Servant of the Crown
The wizard's butler nathan lowell
Crown of Shadows K. M. Shea
Becoming Crone by Lydia Hawke
The Accidental Alchemist by Gigi Pandian

I’m so excited about this year’s Wyrd and Wonder. I love month long genre celebrations. The first weekly prompt is a hard one. What are the top fantasy books I’ve read in the last year? (Yeah, I know there are six…)

I’ve started reading all kinds of Melissa McShane’s books. I love her Extraordinaries series but I started those over a year ago. She has another group of series about the world of Tremontane. It is a world where magic exists but magic users are discriminated against. Servant of the Crown features a noble woman who is summoned to the capital to be a lady in waiting to the dowager queen for 6 months. She wants nothing to do with this. She’s too busy with her responsibilities running her own publishing business. It isn’t an invitation she can refuse though. When she gets there all she really wants to do is visit the famous library. But she is refused entry and that makes her start to wonder if something shady is going on.

The Wizard’s Butler was delightful. An Army veteran takes a job as a butler to an eccentric old man. He is hired by the man’s niece who warns him that the man has dementia. He thinks he is a wizard. Turns out that he really is. This book was so cozy to listen to. I absolutely recommend it on audio.

K.M. Shea’s Crown of Shadows is the start of her second series about the town of Magiford, which is the magical hub of the U.S. Midwest. I’d start with her first series (but I read that over a year ago.) I love all three series that she has in this world. They are all funny, have great characters, and have wonderful slow burn romances.

Cackle is a celebration of becoming a wicked witch. What else could you want?

Becoming Crone gets on this list for featuring an older female protagonist. The story starts on her 60th birthday. I give bonus points to any book with heroines over 30. We need more!

The Accidental Alchemist is the start of a fun series about an unaging alchemist and a food-loving gargoyle. All the food descriptions in this book are amazing. The whole series makes me hungry.