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30 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. The three strongest examples in the House's catalogue are A Day of Fallen Night, Divine Rivals and The Priory of the Orange Tree — each rated below on spice, romance prominence and how much the trope actually carries the book.

30 books · Last reviewed

All 30 books

Ranked so books where forbidden romance is the point come before books where it is one element among many.

Cover of A Day of Fallen Night

A Day of Fallen Night

Samantha Shannon · The Roots of Chaos · book 2 · ongoing

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.

Best for Readers who want the most ambitious dragon worldbuilding currently in print.

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

Occasional and brief. The relationships matter far more than the scenes do. · Slow burn · Happy ending

Content childbirth, plague, war, grief, death of a child

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 The Priory of the Orange Tree

The Priory of the Orange Tree

Samantha Shannon · The Roots of Chaos · book 1 · ongoing

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.

Best for Fourth Wing readers who want dragons with far more worldbuilding and far less spice.

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

One or two brief scenes. The romance is understated relative to the book's length. · Slow burn · Happy ending

Content violence, plague, death, war

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 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 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 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 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 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 A Court of Thorns and Roses

A Court of Thorns and Roses

Sarah J. Maas · A Court of Thorns and Roses · book 1 · ongoing

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.

Best for Anyone who wants to understand what the entire genre has been arguing about since 2015.

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

Two explicit scenes late in the book, written at length. Everything before them is tension. · Slow burn · Happy ending

Content violence, torture, captivity, death of a partner

No cover

A Fate Inked in Blood

Danielle L. Jensen · Saga of the Unfated · book 1 · ongoing

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.

Best for Fourth Wing readers who want the same intensity in a Norse setting.

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

Explicit and reasonably frequent, with the physical relationship complicating the politics. · Medium burn · Happy ending · Ends on a cliffhanger

Content graphic violence, war, coercion, death

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 Fireborne

Fireborne

Rosaria Munda · The Aurelian Cycle · book 1 of 3 · complete

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.

Best for Fourth Wing readers who want the war college with real politics behind it.

Spice
Spice 1 out of 5, A door, closed
Romance
2/5
Plot
5/5
World
4/5
Darkness
4/5
Craft
4/5

Kissing at most. The tension between the leads is ideological before it is romantic. · Slow burn · No happy ending · Ends on a cliffhanger

Content famine, execution, war, class violence

Cover of House of Earth and Blood

House of Earth and Blood

Sarah J. Maas · Crescent City · book 1 · ongoing

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.

Best for ACOTAR readers who want a real plot to hold the romance up.

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

Explicit, but late and infrequent relative to the length. Most of the book is restraint. · Slow burn · Happy ending · Ends on a cliffhanger

Content grief, graphic violence, drug use, torture

Cover of House of Sky and Breath

House of Sky and Breath

Sarah J. Maas · Crescent City · book 2 · ongoing

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.

Best for Crescent City readers, and ACOTAR readers who want the connective tissue.

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

Explicit and considerably more frequent than the first book. · Medium burn · Happy ending · Ends on a cliffhanger

Content torture, graphic violence, grief, explicit content

Cover of Iron Flame

Iron Flame

Rebecca Yarros · The Empyrean · book 2 of 5 · ongoing

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.

Best for Fourth Wing readers who wanted the spice turned up and the stakes widened.

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

More frequent and more explicit than Fourth Wing, and better integrated into the plot. · Medium burn · Happy ending · Ends on a cliffhanger

Content torture, graphic violence, death, war

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 Onyx Storm

Onyx Storm

Rebecca Yarros · The Empyrean · book 3 of 5 · ongoing

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.

Best for Empyrean readers who are already committed and want to know what happens.

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

Explicit and regular, in line with Iron Flame rather than the first book. · Medium burn · Happy ending · Ends on a cliffhanger

Content graphic violence, war, death, grief

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

No cover

The Hurricane Wars

Thea Guanzon · The Hurricane Wars · book 1 · ongoing

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.

Best for Readers who want enemies to lovers where the war is still going on around them.

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

Explicit scenes in the back half, arriving after a long and genuinely hostile build. · Slow burn · Happy ending · Ends on a cliffhanger

Content war, violence, genocide, torture

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 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 A Shadow in the Ember

A Shadow in the Ember

Jennifer L. Armentrout · Flesh and Fire · book 1 · ongoing

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.

Best for Readers who want the spiciest end of the scale with a god as the love interest.

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

Explicit throughout and unusually frequent even by the author's standards. · Instalove · Happy ending · Ends on a cliffhanger

Content explicit content, graphic violence, death, grooming

Cover of From Blood and Ash

From Blood and Ash

Jennifer L. Armentrout · Blood and Ash · book 1 · ongoing

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.

Best for Readers who want forbidden romance where the prohibition is enforced by an entire state.

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

Frequent and explicit from the middle third onward, escalating steadily. · Medium burn · Happy ending · Ends on a cliffhanger

Content violence, gore, sexual content, religious control

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 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 Neon Gods

Neon Gods

Katee Robert · Dark Olympus · book 1 of 7 · complete

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.

Best for Readers who want the spiciest thing on the shelf and do not need a war to justify it.

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

Explicit throughout and adventurous with it. The plot exists to move between scenes rather than the reverse. · Instalove · Happy ending

Content explicit content, abusive parent, coercion, violence

What forbidden romance actually means

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.

Questions readers ask

What does forbidden romance mean in a book?
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.
Why do readers like forbidden romance?
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.
What else is forbidden romance called?
Readers ask for it as forbidden romance, forbidden love, star crossed, we cannot be together. All of those describe the same thing, and searching any of them on this site returns the same books.