1. The Wrath Gods Reap
Abigail Owen★ 4.5Out November 17, 2026
The Crucible trilogy finale. This time Hades has to compete, in a contest built to break immortals, while Lyra fights to control a power waking inside her. You need...
Forbidden Love Romantasy: the 136 best books
By Dani · Updated Oct 2026 · 20 min read
Lovers whose relationship is forbidden by law, magic, family, or circumstance, adding danger and tension.
Forbidden love is the oldest romance trope in the book and still one of the best. Two people who cannot be together for reasons that matter. Politics, blood feuds, opposing magic, prophecy, war, family. The taboo is the engine. Every choice has consequences, every stolen moment has a cost, and the romance becomes about whether love can survive what the world has decided for them.
This list covers all 136 forbidden love romantasy books on the shelf, from Mild to Scorching. Filter by heat, shelve what you want, and vote for the best couple further down. New to heat ratings? The spice guide explains every level.
The 136 Best Forbidden Love Books
Showing 24 of 136
2. Crown of Midnight
Sarah J. Maas★ 4.4Celaena is now the King's Champion, but her position comes with a terrible price: she must hunt and execute her enemies. Haunted by her past and pulled in dangerous...
3. A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire
Jennifer L. Armentrout★ 4.4Poppy escapes her gilded cage with a forbidden prince by her side, only to discover the real dangers lie beyond the walls. She's learning her true power is far more...
4. The Kingdom of Copper
S.A. Chakraborty★ 4.4Book two of the Daevabad Trilogy. Five years after the battle that cost her everything, Nahri is trapped in Daevabad's royal court, forging a new path without Dara or...
5. Queen of Chaos
Amelia Hutchins★ 4.4Fae Wars series brings dark romance, morally gray heroes, and forbidden love. High spice, complex world-building, and a heroine navigating fae politics. Expect...
6. A Court of Wings and Ruin
Sarah J. Maas★ 4.3Feyre has returned to the Spring Court, tasked with gathering intelligence for the Night Court while her heart remains with Rhysand. As she maneuvers through deadly...
7. Zodiac Academy: The Reckoning
Caroline Peckham & Susanne Valenti★ 4.3Book three of Zodiac Academy. Reckoning week has arrived, the seniors are making freshman life hell before the exam that decides who stays, and with the Lunar Eclipse...
8. Zodiac Academy: Shadow Princess
Caroline Peckham & Susanne Valenti★ 4.3Book four of Zodiac Academy. A new year, shadow magic creeping into the Vega twins' lives, and four Heirs who still want them gone, though they have badly...
9. Zodiac Academy: Cursed Fates
Caroline Peckham & Susanne Valenti★ 4.3Book five of Zodiac Academy. After the devastating events at the academy, the Vega twins face a darker Solaria. Lionel Acrux wants them hurt, the Nymphs threaten...
10. Zodiac Academy: Fated Throne
Caroline Peckham & Susanne Valenti★ 4.3Book six of Zodiac Academy. The Vega twins are separated, the Shadow Princess is changing Solaria, and Lionel Acrux is ready to take the throne. Their only hope is to...
11. Zodiac Academy: Restless Stars
Caroline Peckham & Susanne Valenti★ 4.3The final Zodiac Academy book. The false king's shadow covers Solaria, the Starfall Legion rides at first light, and the Vega twins go into the last battle for the...
12. Princess of Blood
Sarah Hawley★ 4.3Book two of Sarah Hawley's Shards of Magic. Once a servant, now a Fae princess of her own house, Kenna Heron holds the deciding vote in a three-way fight for Mistei's...
13. From Blood and Ash
Jennifer L. Armentrout★ 4.2Chosen 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...
14. Zodiac Academy: Ruthless Fae
Caroline Peckham & Susanne Valenti★ 4.2Book two of Zodiac Academy. Tory and Darcy Vega survived the Celestial Heirs' first round of cruelty, and now they stop playing defence. The plan is quiet revenge,...
15. Zodiac Academy: Heartless Sky
Caroline Peckham & Susanne Valenti★ 4.2Book seven of Zodiac Academy. On the run and cast out of society, the Vega twins hide from the man who stole their throne while a curse closes in on the people they...
16. We Free the Stars
Hafsah Faizal★ 4.2The conclusion of the Sands of Arawiya duology. With Altair captive, Zafira, Nasir and Kifah head for Sultan's Keep to return magic to Arawiya, while Nasir learns to...
17. The Things Gods Break
Abigail Owen★ 4.2The second Crucible book picks up after the contest for Olympus, with Lyra trapped in Tartarus among the Titans and Hades trying to reach her. Bigger and angrier than...
18. Servant of Earth
Sarah Hawley★ 4.2Book one of Sarah Hawley's Shards of Magic. Kenna Heron, a half-feral village girl, is trapped as a servant in Mistei, the faeries' underground kingdom, where she has...
19. The Wretched Divine
Adalyn Grace★ 4.2Signa Farrow thought she had left death behind, but when a new threat emerges in high society, she must team up with both the charming Sylas Thorly and the...
20. Earthbound
Saara El-Arifi★ 4.2The Faebound trilogy ends with three characters chasing the truth across a magical world coming apart. Start with Faebound.
21. The City of Brass
S.A. Chakraborty★ 4.1Book one of the Daevabad Trilogy. Nahri, a con artist on the streets of 18th-century Cairo, accidentally summons a djinn warrior during a scam and is pulled into...
22. Zodiac Academy: Sorrow and Starlight
Caroline Peckham & Susanne Valenti★ 4.0Book eight of Zodiac Academy. Bloody and broken after everything the stars took, the Vega twins are torn apart by shadow and grief, and it is time to take back their...
23. Kingdom of the Wicked
Kerri Maniscalco★ 3.9Emilia 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...
24. Zodiac Academy: The Awakening
Caroline Peckham & Susanne Valenti★ 3.8Book one of Zodiac Academy. Twin sisters Tory and Darcy Vega learn they are Fae princesses with a claim to Solaria's empty throne, and the four Celestial Heirs at...
Want to combine forbidden love with other tropes, a page count or only standalones? Open forbidden love in Explore.
Most loved forbidden love couples
The pairings readers bring up first. No spoilers past the opening chapters.
Poppy and Casteel
From Blood and AshA sheltered Maiden who has never been allowed to live, and the guard with a dangerous charm and something to hide.
Why they work: the reveal changes everything you read before it.
Emilia and Wrath
Kingdom of the WickedA witch hunting her twin's killer summons a prince of Hell to help. He agrees, on his own terms.
Why they work: bargains, banter and a very long fuse.
Darcy and Orion
Zodiac Academy: The AwakeningA Vega twin and one of her professors at Zodiac Academy. Every rule of the school says no.
Why they work: the risk is the whole point.
Why Forbidden Love Works
Forbidden love works because the obstacle is external and unavoidable. The characters can't just talk it out. Whatever stands between them is bigger than them, which means every advance in the relationship requires real risk. Romeo and Juliet figured this out four hundred years ago and the trope hasn't gotten less effective since.
What to Watch For
The trope falls apart when the forbidden part isn't actually forbidden. If two characters say they can't be together but face no real consequences when they sneak around, the tension is fake. The good books make the cost visible. People die, families fracture, kingdoms break.
Every book page lists its content warnings separately from the heat rating, so check those if a theme matters to you.
Where to Start
ACOTAR for the fae court version. The Cruel Prince for the political enemies version. An Ember in the Ashes for the war-divided version. Daughter of the Moon Goddess for the celestial version. Each handles the trope with different flavours of doomed romance.
Not sure where your heat line is? The spice guide explains every level, and the book quiz matches you with three books at your level.
Forbidden Love FAQ
What is the forbidden love trope?
Lovers whose relationship is forbidden by law, magic, family, or circumstance, adding danger and tension. Forbidden love is the oldest romance trope in the book and still one of the best. Two people who cannot be together for reasons that matter.
What are the best forbidden love romantasy books?
By reader rating, the top of this list is Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas (4.4 on Goodreads), A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire by Jennifer L. Armentrout (4.4 on Goodreads) and The Kingdom of Copper by S.A. Chakraborty (4.4 on Goodreads). Every book on the page is ranked the same way, and each one has a heat rating so you can pick your level.
What are the spiciest forbidden love romantasy books?
Queen of Chaos (Scorching, 5 of 5), A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire (Very spicy, 4 of 5) and Zodiac Academy: Shadow Princess (Very spicy, 4 of 5) are the hottest forbidden love books we have rated. Expect explicit scenes, and check the content warnings on each book page.
What are good forbidden love books for beginners?
Start where most readers start: From Blood and Ash (book 1 of a series, spicy), Zodiac Academy: The Awakening (book 1 of a series, spicy) and Kingdom of the Wicked (book 1 of a series, warm). They are the most widely read forbidden love books on the shelf, so you will find plenty of people to talk to about them.
Are there clean or low-spice forbidden love books?
Yes. 32 books here are rated No spice or Mild, which means kissing and tension without explicit scenes. Good places to start are The Kingdom of Copper, We Free the Stars and The City of Brass. Use the heat filter above the list to see only those.
How many forbidden love books are on The Fae Shelf?
136 books carry the forbidden love tag right now, including 3 upcoming releases that get a heat rating once they are out. 57% of the rated books here sit at Warm or Spicy. The list grows as we add and rate new books.
