22 Most Anticipated Fantasy Books of 2022

If you're looking for some new recently-released (or to-be-released) books to read in 2022, and you love delving into worlds of Fantasy & Fiction, then the below list of 22 book recommendations will be an absolute treasure trove!

This list of Fantasy Books will help you to discover worlds filled with intricate and enchanting stories from brilliant and critically-acclaimed authors that will capture your heart and imagination.

And there's definitely a lot to choose from!

Some of these fantasy novels have already been released within the past few years, but are gaining quite a lot of traction on social media this year.

So they're still worth adding to your 'To Read' list if you're looking for fantasy book inspiration (some are even being adapted into TV series this year!).

1. Piranesi

Author: Susanna Clarke

Other published books: 'Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell', 'The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories'

Publishers Synopsis: Piranesi's house is no ordinary building: its rooms are infinite, its corridors endless, its walls are lined with thousands upon thousands of statues, each one different from all the others. Within the labyrinth of halls an ocean is imprisoned; waves thunder up staircases, rooms are flooded in an instant. But Piranesi is not afraid; he understands the tides as he understands the pattern of the labyrinth itself. He lives to explore the house.

There is one other person in the house-a man called The Other, who visits Piranesi twice a week and asks for help with research into A Great and Secret Knowledge. But as Piranesi explores, evidence emerges of another person, and a terrible truth begins to unravel, revealing a world beyond the one Piranesi has always known.

For readers of Neil Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane and fans of Madeline Miller's Circe, Piranesi introduces an astonishing new world, an infinite labyrinth, full of startling images and surreal beauty, haunted by the tides and the clouds.

2. Only a Monster

Author: Vanessa Len

Publishers Synopsis: It should have been the perfect summer. Sent to stay with her late mother's eccentric family in London, sixteen-year-old Joan is determined to enjoy herself. She loves her nerdy job at the historic Holland House, and when her super cute co-worker Nick asks her on a date, it feels like everything is falling into place.

Then a Good Samaritan attempt gone wrong sends Joan spinning through time, and her life quickly begins to unravel. Her family aren't just eccentric: they're monsters, with terrifying, hidden powers.And Nick isn't just a cute boy: he's a legendary monster slayer, who will do anything to bring them down.

As she battles Nick, Joan is forced to work with the beautiful and ruthless Aaron Oliver, heir to a monster family that hates her own. She'll have to embrace her own monstrousness if she is to save herself, and her family. Because in this story... she is not the hero.

Dive deep into the world of Only a Monster, where the line between monster and hero is razor thin: hidden worlds dwell in the shadows, beautiful monsters with untold powers walk among humans, and secrets are the most powerful weapon of all.

3. Daughter of the Moon Goddess

Author: Sue Lynn Tan

Publishers Synopsis: A captivating debut fantasy inspired by the legend of the Chinese moon goddess, Chang'e. A young woman's quest to free her mother pits her against the most powerful immortal in the realm, setting her on a dangerous path where those she loves are not the only ones at risk...

Growing up on the moon, Xingyin is accustomed to solitude, unaware that she is being hidden from the powerful Celestial Emperor who exiled her mother for stealing his elixir of immortality. But when her magic flares and her existence is discovered, Xingyin is forced to flee her home, leaving her mother behind.

Alone, powerless, and afraid, she makes her way to the Celestial Kingdom, a land of wonder and secrets. Disguising her identity, she seizes an opportunity to train in the Crown Prince's service, learning to master archery and magic, despite the passion which flames between her and the emperor's son.

To save her mother, Xingyin embarks on a perilous quest, confronting legendary creatures and vicious enemies, across the earth and skies.

But when treachery looms and forbidden magic threatens the kingdom, she must challenge the ruthless Celestial Emperor for her dream -striking a dangerous bargain, where she is torn between losing all she loves or plunging the realm into chaos.

Daughter of the Moon Goddess begins an enchanting, romantic duology which weaves ancient Chinese mythology into a sweeping adventure of immortals and magic, of loss and sacrifice - where love vies with honour, dreams are fraught with betrayal, and hope emerges triumphant.

4. The Atlas Six

Author: Olivie Blake

Publishers Synopsis: The world's best young magicians accept the opportunity of a lifetime. Six are chosen. Only five will walk away.

The Alexandrian Society is a secret society of magical academicians, the best in the world. Their members are caretakers of lost knowledge from the greatest civilizations of antiquity. And those who earn a place among their number will secure a life of wealth, power, and prestige beyond their wildest dreams. Each decade, the world's six most uniquely talented magicians are selected for initiation - and here are the chosen few...

- Libby Rhodes and Nicolas Ferrer de Varona: inseparable enemies, cosmologists who can control matter with their minds.
- Reina Mori: a naturalist who can speak the language of life itself.
- Parisa Kamali: a mind reader whose powers of seduction are unmatched.
- Tristan Caine: the son of a crime kingpin who can see the secrets of the universe.
- Callum Nova: an insanely rich pretty boy who could bring about the end of the world. He need only ask.

When the candidates are recruited by the mysterious Atlas Blakely, they are told they must spend one year together to qualify for initiation. During this time, they will be permitted access to the Society's archives and judged on their contributions to arcane areas of knowledge. Five, they are told, will be initiated. One will be eliminated. If they can prove themselves to be the best, they will survive. Most of them.

5. Once Upon a Broken Heart

Author: Stephanie Garber (#1 New York Times and Sunday Times bestselling author)

Other published books: The Caraval series (3 books: 'Caraval', 'Legendary', & 'Finale')

Publishers Synopsis: 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'd pledged. And he has plans for Evangeline that will either end in the greatest happily ever after, or the most exquisite tragedy...

6. A Court of Thorns and Roses (book 1 in the A Court of Thorns and Roses series)

Author: Sarah J. Maas (#1 New York Times and internationally bestselling author)

Other published books: A Court of Thorns and Roses series (the main 3 trilogy books, 2 novellas, and 3 books set before and after the main trilogy), the Throne of Glass series (8 books in total) & the Crescent City series (2 books so far)

Publishers Synopsis: Feyre is a huntress. And when she sees a deer in the forest being pursued by a wolf, she kills the predator and takes its prey to feed herself and her family. But the wolf was not what it seemed, and Feyre cannot predict the high price she will have to pay for its death ...

Dragged away from her family for the murder of a faerie, Feyre discovers that her captor, his face obscured by a jewelled mask, is hiding even more than his piercing green eyes suggest.

As Feyre's feelings for Tamlin turn from hostility to passion, she learns that the faerie lands are a far more dangerous place than she realised. And Feyre must fight to break an ancient curse, or she will lose him forever.

7. House of Earth and Blood (Book 1 in the Crescent City series)

Author: Sarah J. Maas (#1 New York Times and internationally bestselling author)

Other published books: The Crescent City series (2 books so far), A Court of Thorns and Roses series (the main 3 trilogy books, 2 novellas, and 3 books set before and after the main trilogy) & the Throne of Glass series (8 books in total)

Publishers Synopsis: Half-Fae, half-human Bryce Quinlan loves her life. Every night is a party and Bryce is going to savour all the pleasures Lunathion - also known as Crescent City - has to offer. But then a brutal murder shakes the very foundations of the city, and brings Bryce's world crashing down. Two years later, Bryce still haunts the city's most notorious nightclubs - but seeking only oblivion now. Then the murderer attacks again. And when an infamous Fallen angel, Hunt Athalar, is assigned to watch her every footstep, Bryce knows she can't forget any longer.

As Bryce and Hunt fight to unravel the mystery, and their own dark pasts, the threads they tug ripple through the underbelly of the city, across warring continents, and down to the deepest levels of Hel, where things that have been sleeping for millennia are beginning to stir...

8. Gallant

Author: V.E. Schwab (#1 New York Times bestselling author)

Other published books: 'The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue', 'The Dark Vault', The Shades of Magic series (3 books so far), and more.

Publishers Synopsis: Sixteen-year-old Olivia Prior is missing three things: a mother, a father, and a voice. Her mother vanished all at once, and her father by degrees, and her voice was a thing she never had to start with. She grew up at Merilance School for Girls. Now, nearing the end of her time there, Olivia receives a letter from an uncle she's never met, her father's older brother, summoning her to his estate, a place called Gallant.

But when she arrives, she discovers that the letter she received was several years old. Her uncle is dead. The estate is empty, save for the servants. Olivia is permitted to remain, but must follow two rules: don't go out after dusk, and always stay on the right side of a wall that runs along the estate's western edge. Beyond it is another realm, ancient and magical, which calls to Olivia through her blood...

9. Pandora

Author: Susan Stokes-Chapman

Publishers Synopsis: London, 1799. Dora Blake is an aspiring jewellery artist who lives with her uncle in what used to be her parents' famed shop of antiquities. When a mysterious Greek vase is delivered, Dora is intrigued by her uncle's suspicious behaviour and enlists the help of Edward Lawrence, a young antiquarian scholar. Edward sees the ancient vase as key to unlocking his academic future. Dora sees it as a chance to restore the shop to its former glory, and to escape her nefarious uncle.

But what Edward discovers about the vase has Dora questioning everything she has believed about her life, her family, and the world as she knows it. As Dora uncovers the truth she starts to realise that some mysteries are buried, and some doors are locked, for a reason.

Gorgeously atmospheric and deliciously page-turning, Pandora is a story of secrets and deception, love and fulfilment, fate and hope.

10. The Clockwork Girl

Author: Anna Mazzola

Other published books: 'The Story Keeper' & 'The Unseeing'

Publishers Synopsis: Paris, 1750. In the midst of an icy winter, as birds fall frozen from the sky, chambermaid Madeleine Chastel arrives at the home of the city's celebrated clockmaker and his clever, unworldly daughter.

Madeleine is hiding a dark past, and a dangerous purpose: to discover the truth of the clockmaker's experiments and record his every move, in exchange for her own chance of freedom.

For as children quietly vanish from the Parisian streets, rumours are swirling that the clockmaker's intricate mechanical creations, bejewelled birds and silver spiders, are more than they seem.

And soon Madeleine fears that she has stumbled upon an even greater conspiracy. One which might reach to the very heart of Versailles...

A intoxicating story of obsession, illusion and the price of freedom.

11. Wild and Wicked Things

Author: Francesca May

Publishers Synopsis: In the aftermath of the First World War, a young woman gets swept into a glittering world filled with illicit magic, romance, blood debts and murder in this lush and decadent debut novel.

On Crow Island, people whispered, real magic lurked just below the surface. But Annie Mason never expected her enigmatic new neighbour to be a witch.

When she witnesses a confrontation between her best friend Bea and the infamous Emmeline Delacroix at one of Emmeline’s extravagantly illicit parties, Annie is drawn into a glittering, haunted world. A world where magic can buy what money cannot; a world where the consequence of a forbidden blood bargain might be death.

12. This Woven Kingdom

Author: Tahereh Mafi (#1 New York Times bestselling author)

Other published books: 'Furthermore', 'Whichwood', & Shatter Me series (6 books in total)

Publishers Synopsis: Clashing empires, forbidden romance, and a long-forgotten queen destined to save her people—Tahereh Mafi’s first in an epic, romantic trilogy inspired by Persian mythology.

To all the world, Alizeh is a disposable servant, not the long-lost heir to an ancient Jinn kingdom forced to hide in plain sight.

The crown prince, Kamran, has heard the prophecies foretelling the death of his king. But he could never have imagined that the servant girl with the strange eyes, the girl he can’t put out of his mind, would one day soon uproot his kingdom—and the world.

Perfect for fans of Leigh Bardugo, Tomi Adeyemi, and Sabaa Tahir, this is the explosive first book in a new fantasy trilogy from the New York Times bestselling and National Book Award-nominated author Tahereh Mafi.

13. The House of Fortune (sequel to 'The Miniaturist')

Author: Jessie Burton

Other published books: 'The Miniaturist', 'The Muse', 'The Confession', 'The Restless Girls' & 'Medusa'

Publishers Synopsis: The House of Fortune is the sequel to Jessie Burton's million copy bestselling 'The Miniaturist'. Set in the golden city of Amsterdam in 1705, it is a story of fate and ambition, secrets and dreams, and one young woman's determination to rule her own destiny.

Thea Brandt is turning eighteen, and is ready to welcome adulthood with open arms. At the theatre, Walter, the love of her life, awaits her, but at home in the house on the Herengracht, winter has set in - her father Otto and Aunt Nella argue endlessly, and the Brandt family are selling their furniture in order to eat. On Thea's birthday, also the day that her mother Marin died, the secrets from the past begin to overwhelm the present.

Nella is desperate to save the family and maintain appearances, to find Thea a husband who will guarantee her future, and when they receive an invitation to Amsterdam's most exclusive ball, she is overjoyed - perhaps this will set their fortunes straight. And indeed, the ball does set things spinning: new figures enter their life, promising new futures. But their fates are still unclear, and when Nella feels a strange prickling sensation on the back of her neck, she wonders if the miniaturist has returned for her . . .

14. Illuminations

Author: Alan Moore

Other published books (comics): 'Batman, The Killing Joke', 'V for Vendetta', 'From Hell', 'The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen', 'Swamp Thing', and more.

Publishers Synopsis: In his first-ever short story collection, which spans forty years of work and features many never-before-published pieces, Alan Moore presents a series of wildly different and equally unforgettable characters who discover - and in some cases even make and unmake - the various uncharted parts of existence.

From ghosts and otherworldly creatures to the four horsemen of the apocalypse, and theoretical Boltzmann brains fashioning the universe at the big bang, 'Illuminations' is exactly that - a series of bright, startling tales from a contemporary legend that reveal the full power of imagination and magic.

13. Quantum of Nightmares (book 2 in the New Management series)

Author: Charles Stross

Other published books: The New Management series (2 books so far), The Laundry Files (9 books), the Empire Games trilogy, and more.

Publishers Synopsis: It's a brave new Britain under the New Management. The Prime Minister is an eldritch god of unimaginable power. Crime is plummeting as almost every offense is punishable by death. And everywhere you look, there are people with strange powers, some of which they can control, and some, not so much.

Hyper-organised and formidable, Eve Starkey defeated her boss, the louche magical adept and billionaire Rupert de Montfort Bigge, in a supernatural duel to the death. Now she's in charge of the Bigge Corporation, just in time to discover the lethal trap Rupert set for her long ago...

Wendy Deere is investigating unauthorised supernatural shenanigans. She swore to herself she wouldn't again get entangled with Eve Starkey's bohemian brother Imp and his crew of transhuman misfits. Yeah, right.

Mary Macandless has powers of her own. Right now she's pretending to be a nanny in order to kidnap the children of a pair of famous, Government-authorised adepts. These children have powers of their own, and Mary Macandless is in way over her head.

All of these stories will come together, with world-bending results...

16. Black Leopard, Red Wolf (book 1 in the Dark Star trilogy)

Author: Marlon James (#1 New York Times bestselling author)

Other published books: 'A Brief History of Seven Killings', 'The Book of Night Women' & 'John Crow's Devil'

Publishers Synopsis: In the stunning first novel in Marlon James’s Dark Star trilogy, myth, fantasy, and history come together to explore what happens when a mercenary is hired to find a missing child.

Tracker is known far and wide for his skills as a hunter: “He has a nose,” people say. Engaged to track down a mysterious boy who disappeared three years earlier, Tracker breaks his own rule of always working alone when he finds himself part of a group that comes together to search for the boy. The band is a hodgepodge, full of unusual characters with secrets of their own, including a shape-shifting man-animal known as Leopard.

As Tracker follows the boy’s scent–from one ancient city to another; into dense forests and across deep rivers–he and the band are set upon by creatures intent on destroying them. As he struggles to survive, Tracker starts to wonder: Who, really, is this boy? Why has he been missing for so long? Why do so many people want to keep Tracker from finding him? And perhaps the most important questions of all: Who is telling the truth, and who is lying?

Drawing from African history and mythology and his own rich imagination, Marlon James has written a novel unlike anything that’s come before it: a saga of breathtaking adventure that’s also an ambitious, involving read. Defying categorisation and full of unforgettable characters, Black Leopard, Red Wolf is both surprising and profound as it explores the fundamentals of truth, the limits of power, and our need to understand them both.

17. Her Majesty's Royal Coven (book 1 in the HMRC series)

Author: Juno Dawson

Other published books: 'This Book is Gay', 'Wonderland', 'Clean', 'What's the T?', 'Proud', 'Mind Your Head', and more.

Publishers Synopsis: If you look hard enough at old photographs, we’re there in the background: healers in the trenches; Suffragettes; Bletchley Park oracles; land girls and resistance fighters. Why is it we help in times of crisis? We have a gift. We are stronger than Mundanes, plain and simple.

At the dawn of their adolescence, on the eve of the summer solstice, four young girls–Helena, Leonie, Niamh and Elle–took the oath to join Her Majesty’s Royal Coven, established by Queen Elizabeth I as a covert government department. Now, decades later, the witch community is still reeling from a civil war and Helena is the reigning High Priestess of the organisation. Yet Helena is the only one of her friend group still enmeshed in the stale bureaucracy of HMRC. Elle is trying to pretend she’s a normal housewife, and Niamh has become a country vet, using her powers to heal sick animals. In what Helena perceives as the deepest betrayal, Leonie has defected to start her own more inclusive and intersectional coven, Diaspora. And now Helena has a bigger problem. A young warlock of extraordinary capabilities has been captured by authorities and seems to threaten the very existence of HMRC. With conflicting beliefs over the best course of action, the four friends must decide where their loyalties lie: with preserving tradition, or doing what is right.

Juno Dawson explores gender and the corrupting nature of power in a delightful and provocative story of magic and matriarchy, friendship and feminism. Dealing with all the aspects of contemporary womanhood, as well as being phenomenally powerful witches, Niamh, Helena, Leonie and Elle may have grown apart but they will always be bound by the sisterhood of the coven.

18. The Shining Girls (being adapted into an Apple TV+ series in 2022)

Author: Lauren Beukes

Other published books: 'Broken Monsters', 'Zoo City', 'Ungirls', 'Afterland', the Survivors' Club series (9 books in total), and more.

Publishers Synopsis: In Depression-era Chicago, Harper Curtis finds a key to a house that opens on to other times. But it comes at a cost. He has to kill the shining girls: bright young women, burning with potential. He stalks them through their lives across different eras, leaving anachronistic clues on their bodies, until, in 1989, one of his victims, Kirby Mazrachi, survives and turns the hunt around.

Working with a former homicide reporter who is falling for her, Kirby races against time and reason to unravel an impossible mystery.

19. The Winter of the Witch (book 3 in the Winternight trilogy)

Author: Katherine Arden

Other published books: The Winternight trilogy, 'Small Spaces', & 'Dead Voices'

Publishers Synopsis: Moscow is in flames, leaving its people searching for answers – and someone to blame. Vasilisa, a girl with extraordinary gifts, must flee for her life, pursued by those who blame their misfortune on her magic.

Then a vengeful demon returns, stronger than ever. Determined to engulf the world in chaos, he finds allies among men and spirits. Mankind and magical creatures alike find their fates resting on Vasya's shoulders.

But she may not be able to save them all.

20. The House in the Cerulean Sea

Author: TJ Klune (#1 New York Times and USA Today bestselling author)

Other published books: 'Under the Whispering Door', 'The Extraordinaries', 'Into This River I Drown', 'Heat Wave', 'Fairytales from Verania', and more.

Publishers Synopsis: Linus Baker leads a quiet life. At forty, he has a tiny house with a devious cat and his beloved records for company. And at the Department in Charge of Magical Youth, he's spent many dull years monitoring their orphanages.

Then one day, Linus is summoned by Extremely Upper Management and given a highly classified assignment. He must travel to an orphanage where six dangerous children reside, including the Antichrist. There, Linus must somehow determine if they could bring on the end of days. But their guardian, charming and enigmatic Arthur Parnassus, will do anything to protect his wards. As Arthur and Linus grow ever closer, Linus must choose between duty and his dreams.

21. The Absolute Book

Author: Elizabeth Knox

Other published books: 'Wake', 'Mortal Fire', 'The Vintner's Luck', 'The Angel's Cut', 'Dreamhunter', 'Dreamquake', and more.

Publishers Synopsis: Taryn Cornick barely remembers the family library. Since her sister was murdered, she's forgotten so much.

Now it's all coming back. The fire. The thief. The scroll box. People are asking questions about the library. Questions that might relate to her sister's murder.

And something called The Absolute Book.

A book in which secrets are written - and which everyone believes only she can find. They insist Taryn be the hunter. But she knows the truth.

She is the hunted . . .

'The Absolute Book' is a tale of sisters, ancient blood, a forgotten library, murder, revenge and a book that might just have the answer to everything.

22. Mexican Gothic

Author: Silvia Moreno-Garcia (#1 New York Times bestselling author)

Other published books: 'God of Jade and Shadow', 'The Daughter of Doctor Moreau', 'Velvet Was the Night', 'Certain Dark Things', 'The Beautiful Ones', and more.

Publishers Synopsis: When glamorous socialite Noemi Taboada receives a frantic letter from her newlywed cousin begging to be rescued from a mysterious doom, it's clear something is desperately amiss. Catalina has always had a flair for the dramatic, but her claims that her husband is poisoning her and her visions of restless ghosts seem remarkable, even for her.

Noemi's more suited to cocktail parties than amateur sleuthing, but she heads immediately to High Place, a remote mansion in the Mexican countryside, determined to discover what is so affecting her cousin. She's tough and smart, with an indomitable will, and she is not afraid: not of her cousin's new husband, who is both menacing and alluring; not of his father, the ancient patriarch who is fascinated by Noemi; and not of the house itself, which begins to invade Noemi's dreams with visions of blood and doom.

Her only ally in this inhospitable abode is the family's youngest son. Shy and gentle, he wants to help - but he might also be hiding dark knowledge of his family's past. For there are many secrets behind the walls of High Place. The family's once colossal wealth and faded mining empire kept them from prying eyes, but as Noemi digs deeper she unearths stories of violence and madness.

And Noemi, mesmerised by the terrifying yet seductive world of High Place, may soon find it impossible to leave this enigmatic house behind...

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Currently residing in West Sussex, Maddie is a 26 y/o blogger and illustrator with a passion for mythology, legends, fairytales & folklore. You'll regularly find her escaping into fantasy books, films, TV, and games.