Laini Taylor is the author of the Dreamdark books: BLACKBRINGER, which Kirkus said "belongs at the top of everyone's fantasy must-read list," and its sequel, SILKSINGER. She is also the creator of the Laini's Ladies line of gifts and stationery. You can learn more about her art, writing, animal claw collection, and love of bizarre creatures and phenomena on her website.She lives with her husband, Jim Di Bartolo, in a yellow cottage in Portland, Oregon.
The Bookshop Below (2025) Georgia Summers "Georgia Summers's magical bookshop is my new favorite place. It may be fraught and deadly, and even a little seedy - as flawed as Cassandra Fairfax, its hesitant new owner - but the mystery and danger are part of its charm. The Bookshop Below is a delicious read, I loved every second of it."
A Curious Kind of Magic (2025) Mara Rutherford "If anyone's looking for me, I live in this book now. Seriously, I would love to stow away in A Curious Kind of Magic, eat Fin's pies, tidy the shop with Willow and Bri, and get into the best kind of trouble. Mara Rutherford's sixth book is like a warm hug from an ornery friend. It's sweet and bitter, whimsical and poignant, cozy and also laugh-out-loud funny. Look for me lurking around page 230, taming the ravenous cats."
Beasts of Carnaval (2025) Rosália Rodrigo "This luscious, ferocious debut is a war cry, a eulogy, and a song of hope, all bound up in the feathers and light of an island paradise that is not what it seems. Come for the fantasy; stay for the vengeance, and enjoy the beauty of both."
Wake the Wild Creatures (2025) Nova Ren Suma "A luminous, hard-eyed stare of a book, WAKE THE WILD CREATURES kicks open the cage girls are born into, and casts a powerful spell of rage and hope from which I emerged blinking and reluctant, wrapped in wistful magic, and longing for the forest. Nova Ren Suma can write."
A Harvest of Hearts (2025) Andrea Eames "If you want more Howl vibes in your life, complete with absolutely beautiful prose, a true Ghibli cat, a sentient house, and a heroine caught between her no-nonsense nature and the insistent tug of love that may or may not be unnatural, you'll want A HARVEST OF HEARTS."
The Enchanted Lies of Celeste Artois (2024) Ryan Graudin "Ryan Graudin's magical Paris is glittering and seedy, glorious and deadly, fabulous and unforgiving. This novel of delicious skullduggery brings the City of Lights to life. I wish I could slip into its pages for a stroll, and see my favorite places rendered fantastical. This is the Paris novel of my dreams."
The Spellshop (2024) (Spellshop, book 1) Sarah Beth Durst "A fairy-tale nightmare, and a romance all in one, unlike anything else and impossible to predict. I could not stop reading!"
To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods (2024) (Gods Beyond the Skies, book 1) Molly X Chang "This book is a thrilling gut punch, both lavishly magical and devastatingly human."
Odin's Child (2021) (Raven Rings, book 1) Siri Pettersen "I loved it deeply from the first to the last word, and was instantly and thoroughly immersed."
Star Daughter (2020) Shveta Thakrar "Take a journey to the heavenly courts in this luscious, shimmering fantasy, so dripping with beauty and imagination you’ll want to eat it with a spoon."
The Priory of the Orange Tree (2019) (Roots of Chaos, book 1) Samantha Shannon "This magnificent epic of queens, dragonriders, and badass secret wyrm-slaying priestesses sings straight to the place in my soul that only fantasy can fill. Samantha Shannon has woven together everything I love: a rich world, deep history, vivid characters (bonus for sheer variety of singular women), pathos, sacrifice, stakes, dragons, and lovely, powerful writing. Truly, Priory of the Orange Tree is a tour de force, and my new absolute favorite epic fantasy."
The Gilded Wolves (2019) (Gilded Wolves, book 1) Roshani Chokshi "This is a book to swan dive into, swim around in, luxuriate in. Trust me, you won't want to come out."
Life L1K3 (2018) (LIFEL1K3, book 1) Jay Kristoff "Hey, you. Yes, you. Put this grimy, beautiful, devastating, hilarious, screaming, writhing, all-out post-apocalyptic girl-buddy-road-warrior-lost princess-techno-thriller in your face and read it right now. It is every kind of badass."
Furyborn (2018) (Empirium Trilogy, book 1) Claire Legrand "Beautiful, brutal, heart-stopping, and epic, Furyborn is a world to lose yourself in-just bring weapons. It's dangerous there."
Illuminae (2015) (Illuminae Files, book 1) Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff "Nervy chicks, cute fighter pilots, lots of heart, lots of heartbreak, a mentally unstable battleship, and even pink hair! This book is xxxxing awesome."
The Blind Wish (2015) (Jinni Wars, book 2) Amber Lough "A fantastically compelling and romantic read from a shinning new voice in YA."
Wherever You Go (2011) Heather Davis "Eerie and sweet, haunting and real - a ghost story of love in its many forms: the kind that binds, and the kind that frees."
(b.1971)
