Series

by Sarah J. Maas

Maas before ACOTAR: an assassin, a stolen crown, and a series that grows from YA competition fantasy into a full-scale epic. Complete since 2018.|||Throne of Glass began as a story a teenage Sarah J. Maas posted online under the title Queen of Glass, and it kept that scrappy energy when Bloomsbury published it in 2012. It sold steadily for years, then the ACOTAR boom sent readers back through her catalog and the series found a second, much larger audience on BookTok. It has a real advantage over most big romantasy series: it is finished. Eight volumes, no waiting, and an ending that actually lands. The novels in publication order: Throne of Glass (2012), Crown of Midnight (2013), Heir of Fire (2014), Queen of Shadows (2015), Empire of Storms (2016), Tower of Dawn (2017), and Kingdom of Ash (2018), plus The Assassin's Blade, a 2014 collection of prequel novellas. Order genuinely matters, and there are two decisions to make. First, read The Assassin's Blade before Queen of Shadows at the latest; events from those novellas hit hard in book four and land flat if you meet them out of order. Second, do not skip Tower of Dawn because it follows Chaol instead of Aelin. It runs parallel to Empire of Storms and smuggles in plot that Kingdom of Ash assumes you know. Ambitious readers do the tandem read, alternating chapters of both. It works, but simply reading them back to back is fine. This is Maas at her least spicy. The early books are true YA, a 1 on our scale at most, and even the adult-skewing later volumes top out around 2 to 3 with a few explicit scenes in Empire of Storms and Kingdom of Ash. The content is heavier than the heat: slavery and death camps, torture, an on-page massacre or two, and a running theme of surviving what should have killed you. The long game is the draw. Maas plants things in book one that detonate five books later, and the payoff structure of Kingdom of Ash rewards every hour invested. Manon Blackbeak and her wyvern-riding witches steal the back half of the series outright. Fair criticism: the first two books read noticeably younger and slighter than the rest, Celaena is an acquired taste before she becomes Aelin, and the POV count balloons until the finale is juggling a dozen threads. Some readers bounce off Tower of Dawn's slower pace. There is no adaptation; screen rights sit with Maas after the Hulu era ended. When you are done, ACOTAR is the obvious next stop and runs much hotter. [Fourth Wing](/book/fourth-wing) scratches the war-school itch with dragons, and Zodiac Academy offers a wilder, messier academy saga. For more like Manon, our morally gray heroine and [slow burn](/tropes/slow-burn) trope pages are good hunting grounds.

by Chloe Walsh

Chloe Walsh's Irish new adult saga set at Tommen College, where rugby is religion and every love story comes with a broken family attached. Six books, one continuous timeline, and BookTok's favorite emotional damage.|||Boys of Tommen started quietly in 2018 when Irish author Chloe Walsh self-published [Binding 13](/book/binding-13), a slow-burning love story between rugby prodigy Johnny Kavanagh and Shannon Lynch, a girl carrying far more at home than anyone at her new school realizes. BookTok found the series years later and turned it into a phenomenon, the kind where readers post videos of themselves staring at a wall after finishing. The books were picked up for wide release, hit bestseller lists, and turned Tommen College into one of the most beloved settings in new adult romance. The reading order matters more here than in almost any romance series, because this is one continuous story told across overlapping timelines. Read them in publication order: Binding 13, then Keeping 13, which complete Johnny and Shannon's arc. Saving 6 and Redeeming 6 follow Joey Lynch, Shannon's older brother, and Aoife Molloy, and run partly parallel to the first two books from a different angle. Taming 7 gives Gibsie and Claire their long-awaited story, and Releasing 10 continues the saga. Do not start anywhere except Binding 13. The payoffs are cumulative, and half the devastation of the later books comes from what you already know. Be honest with yourself about the content before you start. These are not light sports romances. The series deals with family abuse, addiction, poverty, and chronic illness on the page, and it treats those things with weight rather than as backdrop. The Lynch family storyline in particular is heavy going, and Saving 6 is widely considered the most emotionally brutal book of the set. Heat-wise the series sits low on our [spice scale](/spice-guide), around a 2. The intensity is emotional, not physical, and the [slow burns](/tropes/slow-burn) are measured in hundreds of pages. What makes it work is the voice. Walsh writes teenage Ireland in the mid-2000s with total specificity, the slang, the rugby obsession, the casseroles and Catholic guilt, and her characters talk like actual people rather than romance archetypes. Johnny Kavanagh is one of the genre's great book boyfriends precisely because he is allowed to be an awkward, overprotective eighteen-year-old rather than a brooding fantasy. And the found-family web that builds across six books rewards series readers the way the best fantasy sagas do. If you love this series and want something adjacent on our shelf, the emotional-damage-with-found-family lane runs toward our slow burn and [found family](/tropes/found-family) trope pages, and readers who want the same intensity with fantasy stakes tend to land on [Fourth Wing](/book/fourth-wing). Start with Binding 13, clear your weekend, and keep the tissues within arm's reach. You have been warned, which is more than Walsh will do for you.

by Cassandra Clare

Urban paranormal fantasy following Clary as she discovers a hidden world of demon hunters and supernatural politics. The series blends action, mystery, and romance across a richly detailed magical New York.

by Sarah J. Maas

Sarah J. Maas's fae saga is the series that turned an entire generation of readers into romantasy people. Five books out, with book six landing October 27, 2026.|||[A Court of Thorns and Roses](/book/a-court-of-thorns-and-roses) started life in 2015 as a Beauty and the Beast retelling with fae courts and a huntress heroine, and for a few years it simply sold well. Then lockdown-era BookTok found it and turned it into a phenomenon. Sarah J. Maas is now one of the bestselling fantasy authors alive, and ACOTAR is the series most new romantasy readers meet first. It is the closest thing the genre has to a shared canon: the court aesthetics, the mate bond discourse, the endless fan-cast videos, all of it traces back here. Reading order is publication order, no exceptions. A Court of Thorns and Roses (2015), A Court of Mist and Fury (2016), A Court of Wings and Ruin (2017), the holiday novella A Court of Frost and Starlight (2018), then A Court of Silver Flames (2021), which hands the lead to Feyre's sister Nesta. Order matters more here than in most series because Mist and Fury deliberately rewrites how you read book one, and going in blind to that reversal is half the experience. Frost and Starlight is skippable on plot but it seeds Silver Flames, so at least skim it. The long wait is finally over: Maas announced on Call Her Daddy that book six arrives October 27, 2026, book seven follows January 12, 2027, and an eighth is still being written. She wrote one enormous story, well over a thousand pages, and split it into parts. Heat climbs as you go. Book one sits around 2 on our [spice scale](/spice-guide), Mist and Fury is a solid 3, and Silver Flames is a 4 with the most explicit scenes Maas has written. Content notes worth knowing before you start: sexual coercion and assault in the Under the Mountain chapters, an emotionally abusive relationship shown on the page before the story names it as one, extended PTSD depiction, self-harm ideation in Silver Flames, and plenty of war violence and grief. What makes the series work is the [found family](/tropes/found-family). The Inner Circle banter carries entire chapters, Feyre's trauma recovery in Mist and Fury is genuinely well handled, and Nesta's book is a raw, angry portrait of self-loathing that a lot of readers consider the best thing Maas has written. Fair criticism: book one is the slowest and weakest, the Tamlin pivot between books reads to some as a retcon rather than a reveal, Frost and Starlight is filler, and the fandom's war over Elain's endgame has become its own weather system. On screen news, the Hulu adaptation died in development after years of waiting, and Maas confirmed in early 2026 that she has her screen rights back with no immediate plans. If you finish and want more Maas, Throne of Glass is the bigger, longer epic and is already complete. If it was the heat and the bite you liked, From Blood and Ash runs hotter and [Quicksilver](/book/quicksilver) hotter still. And if the mate bond was the hook, our fated mates and enemies to lovers trope pages are full of books that chase that exact feeling.

by Raven Kennedy

A dark paranormal romance exploring captivity, obsession, and forbidden desire. This spicy series follows a woman held prisoner by a powerful supernatural being in increasingly revealing circumstances.

by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Jennifer L. Armentrout's epic about a veiled Maiden who refuses to stay on her pedestal. Six books out, one to go, plus a prequel quartet that stops being optional.|||From Blood and Ash landed in March 2020, which turned out to be excellent timing: the world locked down, BookTok was being born, and a self-published fantasy about a forbidden Maiden and her treacherously charming guard became one of the defining romantasy hits of the era. Armentrout was already a veteran with dozens of books behind her, and it shows in how confidently the series hooks you. Publication order is the way: From Blood and Ash (2020), A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire (2020), The Crown of Gilded Bones (2021), The War of Two Queens (2022), A Soul of Ash and Blood (2023), and The Primal of Blood and Bone (2025). One wrinkle: A Soul of Ash and Blood retells book one from Hawke's point of view with new scenes and reveals, so it is half retread, half new canon. The bigger wrinkle is the Flesh and Fire prequel quartet, set centuries earlier, which starts as a nice-to-have and becomes required reading; its storylines feed directly into The Primal of Blood and Bone. Read those four before book six and the payoffs actually pay off. The Primal of Blood and Bone is billed as the penultimate book, so one final volume is still to come and the series remains ongoing. This is one of the hotter big-name series, a 4 on our [spice scale](/spice-guide) once the [slow burn](/tropes/slow-burn) catches, and it stays there. Content notes: graphic violence and gore, captivity, attempted sexual assault, ritualized abuse in Poppy's backstory, and a body count among side characters that Armentrout shows no guilt about. The identity deception at the heart of book one is also worth flagging, since the romance is built on a lie that takes books to untangle. The series' superpower is Poppy's arc. She starts the story literally veiled, forbidden to be touched or even seen, and every book hands her more power and more agency until the girl on the pedestal is the scariest thing in the room. The banter between the leads is genuinely funny, which matters across thousands of pages. Fair criticism: the dialogue leans on repeated verbal tics, the middle books spend a lot of time traveling and recapping, and A Soul of Ash and Blood split readers between those who loved the new context and those who wanted book six instead of book one again. The lore is also enormous and occasionally arrives in dense info-dump dinners. If gods, mate-adjacent bonds, and slow-burn-then-inferno pacing are your thing, Crowns of Nyaxia offers a tighter, vampire-flavored take, and ACOTAR is the gateway many readers came from. Our fated mates and forbidden love trope pages carry plenty more, and when you need another completed epic while waiting on the finale, Throne of Glass is right there.

by A.K. Caggiano

A fantasy romance series featuring enemies-to-lovers, grumpy-sunshine, forced proximity, and slow-burn romance. Set in the realm of Yvlcon, following a dark lord and a bubbly thief whose destinies become irrevocably entangled.

by Elise Kova

A paranormal romance series where a woman is bound by fae magic to an elf king she must marry. Political intrigue, paranormal danger, and slow-burn romance unfold across multiple worlds.

by Renee Ahdieh

by Tamora Pierce

by Sabaa Tahir

by Marissa Meyer

Sci-fi fairy tale retellings set in a futuristic world with cyborgs, androids, and a lunar queen. Multiple interconnected stories weave together paranormal elements, romance, and destiny.

by Scarlett St. Clair

A spicy mythology retelling where Hades, God of the Underworld, becomes obsessed with a mortal woman. The series explores dark paranormal romance with Greek mythology reimagined in a modern paranormal setting.

by Tracy Wolff

A human transfers to an elite paranormal academy where dragons, witches, and shapeshifters roam. She navigates a dangerous new world where she's hunted by the most powerful supernatural being alive.

by Ruby Dixon

Ruby Dixon's blue alien fated-mates comfort reads: abducted women, a frozen planet, and one devoted seven-foot barbarian per book. The main run is complete at 22 installments.|||Ice Planet Barbarians is the great BookTok resurrection story. Ruby Dixon started self-publishing these on Kindle in 2015 and wrote them steadily for years to a loyal but modest audience. Then in 2021 TikTok found the blue aliens, the memes went everywhere, and a six-year-old indie series hit the bestseller lists hard enough that Berkley reissued the books in print with new covers and bonus epilogues. The premise is exactly what it says: human women are abducted by alien traffickers, crash-land on an ice planet, and are taken in by a tribe of enormous horned blue aliens whose symbiotic khui chooses mates for them through a process called resonance. The main series runs 22 numbered installments, from Ice Planet Barbarians (2015) through Barbarian's Bride (2021), with a few holiday novellas folded into the numbering along the way. Each book follows a different couple to a full happily-ever-after, so individual romances are self-contained, but the colony's story, the babies, the new arrivals, the slow building of a home, runs continuously. Read in order if you can; the romance in any single book stands alone, but the [found-family](/tropes/found-family) payoff comes from watching the tribe grow across the series. Dixon maintains an official reading order on her site, which matters once you branch into Icehome and the other spinoff series set on the same planet. Our catalog carries a chunk of the main run, and the numbering follows the standard series order. Heat is a 4 on our [spice scale](/spice-guide), frequent and enthusiastic, with the fated-mates resonance device pushing couples together fast. One serious note: the opening chapters of book one include an on-page sexual assault by the alien captors, and it is rough. Many readers start at chapter four or begin with book two, Barbarian Alien, and circle back. Pregnancy and babies are everywhere in this series, which is either a feature or a dealbreaker depending on the reader. What makes these books endure is sincerity. There is no irony here, no wink at the camera: the barbarians are devoted, the women are resourceful, conflicts get talked out, and every book delivers warmth on schedule. They are short, fast, and remarkably comforting for a series set on a lethal glacier. Fair criticism: the formula is the formula, and 22 books of resonance means some entries blur together. The early books are rougher on a prose level, and readers who need external plot beyond survive-the-winter may drift after the first handful. If fated mates are your engine, our fated mates trope page runs from aliens to wolf shifters to fae. Readers who want monster romance with more plot should try our alien and monster romance listings, and if you want the same guaranteed-happy structure with dragons and higher stakes, [Fourth Wing](/book/fourth-wing) and its sequels wait on the shelf.

by Stephenie Meyer

A paranormal romance saga where a human girl falls for a vampire in a small Pacific Northwest town. The series blends paranormal danger, forbidden love, and supernatural conflict.

by Sarah J. Maas

Urban paranormal fantasy set in a sprawling city where humans, fae, demons, and other supernatural beings coexist. Follow Bryce Quinlan as she navigates danger, mystery, and her own hidden destiny.

by Rebecca Yarros

Fourth Wing's dragon-rider war college made Rebecca Yarros the biggest name in romantasy. Three books of a planned five are out, with a story collection landing September 2026.|||[Fourth Wing](/book/fourth-wing) arrived in May 2023 from upstart imprint Red Tower and broke the industry's brain. Bookstores could not keep it in stock, BookTok made the dragons and the death count a personality, and by the time Onyx Storm arrived in January 2025 it was reportedly the fastest-selling adult novel in two decades. The pitch is irresistible: Violet Sorrengard, small and brittle-boned in a war college built to kill cadets like her, has to bond a dragon or die trying, and the man most likely to kill her is the one she cannot stop looking at. The reading order so far: Fourth Wing (2023), Iron Flame (2023), and Onyx Storm (2025), with the main series planned at five books. Read them in order and do not read ahead on the wiki; each book ends on a genuine cliffhanger and the reveals are the point. What comes next is slightly unusual: Threshing Day, announced for September 29, 2026, is a collection of thirteen stories about characters across the Empyrean universe rather than book four. Yarros confirmed in early 2026 that she is writing the fourth main book, but it has no title or release date yet, so pace yourself accordingly. A television adaptation is in development at Amazon MGM, though nothing has been cast or dated. Heat sits at a 3 on our [spice scale](/spice-guide): a handful of very explicit scenes per book inside a story that is mostly war, politics, and dragon logistics. Content notes: constant peril and cadet deaths, torture and interrogation in Iron Flame, war violence, grief, and a heroine whose chronic joint condition, inspired by the author's own Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, is portrayed without being cured or minimized. The series works because of momentum and voice. Yarros writes propulsive chapters that end on hooks, the dragons are genuinely funny in their contempt for humans, and Violet's disability shaping her tactics rather than sidelining her remains one of the best things in modern romantasy. Fair criticism is easy to find too: Iron Flame's middle sags under repetitive arguments, a late-series memory plot device frustrates as much as it intrigues, and the worldbuilding creaks if you push on it. None of this has slowed it down, and the cliffhangers keep working. While you wait for book four, Throne of Glass offers a completed epic with similar war-school DNA, and Zodiac Academy is the chaotic indie cousin. If the rider bond was your favorite part, our dragon rider and fated mates trope pages go deeper, and enemies to lovers fans have an entire shelf waiting.

by Robin Hobb

by Fonda Lee

by Kerri Maniscalco

A witch summons a prince of Hell to help her avenge her sister's murder. This dark paranormal mystery series weaves together witches, demons, and a dangerous attraction that could change everything.

by Robin Hobb

by Jennifer L. Armentrout

A dark paranormal romance set in a world where a woman must navigate forbidden desire with a powerful Atlantian warrior. The series blends supernatural politics, passion, and shocking revelations.

by Carissa Broadbent

Carissa Broadbent's vampire tournament romance kicked off the Crowns of Nyaxia universe: three planned duets under one goddess, with four books out so far.|||The Serpent and the Wings of Night was self-published in 2022 and earned its BookTok explosion the honest way: word of mouth from readers who could not believe how hard a vampire tournament romance had wrecked them. The pitch is a human woman raised by the vampire Nightborn king, entering a brutal contest held in the goddess Nyaxia's honor, where the prize could save her and the competition includes the vampire she absolutely should not trust. Broadbent came from epic fantasy rather than romance, and it shows in the best way: the stakes are real and the world does not exist purely to decorate the couple. The Crowns of Nyaxia is structured as three duets, six books total, each pair following a different couple in the same world. The Nightborn Duet: The Serpent and the Wings of Night (2022) and The Ashes and the Star-Cursed King (2023), following Oraya and Raihn. The Shadowborn Duet: The Songbird and the Heart of Stone (2024) and The Fallen and the Kiss of Dusk (2025), following Mische and Asar into the realm of the dead. A final duet is still to come. Read in publication order: each duet tells a complete romance, but the second builds directly on the fallout of the first and spoils its ending completely. The novella Six Scorched Roses slots in alongside the first duet and is worth your evening. Heat is a 3 on our [spice scale](/spice-guide), earned rather than constant, with the emotional intimacy doing as much work as the explicit scenes. Content notes: heavy blood and violence as befits vampires, a complicated and controlling father-daughter relationship at the heart of book one, grief processed at length in book three, death gods, dead bodies, and one infamous ending that readers still have not forgiven. What sets Nyaxia apart is that Broadbent lets choices cost something. The romances are built on sacrifice with actual consequences, the finales commit instead of hedging, and The Ashes and the Star-Cursed King is that rare sequel readers like more than the opener. Mische, the sunshine side character of duet one, turning out to carry the saddest story in the series is a masterstroke. Fair criticism: the tournament structure of book one produces some repetitive middle rounds, book three opens slow while it sits with grief, and readers who want fluffy vampires should be warned that this universe bites down. When you are caught up, From Blood and Ash scratches a similar gods-and-monsters itch at greater length, and ACOTAR remains the genre's front door. Our vampire romance and enemies to lovers trope pages collect the nearest neighbors, and if you want another author who makes you pay for every happy ending, [Quicksilver](/book/quicksilver) is happy to hurt you next.

by Holly Black

Dark faerie politics and mortals caught in the machinations of immortal beings. Jude must navigate assassination plots and courtly intrigue to claim her place in the treacherous High Court.

by Ursula K. Le Guin

by Kristin Cashore

A fantasy series set in interconnected kingdoms where some people are born with extraordinary abilities called Gracelings. The books weave together adventure, subtle romance, and complex magic systems.

by Leigh Bardugo

An orphan with a rare magical power is thrust into a war between darkness and light. The trilogy explores her journey as she discovers her true potential and navigates dangerous romantic entanglements.

by Veronica Roth

A dystopian trilogy where society is divided into factions based on personality traits. Tris discovers she is Divergent, making her dangerous to the rigid system and forcing her to survive deadly trials.

by Susan Ee

by Cassandra Clare

A paranormal trilogy set in Victorian London following shadowhunters battling supernatural creatures. Dark paranormal romance, clockwork angels, and paranormal mystery blend in this gothic fantasy.

by Natasha Ngan

by Lisette Marshall

by Leigh Bardugo

A paranormal heist series following six dangerous criminals on an impossible mission. The duology combines paranormal elements with intricate plotting and slow-burn paranormal romance.

by Callie Hart

Callie Hart's Quicksilver dragged half of BookTok into the Fae and Alchemy trilogy in a single winter. Two books are out; the finale is still ahead.|||[Quicksilver](/book/quicksilver) appeared in late 2024 as a self-published doorstopper and became the romantasy story of that winter almost overnight. A sharp-tongued desert thief named Saeris Fane grabs a relic she should not touch, gets dragged through a gateway into a dying fae world, and lands in the orbit of Kingfisher, a scarred, infuriating fae warrior with a talent for making everything worse before he makes it better. BookTok did the rest: the book hit the bestseller lists, Hachette picked up the series, and the phrase good girl acquired a fandom of its own. The Fae and Alchemy series is a trilogy and the order is strict: Quicksilver (2024), then Brimstone (2025), with the untitled third book concluding the story. Book three's schedule has moved around, originally listed for late 2026 before being pushed back, with the latest word pointing to 2027, so build your expectations accordingly. These are direct continuations, not standalone adventures. Brimstone opens on the consequences of Quicksilver's ending and closes on a cliffhanger of its own, so readers who hate waiting may want to let the finale land first. Both published books are on our shelves. This is one of the spicier big series on the site, a solid 4 on our scale, explicit and frequent once it gets going, with the infamous praise-kink scenes doing exactly what the internet says they do. Content notes: graphic violence and torture, captivity, a war-scarred love interest with a genuinely dark past, blood magic and gore, and alcohol dependence portrayed on the page. What Hart does well is chemistry with an actual edge. Fisher is written as properly infuriating rather than cosmetically rude, Saeris gives as good as she gets and keeps her own agenda, and the alchemy-meets-fae worldbuilding is more distinctive than the genre average. The banter earns its reputation. Fair criticism: Quicksilver runs over a hundred chapters and feels it, with a middle section that wanders, and some plot mechanics bend suspiciously to put the leads where the romance needs them. Brimstone tightens the pacing but ends mid-crisis, which is either delicious or enraging depending on your tolerance. If you came for the heat and the hostility, our enemies to lovers and fae romance trope pages are the natural next stop. From Blood and Ash matches the spice level across more books, ACOTAR supplies the comfort-food version of the fae court fantasy, and Crowns of Nyaxia is the pick when you want the same intensity with vampires instead of fae.

by Kerri Maniscalco

A dark paranormal romance featuring morally gray princes and hidden agendas in a world of witches and demons. This companion series expands the mythology with new perspectives and dangerous magic.

by V.E. Schwab

by A.K. Larkwood

by Chloe Gong

A Romeo and Juliet retelling set in 1920s Shanghai amid gang rivalries and a mysterious plague. Enemies-to-lovers paranormal romance with Chinese mythology and atmospheric worldbuilding.

by Sarah A. Parker

A dark fantasy featuring dragon bonds and ancient magic in a richly detailed world. Enemies-to-lovers romance and epic stakes unfold across this series.

by Brigid Kemmerer

A girl with paranormal magic is pulled into a curse that traps a paranormal prince and his kingdom. Fantasy and paranormal romance blend as they fight to break the dark spell.

by Stephanie Garber

A dark paranormal romance where a woman makes a dangerous deal with a mysterious fae cursemaker. Fate, lies, and a morally gray hero collide in this twisted fairy tale.

by Shelby Mahurin

A witch hiding among witch hunters is forced into marriage with one to keep her secret. Dark paranormal romance blends religious intrigue, forbidden desire, and epic world-spanning conflict.

by Leigh Bardugo

A paranormal fantasy following Nikolai Lantsov as he battles demons, dark magic, and his own haunted past. Political intrigue, paranormal horror, and forbidden desire converge in this duology.

by Elizabeth Lim

by Veronica Roth

A sci-fi duology featuring psychic abilities called gifts and a paranormal magic system. Two teens from opposing sides of a brutal conflict develop a dangerous connection that could change everything.

by Danielle Jensen

by Lauren Roberts