Winters in Rachel Neumeier’s Winter of Ice and Iron can get pretty rough. As snow and ice blanket the Four Kingdoms, the obsidian winds rip down from the mountains, the night lasts for days and massive winter dragons terrorize commoners and nobles alike. Fortunately for us, the characters that Neumeier weaves into her tale of ambition, duty and family are more than ready to face it all.

When the Mad King of Emmer threatens her native Haravir, Princess Kehera rides to the border to avert all-out war. On the way, she discovers there are forces and powers at play far beyond her understanding, and she is forced to go on the run. In the forbidding mountains of Ëaneté, she is scooped up by Innisth, the Wolf Duke, a man as forbidding as the land he rules. Though he is cold and strict, Kehera senses something powerful in him. Innisth, in turn, conceives of a way Kehera can help him realize his close-guarded ambitions.

The reason they sense something in one another is that both Kehera and Innisth hold ties to Immanent Powers, one of Winter of Ice and Iron’s most inventive elements. These magical, non-sentient elementals naturally form over generations, drawing power from the earth, the creatures and the people that inhabit their realm. Neumeier confidently employs these Powers, lending an ethereal and whirling grace to every appearance they make in the narrative. They are both the paint used to color this world and a reflection of the people that wield them.

And Kehera and Innisth are just as enthralling. The two ricochet off one another, giving each a sense of purpose and forward motion. Even with other memorable characters throughout, Kehera and Innisth command the reader’s attention from the moment they meet.

Neumeier’s experience in the fantasy space, borne out in works like The Griffin Mage Trilogy, shines in this latest work. Winter of Ice and Iron is dark and unflinching, but also surefooted and heartfelt. From their first meeting through the gripping final sequence, real emotion and real history drive Kehera and Innisth’s ever-evolving relationship. What a welcome way to bear out the winter.

Janloon, the glittering metropolis that serves as the battleground for waring mobsters in Fonda Lee’s Jade City, feels both familiar and foreign. The silent temples, towering skyscrapers and mountain strongholds remind the reader of east Asian cities like Seoul, Hong Kong and Tokyo. One thing, however, makes Janloon stand apart—Janloon is a war-zone dominated by magic.

In a period of uneasy peace, tensions between two of the city’s largest crime families begin to escalate just as Shae, the youngest daughter of the powerful Kaul family, returns home to Janloon after years spent abroad. Her brothers Lan and Hilo, leaders of No Peak clan, are struggling to consolidate their family’s holdings. Shae is determined to forge her own path outside the clan, and tries to stay out of the violence and intrigue. But when the Mountain clan assassinates one of her family members, she is honor-bound to rejoin the clan and avenge her loved ones.

Fonda Lee might have found a home in the young adult arena with Zero Boxer and Exo, but her debut in the adult fantasy world makes an ambitious statement. In Janloon, Lee has created a fully realized universe in which to expand, with a solid magic system and boatloads of history and gravitas.

And what about that magic? Clan members carry jade, which gives them access to powerful abilities. Imagine if Michael Corleone could bend bullets, make himself feather-light or hard as steel. Lee choreographs jade-fueled battles with precision and white-knuckle tension. Jade City’s fights flow with a sense of purpose, visceral brutality and dizzying spectacle.

It’s impossible not to see the influence of modern gangster cinema in Jade City. A secret dockside rendezvous, dimly-lit back alleys and the rattle of machine gun fire seem to nod directly to a slew of famous mafia films. But Jade City is more than simple homage. It’s characters have not stepped out of a time capsule, but instead are actively confronting how their ancient traditions and magic fit into a modern, unforgettable world.

At first glance, it would be easy to write off The Tethered Mage as another coming-of-age novel with an interesting magic system. To do so would mean missing a breathtaking book. Equal parts fantasy and political intrigue, The Tethered Mage pulls readers relentlessly through labyrinthine turns of conspiracy, adventure and romance.

The Raverran Empire’s complete control over magic users has allowed it to expand through threat of violence. Warlocks, referred to as Falcons, are controlled by conscription into the Raverran army at a young age. Falconers have complete control over when Falcons can use their powers, which are only unleashed for the good of the Empire. But the balance of power within Raverra is a tenuous one. When Amalia Cornaro, heir to one of the most powerful houses in the realm, captures a powerful fire warlock who threatens to burn the city of Raverra, she endangers that balance. Amalia is pulled into the life of a Falconer, a role previously forbidden to her because of her noble blood. Her Falcon, the street-hardened Zaira, has avoided conscription long enough to recognize that “the good of the Empire” and her own interests do not necessarily overlap. As Zaira and Amalia come to terms with their new relationship, they are pulled into a conspiracy that puts the Empire—and everyone they love—in danger.

While most of her characters are young adults, Caruso avoids some of the pitfalls of writing about that age group. Her characters are nuanced and thoughtful, driven by duty to country and family. That isn’t to say that Caruso neglects relationships within her novel. Rather, she doesn’t limit herself to romance or allow it to absorb Amalia or Zaira, and it’s refreshing to have those entanglements take a back seat in service of the plot. Instead, Caruso’s characters’ nonromantic relationships drive the action, pulling each away from duty and forcing them to make difficult decisions.

Although the political machinations surrounding the young women are complex, the story never drags. Instead, it sends the reader digging into each sentence to find the key that will make the conspiracy surrounding Amalia and Zaira’s adventure fall into place. This first entry into the Swords and Fire trilogy is worth every moment and every page, and it should make anyone paying attention excited about what Caruso will write next.

Tchaikovsky’s famous ­Nutcracker ballet, heart of the holidays for audiences worldwide, has its roots in “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King” by E.T.A. Hoffmann, a German writer in the early 1800s whose characters often move between real and fantasy worlds. Hoffmann’s tale of a nutcracker presented to a young girl on Christmas Eve has been sweetened in retellings through the years (most notably by Alexandre Dumas), yet not one of the renditions of sugar plum fairies and battling mice has explained the origin of the titular Nutcracker . . . until now.

Gregory Maguire unlocks the secrets of the Nutcracker in an enchanting origin story.

Bestselling author Gregory Maguire drops readers behind the scenes of common childhood stories in such novels as Wicked, Mirror Mirror and After Alice, and in Hiddensee: A Tale of the Once and Future Nutcracker, Maguire sweeps his readers deep into the forests of 19th-century Germany while linking his story to mythology and folklore. Paying homage to Hoffmann’s original tale, Maguire keeps us enchanted with the life of Drosselmeier, called Dirk, a boy of desperate beginnings who will later become a toymaker and the godfather to Klara (the girl who will receive the Nutcracker) and whose interactions with the natural world make us long for the innocence and imagination of our own childhoods.

Dirk, raised in the forest as a foundling, leaves his miserable upbringing after a harrowing life-after-death experience, the catalyst for his connection to another dimension. His wide-eyed innocence serves him well as he traverses the bridge to manhood and the real world, yet in his heart he knows there is more in the trees and streams and animals than what he encounters. He just has so few people with whom he can share his secrets.

For those who are willing to hear and believe, Maguire unlocks the toymaker’s secrets—without sugar plum fairies but with plenty of mesmerizing mysteries and the magic of childhood.

This article was originally published in the November 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.