Fall is just around the corner and if you’re a fantasy lover looking for a list of the best fall books to fill your TBR, you’ve come to the right place! Check out this list of new 2021 releases that are perfect for the Autumn months.
Fall is one of my favorite seasons for a number of reasons, but nothing beats the coziness of sitting outside in the crisp autumn air and enjoying a good book while sipping a warm beverage.
I don’t know about you, but I crave certain genres and stories in the fall. I’m all about cozy, atmospheric reads, fantasy adventures filled with magic, and dark and moody romances.
So I thought it would be fun to share a list of some of the best books for fall that are perfect for all my fellow fantasy and romance readers!
From fairytale retellings to dark paranormal romances, this list of fall books has a little something for everyone!
Ready to dive in and make that tbr even longer? Let’s go!
Young Adult Fantasy Books for Fall
From paranormal romances to magical thrillers, check out this list of the best young adult books for fall!
Any books available on Kindle Unlimited will be listed! If you don’t already have Kindle Unlimited, you can learn more about it here.
Please note that all synopsis and ratings are pulled from Goodreads. Also, always remember to check trigger warnings, if needed!
Small Favors by Erin A. Craig
Ellerie Downing lives in the quiet town of Amity Falls in the Blackspire Mountain range. To this day, visitors are few and rare. But when a supply party goes missing, some worry that the monsters that once stalked the region have returned.
As fall turns to winter, more strange activities plague the town. They point to a tribe of devilish and mystical creatures who promise to fulfill the residents’ deepest desires, however grand and impossible, for just a small favor. But their true intentions are much more sinister, and Ellerie finds herself in a race against time before all of Amity Falls, her family, and the boy she loves go up in flames.
Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Retelling, Romance
Red Wolf by Rachel Vincent
For as long as sixteen-year-old Adele can remember the village of Oakvale has been surrounding by the dark woods—a forest filled with terrible monsters that light cannot penetrate.
But unlike her neighbors in Oakvale, Adele has a very good reason for going into the woods. Adele is one of a long line of guardians, women who are able to change into wolves and who are tasked with the job of protecting their village while never letting any of the villagers know of their existence.
But when following her calling means abandoning the person she loves, the future she imagined for herself, and her values she must decide how far she is willing to go to keep her neighbors safe.
Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy, Retelling, Romance
Bad Witch Burning by Jessica Lewis
For fans of Us and The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina comes a witchy story full of black girl magic as one girl’s dark ability to summon the dead offers her a chance at a new life while revealing to her an even darker future.
Genres: Young Adult, Urban Fantasy, Paranormal
The Nature of Witches by Rachel Griffin
Practical Magic meets Twister in this debut contemporary fantasy standalone about heartbreaking power, the terror of our collapsing atmosphere, and the ways we unknowingly change our fate.
Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy, Paranormal, Romance
The Dead and the Dark by Courtney Gould
This thrilling debut is about the things that lurk in dark corners, the parts of you that can’t remain hidden, and about finding home in places―and people―you didn’t expect.
The Dark has been waiting for far too long, and it won’t stay hidden any longer.
Genres: Young Adult, Horror, Fantasy, LGBTQ
The Taking of Jake Livingston by Ryan Douglass
Jake Livingston is one of the only Black kids at St. Clair Prep, one of the others being his infinitely more popular older brother. It’s hard enough fitting in but to make matters worse and definitely more complicated, Jake can see the dead. In fact he sees the dead around him all the time. Most are harmless. Stuck in their death loops as they relive their deaths over and over again, they don’t interact often with people.
But then Jake meets Sawyer. A troubled teen who shot and killed six kids at a local high school last year before taking his own life. Now a powerful, vengeful ghost, he has plans for his afterlife–plans that include Jake.
Suddenly, everything Jake knows about ghosts and the rules to life itself go out the window as Sawyer begins haunting him and bodies turn up in his neighborhood. High school soon becomes a survival game–one Jake is not sure he’s going to win.
Genres: Young Adult, Horror, LGBTQ, Fantasy
Ember of Night by Molly E. Lee
Draven is mysterious, evasive, and hot as sin. But when a group of strangers attacks me and he fights back, causing them to vanish into a cloud of black dust, I know Draven is more than he seems.
He finally shows me there’s a veil separating the world I know from a world of demons living all around us. And I’m realizing just how easily I fit in among the ancient warlocks, the divine soldiers, and the twisted supernaturals…
There’s so much more to me. To my past. And to what I am truly capable of than I ever thought possible. So when all signs point to me having the ability to unleash Hell on earth? I’ll have to decide if I want to do the world a solid and save it, or give it one hell of a makeover
Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy, Romance, Supernatural
Vampires, Hearts, & Other Dead Things by Margie Futson
In this heart-wrenching debut YA novel that’s The Coldest Girl in Coldtown meets They Both Die at the End, a teen girl takes a trip to New Orleans with her estranged best friend to find a vampire to save her dying father.
Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy, Contemporary, Romance
This Poison Heart by Kalynn Bayron
Briseis has a gift: she can grow plants from tiny seeds to rich blooms with a single touch.
When Briseis’s aunt dies and wills her a dilapidated estate in rural New York, Bri and her parents decide to leave Brooklyn behind for the summer. But their new home is sinister in ways they could never have imagined–it comes with a specific set of instructions, an old-school apothecary, and a walled garden filled with the deadliest botanicals.
There is more to Bri’s sudden inheritance than she could have imagined, and she is determined to uncover it . . . until a nefarious group comes after her in search of a rare and dangerous immortality elixir. Up against a centuries-old curse and the deadliest plant on earth, Bri must harness her gift to protect herself and her family.
Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy, Retelling, Contemporary, LGBTQ
Sweet & Bitter Magic by Adrienne Tooley
Perfect for fans of Sorcery of Thorns and Girls of Paper and Fire, a witch cursed to never love meets a girl hiding her own dangerous magic, and the two strike a dangerous bargain to save their queendom.
Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy, LGBTQ, Romance
Lakesedge by Lyndall Clipstone
When Violeta arrives at haunted Lakesedge estate, she expects to find a monster. She knows the terrifying rumors about Rowan, who drowned his entire family when he was a boy. But neither the estate nor the monster are what they seem.
As Leta falls for Rowan, she discovers he is bound to the Lord Under, the sinister death god lurking in the black waters of the lake. A creature to whom Leta is inexplicably drawn.
Now, to save Rowan—and herself—Leta must confront the darkness in her past, including unraveling the mystery of her connection to the Lord Under.
Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy, Gothic, Romance
Blood Like Magic by Liselle Sambury
A rich, dark urban fantasy debut following a teen witch who is given a horrifying task: sacrificing her first love to save her family’s magic. The problem is, she’s never been in love—she’ll have to find the perfect guy before she can kill him.
Genres: Young Adult, Urban Fantasy, Contemporary
A Lesson in Vengeance by Victoria Lee
For fans of Wilder Girls and Ninth House comes a dark, twisty, atmospheric thriller about a boarding school haunted by its history of witchcraft and two girls dangerously close to digging up the past.
Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy, LGBTQ, Thriller
The Wild Ones by Nafiza Azad
Meet the Wild Ones: girls who have been hurt, abandoned and betrayed all their lives. It all began with Paheli, who was once betrayed by her mother and sold to a man in exchange for a favor. When Paheli escapes, she runs headlong into a boy with stars in his eyes. This boy, as battered as she is, tosses Paheli a box of stars before disappearing.
With the stars, Paheli gains access to the Between, a place of pure magic and mystery. Now, Paheli collects girls like herself and these Wild Ones use their magic to travel the world, helping the hopeless and saving others from the fates they suffered.
Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy, LGBTQ
Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson
Artemisia is training to be a Gray Sister, a nun who cleanses the bodies of the deceased so that their souls can pass on; otherwise, they will rise as spirits with a ravenous hunger for the living.
When her convent is attacked by possessed soldiers, Artemisia defends it by awakening an ancient spirit bound to a saint’s relic. It is a revenant, a malevolent being that threatens to possess her the moment she drops her guard.
As she unravels a sinister mystery of saints, secrets, and dark magic, her bond with the revenant grows. And when a hidden evil begins to surface, she discovers that facing this enemy might require her to betray everything she has been taught to believe—if the revenant doesn’t betray her first.
Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy
Heart of the Raven Prince by Tessonja Odette
To prove himself a worthy heir, Prince Franco must marry a princess. But after far too many unsatisfying trysts, he’s given up on love. With the social season in full swing, and bringing with it a horde of husband-hungry socialites, he’ll do anything to delay the pressures of both marriage and the crown. And what better solution than an alliance with a desperate servant girl glamoured as his false future bride?
Locked in a bargain, Ember must pose as a princess until midnight at the full moon ball. Until then, all she has to do is wear the glamour, pretend to court the prince, and above all else, not fall in love. But when feelings emerge on both sides, she starts to wonder if there’s more to their contrived courtship than either of them planned.
Genres: Young Adult, Retelling, Fantasy, Romance
*Also available on Kindle Unlimited
White Smoke by Tiffany D. Jackson
Marigold is running from ghosts. The phantoms of her old life keep haunting her, but a move with her newly blended family might be the fresh start she needs. Her mom has accepted a new job that comes with a free house, one that Mari now has to share with her bratty ten-year-old stepsister, Piper.
The renovated picture-perfect home on Maple Street has its . . . secrets. That’s only half the problem: household items vanish, doors open on their own, lights turn off, shadows walk past rooms, voices can be heard in the walls, and there’s a foul smell seeping through the vents only Mari seems to notice. Worse: Piper keeps talking about a friend who wants Mari gone. But “running from ghosts” is just a metaphor, right?
As the house closes in, Mari learns that the danger isn’t limited to Maple Street. And secrets always find their way through the cracks.
Genres: Young Adult, Horror, Paranormal, Mystery
Night of the Wolf Moon by Kimberly Loth and Nina Walker
I’m not supposed to be sacrificed to the wolves, that fate belongs to my sister.
As the eldest daughter, she’ll join our village’s claimed girls when she turns eighteen. Together, they will go to the wolf shifter city, never to return. But a terrible tragedy strikes our family, requiring me to go in her stead.
I never trained for what comes next—a glittering world of beautiful people and pretty dresses, a wolf pack entirely made of men, and a dark underbelly sustaining it all.
In the Carolina pack, breaking the rules equals death and competition rules it all.
Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy, Paranormal, Dystopian
*Also available on Kindle Unlimited
The Witch Haven by Sasha Peyton Smith
The Last Magician meets The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy in this thrilling and atmospheric historical fantasy following a young woman who discovers she has magical powers and is thrust into a battle between witches and wizards.
Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy, Historical Fiction
Once Upon a Broken Heart by Stephanie Garber
Evangeline Fox was raised in her beloved father’s curiosity shop, where she grew up on legends about immortals, like the tragic Prince of Hearts. She knows his powers are mythic, his kiss is worth dying for, and that bargains with him rarely end well.
But when Evangeline learns that the love of her life is about to marry another, she becomes desperate enough to offer the Prince of Hearts whatever he wants in exchange for his help to stop the wedding. The prince only asks for three kisses. But after Evangeline’s first promised kiss, she learns that the Prince of Hearts wants far more from her than she’s pledged. And he has plans for Evangeline that will either end in the greatest happily ever after or the most exquisite tragedy.
Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy, Romance, Magical Realism
House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland
Iris Hollow and her two older sisters are unquestionably strange. Ever since they disappeared on a suburban street in Scotland as children only to return a month a later with no memory of what happened to them, odd, eerie occurrences seem to follow in their wake. People find them disturbingly intoxicating, unbearably beautiful, and inexplicably dangerous.
But now, ten years later, seventeen-year-old Iris Hollow is doing all she can to fit in and graduate high school. But when Grey goes missing without a trace, leaving behind bizarre clues as to what might have happened, her sisters are left to trace her last few days. They aren’t the only ones looking for her though. As they brush against the supernatural they realize that the story they’ve been told about their past is unraveling and the world that returned them seemingly unharmed ten years ago, might just be calling them home.
Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy, Horror, Gothic
Adult Fantasy Books for Fall
Looking for the best adult fantasy books for fall? From dark, gritty romances to atmospheric fairytale retellings, this list has a little of everything for adult and new adult readers.
Any books available on Kindle Unlimited will be listed! If you don’t already have Kindle Unlimited, you can learn more about it here.
Please note that all synopsis and ratings are pulled from Goodreads. Also, always remember to check trigger warnings, if needed!
Wendy, Darling by A.C. Wise
A lush, feminist re-imagining on what happened to Wendy after Neverland, for fans of Circe and The Mere Wife.
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Retelling, LGBT
The Isle of Sin & Shadows by Kerri Lake
In the Louisiana swamplands, ghost stories are as much a part of childhood as chasing fireflies and crawfishing. They never much scared me, though, nor the possibility of evil out to do me harm. Until the night I watched shadows come to life and butcher everything I loved.
With a stranger’s help, I managed to escape to an isolated place miles north, and, in time, became my own ghost story. A cautionary tale for the locals.
Nearly a decade passed, before I returned to my birthplace, in hopes of unearthing long-awaited answers. Instead, I found something I wasn’t looking for. Someone. A remedy for my loneliness.
I should resist him, but I can’t. And when the shadows return to stake their claim on me, his darkness is the only safe place to hide.
Genres: Adult, Dark Romance, Gothic, Fantasy, Mystery
*Also available on Kindle Unlimited
Her Soul to Take by Harley Laroux
I earned my reputation among magicians for a reason: one wrong move and you’re dead. Killer, they called me, and killing is what I’m best at.
Except her. The one I was supposed to take, the one I should have killed – I didn’t. The cult that once controlled me wants her, and I’m not about to lose my new toy to them.
Genres: Adult, Dark Romance, Fantasy, Erotica
*Also available on Kindle Unlimited
A Fate of Wrath & Flame by K.A. Tucker
Gifted thief Romeria has flourished from her days as a street kid pilfering wallets to survive. Now she thrives, stealing jewels from the rich under the involuntary employ of New York City’s most notorious crime boss. But when an enigmatic woman secures her services at swordpoint, Romeria is plunged into a startling realm of opposing thrones, warring elven, and elemental magic she cannot begin to fathom.
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Romance
The Savage and the Swan by Ella Fields
For nearly four years, I’d done all I could to help my kingdom as we faced the wolf king’s unconquerable evil—hardly anything at all. As the only heir to the Gracewood line, I’d been relegated to menial tasks that would keep me and my secrets safe.
By the time I saw him coming, it was far too late. For my family. For my kingdom. For my heart. Before I could staunch the bleeding, the king had me under his giant paw, and one wrong move after another caused those razor-sharp claws to sink deeper and deeper beneath my bruised skin.
I might have been trapped, naïve, and furious, but I still had a kingdom to save—and a plan. Yet when we collided, the bloodshed, the fear, his atrocities… all of it dissolved like stardust upon the night sea.
The savage king who’d destroyed everything I loved would fall—even if my heart fell with him.
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Romance, Retelling
*Also available on Kindle Unlimited
Half Sick of Shadows by Laura Sebastian
Everyone knows the legend. Of Arthur, destined to be a king. Of the beautiful Guinevere, who will betray him with his most loyal knight, Lancelot. Of the bitter sorceress, Morgana, who will turn against them all. But Elaine alone carries the burden of knowing what is to come–for Elaine of Shalott is cursed to see the future.
The Lady of Shalott reclaims her story in this bold feminist reimagining of the Arthurian myth.
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Retelling, Mythology
Gothikana by RuNyx
An outcast her entire life, Corvina is left adrift after losing her mother. When she receives the admission letter from the mysterious University of Verenmore, she accepts it as a sign from the universe.
An enigma his entire life, Vad likes being a closed book but knowing exactly everything that happens in the university. A part-time professor working on his thesis, Vad has been around long enough to know the dangers the castle possesses.
They shouldn’t have caught each other’s eye. They cannot be. But a chill-inducing century-old mystery forces them to collide. People have disappeared every five years for over a hundred years, and Corvina is getting clues to unraveling it all, and Vad needs to keep an eye on her.
Genres: Adult, Dark Romance, Gothic, Fantasy
*Also available on Kindle Unlimited
Master of Salt & Bones by Kerri Lake
When I was a little girl, I dreamed a handsome knight would come and rescue me from my wretched mother. He’d ride up on his white steed and break the curse I’ve been fated to carry since the day I was born.
Funny how things changed over time. How the fairy tale twisted into something far more crooked, darker than I ever imagined.
In reality, my knight is scarred and broken, living alone in a castle of bones that overlooks the sea. He isn’t searching for me. He never was.
Lucian Blackthorne is as cursed as I am, and equally shunned by the locals, the fishers of men, who believe him to be the devil in the flesh.
He calls us forbidden, an unsalvageable tragedy, with no happy end. Maybe we are. But in this story, he’s the one who needs saving.
Genres: Adult, Dark Romance, Fantasy, Gothic
*Also available on Kindle Unlimited
These Hollow Vows by Lexi Ryan
Cruel Prince meets A Court of Thorns and Roses in this sexy, action-packed fantasy about a girl who is caught between two treacherous faerie courts and their dangerously seductive princes.
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Romance
City of Thorns by C.N. Crawford
I never thought I’d be singing happy birthday to myself in a dungeon. And yet when a sinfully sexy demon crashes happy hour, that’s exactly what happens. He’s known as the Lord of Chaos, he’s mistaken me for my succubus doppelgänger.
Happy birthday to me.
When he tastes my blood, he finally understands I’m mortal. And I realize we have something in common: we both crave revenge. So we make a deal: I can stay in the forbidden city to hunt for my mom’s killer. In return, I’ll help him get the vengeance he craves. I just have to pose as a sexy succubus. One problem–he’s my number one suspect.
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Romance
*Also available on Kindle Unlimited
A Court of Honey & Ash by Shannon Mayer and Kelly St. Clare
Orphaned. Trained to fight. Raised to fear the power of Underhill. Secretly in love with a man who doesn’t want me.
I’m still just Alli, aka the half-human orphan fae, but my life is looking up for the first time. It only took me my whole 24 years.
When Underhill—the ancestral home of the fae—shatters, making it impossible for any fae to enter, I’m the only one who knows who did it.
But a brutal madness spreads through the fae as they lose their connection to Underhill and my only choice is to leave all I have fought for and go on the run. Unless I figure out how the hell magic that has existed since the dawn of time was destroyed with a single touch, well, an entire life spent fighting to prove myself isn’t going to mean anything at all.
I must find the answer to the riddle of Underhill’s shattering. Hunted by the very man I loved once upon a time.
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Romance
*Also available on Kindle Unlimited
To Bleed A Crystal Bloom by Sarah A. Parker
Nineteen years ago, I was plucked from the heart of a bloody massacre that spared nobody else.
Now ward to a powerful High Master who knows too much and says too little, I lead a simple life, never straying from the confines of an imaginary line I’ve drawn around the castle grounds. Out there, the monsters lurk. Inside, I’m safe … though at a cost far greater than the blood I drip into a goblet daily.
I can’t help but be enamored with the arcane man who holds the power to pull my roots from the ground.
When voracious beasts spill across the land and threaten to fray the fabric of my tailored existence, the petals of reality will peel back to reveal an ugly truth. But in a castle puddled with secrets, none are greater than the one I’ve kept from myself.
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Romance, Retelling
*Also available on Kindle Unlimited
On These Black Sands by Vanessa Rasanen
In one month, Aoife will turn twenty and take her seat on the Council of Cregah. But when she lets a secret slip with devastating consequences, her plans crumble. Believing her people to be better off without her, she flees Cregah, stowing away aboard a pirate ship bound for dangerous waters.
Captain Declan is young compared to the pirate lords, but after twelve years on the grueling sea, he has earned a well-respected ship and the attention of the lords, who’d like nothing better than to see his ruin. But when his sister demands he find the enchanted dagger her rebel faction needs to overthrow the ruling Council, he’ll have to decide whether to cast off all family ties or take the perilous voyage to waters guarded by sirens.
With murder and betrayal at every turn, can Aoife and Declan learn to rely on one another? Or will the secrets they carry destroy their people—and each other?
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Adventure, Romance
*Also available on Kindle Unlimited
Your Fall Book Recommendations
There are so many amazing books for fall that have been newly released — this list could have been never-ending! But are there any fall books in particular that we all should know about!?
Leave a comment with any fall book recs you’d love to share.
