Hey everyone, it's Jananie from the channel This Story Ain't Over.
And welcome back to another episode of #EpicBookRecs.
So this is the monthly series that I do here on the Epic Reads channel where I
recommend a bunch of books based on a certain theme.
We've done a bunch of different themes before, from romance, to mystery books,
to literally anything you could think of.
And all those videos are linked below in the playlist in the description.
But for today's theme, I thought I would go with one that I've done before because
there's a lot of new books in this theme that I really wanna talk about.
So today I'm gonna be talking about YA fantasies that I think you should add to
your TBR.
A lot of these are ones that I'm hoping to read as well.
They're coming out in the next couple of months or they have recently come out and
I haven't gotten around to them yet.
And there's one on this list that I've already read also that I think everyone
should read.
So with that said, let's jump into the YA fantasies that you should add to your TBR.
So the first one that I wanna talk about is one by one of my favorite authors and
that is This Woven Kingdom by Tahereh Mafi.
Any of you who have watched videos from my own channel,
you probably know that Tahereh Mafi is one of my favorite authors.
She wrote a couple contemporaries that I absolutely adore and
this is the beginning to her new YA fantasy series.
She also has a YA dystopian series that she wrote at the beginning of her career.
But this one feels especially exciting because it draws in Tahereh Mafi's own
background and involves some Persian mythology which I think is super,
super cool.
So I'm really excited for
this one also because I love the way the Tahereh Mafi writes romances.
And I've heard that the romance in this one is a really nice torture,
it's a slow burn that is probably going to make me feel all the feels.
So I feel like it's also the perfect sort of fantasy to read if you're looking for
a bit of romance as well.
I think it's gonna be both powerful but also so, so beautiful like many of
Tahereh Mafi's other books, and I just cannot wait to pick it up.
All righty, the next book is one that I don't have a physical copy of, but
that is the The Ivory Key by Akshaya Raman.
And this one sounds super, super cool.
It is an Indian-inspired fantasy and it is the first book in a duology.
And it follows our main character, Vira,
who is supposed to become the next queen of her kingdom called Ashoka.
And the way that this fantasy world works is that magic is sort of this precious
resource that is mined and found in this quarry.
But when the quarry in Ashoka is sort of running out magic,
Vira has to find a way to sort of save her kingdom.
They've got enemies at their borders and the threat of war coming.
So she really needs to find a way to recover this lost magic.
And so what Vira finds out is that her only hope to save the magic is to find
this mysterious ancient object that has been lost, which is called the Ivory Key.
And the Ivory Key is rumored to unlock a new source of magic,
which is exactly what she needs.
But in order to get the Ivory Key, she has to venture into enemy territory and
retrieve it.
So she is forced to bring together her siblings who have all sorts of fallen out
of contact and have been caught up with their own personal things going on.
And so she has to sort of round them up all together to help her save her kingdom.
And all of them sort of have something to gain from the Ivory Key and
what it will mean for all them.
And so it seems like this is gonna be a really fun story of siblings coming
together.
I love that it's not like a fantasy focused only on a romance as well,
which is a nice change.
And based on what the description says of the different siblings,
I'm really excited for all of them.
So we have Ronak, who plans to sell the Ivory Key to the highest bidder
in exchange for escape from his impending political marriage.
And then we have Kaleb, who was falsely accused of assassinating the former
Maharani, so he needs to clear his name.
And then we have Riya, who is a runaway and who wants the ivory key to take it to
the rebels who want to sort of take away the nobility's power.
And she needs to prove herself to them,
which all of this seems like a chaotic mix.
It's gonna be super, super cool.
And I'm just so excited for all of these characters.
I already feel like I'm gonna fall in love with them.
So I think this one's gonna be a really fun fantasy to read.
All righty, the next book that I'm super excited for
is called The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea and this is by Axie.
And this one seems super, super interesting.
Basically, in this fantasy world, the main character Mina's homeland has been ravaged
by these deadly storms and floods.
So all the people in her homeland think that it is the wrath of the sea god.
And so in order to appease the sea god,
every year a young beautiful maiden is sort of sacrificed to the sea god in hopes
that he will one day find his true bride and leave them alone.
So Mina has an older brother named Joon who has a betrothed named Shim Cheong.
And she is believed to be the most beautiful girl in their village, and
a lot of people think that she might be the legendary bride of the sea god.
And so when she is sort of sacrificed towards the sea god,
Joon is overcome with grief and he goes in after her.
And so Mina, wanting to save her brother,
decides to sacrifice herself instead as the bride of the sea god for that year.
And so Mina is then swept into the spirit realm, which is a city of lesser gods and
mythical beasts.
But as she seeks out the sea god, she finds out that he is actually in
an enchanted sleep, which is why all these horrible things are happening.
And so she, along with the help of a mysterious young man named Shin,
are going out to find a way to awaken the sea god.
And so they've got a motley crew of demons, gods, and spirits and
they're trying to figure this out and stop the suffering from happening.
And of course she's in a bit of a time crunch as well because apparently humans
cannot survive a very long time in the spirit realm without something
going wrong.
All of this sounds super, super cool, and just the different aspects
of the mythology coming together seems just so interesting.
And I'm really curious to see how this one's gonna go,
just the aspect of her being in the spirit realm just seems so interesting.
And this one also just recently came out in February, so
you should definitely go grab it.
All righty,
the next book on this list that I want to talk about is Gallant by V.E. Schwab.
And this book is coming out, I think, March 1st, so
just after this video should be going up.
And I'm super excited for V.E. Schwab's newest book.
I absolutely love all of her other books, her This Savage Song duology,
but also some of her adult books as well.
And I'm super excited for Gallant because it seems like it's gonna be a mash up of
various aspects, including a secret garden type story and
also a bit of a haunted house gothic horror element to it.
Basically it follows our main character, Olivia Prior,
who has been going to this all-girls school for most of her education.
And all she has of her past is her mother's journal,
which oftentimes feels like it's unraveling into madness.
But when one day Olivia receives this letter that tells her to go back to her
home called Gallant, she decides to pack up and leave immediately.
But when she arrives at Gallant, everyone there is not really expecting her and
they're sort of confused as to why she came home.
But regardless, Olivia is determined to stay there and
figure out sort of the secrets of Gallant and what's been going on.
Her cousin Matthew is acting a bit strangely and a bit hostile towards her.
There's also these half-formed ghouls that are haunting the hallways.
Olivia knows that there are secrets hiding in Gallant but
when she crosses a mysterious wall, she finds herself in a place that is not
Gallant, but somewhere magical and somewhere else.
In this other space, the manor is crumbling and
the ghouls are real and a mysterious figure rules over them all.
And she starts to realize that this place is what has become the destruction of her
family over generations.
But she has always been someone who wants to belong somewhere.
And she has to decide if she's gonna take her place as a Prior and
protect her world from this mysterious Master of the House or
if she's gonna take her place beside him.
It all seem super interesting and really, really cool.
V.E. Schwab is just so great at creating these worlds that have magic just
lingering on the periphery, and I absolutely love that.
So I think this one's gonna be equally amazing as her previous books.
All righty, the next book that I'm hoping to pick up is A Thousand Steps into Night,
and this is by Traci Chee.
And I am so excited for this one because it is a Japanese-inspired fantasy,
brimming with demons, adventure, and plans gone awry.
It follows our main character,
Miuko, who is the daughter of an innkeeper and has had a pretty regular, normal life.
But she lives in this magical fantasy realm called Awara, where gods and
monsters and demons and humans live side by side.
But things go awry when Miuko is cursed and
she begins to transform into this demon with a deadly touch.
And so she embarks on this journey to find a way to reverse the curse.
And she encounters different characters, and gods, and demons, and
other things in this world.
But along the way, she starts to realize that her transformation has actually given
her a lot more power and freedom than she ever had before.
This one seems like it's gonna be a really fun and
interesting fantasy with some really cool mythology to it.
And I just love this idea of her being turned into a demon and
sort of discovering how this might be kind of a cool curse.
I love this concept and I cannot wait to see how it plays out on page.
All righty, the next few books on this list are all ones that sort of came out
last year and that I haven't gotten around to.
But I know a lot of people really love or I think that you should put on your TBR
very soon, because I'm planning to read them very soon.
I just think they're gonna be an interesting and great time overall.
All right, so the next book is Beasts of Prey by Ayana Gray.
This one sounds super interesting.
Basically, it's set in this city called Lkossa, which used to be a city of magic
but magic was lost, and now it's more myth than reality.
So one of our main characters is Koffi, who is the peacekeeper at the infamous
night zoo and she cares for these fearsome creatures to pay off her family's debts.
But when she accidentally unleashes a wild and mysterious power,
the night zoo comes crumbling down in fire.
Our other main character is Ekon, who is this elite warrior.
But when the fire starts at the night zoo, his destiny is thrown into disarray and
he's cast out.
And so these two characters are thrown together and
they realize that they have to venture into the greater jungle and capture this
legendary monster called the Shetani which has plagued the city for a century.
And so with this creature's escape,
I think magic has sort of returned to the city.
And it adds some really interesting aspects to this story and to this world.
I'm super excited for this book because it sounds unlike anything I've read before.
And I think that it's gonna be a really fun fantasy to read.
All righty, the next book that I'm planning to read very soon that I think
will be really fun for
everyone else to read is Within These Wicked Walls by Lauren Blackwood.
I think I've mentioned this one before, but it is an Ethiopian-inspired fantasy
and it is also inspired by Jane Eyre, the classic.
So it is a bit of a gothic horror.
And this follows our main character Andromeda who's something called
a debtera, which is an exorcist that cleanses households of the evil eye.
But when her mentor sort of throws her out before she can get her license,
she is forced to try and find a way to get work,
and she is hired by this mysterious man named Magnus Rochester.
And Magnus is this mysterious young heir and
he calls her to his home to exorcise it of the evil eye.
But she starts to realize that there are some strange things afoot in his home.
This seems like it's gonna have some sort of romance, much like Jane Eyre, but
I'm also really intrigued by the horror and supernatural aspects of this book.
And I also am excited that it is a Ethiopian-inspired fantasy.
All righty, the final book on this list that I wanna talk about is
Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim.
And this is actually one that I have read already and absolutely adored.
It did come out last year, so I feel like it's still pretty recent and
that you should go pick it up.
So basically, this book is inspired by the fairy tale The Wild Swans, and
also is a mix of different East Asian folklores as well.
It follows our main characters, Shiori, who is this young princess and
who has these six different brothers as well.
And I would say the inciting incident of this book is when Shiori's stepmother
Raikama discover something about Shiori.
And so decides to banish her from her home and
curse her to have this bowl on her head.
And while this bowl is on her head, no one can sort of recognize her.
And also while it's on her head, for every word that she speaks,
one of her brothers will die.
And amidst all this,
Raikama has also turned all of her six brothers into cranes.
And so they're these six crimson cranes who transform at night and
by day become men.
And Shiori is sent on this sort of long journey to figure out a way to break this
curse, bring her brothers home, and save her kingdom.
This was just so much fun and so interesting as well.
I loved the different aspects of the folklore that were brought in.
But also the book overall felt like a fairy tale, which I really,
really enjoyed.
And although some really terrible things happen to the main character,
I feel like the overall tone of the book was really fun and
it was just an interesting fantasy to read.
All righty, with that said, those are all the books that I want to talk about for
this list of YA fantasies to put on your TBR.
I'm so excited to read all of these and
I feel like there's some really great ones coming out recently.
So I just wanted to highlight them all for you today.
As always, thank you so, so much for watching.
I'm Jananie from the channel This Story Ain't Over.
You can check me out linked down below.
And I will see you in the next episode of #EpicBooksRecs, bye.