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19 Best Found family Fantasy Romance Books

A group of unrelated characters forms bonds of loyalty and obligation that function as kinship, usually after each has lost or been failed by their own. The group, not the couple, carries much of the book's emotional weight. The three strongest examples in the House's catalogue are A Day of Fallen Night, The Priory of the Orange Tree and Uprooted — each rated below on spice, romance prominence and how much the trope actually carries the book.

19 books · Last reviewed

All 19 books

Ranked so books where found family 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 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 Uprooted

Uprooted

Naomi Novik · Standalone

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

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

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

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

Content body horror, violence, war

Cover of His Majesty's Dragon

His Majesty's Dragon

Naomi Novik · Temeraire · book 1 of 9 · complete

The Napoleonic Wars, fought with an air force of dragons. A naval captain is bonded to a hatchling against his every intention and discovers that the dragon is better company than the navy was. The friendship is the love story.

Best for Readers who want the best dragon characterisation in the genre and no romance.

Spice
Spice 0 out of 5, Closed to the world
Romance
1/5
Plot
4/5
World
5/5
Darkness
2/5
Craft
5/5

No romantic or sexual content. The central relationship is between a man and his dragon. · Slow burn · Happy ending

Content war, animal endangerment, violence

Cover of Six of Crows

Six of Crows

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

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

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

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

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

Content violence, child trafficking, addiction, torture

Cover of A Court of Mist and Fury

A Court of Mist and Fury

Sarah J. Maas · A Court of Thorns and Roses · book 2 · ongoing

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.

Best for Readers who found the first book slow and were told to keep going. They were right.

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

Explicit and frequent from the midpoint, including the chapter the entire internet refers to obliquely. · Medium burn · Happy ending · Ends on a cliffhanger

Content PTSD, emotional abuse, violence, suicidal ideation

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 Dragonflight

Dragonflight

Anne McCaffrey · Dragonriders of Pern · book 1 · ongoing

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.

Best for Readers who want the original dragon-rider bond that every later book is answering.

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

Closed door, and written in 1968 — the one relevant scene has aged badly and readers should know that before starting. · Medium burn · Happy ending

Content dubious consent, period-typical sexism, violence

Cover of Ninth House

Ninth House

Leigh Bardugo · Alex Stern · book 1 · ongoing

Yale's secret societies practise real magic, and the scholarship student sent to police them can see ghosts without any help. Dark academia with actual teeth — the class rage is as sharp as the horror.

Best for Readers who want dark academia where the darkness is the point, not the aesthetic.

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

Brief and infrequent. This is a horror novel with a romance somewhere behind it. · Slow burn · No happy ending · Ends on a cliffhanger

Content sexual assault, drug use, graphic violence, gore, child abuse

Cover of The Ashes and the Star-Cursed King

The Ashes and the Star-Cursed King

Carissa Broadbent · Crowns of Nyaxia · book 2 · ongoing

The aftermath of the Kejari, with a kingdom to hold and a relationship that has to be rebuilt from what the first book broke. More political, more explicit, and more willing to sit in grief than its predecessor.

Best for Readers who want a second book that deepens the first rather than repeating it.

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

Explicit and frequent, with the physical relationship carrying much of the reconciliation. · Medium burn · Happy ending

Content graphic violence, grief, gore, explicit content

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

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 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 Radiance

Radiance

Grace Draven · Wraith Kings · book 1 · ongoing

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.

Best for Readers tired of hostility who want a marriage of convenience built on decency.

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

Several explicit scenes, warm rather than intense, and central to how they grow close. · Medium burn · Happy ending

Content violence, xenophobia, grief

Cover of Eragon

Eragon

Christopher Paolini · The Inheritance Cycle · book 1 of 4 · complete

A farm boy finds a dragon egg and becomes the last of the Riders. Unashamedly traditional epic fantasy, written when the author was fifteen, and still the book most people mean when they say they want dragons.

Best for Fourth Wing readers who want the dragon bond with no romance at all.

Spice
Spice 0 out of 5, Closed to the world
Romance
1/5
Plot
4/5
World
4/5
Darkness
2/5
Craft
3/5

No romantic content of any kind on the page. This is a quest novel. · Slow burn · Happy ending

Content violence, war, death of a guardian

Cover of The Atlas Six

The Atlas Six

Olivie Blake · The Atlas · book 1 of 3 · complete

Six magicians compete for five places in a secret society guarding the world's lost knowledge, and are told plainly that one of them will not survive the year. Almost entirely conversation, and the conversations are the appeal.

Best for Readers who want dark academia that is mostly clever people arguing.

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

Some explicit content, sparingly used and more interested in power than pleasure. · Slow burn · No happy ending · Ends on a cliffhanger

Content murder, drug use, self-harm, manipulation

Cover of Throne of Glass

Throne of Glass

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

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

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

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

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

Content slavery, violence, torture, death

What found family actually means

A group of unrelated characters forms bonds of loyalty and obligation that function as kinship, usually after each has lost or been failed by their own. The group, not the couple, carries much of the book's emotional weight.

It is the trope readers cite when they say a series felt like home. The romance gains from it too: a partner who is also part of a group that would die for you reads differently than one met in isolation.

Also asked for as found family, chosen family, the court, the inner circle.

Where to start

The books most readers arrive from, each with a full list of what to read next.

Books Like ACOTARA Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

Questions readers ask

What does found family mean in a book?
A group of unrelated characters forms bonds of loyalty and obligation that function as kinship, usually after each has lost or been failed by their own. The group, not the couple, carries much of the book's emotional weight.
Why do readers like found family?
It is the trope readers cite when they say a series felt like home. The romance gains from it too: a partner who is also part of a group that would die for you reads differently than one met in isolation.
What else is found family called?
Readers ask for it as found family, chosen family, the court, the inner circle. All of those describe the same thing, and searching any of them on this site returns the same books.