Underrated Fantasy Books You Need To Read This Year

These books may not have the mainstream hype behind them, but these underrated fantasy books are likely to make your best of the year list once you read them!

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There are so many books coming out all of the time. Some new releases will get a lot of hype. Either because they are from a really popular author or because they have a large publishing house pumping a lot of money into marketing for them. This isn’t the case for most books though.  Many fantasy books tend to just fly under the radar. They may be amazing, but if no one is talking about them, then how are people going to find these hidden gems? Today, I wanted to share a few of my absolute favorite underrated fantasy books with the hopes that you will pick them up and give them a try for yourself. 

The Best Underrated Fantasy Books You’ve Never Heard Of

These books are criminally underrated. Fantastic characters. Excellent world-building. But no hype! So I am here to hype them up and convince you to pick them up and start talking about them!

Air Awakens

Air Awakens by Elise Kova is a self-published fantasy romance book that totally needs more love. I don’t typically read a lot of romance, but this one hit the spot for me. 

Not only do we have a well-crafted romance, we also get a lot of great plot and world-building. 

We follow a girl named Vallah. She is a library assistant, plain and boring in every way. One day, she uses magic that she didn’t know she possessed, and that hasn’t been seen in hundreds of years, in order to save the prince, ultimately binding herself to him. 

This book series is so good. Not only do you get romance, but there is found family, cost of war, forbidden magic… A lot of the best fantasy tropes are here and are all done well in one series. 

Since this is self-published, you can pick it up for free on Kindle Unlimited if you have a subscription there!

Queen of Blood

Queen of Blood by Sarah Beth Durst is the first book in an adult fantasy series called Queens of Renthia. This series is criminally underrated. The characters and world in this series are so amazing, it really is a shame more people aren’t reading this one. 

We follow Delina, a girl from a village who saves her family from a forest spirit attack one day when she is very young. In this world, there are spirits for every element, and they aren’t too nice. These spirits want to kill humans, and women with powers can control them. 

Our main girl attends a magic school where she learns to use and control her abilities, but she is honestly not very good. She works hard but that doesn’t always mean you’ll rise to the top. 

There is so much I can say about this series, but I don’t want to spoil anything for you. I highly recommend it though. Honestly, everything  I have read by Sarah Beth Dust has been amazing and too underrated. So pick up anything by her and you won’t be let down. 

Fireborne

One of my absolute favorite YA fantasy books, Fireborne by Rosario Munda needs so much more love. 

This is a highly politically charged fantasy book, and did I mention it has dragons!?! It is, basically, a gender-swapped Anastasia retelling. There is a revolution, bloody war, some romance, and found family! 

This book follows dragon riders as they train and compete to become the leader of their dragon-riding military unit. It takes place after a bloody revolution, though the new regime just may be a repackaged version of the old one where nothing has really gotten any better. 

Though this is YA fantasy, a lot of people I know who read only adult fantasy still ended up really loving this book!

Sword of Kaigen

Another self-published fantasy book, Sword of Kaigen by ML Wang is a must-read. This is an adult fantasy standalone book, and if you are interested in it, you can read it on Kindle Unlimited as well. 

We follow Misaki, a mom, and former badass crimefighter. This is set in an Asian-inspired world where women are deemed to only be good as moms and homemakers, but Misaki’s past and present are constantly at odds.  She does not fit the mold of a meek housewife, even though she tries to fit her role. We also follow her teenage son as he learns to fight and prepare for potential war. 

The beginning of Sword of Kaigen can feel a little clunky with some info dumps, but if you can get past that, then you are in for a treat with this underrated fantasy book.

Child of a Mad God

When I think underrated, I don’t really think of RA Salvatore, but his Coven series seems to be really forgotten most of the time. The first book in this series, Child of a Mad God, is a violent and dark first entry into this series. 

We get to follow a few characters as they survive in this dark world. Our one main character is a young girl who is raised in a violent and patriarchal society that sends their men to raid surrounding villages and pillage, plunder, steal, and take slaves.  Our main girl starts to see through the lies of her world, befriends a slave, and has to fight like hell to save herself. 

This book isn’t going to be for everyone. It is pretty grimdark, so look up the content warnings before picking it up. But in my opinion, it is well written and a very interesting story.

This Savage Song

VE Schwab is not an author I would say is generally underrated. She is a very popular fantasy author with everyone loving so many of her books. One of her YA fantasy series though always seems to get forgotten. 

This Savage Song, the first book in the Monsters of Verity duology, is fantastic and unique but highly underrated. In this book, we follow two different characters and how their lives collide and impact the greater world at large. 

Our female main character is the daughter of a crime boss in this dark city of monsters. Our male is the son of a revolutionary who wants to bring down the corrupt crime boss. In this world, monsters are created when people commit different violent acts. But through reading this story we get left to question what makes a human, and what truly makes a monster? Bonus, there is no romance in this series!

The Disasters

So this one isn’t a fantasy. The Disasters by MK England is a YA Sci-Fi book that I am surprised that no one else is talking about. 

We have a cast of misfits who flunk out of an elite space academy on day one. While they are meant to be traveling home, the school is attached and they are now the only survivors. 

On the run and hunted, these misfits need to figure out a way to work together to potentially save the galaxy from war! 

Even if you aren’t much of a sci-fi reader, this book is so fun and fast-paced that I think you will enjoy it.

I could probably go on forever on underrated fantasy books, but I think I will leave you here for now. These books are fantastic and deserve so much more love than they currently get!