the ways they choose to use their magic. Across genres and in settings ranging from modern-day LA to a dystopian future, Anna-Marie McLemore, Nova Ren Suma, Brandy Colbert, and more explore our ongoing fascination with witchcraft and the girls who wield it.

A Room Away from the Wolves, by Nova Ren Suma (September 4)
Ostracized by her stepfamily and running from events that went down at a high school party in the woods, deeply unreliable narrator Bina flees to the dubious shelter of an all-female New York City boarding house. Catherine House shielded her mother during her heady days as a struggling actress, and Bina has dreamed about it all her life. But the place is shrouded with mystery, from lodgers who can’t seem to leave to a potent, long-vanished ring that turns up without warning, to Catherine herself, who watches over the house from within the confines of a picture frame. Bina falls into the orbit of fellow boarder and compulsive liar Monet, who may just be the key to breaking Catherine House’s spell. This urban fable is a marvel of mood and magic.

Seventh Born, by Monica Sanz (September 4)
A witch’s seventh-born daughter, Seraphina is hot-tempered, pissed off, and the cause of her mother’s untimely death. Long abandoned by her family, she enters Aetherium’s Witchling Academy with dreams of finding them, but discovers what just might be her destiny instead: she becomes the assistant of the mysterious (and dashing) Professor Nikolai Barrington, jumping feet first into a heady supernatural world of necromancy, kidnapping, and mortal peril for the much maligned seventhborns.

Not Even Bones, by Rebecca Schaeffer (September 4)
Nita is her mother’s partner in a very niche business: the dissection of the supernatural creatures her mother murders, so that Nita can sell their parts on the internet. But when her mother brings home a live specimen for Nita to dissect, her daughter puts her foot down…but saving him results in her being sold instead. It turns out Nita is among the most valuable specimens of them all, a being capable of changing her own biology. And if she wants to secure her freedom, she’s going to have to embrace her own monstrousness…

Rule, by Ellen Goodlett (September 11)
Succession is the thing in the faltering kingdom of Kolonya, where the heir has been murdered and the king is at death’s door. With rebellion threatening to overtake the land, he summons a disparate trio of girls: a fierce Traveler, a downtrodden daughter, and a plotting lady’s maid. On their arrival in the kingdom, they learn the truth: they are the king’s illegitimate daughters, and one of them must rise up to take his crown. But their pasts are full of dark deeds—and someone is willing to use them to keep the girls off the throne.

As She Ascends, by Jodi Meadows (September 11)
In this sequel to Before She Ignites, Mira has paid the price for her outspoken defense of her beloved dragons, and now she’s a fugitive from the prison that held her. Forced to question everything she once stood for—as a former symbol of a system that turned against her Fallen Isles home and her people—she’s determined to track down the truth about her life and the lies she has been told, no matter the cost.

What the Woods Keep, by Katya de Becerra (September 18)
A small-town mystery comes calling for a girl who thought she’d left it all behind in this genremashing debut. Hayden is happy with her new life in Brooklyn, but her past returns in the form of an unexpected inheritance: her childhood house, if she chooses to untangle its secrets. Back in her hometown, a mystery whose threads include her mother’s disappearance, her father’s otherworldly theories, and the magnetic pull of the woods threatens to ensnare her…and that’s before she discovers what’s waiting for her in the trees.

For a Muse of Fire, by Heidi Heilig (September 25)
In this intoxicating, wildly imaginative new trilogy starter from The Girl from Everywhere author Heilig, Jetta is the force behind her family’s renowned troupe of shadow players: her ability to manipulate the souls of dead things with her blood, using them to coax her handmade puppets to life, is both the secret of her success and her downfall if discovered. In their efforts to gain passage on a royal wedding ship, key to Jetta’s plan to access the Mad King’s healing spring and cure herself of her “malheur,” she and her parents move through a French- and South Asian–inspired fantasy world. Soon, Jetta has drawn the dangerous attention of the general of a colonizing army, and fallen in with charming, damaged rebel Leo, who just might pull her into the rebellion that’s tearing their world apart.

A Winter’s Promise, by Christelle Dabos (September 25)
Set in the wild floating world of the Arks, this French bestseller centers on Ophelia, a girl gifted with the abilities to read objects and travel through mirrors. Her unwanted engagement to the stern, impossible-to-read Thorn means the end of her happy life and entrance into a dangerous new one in icy capital city Citaceleste. Ophelia comes to understand she plays a role in a political game with consequences extending far beyond her own life.

The Sisters of the Winter Wood, by Rena Bunder Rossner (September 25)
Jewish sisters Liba and Laya live quiet lives in their small, woods-bound village, far away from distant rumors of anti-Semitic sentiment, until visitors from the outside world threaten their peace. Even before the arrival of a group of mysterious men  with whom younger sister Laya becomes dangerously fascinated, a secret threatened to divide them: Liba is hiding her discovery that their mami and tati have the power to transform into animals. Without their parents’ protection and walking perilous new ground, the sisters must rely on each other as dark forces encroach.

Witch Born, by Nicholas Bowling (September 25)
Alyce is left alone in a world that hates and fears her after her mother is burned at the stake as a witch. Stalked by a witch hunter, she finds an ally in a boy with a painful family history of his own. But there’s more in play than her own story, as a supernatural battle gains force, sucking her into a magical world of good and evil she’s only beginning to understand.

Give the Dark My Love, by Beth Revis (September 25)
Nedra is a scholarship student at Yugen Academy, determined to seize the opportunity to become a master alchemist. Her studies take a turn toward the desperate when a deadly plague begins advancing toward her homeland, driving her deeper and deeper into alchemy’s shadow practices in search of a cure. Her relationship with fellow alchemist Grey is first cemented through their struggles, and then at risk of being torn apart, as she’s drawn toward the dangerous art of necromancy.

A Blade So Black, by L.L. McKinney (September 25)
In this remixed take on Alice in Wonderland, Alice is a Black teen in Atlanta balancing two very different lives: in one, she’s the daughter of a protective mother, focused on her dropping grades and needy BFF. In the other, she fights her way through the shadowy dream realm of Wonderland, fighting off the Nightmares that threaten to break through into our world. But when her mentor is poisoned, and saving him requires going all in on Wonderland, she’s in serious danger of losing both her lives.

The Boneless Mercies, by April Genevieve Tucholke (October 2)
Frey is a boneless mercy, a death trader who’s paid to end the suffering of the sick and the weary. Along with her companions—three other mercies and the boy they pulled out of a death-struck village—she seeks to abandon her bloody work and pursue another life. Their chance, and a shot at glory, comes with news of the Blue Vee Beast, a rampaging monster annihilating a distant jarldom. In a Norse-influenced fantasy land that pulses with history, magic, and mythology, Tucholke spins a haunting story of four girls seizing their fate, and living lives large enough to achieve the level of legend.

Grim Lovelies, by Megan Shepherd (October 2)
Anouk longs for a life far bigger than the existence she’s destined for: though she looks human, she is a “Beastie,” enchanted from animal to person form by a witch who keeps her in confinement and servitude. But when the witch is murdered and Anouk blamed for the crime, she and her fellow Beasties go on the run through a magical Paris, determined to discover the true killer before the magic that animates them dissipates.

Muse of Nightmares, by Laini Taylor (October 2)
This follow-up to Taylor’s gorgeous Printz Honor book Strange the Dreamer picks up where its predecessor left off, following a shocking death that transforms the stakes for Lazlo, Sarai, and the people of Weep. Now under the control of Minna, transformed into a vengeful monster by grief and fury, Sarai believes herself to be helpless…but she is wrong. Lazlo has only just begun to scratch the surface of his own shadowy past. And on a distant shore, two sisters wait for their lives to change, as Taylor expands her world far beyond the borders of Weep. As ever, she spins this fantasy epic in salt-and-sugar prose you’ll want to read out loud so you can taste it.

Beneath the Citadel, by Destiny Soria (October 9)
Soria’s sophomore novel takes place in the city of Eldra, long ruled by prophecies and by a high council that hides itself within a citadel. Following in her rebel parents’ footsteps, orphaned Cassa is bound to fight back against the council with the help of a ragtag trio of allies. They will uncover more than they bargained for, in the form of a final prophecy that could end the world as they know it.

A Sorrow Fierce and Falling, by Jessica Cluess (October 16)
In the closing installment of Cluess’s Kingdom on Fire trilogy, Henrietta, one-time “Chosen One” and would-be pawn of magicians and sorcerers alike, is determined to blaze her own trail. On the eve of her marriage to the mysterious lord of Sorrow-Fell, in the midst of planning an attack on the malevolent Ancients, Henrietta discovers secrets that change her course for good, sending her on her most dangerous journey yet.

Crown of Thunder, by Tochi Onyebuchi (October 16)
Last year’s Nigerian-influenced debut fantasy Beasts Made of Night introduced Taj, a gifted young aki, or sin-eater, who could destroy the sin-beasts drawn forth from guilty minds. The wages of his work are imprinted on both his skin and mind, in the shape of tattoos and the guilt he takes as his own. A job eating the sin-beast of a royal draws him into the heart of a deadly conspiracy, and in this sequel, his world is crumbling beneath the dark magic of cruel Queen Karima. Now hidden away in a friend’s ancestral village, he’s facing his feelings for Aliya, what his true identity might be, and the knowledge that a battle unlike any he has faced is imminent.

The Light Between Worlds, by Laura Weymouth (October 23)
In Weymouth’s melancholy, enchanting debut, three siblings are transported from a backyard bomb shelter during the London Blitz to the pastoral world of the Woodlands. This new land is the answer to youngest sibling Evelyn’s prayers, and the trio—Evelyn, Philippa, and Jamie—spend years navigating the people and politics and magic of this other realm. But only Evelyn considers it her true home, and when they’re sent back for good to London, she never recovers from the rupture. Years later, she goes missing from her boarding school, in a tale told in two parts: by Evelyn, leading up to her disappearance, and by Philippa, struggling with guilt, anger, and sorrow in the days that follow it.

West, by Edith Pattou (October 23)
A sequel to Pattou’s beloved retelling of classic fairy tale “East of the Sun and West of the Moon”? Yes! East spun the tale of Rose, who saves her beloved, Charles, from the form of a white bear and imprisonment by the Troll Queen. In West she must rescue him once again, after his ship goes down in a supernatural storm and he’s presumed dead. The stakes are greater, and Rose’s devotion and Pattou’s lovely, mythic prose are no less unwavering.

The Brilliant Death, by Amy Rose Capetta (October 30)
Teodora’s transformative ability has long allowed her to turn her family’s enemies into benign and lovely objects, but she faces her greatest challenge after turning herself into a boy in order to save her father’s life: as one of the heads of kingdom Vinalia’s five most powerful families, he was poisoned by the land’s new ruler, and is at the edge of death. On her way to the capital, Teo travels with a fellow magic wielder, or strega, who can switch their gender easily, falling in love and discovering frightening truths along the way.

Empress of All Seasons, by Emiko Jean (November 6)
Jean’s debut entwines the tales of Mari, an entrant into the competition to be named empress; Taro, an unwilling crown prince; and Akira, reviled as a half-human, half-supernatural creature known as a yōkai. Mari, too, is a yōkai, capable of turning into a monster, but she’s kept it a secret: only humans are considered fit to rule. In a world where empress competitors must survive passage through four magical rooms in the palace, each corresponding to a season, Mari, Taro, and Akira hold the future of the empire in their hands.

The Wren Hunt, by Mary Watson (November 6)
Every year on St. Stephen’s Day, Wren is pursued through her small village by boys enacting an ancient hunt—and every year their pursuit feels more violent and primal. What the head bully of the hunt, David, doesn’t realize, is that Wren is his natural rival in a far deeper sense: she comes from a family of Augurs, and he from a long line of Judges, each on opposite sides of an ancient magical battle. When his powerful aunt takes Wren on as an intern, it allows her to embed as a spy, seeking a source of magical power that will tip the scales in favor of the Augurs forever.

Girls of Paper and Fire, by Natasha Ngan (November 6)
In a world divided among three castes—demon Moon, demon-human Steel, and the lowest caste, fully human Paper—Lei is a Paper whose golden eyes hint at a demonic heritage she doesn’t have…and draw the attention of the distant king. She’s abducted and carried off to court to become a Paper girl, one among his harem. She expects misery in her new life, and instead finds love with a fellow Paper girl. But their forbidden bond and a brewing rebellion may endanger both her tentative happiness and her life.

The Storyteller, by Traci Chee (November 13)
Chee’s debut, The Reader, is a gorgeous metaphysical fairy tale set in an invented world in which literacy is nearly nonexistent. Orphaned Sefia, in possession of a magical and nearly extinct object—a Book—learns she has the ability to manipulate reality, picks up mysterious travel companion Archer, and finds that the words in the Book overlap with her reality in mind-bending ways. In sequel The Speaker, Sefia and Archer are rebels on the run, exacting revenge on horrifying aggressors as they go. In this final installment, Sefia is determined to keep Archer out of the hands of the vicious Guard, who want to use him as a pawn in the coming war. And at the center of it all is Sefia’s Book, a fascinating fantasy creation filled with tales across time and place, into which Chee gives us tantalizing glimpses.

The Dark Days Deceit, by Alison Goodman (November 20)
Regency-era demon hunter Lady Helen is back in the final chapter of Goodman’s Dark Days trilogy. Helen is preparing for her marriage to a duke; navigating her supernatural bond with another man, the darkly roguish, demon-hunting Lord Carlston; and struggling against the mental agony of a magical object whose deadly power she absorbed in an effort to disarm it. Her mind and her life are at risk…but the devastating power may be her best chance at defeating her supernatural foe at last.

Outrun the Wind, by Elizabeth Tammi (November 27)
Kahina was once an oracle at Delphi; now she lives a far happier life as a member of Artemis’s Hunt, glad to obey the goddess’s two rules: never disobey her, and don’t fall in love. But in saving the life of famed huntress Atalanta, Kahina breaks rule number one—then, thrown together with Atalanta yet again, in the kingdom where the huntress’s father rules, she finds herself on the brink of breaking the second. Together Kahina and Atalanta dream up a game they’re sure will save the huntress from an unwanted marriage…but soon find themselves in over their heads.

Queen of Air and Darkness, by Cassandra Clare (December 4)
The closing installment of Clare’s Dark Artifices trilogy takes place immediately after the wrenching death that ended Lord of Shadows. Magnus is mysteriously, perhaps fatally, ill, a rift is forming among the Clave, and Emma and Julian, parabatai who’ve fallen irrevocably into forbidden love, have passed into Faerie in pursuit of the Black Volume of the Dead. But even more potentially devastating than their personal tragedies is the secret they discover, with the power to transform the Shadow World for good.

Once a King, by Erin Summerill (December 4)
King Aodren of Malam rules a kingdom divided by a hatred and fear of magic, possessed by the maligned female Channelers. Aodren seeks to repair the rift between his magical and nonmagical subjects, but old suspicions die hard, and rumors of a deadly weapon created by the channelers are only deepening the divide. With the help of mistrustful Channeler Lira, capable of controlling the wind, the king sets out to discover the truth behind the whispers.

Evermore, by Sara Holland (December 31)
Massive revelations in the closing chapters of Holland’s 2018 debut, Everless, will have you looking longingly at this sequel. Everless imagined a world where time can be extracted and taken, used as a currency and another way for the rich to exploit the poor: the aristocracy bleeds years from those below them in the form of brutal taxation, courting immortality—and the most powerful among them is the wealthy Gerling family. Jules, a former Gerling estate servant, returned to their estate in an effort to earn her ailing father more time. Instead she learned strange truths about the secrets at court, and the wildest truth of all: her own role in them.