Paolo Redaelli25 Epic YA Fantasy Standalones for the Commitment-Phobe
Fantasy lovers––are you tired of waiting two, three, four, sometimes half a decade for one story to end? Fantasy newbies––does the idea of reading fantasy intrigue you but when you look at how many books are in most fantasy series you’re just like nahhhh ain’t nobody got time for that?
If you answered ‘yes’ to either of those questions we have the perfect list of books for you! We’ve faithfully stood by The Selection series for 4 years and 5 books, we’re anxiously awaiting a SIXTH Throne of Glass novel, and honestly our hearts can’t take much more. So it’s time to sit back, relax, and enjoy one (or all) of these fantasy standalones—no sequels, no waiting, just one epic story! Below you’ll find the handiest list of fantasy standalones to ever grace the planet of this earth! Enjoy!!
Editor’s Note (March 14, 2017) – This original post included the book Wintersong by S. Jae-Jones. This has since been replaced with Given to the Sea by Mindy McGinnis because our sources have since confirmed that there will be a sequel to Wintersong and therefore it is no longer a standalone!
YA Fantasy Standalones for Commitaphobes
Long May She Reign by Rhiannon Thomas
As twenty-third in line to the throne, Freya was never meant to be queen. But when a banquet turns deadly and the king and those closest to him are poisoned, Freya suddenly finds herself with a crown on her head. She may have escaped the massacre, but she is far from safe. She can’t trust anyone, not even the king’s dashing and enigmatic illegitimate son. With Freya’s enemies closing in, how long will her reign truly be?
Add Long May She Reign to Your Goodreads shelf!Of Fire and Stars by Audrey Coulthurst
A gorgeous fantasy novel about a girl betrothed to a handsome prince…only to fall in love with the prince’s sister. Princess Dennaleia has always known that her marriage will seal the alliance between the Kingdom of Mynaria and her homeland. But Denna possesses an Affinity for fire—a dangerous gift for the future queen of a land where magic is forbidden. With a conflict brewing that makes the alliance more important than ever, Denna must hide her growing magic—and her feelings for the prickly and unconventional Princess Amaranthine. Forced to choose between their duty and their hearts, Mare and Denna must find a way to save their kingdoms—and each other.
Add Of Fire and Stars to your Goodreads shelf!The Siren by Kiera Cass
Our queen Kiera Cass brought us one of our all-time favorite series with The Selection books, but her standalone fantasy novel stole our hearts too! Kahlen is a Siren, bound to serve the Ocean by luring humans to watery graves with her voice, which is deadly to any human who hears it. Akinli is human—a kind, handsome boy who’s everything Kahlen ever dreamed of. Falling in love puts them both in danger . . . but Kahlen can’t bear to stay away. Will she risk everything to follow her heart? Kahlen + Akinli = [heart eye emoji]
Add The Siren to your Goodreads shelf!****So we might be bending the rules of this blog post a bit since these next two are technically companion novels that take place in the same world, but they are two separate stories that can be read independently of each other! And C.J. Redwine is a master at fairy tale retellings so you don’t want to miss them****
The Shadow Queen by C.J. Redwine
THE SHADOW QUEEN is a dark fantasy inspired by Snow White, where one princess must use her magic to take down the wicked queen, while staying one step ahead of the dragon huntsman—who she likes far more than she should.
Add Shadow Queen to your Goodreads Shelf!The Wish Granter by C.J. Redwine
THE WISH GRANTER is inspired by Rumpelstiltskin and features a princess determined to defeat the trickster who convinced her brother to wish away both the safety of his people and his soul in exchange for the crown.
Add The Wish Granter to your Goodreads shelf!Nimona by Noelle Stevenson
A standalone fantasy that’s also a graphic novel?! NIMONA is like a YA unicorn and we love it so much! Nimona is an impulsive young shapeshifter with a knack for villainy. Lord Ballister Blackheart is a villain with a vendetta. As sidekick and supervillain, Nimona and Lord Blackheart are about to wreak some serious havoc. Their mission: prove to the kingdom that Sir Ambrosius Goldenloin and his buddies at the Institution of Law Enforcement and Heroics aren’t the heroes everyone thinks they are.
Add Nimona to your Goodreads shelf!Heartless by Marissa Meyer
As much as we wished the Lunar Chronicles would never end, we love that Marissa Meyer gave us this standalone to quickly devour! In this prequel to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Cath is a favorite of the unmarried King of Hearts. But then Cath meets Jest, the handsome and mysterious court joker. For the first time, she feels the pull of true attraction. At the risk of offending the king and infuriating her parents, she and Jest enter into an intense, secret courtship. Cath is determined to define her own destiny and fall in love on her terms. But in a land thriving with magic, madness, and monsters, fate has other plans.
Add Heartless to your Goodreads shelf!Crimson Bound by Rosamund Hodge
CRIMSON BOUND is a twist on Little Red Riding Hood where a doomed female warrior and the king’s most notorious bastard must join forces to defeat a dark evil. When Rachelle was fifteen she was good—apprenticed to her aunt and in training to protect her village from dark magic. But she was also reckless— straying from the forest path in search of a way to free her world from the threat of eternal darkness. After an illicit meeting goes dreadfully wrong, Rachelle is forced to make a terrible choice that binds her to the very evil she had hoped to defeat.
Add Crimson Bound to your Goodreads shelf!Heir to the Sky by Amanda Sun
As heir to a kingdom of floating continents, Kali has spent her life bound by her duties as a member of the royal family and by the edge of the only world she’s ever known—a small island hovering above a monster-ridden earth, long since uninhabited by humans. When Kali falls off the edge of her kingdom, she is shocked to discover there are still humans on the earth. Determined to get home, Kali entrusts a rugged monster-hunter named Griffin to guide her across a world overrun by chimera, storm dragons, basilisks and other terrifying creatures. But the more time she spends on earth, the more dark truths she begins to uncover about her home in the sky.
Add Heir To The Sky to your Goodreads shelf!Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson
The most beautiful and soul-crushing book ever!! Tinkerbell narrates the magical, bittersweet love story between Tiger Lily and Peter Pan. Tiger Lily has never been truly accepted by her tribe, and now the elders have decreed marriage to a man she doesn’t love. So when she meets wild, fearless Peter Pan, leader of the Lost Boys, Tiger Lily is intoxicated by the freedom she feels with Peter, and falls under his spell. Their love is all-consuming, and she risks everything to be with him. But then Wendy Darling arrives in Neverland…
Add Tiger Lily to your Goodreads shelf!Soundless by Richelle Mead
For as long as Fei can remember, there has been no sound in her village. Fei and her people are at the mercy of a zipline that carries food up the treacherous cliffs from Beiguo, a mysterious faraway kingdom. When villagers begin to lose their sight, deliveries from the zipline shrink and many go hungry. Fei’s home, the people she loves, and her entire existence is plunged into crisis, under threat of darkness and starvation. But soon Fei is awoken in the night by a searing noise, and sound becomes her weapon.
Add Soundless to your Goodreads shelf!The Keeper of the Mist by Rachel Neumeier
Keri has been struggling to run her family bakery since her mother passed away. Now the father she barely knew—the Lord of Nimmira—has died, and ancient magic has decreed that she will take his place as the new Lady. The position has never been so dangerous: the mists that hide Nimmira from its vicious, land-hungry neighbors have failed, and Keri’s people are visible to strangers for the first time since the mists were put in place generations ago. But Keri has three people to guide her: her mysterious Timekeeper, clever Bookkeeper, and steadfast Doorkeeper. Together they must find a way to repair the boundary before her neighbors realize just how vulnerable Nimmira is.
Add The Keeper of the Mist to your Goodreads shelf!
Tell the Wind and Fire by Sarah Rees Brennan
Lucie Manette was born in the Dark half of the city, but careful manipulations won her a home in the Light, celebrity status, and a rich, loving boyfriend. Now she just wants to keep her head down, but her boyfriend has a dark secret of his own—one involving an apparent stranger who is destitute and despised. Lucie alone knows the young men’s deadly connection, and even as the knowledge leads her to make a grave mistake, she can trust no one with the truth.
Add Tell The Wind and Fire to your Goodreads shelf!A Criminal Magic by Lee Kelly
Washington, DC, 1926. Sorcery opponents have succeeded in passing the 18th Amendment, but the Prohibition of magic has only invigorated the city’s underworld. Smuggling rings carry magic contraband in from the coast. Joan Kendrick, a young sorcerer from the backwoods of Norfolk County, accepts an offer to work for DC’s most notorious crime syndicate, The Shaw Gang, when her family’s home is repossessed. Alex Danfrey, first-year Federal Prohibition Unit trainee with a complicated past and talents of his own, becomes tapped to go undercover and infiltrate the Shaws. When Joan meets Alex at the Shaws’ magic haven, she discovers a confidante in her fellow partner and he begins to fall under her spell. But when a new breed of the addictive sorcerer’s shine is created within the walls of the magic haven, Joan and Alex are forced to question their allegiances as they become pitted against one another in a dangerous, heady game of cat-and-mouse.
Add a Criminal Magic to your Goodreads shelf!The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black
Hazel and her brother, Ben, live in Fairfold, where humans and the Folk exist side by side. Tourists drive in to see the lush wonders of Faerie and, most wonderful of all, the horned boy. But visitors fail to see the danger. Since they were children, Hazel and Ben have been telling each other stories about the boy in the glass coffin, that he is a prince and they are valiant knights, pretending their prince would be different from the other faeries, the ones who made cruel bargains, lurked in the shadows of trees, and doomed tourists. But as Hazel grows up, she puts aside those stories. Hazel knows the horned boy will never wake. Until one day, he does….
Add The Darkest Part Of The Forest to your Goodreads shelf!Unhooked by Lisa Maxwell
For as long as she can remember, Gwendolyn Allister has never had a place to call home. Her mother believes they are being hunted by brutal monsters, and those delusions have brought them to London. Gwen’s only saving grace is that her best friend, Olivia, is with her for the summer. But shortly after their arrival, the girls are kidnapped by shadowy creatures and dragged into a world of flesh-eating sea hags and dangerous Fey. And Gwen begins to realize that maybe her mother isn’t so crazy after all… Gwen discovers that this new world she inhabits is called Neverland, but it’s nothing like the Neverland you’ve heard about in stories. As Gwen struggles to remember where she came from and tries to find a way home, she must choose between trusting the charming fairy-tale hero who says all the right things and the captivating pirate who promises to keep her safe.
Add Unhooked to your Goodreads shelf!Vassa in the Night by Sarah Porter
In the enchanted kingdom of Brooklyn, the fashionable people put on cute shoes, go to parties in warehouses, drink on rooftops at sunset, and tell themselves they’ve arrived. A whole lot of Brooklyn is like that now―but not Vassa’s working-class neighborhood. In Vassa’s neighborhood, where she lives with her stepmother and bickering stepsisters, one might stumble onto magic, but stumbling away again could become an issue. Babs Yagg, the owner of the local convenience store, has a policy of beheading shoplifters―and sometimes innocent shoppers as well. So when Vassa’s stepsister sends her out for light bulbs in the middle of night, she knows it could easily become a suicide mission. But Vassa has a bit of luck hidden in her pocket, a gift from her dead mother. Erg is a tough-talking wooden doll with sticky fingers, a bottomless stomach, and a ferocious cunning. With Erg’s help, Vassa just might be able to break the witch’s curse and free her Brooklyn neighborhood. But Babs won’t be playing fair….
Add Vassa in the Night to your Goodreads shelf!Illusionarium by Heather Dixon
What if the world holds more dangers—and more wonders—than we have ever known? And what if there is more than one world? Jonathan is perfectly ordinary. But then—as every good adventure begins—the king swoops into port, and Jonathan and his father are enlisted to find the cure to a deadly plague. Jonathan discovers that he’s a prodigy at working with a new chemical called fantillium, which creates shared hallucinations—or illusions. And just like that, Jonathan is knocked off his path.
Add Illusionarium to your Goodreads shelf!Uprooted by Naomi Novik
Agnieszka loves her valley home, her quiet village, the forests and the bright shining river. But the corrupted Wood stands on the border, full of malevolent power, and its shadow lies over her life. Her people rely on the cold, driven wizard known only as the Dragon to keep its powers at bay. But he demands a terrible price for his help: one young woman handed over to serve him for ten years, a fate almost as terrible as falling to the Wood. The next choosing is fast approaching, and Agnieszka is afraid. She knows—everyone knows—that the Dragon will take Kasia: beautiful, graceful, brave Kasia, all the things Agnieszka isn’t, and her dearest friend in the world. And there is no way to save her. But Agnieszka fears the wrong things. For when the Dragon comes, it is not Kasia he will choose.
Add Uprooted to your Goodreads shelf!Given to the Sea by Mindy McGinnis
Khosa is Given to the Sea, a girl born to be fed to the water, her flesh preventing a wave like the one that destroyed the Kingdom of Stille in days of old. But before she’s allowed to dance – an uncontrollable twitching of the limbs that will carry her to the shore in a frenzy – she must produce an heir. Yet the thought of human touch sends shudders down her spine that not even the sound of the tide can match.
Vincent is third in line to inherit his throne, royalty in a kingdom where the old linger and the young inherit only boredom. When Khosa arrives without an heir he knows his father will ensure she fulfills her duty, at whatever cost. Torn between protecting the throne he will someday fill, and the girl whose fate is tied to its very existence, Vincent’s loyalty is at odds with his heart.
Add Given to the Sea to your Goodreads shelf!The Kingdom Of Little Wounds by Suzann Cokal
On the eve of Princess Sophia’s wedding, the Scandinavian city of Skyggehavn prepares to fete the occasion with a sumptuous display of riches. Yet beneath the veneer of celebration, a shiver of darkness creeps through the palace halls. A mysterious illness plagues the royal family, threatening the lives of the throne’s heirs, and a courtier’s wolfish hunger for the king’s favors sets a devious plot in motion.
Add The Kingdom of Little Wound to your Goodreads shelf!Revenge and The Wild by Michelle Modesto
The two-bit town of Rogue City is a lawless place, full of dark magic and saloon brawls, monsters and six-shooters. But it’s perfect for seventeen-year-old Westie, the notorious adopted daughter of local inventor Nigel Butler. Westie was only a child when she lost her arm and her family to cannibals on the wagon trail. Nine years later, Westie may seem fearsome with her foul-mouthed tough exterior and the powerful mechanical arm built for her by Nigel, but the memory of her past still haunts her. She’s determined to make the killers pay for their crimes—and there’s nothing to stop her except her own reckless ways.
Add Revenge and The Wild to your Goodreads shelf!The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
Welcome to Le Cirque des Rêves, where behind the smoke and mirrors lies a fierce competition. A contest between two young illusionists, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood to compete in a “game” to which they have been irrevocably bound by their mercurial masters. Unbeknownst to the players, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. The Night Circus will keep you on your toes- this spell bounding love story is not to be missed.
Add The Night Circus to your Goodreads shelf!Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge
Graceling meets Beauty and the Beast in this sweeping fantasy about one girl’s journey to fulfill her destiny and the monster who gets in her way-by stealing her heart. Based on the classic fairy tale Beauty and the Beast, Cruel Beauty is a dazzling love story about our deepest desires and their power to change our destiny.
Add Cruel Beauty to your Goodreads shelf!The Chaos Of the Stars by Kiersten White
The Chaos of The Stars is an enchanting novel set in Egypt and San Diego that captures the magic of first love and the eternally complicated truth about family. Isadora’s family is seriously screwed up—which comes with the territory when you’re the human daughter of the ancient Egyptian gods Isis and Osiris. Isadora is tired of living with crazy relatives who think she’s only worthy of a passing glance—so when she gets the chance to move to California with her brother, she jumps on it. But her new life comes with plenty of its own dramatic—and dangerous—complications . . . and Isadora quickly learns there’s no such thing as a clean break from family.
Add The Chaos of The Stars to your Goodreads shelf!
