I love a good series. Give me something epic that takes over 15 years to write and 12 books, and you’ve got me excited for a good long time. However, there’s some books that I wish were shorter and didn’t take decades of my life to wait and read. There’s tons of merit in a huge series, but there’s also something magical about keeping the series short.
That’s where duologies come in. They’re only two books, capture the story, and convey their message without having to worry that the author will die before they’re done writing it.
YA Fantasy seems to do duologies better than adult fantasy and I’m totally fine with that. While I love an epic YA fantasy, I would much rather keep those shorter and save my time for the bigger adult fantasy novels. So I’m sharing the few that I’ve adored and I think you will too. If you’re looking to get into a fantasy series, here’s a great way to start (and all the books are published, so no waiting for book 2 on these).
Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo
Six of Crows
Ketterdam: a bustling hub of international trade where anything can be had for the right price―and no one knows that better than criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker. Kaz is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. But he can’t pull it off alone. . . . Kaz’s crew of six is the only thing that might stand between the world and destruction―if they don’t kill each other first.
Crooked Kingdom
Kaz Brekker and his crew have just pulled off a heist so daring even they didn’t think they’d survive. But instead of divvying up a fat reward, they’re right back to fighting for their lives. Double-crossed and badly weakened, the crew is low on resources, allies, and hope. As powerful forces from around the world descend on Ketterdam to root out the secrets of the dangerous drug known as jurda parem, old rivals and new enemies emerge to challenge Kaz’s cunning and test the team’s fragile loyalties.
Strange the Dreamer and Muse of Nightmares by Laini Taylor
Strange the Dreamer
The dream chooses the dreamer, not the other way around–and Lazlo Strange, war orphan and junior librarian, has always feared that his dream chose poorly. Since he was just five years old, he’s been obsessed with the mythic lost city of Weep, but it would take someone bolder than he to cross half the world in search of it. Then a stunning opportunity presents itself, in the form of a hero called the Godslayer and a band of legendary warriors, and he has to seize his chance or lose his dream forever.
What happened in Weep two hundred years ago to cut it off from the rest of the world? And who is the blue-skinned goddess who appears in Lazlo’s dreams.
Muse of Nightmares
In the wake of tragedy, neither Lazlo nor Sarai are who they were before. One a god, the other a ghost, they struggle to grasp the new boundaries of their selves as dark-minded Minya holds them hostage, intent on vengeance against Weep.
Lazlo faces an unthinkable choice–save the woman he loves, or everyone else?–while Sarai feels more helpless than ever. But is she? Sometimes, only the direst need can teach us our own depths, and Sarai, the muse of nightmares, has not yet discovered what she’s capable of.
As humans and godspawn reel in the aftermath of the citadel’s near fall, a new foe shatters their fragile hopes, and the mysteries of the Mesarthim are resurrected: Where did the gods come from, and why? What was done with thousands of children born in the citadel nursery? And most important of all, as forgotten doors are opened and new worlds revealed: Must heroes always slay monsters, or is it possible to save them instead?
Crier’s War and Iron Heart by Nina Varela
Crier’s War
After the War of Kinds ravaged the kingdom of Rabu, the Automae, designed to be the playthings of royals, usurped their owners’ estates and bent the human race to their will.
Now Ayla, a human servant rising in the ranks at the House of the Sovereign, dreams of avenging her family’s death…by killing the sovereign’s daughter, Lady Crier.
Crier was Made to be beautiful, flawless, and to carry on her father’s legacy. But that was before her betrothal to the enigmatic Scyre Kinok, before she discovered her father isn’t the benevolent king she once admired, and most importantly, before she met Ayla.
Now, with growing human unrest across the land, pressures from a foreign queen, and an evil new leader on the rise, Crier and Ayla find there may be only one path to love: war.
Iron Heart
For too long, Automae have lorded over the kingdom of Rabu, oppressing its human citizens. But the human revolution has risen, and at its heart is Ayla. Once a handmaiden, now a fugitive, Ayla narrowly escaped the palace of Lady Crier, the girl she would’ve killed if she hadn’t fallen in love first.
Now Ayla has pledged her allegiance to Queen Junn, who can help accomplish the human rebellion’s ultimate goal: destroy the Iron Heart. Without its power, the Automae will be weakened to the point of extinction. Ayla wants to succeed, but can’t shake the strong feelings she’s developed for Crier. And unbeknownst to her, Crier has also fled the palace, taking up among traveling rebels, determined to find and protect Ayla.
Even as their paths collide, nothing can prepare them for the dark secret underlying the Iron Heart.
Dread Nation and Deathless Divide by Justina Ireland
Dread Nation
Jane McKeene was born two days before the dead began to walk the battlefields of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania—derailing the War Between the States and changing the nation forever.
In this new America, safety for all depends on the work of a few, and laws like the Native and Negro Education Act require certain children attend combat schools to learn to put down the dead.
But there are also opportunities—and Jane is studying to become an Attendant, trained in both weaponry and etiquette to protect the well-to-do. It’s a chance for a better life for Negro girls like Jane. After all, not even being the daughter of a wealthy white Southern woman could save her from society’s expectations.
But that’s not a life Jane wants. Almost finished with her education at Miss Preston’s School of Combat in Baltimore, Jane is set on returning to her Kentucky home and doesn’t pay much mind to the politics of the eastern cities, with their talk of returning America to the glory of its days before the dead rose.
But when families around Baltimore County begin to go missing, Jane is caught in the middle of a conspiracy, one that finds her in a desperate fight for her life against some powerful enemies. And the restless dead, it would seem, are the least of her problems.
Deathless Divide
After the fall of Summerland, Jane McKeene hoped her life would get simpler: Get out of town, stay alive, and head west to California to find her mother. But nothing is easy when you’re a girl trained in putting down the restless dead, and a devastating loss on the road to a protected village called Nicodemus has Jane questioning everything she thought she knew about surviving in 1880s America.
What’s more, this safe haven is not what it appears—as Jane discovers when she sees familiar faces from Summerland amid this new society. Caught between mysteries and lies, the undead, and her own inner demons, Jane soon finds herself on a dark path of blood and violence that threatens to consume her. But she won’t be in it alone. Katherine Deveraux never expected to be allied with Jane McKeene.
But after the hell she has endured, she knows friends are hard to come by—and that Jane needs her too, whether Jane wants to admit it or not. Watching Jane’s back, however, is more than she bargained for, and when they both reach a breaking point, it’s up to Katherine to keep hope alive—even as she begins to fear that there is no happily-ever-after for girls like her.
Warcross and Wildcard by Marie Lu
Warcross
For the millions who log in every day, Warcross isn’t just a game—it’s a way of life. The obsession started ten years ago and its fan base now spans the globe, some eager to escape from reality and others hoping to make a profit. Struggling to make ends meet, teenage hacker Emika Chen works as a bounty hunter, tracking down Warcross players who bet on the game illegally. But the bounty-hunting world is a competitive one, and survival has not been easy. To make some quick cash, Emika takes a risk and hacks into the opening game of the international Warcross Championships—only to accidentally glitch herself into the action and become an overnight sensation.
Convinced she’s going to be arrested, Emika is shocked when instead she gets a call from the game’s creator, the elusive young billionaire Hideo Tanaka, with an irresistible offer. He needs a spy on the inside of this year’s tournament in order to uncover a security problem . . . and he wants Emika for the job. With no time to lose, Emika’s whisked off to Tokyo and thrust into a world of fame and fortune that she’s only dreamed of. But soon her investigation uncovers a sinister plot, with major consequences for the entire Warcross empire.
Wildcard
Emika Chen barely made it out of the Warcross Championships alive. Now that she knows the truth behind Hideo’s new NeuroLink algorithm, she can no longer trust the one person she’s always looked up to, who she once thought was on her side.
Determined to put a stop to Hideo’s grim plans, Emika and the Phoenix Riders band together, only to find a new threat lurking on the neon-lit streets of Tokyo. Someone’s put a bounty on Emika’s head, and her sole chance for survival lies with Zero and the Blackcoats, his ruthless crew. But Emika soon learns that Zero isn’t all that he seems–and his protection comes at a price.
Caught in a web of betrayal, with the future of free will at risk, just how far will Emika go to take down the man she loves?
This Savage Song and Our Dark Duet by VE Schwab
This Savage Song
Kate Harker and August Flynn are the heirs to a divided city—a city where the violence has begun to breed actual monsters. All Kate wants is to be as ruthless as her father, who lets the monsters roam free and makes the humans pay for his protection. All August wants is to be human, as good-hearted as his own father, to play a bigger role in protecting the innocent—but he’s one of the monsters. One who can steal a soul with a simple strain of music.When the chance arises to keep an eye on Kate, who’s just been kicked out of her sixth boarding school and returned home, August jumps at it. But Kate discovers August’s secret, and after a failed assassination attempt the pair must flee for their lives.
Our Dark Duet
Kate Harker is a girl who isn’t afraid of the dark. She’s a girl who hunts monsters. And she’s good at it. August Flynn is a monster who can never be human. No matter how much he once yearned for it. He has a part to play. And he will play it, no matter the cost.Nearly six months after Kate and August were first thrown together, the war between the monsters and the humans is a terrifying reality. In Verity, August has become the leader he never wished to be, and in Prosperity, Kate has become the ruthless hunter she knew she could be. When a new monster emerges from the shadows—one who feeds on chaos and brings out its victim’s inner demons—it lures Kate home, where she finds more than she bargained for. She’ll face a monster she thought she killed, a boy she thought she knew, and a demon all her own.
Fable and Namesake by Adrienne Young
Fable
Welcome to a world made dangerous by the sea and by those who wish to profit from it. Where a young girl must find her place and her family while trying to survive in a world built for men.
As the daughter of the most powerful trader in the Narrows, the sea is the only home seventeen-year-old Fable has ever known. It’s been four years since the night she watched her mother drown during an unforgiving storm. The next day her father abandoned her on a legendary island filled with thieves and little food. To survive she must keep to herself, learn to trust no one and rely on the unique skills her mother taught her. The only thing that keeps her going is the goal of getting off the island, finding her father and demanding her rightful place beside him and his crew. To do so Fable enlists the help of a young trader named West to get her off the island and across the Narrows to her father.
But her father’s rivalries and the dangers of his trading enterprise have only multiplied since she last saw him and Fable soon finds that West isn’t who he seems. Together, they will have to survive more than the treacherous storms that haunt the Narrows if they’re going to stay alive.
Namesake
With the Marigold ship free of her father, Fable and its crew were set to start over. That freedom is short-lived when she becomes a pawn in a notorious thug’s scheme. In order to get to her intended destination she must help him to secure a partnership with Holland, a powerful gem trader who is more than she seems.
As Fable descends deeper into a world of betrayal and deception, she learns that the secrets her mother took to her grave are now putting the people Fable cares about in danger. If Fable is going to save them then she must risk everything, including the boy she loves and the home she has finally found.
We Hunt the Flame and We Free the Stars by Hafsah Faizal
We Hunt the Flame
Zafira is the Hunter, disguising herself as a man when she braves the cursed forest of the Arz to feed her people. Nasir is the Prince of Death, assassinating those foolish enough to defy his autocratic father, the sultan. If Zafira was exposed as a girl, all of her achievements would be rejected; if Nasir displayed his compassion, his father would punish him in the most brutal of ways. Both Zafira and Nasir are legends in the kingdom of Arawiya—but neither wants to be.
War is brewing, and the Arz sweeps closer with each passing day, engulfing the land in shadow. When Zafira embarks on a quest to uncover a lost artifact that can restore magic to her suffering world and stop the Arz, Nasir is sent by the sultan on a similar mission: retrieve the artifact and kill the Hunter. But an ancient evil stirs as their journey unfolds—and the prize they seek may pose a threat greater than either can imagine.
We Free the Stars
The battle on Sharr is over. The Arz has fallen. Altair may be captive, but Zafira, Nasir, and Kifah are bound for Sultan’s Keep, determined to finish the plan Altair set in motion: restoring the hearts of the Sisters of Old to the minarets of each caliphate, finally bringing magic to all of Arawiya. But they are low on resources and allies alike, and the kingdom teems with fear of the Lion of the Night’s return.
As the zumra plots to overthrow Arawiya’s darkest threat, Nasir fights to command the magic in his blood. He must learn to hone his power, to wield it against not only the Lion but his father as well, trapped under the Lion’s control. Zafira battles a very different darkness festering in her through her bond with the Jawarat—it hums with voices, pushing her to the brink of sanity and to the edge of a chaos she dares not unleash. In spite of everything, Zafira and Nasir find themselves falling into a love they can’t stand to lose . . . But time is running out, and if order is to be restored, drastic sacrifices will have to be made.
Spin the Dawn and Unravel the Dusk by Elizabeth Lim
Spin the Dawn
Maia Tamarin dreams of becoming the greatest tailor in the land, but as a girl, the best she can hope for is to marry well. When a royal messenger summons her ailing father, once a tailor of renown, to court, Maia poses as a boy and takes his place. She knows her life is forfeit if her secret is discovered, but she’ll take that risk to achieve her dream and save her family from ruin. There’s just one catch: Maia is one of twelve tailors vying for the job.
Backstabbing and lies run rampant as the tailors compete in challenges to prove their artistry and skill. Maia’s task is further complicated when she draws the attention of the court magician, Edan, whose piercing eyes seem to see straight through her disguise.
And nothing could have prepared her for the final challenge: to sew three magic gowns for the emperor’s reluctant bride-to-be, from the laughter of the sun, the tears of the moon, and the blood of stars. With this impossible task before her, she embarks on a journey to the far reaches of the kingdom, seeking the sun, the moon, and the stars, and finding more than she ever could have imagined.
Unravel the Dusk
Maia Tamarin’s journey to sew the dresses of the sun, the moon, and the stars has taken a grievous toll. She returns to a kingdom on the brink of war. Edan, the boy she loves, is gone–perhaps forever–and no sooner does she set foot in the Autumn Palace than she is forced to don the dress of the sun and assume the place of the emperor’s bride-to-be to keep the peace. When the emperor’s rivals learn of her deception, there is hell to pay, but the war raging around Maia is nothing compared to the battle within. Ever since she was touched by the demon Bandur, she has been changing . . . glancing in the mirror to see her own eyes glowing red; losing control of her magic, her body, her mind. It’s only a matter of time before Maia loses herself completely, and in the meantime she will stop at nothing to find Edan, protect her family, and bring lasting peace to her country.
What’s a favorite duology of yours?
Out of Print was a small company that printed vintage book covers on t-shirts who Since then, they’ve expanded their brand to slogans and books including Harry Potter, Star Wars, and A Handmaid’s Tale. With every purchase, you can also help donate books and support literacy programs around the world!
I found Obvious State on Etsy years ago where they sold unique graphic prints attached to a vintage literary quote. Years later, Obvious State is still creating beautiful prints, but also making postcards, calendars, mugs, notebooks, and tote bags. Their designs are unique, use very little color, but pack a punch.
There’s nothing a book lover loves more than to shout from the rooftops that they love to read. With that, I love companies like Bookshelf Tees who makes t-shirts that says it all. I’ve purchased from these folks before and let me tell you that their t-shirts are comfortable, well-worn, and good all 365 days of the year. My personal favorites are the 
For the folks who live in the UK and Europe, I wanted to also include an international (to me) brand like 
At the end of the Second World War, Cyril Conroy combines luck and a single canny investment to begin an enormous real estate empire, propelling his family from poverty to enormous wealth. His first order of business is to buy the Dutch House, a lavish estate in the suburbs outside of Philadelphia. Meant as a surprise for his wife, the house sets in motion the undoing of everyone he loves.
Now that her father is on his deathbed, Alex—a strong-headed lawyer, devoted mother, and loving sister–feels she can finally unearth the secrets of who Victor is and what he did over the course of his life and career. (A power-hungry real estate developer, he is, by all accounts, a bad man.) She travels to New Orleans to be with her family, but mostly to interrogate her tightlipped mother, Barbra.
When the renowned poet Fiona Skinner is asked about the inspiration behind her iconic work, The Love Poem, she tells her audience a story about her family and a betrayal that reverberates through time.
No. It is a simple word, uttered on a summer porch in 1936. And it will haunt Kitty Milton for the rest of her life. Kitty and her husband, Ogden, are both from families considered the backbone of the country. But this refusal will come to be Kitty’s defining moment, and its consequences will ripple through the Milton family for generations. For while they summer on their island in Maine, anchored as they are to the way things have always been, the winds of change are beginning to stir.
Charles and Lily, James and Nan. They meet in Greenwich Village in 1963 when Charles and James are jointly hired to steward the historic Third Presbyterian Church through turbulent times. Their personal differences however, threaten to tear them apart.
Moving forward and backward in time, Jacqueline Woodson’s taut and powerful new novel uncovers the role that history and community have played in the experiences, decisions, and relationships of these families, and in the life of the new child.
As a person who watches 
I was actually considering putting this book with my vampire list, but I didn’t because I felt like this was centered more around the witchery than that. A young scholar and witch named Diana Bishop comes across a strange little book among the library stacks of Oxford’s Bodleian Library. While to her this was just some ordinary book that needs to be sent back to the stacks, it opens up a world for her filled with witches and demons and vampires. As she continues to research the happenings around this book, a very old and very attractive vampire named Matthew Clairmont finds her and helps her with both discovering the book and herself.
I will be honest and say that I tried to read this book, but failed to finish. While I love the prose and the story, I thought it was a little long. However, I also didn’t really appreciate the slow burn back when I read this book, so I’ll have to try again in the future. The story is about Agnieszka, a young girl who comes from a village not too far from a very powerful wizard named Dragon. Every few years, Dragon comes down from his tower to pick a girl from their village. While villagers don’t know who he’s going to pick, they all automatically assume it will be the pretty girl named Kasia. However, when it turns out to be Agnieszka, the village is shocked. Agnieszka isn’t prepared for life with Dragon, but willingly goes to his tower to serve him the way he sees fit. As she settles into her role, Dragon warms a little to her and offers to teach her his magic since she showed signs of having some magic within her.
I really love diverse fantasy and the reason why I love diverse fantasy is because authors add in their culture and world into the stories. And for Zoraida Cordova, she calls her witches “bruja” because of their Latin heritage. But the best part about bruja is that it’s not the same stake-burning ones we had in the Northeast of America. Brujeria combines many forms of witchcraft including santeria and voodoo. When you’re digging from this well of witchcraft for your novel, then you’re going to have something set apart from the other witch stories
While most of the books on this list are about a witch or witches, this particular book is about a witch who makes a ton of predictions about the future and all of them are absolutely right. It’s also about an angel and a demon assigned to live alongside humans and causing havoc or creating miracles within their history. And it’s also about how this angel and demon messed up the end of the world. The witch in question has already predicted the mistakes Aziraphale and Crowley make as well as where the real ending of the world will take place. It’ll take Anathema, an occultist, and her lover, a witchfinder, to disseminate the prophecies and stop the apocalypse from making its way to a small town in England.
While I wasn’t the biggest fan of this story, I did love the inclusion of witches, a witch-y family, and an outsider who doesn’t know how important he is to this coven. Lena is a new student who recently moved to the small town of Gatlin in South Carolina. While she looks like your average teenage girl, she has a dark secret; she will inherit the full strength of her magical powers on her 16th birthday and renounce the human world for her magical one.
I hope you weren’t perusing through this list waiting for me to get to this point. I honestly thought whether or not it made sense to include this book because it is a beloved and well known series about a young wizard who goes to a fancy wizarding school and learns that he’s a part of a bigger plot of an evil wizard who didn’t have enough love in his life. I’m just teasing.
This one has been on my TBR since it came out, but sadly I haven’t had a chance to read it (of course). Tea is a young witch who just raised her brother from the dead. While that might sound like something a witch would normally do, it’s not. Necromancy means that Tea is a bone witch; a name that makes her people fear her and ostracize her from their community. But Tea isn’t alone and she finds solace with another older bone witch who takes Tea and her brother away to learn more about her powers. Of course there are dark elements coming her way and prepared to fight. Tea just needs to get herself as powerful as they to defeat whatever is coming.
This particular story isn’t a retelling. In fact, it’s literally Pride and Prejudice with the added bonus of zombies. When this book first came out, everyone was screaming because it was their favorite story with some little additions. I think a lot of people loved this novel because it’s clever. Pride and Prejudice isn’t the most fun book to read with a lot of words I’m pretty sure the English language has forgotten, but the added bonus of zombies gives this book a little kick in the pants for the newer generations.
This is Afro-Latinx version of Pride and Prejudice when the young and rich Darcy family moves in across the street from Zuri in her rapidly gentrifying Brooklyn neighborhood. The story is very close to Jane Austen’s story, but with diversity. I love diverse stories and I love when folks can take a story like Pride and Prejudice and relate it back to their own world. I’m also a sucker for stories that take place in Brooklyn since I lived there for eight years of my life.
While Bridget Jones may be obsessed with the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice, I don’t know if she knows she’s living in her own version of the book. 
The most ultra modern version of Pride and Prejudice. This story follows Liz, a mid-30s magazine writer, and her family (the whole Bennett gang is represented here). They meet Chip Bingley, a wealthy doctor and recent bachelor of a famous reality dating series similar to The Bachelor. While Chip has an immediate liking to Liz’s 40-year-old sister, Jane, it’s Fitzwilliam Darcy who swoops in to tell them otherwise. This series sticks much closer to the original Pride and Prejudice story with all its supporting cast and disasters playing out.
It wasn’t until recently that I heard 
This is the book I recently read and really ended up enjoying. It isn’t the most prolific piece of writing and there’s a few issues I had with her style, but the story here about Trisha, her family, and DJ will definitely keep you reading. It’s not a direct retelling with a gender swap on Darcy and Elizabeth and changes to the characters, you still get the sense that Pride and Prejudice is the inspiration for this story. When Julia Wickham shows up, that’s when this story really turns into a Pride and Prejudice retelling.
Similarly to Eligible, this is an almost straight retelling of Pride and Prejudice set in modern-day Pakistan where the Binat family has lost a lot of face within their community. Alys is a young English teacher sharing with her students the stories of Jane Austen she’s come to love, but when she and her family are invited to the biggest wedding of the season, the story launches right into the perfect retelling of Pride and Prejudice. There’s a Bingley, Jane, a Mrs Bennett trying to marry off her daughters, and a Darcy. There’s prejudice themes, class themes, and others. I haven’t read this one, but it’s also one I’m very interested in.