Two Post Tuesday?! I realized today date is 2/2/22 and couldn’t let it go by without commemorating it with a post. And what better way to celebrate a Tuesday full of twos than with a post about duologies?
I love duologies. When a standalone is too short and a trilogy is too long, I take a page from Goldilocks’ book and reach for something that’s just right. I came up with the idea for this post pretty late and just threw it together from my bookshelf and TBR, so there’s a chance I might add to it tomorrow after work. But for now, here are 14 fantasy duologies you can read for 2/2/22.
KEY:
* = ongoing series
☆ = not yet released
1. Kingdom of the Cards, Janella Angeles
Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Dark Fantasy, Romance, Retellings
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Pitched as The Phantom of the Opera meets Moulin Rouge, the story follows Hellfire House’s star showgirl who, haunted by a dark past, must enter a magician’s competition in order to secure her freedom from the handsome, enigmatic keeper of the club, even as mysterious accidents seem to plague her every move.
Reviews: The Music of the Night (Kingdom of Cards: Where Dreams Descend – Janella Angeles)
Point of No Return (Kingdom of Cards: When Night Breaks- Janella Angeles)
Related posts: Recap: Where Dreams Descend (Kingdom of Cards #1) – Janella Angeles
2. All the Stars and Teeth, Adalyn Grace
Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Fantasy, Action/Adventure
Publisher: Imprint (Macmillan)
A feminist YA fantasy duology in which a fierce princess strikes a deal with a pirate and embarks on a high-seas adventure to master a vicious magic before it destroys her kingdom.
Reviews: A Monstrous Princess and A Kingdom in the Sea (All the Stars and Teeth – Adalyn Grace)
Mermaids, Monsters, and Magic (All the Stars and Teeth: All the Tides of Fate – Adalyn Grace)
3. The Celestial Kingdom , Sue Lynn Tan*
Genre: Adult, Fantasy, Retelling
Publisher: HarperCollins (US), Harper Voyager (UK)
Pub Date: Nov 15
A captivating debut fantasy inspired by the legend of Chang’e, the Chinese moon goddess, in which a young woman’s quest to free her mother pits her against the most powerful immortal in the realm.
Review: Fly Me to the Moon (The Celestial Kingdom Duology: Daughter of the Moon Goddess – Sue Lynn Tan)
4. Six Crimson Cranes, Elizabeth Lim*
Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Fantasy, Folklore, Retellings
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers (Penguin Random House), Hodder & Stoughton (Hachette UK)
Pub Date: Aug 30
Set in the same world as Spin the Dawn, Six Crimson Cranes centers an exiled princess who must unweave the curse that turned her brothers into cranes, assisted by her spurned betrothed, a mercurial dragon, and a paper bird brought to life by her own magic.
Related Posts: TBR and Beyond Blog Tour: 15 Reactions While Reading Six Crimson Cranes – Elizabeth Lim
Review: From Brothers to Birds (Six Crimson Cranes – Elizabeth Lim)
5. Sands of Arawiya, Hafsah Faizal
Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Fantasy, Romance
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (MacMillan)
The #ownvoices YA fantasy, set in a world inspired by ancient Arabia, follows Zafira, a young woman who must disguise herself as a man to seek a lost artifact that could return magic to her cursed world.
6. Dance of Thieves, Mary E. Pearson
Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Fantasy, Romance
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (Macmillan)
Set in the universe of the Remnant Chronicles, the book centers on a reformed thief who is sent by the Queen of Venda to investigate a disturbance in a distant land, where she finds herself matching wits with the leader of an outlaw dynasty.
Related Posts: Recap: Dance of Thieves (Book #1) – Mary E. Pearson
7. The Book of Tea, Judy I. Lin
Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Historical Fantasy
Publisher: Feiwel and Friends (Macmillan)
Release Date: March 29
A YA fantasy duology inspired by Chinese history and mythology. The story follows commoner Ning as she fights to save her dying sister by entering the palace’s first magical tea-brewing competition. But political schemes and secrets make her goal of winning access to the royal physicians far more dangerous than she imagined.
8. Six of Crows, Leigh Bardugo
Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Fantasy, Action/Adventure
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (Macmillan)
A blend of Ocean’s 11 and Game of Thrones, the story is set in Kerch, a small island nation in the “Grishaverse” (meaning the same universe as her Shadow and Bone books) with tremendous economic power, the hub of all international trade and a country rich in art and culture, but also home to a teeming criminal underworld. A crew of dangerous misfits face impossible odds when they are pulled together to break into one of the most guarded places in the world.
9. Rime Chronicles, Mindee Arnett
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Publisher: Balzer + Bray (HarperCollins)
The series follows the daughter of a traitor and the rebel prince who were once childhood friends and first loves before betrayals broke them apart; now they must work together to uncover a sinister new threat to the kingdom
10. The Merciful Crow, Margaret Owen
Genre: Romance, Women’s Fiction, Humor
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (Macmillan)
A YA fantasy series that follows a girl from a caste of mercy-killers who can steal magic from the teeth of the dead. When her persecuted clan is targeted by a ruthless usurper queen, she must smuggle the crown prince and his bodyguard to safety.
11. Wilderwood, Hannah F. Whitten*
Genre: Dark Fantasy, Romance, Action/Adventure
Publisher: Orbit Books
Release Date: June 7
Whitten’s debut sees a young woman sacrificed to the Wolf of the Wood—only to discover that the wolf is really a man, the gods have become monsters, and she herself harbors powerful magic.
12. Monsters of Verity, Victoria Schwab
Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Dark Fantasy
Publisher: Greenwillow Books (HarperCollins)
Monster tells the story of a teen boy and girl who never should have met, since their fathers are rival leaders of a divided city where violence breeds literal monsters. Conspiracies and betrayals send the teens on the run for their lives, but together, they could become each other’s worst nightmare.
13. Violet Made of Thorns, Gina Chen ☆
Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Fantasy, Fairy Tales
Publisher: Delacorte Press (Penguin Random House)
Pub Date: July 26
A fairy tale-inspired YA fantasy debut. Violet is a prophet and a liar, influencing the court as Seer with her cleverly phrased divinations. When she’s asked to falsely prophesy Prince Cyrus’s love story at an upcoming ball, she awakens both a dreaded curse about the prince’s future bride, as well as a doomed attraction between her and Cyrus, spelling destruction for them all.
14. Strike the Zither, Joan He ☆
Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Historical Fantasy
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press (Macmillan)
Pub Date: Nov. 8
A reimagining of the Chinese military epic Romance of the Three Kingdoms, in which a strategist must help her warlordess to victory against the rival kingdoms to the north and the south while overcoming her fate as written by the gods.
Do you like duologies? Leave recs in the comments if you do or tell me why if you don’t!
Little Corner Reads 
This is such a fun post idea and a fantastic list! I love duologies, they always hit that sweet spot for me.
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Thanks Lay! They really do!!
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I’m really ashamed to say that I haven’t read any of these books but I have loads in them on my TBR, I’m hoping to tackle SoC and TVD soon 🤞🤞
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That’s okay, there are a couple that are still on my TBR too! I wasn’t a huge fan of TVD (haven’t read OVE yet,) but I love SoC 😍 I hope you enjoy!!
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Thanks 😊
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[…] recommended 14 fantasy duologies to celebrate the wonderful date that was […]
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I haven’t read any of these except Six of Crows, Monsters of Verity, so I should probably get a move on! We Hunt the Flame and For the Wolf have been on my radar for a while, though, so hearing that you’d recommend them has me even more excited! 🤗
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Monsters of Verity and We Hunt the Flame are both on my TBR! This list was a combination of books I’ve read and want to read haha. I hope you enjoy them when you get to them 🙂
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[…] Veronica recommended 14 fantasy duologies […]
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Duologies are so much fun, I haven’t read too many but some of my favorites is This Savage Song! I need to catch up on a lot of these 😅
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Ooh that’s on my TBR too! Maybe I’ll pick it up once I finish some of these 😅
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I love duologies too! There are so many great recommendations here. Sands of Arawiya is probably one of my favorites. I cannot wait for Violet Made As Thorn.
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Ahh I’m excited about Sands of Arawiya. It’s been one of the more anticipated books on my TBR, and I read an excerpt a while back and loved it!
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