For everyone still thinking about Kingfisher.
Quicksilver came out of nowhere. Callie Hart self-published it in late 2024, BookTok found it within weeks, and by the time Forever picked it up for traditional release it was already the book everyone's group chat would not shut up about. A thief from a desert city ruled by an immortal tyrant, dragged through a quicksilver portal into a frozen fae kingdom, forced to work with a fae warrior who treats sarcasm as a primary language. Saeris and Kingfisher's dynamic is the whole pitch, two people who are awful to each other in increasingly affectionate ways while a war with vampires gets worse around them.
That specific cocktail is hard to replicate. The banter has actual teeth. The spice is earned, not scheduled. And the world has texture, alchemy, god-forged blades, courts that want everyone dead. Brimstone, the sequel, landed in November 2025 and hit the NYT list, but it also made the wait for book three feel longer, not shorter.
So here is the list. Twelve books that hit at least one of the things Quicksilver does best, the mouthy enemies-to-lovers, the vampire menace, the mortal surviving on wit in a world built to kill her. Not vague vibe-matches. Specific recommendations for specific itches.
The whole list at a glance. Tap a title to jump to the full entry.
| Rank | Book | Goodreads | Heat | Known for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fourth Wing Rebecca Yarros | 4.5 | 3 · Spicy | Academy, Dragons |
| 2 | The Bridge Kingdom Danielle J. Jensen | 4.1 | 2 · Warm | |
| 3 | A Dawn of Onyx Kate Golden | Not rated | 4 · Very spicy | Enemies to Lovers, Fae |
| 4 | Phantasma Kaylie Smith | Not rated | 4 · Very spicy | Dark Romantasy, Gothic |
| 5 | The Serpent and the Wings of Night Carissa Broadbent | 4.2 | 3 · Spicy | Vampire |
| 6 | From Blood and Ash Jennifer L. Armentrout | 4.2 | 3 · Spicy | Chosen One, Forbidden Love |
| 7 | Kingdom of the Wicked Kerri Maniscalco | 3.9 | 2 · Warm | Forbidden Love, Slow Burn |
| 8 | A Court of Thorns and Roses Sarah J. Maas | 4.2 | 2 · Warm | Enemies to Lovers, Fae |
| 9 | The Cruel Prince Holly Black | 4.1 | 1 · Mild | Enemies to Lovers, Fae |
| 10 | Gild Raven Kennedy | 4.1 | 3 · Spicy | |
| 11 | When the Moon Hatched Sarah A. Parker | 4.2 | 3 · Spicy | |
| 12 | Heartless Hunter Kristen Ciccarelli | Not rated | 4 · Very spicy | Enemies to Lovers, Forbidden Love |
| 13 | Iron Flame Rebecca Yarros | 4.1 | 3 · Spicy | Dragons, Found Family |
| 14 | Brimstone Callie Hart | Not rated | 5 · Scorching | |
| 15 | Quicksilver Callie Hart | Not rated | 5 · Scorching |
Saeris never stops talking and Kingfisher never stops deserving it. If the verbal sparring was your favorite part, these four deliver.
Fourth Wing is the obvious starting point if you have somehow skipped it. Violet and Xaden circle each other with the same mix of hostility and reluctant attraction, and Rebecca Yarros paces the tension like she is being paid per heartbeat. The dragon academy setting means the danger never lets up, so the banter always has stakes underneath it.
The Bridge Kingdom puts two people on opposite sides of a war in the same marriage. Lara is sent to her husband's kingdom as a weapon, and watching her and Aren trade barbs while hiding their actual agendas is exactly the flavor of distrust-flirting that Quicksilver runs on. Danielle L. Jensen writes political tension that never feels like homework.
A Dawn of Onyx is the closest tonal match on this list. Arwen is a healer taken into an enemy kingdom, the king is dark and infuriating, and the conversations crackle the way Saeris and Fisher's do, hostile on the surface, something else entirely underneath. Kate Golden's Sacred Stones series is still flying under the radar relative to how good it is.
And Phantasma is the wild card. A haunted competition in a New Orleans mansion, a devil with a contract for everything, and a heroine who gives as good as she gets. Kaylie Smith's demon love interest has serious Kingfisher energy, all smirk and secrets until suddenly he is not.
Violet Sorrengail was meant to become a scribe until her commanding general mother orders her to enter the dragon rider academy. She must survive deadly competition and paranormal creatures while uncovering dangerous secrets. As her world expands, so does her capacity for power and love.
Lara, a Maridrinian princess trained from birth as a spy and assassin, is married to King Aren of Ithicana so she can learn the secrets of his bridge kingdom and help her father take it. The longer she lives among Aren's people, the less she wants to betray them.
Arwen Valondale is a healer captured and imprisoned by the ruthless army of Onyx Kingdom. Inside the dungeon, she meets Kane Ravenwood, the kingdom's brutal, brooding commander and the last person she should trust. But Kane is hiding his own secrets, and as war approaches, their reluctant partnership turns into something fierce and tender. The enemies-to-lovers chemistry burns slow and hits hard, set against a world of warring fae kingdoms and ancient prophecies.
Book one of Kaylie Smith's Wicked Games. Ophelia Grimm, from a family of necromancers, enters Phantasma, a deadly magical game, to save her sister, and makes a deal with a demon named Blaise to survive it.
The vampire threat in Quicksilver is genuinely unsettling, corruption, hunger, a war the fae are losing. If that darkness pulled you in, go here next.
The Serpent and the Wings of Night is the strongest vampire romantasy of the past few years, full stop. Oraya is a human raised by the vampire king, competing in a tournament where every other contestant could drain her. Carissa Broadbent makes the danger feel real because it is, the love interest is also her rival, and the book never forgets what he is. The whole Crowns of Nyaxia series scratches the same vein.
From Blood and Ash hides its vampire reveal behind a slow unraveling of everything Poppy believes about her world, so calling it a vampire book is technically a spoiler the cover art already gave away. What matters: forbidden romance, a heroine kept ignorant by people who claim to protect her, and Jennifer L. Armentrout's reliable commitment to high heat. The series is long and complete-ish, which helps when you are between Callie Hart releases.
Kingdom of the Wicked trades vampires for princes of Hell, but the architecture is the same, Emilia hunts her sister's killer straight into a bargain with Wrath, the most dangerous thing in the room. Kerri Maniscalco's Italian setting and slow-burn pacing make it feel distinct from everything else on this list while still hitting the dangerous-immortal-love-interest note dead center.
A paranormal romance where danger and supernatural passion collide in a world of ancient magic and forbidden connection. Two souls bound by fate and danger discover their bond might be their only salvation. Love here means accepting the darkness within and without.
Chosen from birth to usher in a new era, Poppy's life has never been her own. The life of the Maiden is solitary. But when Hawke, a golden-eyed guard, enters her life, everything changes. As secrets are revealed and danger closes in, Poppy must decide between duty and desire.
Emilia wants revenge on the witch who cursed her family, but to get it she must make a deal with the Prince of Demons himself. Together they must solve the mystery behind her family's curse, all while resisting a dangerous attraction that neither of them expected. It's dark Italian folklore meets enemies-to-lovers with real teeth.
Saeris survives Yvelia on competence and spite. No chosen-one glow, no hidden royal bloodline doing the work for her, at least not at first. These three heroines operate the same way.
A Court of Thorns and Roses is where most readers first felt this dynamic, and if you came to Quicksilver without passing through ACOTAR, it is worth doubling back. Feyre enters Prythian as prey and has to learn its rules fast. The first book is a slower burn than Quicksilver, but the series builds into the genre's defining romance, and the fae court politics only deepen from book two onward.
The Cruel Prince is the sharpest version of the mortal-among-fae premise ever written. Jude has no magic in a world where everyone else does, so she weaponizes the only things she has, nerve and a total willingness to escalate. Her dynamic with Cardan is nastier than Saeris and Fisher's, less banter and more open warfare, but the payoff across the trilogy is enormous.
Gild comes at it sideways. Auren is the gold-touched favorite of King Midas, kept in a literal cage, and the book is about her slowly realizing that survival and loyalty are not the same thing. Raven Kennedy's Plated Prisoner series gets darker than Quicksilver does, so check content warnings, but the arc of a woman discovering her own power inside someone else's story is the same shape.
When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a terrifying creature demands blood as payment. Imprisoned in a magical faerie prison with the immortal warrior Rhysand, Feyre discovers a curse far darker than she imagined. Her choices now will determine the fate of both the human and faerie worlds.
Jude was seven when her parents were murdered and she and her two sisters were stolen away to live in the treacherous High Court of Faerie. Ten years later, Jude wants nothing more than to belong there, despite her mortality. She'll have to outwit the cruel prince who rules there.
A woman is held captive in a golden tower by a paranormal being who demands she turn all she touches to gold. Her captivity becomes complicated by obsession, dark desire, and forbidden attraction. She must decide if freedom means leaving the only world she has ever known.
Quicksilver's alchemy is more than set dressing, Saeris's ability to speak to the metal is the reason anyone needs her alive, and the way her power tangles with Fisher's fate gives the romance its spine. Two books pull off something similar, plus one that maxes out the bond.
When the Moon Hatched has the most distinctive voice in recent romantasy. Sarah A. Parker writes Raeve with the same unfiltered interiority that makes Saeris so fun to ride along with, and the world, dragons whose deaths become moons, is genuinely original. The plot reveals itself in layers, which frustrated some readers, but if you enjoyed piecing together Yvelia's history through fragments, this rewards the same attention.
Heartless Hunter sets its romance inside an actual ideological war. Rune is a secret witch playing socialite. Gideon is a witch hunter who burned the old regime down. They get close for mutually bad reasons, and every conversation is a minefield because each one would be executed if the other knew the truth. Kristen Ciccarelli makes the forbidden-love trope feel dangerous again, the way Quicksilver's fated bond complicates everything it touches.
And if you want the bond intensity dialed to maximum, Iron Flame doubles down on everything Fourth Wing established, the rider-dragon connection, the relationship under siege, the body count. It is the rare sequel that escalates instead of stalling.
Speck discovers a mythical world where dragons hatch from the lunar sky, and she finds herself caught between protectors and hunters. The warrior who finds her is complex and dangerous, but he teaches her that power comes in many forms. As dragons emerge and the stakes rise, she must choose which world she truly belongs to.
In a world where witches are hunted, Rune Winters hides her magic behind a perfect socialite mask. Gideon Sharpe is the republic's most decorated witch hunter, and Rune sets out to seduce him to steal classified information. The problem is that Gideon is doing the exact same thing in reverse. Both know the other is dangerous, and neither can stop. This is a cat-and-mouse romance where both leads are lying from page one, and the tension is incredible because the reader knows exactly how badly this can go.
Violet's world has been turned upside down. With her dragon by her side and new allies at her back, she must uncover the truth about the war that's coming. The stakes have never been higher.
This should go without saying, but the data says otherwise, a surprising number of people who loved Quicksilver have not picked up the sequel yet. Brimstone arrived in November 2025, debuted on the NYT list, and splits the narration between Saeris and Kingfisher for the first time. Getting Fisher's POV recontextualizes half of what he did in book one, and Hart uses the dual perspective to make the gaps between what these two say and what they mean even funnier and more painful.
It picks up directly after Quicksilver's ending, so the less said about the plot here the better. What can be said: the stakes widen, the found-family war band gets more room, and the cliffhanger situation does not improve. Book three will close out the Fae & Alchemy trilogy. Until it arrives, the eleven books above are your methadone.
If you want more recommendations sorted by what specifically you loved, browse our enemies-to-lovers collection or check the spice guide to find your heat level. And if Quicksilver was your first romantasy, welcome. It is a very good gateway drug and an even better excuse to never sleep again.
The sequel to Quicksilver intensifies the dark passion and moral complexity between its dangerous lovers. Secrets, betrayal, and obsessive love test their bond in devastating ways. Passion burns brighter than ever, even as it threatens to consume them.
A morally gray hero draws a woman into his dangerous supernatural world with no escape, igniting dark attraction and forbidden connection. Power imbalance and danger create obsessive romance. She discovers that love with such a man is both salvation and ruin.
Our spice guide explains exactly what each heat level means.
15 books. 12 are part of a series and 3 are standalones.
Brimstone, Quicksilver, A Dawn of Onyx, Phantasma and Heartless Hunter are rated 4 or higher on our heat scale. What the heat levels mean
The Cruel Prince sits at 0 or 1 on our heat scale, so nothing explicit happens on the page. Spice Guide
Fourth Wing, with a 4.5 average from 1.2M ratings. Fourth Wing
Published June 10, 2026 by Dani.
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