This year, we’ve gotten some truly excellent out of this world fantasy reads. BookTok sensations and adult debuts from #1 New York Times bestsellers were just a few we had to choose from. See what fantasy reads still need to be added to your TBR for 2025.

This year, the winner of the She Reads Best Fantasy and Magical Realism of 2025 Award is:

The Other Side of Now by Paige Harbison

Meg appears to have the dream life as an actress on a hit show with a dreamy heartthrob at her side, but a tiny meltdown leaves her wishing for something else. She decides to travel to Ireland where she and her best friend Aimee always dreamed of living. But as she does, she slips into an alternate reality, one where she grew up living there. One where Aimee is alive… but wants nothing to do with her.

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A Land So Wide by Erin A. Craig

In this Scottish-folklore inspired fantasy, Greer is stuck in the village of Mistaken like everyone else. A space rich in resources, but surrounded by monster-infested woods. When her beloved Ellis goes beyond the Warding Stones, she goes after him. But what she finds—beyond danger and beasts—are secrets to the towns founding.

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Alchemised by SenLinYu

This #1 New York Times bestseller took shelves and BookTok by storm. Following Manacled, this book stands out all on its own beyond the fan fiction. The story follows a once promising alchemist who is now being held prisoner, stripped of her powers and memory, she now must face a necromancer to discover the secrets of her past before they destroy her entirely.

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Alchemy of Secrets by Stephanie Garber

This #1 New York Times bestselling author of Caraval debuted an adult fantasy that was met with rave reviews. Holland knows magic is real and when a quirky professor talks about a local legend named the Watch Man, she’s thrusted into an adventure she never could have imagine. With only a day to live if she doesn’t find the artifact that will save her, she must venture to find the Alchemical Heart with the help of an intoxicating stranger.

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Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab

The beloved #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue hit us with another story of immortality this year. Told in three timelines, a wild young girl in the 1500s makes a desperate choice, a young woman in the 1800s yearns for freedom but gets more than she bargained for and a college student in 2019 has her life changed forever by a one-night stand. Blending magic and history in the way Schwab does so well, this novel is not one to miss.

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Katabasis by R.F. Kuang

Another #1 New York Times bestseller released a can’t-miss fantasy this year. R.F. Kuang returns to dark academia with a plunge into Hell. Two rival, magical students follow their professor into Dante’s Inferno.

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The Amalfi Curse by Sarah Penner

Haven is a nautical archeologist who has come to the shipwreck-lined coast of Amalfi. But she’s looking for more than just artifacts. Her father told her of a treasure buried in the seas. But as she explores, misfortunes begin plaguing the town and an old story of sorcery surfaces.

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The River Has Roots

The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar

From the beloved, award-winning co-author of This Is How You Lose the Time War, comes a fairytale you can’t miss. Esther and Ysabel are a part of the mysterious Hawthorn family who tends the willows, singing thanks for their magic. But when Esther rejects a suitor for a Faerie lover, the sisters’ connection and their lives will be at stake.

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Water Moon by Samantha Sotto Yambao

On a Tokyo morning when Hana has just inherited her father’s pawn shop, she wakes to find it ransacked. Only this isn’t an ordinary pawn shop. Only few can find it and its magic allows those who are lost to trade their regrets and choices. With the help of a charming stranger, Hana must find her missing father and what was stolen from the shop.

Buy the book now: Bookshop.org | Amazon