# Best Forbidden romance Fantasy Romance Books

The relationship is prohibited by something with real power to punish it — a court, a war, a vow, a law of magic. The obstacle is external and enforced, rather than a matter of the characters' own reluctance.

Every private moment is a risk taken deliberately, which raises the stakes of ordinary scenes. It also produces the choice readers come for: the point at which one of them decides the cost is acceptable.

Also asked for as: forbidden romance, forbidden love, star crossed, we cannot be together, enemies by blood.

## All 30 books

### 1. 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

### 2. 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

### 3. 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

### 4. 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

### 5. 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

### 6. A Dowry of Blood

**S.T. Gibson** · Standalone · [https://houseofareader.com/books/a-dowry-of-blood](https://houseofareader.com/books/a-dowry-of-blood)

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.

- Spice: 3/5 — Hot. Sensual and explicit in places, but written impressionistically rather than in detail.
- Romance prominence: 5/5
- Plot: 3/5
- Worldbuilding: 3/5
- Darkness: 5/5
- Writing craft: 5/5
- Burn: medium
- Tropes: morally-grey-mmc, forbidden-romance, touch-starved, found-family
- Creatures: vampires
- Setting: Europe across several centuries, in a series of borrowed houses
- POV: first person
- Ending: happy ever after
- Audience: adult
- Content warnings: abusive relationship, coercive control, murder, blood
- Best for: Readers who want dark romantasy with prose that would survive being read aloud.
- Last verified: 2026-08-28

### 7. 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

### 8. The Bridge Kingdom

**Danielle L. Jensen** · The Bridge Kingdom, book 1 of 4 (complete) · [https://houseofareader.com/books/the-bridge-kingdom](https://houseofareader.com/books/the-bridge-kingdom)

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.

- Spice: 3/5 — Hot. Several explicit scenes, well spaced and used to mark the shifts in her loyalty.
- Romance prominence: 5/5
- Plot: 4/5
- Worldbuilding: 4/5
- Darkness: 3/5
- Writing craft: 4/5
- Burn: slow
- Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, fake-dating, forbidden-romance, slow-burn, he-falls-first
- Creatures: humans
- Setting: Ithicana, a kingdom of bridges between warring continents
- POV: third person, dual
- Ending: happy ever after
- Audience: adult
- Content warnings: violence, abusive father, war, betrayal
- Best for: Readers who want a marriage-of-convenience spy plot and a series that is finished.
- Last verified: 2026-08-28

### 9. 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

### 10. 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

### 11. A Fate Inked in Blood

**Danielle L. Jensen** · Saga of the Unfated, book 1 (ongoing) · [https://houseofareader.com/books/a-fate-inked-in-blood](https://houseofareader.com/books/a-fate-inked-in-blood)

A shield-maiden with a drop of a god's blood is bound by an oath to a jarl who intends to use her to unite Skaland. Norse-inflected, politically sharp, and unusually good on the mechanics of being someone else's prophecy.

- Spice: 4/5 — Explicit. Explicit and reasonably frequent, with the physical relationship complicating the politics.
- Romance prominence: 4/5
- Plot: 4/5
- Worldbuilding: 4/5
- Darkness: 4/5
- Writing craft: 4/5
- Burn: medium
- Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, forbidden-romance, chosen-one, forced-proximity, morally-grey-mmc
- Creatures: gods, humans
- Setting: Skaland, a Norse kingdom of feuding jarls
- POV: first person
- Ending: happy ever after, ends on a cliffhanger
- Audience: adult
- Content warnings: graphic violence, war, coercion, death
- Best for: Fourth Wing readers who want the same intensity in a Norse setting.
- Last verified: 2026-08-28

### 12. 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

### 13. Fireborne

**Rosaria Munda** · The Aurelian Cycle, book 1 of 3 (complete) · [https://houseofareader.com/books/fireborne](https://houseofareader.com/books/fireborne)

After a revolution overthrows the dragonlords, an orphan and the surviving son of the old regime compete to lead the new order's dragon riders. A political novel about whether a just revolution stays just, with dragons.

- Spice: 1/5 — A door, closed. Kissing at most. The tension between the leads is ideological before it is romantic.
- Romance prominence: 2/5
- Plot: 5/5
- Worldbuilding: 4/5
- Darkness: 4/5
- Writing craft: 4/5
- Burn: slow
- Tropes: academy, enemies-to-lovers, slow-burn, forbidden-romance
- Creatures: dragons, humans
- Setting: Callipolis, a republic built on the ashes of a dragonlord dynasty
- POV: first person, dual
- Ending: no happy ending, ends on a cliffhanger
- Audience: ya
- Content warnings: famine, execution, war, class violence
- Best for: Fourth Wing readers who want the war college with real politics behind it.
- Last verified: 2026-08-28

### 14. 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

### 15. 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

### 16. Iron Flame

**Rebecca Yarros** · The Empyrean, book 2 of 5 (ongoing) · [https://houseofareader.com/books/iron-flame](https://houseofareader.com/books/iron-flame)

Second year at Basgiath, with a new commandant who wants her broken and a relationship that has to survive both of them knowing things they cannot say. Slower than the first book for two hundred pages, then considerably less slow.

- Spice: 4/5 — Explicit. More frequent and more explicit than Fourth Wing, and better integrated into the plot.
- Romance prominence: 4/5
- Plot: 4/5
- Worldbuilding: 4/5
- Darkness: 4/5
- Writing craft: 3/5
- Burn: medium
- Tropes: academy, touch-her-and-die, forbidden-romance, found-family
- Creatures: dragons, humans
- Setting: Basgiath War College and the front lines beyond it
- POV: first and third person, dual
- Ending: happy ever after, ends on a cliffhanger
- Audience: adult
- Content warnings: torture, graphic violence, death, war
- Best for: Fourth Wing readers who wanted the spice turned up and the stakes widened.
- Last verified: 2026-08-28

### 17. Kingdom of the Wicked

**Kerri Maniscalco** · Kingdom of the Wicked, book 1 of 4 (complete) · [https://houseofareader.com/books/kingdom-of-the-wicked](https://houseofareader.com/books/kingdom-of-the-wicked)

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.

- Spice: 3/5 — Hot. Building tension across the book with explicit content arriving in the sequels.
- Romance prominence: 4/5
- Plot: 4/5
- Worldbuilding: 4/5
- Darkness: 4/5
- Writing craft: 4/5
- Burn: slow
- Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, morally-grey-mmc, slow-burn, forbidden-romance, villain-gets-the-girl
- Creatures: witches, demons
- Setting: Sicily, 1890s, and the seven circles beneath it
- POV: first person
- Ending: happy ever after, ends on a cliffhanger
- Audience: adult
- Content warnings: murder, gore, mutilation, grief
- Best for: Readers who want a devil love interest and a completed series to go with him.
- Last verified: 2026-08-28

### 18. 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

### 19. Onyx Storm

**Rebecca Yarros** · The Empyrean, book 3 of 5 (ongoing) · [https://houseofareader.com/books/onyx-storm](https://houseofareader.com/books/onyx-storm)

Third year, and the search for an ally who might turn the war moves the story off the continent entirely. Broader in scope than the first two books and more willing to leave Basgiath behind.

- Spice: 4/5 — Explicit. Explicit and regular, in line with Iron Flame rather than the first book.
- Romance prominence: 4/5
- Plot: 4/5
- Worldbuilding: 4/5
- Darkness: 4/5
- Writing craft: 3/5
- Burn: medium
- Tropes: academy, touch-her-and-die, found-family, forbidden-romance
- Creatures: dragons, humans
- Setting: Beyond Navarre, across the islands and the front
- POV: first and third person, dual
- Ending: happy ever after, ends on a cliffhanger
- Audience: adult
- Content warnings: graphic violence, war, death, grief
- Best for: Empyrean readers who are already committed and want to know what happens.
- Last verified: 2026-08-28

### 20. The Foxglove King

**Hannah Whitten** · The Nightshade Crown, book 1 of 3 (complete) · [https://houseofareader.com/books/the-foxglove-king](https://houseofareader.com/books/the-foxglove-king)

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.

- Spice: 3/5 — Hot. A few explicit scenes, unhurried, arriving after a long stretch of hostility.
- Romance prominence: 4/5
- Plot: 4/5
- Worldbuilding: 4/5
- Darkness: 4/5
- Writing craft: 4/5
- Burn: slow
- Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, morally-grey-mmc, slow-burn, forbidden-romance, forced-proximity
- Creatures: gods, humans
- Setting: Auverraine, a court built over a buried god
- POV: third person
- Ending: happy ever after, ends on a cliffhanger
- Audience: adult
- Content warnings: death, drug use, gore, religious control
- Best for: Readers who want court intrigue and necromancy with a slow, hostile romance.
- Last verified: 2026-08-28

### 21. The Hurricane Wars

**Thea Guanzon** · The Hurricane Wars, book 1 (ongoing) · [https://houseofareader.com/books/the-hurricane-wars](https://houseofareader.com/books/the-hurricane-wars)

A soldier of the Lightweaver rebellion is forced into a political marriage with the Night Emperor's heir, the man who has been trying to kill her for years. Southeast Asian-inspired, and the enemies part is unusually well earned.

- Spice: 3/5 — Hot. Explicit scenes in the back half, arriving after a long and genuinely hostile build.
- Romance prominence: 4/5
- Plot: 4/5
- Worldbuilding: 4/5
- Darkness: 3/5
- Writing craft: 4/5
- Burn: slow
- Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, fake-dating, forced-proximity, slow-burn, forbidden-romance
- Creatures: humans
- Setting: Sardovia and Kesath, at the end of a war one side has lost
- POV: third person, dual
- Ending: happy ever after, ends on a cliffhanger
- Audience: adult
- Content warnings: war, violence, genocide, torture
- Best for: Readers who want enemies to lovers where the war is still going on around them.
- Last verified: 2026-08-28

### 22. 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

### 23. 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

### 24. 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

### 25. A Shadow in the Ember

**Jennifer L. Armentrout** · Flesh and Fire, book 1 (ongoing) · [https://houseofareader.com/books/a-shadow-in-the-ember](https://houseofareader.com/books/a-shadow-in-the-ember)

A prequel series set centuries before Blood and Ash, following a woman raised as a Maiden and promised to a god she intends to kill. More explicit than the parent series and more interested in the gods behind it.

- Spice: 5/5 — Scorching. Explicit throughout and unusually frequent even by the author's standards.
- Romance prominence: 5/5
- Plot: 3/5
- Worldbuilding: 4/5
- Darkness: 4/5
- Writing craft: 3/5
- Burn: instalove
- Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, fated-mates, touch-her-and-die, forbidden-romance, morally-grey-mmc
- Creatures: gods, vampires
- Setting: Lasania, in the age of the Primals
- POV: first person
- Ending: happy ever after, ends on a cliffhanger
- Audience: adult
- Content warnings: explicit content, graphic violence, death, grooming
- Best for: Readers who want the spiciest end of the scale with a god as the love interest.
- Last verified: 2026-08-28

### 26. From Blood and Ash

**Jennifer L. Armentrout** · Blood and Ash, book 1 (ongoing) · [https://houseofareader.com/books/from-blood-and-ash](https://houseofareader.com/books/from-blood-and-ash)

A girl raised as a holy vessel, forbidden to be touched or spoken to, is guarded by a man who does both. The premise is built entirely around denial, which is a cynical way to construct a romance and an extremely effective one.

- Spice: 4/5 — Explicit. Frequent and explicit from the middle third onward, escalating steadily.
- Romance prominence: 5/5
- Plot: 3/5
- Worldbuilding: 3/5
- Darkness: 3/5
- Writing craft: 3/5
- Burn: medium
- Tropes: forbidden-romance, touch-her-and-die, enemies-to-lovers, chosen-one
- Creatures: vampires, humans
- Setting: The kingdom of Solis, under a religious order and a plague of the Cursed
- POV: first person
- Ending: happy ever after, ends on a cliffhanger
- Audience: adult
- Content warnings: violence, gore, sexual content, religious control
- Best for: Readers who want forbidden romance where the prohibition is enforced by an entire state.
- Last verified: 2026-08-28

### 27. 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

### 28. 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

### 29. 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

### 30. Neon Gods

**Katee Robert** · Dark Olympus, book 1 of 7 (complete) · [https://houseofareader.com/books/neon-gods](https://houseofareader.com/books/neon-gods)

Hades and Persephone relocated to a modern city-state run by thirteen people who have taken the names of gods. Persephone runs from an engagement into the lower city, and strikes a bargain with the man everyone pretends does not exist.

- Spice: 5/5 — Scorching. Explicit throughout and adventurous with it. The plot exists to move between scenes rather than the reverse.
- Romance prominence: 5/5
- Plot: 2/5
- Worldbuilding: 2/5
- Darkness: 3/5
- Writing craft: 3/5
- Burn: instalove
- Tropes: fake-dating, forbidden-romance, touch-her-and-die, morally-grey-mmc, villain-gets-the-girl
- Creatures: humans
- Setting: Olympus, a modern city ruled by thirteen titles
- POV: first person, dual
- Ending: happy ever after
- Audience: adult
- Content warnings: explicit content, abusive parent, coercion, violence
- Best for: Readers who want the spiciest thing on the shelf and do not need a war to justify it.
- Last verified: 2026-08-28


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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.