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The Best Romantasy Books for Beginners

A first romantasy should not be a nine-book commitment or a five-chilli experience nobody warned you about. Everything here is either self-contained or the start of something short, sits at three or below on spice, and does not require any prior tolerance for fantasy jargon. The top three are A Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson, Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik and The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab.

23 books · Last reviewed

All 23 books

Cover of A Dowry of Blood

A Dowry of Blood

S.T. Gibson · Standalone

Dracula's first bride writes a letter to the husband she killed. Short, lyrical, and structured entirely as address — a study of how a controlling love is built one reasonable-seeming concession at a time.

Best for Readers who want dark romantasy with prose that would survive being read aloud.

Spice
Spice 3 out of 5, Hot
Romance
5/5
Plot
3/5
World
3/5
Darkness
5/5
Craft
5/5

Sensual and explicit in places, but written impressionistically rather than in detail. · Medium burn · Happy ending

Content abusive relationship, coercive control, murder, blood

Cover of Spinning Silver

Spinning Silver

Naomi Novik · Standalone

A moneylender's daughter turns silver into gold well enough to attract the attention of the winter king, in a Rumpelstiltskin retelling with three narrators and a great deal to say about debt. Colder and cleverer than Uprooted.

Best for Readers who want a fae bargain plot with essentially no spice and exceptional writing.

Spice
Spice 1 out of 5, A door, closed
Romance
3/5
Plot
5/5
World
5/5
Darkness
3/5
Craft
5/5

Almost entirely closed-door. The romance is negotiated rather than consummated on the page. · Slow burn · Happy ending

Content antisemitism, violence, forced marriage

Cover of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

V.E. Schwab · Standalone

A woman trades her soul for immortality and is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets, until three hundred years later a man in a bookshop says he remembers her. A devil romance disguised as a literary novel, and vice versa.

Best for Readers who want a devil love interest and a standalone they can finish tonight.

Spice
Spice 2 out of 5, Warm
Romance
4/5
Plot
3/5
World
3/5
Darkness
4/5
Craft
5/5

Occasional and brief, written more for melancholy than heat. · Slow burn · No happy ending

Content suicidal ideation, loss, manipulation

Cover of The Night Circus

The Night Circus

Erin Morgenstern · Standalone

Two magicians are bound as children into a contest neither understands, played out through a circus that appears without warning and opens only at night. Atmosphere is the whole point; the plot is a rumour the book is happy to leave you with.

Best for Readers who want atmosphere above everything and do not need the plot to arrive.

Spice
Spice 1 out of 5, A door, closed
Romance
3/5
Plot
2/5
World
5/5
Darkness
3/5
Craft
5/5

Closed door. The sensuality is entirely in the descriptions of the circus. · Slow burn · Happy ending

Content child endangerment, suicide, emotional neglect

Cover of Uprooted

Uprooted

Naomi Novik · Standalone

A wizard takes one village girl every ten years, and this time takes the wrong one. Built on Polish folklore rather than the usual fae tradition, with a genuinely frightening forest and a magic system that feels like cooking.

Best for ACOTAR readers who want the same premise handled by a much stronger prose stylist.

Spice
Spice 2 out of 5, Warm
Romance
3/5
Plot
5/5
World
5/5
Darkness
4/5
Craft
5/5

One explicit scene, brief and late. The rest is antagonism and proximity. · Slow burn · Happy ending

Content body horror, violence, war

Cover of To Kill a Kingdom

To Kill a Kingdom

Alexandra Christo · Standalone

A siren who collects the hearts of princes is turned human and thrown into the path of the prince who hunts sirens. A Little Mermaid retelling in which both leads are murderers, which is the correct way to do it.

Best for Readers who want a self-contained enemies-to-lovers with no spice at all.

Spice
Spice 1 out of 5, A door, closed
Romance
4/5
Plot
4/5
World
4/5
Darkness
3/5
Craft
4/5

Kissing only. The tension is built entirely out of mutual intent to kill. · Slow burn · Happy ending

Content violence, murder, abusive parent, gore

Cover of Divine Rivals

Divine Rivals

Rebecca Ross · Letters of Enchantment · book 1 of 2 · complete

Two rival journalists write to each other through an enchanted typewriter without knowing who is on the other end, while a war between gods swallows the countryside. Old-fashioned in the best sense, and the letters are genuinely lovely.

Best for Readers who want rivals-to-lovers with no spice and prose worth slowing down for.

Spice
Spice 1 out of 5, A door, closed
Romance
5/5
Plot
4/5
World
4/5
Darkness
3/5
Craft
5/5

Closed door throughout. The intimacy is entirely in the correspondence. · Slow burn · Happy ending · Ends on a cliffhanger

Content war, death, injury, alcoholism

Cover of Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries

Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries

Heather Fawcett · Emily Wilde · book 1 of 3 · complete

A prickly Cambridge academic goes to a frozen village to finish her field guide to the fae, and her insufferably charming colleague follows her there. Written as her journal, which makes the romance funnier and considerably more painful.

Best for ACOTAR readers who want the fae bargains with wit instead of spice.

Spice
Spice 1 out of 5, A door, closed
Romance
4/5
Plot
4/5
World
5/5
Darkness
3/5
Craft
5/5

Closed door entirely. The most explicit thing in it is a dance. · Slow burn · Happy ending

Content peril, child abduction, cold-weather injury

Cover of Six of Crows

Six of Crows

Leigh Bardugo · Six of Crows · book 1 of 2 · complete

Six criminals attempt an impossible prison break for an impossible fee. A heist novel with six perspectives, four romances handled almost entirely through restraint, and the best-constructed plot on this list.

Best for Readers who want found family and yearning with no spice whatsoever.

Spice
Spice 1 out of 5, A door, closed
Romance
3/5
Plot
5/5
World
5/5
Darkness
4/5
Craft
5/5

No explicit content at all. One of the romances turns on a character who cannot bear to be touched, and the book respects that completely. · Slow burn · Happy ending · Ends on a cliffhanger

Content violence, child trafficking, addiction, torture

Cover of The Cruel Prince

The Cruel Prince

Holly Black · The Folk of the Air · book 1 of 3 · complete

A human girl raised in Faerie by the man who murdered her parents decides that the way to be safe is to become dangerous. The cruelty is real, the politics are genuinely intricate, and the romance is almost entirely composed of hostility.

Best for ACOTAR readers who want the fae court politics without the explicit content.

Spice
Spice 1 out of 5, A door, closed
Romance
3/5
Plot
5/5
World
5/5
Darkness
4/5
Craft
5/5

Kissing and considerable tension. Nothing on the page beyond that. · Slow burn · Happy ending · Ends on a cliffhanger

Content violence, bullying, murder of parents, poisoning

Cover of The Wicked King

The Wicked King

Holly Black · The Folk of the Air · book 2 of 3 · complete

Jude holds the throne through a bargain with a year on it, and spends the book trying to keep a king who resents her from noticing how little power she actually has. The best-plotted book in modern fae fantasy and the source of one of its most famous endings.

Best for Readers who want scheming and yearning rather than spice.

Spice
Spice 1 out of 5, A door, closed
Romance
4/5
Plot
5/5
World
5/5
Darkness
4/5
Craft
5/5

One extended kiss and a great deal of suppressed everything else. · Slow burn · Happy ending · Ends on a cliffhanger

Content violence, manipulation, drowning, betrayal

Cover of A Discovery of Witches

A Discovery of Witches

Deborah Harkness · All Souls · book 1 of 3 · complete

A historian who refuses to use her magic calls up a manuscript in the Bodleian that every creature in Europe has been looking for, and a fifteen-hundred-year-old vampire geneticist arrives to see it. Academic, unhurried, and very interested in wine.

Best for Readers who want a possessive vampire and a completed trilogy at a low spice level.

Spice
Spice 2 out of 5, Warm
Romance
4/5
Plot
3/5
World
4/5
Darkness
2/5
Craft
4/5

Restrained for most of the first book, with a slow escalation across the trilogy. · Slow burn · Happy ending · Ends on a cliffhanger

Content violence, abduction, torture, miscarriage

Cover of Belladonna

Belladonna

Adalyn Grace · Belladonna · book 1 of 3 · complete

An orphan who cannot die investigates a series of murders alongside Death himself, who has been watching her since she was a child. Gothic, mannered, and unashamedly indebted to every haunted-house novel of the last two centuries.

Best for Readers who want gothic romance with Death as the love interest and no spice.

Spice
Spice 1 out of 5, A door, closed
Romance
4/5
Plot
4/5
World
3/5
Darkness
3/5
Craft
4/5

Kissing and atmosphere. Nothing explicit. · Slow burn · Happy ending

Content murder, poisoning, grief, death of a parent

Cover of For the Wolf

For the Wolf

Hannah Whitten · Wilderwood · book 1 of 2 · complete

The second daughter is owed to the Wolf in the Wilderwood, a debt the kingdom has paid for centuries. She goes, and finds a man being slowly eaten by the forest he is holding back. Bloody, botanical and quietly furious.

Best for Readers who loved Uprooted and want something darker in the same forest.

Spice
Spice 2 out of 5, Warm
Romance
4/5
Plot
4/5
World
5/5
Darkness
4/5
Craft
4/5

One extended explicit scene. Everything else is proximity and dread. · Slow burn · Happy ending

Content body horror, blood, self-sacrifice, religious control

Cover of Kingdom of the Wicked

Kingdom of the Wicked

Kerri Maniscalco · Kingdom of the Wicked · book 1 of 4 · complete

A witch in nineteenth-century Sicily investigates her twin's murder and finds herself working with a Prince of Hell who is exactly as helpful as that sounds. Food, grief and demons, in roughly that order of loving description.

Best for Readers who want a devil love interest and a completed series to go with him.

Spice
Spice 3 out of 5, Hot
Romance
4/5
Plot
4/5
World
4/5
Darkness
4/5
Craft
4/5

Building tension across the book with explicit content arriving in the sequels. · Slow burn · Happy ending · Ends on a cliffhanger

Content murder, gore, mutilation, grief

Cover of Once Upon a Broken Heart

Once Upon a Broken Heart

Stephanie Garber · Once Upon a Broken Heart · book 1 of 3 · complete

A girl who believes in true love strikes three bargains with the Prince of Hearts, an immortal who deals in exactly that kind of belief. Fairytale-styled, deliberately artificial, and very good at making a bargain feel dangerous.

Best for Readers who want a villainous love interest with no spice and maximum yearning.

Spice
Spice 1 out of 5, A door, closed
Romance
5/5
Plot
3/5
World
4/5
Darkness
3/5
Craft
4/5

Kissing and longing. Closed door throughout. · Slow burn · Happy ending · Ends on a cliffhanger

Content manipulation, violence, memory loss

Cover of The Bridge Kingdom

The Bridge Kingdom

Danielle L. Jensen · The Bridge Kingdom · book 1 of 4 · complete

A princess is trained from childhood as a weapon and married to an enemy king she is meant to destroy from inside his own palace. She is very good at the job, and the problem is that he is not what she was told.

Best for Readers who want a marriage-of-convenience spy plot and a series that is finished.

Spice
Spice 3 out of 5, Hot
Romance
5/5
Plot
4/5
World
4/5
Darkness
3/5
Craft
4/5

Several explicit scenes, well spaced and used to mark the shifts in her loyalty. · Slow burn · Happy ending

Content violence, abusive father, war, betrayal

Cover of The Foxglove King

The Foxglove King

Hannah Whitten · The Nightshade Crown · book 1 of 3 · complete

A woman who can raise the dead is blackmailed into spying on a decadent court by the Sainted King, handled by a prince who despises her. Court intrigue with necromancy, and considerably more interested in religion than most of the genre.

Best for Readers who want court intrigue and necromancy with a slow, hostile romance.

Spice
Spice 3 out of 5, Hot
Romance
4/5
Plot
4/5
World
4/5
Darkness
4/5
Craft
4/5

A few explicit scenes, unhurried, arriving after a long stretch of hostility. · Slow burn · Happy ending · Ends on a cliffhanger

Content death, drug use, gore, religious control

Cover of A Deal with the Elf King

A Deal with the Elf King

Elise Kova · Married to Magic · book 1 of 4 · complete

Every hundred years the elf king takes a human bride, and this time it is the village herbalist who has been quietly preparing for it. A short, contained fantasy romance that resolves entirely within its own covers.

Best for Readers who want a fae marriage plot that finishes in one book.

Spice
Spice 3 out of 5, Hot
Romance
5/5
Plot
3/5
World
3/5
Darkness
2/5
Craft
3/5

Two or three explicit scenes, moderate in length and clearly signposted. · Medium burn · Happy ending

Content grief, peril, arranged marriage

Cover of Powerless

Powerless

Lauren Roberts · The Powerless Trilogy · book 1 of 3 · complete

In a kingdom that exiles the powerless, an Ordinary hides among the Elites and enters the trials that would expose her. The prince assigned to hunt people like her is the one falling for her, which is the entire premise and it works.

Best for Fourth Wing readers who want the trials and the banter without the explicit scenes.

Spice
Spice 2 out of 5, Warm
Romance
4/5
Plot
3/5
World
3/5
Darkness
3/5
Craft
3/5

Kissing and one restrained scene. Written for a younger audience than most of this list. · Slow burn · Happy ending · Ends on a cliffhanger

Content violence, death, persecution

No cover

Serpent & Dove

Shelby Mahurin · Serpent & Dove · book 1 of 3 · complete

A witch and a witch-hunter are forced into marriage by a public misunderstanding neither can undo. The premise is the whole engine, and the book knows it — every scene is two people who should kill each other being obliged to share a room.

Best for Readers who want enemies to lovers with a completed trilogy behind it.

Spice
Spice 2 out of 5, Warm
Romance
4/5
Plot
3/5
World
3/5
Darkness
3/5
Craft
3/5

One explicit scene late on. The rest is antagonism at close quarters. · Slow burn · Happy ending

Content burning, violence, religious persecution, death

Cover of These Hollow Vows

These Hollow Vows

Lexi Ryan · These Hollow Vows · book 1 of 2 · complete

A thief bargains with the Unseelie prince to steal three artefacts and free her sister, while the Seelie prince offers her a better deal. A love triangle between two fae courts, which is a structure the genre attempts often and lands rarely.

Best for ACOTAR readers who want the fae courts at a much lower spice level.

Spice
Spice 2 out of 5, Warm
Romance
4/5
Plot
3/5
World
4/5
Darkness
3/5
Craft
3/5

Tension-heavy with brief on-page content. Considerably milder than ACOTAR. · Medium burn · Happy ending · Ends on a cliffhanger

Content violence, captivity, addiction

Cover of Throne of Glass

Throne of Glass

Sarah J. Maas · Throne of Glass · book 1 of 8 · complete

An eighteen-year-old assassin is pulled out of a salt mine to compete for the post of King's Champion. The first book is a competition novel with a love triangle; the series it turns into over eight books is something considerably larger.

Best for Readers who want a completed eight-book saga to disappear into.

Spice
Spice 1 out of 5, A door, closed
Romance
3/5
Plot
4/5
World
4/5
Darkness
3/5
Craft
3/5

Kissing in the first book. The series becomes explicit from around the fourth. · Slow burn · Happy ending

Content slavery, violence, torture, death

Related tropes

Narrower lists, built from the same catalogue.

Best Slow burn Booksslow burnBest Enemies to lovers Booksenemies to loversBest Found family Booksfound family

If you came from a specific book

Books Like ACOTARA Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. MaasBooks Like Fourth WingFourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

Questions readers ask

Where should I start with romantasy?
Uprooted if you want a standalone with beautiful prose and almost no spice. The Cruel Prince if you want court politics and hostile chemistry at a low heat. ACOTAR if you want to understand what everyone else is talking about, though be aware the second book is considerably more explicit than the first.
What is romantasy?
Fantasy in which the romance carries equal narrative weight with the plot — not fantasy with a subplot, and not a romance in fancy dress. The term became common around 2023 as the category outgrew being shelved under either parent genre.
Do I need to like fantasy to read romantasy?
No, and most of this list is chosen with that in mind. The books here explain their worlds as they go rather than assuming familiarity with fantasy conventions, and the romance gives you something to hold onto while the magic system arrives.