Whenever summer rolls around, I always begin to crave adventurous, quest fantasy novels (I mean, who am I kidding? I crave them year-round) But particularly in the summer, there’s nothing better than tearing through fun fantasies on a picnic blanket in the sun. I’m talking deserts, enchanted forests, unicorns and pirates. I really think this might be the most banging seasonal TBR I’ve ever put together. So for all that… keep reading.

• The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty

“I wanted to travel the world and sail every sea. I wanted to have adventures, to be a hero, to have my tales told in courtyards and street fairs, where perhaps kids who’d grown up like me, with more imagination than means, might be inspired to dream. Where women who were told there was only one sort of respectful life for them could listen to tales of another who’d broken away—and thrived when she’d done so.”

Historical fantasy / Swashbuckling adventure

Earlier this June, I tore through the entire Daevabad trilogy by S.A. Chakraborty and loved it so much! There’s nothing better than a scorching desert-based fantasy in the summer – with descriptions where you can physically feel the sun beating down on you. So of course, the first book I knew I needed to read this summer was the Adventures of Amina al-Sirafik, a novel about a notorious reformed pirate who comes out of retirement for one finally mission.

Blurb: Amina al-Sirafi should be content. After a storied and scandalous career as one of the Indian Ocean’s most notorious pirates, she’s survived backstabbing rogues, vengeful merchant princes, several husbands, and one actual demon to retire peacefully with her family to a life of piety, motherhood, and absolutely nothing that hints of the supernatural.

But when she’s tracked down by the obscenely wealthy mother of a former crewman, she’s offered a job no bandit could refuse: retrieve her comrade’s kidnapped daughter for a kingly sum. The chance to have one last adventure with her crew, do right by an old friend, and win a fortune that will secure her family’s future forever? It seems like such an obvious choice that it must be God’s will.

Yet the deeper Amina dives, the more it becomes alarmingly clear there’s more to this job, and the girl’s disappearance, than she was led to believe. For there’s always risk in wanting to become a legend, to seize one last chance at glory, to savor just a bit more power…and the price might be your very soul.

• Saltswept by Katalina Watt

“A ragtag crew. A perilous quest. First, they need a boat. Next, they need to learn how to sail it.“

Fantasy / High-seas adventure

Continuing with the theme of pirates, we have Saltswept. This features a ragtag crew on a perilous quest and I’m hoping it will satisfy the craving for pirates that I know Amina is going to ignite.

Blurb: A pirate faces the gallows drop. A farmer is given a terrible ultimatum to save her daughter. An acolyte ascends to priestesshood . . . only to find that a blessing really can be a curse. These unlikely bedfellows band together with an inscrutable pickpocket and a talking ottercat in pursuit of the most hopeless of to sail into the Maelstrom – a raging whirlpool from which no one has ever escaped – and the mysterious treasure hidden within it.

The quest will test their fragile allegmiance to its limits, but there is more at stake here than getting the magic of the world is in peril, and the barrier between life and death has never been so thin. And in the Bastion, the seat of power in Paranish, the queen has an unquenchable thirst that threatens the world and everyone in it.

Can there be honour amongst thieves? Without it, they might never see another sunrise.

• Aicha by Soraya Bouazzaoui

”Fire would take a seat, subsuming her pain and demanding action. And she would listen to it, because he knew Aicha’s thirst for retribution was insatiable.”

Historical fantasy

Also a desert-based fantasy is Aicha. I don’t know much about this one other than that it’s based around Moroccan folklore and female rage (and that it’s frequently comped to City of Brass!)

Blurb: The Portuguese flag has been planted across Morocco, its empire ruling with an iron fist. But eventually, all empires must fall.

Aicha, the daughter of a Moroccan freedom-fighter, was born for battle. She has witnessed the death of her people, their starvation and torture at the hands of the occupiers, and it has awakened an anger within her. An anger that burns hot and bright, and speaks to Aicha’s soul.

Only Aicha’s secret lover Rachid, a rebellion leader, knows how to soothe her. But as the fight for Morocco’s freedom reaches its violent climax, the creature that simmers beneath Aicha’s skin begs to be unleashed. It hungers for the screams of those who have caused her pain, and it will not be ignored.

• The Unicorn Hunters by Katherine Arden

‘To hunt a unicorn required two things. The first was a virgin of high birth and unimpeachable virtue, for bait. And the other was a hunt so extravagant that the mere dazzle of it would tempt the vain beast near.‘

Historical fantasy

The Unicorn Hunters is one that is high up on my TBR – and one I have high expectations for, having loved the Winternight trilogy. Something about unicorns in enchanted forests is so whimsical, making it perfect for a summer read. (Also, how gorgeous is the Fairyloot edition? I cannot stop staring at mine.)

Blurb: Anne of Brittany was a child when her realm was invaded, her home besieged, and her royal father driven to his death. Now her treasury is empty, her land occupied by her enemies, and she is ordered, under threat of renewed war, to become queen of her conquerors and marry the King of France. This marriage means her country’s annexation. But Anne promised her father that Brittany would never be conquered

Defiantly, she betroths herself in secret to France’s greatest enemy. But in a world where courts may spy on each other by magic, there is only one way to solemnize this illicit union. Anne takes her court deep into a legendary forest, where the court diviners’ skill cannot reach. The world thinks they are only a hunting party, coursing after unicorns. But that is a lie, a trick, a feint. No one in living memory has seen a unicorn. All Anne wants is this secret wedding, which is her only hope of salvation.

But when against all hope a unicorn appears and a stranger out of legend stumbles from the trees and falls at her feet, Anne is plunged into a world of enchantment where a doomed sovereign might find the power to change her own and her country’s destiny—or be lost in the shadows forever.

With her country’s future and her own life at stake, an orphaned duchess must journey into a world of myth and there discover a power that may be her salvation—or her demise—in this enchanting new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of the Winternight Trilogy and The Warm Hands of Ghosts.

• Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier

“One does not meddle lightly with the forces of the forest.”

Historical fantasy / Fairytale retelling

Speaking of whimsy… the final book on my summer TBR is Wildwood Dancing. I’ve been meaning to hop aboard the Juliet Marillier train for ages and ages and I think this summer is finally time. I’ve put Wildwood Dancing on this list (partly because its cover practically screamed summer) but I also have Daughter of the Forest, which I’ll probably also try to get to!

Blurb: High in the Transylvanian woods, at the castle Piscul Draculi, live five daughters and their doting father. It’s an idyllic life for Jena, the second eldest, who spends her time exploring the mysterious forest with her constant companion, a most unusual frog. But best by far is the castle’s hidden portal, known only to the sisters. Every Full Moon, they alone can pass through it into the enchanted world of the Other Kingdom. There they dance through the night with the fey creatures of this magical realm. 

But their peace is shattered when Father falls ill and must go to the southern parts to recover, for that is when cousin Cezar arrives. Though he’s there to help the girls survive the brutal winter, Jena suspects he has darker motives in store. Meanwhile, Jena’s sister has fallen in love with a dangerous creature of the Other Kingdom–an impossible union it’s up to Jena to stop.

When Cezar’s grip of power begins to tighten, at stake is everything Jena loves: her home, her family, and the Other Kingdom she has come to cherish. To save her world, Jena will be tested in ways she can’t imagine–tests of trust, strength, and true love.

That’s it for physical books (I mean, that’s definitely not it. I may or may not have counted a couple days ago and discovered I have over a hundred books on my physical TBR, but that’s it for what I’m going to aim to read this summer.) I will inevitably end up reading far more books than just these five, but they’re just a guide for a mood reader like me.

On the ARC front, I have something very exciting which I’m definitely going to be getting to this summer, which is A Snake Among Swans by Hannah Kaner. This is the first instalment in a new epic fantasy series, about warring kingdoms and female rage and it sound so up my street!