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As always, this is not a comprehensive list, but only includes all the books I have heard about so far.
If you have a fantasy novel you are self publishing in May or beyond, let me know by filling out THIS FORM, and I shall add it to the page. There are but 3 requirements:
1) It must be a self published fantasy novel.
2) It must have a Goodreads page.
3) It must have a cover.
1st May – Crown of Roses (Shades of Spring #1) by Niranjan K
Epic Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Sword & Sorcery
Can their love survive a war and the enmity between their people?
Leymon is the son of the Halvard Chief and Sylvania, the Queen of the Cailern. The Halvard and the Cailern had never seen eye to eye. The magic that’s in the Cailern’s very blood is considered evil by Halvard who are naturally resistant to magic and spells. But their differences don’t keep Leymon and Sylvania from falling in love.
When Leymon’s father declares war on the Cailern, and all attempts at peace fail, Leymon has to choose whether to stand with his people or the woman he loves. Sylvania is also struggling with the political ploys of a powerful noble while fighting a war.
With the war adding to the pressures of their positions, putting the lives of their people at stake, can Leymon and Sylvania choose their love or will they have to surrender to the exigencies of their situation?
1st May – Beyond the Mistline by Lincoln Law
Epic Fantasy
The path to vengeance is paved with metal…
The Valley is ringed by mountains and brimming with deadly mist. Liners, like Kayta, make a living scavenging magical metals which grow on the forest floor. These metals have various uses—light, heat, weaving new fabrics, and forging new wires for the ancient ziplines, which they use to traverse the Valley. All of this is done under the watchful eyes of the Kralls, the family which rules the Valley with an iron fist. Kayta likes the Kralls and their system of governance, which elevates her position greatly.
When the Kralls are overthrown and murdered in a Liner revolution, Kayta’s entire world is thrown into disarray.
Betrayed by her friends, believed dead, Kayta goes into hiding below the mists, with the help of the mysterious Mistfolk.
However, as Kayta begins to exact her revenge against those who betrayed her, she begins to realise that her life as a Liner may not have been as straightforward as she once believed, and secrets long buried below the mists may need to emerge.
The revolution has begun. And you’re on the wrong side.
1st May – The Queen of the Road (The Storm Who Rides #2) by Chris Tullbane
Grimdark, Weird West
A storm of steel wrapped in a shell of human flesh, the Queen of Smiles has finally become a ruler in more than just name. But before she can get down to the business of empire building, there are words that must be said to a person she once knew: a boy who became a man, then a monster, and then something else entirely.
Her quest will take her back through the Badlands, down past the ruins of Old Texas and into the heart of Fallen Mexico, and not even she knows what she’ll do when she finds her target.
Because this isn’t just another job. This one is personal.
1st May – Island of the Dying Goddess by Ronit J
Grimdark, Horror
On the island of eternal grief
Even the gods have died a thousand deaths
My name is Anawar, and I am an immortal explorer. A few days ago, I was stranded on Sawarrgh, an island where everything looks twisted and the air smells of mourning. The atmosphere has forced suppressed memories to resurface. I have to consciously keep them at bay, or I won’t be able to survive this island’s horrors.
There’s Ghaph, the mad warmongering god who mutilates his enemies and patches on their dismembered limbs. Then there’s Ndraja, the goddess who can enslave entire kingdoms with just her thoughts. But the worst is the nameless Goddess who created Sawarrgh a millennium ago, caging it in a barrier that reverses time, forcing the island to relive the same year over and over.
Sawarrgh is a nightmare come alive. Here, existence itself is a curse. The living are barely alive. The stranded, condemned.
I need to escape this island, and in doing so, free Sawarrgh from its perpetual punishment.
And the only way to do that is to kill the Goddess.
2nd May – A Ballad of Vengeance by Karim Soliman
Epic Fantasy, Sword & Sorcery
A family that sticks together, kills titans together.
After decades of self-exile in the Nordlands, Aqen decides to return to his homeland, not only to settle an old score with a Kemetian titan, but also to end a threat to his family, once and for all. Knowing that he is not the same warrior he used to be, Aqen is fully aware that this might be his final fight ever.
Birna, the sorceress who believes that her husband is marching to his own demise, heads far north alongside her children to seek help for their father. But her quest might provoke the titans of the Nordlands. And the last thing Birna and her family need right now is the enmity of more titans.
As the odds don’t look that good for the mortal couple, Aqen and his family will have to overcome fear and doubt with fury and valor. No matter the outcome of the upcoming clash, the folks in Kemet and the Nordlands will forever sing of their heroics.
They will forever sing the ballad of vengeance.
6th May – The Blades of the Old Kingdoms (The Ragnarok Prophecy #6) by Matt Larkin
Epic Fantasy, Grimdark, Horror, Historical Fantasy
The final runeblade. The greatest horror.
To ensure he wins Ragnarök, Odin has manipulated mortals across Midgard. He has scheme, plotted, lied, and killed. And most of all, he has sought for the runeblades of the Old Kingdoms, until but one more remains unclaimed.
Or rather, claimed by a Patriarch of Miklagard, a foreign lord of such power as even Odin has never faced. Alongside his pawns, Odin strives for the blade that can slay even immortals.
But the price is beyond imagining, and not all can survive the curse of the blades …
13th May – Empire Ender (Torth #6) by Abby Goldsmith
Grimdark, Sci-Fantasy, Progression/Cultivation
Amid supergenius schemes for an apocalyptic future, the legendary heroes of prophecy wage a galactic war for freedom, in the final book of this epic series.
Ariock is no longer an invincible messiah. In the wake of a rage beyond his control, the Bringer of Hope struggles with defeatism. Meanwhile, Thomas hides a tryst and lets his zombie minions dwindle to shambles. The gloating Torth Majority is in reconquest mode, slicing through liberated territory, and the people of Freedomland fear their vaunted heroes are on the verge of losing the galactic war.
To win, Ariock’s great-grandfather Garrett knows the book of prophecies must unfold the way the ancient oracle intended. But the next fateful vector looks ominous: all the heroes on their knees, in supplication to none other than Thomas. Why does the telepathic supergenius appear dominant over planets, stars, and everyone in the known universe?
Determined to force destiny to favor his mostly human great-grandson, Garrett—with the help of Vy, who loves her wounded Giant with equal parts desire and caution—throws all his efforts into rebuilding Ariock’s confidence. Who else is equipped to smash the emergent death cult among the Torth? Certainly, Thomas and Evenjos cannot defeat endless armadas armed with new weapons invented by enemy supergeniuses.
But soon a more immediate threat interrupts the heroes’ secret struggles and plans. A lurking rogue Torth has infiltrated Freedomland. It seems Thomas is about to meet his match in terms of both genius schemes and zombification ability . . .
13th May – The Wingswept Sky (Dragons of Amontyr #1) by Evelyn Grimald Stone
Cozy Fantasy
Kayleigh Espinosa wanted nothing so much as to be a courier, running messages through the streets of her home, tracing her maps with her own two feet. But on her first day, her hopes are dashed when the Courier Guild’s newest transport dragon chooses her to be his rider. Only, Zapyros isn’t the usual transport dragon. He’s a wardancer, bred for combat and transferred into the Guild after losing his last rider. Now, Kayleigh must figure out what it means for to be a courier and a dragon rider.
When her training master takes a particular dislike to both Kayleigh and Zapyros, she takes matters into her own hands to be the best courier the Guild has ever seen. Facing dangerous flocks of dragons and lightning-filled storms, being a courier is more perilous than she thought. With new friends and a dragon at her side, Kayleigh takes to the skies in the Great Race, the Guild’s most anticipated competition. And she intends to win.
14th May – The Last Cry of Innocence (The Fates of Aten #2) by N.A. Betts
Epic Fantasy
THE DEBT OF FAILURE IS PAID IN BLOOD—OR MADNESS.
War has shattered Alira Verbrandt.
Cornered in Astera, the last stronghold guarding the River Zybril, she clings to what remains of Eastern Radia—and herself. As the ruthless Illyrian Expeditionary Army closes in, Alira’s only hope lies in a man haunted by visions of a future not yet written.
Desperate for answers, she turns westward, forging an uneasy alliance with a daring sea captain whose fire masks secrets as dangerous as the empire they face. Their journey leads through cursed waters, up into the storm-choked peaks of Idel, and into a labyrinth buried deep beneath the world.
What waits there will test everything Alira believes.
The return of their creator draws near, bringing with it the threat of final judgment. To stop what’s coming, Alira must awaken the final Fates—those hidden even from themselves. But time is slipping away, and the price of failure is no longer just death.
I made her a promise. And by my blood, I will keep it.
15th May – Flames that Bind Us (The Tales of Aerym #0) by Noah Isaacs
Grimdark, Sword & Sorcery
Dreams shape both the future and the past. This is the story of Aerym’s first; the story of a fire that bound him to an eternity of torment.
To Aerym, his life consisted of foraging in the woods around his village, passing the time beneath towering pines and bounding over the moss-laden ground underfoot. Well, not anymore. For Aerym is visited in the night by a strange premonition, warning him of a fire so great it will burn his entire village to the ground and everyone along with it.
The only problem? Who is going to believe a nine year old boy who spends more time in the deep forest than with kids his own age? His work cut out for him, Aerym fights to prevent the fires from consuming all that he knows and loves. But time is not on his side.
Nobody else is, for that matter.
What is a dream, if not a sign of what is yet to come?
22nd May – Darsimeon Gone by Kieran Wiesenberg
Cozy Fantasy
Catnapped!
When a beloved class pet goes missing, student sleuth Izra Ravenmott is on the case. The only problem? The prime suspects in this matter are her own classmates.
Across a series of interviews, Izra attempts to piece the puzzle together, though even as clues come to light, questions loom. Who is telling the truth? Who is lying? And at an arcane school like Avenwood Academy, is anything truly as it seems? Only time will tell. Though with a cat’s life hanging in the balance, time is one thing Izra hasn’t got.
Will her detective skills be enough to unravel the mystery? Or will Darsimeon stay gone?
25th May – Perils of the Past by Kane Williams
Epic Fantasy, Sword & Sorcery
THE PAST LIES AHEAD
Bloodied knuckles. Sword cuts. Aching limbs. With each day of training in a mountain temple, Antarna draws closer to the power she’ll need if an assassin strikes once more. Never again will she be helpless.
When magic ravages the temple, the lives of her friends and the future of the congregation hang by a thread. A rare cure for their grave condition offers hope, and so Antarna braves a return to the city she fled as a child.
The journey ahead is fraught with thieves, traitors and tyrants who covet the cure. Lies are as thick as flies. In a desperate race against time, her past may hold vital clues—or offer only deeper peril.
27th May – Cold Silver for Souls (Shadesilver #1) by Tori Tecken
Weird West
Bounty Hunter. Necromancer. Outcast.
She goes on the hunt when the law doesn’t want to get its hands dirty.
Born and bred in the harsh northern winters, Hunter collects bounties on thieves and murderers for a handful of coin, dragging Rip, her animated corpse, behind her. Trust wears thin in the wild Territories, and the law doesn’t always land on the side of justice. Or the side of a necromancer.
Shadowed by the influence of a wealthy Shadesilver baron, Hunter takes on one last job. But instead of an easy payday, Hunter finds something she never expected, something that will tear open old wounds and set her on a path to find justice… for someone else.
27th May – Ravager (Darkblade #10) by Andy Peloquin
Epic Fantasy
The Hunter pits his blades and wits against an army of professional killers-for-hire.
The bastards never stood a chance.
Groebus Dayblood has sought refuge in the Princelands with the Scarlet Ghosts, an organization of assassins that offers no mercy and accepts no failure. Both the traitorous priest and his cutthroat protectors are about to find out the hard, painful way that no one is safe from the Hunter’s wrath.
But when the Hunter’s mission is violently derailed by a massacre, he has no choice but to shift tactics and join forces with old enemies—enemies who’ve got a grudge to settle and good cause to want him dead.
Amid uncertain alliances and treacherous double-dealings, all of the Hunter’s legendary skill, instincts, and inhuman resilience will be needed to see the bloody price of vengeance paid in full by the wicked.
Let the ravaging storm of steel and righteous fury be unleashed!
29th May – The Pawns of Havoc (The Envoys of Chaos) by Dave Lawson
Epic Fantasy, Sword & Sorcery
No Mercy, No Questions Asked.
Cork has quickly made a name for himself among the Kosellan mercenaries, but now his boss has come to him with an unusual job. Cork’s erstwhile countrymen, the Winn, have hired to him to travel into the barren Frozen Lands and destroy a convoy, leaving only one survivor.
Cork isn’t sure he can trust the Winn. He feels like a pawn in their political game. However, his mother is sick and the Winn have promised to heal her if Cork does the job. And killing is what a Cork does best.
To make matters worse. Cork’s crew has been decided for him: Arabella, an inexperienced and infuriating archer, and Nessa, a gloomy criminal with murder on her mind.
Cork will have to figure out how to complete the job, avoid Winn treachery, and manage conflicts with Arabella and Nessa along the way.
It’s going to be chaos.
