Must-Have Monday #245
Must-Have Monday is a feature highlighting which of the coming week’s new releases I’m excited for. It is not meant to be a comprehensive list of all books being published that week; only those I’m interested in out of those I’m aware of! The focus is diverse SFF, but other stuff sneaks in occasionally too.
THIRTEEN books this week!
(Books are listed in order of pub date, then Adult SFF, Adult Other, YA SFF, YA Other, MG SFF.)
Echoes and Embers: Speculative Stories by Pedro Íñiguez Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Sci Fi
Representation: Latine/Latinx MCs
Published on: 15th July 2025
Goodreads
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From Bram Stoker Award winner Pedro Iniguez, Echoes and Embers: Speculative Stories weaves fantasy and science fiction, Latinx themes, and traditional pulp stylings. This book collects 21 tales of outsiders, explorers, renegades, and dreamers as they navigate the mysteries and perils of the vast sandbox that is the universe.
Some of the stories you'll read: A boy and his grandmother witness the spectacle of a magical lucha libre match; amidst the Robot Apocalypse, an expectant mother's only hope for survival may just be a robot; a convict finds himself torn asunder and reassembled into a facsimile as he is teleported to a distant battlefield; plagued by ghosts, a young girl finds the source of her hauntings may be tied to time travel; after the Earth is destroyed, three astronauts stranded on Mars may hold the key to humanity's future.
From magical realism to military science fiction, Lovecraftian cyberpunk yarns to swashbuckling tales in space, this collection spans the frontiers of the imagination and the vastness of the cosmos.
If you claim you’re not enchanted by that cover, you’re clearly lying – but the synopsis sealed the deal for me. I love the sound of this so much!
The Memory of the Ogisi (The Forever Desert Book 3) by Moses Ose Utomi Genres: Adult, Fantasy
Representation: African-inspired cast and setting
Published on: 15th July 2025
Goodreads
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The epic conclusion to Moses Ose Utomi's critically acclaimed Forever Desert series, The Memory of the Ogisi shatters every truth, destroys every lie, and is a story of oppression no one shall ever forget.
Even deserts have a beginning. Even gardens have an end. Even water has a story.
One thousand years after Tutu and five hundred years after Osi the City of a Thousand Stories stands resolute on the edge of the Forever Desert. A teeming oasis, water flows into every mouth that thirsts and knowledge sprouts in every mind that hungers for it.
Ethike is an Ogisi, one of the City's many historians, who has devoted his life to studying a little-known figure named Osi. Unfortunately, the city has never approved any of his research papers and if he doesn’t find Osi’s story soon he will be stripped of his position.
Desperate to keep himself and his family from losing everything, Ethike ventures into the Forever Desert in search of the Lost Tomb of Osi. If he can find it, he will finally be able to prove his worth to the City’s elders and, more importantly, cement Osi’s role in history. But history is a tale told by those with power. What Ethike uncovers beneath the sand is far beyond anything he could have expected….and it is extremely angry.
It’s the finale of The Forever Desert trilogy! The second book was such a surprise after the first one that I have no idea what to expect from Memory!
Darker Than the Starless Night by Rebecca Brodkey Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Brown bisexual MC with OCD and addiction
Published on: 15th July 2025
Goodreads
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A tale of gods and titans, the humans caught between them, and the chemistry that binds it all together
Yom has found a simple solution to avoiding the obsessive thoughts that have haunted her since burying herself beneath powdered drugs, bodies, and coin. But when her gang’s leader demands loyalty at all costs, Yom’s position as the gang’s head chemist comes under threat. Forced to investigate, she crosses paths with a cagey royal archivist named Quia as they unearth a horrifying conspiracy to reopen the ancient war that ripped the world in two.
Quia offers a tenuous cross the dangerous network of provinces to reach the queendom’s capitol, and seek the one mythical person capable of halting the forces of war. On the treacherous odyssey, Yom reckons with blood-thirsty crime lords, the queen’s personal guard, bounty hunters, forest spirits, old gods, and the specter of a friend she lost as a child—her first love—who might still be alive out there. The chemist must face her addiction to powder, her growing feelings for Quia, and the obsessive thoughts that threaten to tear her mind in two, lest she lose herself in her quest to save the world.
Everything I hear about this book just makes me more and more wild to read it. (The gorgeous character art Brodkey has shared on her insta and substack hasn’t hurt either!) Girls in STEM, Princess Mononoke-esque forests, complaints that the romance is overshadowed by the plot… Yes please!
You can read the opening lines here! (Just swipe a few slides!)
The Salt in the Sea by J.D. Rivers Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: M/M
Published on: 15th July 2025
Goodreads
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A downtrodden ex-soldier.
After leaving the military, werewolf Victor is shunned in his civilian life. Money is tight, so when an ex-comrade offers him an easy job—getting a package from an island—he jumps at the chance.
A lost inn-owner.
When Selkie Thoma opens the door to a knocking patron, he wants to close it again immediately. Standing before him is Victor, his one-night stand from three years ago. The last thing Thoma wants is to have to explain why he left that night.
As Victor and Thoma cross paths unexpectedly, emotions flare anew. But Victor is only on the island for a week, and Thoma can’t face his past, the consequences of his decisions, or the resulting condemnation from his sea-going selkie family.
A dead body in a post office.
When a corpse is discovered, fingers throughout the community point at Victor. With time running out before justice is served, it’s on Thoma to find out the truth. Because on the island justice is deadly.
Duck Prints Press published my beloved Many Drops Make a Stream by Adrian Harley, and therefore I pay close attention to everything else they release! The Salt in the Sea has a QUEER SELKIE, which is honestly all you need to sell me on a thing!
A Witch's Guide to Magical Innkeeping by Sangu Mandanna Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy
Representation: Brown MC
Published on: 15th July 2025
Goodreads
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A whimsical and heartwarming novel about a witch who has a second chance to get her magical powers—and her life—back on track, from the national bestselling author of The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches.
Sera Swan used to be one of the most powerful witches in Britain. Then she resurrected her great-aunt Jasmine from the (very recently) dead, lost most of her magic, befriended a semi-villainous talking fox, and was exiled from her Guild. Now she (slightly reluctantly and just a bit grumpily) helps her aunt run an enchanted inn in Lancashire, where she deals with her quirky guests' shenanigans, tries to keep said talking fox in check, and longs for the future that seems lost to her. But then she finds out about an old spell that could hold the key to restoring her power…
Enter Luke Larsen, handsome and icy magical historian, who arrives on a dark winter evening and might just know how to unlock the spell’s secrets. Luke has absolutely no interest in getting involved in the madcap goings-on of the inn and is definitely not about to let a certain bewitching innkeeper past his walls, so no one is more surprised than he is when he agrees to help Sera with her spell. Worse, he might actually be thawing.
Running an inn, reclaiming lost magic, and staying one step ahead of the watchful Guild is a lot for anyone, but Sera Swan is about to discover that she doesn’t have to do it alone...and that the weird, wonderful family she’s made might be the best magic of all.
The Very Secret Society was sweet, and I’ll be surprised if A Witch’s Guide isn’t just as cosy. And I love the sound of the fox!
You can read an excerpt here!
A Resistance of Witches by Morgan Ryan Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Historical Fantasy
Published on: 15th July 2025
Goodreads
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A historical fantasy debut set against the backdrop of World War II, where a witch journeys to find a book of unspeakable power before it lands in Nazi hands
Stubborn, plain-spoken and from an unimpressive family, Lydia Polk never expected to be accepted into the Royal Academy of Witches. Eight years later, with Hitler’s army rampaging across Europe, the witches of Britain have joined the war effort, and Lydia is key to the she must use her magic to track down magical relics before Hitler—known to be obsessively seeking the artifacts himself—and his sycophants can. Then a Nazi witch infiltrates the Academy with heart-breaking consequences, leaving the coven shaken, exposed and the elder British witches have no interest in further loss of coven life in service of a government that has forced them into hiding for decades, no matter the consequences to the world. But with the discovery of the Grimorium Bellum, an ancient book that leaves a trail of death and destruction wherever it goes—one the Nazi coven is desperate to get their hands on—Lydia’s mission has never been more urgent.
Alone and woefully outnumbered, Lydia makes her way to the heart of occupied France, where she finds allies in Rebecca Gagne—a fierce French resistance fighter chockful of secrets—and Henry Boudreaux—a handsome Haitian-American art historian with a little magic of his own. Together, they traverse the country, stalked by the natural and supernatural alike, in search of the grimoire. But, as Lydia soon discovers, finding the Grimorium Bellum is only half the the book has a dark agenda of its own. Lydia must subdue it before the witches of the Third Reich can use it—but she’ll have to survive the book herself, first.
I declared Resistance of Witches an Unmissable at the end of last year, and I’m so hoping it proves me right! I’m definitely in the mood for witches kicking some Nazi ass!
You can read an excerpt here (where it says Look Inside below the book cover)!
The Enchanted Greenhouse (Spellshop, #2) by Sarah Beth Durst Genres: Adult, Fantasy
Published on: 15th July 2025
Goodreads
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New York Times bestselling author Sarah Beth Durst invites you to her new standalone novel nestled on a far-away island brimming with singing flowers, honey cakes, and honeyed love.
Terlu Perna broke the law because she was lonely. She cast a spell and created a magically sentient spider plant. As punishment, she was turned into a wooden statue and tucked away into an alcove in the North Reading Room of the Great Library of Alyssium.
This should have been the end of her story . . . Yet one day, Terlu wakes in the cold of winter on a nearly-deserted island full of hundreds of magical greenhouses. She’s starving and freezing, and the only other human on the island is a grumpy gardener. To her surprise, he offers Terlu a place to sleep, clean clothes, and freshly baked honey cakes—at least until she’s ready to sail home.
But Terlu can’t return home and doesn’t want to—the greenhouses are a dream come true, each more wondrous than the next. When she learns that the magic that sustains them is failing—causing the death of everything within them—Terlu knows she must help. Even if that means breaking the law again.
This time, though, she isn’t alone. Assisted by the gardener and a sentient rose, Terlu must unravel the secrets of a long-dead sorcerer if she wants to save the island—and have a fresh chance at happiness and love.
Funny, kind, and forgiving, The Enchanted Greenhouse is a story about giving second chances—to others and to yourself.
The sentient spiderplant was easily the best part of Spellshop, so I have high expectations of the sentient rose in this one!
You can read the first two chapters here!
Once Upon a Punk Show by Katelyn Forrest Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Contemporary or Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: F/F
Published on: 15th July 2025
Goodreads
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For Giulia Caesari, a small-time punk singer chasing a stage high, embracing the chaos of her life is a night in the mosh pit. Until she learns chaos is not an abstract thing. Chaos is a flesh and blood being trailing a universe of magic and danger in her wake.
Eris, Greek goddess of chaos, is dodging a German thunder god turned zealot when she is drawn to the flame of Giulia's musical chaos. Backstage, the goddess and the rocker begin a journey that will remold Giulia's understanding of a world that thinks gods are dead and gone.
But when Eris disappears, Giulia must master her own new magic over the strands of time and save her new flame before the goddess is sacrificed in a ritual to overdose humanity on old magic.
The goddess Eris as a punk? That makes so much sense to me!
Climate of Chaos by Cassandra Newbould Genres: Sci Fi, YA
Representation: Disabled MC
Published on: 15th July 2025
Goodreads
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An exhilarating dystopian YA recalling The Last of Us and Divergent—Climate Of Chaos is a hard-hitting survival story featuring a disabled protagonist that explores the chilling effects of climate change and medical debt.
In dystopic Seattle, storms have devastated Earth’s population, a new virus is spreading, and the privileged live inside domes controlled by Aegis Corp. Healthcare is earned by hours accrued working in Aegis’s pharmaceutical factories. If you run short on hours, you’re sent to the Harvest House for debt collection—a place few return from in one piece.
After a storm killed seventeen-year old Fox LaRosa’s parents and left her disabled, Fox and her younger sister Rabbit join their fugitive aunt’s mercenary group Still-Alive. Their mission is to restore the imbalance of medical access for post-storm survivors.
But when a med supply heist goes south, Rabbit is taken captive, and Still-Alive refuses to rescue her. Fox must choose between duty and family, and leaves home to infiltrate Aegis’ interior domes where Rabbit is being held hostage. The more Fox learns about life in the domes, though, the more she realizes Still-Alive isn’t as altruistic as they claim. In a world where everyone is out for themselves, Fox must rely on those she trusts least in order to reunite with her sister and expose both Aegis and Still-Alive for who they really are.
This “Hunger Games for the next generation” read stars a disabled protagonist and explores the devastating potential of climate change left un-checked and the all-too-real consequences of outrageously expensive health insurance affecting millions today.
I can’t recall where I first heard about this one, but I do remember that it made me WILDLY interested, so I’ll be snatching up a copy even if I can’t quite remember why…!
You can read an excerpt here (where it says Look Inside beneath the cover)!
A Testimony of Blood: An epic fantasy infused with the mythology of West Africa by Rogba Payne Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Epic Fantasy
Representation: West African-inspired cast and setting
Published on: 17th July 2025
Goodreads
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'A bird in a cage may be safe but it will know no peace until it can fly. After all that we have seen, all that we have lost, I believe that the time to dance has come. We've hidden long enough.'
For those with the wit to learn, there is no better teacher than death. Nowhere is this truth better known than in the Eredo; where death's signature marks every corner as its leaders and people try to recover from a devastating attack. The lost princess Falina Almarak has been crowned queen of the Kasinabe and charged with the unenviable task of rebuilding a broken nation.
Rumi Voltaine, seen by so many as a hero, struggles to come to terms with the revelations of his ancestral past and the expectations that come with it. With the Shadow Order deprived of its essential healing elixir, Rumi and his companions embark upon an impossible to journey into the deepest parts of the forest known as the bush of ghosts. The forest holds many secrets - including the gateway known as the Door of Testimony which may hold the power to bring the dead back to life. They will have to be careful though; godhunters are on their trail and time is a precious commodity when your adversaries are immortal...
Inspired by West-African spirituality and set in a world reminiscent of colonial Africa. A TESTIMONY OF BLOOD is the continuation of the SONG OF GODHUNTERS an epic adult fantasy series.
I haven’t finished the first book in this series yet, but when I do…!
Cursed in the Lost City: the thrilling second book in the Elizabethan rom-com series by Gabby Hutchinson Crouch Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Queer Chinese MC, M/M
Published on: 17th July 2025
Goodreads
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It’s 1599. Fang and Lazare are on the run with their friends Amber, Nell and half-fae child Tem. The news that Tem possesses the power to make humans immortal is spreading across London like wildfire – and has even reached the ears of the ailing Queen Elizabeth Tudor.
Desperate to avoid capture by the English crown, keep Tem safe, reverse their curse and not all die, the gang flee to The Lost City of Llanelli, the realm of the dragon queen Redthroat the Invincible. Rumoured to have almighty power, does Redthroat really have the answers to their problems? And if they can stop getting attacked by muggers, harpies and dragons for five minutes, might Fang and Lazare be able to confess that they are falling in love?
Grumpy x Sunshine
Found family
Dragons, vampires and supernatural beings
Mild spice
Still adore the covers this series has gotten! The author said way back that the colours of the covers have a specific meaning that we might start working out after book two. The first one was bright pink…any guesses???
The Girl with the Fierce Eyes by Sophia Vahdati Genres: Fantasy, YA
Representation: Brown MC
Published on: 17th July 2025
Goodreads
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Red Queen meets Divergent in this fast-paced YA fantasy romance debut—packed with love triangles, betrayal, and a heroine who must risk everything to survive.
Your eyes decide your destiny
Jantsia’s secret will kill her…
In the Empire of Shariza, eye colour determines wealth, status and even access to magical powers. Jantsia's blue eyes mark her as Azure, the lowest of the four oculary castes. Destined for servitude.
But no one – not even the boy who owns her heart – knows the truth. Jantsia is a dual-oc, a forbidden mix of two castes, condemned to death if discovered. To survive, she clings to one rule: stay invisible, stay alive.
Or will the truth save them all?
Yet whispers of rebellion are growing, and cracks are forming in the very foundations of their society. Could it be that the fiery untapped power burning inside Jantsia is a gift rather than a curse?
But who to trust when different means death?
The Girl with the Fierce Eyes has some potential content warnings, including sexual grooming (past), sibling/infant death (past), racism and discrimination, threatened torture and death, and characters in peril. Readers who may be sensitive to these elements, please take note.
I’m not sure this one is for me, but fans of YA dystopias have had great things to say about it! So if that’s your thing, maybe make a look.
The Wizard (The Knights of Fedoris Book 1) by Niranjan K. Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Queer MC
Published on: 20th July 2025
Goodreads
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In the land of Ea, magic runs in bloodlines. But it is also believed to be evil, with the Order of the Knights of Fedoris ready to crack down on anyone who shows any hint of magic.
Stevin has hidden his magical ability all his life. When he and his friends are abducted and carried away to an island by the Wizards who only want them for their magic, he realises that learning to control his powers may be his only chance of survival. But why is the leader of the wizards so interested in his friends and why is the mysterious wizard Gertin offering to help him?
Beset on all sides and unable to trust anyone, Stevin must learn to accept his magic and to fight for everyone he holds dear if he’s to survive his captivity. But can he learn to master his magic while hiding his true potential from his captors?
If you promise me queer epic fantasy, you will ALWAYS have my attention!
You can find the buy links for this one (including itch.io) here, and read a sample on the book’s Smashword page! (Though you do need to be logged in to Smashwords to read it.)
Will you be reading any of these? Did I miss any releases you think I should know about? Let me know!
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