3 Fantasy Novels You Might Have Missed

by MK French

There have been so many great books this month that it is easy to miss a few. Here are 3 fantasy novels I missed telling you about when I recommended new fantasy novels earlier this month.

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Guardians of Dawn: Yuli by S. Jae-Jones

August 2025; Wednesday Books; 978-1250191489
ebook, print (320 pages); YA fantasy

Princess Yulana is the Guardian of Wind, but the Morning Realms are being torn apart by civil war when her grandfather died without naming an heir. In addition, a strange waking dreamer sickness is sweeping through the land, and a plague of hungry ghosts roam the steppes. The future of the Morning Realms rests on the winner of the Grand Game―a competition that will determine not just the future of her people, but the course of the entire empire.

This is the third book in the series, and it definitely helps if you have read the prior two. There are multiple factions in the north, and Yuli tries to save those with magic from a very public burning by the Huntsmen, and she uses the Bangtan Brothers to help cause distractions. It's a very action-packed and cinematic opening, and it shows us the chaos she was dealing with and why she couldn't directly help in the last book. On top of the chaos in different parts of the realm, a new illness has developed. The waking dreamer sickness is a comatose state, which leaves bodies vulnerable to getting hijacked by demons. The team is being hounded by another Demon Lord, and in Yuli's public life, she faces her former best friend in the Grand Game for leadership in the north.

Ami's search for fragments of The Song Of Order and Chaos is a bridge from the last book, as well as a connection to Kho besides the conflicted past with Yuli. I am amused by the continued light novel references and the Bangtan Brothers. I would have liked to see more boy band heroics on the page, but there's already a lot going on, so I understand it. These references break up the foreboding feeling that the Guardians have. They're desperate to close up the portals and keep the demons at bay, especially the Mother of Ten Thousand Demons. As the third book of the series, the stakes are high, with the entirety of the Morning Realms in the balance. There will be a fourth book in the series, and I can't wait to see how that story goes. 

Check out my reviews of Guardians of the Dawn: Zhara (book 1) and Guardians of Dawn: Ami (book 2). 

Buy Guardians of Dawn: Yuli at Amazon

Lessons in Magic and Disaster by Charlie Jane Anders 

August 2025; Tor Books; 978-1250867322
audio, ebook, print (320 pages); fantasy

Jamie is a New England academic in-training and is also a powerful witch. Her mother, Serena, has been stuck in her grief alone in an old one-room schoolhouse. Jamie is trying to teach her magic and get her out of her shell, but doesn't know all of Serena's story. With those secrets causing problems, Jamie is left trying to find the connections between a novel from 1749, a long-buried scandal, and learn the true nature of magic before her mother ruins both of their lives.

Jamie's magic spells are offering up items with an intention, letting the universe decide whether to answer or not, and it invariably does. It's a system she's worked out over time without any formal training, so trying to teach her grief-stricken mother is difficult.  We learn a little about them, their lives, and history in the beginning, but it's only fragments of who they are. They're academics; Jamie's in grad school now, working on 18th-century literature, but her mother had worked in queer spaces and journalism before going to law school. 

There are epigraphs to each chapter and snippets of the novel Jamie is doing her thesis on. She's figuring that out as the novel progresses, so we get a close look at academia as well as complicated parent-child dynamics. 

Buy Lessons in Magic and Disaster at Amazon

The Late-Night Witches by Auralee Wallace

August 2025; Ace; 978-0593818565
audio, ebook, print (386 pages); fantasy

Cassie Beckett has three children who are just as hard to control as her younger sister, especially with an absent husband. Her home on Prince Edward Island is generally boring, but then the vampires arrive. Cassie discovers family secrets that give her witchy power as well as the responsibility to rid the island of vampires. On Halloween night, Cassie must finish what past witches had started.

The opening warning is funny and really sets the tone for this book. The summary makes it sound like her husband ran off on the family, but he's away with Doctors Without Borders. There's very little contact, and Cassie has her doubts about him, so Cassie is on her own to manage her sister with a disastrous love life, a teenage daughter, and twin boys who are full of mischievous energy. The odd things are happening now that it's October, with vampires on the island and talk about the curse on Cassie's family, which ties her to the head vampire. She tries to train enough to defeat vampires, but she doesn't truly believe she can do magic. This is a problem, and dangers on the island continue to escalate.

I really enjoyed this book. The biggest hurdle that Cassie faces is in her beliefs about herself and magic. She thinks she has to take care of everything on her own, and that she won't be able to. Thinking she's a hot mess all but ensures that it happens. Cassie gains confidence and sees that her family is her greatest strength and the biggest source of motivation. It was fun to read and kept me hooked until the last page.

Buy The Late-Night Witches at Amazon

Born and raised in New York City, M.K. French started writing stories when very young, dreaming of different worlds and places to visit. She always had an interest in folklore, fairy tales, and the macabre, which has definitely influenced her work. She currently lives in the Midwest with her husband, three young children, and a golden retriever.

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