10 Beginner Fantasy Books

Sarah Addison Allen is one of my very favorite authors and this is one of my very favorite books that she's written.

It is light, sweet, with just a hint of magic rather than a beat-you-over-the-head magical plot. It takes place in rural Georgia so has a fun southern influence to the story.

While traditional fantasy involves an imaginary universe, the fact that magic happens in a realistic setting makes magical realism the best place for a new fantasy reader to start.

This is very tame in both fantasy elements and there are no mature love scenes.

I read this massive 500 page book in two days while floating in the pool at our vacation rental last summer. It's a slow starter but by page 100 I couldn't put it down.

If you're ready to take the leap into a full-blown fantasy novel, this is a perfect read for fans of Harry Potter and Hunger Games.

There are dragons but no fairies. There are lots of very steamy love scenes for mature audiences.

SUMMARY:

Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.

But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away...because dragons don’t bond to “fragile” humans. They incinerate them.

With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter—like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant.

She’ll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise.

Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom's protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret.

Friends, enemies, lovers. Everyone at Basgiath War College has an agenda—because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die.

I devoured this book a couple summers ago.

It is a much more heavy-handed magic story that features fairies and magical creatures. There are several steamy romantic scenes throughout the story and the plot definitely gets dark.

I guarantee it will make you forget where you are when you read it. Next thing you know, you'll be grabbing for every book in the whole ACOTAR series!

SUMMARY:

When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a terrifying creature arrives to demand retribution. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she knows about only from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not truly a beast, but one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled her world.

At least, he's not a beast all the time.

As she adapts to her new home, her feelings for the faerie, Tamlin, transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie she's been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But something is not right in the faerie lands. An ancient, wicked shadow is growing, and Feyre must find a way to stop it, or doom Tamlin-and his world-forever.

I flew through this book during our beach trip to Hilton Head despite our crazy-busy vacation adventures. I found myself grabbing it to just get a few pages in every chance I got.

The story will make you question every beauty rule and ideal we have.

SUMMARY:

Camellia Beauregard is a Belle. In the opulent world of Orleans, Belles are revered, for they control Beauty, and Beauty is a commodity coveted above all else. In Orleans, the people are born gray, they are born damned, and only with the help of a Belle and her talents can they transform and be made beautiful.

But it’s not enough for Camellia to be just a Belle. She wants to be the favorite―the Belle chosen by the Queen of Orleans to live in the royal palace, to tend to the royal family and their court, to be recognized as the most talented Belle in the land.

But once Camellia and her Belle sisters arrive at court, it becomes clear that being the favorite is not everything she always dreamed it would be. Behind the gilded palace walls live dark secrets, and Camellia soon learns that the very essence of her existence is a lie―that her powers are far greater, and could be more dangerous, than she ever imagined. And when the queen asks Camellia to risk her own life and help the ailing princess by using Belle powers in unintended ways, Camellia now faces an impossible decision.

With the future of Orleans and its people at stake, Camellia must decide: save herself and her sisters and the way of the Belles, or resuscitate the princess, risk her own life, and change the ways of her world forever.

The Night Circus is one of my very favorite books of all time.

This would be a great next step for fans of magical realism that want a little bit more heavy-handed magic in their books.

SUMMARY:

"Two starcrossed magicians engage in a deadly game of cunning in The Night Circus, the spellbinding bestseller that has captured the world's imagination.

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night."

I've been hunting for the next The Night Circus for years.

Caraval comes very close. Book 1 in a trilogy, it is a fun romantic magical tale. The audio version is really well done if you prefer to listen.

The love scenes here are very tame.

SUMMARY:

Scarlett has never left the tiny island where she and her beloved sister, Tella, live with their powerful and cruel father. Now Scarlett’s father has arranged a marriage for her, and Scarlett thinks her dreams of seeing Caraval, the far-away, once-a-year performance where the audience participates in the show, are over.

But this year, Scarlett's long-dreamt-of invitation finally arrives. With the help of a mysterious sailor, Tella whisks Scarlett away to attend. Only, as soon as they arrive, Tella is kidnapped by Caraval’s mastermind organizer, Legend. It turns out that this season's Caraval revolves around Tella, and whoever finds her first is the winner.

Scarlett has been told that everything that happens during Caraval is only an elaborate performance. But whether Caraval is real or not, she must find Tella before the five nights of the game are over, and her sister disappears forever.

This may be the darkest book on the list but I flew through it in just a matter of days. Perfect if you're looking for a grown-up fairy tale.

This book features some fairly graphic violence.

SUMMARY:

"Seventeen-year-old Alice and her mother have spent most of Alice’s life on the road, always a step ahead of the uncanny bad luck biting at their heels.

But when Alice’s grandmother, the reclusive author of a cult-classic book of pitch-dark fairy tales, dies alone on her estate, the Hazel Wood, Alice learns how bad her luck can really get: Her mother is stolen away―by a figure who claims to come from the Hinterland, the cruel supernatural world where her grandmother's stories are set.

Alice's only lead is the message her mother left behind: “Stay away from the Hazel Wood.”

One of my favorite part about fantasy novels is the creative world building and details that paint that picture.

This darkly humorous novel is about a guy who works in Hell and needs to convince one more member of a family to sell their soul to him so he can get a big promotion.

There are several big plot holes readers complained about but I found this book to be extremely enjoyable and a fun change of pace from my usual reads.

SUMMARY:

Peyote Trip has a pretty good gig in the deals department on the fifth floor of Hell. Sure, none of the pens work, the coffee machine has been out of order for a century, and the only drink on offer is Jägermeister, but Pey has a plan—and all he needs is one last member of the Harrison family to sell their soul. 

When the Harrisons retreat to the family lake house for the summer, with their daughter Mickey’s precocious new friend, Ruth, in tow, the opportunity Pey has waited a millennium for might finally be in his grasp. And with the help of his charismatic coworker Calamity, he sets a plan in motion. 

But things aren’t always as they seem, on Earth or in Hell. And as old secrets and new dangers scrape away at the Harrisons’ shiny surface, revealing the darkness beneath, everyone must face the consequences of their choices.

If you already love time travel books, you will love the fantastical story of Addie LaRue.

SUMMARY:

France, 1714: in a moment of desperation, a young woman makes a Faustian bargain to live forever―and is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets.

Thus begins the extraordinary life of Addie LaRue, and a dazzling adventure that will play out across centuries and continents, across history and art, as a young woman learns how far she will go to leave her mark on the world.

But everything changes when, after nearly 300 years, Addie stumbles across a young man in a hidden bookstore and he remembers her name.