There exists, we are quite certain, no remedy quite so reliable as a good book for whatever ails the human spirit. (Though adding tea, or sunshine, or the companionship of a particularly devoted pet shall only multiply the effect.) And among books, those that combine the warmth of a heartfelt tale with the thrill of a proper adventure occupy a place of special honour on any shelf worth keeping.
We have assembled here a collection of twenty-one such novels — the very best feel-good fantasy adventure books we could find — each one tested and found worthy of that rarest compliment: the kind of story that makes you sorry to reach its final page, and grateful to have turned its first.
Whether you are searching for a cozy fantasy adventure to curl up with on a rainy afternoon or a heartwarming classic that lifts your spirits while sweeping you off to impossible places, you will find it here. We have taken great care to include only those books that are genuinely uplifting, genuinely adventurous, and genuinely impossible to put down.
Shall we begin? We rather think we shall.
1. The Princess Bride by William Goldman
It would be a curious sort of list indeed that did not begin with the book that practically invented the feel-good fantasy adventure as we know it. William Goldman’s The Princess Bride presents itself as an abridgement of a longer work by a fictional author — a delicious conceit that never wears thin — and within that frame tells the tale of Buttercup and Westley, whose love must survive sword fights, kidnappings, giants, and at least one instance of mostly being dead.
The wit is razor-sharp, the adventure relentless, and the romance beneath it all so genuine that even the most cynical reader finds themselves believing in true love by the final chapter. It is funny, it is thrilling, it is tender, and it has not aged a single day since 1973.
2. The Wendy by Erin Michelle Sky & Steven Brown
The Wendy reimagines the world of Peter Pan as a fantasy adventure set in 1780s London and beyond, centering on a young Wendy Darling who dreams of captaining her own ship. What follows is a tale of magic, sword fights, secret government missions, and a flying man with questionable loyalties — all told in the kind of warmly witty, gently conspiratorial narrative voice that makes readers feel as though they are being told the story by their most charming acquaintance.
It is the sort of book you try to read slowly because you do not want it to end, and yet you shall surely race through it nonetheless, unable to put it down. The complete Tales of the Wendy trilogy — The Wendy, The Navigator, and The Captain — is now available, so you may sail the entire voyage without waiting for fair winds.
3. Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
In the land of Ingary, where seven-league boots and cloaks of invisibility are commonplace, young Sophie Hatter is cursed by a witch and transformed into an old woman — which turns out, rather wonderfully, to be the beginning of her adventure rather than the end of it.
Diana Wynne Jones crafted in Howl’s Moving Castle a fantasy so warm, so clever, and so effortlessly enchanting that it has become the very standard against which cozy fantasy is measured. The wizard Howl is vain, dramatic, and secretly kind-hearted. Sophie is stubborn, practical, and braver than she knows. Their bickering chemistry is among the finest in all of fantasy fiction, and the moving castle itself — part home, part portal, part character — is one of literature’s most delightful inventions.
4. The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
Linus Baker is a caseworker for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth — a man of routine, of rules, of sensible lunches eaten alone at his desk. Then he is sent to evaluate an orphanage on a remote island, and everything he thought he knew about the world, about magic, and about himself begins to shift.
TJ Klune’s The House in the Cerulean Sea has been described, quite accurately, as a warm hug in book form. It is a story about found family, about the courage it takes to be kind, and about the quiet, revolutionary act of seeing people — especially those the world calls strange — for who they truly are. It is funny, it is tender, and it will almost certainly make you weep at least once, though always in the most heartwarming possible way.
5. Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede
Princess Cimorene has been taught embroidery, etiquette, and everything a proper princess is expected to know — and she is, to put it plainly, bored stiff by the lot of it. What she has taught herself, on the quiet, is far more interesting: fencing, Latin, cooking, and a healthy disregard for fairy-tale convention. When she can bear the prospect of a suitable marriage no longer, Cimorene does something rather extraordinary — she runs away and volunteers to be a dragon’s princess, not as a captive but as a willing companion who organises treasure hoards and cooks cherries jubilee.
Patricia C. Wrede’s Dealing with Dragons is a fairy-tale parody of the most affectionate and clever sort, populated by dragons who prefer good conversation to kidnapping, wizards who are up to no good, and a heroine who politely but firmly refuses to be rescued by anyone, thank you very much. It is witty, warm, and entirely irresistible.
6. Good Omens by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman
The end of the world is nigh, and frankly, an angel named Aziraphale and a demon named Crowley would really rather it wasn’t. Having grown quite fond of Earth — its bookshops, its restaurants, its general air of pleasant muddle — the two have decided to work together to prevent the Apocalypse, if only they can find the Antichrist, who has been rather inconveniently misplaced.
Good Omens is a feel-good fantasy about Armageddon, which sounds like a contradiction but is in fact the highest possible praise. It is devastatingly funny, unexpectedly warm, and populated by characters so endearing that you will wish they were real, even the ones who are technically agents of Hell.
7. Stardust by Neil Gaiman
Beyond the village of Wall — so named for the ancient wall that separates the mundane world from the realm of Faerie — a star has fallen, and a young man named Tristran Thorn sets out to retrieve it for the woman he loves. What he discovers is that the star is not a lump of celestial rock but a person, and that he is not the only one searching for her.
Neil Gaiman — whose collaboration with Terry Pratchett you have just read about — wrote Stardust as a fairy tale for grown-ups, and it reads exactly that way — with the wonder of a bedtime story and the wit of a novelist who understands that the best adventures are the ones that change the adventurer. It is brisk, beautiful, and suffused with the particular magic of a tale that knows exactly what it is.
8. Going Postal by Terry Pratchett
And now, having encountered one half of the Good Omens partnership in Mr Gaiman, we turn to the other. Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels are among the funniest and most humane works of fantasy ever written, and Going Postal is one of the very finest among them.
Moist von Lipwig is a con artist, a forger, and a fraud — sentenced to hang and given one last chance at life by the Patrician of Ankh-Morpork: take charge of the city’s utterly defunct Post Office, or die. What follows is a caper of the most glorious kind, as Moist discovers that the skills he honed as a criminal — showmanship, persuasion, the art of the grand gesture — are precisely what a failing institution needs.
He must outwit a ruthless corporate monopoly, contend with a chain-smoking activist who is not remotely impressed by him, and somehow deliver several tons of undelivered mail. It is wickedly funny, surprisingly moving, and possessed of the kind of stand-up-and-cheer ending that leaves you grinning for days.
9. The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley
Harry Crewe is a young woman sent to live at a remote desert outpost on the edge of the kingdom — a place where the mountains shimmer with heat and the free Hillfolk ride their war-horses beyond the borders of what the colonists consider civilisation. When the golden-eyed king of the Hillfolk abducts her for reasons neither of them fully understands, Harry discovers she possesses a wild, latent magic — and a talent for the sword that is nothing short of extraordinary.
Robin McKinley’s The Blue Sword is a Newbery Honor-winning adventure of the most satisfying variety: a heroine finding her place in a world that initially seems determined to have no place for her. The desert kingdom of Damar is rendered with luminous, sun-drenched beauty, the adventure builds to a genuinely thrilling crescendo, and Harry’s journey from uncertain outsider to something far greater than she ever imagined is the kind of transformation you carry with you long after the final page.
10. Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson
Tress is a young woman who collects cups and lives on a small island surrounded by a sea made not of water but of strange, magical spores. When the man she loves is kidnapped by a sorceress, Tress does what any sensible cup-collecting heroine would do: she stows away on a pirate ship and sets out to rescue him.
Brandon Sanderson wrote Tress of the Emerald Sea as a fairy tale for grown-ups, openly inspired by The Princess Bride, and the influence shows beautifully. It is whimsical, warm, and narrated with a winking charm that makes even the most perilous moments feel like an invitation to adventure rather than a cause for dread. Among Sanderson’s considerable body of work, this stands as his most purely joyful novel.
11. A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan
In a world that resembles our own Victorian era — save for the rather significant detail that dragons exist — a young woman named Isabella defies every expectation placed upon her sex and pursues her lifelong obsession with natural history. When she persuades her husband to take her along on a scientific expedition to the remote mountains of Vystrana, she expects to study rock-wyrms in their natural habitat. What she encounters instead is a tangle of mysterious deaths, hostile locals, and a conspiracy that threatens to swallow the expedition whole.
Marie Brennan’s A Natural History of Dragons is told as a memoir by the elder Lady Trent, looking back on her youthful adventures with equal measures of pride and wry self-reproach, and the voice is an absolute triumph — warm, witty, intellectually rigorous, and suffused with the particular joy that comes from watching a brilliant woman refuse to let the world tell her what she cannot do. It was named an NPR Best Book of the year and is the first of five volumes, so the adventure is only just beginning.
12. In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan
Thirteen-year-old Elliot Schafer is sharp-tongued, deeply unhappy, and possessed of one remarkable ability: he can see across the Border, a magical wall separating our world from a land of elves, mermaids, harpies, and trolls. Enrolled at a military training camp on the other side, Elliot — who would sooner argue than fight — chooses the diplomatic track and promptly sets about trying to solve ancient conflicts through negotiation rather than swordplay. Along the way, he befriends a fierce elven warrior and a golden-boy swordsman, navigates first loves with spectacular gracelessness, and slowly discovers why he is so desperate to stay in a world that is not his own.
Sarah Rees Brennan’s In Other Lands is a portal fantasy of rare intelligence and warmth — laugh-out-loud funny, genuinely moving, and populated by characters so vividly drawn that you will miss them the moment the story ends. It won the Bisexual Book Award and was a Hugo Award finalist, and we suspect you will understand why before you have finished the first chapter.
13. Uprooted by Naomi Novik
Every ten years, the Dragon — a cold and reclusive wizard — takes a young woman from the villages near the corrupted Wood. When Agnieszka is chosen, she expects the worst. What she discovers instead is that she possesses a wild, untamed magic of her own, and that the Wood’s ancient corruption threatens everything she loves.
Naomi Novik’s Uprooted won the Nebula Award, and its power lies in the way it takes the bones of Eastern European folklore and transforms them into something startlingly original. The bonds of loyalty and love that drive Agnieszka are beautifully rendered, the magic system is visceral and strange, and the resolution is deeply, profoundly satisfying. It is a fairy tale that earns its happy ending.
14. Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
From the same marvellous author comes another fairy tale retelling — this one drawn from the legend of Rumpelstiltskin and woven through with the chill of a Russian winter. Miryem, the daughter of a moneylender, discovers she has a gift for turning silver into gold — a talent that attracts the attention of the king of the Staryk, a race of ice-fae who are not known for their generosity.
Spinning Silver gives us three heroines instead of one, each navigating her own impossible bargain, and all of them far cleverer and braver than the men who underestimate them. It is enchanting, intricate, and possessed of that particular warmth that comes from watching clever people outwit monsters through sheer determination and wit.
15. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
We suspect you have heard of this one. Bilbo Baggins is a hobbit of comfortable habits who would very much like to be left alone, thank you, and who is therefore precisely the right sort of person to be swept up in an adventure involving thirteen dwarves, a wizard, a dragon, and more trolls than anyone could reasonably be expected to deal with before elevenses.
The Hobbit is the grandfather of modern fantasy, and it remains — for all its simplicity, or perhaps because of it — one of the warmest, most inviting adventures ever written. Tolkien’s voice is like a favourite uncle telling stories by the fire, and Bilbo’s transformation from reluctant participant to genuine hero is one of fiction’s most enduring pleasures.
16. Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
At birth, Ella of Frell was given a fairy’s “gift” — the curse of obedience, which compels her to follow any order given to her, no matter how absurd or dangerous. Rather than accept this fate, Ella sets off on a quest to break the curse, encountering ogres, giants, wicked stepsisters, and a prince who is far more interesting than the usual variety.
This Newbery Honor-winning retelling of Cinderella replaces passivity with pluck and transforms a story about waiting for rescue into one about rescuing yourself. It is witty, warm, and entirely charming — the sort of book that makes you wish all fairy tales had been written with this much intelligence and heart.
17. The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold
Cazaril is a broken man — a former courtier and soldier who returns from years of slavery and hardship to serve as tutor to a young noblewoman. What begins as a quiet story of recovery gradually reveals itself to be something far grander: a tale of curses and gods, political intrigue and divine intervention, and one man’s extraordinary devotion to the people he has come to love.
The Curse of Chalion is one of those rare fantasies in which the protagonist’s greatest weapon is his decency. It is beautifully written, deeply moving, and — in spite of its darker moments — profoundly uplifting. Readers who discover it tend to reread it many times, and we understand why completely.
18. Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett
Emily Wilde is a scholar — brilliant, socially awkward, and entirely devoted to her academic pursuit: writing the first comprehensive encyclopaedia of faeries. When her research takes her to a remote village in Scandinavia, she encounters not only the Hidden Ones she seeks but also her infuriatingly charming academic rival, Wendell Bambleby, who is hiding secrets of his own.
Heather Fawcett has crafted a cozy fantasy that is equal parts academic mystery and fairy tale romance, with a narrator so prickly and endearing that you cannot help but root for her even when she is being spectacularly rude. It is clever, atmospheric, and wonderfully warm — the literary equivalent of a crackling fire and a fur-lined cloak.
19. Half a Soul by Olivia Atwater
Imagine, if you will, a Regency romance in which the heroine has had half her soul stolen by a fairy, leaving her unable to feel strong emotions. Dora, our protagonist, navigates London society with a detached calm that everyone mistakes for perfect propriety, while secretly grappling with the question of what it means to be whole.
Call it a delightful blend of Jane Austen and the Brothers Grimm — witty, romantic, and gently subversive, with a magic system rooted in faerie bargains and a love interest who is grumpy, principled, and thoroughly endearing. It is cozy without being slight, and its metaphor for neurodivergence gives it a depth that lingers long after the final page.
20. A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher
Fourteen-year-old Mona is a wizard — but not the sort anyone would summon to defend a city. Her magic works only on bread. She can make gingerbread men dance, coax dough to rise to impossible perfection, and her familiar is a sourdough starter named Bob who oozes menacingly at anyone who threatens her. When a sinister conspiracy begins targeting the city’s wizards, Mona — who was quite content baking rolls and minding her own business — finds herself as the last and most improbable line of defence.
T. Kingfisher won the Hugo Award with this one, and it is easy to see why: it is funny, clever, and wonderfully warm, with a heroine whose greatest strength is her stubborn refusal to believe that small magic does not matter. The premise sounds whimsical, and it is — but beneath the charm lies a genuinely thrilling adventure that earns every bit of its triumphant conclusion.
21. Swordheart by T. Kingfisher
From the same splendid author comes a rather different sort of adventure. Halla is a recently bereaved widow who has just inherited a magical sword. The sword contains a centuries-old warrior named Sarkis, who emerges whenever the blade is drawn and is contractually obligated to protect her. Halla is practical, self-deprecating, and entirely unflappable. Sarkis is honourable, bewildered, and slowly falling in love.
Swordheart is a fantasy romance-adventure propelled by banter so delightful that you will find yourself reading passages aloud to whoever happens to be nearby. It is funny, kind, and refreshingly sensible — the sort of book in which the heroine’s greatest strength is her common sense and the hero’s greatest vulnerability is his growing respect for it.
Where to Start
If you are new to feel-good fantasy, we would suggest beginning wherever your instincts lead you — every book on this list has earned its place, and the best one for you is simply the one whose description made your heart beat a little faster as you read it.
Happy reading, dear adventurer. The stories are waiting for you.
