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Allen, Violet: Plastic, Prism, Void (LittlePuss Press 978-1964322025, $19.95, 336pp, formats: paperback, 05/19/2026)

Trans fantasy romance novel. Acrasia, a trans intergalactic moth goddess, has a love-hate relationship with a trans mech pilot from another universe, and is determiend to keep him in her dimension. A first novel.

 

Anonymous: A Breath of Time (Flame Tree Collections UK 978-1835627822, $30.00, 416pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, 05/19/2026)

Fantasy romance anthology. Stories involve time-bending, time traveling, different timelines, and alternate history. Part of Flame Tree’s Romantic Fantasy series.

 

Barker, RJ: Mortedant’s Peril (Tor 978-1250398802, $28.99, 432pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audiobook, 05/19/2026)

Fantasy novel, first in the Trials of Irody Hasp series. Irody is a low-level Mortedant — a thankless job that involves reading the last thoughts of the dead — and has to clear his name when he’s implicated in his own apprentice’s murder. Simultaneous with the Macmillan/Tor UK edition.

 

Bruce, Camilla: The Temptation of Charlotte North (Penguin Random House/Del Rey 978-0593724972, $18.99, 448pp, formats: paperback, ebook, audiobook, 05/19/2026)

Gothic supernatural novel. Rebellious young woman Charlotte sees potential in a spirit on a remote island, but must overcome the wishes of a priest and schoolteacher to banish it.

 

Chefchaouni, Loretta: The Lustrous Dark (Peachtree Teen 978-1682638378, $19.99, 368pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audiobook, 05/19/2026)

Dark fantasy novel. Midwife’s apprentice Shay discovers tries to save her long-lost mother, only to be abandoned in a deadly, ghoul-inhabited forest.

 

Coverly, S.D.: The Arcane Arts (Penguin Random House/Del Rey 978-0593974223, $29.00, 400pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audiobook, 05/19/2026)

Dark academia romance novel. Ellsbeth is drawn to arcane Newlyn University, meets Professor Thaddeus Rawlins, and falls into a romance with him as he supervises her thesis in illegal mind-control magic. This is a pen name for Dan Frey & Dana Schwartz.

 

Fitzgerald, Patrick: Navigators You Can Trust (Podium Publishing 979-8347007738, $19.99, 420pp, formats: paperback, ebook, audiobook, 05/19/2026)

Fantasy adventure novel, first in the Navigators trilogy. The Navigational Brotherhood use their magical abilities as peacekeepers in the Perpetual War; fresh recruits get sent on a mission to retrieve a powerful talisman.

 

Isaacs, Robert: It’s Hard to Be an Animal (Grand Central 978-1538773284, $18.99, 288pp, formats: paperback, ebook, audiobook, 05/19/2026)

Magical realism/fantasy novel. On a blind date, Henry suddenly gains the ability to understand animals, and overhears three rats discussing a corpse in the New York subway, prompting him and his date to investigate.

 

King, Rachael: Song of the Saltings (Simon & Schuster/McElderry 978-1665984331, $19.99, 336pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, 05/19/2026)

Young-adult folk horror novel. On Lotta’s island, a fearsome creature called the Glimm demands yearly sacrifices, but it rejected Lotta as a child. Now the sacrificial horses don’t seem to appease it, and a blight is harming the island.

 

Mare, Annie: A Star-Cursed Heart (Ace 978-0593817506, $18.99, 352pp, formats: paperback, ebook, audiobook, 05/19/2026)

Fantasy romance novel. In modern-day Salem, Lucy Prynne and Ashes Steadfast are descended from the town’s original families and made to fight each with conflicting curses, but the two women are also friends in love. Mare has co-authored mystery and romance novels with Ruthie Knox (some under the name Mae Marvel), along with new-adult romance as Robin York.

 

Moore, Alan: I Hear a New World (Bloomsbury UK/Archer 978-1-526643292, £20.00, 336pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audiobook, 05/21/2026)

Fantasy novel, second in the Long London quintet. In 1958, Dennis Knuckleyard discovers that a key from the Great When that he gave away years ago has unleashed occult creatures on London.

 

Nayler, Ray: Palaces of the Crow (Macmillan/Farrar, Straus, Giroux/MCD 978-0374620752, $28.07, 384pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audiobook, 05/19/2026)

Speculative novel. A group of four survives the German blitzkrieg in 1941; as they cross forested borderland, an intelligent flock of crows befriends by Neriya, a Jewish girl dreaming of becoming a biologist. Simultaneous with the Orion UK/Weidenfeld & Nicolson edition.

 

Raasch, Sara: The Fake Divination Offense (Tor/Bramble 978-1250428790, $19.99, 336pp, formats: paperback, ebook, audiobook, 05/19/2026)

Fantasy sports romance novel, second in the Magic and Romance duology. Rawball star half-giant Orok is forced into a PR relationship with fan-favorite cheerleader Alexo Warden.

 

Rex, T.K.: The Wildcraft Drones (Stelliform Press 978-1998466030, $15.99, 202pp, formats: paperback, 05/21/2026)

Collection of fourteen sci-fi tales. In the future, humans grapple with AI intelligence alongside climate crisis. Scientists make contact with a wild dolphin, and a drone is depressed after his human companion dies.

 

Rozakis, Caitlin: Startup Hell (Titan Books UK 978-1835415863, $19.99, 432pp, formats: paperback, ebook, audiobook, 05/19/2026)

Satirical fantasy novel. Morgan, junior salesperson at a tech startup, is sucked into the infernal plane. after she discovers her dead boss tried to trade his soul for profits.

 

Sawyer, Robert J.: The Downloaded 2: Ghosts in the Machine (Shadowpaw Press 978-1998273560, $16.99, 260pp, formats: paperback, audiobook, 05/19/2026)

Science Fiction Novel. Ex-convict Roscoe Koudoulian re-uploads his consciousness into cyberspace, where he’s confronted with someone he left for dead centuries ago.

 

Smith, Ali: Glyph (Penguin Random House/Pantheon 978-0593701584, $28.00, 288pp, formats: hardcover, paperback, ebook, audiobook, 05/19/2026)

Speculative literary novel, a companion to Gliff. Sisters Petra and Patch, now grown and estranged, reunite after Patch finds a phantom horse destroying her bedroom furniture. First US edition (Hamish Hamilton 1/26).

 

Summers, Georgia: Trollheim: Tale of Systir (Titan Books UK 978-1835416648, $28.99, 288pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, 05/19/2026)

Fantasy novel. A Nordic girl, Sýstir, runs for her life when her mother is executed for witchcraft. She finds sanctuary among the mythical beings of Trollheim, but seeks to find out what happened to her missing sister Ada.

 

Tanzer, Molly: And Side By Side They Wander (Tordotcom 978-1250382054, $24.99, 112pp, formats: hardcover, ebook, audiobook, 05/19/2026)

SF novella. Fennel Tycho works with ragtag team to pull off an interstellar heist from an alien museum refusing to return humankind’s greatest art to Earth.

 

Villaire, Alyssa: The Neon Sky (Little, Brown 978-0316574983, $19.99, 400pp, formats: hardcover, paperback, ebook, audiobook, 05/19/2026)

Young-adult fantasy novel, sequel to The Glittering Edge. Penny and her witch boyfriend Alonso try to help their friend Corey undo the bloody magical bargain that made his family rich — but the cost of breaking it is taking a life.

 

Yeeun, Cho: Teddy Bears Never Die (Headline UK/Wildfire 978-1035431250, £14.99, 304pp, formats: paperback, ebook, audiobook, 05/21/2026)

Genre-bending novel with horror elements. Hwayoung, who lost her mother in a mass-poisoning attack, teams with Doha, whose mind is trapped in a teddy bear, to get revenge. Translated from the Korean by Sung Ryu.

 

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