A friend asked me recently what 10 2026-releases I expected to be ‘six star’ reads – or in my terms, books I expected to join my Crescent Classics.

Is it early to be calling these? Probably! But she asked, so here’s my list!

The Red Winter by Cameron Sullivan
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: M/M
Published on: 24th February 2026
Goodreads

A devastating love story. A bewitching twist on history. A blood-drenched hunt for purpose, power, and redemption.

In 1785, Professor Sebastian Grave receives the news he fears the most: the terrible Beast of Gévaudan has returned, and the French countryside runs red in its wake.

Sebastian knows the Beast. A monster-slayer with centuries of experience, he joined the hunt for the creature twenty years ago and watched it slaughter its way through a long and bloody winter. Even with the help of his indwelling demon, Sarmodel – who takes payment in living hearts – it nearly cost him his life to bring the monster down.

Now, two decades later, Sebastian has been recalled to the hunt by Antoine Avenel d’Ocerne, an estranged lover who shares a dark history with the Beast and a terrible secret with Sebastian. Drawn by both the chance to finish the Beast for good and the promise of a reconciliation with Antoine, Sebastian cannot refuse.

But Gévaudan is not as he remembers it, and Sebastian’s unfinished business is everywhere he looks. Years of misery have driven the people to desperation, and France teeters on the edge of revolution. Sebastian’s arcane activities – not to mention his demonic counterpart – have also attracted the inquisitorial eye of the French clergy. And the Beast is poised to close his jaws around them all and plunge the continent into war.

Debut author Cameron Sullivan tears the heart out of history with this darkly entertaining retelling of the hunt for the Beast of Gévaudan. Lifting the veil on the hidden world behind our own, it reimagines the story of Europe, from Imperial Rome to Saint Jehanne d’Arc, the madness of Gilles de Rais and the first flickers of the French Revolution.

“An absolute feast of a book: rich, red, sinfully delicious. I've rarely been this satisfied—or this hungry for more.” —Alix E. Harrow, New York Times bestselling author of Starling House

“So bloody good. The Red Winter is absolute ripper entertainment—miss it at your peril!” —Shelley Parker-Chan, bestselling author of She Who Became the Sun

“A gorgeous tangle of history and fresh-made myth. You'll eat this one up.” —Cassandra Khaw, bestselling author of Nothing But Blackened Teeth

“Charming, haunting, ambitious, and a great deal of fun.” —T. Kingfisher, New York Times bestselling author of A Sorceress Comes to Call

Most of the books on this list are here because I already know and love the authors writing them. Red Winter is one of the exceptions; it’s a debut, so I have no experience with this author. But between that synopsis, and the except on its publisher page? My spidey-senses are SCREAMING that this is gonna rock.

Seasons of Glass and Iron: Stories by Amal El-Mohtar
Genres: Adult, Fantasy
Published on: 24th March 2026
Goodreads

Full of glimpses into gleaming worlds and fairy tales with teeth, Seasons of Glass and Iron is a collection of acclaimed and awarded work from Amal El-Mohtar.

With confidence and style, El-Mohtar guides us through exquisitely told and sharply observed tales about life as it is, was, and could be. Like miscellany from other worlds, these stories are told in letters, diary entries, reference materials, folktales, and lyrical prose.

Full of Nebula, Locus, World Fantasy, and Hugo Award-winning and nominated stories, Seasons of Glass and Iron includes "Seasons of Glass and Iron," "The Green Book," "Madeleine," "The Lonely Sea in the Sky," "And Their Lips Rang with the Sun," "The Truth About Owls," "A Hollow Play," "Anabasis," "To Follow the Waves," "John Hollowback and the Witch," "Florilegia, or, Some Lies About Flowers," "Pockets," and more.

It’s Amal El-Mohtar – OBVIOUSLY it’s going to be amazing! If you put her name on a thing, I will buy it and I will love it, it’s a rule of physics.

What We Are Seeking by Cameron Reed
Genres: Adult, Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Representation: Queer MCs
Published on: 7th April 2026
Goodreads

Humanity has scattered around the universe, in fits and starts.

On hostile planets, isolated groups of settlers eke out hardscrabble lives, second class citizens to the network of massive ships who mark their only link to the greater galaxy. John, a doctor from one of these outlying worlds, and Sudharma, his distressingly handsome Jain translator companion, find a world of absurd alien biologies that dazzle the mind… and utterly backwards people.

John’s homeworld developed a communal, matriarchal society to cope with their deadly surroundings, but here, he can’t even go for a walk with a woman without provoking public comment from the powerful religious authorities. His very survival is dependent on maintaining his status amongst this closed, unwelcoming group whose future is not guaranteed, with terrifying Earth, under the thumb of the “aiyi”, developing a looming, alien presence and threatening them all.

The Fortunate Fall, Reed’s debut, was phenomenal, so I’m BEYOND eager for her sophomore novel! Especially because, while FF was pretty grim, What We Are Seeking is being described as a story of queer hope. YES PLEASE AND THANK YOU KINDLY!

An Accident of Dragons (Tales of Summer) by Cheri Radke
Genres: Adult, Fantasy
Representation: Black bi/pansexual MC
Published on: 28th April 2026
Goodreads

No one would have chosen a Lord Summer so wholly ill-suited for the role—no one except the Dragon of Summer herself, it would seem. An indolent and foppish peacock getting a bit old for his typical charms to play well, Teddy has no doubt that the nobles of Summer find him ridiculous. They all know that the only reason the dragon chose him was on account of his connection to the previous Lord Summer as his, uh, special companion.

Still, as long as Teddy can keep the dragon happy, and her blessings continue to bring peace and prosperity to the Isle of Summer, surely he’s doing well enough. Right?

When Summer lays a rare and highly valuable egg, Teddy’s care-free life threatens to fall apart as the egg’s unexpected appearance dredges up long-repressed memories, and outside forces turn avaricious eyes on the insular island. A mysterious, dragon-worshiping cult covets the egg, and when Teddy bungles a self-interested attempt to give it to them, they sail away with his young daughter instead.

If he hopes to save her, Teddy can no longer afford to ignore how his personal shortcomings are putting his country and the people he loves at risk. To match wits with an ambitious sorceress who presents an unflattering mirror of his own flaws, he must face the reality of just how, precisely, he became Lord Summer.

This premise is ridiculously delightful, and the excerpt seals the deal!

Ignore All Previous Instructions by Ada Hoffmann
Genres: Adult, Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Representation: Queer autistic MC, trans love interest
Published on: 12th May 2026
Goodreads

A script supervisor for an AI media conglomerate is caught between her intense need for an orderly life and her deeper, darker queer desires. From the creator of the Outside trilogy, a heartfelt interplanetary epic of identity, longing, and a space pirate who smuggles inappropriate stories.

Kelli Reynolds loves creating stories more than anything in the world. But on Callisto, a generative AI company called Inspiration owns everything, including all the media, and only Inspiration determines which stories can be told.

Kelli has a rare and coveted job in which her autism is to her advantage: She precisely edits AI output into “appropriate” stories for Inspiration’s massive TV audience. Her proudest creation is the pirate Orlando—a dashing do-gooder based on stories she used to tell friends.

Reenter Kelli’s ex-boyfriend Rowan, the person Kelli based Orlando on. Back when they were teenagers, their relationship was a secret. Kelli had thought that Rowan, a trans man, was her schoolmate Em, a girl.

Rowan is tangled up in the black market after he needed to get money for gender reassignment surgery. He needs Kelli’s help with something . . . illegal. So, now Kelli has to decide: Will she risk the safe, tidy story of her life now for the world she once wished for? What would Orlando do?

Passionate, dangerous, and tender, Ignore All Previous Instructions is a sweeping, poignant novel about censorship, forbidden love, and growing up.

Hoffman’s Outside trilogy was just wow after wow after wow, and her next book sounds geared to me specifically!

Villain (Hench, #2) by Natalie Zina Walschots
Genres: Adult, Queer Protagonists, Sci Fi
Representation: Disabled bisexual MC
Published on: 19th May 2026
Goodreads

The Boys meets Starter Villain and Assistant to the Villain in Natalie Zina Walschots’s electrifying, sharp, violent, and hilarious sequel to the highly acclaimed novel, Hench, in which the Auditor must confront the near-impossible in order to right the many wrongs in the superhuman industry…or cause more of them. She’s not picky.

Anna, better known to superheroes as the Auditor, has carved out a name for herself. Any hero unlucky enough to cross her path knows her potential and powers. Surely, success should taste she has an incredible job with lots of perks, and her boss will literally annihilate anyone who crosses her, and her greatest enemy, the former hero Supercollider, has been utterly defeated and literally ground to a pulp.

But Anna still has her sights set on a greater destroying the Draft, the organization that makes, trains, and manages the world’s most powerful superheroes. These “heroes” have shown time and time again that they do more harm than good, and now is the time to stop the damage at its source.

Yet all is not well for the Auditor and her fellow evildoers. Her employer, Leviathan—the world’s most feared supervillain—is not coping well with Supercollider’s defeat at someone else’s hands. Moreover, her unlikely ally and unexpected friend, Quantum Entanglement, has vanished without a trace, leaving Anna to examine all the ways they deceived each other. Tension and uncertainty fill the air, and fear that this moment of triumph is about to crumble looms over all of them.

Anna soon finds herself facing down an opponent unlike any she’s taken on before—not another superhero, but someone like her…someone much more the Draft’s Chief Marketing Officer. This isn’t a test of physical prowess, but ideas, and as the fight spirals deeper and deeper, with new foes popping up every day—she’ll need more than just her superpower—data research—to keep ascending through the supervillain ranks.

It’s guerrilla ad warfare, and the Auditor might have finally met her match.

I adored Hench, the first book in this series, and I see no reason why I shouldn’t adore the sequel!

Code and Codex by Yoon Ha Lee
Genres: Adult, Science Fantasy
Representation: (Probably) queer East Asian MC/s
Published on: 4th June 2026
Goodreads

In the stars-spanning Censorate, all languages other than lingua rubra are forbidden. The Censorate’s ruling Peacock, Aurelia, wields the universal language to manipulate reality itself and to command the obedience of all who hear and understand her.

Valentina was sold as a child to Aurelia to serve as her sworn companion, the Swan, responsible for extracting useful knowledge from foreign texts before destroying their languages wholesale. Until she delivers a book of forbidden verse to the Peacock, which proves to be the key to enslaving the Basilisk, a traitor imprisoned for a thousand years, whose gaze is so powerful that he once destroyed the Censorate’s entire fleet…

THE SOUND I MADE WHEN I SAW THIS HAD AN OFFICIAL RELEASE DATE! I’ve been pining for it for years, ever since whispers about it started floating online. Chances are high that it will be queer and East Asian inspired, and we know for sure that it’s ‘about plans to reach backwards and forwards in time by revising history in this space opera adventure of linguistics magic in the author’s return to adult science fiction’. Yoon is one of my favourite short story writers – if you haven’t read The Fox’s Tower, you must! – and I loved Phoenix Extravagant so much. IT WOULD BE RIDICULOUS NOT TO EXPECT TO LOVE THIS NEW BOOK ALSO!

The Dragon Has Some Complaints by John Wiswell
Genres: Adult, Fantasy
Published on: 14th July 2026
Goodreads

In this heartfelt and humorous fantasy, a dragon whose three heads bear rather…different personalities finds family in the most unexpected of places.

From the Nebula-winning author of Someone You Can Build a Nest In!

Garrodigh was once a four-headed dragon, among the most powerful in Kardoša. After an unfortunate incident, he now has three heads, one stump, and a daily whirlwind of internal bickering. Centerhead wants to rain death upon all humanity, Bottomhead is like a feral cat, and Upperhead is under the delicate delusion that he is, in fact, human.

When a nearby battle goes awry, Garrodigh sneaks into an elite dragon rider academy, pretending to be tame to get free food and a warm bed. Lucky for him, rider Rania Albright is desperate enough for a dragon of her own that she overlooks his eccentricities.

As Garrodigh recovers under Rania’s care, all three heads start to turn, for the first time, in the same direction. Each wants to protect her from the invaders who killed their fourth head—the same invaders who seek to conquer Kardoša. When the academy comes under attack, can this wild dragon and his wilder rider save their homeland together?

This cozy fantasy intertwines epic battles with loving friendships, sharing an utterly unique perspective on what it means to be a ‘monster.’

Okay, I didn’t love Wiswell’s Hercules book. But only because I don’t like Greek mythology! So I refuse to count that as a strike against him as a writer. And since I DID love Someone You Can Build a Nest In with my whole entire heart, and obviously I love dragons and love the sound of this dragon in particular…I will be STUNNED if The Dragon Has Some Complaints doesn’t delight me!

Daggerbound (Swordheart #2) by T. Kingfisher
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Representation: M/M
Published on: 25th August 2026
Goodreads

New York Times bestselling author T. Kingfisher returns to the cozy fantasy world of Swordheart in this deliciously charming sequel.

Four hundred years ago, three warriors were trapped inside enchanted swords, cursed to be immortal servants of whoever wielded the blade. One of them is the Dervish, a restless, fiery soul who hates his captivity and hates his wielders even more, but has never found a way to escape the sword’s magic.

Then one day, a disillusioned scholar named Learned Edmund is tasked with delivering the sword to a distant city, and, in the greatest of peril, draws the blade. The Dervish finds himself bound to a sweet, brilliant, and above all kind young man. And while he may be able to protect Edmund from bandits, cultists, dragons, and strange inhuman diplomats, he may find it much harder to protect his own heart.

It’s perfectly simple: I adored the first book, Swordheart, as I have adored all of Kingfisher’s World of the White Rat books. , and I have been waiting for someone to be smart enough to pay her to write Daggerbound since she released Swordheart. (If she’d decided to write it via crowdsourcing or Patreon, I promise, I’d have been delighted to be the one paying.) FINALLY THE TIME HAS COME! Don’t mind me, I’m only vibrating with excitement!

Thoughts Be Bloody by Auden Patrick
Genres: Adult, Fantasy
Representation: Gay trans MC
Published on: 15th September 2026
Goodreads

A struggling student, a resident golden boy, and the curse that will bring them this queer, trans retelling is Hamlet as you’ve never read it before

Exploring classism, identity, and the true meaning of revolution, this dark academia novel is perfect for fans of R. F. Kuang’s Babel and S. T. Gibson’s An Education in Malice

The summer before his sophomore year, Horatio Bithersea walks into the university library to find Carson Hamlett, resident golden boy and master magician, cradling his father’s dead body. Life at Elsinore, one of the most prestigious universities in the secretive magical world, simply goes on when the professor’s death is ruled an accident—despite the mysterious circumstances and the bloody scene.

 A year later, Horatio is keeping his head down, attempting to graduate without his out-of-control magic harming his classmates. That changes when the ghost of Hamlett’s father appears and places a curse on Horatio and avenge his death by destroying Elsinore and its heart, lest the ghost robs them of their minds, memories, and their very souls.

Elsinore has given Horatio everything—knowledge of his magical ability, an escape from his abusive family, and freedom to pursue his life as a transgender man—and now he’s to be its doom. As the two uncover more of Elsinore’s secrets Horatio finds himself becoming more and more ensnared in Hamlett’s dark but charismatic web. 

The question is not if Horatio will manage to destroy Elsinore. The question is if Hamlett will destroy him first.

Between the premise, the cover, and the excerpt, I am so very confident that this is going to be another Crescent Classic!

Which books are you predicting you’ll love next year?

Related Posts