2024 is kicking off with a real bang when it comes to fantasy releases. Not just one, but TWO of my most anticipated releases of the entire year drop this month. I can only hope that the rest of 2024 will be as good as January.

A lot of the books in this list are sequels or continuations, so if you’re looking for the original books in the series, make sure to take a search through the Forests and Fiction blog or check out my Instagram where I’ve talked about the others in the past.

The books I’m most excited for in January include:

A Fragile Enchantment by Allison Saft
Release date: January 2, 2024

Why I’m excited about it:

I’ve been loving historical fantasy lately, and this book based in Regency England sounds like it combines perfectly romantic fantasy elements with a setting I know I’ll love. 

Synopsis:

Niamh Ó Conchobhair has never let herself long for more. The magic in her blood that lets her stitch emotions and memories into fabric is the same magic that will eventually kill her. Determined to spend the little time she has left guaranteeing a better life for her family, Niamh jumps at the chance to design the wardrobe for a royal wedding in the neighboring kingdom of Avaland. 

But Avaland is far from the fairytale that she imagined. While young nobles attend candlelit balls and elegant garden parties, unrest brews amid the working class. The groom himself, Kit Carmine, is prickly, abrasive, and begrudgingly being dragged to the altar as a political pawn. But when Niamh and Kit grow closer, an unlikely friendship blossoms into something more—until an anonymous gossip columnist starts buzzing about their chemistry, promising to leave them alone only if Niamh helps to uncover the royal family’s secrets. The rot at the heart of Avaland runs deep, but exposing it could risk a future she never let herself dream of, and a love she never thought possible.

The Atlas Complex by Olivie Blake (The Atlas Six #3)
Release date: January 9, 2024

Why I’m excited about it: 

The Atlas Six took booktok and bookstagram by storm when it released. Since then, I’ve read every single book that Olivie Blake has penned and they’ve all been exceptionally fantastic. 

This is one of my favourite dark academia series of all-time. I can’t wait to return to all of these characters and finally see where things land in the end. 

Synopsis:

Only the extraordinary are chosen.

Only the cunning survive.

An explosive return to the library leaves the six Alexandrians vulnerable to the lethal terms of their recruitment.

Old alliances quickly fracture as the initiates take opposing strategies as to how to deal with the deadly bargain they have so far failed to uphold. Those who remain with the archives wrestle with the ethics of their astronomical abilities, while elsewhere, an unlikely pair from the Society cohort partner to influence politics on a global stage.

And still the outside world mobilizes to destroy them, while the Caretaker himself, Atlas Blakely, may yet succeed with a plan foreseen to have world-ending stakes. It’s a race to survive as the six Society recruits are faced with the question of what they’re willing to betray for limitless power—and who will be destroyed along the way.

Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett
Release date: January 16, 2024

Why I’m excited about it:

Full disclosure, I have yet to read Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries BUT enough people that I trust loved it that I’m sure that once I finally pick it up off my TBR, I’ll enjoy it too. This much anticipated sequel sounds just as lovely as the first.

Synopsis:

Emily Wilde is a genius scholar of faerie folklore who just wrote the world’s first comprehensive encyclopaedia of faeries. She’s learned many of the secrets of the Hidden Ones on her adventures . . . and also from her fellow scholar and former rival Wendell Bambleby. 

Because Bambleby is more than infuriatingly charming. He’s an exiled faerie king on the run from his murderous mother and in search of a door back to his realm. And despite Emily’s feelings for Bambleby, she’s not ready to accept his proposal of marriage: Loving one of the Fair Folk comes with secrets and dangers. 

She also has a new project to focus on: a map of the realms of faerie. While she is preparing her research, Bambleby lands her in trouble yet again, when assassins sent by his mother invade Cambridge. Now Bambleby and Emily are on another adventure, this time to the picturesque Austrian Alps, where Emily believes they may find the door to Bambleby’s realm and the key to freeing him from his family’s dark plans.

But with new relationships for the prickly Emily to navigate and dangerous Folk lurking in every forest and hollow, Emily must unravel the mysterious workings of faerie doors and of her own heart.

Faebound by Saara El-Arifi
Release date: January 23, 2024

Why I’m excited about it:

I’m always in for epic fantasy, and this new release definitely sounds epic. It’s also the first book in a new trilogy that sounds like it has a very promising premise, so I’m keen to give this one a try.

Synopsis:

Yeeran was born on the battlefield, has lived on the battlefield, and one day, she knows, she’ll die on the battlefield.

As a warrior in the elven army, Yeeran has known nothing but violence her whole life. Her sister, Lettle, is trying to make a living as a diviner, seeking prophecies of a better future.

When a fatal mistake leads to Yeeran’s exile from the Elven Lands, both sisters are forced into the terrifying wilderness beyond their borders. 

There they encounter the impossible: the fae court. The fae haven’t been seen for a millennium. But now Yeeran and Lettle are thrust into their seductive world, torn among their loyalties to each other, their elven homeland, and their hearts.

House of Flame and Shadow (Crescent City 2) by Sarah J. Maas
Release date: January 30, 2024

Why I’m excited about it:

This might be my most anticipated release since the last Crescent City dropped. This is one of my favourite series of all-time and the end of the second book literally had me gasping out loud. I’ve been desperate to know where the story will go from here and I’m SO glad the wait is nearly over!!

Synopsis:

Bryce Quinlan never expected to see a world other than Midgard, but now that she has, all she wants is to get back. Everything she loves is in Midgard: her family, her friends, her mate. Stranded in a strange new world, she’s going to need all her wits about her to get home again. And that’s no easy feat when she has no idea who to trust.

Hunt Athalar has found himself in some deep holes in his life, but this one might be the deepest of all. After a few brief months with everything he ever wanted, he’s in the Asteri’s dungeons again, stripped of his freedom and without a clue as to Bryce’s fate. He’s desperate to help her, but until he can escape the Asteri’s leash, his hands are quite literally tied.

The City of Stardust by Georgia Summers
Release date: January 30, 2024

Why I’m excited about it:

I had the privilege of reading an ARC for this book and can confirm it’s absolutely fantastic. I loved the world, the characters, the fast-paced plot; every single aspect had me hooked. I can’t wait to get my hands on a physical copy of this book.

Synopsis:

For centuries, the Everlys have seen their best and brightest disappear, taken as punishment for a crime no one remembers, for a purpose no one understands. Their tormentor, a woman named Penelope, never ages, never grows sick – and never forgives a debt.

Violet Everly was a child when her mother left on a stormy night, determined to break the curse. When Marianne never returns, Penelope issues an ultimatum: Violet has ten years to find her mother, or she will take her place. Violet is the last of the Everly line, the last to suffer. Unless she can break the curse first.

Her hunt leads her into a seductive magical underworld of power-hungry scholars, fickle gods and monsters bent on revenge. And into the path of Penelope’s quiet assistant, Aleksander, who she knows cannot be trusted – and yet to whom she finds herself undeniably drawn.

With her time running out, Violet will travel the edges of the world to find Marianne and the key to the city of stardust, where the Everly story began.

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Are there any fantasy releases I’ve missed on this list that you’re also excited about for January?