I Haven't Watched a New TV Show All Year, But These 12 Book Series Have Kept Me Fully Entertained

Given that we're in the thick of the holiday season, I simply had to start off this list with Meghan Quinn's Kringletown rom-coms. Set in the small town of Kringletown, these stories are so much fun and truly laugh-out-loud funny. Book one, How My Neighbor Stole Christmas, follows the story of Cole Black and Storee Taylor—childhood neighbors who are now grown up, back in the same town and competing against each other in the town's Christmas Kringle contest (which involves tons of entertaining shenanigans). Book two continues with the story of Cole's best friend Max and new-to-town Betty, who helped her uncle open a Christmas tree farm that rivals Max's own. And you can expect just as many hilarious (and flirtatious) moments in this one as the first.

(By the way, Quinn just announced that the title of the third book in this series will be Christmas Staycation—so we already have more to look forward to next year.)

I saw this series described as Harry Potter meets Fourth Wing and was immediately sold. Now that I've read books one and two in the series (with book three on the way in March 2026), I'm entirely invested. It has everything—vampires, fae, dragons, a dark academia setting—alongside a cast of characters that I'm way too emotionally attached to.

Our main character is Medra Pendragon, who falls into the land of Sangratha and is told she is the last dragon rider to exist, but arrived long after the dragons had disappeared. The leaders of the four highblood (vampire) houses determine that she'll have to enroll in Bloodwing Academy, where she'll not only have to deal with the challenges of a new world and cutthroat classes, but Blake Drakharrow—our moody, arrogant main male character—who she quickly finds out she'll have to spend much more time with than she planned. Honestly, I devoured both of these and will be reading the next one the second it releases.

Callie Hart's Quicksilver recently took the internet by storm, so obviously I had to see what all the hype was about—and I wasn't disappointed. This one follows Saeris Fane, who possesses strange powers she has to keep secret to prevent being targeted by the Queen. But after a series of events leads to her being captured by the dangerous fae male, Kingfisher, she finds herself trapped in Yvelia (a fae kingdom where humans haven't been for thousands of years) by traveling through a pool of quicksilver. To avoid spoiling anything, I'll leave you with that. But just trust that you're going to be obsessed with both this fast-paced plot and lovable cast of characters.

(P.S. Both Quicksilver and Brimstone are out now, and I highly recommend diving into these Kingfisher POV bonus scenes in between them for a little extra context!)

Steeped in Slavic folklore, Veronica Roth's Curse Bearer series is the Baba Yaga retelling you never knew you needed. The story begins in the Chicago underworld filled with monsters, with main character Dymitr who is on a mission to find Baba Jaga. To do so, he has to make a deal with a dangerous creature, and ends up journeying alongside Ala, who is a zmora—a humanoid creature who feeds off of fear. Despite growing close throughout their search, Dymitr is hiding information that could destroy it all.

In my experience, this is one of those books that you can start reading, and by the time you look up, have already devoured 50 pages because it's just that captivating. And considering both books in the duology come in at under 230 pages, it's a great series to start (and finish) before your Goodreads challenge ends for the year.

If I'm being honest, it's very rare for me to pick up a thriller that I'm fully invested in, but from the second I hit "play" on the audiobook of Jeneva Rose's The Perfect Marriage, I was totally sucked in. I can't say too much without giving away major spoilers, but this twisty story follows criminal defense attorney Sarah Morgan as she defends her husband, Adam, in a murder charge following the death of Kelly Summers, who he was having an affair with. You'll just have to read to find out how everything turns out—and don't forget to have The Perfect Divorce at the ready to start immediately after.

As you can definitely tell by this list already, I read a lot of romantasy and fantasy series, but this one by Demi Winters felt so fresh and unique. It starts with The Road of Bones, which is a Viking-inspired read that tells the story of main character Silla's epic journey down the Road of Bones (a dangerous route to travel filled with creatures of all kinds, warbands and more) in an attempt to seek safety after her father is murdered. Early in her journey, she finds herself having to convince the Bloodaxe Crew, a group known for their brutality across the land, to help her reach her destination—and, well, you'll just have to read to find out what happens from there.

After I read V.E. Schwab's Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil, I couldn't wait to pick up her other titles, and started with Vicious, the first in the Villains trilogy (the third and final of which is set to release in 2026). This series jumps between two timelines involving the main characters Victor and Eli—one when they were college roommates, and another ten years later, after Victor breaks out of prison. We learn that what brought the two together was a shared interest in supernatural occurrences that occur as a result of near-death experiences, until things (of course) go wrong. The story is enthralling from the get-go and, TBH, I'm convinced that I'll never get enough of Schwab's writing.

(BTW, the audio versions of these books are so good.)

There's something about Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti's writing that always sucks me right in (I mean, I did in fact read book one of Zodiac Academy in one sitting), and Hollow was no exception. This book has such a unique setting, with most of the story taking place in a forest filled with spirits and the monstrous Hollows.

Main character Ferris Creed finds herself in the forest after she enters the bicentennial Great Hunt, which will give her the chance to win a boon from a spirit of the forest and free her sister who was taken by it years ago. Within the forest she finds herself reluctantly agreeing to work together with the broody Prince Bane, a fae male who has plenty of secrets—at least until it comes time for one of them to claim the boon. If you've loved any of Peckham and Valenti's other books, I have no doubt that you'll be just as obsessed with this one as I am. And, good news—book two is already up for preorder and slated to be published in June 2026.

If you ask me, Catherine Doyle's YA/new adult City of Fantome series is seriously underrated. It has a gaslamp kind of vibe with light and shadow magic and a unique plot line (with a true enemies-to-lovers trope and side characters you'll adore) that pulled me in from the first page. It starts out with The Dagger and the Flame, in which main character Sera has to seek protection from the city's notorious thieving order, the Cloaks. The Cloaks are enemies to the Daggers, a rival order of assassins that Ransom (our other main character) is working his way towards becoming the heir of—and is presented with Sera as his next target.

Book two in the series, The Rebel and the Rose, just recently released, too, and I'm loving it just as much as book one so far.

You might have heard about Sable Sorensen's Wolves of Ruin series after it recently earned a whole bunch of buzz online—and I'm here to tell you that hype was totally deserved. Dire Bound follows Meryn Cooper as, after joining the army in an attempt to save her sister, she's thrown into the brutal Bonding Trials, where initiates ascend a treacherous (for both its icy terrain and the fact that initiates will be trying to eliminate each other the whole time) mountain in an attempt to bond with a dire wolf at the top. From there, she has to survive several months of harsh training—and Stark Therion.

If you've been missing the massive wolves from Game of Thrones and love a good war academy setting, trust me when I tell you that you need to pick this one up immediately. Especially since the second in the series, Fury Bound is set to come out in May 2026.

This series by Abigail Owen is such a fun take on Greek mythology. Book one, The Games Gods Play (which I absolutely loved the audio version of, BTW), begins with Lira being entered into the gods' competition, The Crucible, which occurs once every 100 years and involves each of the immortals selecting a human to compete for them in a series of challenges. Lira is chosen by Hades, who's entering the competition for the first time and is playing by his own rules.

And in book two, The Things Gods Break, we enter Tartarus with the Titans—though I won't give anything else away beyond that.The third and final book, The Wrath Gods Reap, was just announced to be published in November 2026, so you won't have to wait long for the conclusion.

If you've read this far in this list, you likely won't be shocked that Rebecca Yarros's Onyx Storm from The Empyrean series was one of my top reads of the year. In case you aren't familiar, the series starts out with Fourth Wing, where Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter war college Basgiath as a scribe, but instead finds herself in league with the brutal dragon riders—including one of the most brutal wingleaders, Xaden Riorson. Throughout her first year, Violet has to fight to survive not just the tough challenges presented by the college (including attempting to bond to a dragon of her own), but other cadets, too—because at Basgiath, you either graduate or die.

This series is so incredibly addictive (yes, I did in fact take PTO to read Onyx Storm), entertaining and masterfully plotted—so if you haven't already dived in, I suggest that you do ASAP, because books four and five will be here before we know it.