Ready for an adventure like no other? For readers who loved the magical world of Caraval, these five books provide a fantastic journey with a similar heart-pumping vibe. So, fasten your seatbelt and get ready to be transported into a dazzling world of magic and mystery!
Where Dreams Descend
About the Book
Where Dreams Descend by Janella Angeles
Genre: YA Fantasy
Book Review
I’ve been looking forward to this book for so long, and it didn’t disappoint.
First of all, this book is gorgeous. From the cover to the prose to the magical world, the extravagance of the book takes over.
This book was described as a modern Phantom of the Opera, and I got major Phantom of the Opera vibes in places, especially when Jack – the magician who would be the Phantom in this retelling – keeps appearing in mirrors. But the book is so much more than just a retelling. The magic system is spectacular, and the mysterious ruined city divided into four Houses represented by suites of cards hints at so much more backstory that I hope the author will explore in the second book.
When Kallia learns that her employer and closest friend – the master magician known as Jack and the owner of Hellfire House, the club where she works – has been lying to her and messing with her mind, she escapes.
She’s grown up in isolated Hellfire House and knows nothing of the outside world, except that the nearest city, the ruined Glorian, is opening its doors for a competition for magicians. And thanks to Jack’s training, Kallia’s a magician who can compete with the best.
But everyone has secrets – Jack, Kallia, her new mysterious and sexy mentor, even the city itself. And someone seems willing to bring down the competition at any cost, making the body count rise.
Kallia is independent and headstrong, but finds herself drawn to the mysterious Demarcos, who’s there to judge the competition. There’s sexual tension between them almost immediately, so of course he’s picked to be her mentor. But Jack, who can conjure a version of himself through mirrors, keeps showing up and ruining the moment.
This book ends on a major cliffhanger, which I didn’t mind because of the reveals along the way. I’ve fallen in love with this world and these characters. I cannot wait for the next book in the series.
Hotel Magnifique
About the Book
Hotel Magnifique by Emily J. Taylor
Genre: YA Fantasy
Book Review
What if, instead of you traveling to the hotel, the hotel came to you? The Hotel Magnifique appears in cities across the world for one night only, offering the wealthy a two-week stay of immense, magical luxury, leaving them with an overwhelming sense of happiness at the end of it.
After their parents’ death, sisters Jani and Zosa traveled to Durc hoping that Zosa’s singing voice would open doors for them. Rejected at her first audition, now the sisters scrape by with barely enough for food and a room overhead. Jani and Zosa cannot afford to be guests, but Jani finds an advertisement for jobs at the hotel. Jani sees the mysterious Hotel Magnifique as their second chance to see the world and earn enough coin to settle them wherever they want to go. Zosa’s singing voice wins her a contract, but Jani gets rejected. She has to force a deal with the mysterious Bel to win a spot as a maid. But when Zosa and Jani finally enter the mysterious hotel, they’re separated almost immediately, and it isn’t long before Jani suspects that something sinister is hiding behind all the glamorous magic.
Jani’s headstrong and curious and not the type to follow all the rules about where the staff can go or when, even when it becomes apparent that breaking the rules as a staff member can lead to dire punishments, including losing body parts. She’s determined to void the magical contract trapping her in the hotel and save her sister. She finds an ally in the handsome, frustrating doorman, Bel, who tells her more than he should about the inner workings of the hotel, but still leaves out key details. If they can learn to work together, they have the power to change the destinies of everyone within the hotel.
This dark fantasy draws you into its world, unspooling its bewitching enchantments and chilling dangers a bit at a time. It reminded me of The Splendor, one of my favorites from last year.
Thank you to NetGalley for the advance review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
House of Marionne
About the Book
House of Marionne
Genre: YA Fantasy
Book Review
A glittering dark fantasy about an heir who stumbles into the dangerous world of magic she’s been running from her entire life.
Quell has a secret that’s kept her running for her life: she carries dark magic in her blood. If the assassins charged with protecting the magic houses found out, she’d be dead. After a run-in with one, Quell flees to the only place she can think of that might be able to protect her: the grandmother she hasn’t seen in over a decade. Her grandmother urges her to take her rightful place as heir of House Marionne.
This book brimmed with secret societies, cotillion balls, broody handsome mentors and fierce diadems that spring from your head when you complete your first ritual. As characters plot and double-cross each other, I was hooked. No one was quite who they seemed.
Jordan’s great as Quell’s mentor. He’s handsome, broody and exceedingly dangerous as part of the assassin society pledged to kill all those like Quell. I enjoyed watching their characters dance around the truth: in spite of everything, they care for each other.
A thrilling start to a new fantasy series.
Thanks to the publisher for the advance review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
The Splendor
About the Book
The Splendor by Breeana Shields
Genre: YA Fantasy
Book Review
If you could get rid of your worst memories, would you?
Juliette and her older sister Clare have always wanted to visit The Splendor. The magical hotel brims with decadence and luxury, promising to once in your life make your wildest dreams come true. Juliette dreams of it fulfilling the emptiness of growing up without parents at a children’s home. When Juliette finally saves enough to send one of them, she chooses to send Clare, the older sister who loved her and made the children’s home bearable. But then Clare comes back, and she doesn’t want to be around Juliette anymore.
Heartbroken, Juliette steals the rainy day fund she and Clare were saving to buy their own place and books herself a reservation at The Splendor to find out what took Clare away from her.
The glitz of the The Splendor and its magical illusionists will draw you in as much as it does Juliette, until you find out that all that glitters is not gold. Imagine being the star of a masquerade ball, or being able to wish a dragon chariot race into existence. But someone has to pay the price of all that magic, and slowly but surely, The Splendor’s sinister side is revealed.
Juliette bonds with Henri, the foster son of the Splendor’s owners and heir apparent. He blames himself for breaking her heart, since he’s the reason Clare doesn’t want anything to do with Juliette anymore. Henry removes unwanted memories, then reworks them for other people. He can take a perilous battle scene that’s giving one person PTSD and change it into a heroic experience for someone who wants memories of saving the day. He can rework the shape of a person’s life – at least in their memory. Henry sees himself as using his power for good, so learning of Juliette’s pain shakes him.
But the secrets of The Splendor go far deeper than either of them have dreamed, weaving a tapestry of lies around everyone associated with it. Henri and Juliette will have to work together if either of them will have a chance at escaping.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the Advance Review Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Nightbirds
About the Book
Nightbirds by Kate Armstrong
Genre: YA Dark Fantasy
Book Review
An enchanting, engrossing fairytale that pulls the reader into a world of forbidden magic.
Matilde, Æsa, and Sayer are Nightbirds – girls whose identities are kept secret while they practice magic to benefit the Great Houses. But as power structures weaken, everyone wants to possess the Nightbirds, for both their beauty and their magic. When the girls discover that their magic may be powerful than they were ever led to believe, they begin to shape the destinies of those around them.
Matilde is a rich girl with a perfect family who longs to be friends with her fellow Nightbirds. Sayer’s the daughter of a disgraced Nightbird with secrets of her own, and Æsa longs to return to her Island home and the family that sold her. The secrets unfurl as slowly as a rose, leading the girls into deeper and deeper waters. In a world where every man wants something from a Nightbird, who besides themselves can they trust?
I got lost in the world of this book. The glitz and power of the magic adds an interesting angle, and the book also has some important things to say about how often girls are marginalized and used by those around them.
This book kept me flipping pages as fast as I could. I cannot wait for the sequel!
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Need more recommendations? Find more fantasy reads here.
