Dragons. Fae courts. Morally gray love interests who would burn the world down for one person. If your ideal book has a battle scene on one page and a tension-filled almost-kiss on the next, you're in the right place.

The Ballad of Falling Dragons just dropped. Onyx Storm sold 2.7 million copies in its first week. BookTok can't stop talking about "spicy fantasy books," and honestly, fair enough. Romantasy isn't a trend anymore. It's just... the genre.

This list is organized by vibe, so whether you're brand new or you've already read Fourth Wing three times, you can skip to whatever sounds good.

Romantasy is fantasy and romance in the same book, where both actually matter. The world-building has real depth, and the love story drives the plot just as much as the magic does.

The genre has been around for decades (some people trace it back to Anne Bishop's Black Jewels trilogy in the '90s), but the modern version really started with Sarah J. Maas and A Court of Thorns and Roses. BookTok poured gasoline on it. Now it has its own sections at Barnes & Noble and its own Amazon bestseller list.

Tropes you'll run into: enemies-to-lovers, fated mates, morally gray heroes, forced proximity, "there's only one bed" (but make it magical), found family, and slow burn tension that stretches across entire series.

How is it different from fantasy romance? People argue about this constantly. Rough guideline: if the plot works without the romance, it's more fantasy. If the romance and the world-building are equally load-bearing, it's romantasy. Honestly, most readers use the terms interchangeably. Don't overthink it.

Never read romantasy books? These are the books that got millions of people hooked.

Starts as a Beauty and the Beast retelling. A mortal huntress kills a wolf that turns out to be a fae warrior, gets dragged into the immortal lands as punishment. Book one sets the table. Book two (A Court of Mist and Fury) is where people lose their minds.

Five books, a huge fan community, a screen adaptation is in the works after Maas regained the rights from Hulu. This is still the default recommendation for a reason.

Tropes: Enemies-to-lovers, fae courts, slow burn · Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️ (builds across the series)
Series: 5 books out, Books 6-8 announced  · Good for: People who want the full experience that kicked off the modern romantasy wave

Violet Sorrengail was supposed to become a scribe. Her mother, a commanding general, has other plans: Basgiath War College, where students either bond with a dragon or die trying. The curriculum is lethal. The dragons are worse. And then there's Xaden Riorson, a wingleader with every reason to want her dead.

Onyx Storm (Book 3) moved 2.7 million copies in week one, more than any adult novel in twenty years.

Tropes: Enemies-to-lovers, dragons, military academy, forced proximity · Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Series: 3 books out, 5 planned (The Empyrean) · Good for: Action-first readers who want dragons and fast pacing

Lara was trained since childhood to do one thing: marry the king of the Bridge Kingdom, gain his trust, map his defenses, and destroy him from the inside. The plan works perfectly. The part nobody planned for was her actually falling in love with him.

Tightly plotted, smart, and weirdly underrated for how good it is. Six books, all finished.

Tropes: Enemies-to-lovers, arranged marriage, political intrigue · Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️
Series: 6 books (complete) · Good for: People who like their romantasy with real political stakes

Two rival journalists at the same newspaper. They hate each other. Then they each discover a magical wardrobe that lets them exchange anonymous letters with a stranger, and they both start writing things they'd never say out loud. Meanwhile, a war between gods is tearing the world apart.

Won the Goodreads Choice Award. Film/TV rights have been picked up. It's technically YA but adults love it just as much.

Tropes: Enemies-to-lovers, letter writing, wartime romance · Spice: 🌶️ (fade-to-black)
Series: 2 books (complete duology) · Good for: Readers who want emotional devastation without explicit scenes

If you want to be part of the conversation while it's happening, these are the books people are reading right now.

The sequel to When the Moon Hatched, and probably the most anticipated romantasy release of the year. Raeve and Kaan return in a world where dead dragons become moons. The magic system is unlike anything else out there. Early reviews keep using words like "melancholic" and "undying love," and based on book one, that tracks.

If you haven't read When the Moon Hatched yet, start there. It's lyrical and strange in the best way.

Tropes: Fated mates, dragon riders, slow burn, reincarnation · Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️
Series: Book 2 of Moonfall (released May 19, 2026) · Good for: People who want poetic writing and a love story that spans lifetimes

A princess has to die as a sacrifice to a storm god every fourteen days. She comes back each time. Then she meets the Wolf, an immortal assassin with his own curse. It's Beauty and the Beast by way of Eros and Psyche, except much darker than either of those.

Came out in January 2026 and people haven't stopped talking about it since.

Tropes: Villain-gets-the-girl, gothic romance, enemies-to-lovers · Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Series: Book 1 of Broken Accords · Good for: Dark fairytale romantasy with a proper villain love interest

Alex Aster's first adult romantasy. The world is split between Starside (magic, immortals) and Stormside (mortals). Every fifty years, fifty challengers enter a deadly quest to access a pool of raw magic. Think Hunger Games energy with romance and a magic system layered on top.

Aster blew up on BookTok with Lightlark. This is her going bigger, and early readers say it paid off.

Tropes: Competition/tournament, enemies-to-lovers, forbidden magic · Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️
Series: Book 1 of Starside · Good for: Readers who want high-stakes competition with their romance

Follow-up to the NYT bestseller A Forbidden Alchemy. McEwan had a big breakout in 2025 and this sequel drops July 21.

Tropes: Forbidden love, magic system, high stakes · Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️
Series: Artisan Trilogy (Book 2, July 2026) · Good for: Readers who've caught up on the big names and want the next thing

Morally gray everything. Love interests who are objectively terrible people you can't stop rooting for. Content warnings probably apply.

Poppy is the Maiden, chosen by the gods, forbidden from being touched, destined for a divine purpose. Her new guard, Hawke, starts breaking every rule she's supposed to follow. Then the truth she's been told her whole life starts falling apart.

The twist at the end of book one launched a thousand BookTok reaction videos. Six books, all out.

Tropes: Forbidden love, chosen one, bodyguard romance · Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Series: 6 books out, Book 7 coming 2026 (Blood and Ash) · Good for: Maximum spice and a love interest who became a BookTok legend

Historical Sicily. Emilia's twin sister is murdered by dark forces, so Emilia summons Wrath, one of the Seven Princes of Hell, to help track the killer. He's infuriating, way too attractive, and should not be trusted.

The slow burn across three books is really well done. Expect to yell at the pages.

Tropes: Enemies-to-lovers, demon prince, slow burn, Italian setting · Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ (escalates across the trilogy)
Series: 3 books (complete) · Good for: Dark romantasy with demons and murder mysteries

Modern-day Olympus. Persephone flees an arranged engagement to Zeus by crossing into the lower city, where Hades runs things. It's a Hades and Persephone retelling that knows exactly what it is: really hot, really fun, and better plotted than it needs to be.

Each book retells a different Greek myth. Ten books, with the final one dropping June 2026.

Tropes: Hades/Persephone, modern setting, instalove · Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Series: 10 books (Dark Olympus, Book 10 drops June 2026) · Good for: Greek mythology, modern vibes, maximum heat

Another Hades and Persephone retelling, but with a more traditional fantasy setting. Persephone moves to New Athens hoping to pass as mortal, loses a card game to a stranger, and that stranger turns out to be Hades. Different vibe from Neon Gods, more possessive hero, more classic fantasy.

Tropes: Hades/Persephone, possessive hero, fated mates · Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Series: 7 books (complete) · Good for: Readers who want the Persephone story with a more traditional fantasy feel

Twin sisters find out they're fae princesses and get thrown into a magical academy where the most powerful heirs want them destroyed. Nine books. Bully romance. Polarizing as hell.

Fair warning: the bullying is intense, the spice is high, and the series asks you to trust a very long game. But the people who love it are genuinely obsessed, and the payoff across nine books is real.

Tropes: Bully romance, academy, found family, shifters · Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Series: 9 books (complete) · Good for: Readers who want a massive binge and can handle enemies who start as actual enemies

Same genre, warmer vibes. Love stories that make you smile instead of giving you anxiety. Fantasy worlds you'd actually want to live in.

On their wedding night, an assassination attempt goes sideways and the prince gets magically transformed into a horse. His bride climbs on and rides him to safety. Yes, really. And somehow it's one of the most charming books on this list.

Slow burn, a noblewoman with a chronic illness, a bookish prince, and genuinely funny situations throughout.

Tropes: Arranged marriage, curse breaking, slow burn · Spice: 🌶️
Series: Standalone · Good for: Whimsy and warmth, and a prince who's literally a horse for part of the book

A human woman discovers she can read a magical book that nobody else can, and it pulls her into fae politics, an enchanted library, and a love triangle. Cozy setup, but the stakes are real. Both books are out, so no cliffhanger waiting.

Tropes: Forbidden library, fae politics, love triangle · Spice: 🌶️🌶️
Series: 2 books (complete duology) · Good for: Bookish, library-centered fantasy with romance

Signa Farrow has been able to see ghosts since she was a kid. When she moves into her wealthy uncle's estate, she discovers someone is slowly poisoning the family. Her only ally is Death, who has been following her for years.

Jane Austen meets supernatural murder mystery. Three books, all done.

Tropes: Gothic romance, murder mystery, slow burn, death personified · Spice: 🌶️🌶️
Series: 3 books (complete) · Good for: Gothic vibes with a mystery running through the romance

Ali Hazelwood made her name in contemporary romance (The Love Hypothesis) and then wrote a paranormal romantasy. A Vampyre woman enters a political marriage with an Alpha Werewolf. The banter is sharp, Hazelwood's humor carries over perfectly, and it works as a bridge between romance and fantasy for readers who haven't tried the genre. The sequel, Mate, came out in October 2025.

Tropes: Arranged marriage, vampires/werewolves, fake relationship · Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️
Series: 2 books (Bride, Mate) · Good for: Romance readers who want to test the romantasy waters

These don't get the same BookTok hype, but the people who read them tend to become very loud about it.

Alessandra wants the throne. Her plan: seduce the Shadow King, marry him, kill him, rule alone. She's not secretly good. She's not going to have a change of heart. She murdered her last boyfriend and she'd do it again.

A villain heroine romantasy that actually commits to the bit. Quick read, completely satisfying. There's also a companion novel, The Darkness Within Us, set in the same world.

Tropes: Villain heroine, seduction plot, morally bankrupt FMC · Spice: 🌶️🌶️
Series: Standalone (companion novel available) · Good for: Anyone tired of kind-hearted heroines

An arranged marriage between a human noblewoman and a Kai prince. Humans find the Kai physically repulsive. The Kai feel the same about humans. They marry for a political alliance, expecting nothing. What actually develops between them is the most genuine friendship-to-love arc I've seen in the genre.

Shows up on every "underrated romantasy" list for a reason. The way it handles an interspecies romance without making it weird is genuinely impressive.

Tropes: Arranged marriage, interspecies romance, slow burn, found family · Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️
Series: 3 books + novellas (Wraith Kings, works as a standalone) · Good for: Character-driven romance that earns every moment

Genderbent romantasy where the male lead is a soft baker and the female lead is the villainess. He's a baker-turned-prisoner entering deadly Sovereignty Trials alongside the cruel sovereign's daughter. It's funny, the stakes are real, and it flips the usual dynamic on its head.

Went viral on BookTok specifically because of the role reversal. The male lead is gentle, the female lead is terrifying.

Tropes: Genderbent tropes, cinnamon roll hero, villain heroine · Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️
Series: Ongoing · Good for: Fresh takes on familiar tropes

A black-and-white circus appears without warning. Inside, two young magicians are locked in a competition neither fully understands, and they fall in love. This book came out in 2011, before "romantasy" was a word anyone used. It's more about atmosphere than plot. Every page feels like walking through the circus yourself.

The tension between the two leads is the whole point, and it's perfect.

Tropes: Star-crossed lovers, magical competition · Spice: 🌶️ (tension only, no explicit scenes)
Series: Standalone · Good for: Literary, slow-paced romantasy where the writing itself is the draw

Nothing worse than falling in love with a world and finding out book two doesn't come out until next year. Everything below is finished.

Series	Author	Books	Spice	Vibe
A Court of Thorns and Roses	Sarah J. Maas	5	🌶️🌶️🌶️	Fae courts, slow burn, epic scope
Dark Olympus	Katee Robert	10	🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️	Modern Greek myth retellings
Kingdom of the Wicked	Kerri Maniscalco	3	🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️	Demons, Sicily, murder mystery
Zodiac Academy	Peckham & Valenti	9	🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️	Bully romance, fae academy
The Bridge Kingdom	Danielle L. Jensen	6	🌶️🌶️🌶️	Political intrigue, enemies-to-lovers
Belladonna	Adalyn Grace	3	🌶️🌶️	Gothic, murder mystery, Death
Divine Rivals	Rebecca Ross	2	🌶️	Wartime, letters, rival journalists
A Touch of Darkness	Scarlett St. Clair	7	🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️	Hades/Persephone, possessive hero
Lore of the Wilds	Analeigh Sbrana	2	🌶️🌶️	Enchanted library, fae politics

Fantasy with a central romance where both the world-building and the love story carry equal weight. The term blew up on BookTok and is now a real publishing category with its own bestseller lists.

People argue about this constantly and there's no clean answer. If the fantasy elements are just as developed as the romance, most people call it romantasy. If the romance could work in any setting, it's closer to fantasy romance. In practice the terms overlap a lot.

A Court of Thorns and Roses is the classic starting point. Fourth Wing is faster paced and harder to put down. Divine Rivals if you want something clean. All three will tell you quickly whether you like the genre.

How explicit the sex scenes are. 🌶️ means closed-door or fade-to-black. 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ means detailed and frequent. Neither is better, it's just preference.

The Ballad of Falling Dragons by Sarah A. Parker came out May 19. The Wolf and the Crown of Blood by Elizabeth May dropped in January. Starside by Alex Aster in March. Still coming: A Forsaken Prophecy by Stacey McEwan (July) and The Lion and the Deathless Dark by Carissa Broadbent (August).

We stock all of these. Here's the full collection if you want to keep browsing.