Fantasy and Sci-Fi Fanatics

Escape From Mr. Lemoncello’s Library by Chris Grabenstein

Kyle Keeley is the class clown, popular with most kids, and an ardent fan of all games: board games, word games, and particularly video games. His hero, Luigi Lemoncello, the most notorious and creative gamemaker in the world, just so happens to be the genius behind the building of the new town library.

Kyle wins a coveted spot to be one of the first 12 kids in the library for an overnight of fun, food, and lots and lots of games. But when morning comes, the doors remain locked. Kyle and the other winners must solve every clue and every secret puzzle to find the hidden escape route. And the stakes are very high.

Pages & Co: The Book Wanderers by Anna James

Ever wondered what it would be like to meet your favorite book characters? Well, Tilly does in Pages & Co when the characters from her favorite classic children’s books begin to appearing in her grandparents’ bookshop. With the help of Anne of Green Gables and Alice in Wonderland, Tilly steps into the unknown, determined to solve the mystery of what happened to her mother years ago.

Nightbooks by J.A. White

A boy is imprisoned by a witch and must tell her a new scary story each night to stay alive. This book is perfect for those children who don’t mind spooky stories. It’s also apparently a Netflix film, which may or may not be too scary for me. 😅

The Neverending Story by Michael Ende

I vaguely remember seeing some of this movie when I was a kid. Mostly I remember a strange fuzzy animal and talking books. Hopefully the book is much better (I have yet to read it)!

The story begins with a lonely boy named Bastian and the strange book that draws him into the beautiful but doomed world of Fantastica. Only a human can save this enchanted place by giving its ruler, the Childlike Empress, a new name. But the journey to her tower leads through lands of dragons, giants, monsters, and magic.

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke

I read this book as a teenager and loved it. I think it’s past time to read it again. Not only does a story come alive, but the fantasy world in that story is also lovely.

Characters from books literally leap off the page in this fantasy. Meggie has had her father to herself since her mother went away when she was young. Mo taught her to read when she was five, and the two share a mutual love of books. He can “read” characters out of books. When she was three, he read aloud from a book called Inkheart and released characters into the real world. At the same time, Meggie’s mother disappeared into the story. This “story within a story” will delight not just fantasy fans, but all readers who like an exciting plot with larger-than-life characters.

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow

In a sprawling mansion filled with peculiar treasures, January Scaller is a curiosity herself. As the ward of the wealthy Mr. Locke, she feels little different from the artifacts that decorate the halls: carefully maintained, largely ignored, and utterly out of place.

Then she finds a strange book. A book that carries the scent of other worlds, and tells a tale of secret doors, of love, adventure and danger. Each page turn reveals impossible truths about the world and January discovers a story increasingly entwined with her own.

The Book That Wouldn’t Burn by Mark Lawrence

I couldn’t get into this book, sadly, even though it won a Goodread’s Choice Award in 2023. I just grew weary of wondering somewhat aimlessly through a ginormous library. But if you don’t mind that or world-hopping into the past or present, you may like this. It’s about Evar and Livira, whose stories touch and circle around each other and a magical library. (There is some cussing throughout, FYI.)

A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid

This dark academia fantasy is about just one book–Angharad–an epic about a mortal girl who falls in love with the Fairy King, then destroys him. It’s the only thing keeping Effy afloat. But when she and a fellow student dive into the depths of the book’s author, the truth may ruin them.

The Cat Who Saved Books by Sosuke Natsukawa

The perfect book for both book and animal lovers! Rintaro’s grandfather owned a used bookstore that Rintaro loved. Then his grandfather dies, leaving Rintaro alone and no way to keep the bookstore open. But a talking tabby cat called Tiger appears and asks Rintaro for help. The cat needs a book lover to join him on a mission. The pair go on three magical adventures to save books from people who have imprisoned, mistreated and betrayed them.

The Book of Lost Hours by Hayley Gelfuso

This sounds like a mix between time travel and a spy novel. It’s definitely on my list for this year.

Enter the time space, a soaring library filled with books containing the memories of those who have passed and accessed only by specially made watches once passed from father to son—but mostly now in government hands. This is where eleven-year-old Lisavet Levy finds herself trapped in 1938, waiting for her watchmaker father to return for her. When he doesn’t, she grows up among the books and specters, able to see the world only by sifting through the memories of those who came before her. As she realizes that government agents are entering the time space to destroy books and maintain their preferred version of history, she sets about saving these scraps in her own volume of memories. Until the appearance of an American spy named Ernest Duquesne in 1949 offers her a glimpse of the world she left behind, setting her on a course to change history and possibly the time space itself.

Alphabet of Thorn by Patricia A. McKillip

Deep inside a palace on the edge of the world, the orphan Nepenthe pores over books in the royal library, translating their languages and learning their secrets. Now sixteen, she knows little of the outside world.

Then, during the coronation of the new Queen of Raine, a young mage gives Nepenthe a book that has defied translation. Written in a language of thorns, it speaks to Nepenthe’s soul — and becomes her secret obsession. As the words escape the brambles and reveal themselves, Nepenthe finds her destiny entwined with that of the young queen’s. Sooner than she thinks, she will have to choose between the life she has led and the life she was born to lead…

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

This historical fantasy takes place in Barcelona in 1945. Daniel, an antiquarian book dealer’s son who mourns the loss of his mother, finds solace in a mysterious book entitled The Shadow of the Wind, by Julian Carax. But when he sets out to find the author’s other works, he makes a shocking discovery: someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book Carax has written. In fact, Daniel may have the last of Carax’s books in existence. Soon Daniel’s seemingly innocent quest opens a door into one of Barcelona’s darkest secrets–an epic story of murder, madness, and doomed love.

The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods

Craving a little less fantasy in your books? This magical realism story has dual timelines: one in the past follows Opaline, who’s trying to escape her controlling brother. The other timeline, in the present, follows Martha, and Irish woman escaping an abusive husband, and Harry, a scholar. There’s a dash of magic and romance, but plenty of books.

The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman

Thought you knew London and how libraries work? Think again!

The first of a series, this book follows Irene, who works as a spy for the magical Library by stealing fiction from various realities. She ends up with her assistant Kai in an alternative, steampunk-esque London where supernatural creatures wreck chaos and evil forces want her dead. A fun, fast-paced read.

The Echo of Old Books by Barbara Davis

Another magical realism book. In this one, rare-book dealer Ashlyn Greer can feel the echoes of the books’ previous owners—an emotional fingerprint only she can read. When Ashlyn discovers a pair of beautifully bound volumes that appear to have never been published, her gift quickly becomes an obsession. Not only is each inscribed with a startling incrimination, but the authors, Hemi and Belle, tell conflicting sides of a tragic romance.

Determined to learn the truth behind the doomed lovers’ tale, she reads on, following a trail of broken promises and seemingly unforgivable betrayals. The more Ashlyn learns about Hemi and Belle, the nearer she comes to bringing closure to their love story—and to the unfinished chapters of her own life.

The Book of Doors by Gareth Brown

If you enjoy time travel and love wicked villains, then The Book of Doors might be your cup of tea. In New York City, Cassie comes across a book that allows her to use any door to access any place (and time). But there are other magical books, dangerous ones, that some people will try to acquire at any cost.

This book has strong ties of friendship, pretty much no romance, and a few grisly scenes I had to skip. But there were some very tense scenes!

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

Another magical library. This one enables the main character, Nora, to live as if she had done things differently. With the help of an old friend, she can now undo every one of her regrets as she tries to work out her perfect life. But things aren’t always what she imagined they’d be, and soon her choices place the library and herself in extreme danger. I’m super fascinated by this one…

The Bookshop Below by Georgia Summers

Below the streets of London, a secret network of magical bookshops has existed for millennia. But they’re slowly disappearing, and no one knows why. Only one dishonored bookseller can uncover the truth and rewrite her story.

The Book Witch by Meg Shaffer

Rainy March is a proud third-generation book witch, sworn to defend works of fiction from all foes real and imaginary. With her magical umbrella and feline familiar, she jumps into and out of novels to fix malicious alterations and rogue heroes.

This one looks fun and cozy, and I get wait to read it when it comes out in April!

The Astral Library by Kate Quinn

In this new release, Alix Watson has learned one lesson from the foster-care system: unlike people, books will never let you down. (If only that were true!) One day she stumbles through a hidden door and meets the Librarian: the ageless, acerbic guardian of a hidden library where the desperate and the lost escape to new lives…inside their favorite books. Before she can escape into the pages of her new life, a shadowy enemy emerges to threaten everyone the Astral Library has ever helped protect.

The Library of Legends by Janie Chang

When Japanese bombs begin falling on the city of Nanking, China, in 1937, 19-year-old Hu Lian and her classmates at Minghua University are ordered to flee. Lian and a convoy of students and staff must walk 1,000 miles to the safety of China’s western provinces. Lian and her classmates have been entrusted with a priceless treasure: a 500-year-old collection of myths and folklore known as the Library of Legends.

After one classmate is arrested and another is murdered, Lian realizes she must escape. She makes her way to Shanghai in the hopes of reuniting with her mother. But as the ancient books travel across China, they awaken immortals and guardian spirits who embark on an exodus of their own, one that will change the country’s fate forever.