# Fae Romance Books Like ACOTAR Courts, bargains, glamour and the particular menace of a creature who cannot lie but will absolutely mislead you. Every book here is fae-centred and carries the parts of ACOTAR readers name most often when they ask for more of it. ## All 15 books ### 1. A Court of Mist and Fury **Sarah J. Maas** · A Court of Thorns and Roses, book 2 (ongoing) · [https://houseofareader.com/books/a-court-of-mist-and-fury](https://houseofareader.com/books/a-court-of-mist-and-fury) The book that made the series. It takes the ending of the first one and treats the aftermath as the actual story — trauma, a marriage that is wrong, and a court of misfits who are better at loving her than the man who saved her was. - Spice: 4/5 — Explicit. Explicit and frequent from the midpoint, including the chapter the entire internet refers to obliquely. - Romance prominence: 5/5 - Plot: 4/5 - Worldbuilding: 5/5 - Darkness: 3/5 - Writing craft: 3/5 - Burn: medium - Tropes: fated-mates, found-family, touch-her-and-die, he-falls-first, slow-burn - Creatures: fae - Setting: The Night Court and the city of Velaris - POV: first person - Ending: happy ever after, ends on a cliffhanger - Audience: adult - Content warnings: PTSD, emotional abuse, violence, suicidal ideation - Best for: Readers who found the first book slow and were told to keep going. They were right. - Last verified: 2026-08-28 ### 2. House of Sky and Breath **Sarah J. Maas** · Crescent City, book 2 (ongoing) · [https://houseofareader.com/books/house-of-sky-and-breath](https://houseofareader.com/books/house-of-sky-and-breath) The rebellion the first book kept at the edges moves to the centre, and the cost of the previous ending is still being paid. Longer, angrier, and ending on a turn that reframes the entire series. - Spice: 4/5 — Explicit. Explicit and considerably more frequent than the first book. - Romance prominence: 4/5 - Plot: 4/5 - Worldbuilding: 5/5 - Darkness: 4/5 - Writing craft: 3/5 - Burn: medium - Tropes: fated-mates, found-family, touch-her-and-die, forbidden-romance, slow-burn - Creatures: fae, angels, demons, shifters - Setting: Lunathion, under occupation and on the edge of revolt - POV: third person, dual - Ending: happy ever after, ends on a cliffhanger - Audience: adult - Content warnings: torture, graphic violence, grief, explicit content - Best for: Crescent City readers, and ACOTAR readers who want the connective tissue. - Last verified: 2026-08-28 ### 3. House of Earth and Blood **Sarah J. Maas** · Crescent City, book 1 (ongoing) · [https://houseofareader.com/books/crescent-city](https://houseofareader.com/books/crescent-city) Urban fantasy with a murder investigation at its centre and a half-fae party girl grieving her found family. Eight hundred pages, a genuine mystery, and a slow burn that takes almost all of them. - Spice: 4/5 — Explicit. Explicit, but late and infrequent relative to the length. Most of the book is restraint. - Romance prominence: 4/5 - Plot: 4/5 - Worldbuilding: 5/5 - Darkness: 4/5 - Writing craft: 3/5 - Burn: slow - Tropes: slow-burn, found-family, touch-her-and-die, forbidden-romance, he-falls-first - Creatures: fae, angels, demons, shifters - Setting: Lunathion, a modern city ruled by angels - POV: third person, dual - Ending: happy ever after, ends on a cliffhanger - Audience: adult - Content warnings: grief, graphic violence, drug use, torture - Best for: ACOTAR readers who want a real plot to hold the romance up. - Last verified: 2026-08-28 ### 4. Quicksilver **Callie Hart** · The Fae & Alchemy, book 1 (ongoing) · [https://houseofareader.com/books/quicksilver](https://houseofareader.com/books/quicksilver) A thief from a walled human city is dragged into Yvelia by a fae warrior who despises her, into a court where she is a curiosity and a liability. The most direct answer to what people are asking for when they ask what comes after ACOTAR. - Spice: 5/5 — Scorching. Explicit throughout and unusually frank, with scenes long enough to be structural rather than punctuation. - Romance prominence: 5/5 - Plot: 4/5 - Worldbuilding: 4/5 - Darkness: 4/5 - Writing craft: 3/5 - Burn: slow - Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, fated-mates, touch-her-and-die, morally-grey-mmc, forced-proximity, one-bed - Creatures: fae, humans - Setting: Yvelia, a fae kingdom beyond a wall that keeps humans out - POV: first person, dual - Ending: happy ever after, ends on a cliffhanger - Audience: adult - Content warnings: graphic violence, sexual content, captivity, gore - Best for: ACOTAR readers who want the same shape with the heat turned up two notches. - Last verified: 2026-08-28 ### 5. A Court of Thorns and Roses **Sarah J. Maas** · A Court of Thorns and Roses, book 1 (ongoing) · [https://houseofareader.com/books/a-court-of-thorns-and-roses](https://houseofareader.com/books/a-court-of-thorns-and-roses) A huntress kills a wolf in the woods and is taken across the wall to answer for it, into a fae court where the punishment turns out to be a life she is not prepared to want. The first half is a slow, quiet Beauty and the Beast; the second half is not. - Spice: 3/5 — Hot. Two explicit scenes late in the book, written at length. Everything before them is tension. - Romance prominence: 5/5 - Plot: 3/5 - Worldbuilding: 4/5 - Darkness: 3/5 - Writing craft: 3/5 - Burn: slow - Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, forbidden-romance, touch-her-and-die, found-family - Creatures: fae, humans - Setting: Prythian, a fae realm divided into seasonal courts - POV: first person - Ending: happy ever after - Audience: adult - Content warnings: violence, torture, captivity, death of a partner - Best for: Anyone who wants to understand what the entire genre has been arguing about since 2015. - Last verified: 2026-08-28 ### 6. The Wicked King **Holly Black** · The Folk of the Air, book 2 of 3 (complete) · [https://houseofareader.com/books/the-wicked-king](https://houseofareader.com/books/the-wicked-king) 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. - Spice: 1/5 — A door, closed. One extended kiss and a great deal of suppressed everything else. - Romance prominence: 4/5 - Plot: 5/5 - Worldbuilding: 5/5 - Darkness: 4/5 - Writing craft: 5/5 - Burn: slow - Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, slow-burn, forbidden-romance, morally-grey-mmc, he-falls-first - Creatures: fae, humans - Setting: Elfhame, from the throne room - POV: first person - Ending: happy ever after, ends on a cliffhanger - Audience: ya - Content warnings: violence, manipulation, drowning, betrayal - Best for: Readers who want scheming and yearning rather than spice. - Last verified: 2026-08-28 ### 7. Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries **Heather Fawcett** · Emily Wilde, book 1 of 3 (complete) · [https://houseofareader.com/books/emily-wildes-encyclopaedia-of-faeries](https://houseofareader.com/books/emily-wildes-encyclopaedia-of-faeries) 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. - Spice: 1/5 — A door, closed. Closed door entirely. The most explicit thing in it is a dance. - Romance prominence: 4/5 - Plot: 4/5 - Worldbuilding: 5/5 - Darkness: 3/5 - Writing craft: 5/5 - Burn: slow - Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, slow-burn, academy, forced-proximity, he-falls-first - Creatures: fae, humans - Setting: Hrafnsvik, a village at the edge of the fae realms - POV: first person - Ending: happy ever after - Audience: adult - Content warnings: peril, child abduction, cold-weather injury - Best for: ACOTAR readers who want the fae bargains with wit instead of spice. - Last verified: 2026-08-28 ### 8. Spinning Silver **Naomi Novik** · Standalone · [https://houseofareader.com/books/spinning-silver](https://houseofareader.com/books/spinning-silver) 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. - Spice: 1/5 — A door, closed. Almost entirely closed-door. The romance is negotiated rather than consummated on the page. - Romance prominence: 3/5 - Plot: 5/5 - Worldbuilding: 5/5 - Darkness: 3/5 - Writing craft: 5/5 - Burn: slow - Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, forced-proximity, slow-burn, fake-dating - Creatures: fae, humans - Setting: Lithvas, a folkloric Eastern Europe under permanent winter - POV: first person, dual - Ending: happy ever after - Audience: adult - Content warnings: antisemitism, violence, forced marriage - Best for: Readers who want a fae bargain plot with essentially no spice and exceptional writing. - Last verified: 2026-08-28 ### 9. The Cruel Prince **Holly Black** · The Folk of the Air, book 1 of 3 (complete) · [https://houseofareader.com/books/the-cruel-prince](https://houseofareader.com/books/the-cruel-prince) 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. - Spice: 1/5 — A door, closed. Kissing and considerable tension. Nothing on the page beyond that. - Romance prominence: 3/5 - Plot: 5/5 - Worldbuilding: 5/5 - Darkness: 4/5 - Writing craft: 5/5 - Burn: slow - Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, forbidden-romance, slow-burn, morally-grey-mmc, he-falls-first - Creatures: fae, humans - Setting: The High Court of Elfhame - POV: first person - Ending: happy ever after, ends on a cliffhanger - Audience: ya - Content warnings: violence, bullying, murder of parents, poisoning - Best for: ACOTAR readers who want the fae court politics without the explicit content. - Last verified: 2026-08-28 ### 10. These Hollow Vows **Lexi Ryan** · These Hollow Vows, book 1 of 2 (complete) · [https://houseofareader.com/books/these-hollow-vows](https://houseofareader.com/books/these-hollow-vows) 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. - Spice: 2/5 — Warm. Tension-heavy with brief on-page content. Considerably milder than ACOTAR. - Romance prominence: 4/5 - Plot: 3/5 - Worldbuilding: 4/5 - Darkness: 3/5 - Writing craft: 3/5 - Burn: medium - Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, forbidden-romance, morally-grey-mmc, fated-mates - Creatures: fae, humans - Setting: The Seelie and Unseelie courts of Faerie - POV: first person - Ending: happy ever after, ends on a cliffhanger - Audience: ya - Content warnings: violence, captivity, addiction - Best for: ACOTAR readers who want the fae courts at a much lower spice level. - Last verified: 2026-08-28 ### 11. Throne of Glass **Sarah J. Maas** · Throne of Glass, book 1 of 8 (complete) · [https://houseofareader.com/books/throne-of-glass](https://houseofareader.com/books/throne-of-glass) 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. - Spice: 1/5 — A door, closed. Kissing in the first book. The series becomes explicit from around the fourth. - Romance prominence: 3/5 - Plot: 4/5 - Worldbuilding: 4/5 - Darkness: 3/5 - Writing craft: 3/5 - Burn: slow - Tropes: academy, enemies-to-lovers, slow-burn, found-family, chosen-one - Creatures: fae, witches, humans - Setting: The glass castle of Rifthold, in a kingdom that has outlawed magic - POV: third person, dual - Ending: happy ever after - Audience: ya - Content warnings: slavery, violence, torture, death - Best for: Readers who want a completed eight-book saga to disappear into. - Last verified: 2026-08-28 ### 12. Radiance **Grace Draven** · Wraith Kings, book 1 (ongoing) · [https://houseofareader.com/books/radiance](https://houseofareader.com/books/radiance) Two people from species that find each other physically repellent are married to seal a trade alliance, and decide to make the best of it. A marriage of convenience built on genuine kindness rather than antagonism, which is much rarer than it should be. - Spice: 3/5 — Hot. Several explicit scenes, warm rather than intense, and central to how they grow close. - Romance prominence: 5/5 - Plot: 3/5 - Worldbuilding: 4/5 - Darkness: 3/5 - Writing craft: 4/5 - Burn: medium - Tropes: fake-dating, forced-proximity, slow-burn, touch-starved, found-family - Creatures: humans, fae - Setting: The Kai kingdom of Bast-Haradis and the human court beside it - POV: first person, dual - Ending: happy ever after - Audience: adult - Content warnings: violence, xenophobia, grief - Best for: Readers tired of hostility who want a marriage of convenience built on decency. - Last verified: 2026-08-28 ### 13. Zodiac Academy: The Awakening **Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti** · Zodiac Academy, book 1 of 9 (complete) · [https://houseofareader.com/books/zodiac-academy](https://houseofareader.com/books/zodiac-academy) Twin sisters discover they are fae heirs and are enrolled in an academy where four heirs to the throne intend to break them. Genuinely brutal bullying-to-lovers across a very long completed series, with a reverse-harem structure. - Spice: 4/5 — Explicit. Escalates sharply across the series; the first book is milder than what follows. - Romance prominence: 4/5 - Plot: 3/5 - Worldbuilding: 3/5 - Darkness: 5/5 - Writing craft: 3/5 - Burn: slow - Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, academy, morally-grey-mmc, touch-her-and-die, slow-burn - Creatures: fae, shifters - Setting: Zodiac Academy, a fae school ordered by star sign - POV: first person, dual - Ending: happy ever after, ends on a cliffhanger - Audience: adult - Content warnings: bullying, assault, torture, graphic violence, explicit content - Best for: Fourth Wing readers who want the academy structure and a series they can finish. - Last verified: 2026-08-28 ### 14. Once Upon a Broken Heart **Stephanie Garber** · Once Upon a Broken Heart, book 1 of 3 (complete) · [https://houseofareader.com/books/once-upon-a-broken-heart](https://houseofareader.com/books/once-upon-a-broken-heart) 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. - Spice: 1/5 — A door, closed. Kissing and longing. Closed door throughout. - Romance prominence: 5/5 - Plot: 3/5 - Worldbuilding: 4/5 - Darkness: 3/5 - Writing craft: 4/5 - Burn: slow - Tropes: forbidden-romance, morally-grey-mmc, slow-burn, villain-gets-the-girl, he-falls-first - Creatures: fae, humans - Setting: The Magnificent North, a kingdom that runs on stories - POV: third person - Ending: happy ever after, ends on a cliffhanger - Audience: ya - Content warnings: manipulation, violence, memory loss - Best for: Readers who want a villainous love interest with no spice and maximum yearning. - Last verified: 2026-08-28 ### 15. A Deal with the Elf King **Elise Kova** · Married to Magic, book 1 of 4 (complete) · [https://houseofareader.com/books/a-deal-with-the-elf-king](https://houseofareader.com/books/a-deal-with-the-elf-king) 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. - Spice: 3/5 — Hot. Two or three explicit scenes, moderate in length and clearly signposted. - Romance prominence: 5/5 - Plot: 3/5 - Worldbuilding: 3/5 - Darkness: 2/5 - Writing craft: 3/5 - Burn: medium - Tropes: fake-dating, forced-proximity, fated-mates, touch-starved, he-falls-first - Creatures: fae, humans - Setting: Midscape, the elven realm beyond the human world - POV: first person - Ending: happy ever after - Audience: adult - Content warnings: grief, peril, arranged marriage - Best for: Readers who want a fae marriage plot that finishes in one book. - Last verified: 2026-08-28 --- Ratings are editorial judgements applied against a published scale at https://houseofareader.com/lessons/spice, not aggregated reader scores. Editorial policy: https://houseofareader.com/lessons/how-we-choose. No affiliate links, no sponsored placements.