# Books Like Fourth Wing With Less Spice Plenty of readers want the world, the yearning and the mate bond without Fourth Wing's explicit scenes. Everything here rates below 3 on the spice scale while keeping the romance central — this is a list about heat, not about caring less who ends up together. ## All 21 books ### 1. 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 ### 2. 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 ### 3. 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 ### 4. Divine Rivals **Rebecca Ross** · Letters of Enchantment, book 1 of 2 (complete) · [https://houseofareader.com/books/divine-rivals](https://houseofareader.com/books/divine-rivals) 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. - Spice: 1/5 — A door, closed. Closed door throughout. The intimacy is entirely in the correspondence. - Romance prominence: 5/5 - Plot: 4/5 - Worldbuilding: 4/5 - Darkness: 3/5 - Writing craft: 5/5 - Burn: slow - Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, slow-burn, forbidden-romance, he-falls-first - Creatures: gods, humans - Setting: A war-torn country modelled on the 1920s - POV: third person, dual - Ending: happy ever after, ends on a cliffhanger - Audience: ya - Content warnings: war, death, injury, alcoholism - Best for: Readers who want rivals-to-lovers with no spice and prose worth slowing down for. - Last verified: 2026-08-28 ### 5. Six of Crows **Leigh Bardugo** · Six of Crows, book 1 of 2 (complete) · [https://houseofareader.com/books/six-of-crows](https://houseofareader.com/books/six-of-crows) 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. - Spice: 1/5 — A door, closed. 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. - Romance prominence: 3/5 - Plot: 5/5 - Worldbuilding: 5/5 - Darkness: 4/5 - Writing craft: 5/5 - Burn: slow - Tropes: found-family, slow-burn, enemies-to-lovers, touch-starved, he-falls-first - Creatures: humans - Setting: Ketterdam, a mercantile city built on vice - POV: third person, dual - Ending: happy ever after, ends on a cliffhanger - Audience: ya - Content warnings: violence, child trafficking, addiction, torture - Best for: Readers who want found family and yearning with no spice whatsoever. - Last verified: 2026-08-28 ### 6. 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 ### 7. 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 ### 8. To Kill a Kingdom **Alexandra Christo** · Standalone · [https://houseofareader.com/books/to-kill-a-kingdom](https://houseofareader.com/books/to-kill-a-kingdom) 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. - Spice: 1/5 — A door, closed. Kissing only. The tension is built entirely out of mutual intent to kill. - Romance prominence: 4/5 - Plot: 4/5 - Worldbuilding: 4/5 - Darkness: 3/5 - Writing craft: 4/5 - Burn: slow - Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, forced-proximity, slow-burn, forbidden-romance - Creatures: humans - Setting: A hundred kingdoms across a sea full of sirens - POV: first person, dual - Ending: happy ever after - Audience: ya - Content warnings: violence, murder, abusive parent, gore - Best for: Readers who want a self-contained enemies-to-lovers with no spice at all. - Last verified: 2026-08-28 ### 9. The Night Circus **Erin Morgenstern** · Standalone · [https://houseofareader.com/books/the-night-circus](https://houseofareader.com/books/the-night-circus) 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. - Spice: 1/5 — A door, closed. Closed door. The sensuality is entirely in the descriptions of the circus. - Romance prominence: 3/5 - Plot: 2/5 - Worldbuilding: 5/5 - Darkness: 3/5 - Writing craft: 5/5 - Burn: slow - Tropes: forbidden-romance, slow-burn, fated-mates, enemies-to-lovers - Creatures: humans - Setting: Le Cirque des Rêves, touring the world at the turn of the century - POV: third person, dual - Ending: happy ever after - Audience: adult - Content warnings: child endangerment, suicide, emotional neglect - Best for: Readers who want atmosphere above everything and do not need the plot to arrive. - Last verified: 2026-08-28 ### 10. A Discovery of Witches **Deborah Harkness** · All Souls, book 1 of 3 (complete) · [https://houseofareader.com/books/a-discovery-of-witches](https://houseofareader.com/books/a-discovery-of-witches) 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. - Spice: 2/5 — Warm. Restrained for most of the first book, with a slow escalation across the trilogy. - Romance prominence: 4/5 - Plot: 3/5 - Worldbuilding: 4/5 - Darkness: 2/5 - Writing craft: 4/5 - Burn: slow - Tropes: forbidden-romance, slow-burn, touch-her-and-die, academy, fated-mates - Creatures: vampires, witches, demons - Setting: Oxford, and a French château with a long memory - POV: first person - Ending: happy ever after, ends on a cliffhanger - Audience: adult - Content warnings: violence, abduction, torture, miscarriage - Best for: Readers who want a possessive vampire and a completed trilogy at a low spice level. - Last verified: 2026-08-28 ### 11. Powerless **Lauren Roberts** · The Powerless Trilogy, book 1 of 3 (complete) · [https://houseofareader.com/books/powerless](https://houseofareader.com/books/powerless) 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. - Spice: 2/5 — Warm. Kissing and one restrained scene. Written for a younger audience than most of this list. - Romance prominence: 4/5 - Plot: 3/5 - Worldbuilding: 3/5 - Darkness: 3/5 - Writing craft: 3/5 - Burn: slow - Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, forbidden-romance, he-falls-first, slow-burn, academy - Creatures: humans - Setting: Ilya, a kingdom divided by whether you have a power - POV: first person, dual - Ending: happy ever after, ends on a cliffhanger - Audience: ya - Content warnings: violence, death, persecution - Best for: Fourth Wing readers who want the trials and the banter without the explicit scenes. - Last verified: 2026-08-28 ### 12. Dragonflight **Anne McCaffrey** · Dragonriders of Pern, book 1 (ongoing) · [https://houseofareader.com/books/dragonflight](https://houseofareader.com/books/dragonflight) The book that invented the telepathically bonded dragon rider, and therefore most of this list. A kitchen drudge turns out to be the last of a noble line and impresses the only queen dragon left on a planet that has forgotten what it is defending against. - Spice: 1/5 — A door, closed. Closed door, and written in 1968 — the one relevant scene has aged badly and readers should know that before starting. - Romance prominence: 3/5 - Plot: 4/5 - Worldbuilding: 5/5 - Darkness: 3/5 - Writing craft: 4/5 - Burn: medium - Tropes: fated-mates, chosen-one, enemies-to-lovers, found-family - Creatures: dragons, humans - Setting: Pern, a colony world under threat from spores that fall from the sky - POV: third person, dual - Ending: happy ever after - Audience: adult - Content warnings: dubious consent, period-typical sexism, violence - Best for: Readers who want the original dragon-rider bond that every later book is answering. - Last verified: 2026-08-28 ### 13. 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 ### 14. Belladonna **Adalyn Grace** · Belladonna, book 1 of 3 (complete) · [https://houseofareader.com/books/belladonna](https://houseofareader.com/books/belladonna) 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. - Spice: 1/5 — A door, closed. Kissing and atmosphere. Nothing explicit. - Romance prominence: 4/5 - Plot: 4/5 - Worldbuilding: 3/5 - Darkness: 3/5 - Writing craft: 4/5 - Burn: slow - Tropes: morally-grey-mmc, slow-burn, forbidden-romance, second-chance - Creatures: gods, humans - Setting: A Victorian-inflected estate called Thorn Grove - POV: third person - Ending: happy ever after - Audience: ya - Content warnings: murder, poisoning, grief, death of a parent - Best for: Readers who want gothic romance with Death as the love interest and no spice. - Last verified: 2026-08-28 ### 15. Uprooted **Naomi Novik** · Standalone · [https://houseofareader.com/books/uprooted](https://houseofareader.com/books/uprooted) 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. - Spice: 2/5 — Warm. One explicit scene, brief and late. The rest is antagonism and proximity. - Romance prominence: 3/5 - Plot: 5/5 - Worldbuilding: 5/5 - Darkness: 4/5 - Writing craft: 5/5 - Burn: slow - Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, forced-proximity, slow-burn, found-family - Creatures: witches, humans - Setting: A valley beside the Wood, in a folkloric Poland - POV: first person - Ending: happy ever after - Audience: adult - Content warnings: body horror, violence, war - Best for: ACOTAR readers who want the same premise handled by a much stronger prose stylist. - Last verified: 2026-08-28 ### 16. Serpent & Dove **Shelby Mahurin** · Serpent & Dove, book 1 of 3 (complete) · [https://houseofareader.com/books/serpent-and-dove](https://houseofareader.com/books/serpent-and-dove) 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. - Spice: 2/5 — Warm. One explicit scene late on. The rest is antagonism at close quarters. - Romance prominence: 4/5 - Plot: 3/5 - Worldbuilding: 3/5 - Darkness: 3/5 - Writing craft: 3/5 - Burn: slow - Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, forced-proximity, fake-dating, forbidden-romance, slow-burn - Creatures: witches, humans - Setting: Belterra, a French-inflected kingdom burning witches - POV: first person, dual - Ending: happy ever after - Audience: adult - Content warnings: burning, violence, religious persecution, death - Best for: Readers who want enemies to lovers with a completed trilogy behind it. - Last verified: 2026-08-28 ### 17. A Day of Fallen Night **Samantha Shannon** · The Roots of Chaos, book 2 (ongoing) · [https://houseofareader.com/books/a-day-of-fallen-night](https://houseofareader.com/books/a-day-of-fallen-night) A prequel to Priory set five centuries earlier, following four women as the wyrms wake. Longer, sadder and better constructed than the book it precedes, and readable first without losing anything. - Spice: 2/5 — Warm. Occasional and brief. The relationships matter far more than the scenes do. - Romance prominence: 3/5 - Plot: 5/5 - Worldbuilding: 5/5 - Darkness: 4/5 - Writing craft: 5/5 - Burn: slow - Tropes: found-family, forbidden-romance, slow-burn, chosen-one - Creatures: dragons, witches, humans - Setting: The same two hemispheres, five hundred years earlier - POV: third person, dual - Ending: happy ever after - Audience: adult - Content warnings: childbirth, plague, war, grief, death of a child - Best for: Readers who want the most ambitious dragon worldbuilding currently in print. - Last verified: 2026-08-28 ### 18. The Priory of the Orange Tree **Samantha Shannon** · The Roots of Chaos, book 1 (ongoing) · [https://houseofareader.com/books/the-priory-of-the-orange-tree](https://houseofareader.com/books/the-priory-of-the-orange-tree) Eight hundred pages of dragon politics across two hemispheres that disagree about whether dragons are gods or vermin. A standalone in the sense that it resolves completely, with a slow sapphic romance threaded through the middle of it. - Spice: 2/5 — Warm. One or two brief scenes. The romance is understated relative to the book's length. - Romance prominence: 3/5 - Plot: 5/5 - Worldbuilding: 5/5 - Darkness: 3/5 - Writing craft: 5/5 - Burn: slow - Tropes: slow-burn, forbidden-romance, chosen-one, found-family - Creatures: dragons, witches, humans - Setting: Two continents divided by a thousand years of religious disagreement - POV: third person, dual - Ending: happy ever after - Audience: adult - Content warnings: violence, plague, death, war - Best for: Fourth Wing readers who want dragons with far more worldbuilding and far less spice. - Last verified: 2026-08-28 ### 19. For the Wolf **Hannah Whitten** · Wilderwood, book 1 of 2 (complete) · [https://houseofareader.com/books/for-the-wolf](https://houseofareader.com/books/for-the-wolf) 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. - Spice: 2/5 — Warm. One extended explicit scene. Everything else is proximity and dread. - Romance prominence: 4/5 - Plot: 4/5 - Worldbuilding: 5/5 - Darkness: 4/5 - Writing craft: 4/5 - Burn: slow - Tropes: forced-proximity, slow-burn, touch-starved, forbidden-romance, morally-grey-mmc - Creatures: gods, humans - Setting: The Wilderwood, a forest that takes what it is owed - POV: third person - Ending: happy ever after - Audience: adult - Content warnings: body horror, blood, self-sacrifice, religious control - Best for: Readers who loved Uprooted and want something darker in the same forest. - Last verified: 2026-08-28 ### 20. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue **V.E. Schwab** · Standalone · [https://houseofareader.com/books/the-invisible-life-of-addie-larue](https://houseofareader.com/books/the-invisible-life-of-addie-larue) 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. - Spice: 2/5 — Warm. Occasional and brief, written more for melancholy than heat. - Romance prominence: 4/5 - Plot: 3/5 - Worldbuilding: 3/5 - Darkness: 4/5 - Writing craft: 5/5 - Burn: slow - Tropes: forbidden-romance, morally-grey-mmc, slow-burn, second-chance - Creatures: gods, humans - Setting: Three hundred years of Europe and America, ending in New York - POV: third person, dual - Ending: no happy ending - Audience: adult - Content warnings: suicidal ideation, loss, manipulation - Best for: Readers who want a devil love interest and a standalone they can finish tonight. - Last verified: 2026-08-28 ### 21. 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 --- 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.