New Year New Books - Fantasy Edition!

I just shared Stuff your Kindle day, but coming back at you with a Fantasy edition!  Fantasybookdragons.com is offering free Fantasy books on January 1st 2024 this year. I highly suggest heading to the webpage and doing it from your browser just like I recommend for SYKD as well.  That way you can search by genres.  I went through the list and checked out titles that sounded interesting to me and linked them below for you to make it a little easier if you don't want to search through the whole page. There are not as many as the Romance books, but after looking these are my picks that I plan on snagging once they are free!
​As always double check that the books are free before "purchasing", some are already free right now too!

Urban Fantasy

From Gods by Mary Ting
What happens when gods are forgotten ...
Skylar Rome can’t wait to spend her last summer before college with her cousin. Everything changes when she meets Mason and his family. Skylar is sure she should stay away from him, but their attraction is undeniable. Skylar’s life erupts into turmoil. She steps into a world where descendants of ancient gods have superpowers and evil beings want her. She is running out of time and running for her life, while trying to unravel the mystery of her identity. Forced into a battle set into motion long before she was born, will Skylar find the answers she seeks, or will she die trying?
Keywords: greek mythology, greek gods, descendants, college romance, elemental powers, YA

Melody of Darkness by Eliza Tilton
Good boys go to Ivy League Schools. Bad boys go to Spartan.
When Jackson gets expelled from HS, his rich uncle sends him to Stonyhurst in England where he'll learn to control his rage and use it for world peace or something less exciting. What Jackson doesn't know is that at night selected members of the school go underground where the real education begins. The true purpose of Stonyhurst is as dark and twisted as the original Grimm's Fairy Tales. Between Jackson's lucid nightmares and the demonic horrors hidden below the surface, not everything is what it seems. Teens are going missing and someone wants Jackson dead. When everything Jackson believes is stripped away, it will take more than his fists to survive his freshmen year and save his new friends. Stonyhurst isn't just a school. It's a life or death sentence.
Keywords: occult, dark fantasy, academy, horror elements, monsters

Spellbound in the Stacks by K. Iwancio
Faelene Carey owns Ink & Parchment, a bookstore in the small New England town of Thistleton. Not only is she a successful businesswoman, she's secretly a witch who can transform into a cat. It's not that she minds it, there's just one problem. She must find true love before the 13th year after her first transformation or else be cursed to spend the rest of her life as a cat. Subjecting herself to the hell of dating apps and blind dates, Faelene is stuck in a hopeless tailspin toward tongue baths and a diet of mice. Thistleton firefighter Aidan Kennedy, stops by Faelene's bookstore like clockwork. She's had a crush on him since the first time he walked through her door. He's polite and gorgeous but incredibly stoic. Try as she might, Faelene can't seem to break through Aidan's tough exterior. With Aidan's secrets unlocked can Faelene make a move in time to see if he's her true love? Or will she be doomed to be a cat forever?
Keywords: romcom, smutty, bookstore, firefighter, fall romance, Halloween, small town, true love, witches, magic, cat shifter

Epic Fantasy

The Stars Plot Revenge by L.J. Kerry
Desperate for freedom. Fuelled by revenge.
Orison never knew that the Fae existed until the Fae King took her from the mortal realm. Needing a false heir to keep up appearances, the king turned her into a Fae against her will, and now she’s paraded around as his daughter whilst imprisoned in his castle. Even with the risk of death, Orison will do whatever it takes to achieve freedom. Including a search for a missing prince to overthrow the king. When his tracking spell isn’t enough of a deterrent, the king traps Orison in her bedroom. It’s the final push Orison needs to enact revenge. The king’s mistake is letting her watch a public execution, allowing the elven kingdom to offer Orison refuge in their lands behind his back. She jumps at the opportunity and with their assistance flees her glorified prison. When her choice sparks a fierce battle, Orison resolves to push aside her fears and make it clear she is nobody’s prisoner.
Keywords: Fae, Dragons, Revenge Plot, Hidden Identity, Lovers to Enemies, Cursed One, Found Family

Heroines of Olympus by River Bennet
The Pantheon is gathered, and the Fate’s loom is set. What tangled web will they weave in this epic sapphic tale? Aphrodite, an honored Goddess, has played many parts over the years, and as she draws closer to the answers she longs for most, she’ll sacrifice anything and anyone that would get in her way. Hestia has learned to live on the sidelines in the Temple of Olympus, but when she unearths duplicitous plots she’ll risk everything to execute justice. Icarus has left behind everything to become a Hero of Olympus, her skill in combat making her an asset. When given a choice to follow their orders or follow her heart which will she choose? Medusa has long since made peace with her exile, and the endless heroes sent to ensure that her island is no paradise. However, when a band of rebels come offering a glimpse of freedom, Medusa must put aside her distrust of Gods and Goddesses to seek revenge against the ones who cursed her.
Keywords: Greek Mythology, Medusa, Sapphic, Strong FMC, Feminine Rage, Fates, Prophecy, Epic

Paranormal

Of Magic and Men by Meg Alivien
It started with a curse. It will end with a promise.
The county of Ghoma is on the brink of war. For fifty years, it has been led by the tyrant witch-queen Madam Lema. Witches and demons have been at each other’s throats for over a century, ever since a curse was cast that transformed all men with magic into demons. Meanwhile, humans like Freyah Kenpaw simply try to stay out of the way. That is, until she publicly offends a handsome but arrogant soldier of the queen and is snatched away under the cover of darkness to answer for her crime. But the mysterious and grumpy soldier is not who Freyah thought he was, and soon her animosity towards him turns into something else. Caught in the middle of a century-long battle between good and evil and the battle taking place in her own heart, Freyah must figure out the truth from the lies. But who can she trust?
After all, there are two sides to every story.
Keywords: Witches, Earth Magic, Fantasy Romance, Slow Burn Spice, Demons (Shifters)

Curse of Thorns by Michelle Areaux
My whole world changed when I stepped inside Shadow Legacy Academy.
I came here searching for the truth-- to find the answers that would finally help me understand who and what I am. As a descendant from a powerful line of witches and supernaturals, my powers still haven't emerged-- making my family wonder if my strange quirks are all I'll ever have. However, no one at my new school seems happy about my presence and I can't seem to tell who is my friend and who is my enemy. Then there’s Anson-- the quiet and reclusive werewolf that doesn't seem to want anything to do with other supernaturals at the academy. There’s something about him that draws me to him, that makes me want to uncover all the mysteries he hides beneath. When students at the academy go missing, I quickly discover those around me are keeping their own secrets, whispering their deceitful lies into my ears. I know that I have to find out the truth about what is happening around me-- even if it spells death for us all. Danger lurks around every corner and death lingers in the air. Secrets are uncovered, and questions answered, but I'm not entirely sure I'm prepared to face the truths that they bring.
Keywords: Shifters, Academy, Magic, Twisted Suspense, Angsty, Paranormal Romance

​Ask Alice by Kell Frillman
When Alice was a child, four demonic men and a bloodthirsty Queen held her captive and introduced her to her darkest fears. Now she is all grown up, but the memories of their passionate, inhuman eyes consume her every waking thought. On the eve of Alice's eighteenth birthday, a mysterious key leads her back down the rabbit hole into a dark and twisty world where the men that once taught her to fear them now have new lessons for her to learn. But Alice is not the same innocent, frightened girl that they previously broke. This time, Rabbit, Hatter, Cheshire, and The Jabberwocky will have to play by her rules.
Keywords: fairytale retellings, dark retelling, spice, spicy, why choose, check TW

Romantasy

​Of Secrets and Beginnings by Ashlyn B. Rudd
In the outskirt villages of Irropia, twenty-one-year-old Atallia has only ever glimpsed bits of magic on her slowly dying world. Outcasted and shunned, she longs to be left alone and live her life in peace, but as fate would have it a mysterious disease has begun to spread across the land, cursing those who fell ill to a slow, cruel death. In but a single night her world is shattered and reshaped, lies and truths blending together as her destiny is laid out before her in a blaze of light and destruction. Attacked and nearly killed, power that had simmered beneath her skin her entire life tears free and shakes the world.
Saved by a magical people long thought lost, Atallia’s life would never be the same. With visions of war chasing her in her dreams, and more questions than answers, Atallia would soon find out if secrets really did run as thick as blood; and if so would anyone make it out unscathed?
Or would she have to burn the world down to find out the truth…?
Keywords: Fantasy, Romance, New Adult, Dragon, Shadow Daddy, Stabby FMC, Gods and Monsters, Elemental Magic, Shifters, Secrets, Hidden Identity, Found Family, Lore

​Disenchanted (A Lay of Ruinous Reign: Book One) by Brianna Sugalski
This is the tale of a cursed princess,
A crestfallen killer,
The town that wants them to burn,
And the witch who can save them both.​
Keywords: Romantic Dark Fantasy/ Vampire romance; quest fantasy; Arthurian fantasy; touch her and die; one bed romance; Elder Scrolls, Buffy, and DnD inspired

Claimed by my Immortal Elf by L. E. Sunwick
It was bliss, until it wasn’t. I never planned to fall for my boss, and certainly not for an immortal. But when I age, he’ll remain physically perfect.
Leaders of his clan don’t want their duke with a mortal. And he leads a deadly struggle against enemy immortals. I refuse to be a liability to him, or his clan. He insists I don’t need to prove myself.
But I disagree. On my mission I discover the enemy’s plot. At stake is the fate of humanity… And of my heart.
Author's note: This book starts right away with passionate physical intimacy. There is also forced captivity, a battle, spying, and injury.
Keywords: Age gap, forbidden love, steamy, contemporary fantasy romance, SPICE

​Ash and Snow by Silvana G. Sánchez
You thought Snow White was the victim... Maleath Snow is on the run. The king is dead, and the Evil Queen is not at all pleased. When the king met his end, Snow's conviction never wavered, for the times are dark and justice must be stolen. Now the Evil Queen must die too. To reclaim the White Throne, Snow will need the help of the Seven, a posse of mercenary mages with a secret hideout in the woods. Her search will lead her to meet Ashton Thorne, Prince and heir of the kingdom of Thornwood Hall. Together, Snow, Ash, and the Seven will embark on a dangerous adventure to defeat the Evil Queen. As the last flame of hope is extinguished, darkness calls for desperate measures to be taken.
Will Snow's claim to the White Throne prevail?
Keywords: fairytale retelling, snow white, fantasy romance, dragons, twisted fairytale, dark fantasy, 18+, shifter

​Lamplight by Faye Knightly
The only child of an ailing sultan, Mina knows the man she chooses to be her husband will soon become the new ruler of Dalgar. She has long given up hope of finding love when a man new to nobility captures her interest. Din impresses Mina with his quiet thoughtfulness and kind nature, but there is a dark secret hidden in his rise to power from a mere serving boy to a sultan’s adopted son.A secret so deeply devastating that it threatens to tear both the kingdom and Mina apart. A secret revealed by lamplight.​
Keywords: Dark Aladdin, Aladdin Retelling, Spicy fairy tale, spicy aladdin

Glass and Bone by Celaena Cuico
Elaenor is merely a pawn on a chessboard with too many kings. Being ripped from one loveless home to be placed in another, Nora is forced to marry a future king. A princess in her own right, she has to learn how to navigate her new role as a Queen all while falling for a man she can't have and figuring out the truth behind her mother's death. War, betrayal, abuse, and devastation fill her world as she fights to survive. A strange dream fills her mind nightly, taunting her with an unknown man with green eyes and images of shattered glass, broken bones, and destruction. What could it mean? Is it merely a dream or a warning? She has a choice to make: royalty and power with a man who terrifies her, or the chance at true love with someone who is forbidden. Or is it possible that fighting to stay alive is her only option?​
Keywords: Lovers to enemies, forced marriage, forbidden attraction, abusive relationships (SA), Dark, drug use, violence - CHECK TW