Books Like Fourth Wing: 20 Romantasy Reads You Need on Your TBR

You closed Onyx Storm at three in the morning. You stared at the ceiling. Then you typed "what to read after fourth wing" into Google because the dragon shaped hole in your chest is not going to fill itself.

You are not alone. This guide pulls together 20 books like Fourth Wing handpicked for romantasy readers who want exactly what Rebecca Yarros delivered. If you are searching for what to read after fourth wing without wading through generic recommendation lists, this is your shortcut.

Deadly stakes. A clever heroine. A brooding love interest. Slow burn tension. And that signature BookTok feeling of being completely consumed by a fictional world.

Every pick here shares the same DNA. Dragon rider romance. Fae politics. Magic academies. Enemies to lovers spice. Some are quieter, some are darker, all worth your TBR.

Why Fourth Wing Hooked Millions Before You Even Got the Recs

Before we dive into the list, it helps to understand what actually made Fourth Wing such a phenomenon. Romantasy is now the fastest growing slice of adult fiction.

According to Publishing Perspectives' coverage of the Circana Q1 BookScan report, Onyx Storm sold roughly 2.7 million copies in its opening week. That made it the fastest selling adult novel in the twenty year history of BookScan tracking.

The Empyrean series hit a nerve because it stacked three things readers were starving for. A war college setting where survival is not guaranteed. Dragons with personalities sharper than most love interests. And a relationship that earned every kiss through paragraphs of slow burn fantasy tension.

The best books like fourth wing replicate that combination. They keep stakes brutal. They write about women who fight back. They take their time on the romance, then deliver heat when it finally lands. The best books like fourth wing for adults push the spice further than the YA shelf ever could.

Many also lean into the same morally complicated love interest energy. If you have ever read a chapter just to figure out whose side a character is really on, you already know the appeal of dark romance done well inside a fantasy frame. Unlike spicy contemporary romance books, romantasy delivers stakes that are literally life and death.

The 20 Best Books Like Fourth Wing to Add to Your TBR Right Now

Below is the full list, ordered by how closely each title hits the core Fourth Wing experience. The top picks share the dragon rider energy, the enemies to lovers heat, and the deadly trial structure most directly.

Mid list picks bring fae courts, mythological retellings, and military academies that hit different but equally rewarding notes. The final entries are hidden gems most romantasy lists miss.

Every entry includes the premise, why it works as a fourth wing read alike, and what kind of reader it serves best. Save the ones that match your current mood, skip what does not, and treat this as a year of romantasy reading plotted in one place.

1. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

The conversation about books similar to fourth wing almost always begins here. ACOTAR follows Feyre, a young huntress who gets dragged into the deadly faerie realm after killing the wrong wolf. Among all books similar to fourth wing, this is the title most readers cite first.

What waits for her is High Lord Tamlin first, then Rhysand. The series blooms into one of the most quoted romantasy books of the decade and basically built the modern fae romance subgenre.

Readers who loved Violet's transformation will recognize Feyre's quiet ferocity. Same trauma shaped heroine. Same morally complicated love interest. Same wings.

If you want fae romance with bite, this is the foundation. Pair the first book with A Court of Mist and Fury immediately. Book two is where the trope game truly explodes.

2. Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

Two Maas books on a list of fourth wing read alikes is not lazy curation. It is necessary. Throne of Glass follows Celaena Sardothien, an eighteen year old assassin pulled from a salt mine prison to compete in a deadly contest for the king's champion.

The series spans eight books. It grows from a fast YA tournament arc into a sprawling adult fantasy with multiple POVs, demonic enemies, and a swoony enemies to lovers core.

Fans of magic academy romance and brutal competition arcs will feel right at home. The chosen one structure echoes Violet's underdog rise. Chaol, Dorian, and Rowan all deliver distinct love interest archetypes.

Read in publishing order, not chronological, no matter what TikTok tells you. The emotional payoff in the later books only works that way.

3. From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout

If you want dragon romance books like Fourth Wing with even more heat, this is your next stop. Poppy is a Maiden chosen by the gods, forbidden from speaking, touching, or being seen. The series sits firmly in the dragon romance books like fourth wing tradition even though Poppy's world runs on gods rather than literal dragon bonds.

Hawke is the guard sworn to protect her. The arrangement collapses fast and what follows is one of the most cited enemies to lovers trope arcs in BookTok history.

The series leans hard into spicy fantasy novels territory. Court intrigue. Forbidden vows. A heroine who realizes she has been lied to about everything.

A love interest with secrets that genuinely matter to the plot. Six books deep and counting, this saga is built for readers who want their slow burn fantasy to eventually combust into something unforgettable.

4. House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas

Crescent City is the SJM book to read when you want urban fantasy energy mixed with the same emotional gut punches as Fourth Wing. Bryce Quinlan is half fae, half human, working at a gallery and pretending her grief is fine.

Hunt Athalar is a fallen angel and slave to the Archangels. The murder case that throws them together is darker than anything she signed up for.

The worldbuilding is denser than ACOTAR. There are vampires, shifters, angels, witches, and demons sharing one city. The pacing rewards patience.

For readers who want romantasy with bigger stakes and a love interest carrying actual morally grey characters energy, Crescent City delivers. Just be ready, book one is brutal in the final act.

5. The Bridge Kingdom by Danielle L. Jensen

Lara is trained from childhood to seduce, marry, and destroy the king she has never met. Aren is the king of a kingdom that survives by controlling the only sea passage on the continent. He knows exactly what kind of bride he has been sent.

The setup is classic political fantasy romance. The execution is sharper than it has any right to be. Lara is one of the few heroines in romantasy who can match Violet on tactical thinking and ruthless decision making.

The marriage of convenience trope here grinds beautifully against the forced proximity trope. The moral stakes only get worse as Lara learns whose propaganda she has been raised on.

Three books in, this series gets better the deeper you go. Easy gateway for readers wanting tighter pacing than the SJM mainline.

6. Powerless by Lauren Roberts

Set in a kingdom where Ordinary humans are exiled and Elites with powers rule, Powerless throws Paedyn, a hidden Ordinary, into the deadly Purging Trials. Kai is the Prince's most lethal soldier. He is also helping her survive.

The setup will feel deeply familiar to anyone who burned through Fourth Wing in a weekend. A deadly trial. A heroine fighting on borrowed time. A love interest sworn to a side that wants her dead.

Lauren Roberts wrote this in her early twenties and it shows in the best way. The pacing is propulsive. The longing is constant. The BookTok fantasy reads pipeline pushed this into the top five for a reason.

Three book series, fully out, no waiting on cliffhangers. One of the easiest books like fourth wing romantasy entries to start tonight, and a textbook example of why the books like fourth wing romantasy category exploded on BookTok in the first place.

7. Quicksilver by Callie Hart

Quicksilver became one of the breakout romantasy books of 2024 by leaning hard into what made Fourth Wing addictive. Sex, snark, danger, and a male lead who is genuinely terrifying.

Saeris is a thief in a desert town who accidentally pulls a sword from a stone and gets yanked through a portal into an icy fae realm. Kingfisher is the cursed Fae warrior who would rather she be dead than complicating his vengeance.

The dynamic is sharp. The world is mean. The spice arrives later than romance readers might want, but when it lands, it lands harder than most.

For readers of best smut books with their intensity inside a fae adventure, Quicksilver is essential reading. The hardback quickly became a collector item.

8. The Serpent and the Wings of Night by Carissa Broadbent

Oraya is a human raised by the Nightborn vampire king as his daughter. To survive in a world that wants her dead, she must compete in the Kejari, a brutal vampire tournament held every century.

Raihn is her competitor. He is also the one person who keeps deciding not to kill her. This is one of the strongest dragon rider romance adjacent picks on the list.

The dragons here are vampires, but the DNA is identical. Survival trials. A heroine carrying inherited expectations. A love interest playing seven layers of long game.

The Crowns of Nyaxia series keeps expanding and is widely recommended in the same breath as Yarros. Broadbent's prose is also a slight step up in literary polish.

9. A Touch of Darkness by Scarlett St. Clair

If you want romantasy with mythological bones, this is the rec. Persephone is the goddess of spring with a secret. She cannot make anything grow.

Hades catches her gambling in his Underworld nightclub and the bet becomes the rest of her life. The Hades and Persephone retelling has been done a thousand times.

Scarlett St. Clair did it with the most BookTok friendly heat and worldbuilding of the bunch. It is not for readers who want their gods conservative or their scenes implied.

The series spans multiple Greek pantheon entries and the spice scales fast. Bring it on holiday. Do not read it on a flight where strangers can see your screen. Trust on this one.

10. The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

Jude is a human raised in the Faerie Court of Elfhame, surrounded by immortal classmates who could kill her for sport. Cardan is the cruelest of them. He hates her. She hates him more.

This is the original modern fae enemies to lovers blueprint that ACOTAR and Fourth Wing both inherited from. The political maneuvering is the sharpest in romantasy.

Jude makes choices that genuinely shock readers. Cardan becomes someone you root for without quite knowing when it happened. The shift is masterful pacing.

The Folk of the Air trilogy is shorter than most picks here. That makes it perfect for filling a weekend and a useful study in how to write a slow burn romance if you ever want to draft your own.

11. The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

Standalone romantasy that runs over 800 pages, Priory does dragons differently than Yarros. Eastern dragons here are noble water creatures with a deep spiritual tradition.

Western wyrms are draconic monsters threatening to wake up and end the world. The romance is a slow burn fantasy between two women in different hemispheres of the same continent.

The political scope is enormous, comparable to The Wheel of Time in worldbuilding ambition but far more accessible. Readers who want serious dragon focused literary fantasy without sacrificing emotional payoff will find this rewarding.

The follow up, A Day of Fallen Night, is technically a prequel and equally strong. Standalone status makes it easy to recommend to readers who fear committing to long series.

12. Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan

Sue Lynn Tan's debut grounds romantasy in Chinese mythology in a way the genre has needed. Xingyin grows up in exile on the moon, her mother imprisoned for stealing the elixir of immortality.

When her hiding place is discovered, she flees to the Celestial Kingdom and begins a path through court intrigue, brutal magical training, and a love triangle that actually earns its complications.

The prose is more lyrical than most BookTok fantasy reads. The romance still hits the same notes. If you appreciate Violet's intelligence and tactical mind, you will fall fast for Xingyin.

The Celestial Kingdom duology is complete and delivers everything in two books. Easy emotional commitment, with one of the most satisfying finales in recent romantasy publishing.

13. Eragon by Christopher Paolini

Some lists like this skip Eragon because it is older and not marketed as romantasy. That is a mistake. The Inheritance Cycle has been the cornerstone of dragon rider romance for two decades.

Eragon, a farm boy, finds a dragon egg in the spine of the mountains and bonds with Saphira. The series spans four books and millions of words.

The romance is gentler than Fourth Wing. The dragons are sharper. For readers who want dragon focused fantasy with quieter spice but stronger lore, Eragon is the rec your romantasy friends keep forgetting to give you.

If you have ever wondered how to start a fantasy story or novel with worldbuilding this dense, Paolini's first chapter is a free masterclass. Murtagh, published in 2023, finally hands the morally grey side character his own arc.

14. The Hurricane Wars by Thea Guanzon

Talasyn is a Lightweave magic user fighting on the rebellion side of a brutal civil war. Alaric is the Night Empire's heir, the most powerful Shadowforger of his generation.

They meet on the battlefield. They marry for political reasons. They are deeply not happy about it.

The Hurricane Wars borrowed openly from the grumpy sunshine trope and arranged marriage tropes, then ground them through Southeast Asian inspired worldbuilding that adds welcome texture to the European court fantasy default.

The first book covers the war and political marriage. For readers who specifically loved the Violet and Xaden enemies to lovers' heat, this is one of the closest tonal matches available on shelves.

15. To Kill a Kingdom by Alexandra Christo

A dark Little Mermaid retelling, To Kill a Kingdom follows Lira, a siren princess who has collected seventeen prince hearts. For her eighteenth birthday her mother demands a special prize.

The heart of Elian, the kingdom's pirate prince who hunts sirens. The setup is fast. The voices are sharp.

Lira is one of the most genuinely villain coded heroines in the genre. Elian is a prince who would rather be at sea than on a throne. The chemistry crackles.

The book is a standalone, around four hundred pages, and reads in two days. For readers who liked Violet's underestimated dangerousness, Lira goes harder. A perfect palate cleanser between bigger series.

16. An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

Sabaa Tahir's Roman inspired fantasy follows Laia, a Scholar girl whose brother is arrested by the Martial Empire. She infiltrates the Empire's elite military school as a spy. Elias is the academy's top student who wants out.

The military academy setting is the closest direct comparison to Basgiath War College in Fourth Wing. The training. The trials. The constant fear.

The way friendship and loyalty become survival tools. All of it. Four book series, fully published, with a final book that ranks as one of the most devastating romantasy conclusions of the decade.

If you want magic academy romance with stakes that genuinely scare you, this is essential. Tahir's worldbuilding is also a rare escape from generic medieval European settings into something far more interesting.

17. Once Upon a Broken Heart by Stephanie Garber

Stephanie Garber's spinoff from the Caraval trilogy stands easily on its own and may be the better starting point for readers who want maximum whimsy with their romantasy.

Evangeline Fox makes a deal with Jacks, the Prince of Hearts, to stop her ex from marrying another woman. Every romantasy reader knows what happens when you make a deal with a fae prince. Especially this one.

The series is told with Garber's signature dreamlike prose and reads like Caraval crossed with The Cruel Prince. The trope work also explores echoes of second chance romance in unexpected ways.

For readers who want lighter spice with maximal aesthetic, this is a sugary palate cleanser between heavier reads. The trilogy closes by tying Evangeline's fate to Jacks in ways that wreck readers.

18. Gild by Raven Kennedy

The Plated Prisoner series starts with Auren, gilded in literal gold by her king, kept like a treasure in a cage. It is exactly as dark as it sounds.

The series opens slowly and ramps into one of the most discussed dark romantasy sagas on TikTok. For readers who came to Fourth Wing because of the morally grey love interest energy, this is where you go to push further.

The series is six books, all available, no waiting. Some readers find Gild too slow as a starter. Power through to book two and the series rewards patience.

If your tolerance for AI taboo romance stories style narratives has grown, this is a published equivalent with serious craft behind the heavier scenes.

19. A Promise of Fire by Amanda Bouchet

A criminally underrated entry on most romantasy lists, A Promise of Fire follows Cat, a soothsayer who can detect lies, hiding in a traveling circus to escape her dangerous bloodline. Griffin, a warlord prince, recognizes what she is and kidnaps her.

The Kingmaker Chronicles delivered grumpy sunshine, forced proximity, and Greek mythology inflected worldbuilding before BookTok was big enough to make it viral.

Cat is one of the smartest mouth heroines in fantasy romance books. Griffin is the rare warlord male lead who actually listens when she pushes back. The Kingmaker Chronicles is one of those fantasy romance books that critics underrate and readers swear by.

Three book trilogy, complete, with a satisfying ending. If you have already burned through the obvious picks and are hunting for hidden gem fourth wing read alikes that critics consistently underrate, start your search at Amanda Bouchet's catalog.

20. Heartless Hunter by Kristen Ciccarelli

Released in 2024, Heartless Hunter rode the post Fourth Wing wave and landed firmly on every romantasy list of the year. Rune is a socialite secretly running a smuggling operation that helps witches escape persecution.

Gideon is the witch hunter assigned to expose her. The slow burn here is genuinely slow. The political stakes are high. The chemistry is dignified and devastating.

For readers who specifically want spicy fantasy novels with restraint, Heartless Hunter shows what the genre looks like when it remembers that tension is the point, not the obstacle.

The Crimson Moth duology continues with a sequel that doubles down on the witch hunter cat and mouse. If you want one of the cleanest, sharpest closers to your TBR, this is the one to end on.

Want to Write Your Own Romantasy While You Wait for the Next Empyrean Book?

Reading the best books like fourth wing for adults eventually leaves a different itch. Not just wanting more dragons. Wanting your own. Most books like fourth wing for adults end with a sequel cliffhanger, and the wait can be brutal.

Plenty of readers move from consuming romantasy to writing it, sketching out their own dragon rider, fae prince, or magic academy scenes between TBR pickups. The barrier used to be high. Now AI writing tools make first drafts genuinely accessible.

If you have ever wanted to spin up a quick scene with your own characters, 20 fantasy AI prompts tested for writers and roleplayers is a useful starting point. Pair it with a clear sense of your tropes and you will have a workable scene in minutes.

For readers who specifically want spicier scenes, SmutFinder is built for this. It writes adult fantasy, romantasy, and dragon rider scenes without the refusals that mainstream AI chatbots throw at you.

Free to try, no credit card to sample the experience. Plenty of readers use it to fill the gap between Empyrean releases when even all twenty of these picks are not quite enough.

Final Thought

The romantasy boom that Fourth Wing accelerated is now its own publishing category. Triple digit growth, BookTok influence, and a generation of readers refusing to apologize for what they enjoy.

Per Publishers Weekly's 2025 print sales analysis, romance and romantasy now drive the strongest growth in adult fiction overall.

Whatever you pick from this list of books like fourth wing, you are entering one of the most reader powered movements in modern fiction. Every book here has earned its place through actual reader passion, not marketing alone.

Save the ones that match your mood. Skip what does not. Come back when the dragon shaped hole opens up again. There are always more books like Fourth Wing waiting.