Dark Fantasy

[00:00:00] Welcome back to the What to Read Next podcast. Today's episode is part of our Novel Nights episode of All Things Fall. This is an episode where we talk about all things fall, cozying it up, and everything from activities to book recommendations.

In this episode, Francesca is talking about dark fantasy romances that you should definitely pick up. So if you're mooting for gothic, dragons, and everything in between, this episode is for you. So now let's get to today's recommendation.

Hello everyone. Welcome to Novel Nights. I'm Victoria. I'm Laura. I'm Francesca. And we're back. . And today we are doing all things fall. This is going to be Novel Nights

Francesca is going to give us some book recommendations and then more on the fantasy dark side. So Francesca, take it away. Yes. So I actually wanted to bring more of dark recommendations. And I also kind of weird. I didn't necessarily go so much for like, the normal creatures that we [00:01:00] tend to see a lot, like vampires and witches and the like.

So, the first book that I want to recommend to you guys, it's coming out at the end of September 24th. And I'm shouting everywhere about this book because I loved it. It's a fire in the sky by Sophie Jordan. And I would say if you if you enjoyed Rebecca Yaros, then definitely you should check out this one.

It is a dragon romance and it will be a series so you'll be able to follow along. It's, this is a book that sets everything up in the world and it does have a very medieval kind of Game of Thrones feel. So you're not going to see a ton of shape shifting into the, in this book, more towards the end, but there is an arranged kind of forced marriage.

The heroine was kind of serving this royal family and she was the girl that would get that she would take the punishments for the royal [00:02:00] daughters. And there's kind of a barbarian that comes in and he helped the the royal family with, a war. And he is demanding the royal daughter in marriage.

And they Use her and pretend that, well, she is the daughter because she's been part of the family. So she goes on and has to basically do her last service for the family. And I absolutely loved it. so good. There's so much chemistry between them and I just absolutely loved it. So if there's one book that you pick up from this list, it's gotta be this one.

Although there's another one they really loved. So, okay, let's move on to the second book and it's The Darkest Walls by Ashley R. King. This is more of a gothic historical romance. It is kind of like 1920s prohibition. The heroine is in her early 20s and she is basically a [00:03:00] alcohol smuggler and their arrival of hers finds out where her alcohol stash is and she has, she basically thinks she's going to lose everything and she gets a proposal from this guy to marry him.

And because he needs a wife to get his inheritance, which is a railroad company. And she feels it's a great arrangement because she gets to go live with him. And he lives in this really secluded island and she could stash her alcohol there. And of course, Island is haunted and cursed and all of this stuff.

So she thinks she starts to. Go crazy and lose her sanity. So lots of that gothic island secluded island vibe, which I really love. So definitely look out for that. That's also coming out at the end of September, I think the 23rd. The other one that I really think you guys need to pick up is the house at watch Hill by Karen Marie moaning.

I know that I don't need to like recommend Karen [00:04:00] Marie moaning to anybody, but that's the right thing. The House at Wedge Hill is her new series. It's going to be a trilogy, I think, and it is a goth, southern gothic urban fantasy, and this first book also sets up the series. You don't get to see a ton of the paranormal element just towards the end, but it's sort of underlying Throughout the whole book.

And you're basically getting to know the story. The heroine is very young and she's lived her life with just her mother. And she, her mother has been sick for a really long time and she dies at the beginning of the book. And she gets a phone call from some mysterious lawyer in a town in Louisiana saying that she has this inheritance from her family.

and it's a house and she has to travel to this town to claim the inheritance. When she reaches there, it turns out to be this huge mansion. It comes [00:05:00] obviously with terms and conditions. She has to live in the house for three years before she can get the inheritance, which is the house. And a ton of money and for her and her financial condition, she decides she's going to go through with it and she's going to stay there and, abide by all the rules.

And she slowly realizes there's more to the town, the people. and the house itself. And she starts to discover all of that and also herself and her powers because she didn't know that she was any kind of supernatural creature herself. So I really enjoyed this one. I think this is going to be a great series.

I actually call it like a mix of the Fever series by Karen Marie Moning and the Sookie Stackhouse series by Shirlene Harris. So if those two had a baby, that would be the vibe of this book. So I think that you would really enjoy it, especially if you're like that Southern flair. I think that she did that really well.

It does [00:06:00] have that very Gothic vibe, from all angles. So I really enjoyed it. If you want something kind of. More subdued, I would say, is not so in your face and high stakes in this book, but that's kind of something that is quite common with Karen Marie Moning, so I would say as the series goes on, it's probably going to get more intense.

The next book is The Wraith King. Oh, and that comes out October 1st. The next one is The Wraith King by Julia Cross. It's also the first in a new series, and I tend to think of Julia Cross with like, funny paranormal romance. This one is a romanticy. I've seen it pitched as like a dark gothic romanticy and kind of the cover gives you that vibe but I would say it's definitely not dark.

So if you're not into dark romance, It's totally fine. This is not a dark romance. It was, it's just really a sweet story, I would say. So there [00:07:00] it's a fae world and there's different kind of faes. There's five different kinds of fae and the two main characters are light and dark fae. The heroine is the princess of the light fae and the hero is also the prince of the dark fae.

And they're basically fated to be together and to overturn the whole world order of what's going on. Both of them are coming from places where they had very different kind of like ideas of what their past was. So they both think very different things of each other and what they've, what their kind has done in the past.

And the light Fae has been ruling and now the dark Fae is ruling. kind of like their time to shine. So it's a really fun book. I would say it's actually quite similar in vibe to a fire in the sky by Sophie Jordan. So again, if you like kind of like that vibe. you would enjoy this one. There are [00:08:00] dragons.

There's not shape shifting in it, but there are dragons. So if you're into dragon romanticy, you will probably enjoy this one as well. And it does come out, I think, also September 24th. And the last one that I have for you guys is Anathema by Carrie Lake. This one just came out and it is on Kindle Unlimited.

And Carrie Lake is kind of like the queen of dark, gothic fantasy romance. So this one I'm super excited to read. It just came out, I think a couple of days ago. And it is basically about this mortal woman and she gets shunned and thrown basically into this enchanted evil forest. And as she's going through, And she discovers this lord that is basically an assassin, but he's tasked with protecting her because her blood is actually what's going to remove his curse and also the curse that's on the woods themselves.

But there are obviously forces that want to kill her because there is an arcane [00:09:00] prophecy that if she's sacrificed, Something's going to happen. So I'm super excited to read this one. I know that it's going to be dark because that is what I know to expect with Carey Lake. So if you're looking for something dark, then this is going to be the darkest one of the bunch.

And that's the ones that I have.

What do you think about these, Laura? I mean, I haven't heard of any of these books. So they're like all brand new. I'm excited for the Julia Cross and I'm glad that you read it. You're like, okay, it's a little sweet. It's not the, it's not as dark as you think. So I'm glad and I have actually access to the Sophie Jordan one and I'm curious.

It was like all these like, dragon shifters. I think with fourth wing, obviously all these dragons. The new thing, it was like, after Akatar, it was all fairies and now we're just going to go down to dragons. So I'm excited for what the next. Romanticy, being will look like in five years from now.

[00:10:00] I know. I'm excited dragons are getting their moment though. Yes. I love dragons. I want vampires to come back. I feel like they're slowly coming back. But they're really, I want the vampires to just make a bang about it. The vampires that are coming back now are not my vampires. Yeah. I want them darker.

They're too cutesy. They're too cute.

This episode was recorded as part of our live show number nights every Thursday night. From seven to 8:00 PM. Eastern standard time. A bell on YouTube. Twitch Instagram, Facebook, and many more. If you want to catch a replace, you can go to our char YouTube page,

thank you Francesca for giving this Greg recommendations.

I hope you enjoy them