2025 has come to an end… FINALLY!!
I don’t know about you, but I had a pretty strange year filled with weird side quests and a bunch of metaphorical monsters, so I’m really excited to start a new year, yes… but do you know what else I’m excited about? The upcoming December 2025 fantasy book releases. Here is a short list of the new fantasy books growing my TBR this month:
Dawn of the Firebird — Sarah Mughal Rana
(December 2) (Epic Fantasy / YA)
With a fierce heroine, political intrigue, and a world filled with powerful magic, Dawn of the Firebird is probably my most anticipated new fantasy book release of this month. Raised to be a throne-defending murder princess, Khamilla decides to burn the world down after her clan is slaughtered. She goes to the enemy’s jinn-filled military academy where she will have to juggle her need for vengeance, magic monks, and the horrifying realization that her father’s version of history might be… creative writing.
The Library of Fates — Margot Harrison
(December 2) (YA Fantasy / Portal Fantasy)
The Library of Fates is supposed to tell you who you are — which is fantastic for people having an identity crisis. When the librarian goes missing in a (suspicious) freak accident, the rarest book in the collection, The Book of Dark Nights (aka magical book that reveals your future), goes missing too.
Now a lifelong library gremlin named Eleanor teams up with the librarian’s estranged son and her ex-crush Daniel — who ran off to Europe to become a pretentious study-abroad cliché — to recover the “magical book of spoilers.”
I only discovered this upcoming fantasy novel a few days ago, but with that plot description, I had to place my order right away!
Tailored Realities — Brandon Sanderson
(December 9) (Sci-Fi & Fantasy Anthology)
I’m a little embarrassed to admit I haven’t read anything Brandon Sanderson yet. Shameful, I know — but to be honest, I feel a little intimidated by his massive encyclopedia-sized novels.
That’s why I think this book is perfect for someone like me. Tailored Realities is basically Brandon Sanderson saying: “Look, I don’t need 1000 pages to write a story.”
It’s a grab-bag of sci-fi and fantasy stories from outside the Cosmere, featuring rogue simulations, alien diplomats, brain-bending worlds, and a brand-new novella because apparently the man does not sleep. It’s basically Sanderson’s multiverse sampler platter — minus the stress of needing a PhD in his entire lore — which makes it a great starting point for me.
An Archive of Romance — Ava Reid
(December 9) (Fantasy Romance / Novella)
A novella set in the world of A Study in Drowning, because why not?
This is basically a scrapbook of Effy and Preston’s chaotic, magic-haunted love story — with diary entries, cursed fairy quotes, messy annotations, and architectural sketches that scream “I need therapy.”
It also includes illustrations and a brand-new epilogue because apparently we weren’t suffering enough the first time.
Arcane Inheritance — Kamilah Cole
(December 9) (Dark Academia Fantasy)
Another dark academia fantasy book release for the winter season. Warren University is your standard elite academic hellscape — except instead of just crushing your soul with student debt, it’s also built on the literal bones and stolen magic of its BIPOC students. Fantastic!
Freshman Ellory shows up ready to prove she belongs, but quickly realizes she’s having déjà vu of the “I’ve died here before” variety.
Now she needs the help of Hudson Graves, a brooding legacy boy who screams “my family owns the school… and several ghosts,” before the campus decides to eat her alive again.
City of Brass — Deluxe Collector’s Edition
(December 2) (Adult Fantasy)
And finally — a little gem for my personal collection: the Deluxe Collector’s Edition of City of Brass by S. A. Chakraborty, which is coming out on December 2. One of my all-time favorite series in a gorgeous edition and I’m impatiently waiting to receive my copy.
Are any of these December 2025 fantasy book releases on your shopping list? I’m dying to know.
