Books Like Fourth Wing
Finished Fourth Wing and need the next dragon, the next war college, the next enemies-to-lovers with a body count? Nine romantasy reads that scratch the same itch, and what each one does differently.
Rebecca Yarros’s Fourth Wing did something rare: it made a whole genre feel new to people who had been reading it for years, and it made romantasy the first fantasy many romance readers ever finished. Then it ended, and Iron Flame ended, and Onyx Storm ended, and there you were.
What you want next depends on which part of it had you. So this list is sorted by that.
If it was the dragons and the war college
Fireborne — Rosaria Munda. A dragon-rider academy after a revolution, two riders from opposite sides of it, and a political weight Fourth Wing only gestures at. Slower burn, sharper edges, and the dragons are characters rather than transport.
The Priory of the Orange Tree — Samantha Shannon. If what you loved was the scale, this is the biggest room in the house: dragons of two kinds, a queen who must produce an heir, and a slow, tender sapphic romance threaded through a thousand pages. Not a fast read. Not meant to be.
If it was the enemies-to-lovers
A Court of Thorns and Roses — Sarah J. Maas. The obvious answer, and still the right one. Start with the first book knowing the series takes a turn in the second that is the reason people talk about it. If Fourth Wing was your first romantasy, this is the one that built the road it drove on.
From Blood and Ash — Jennifer L. Armentrout. A maiden, a guard, a secret, and a first book that is essentially one long slow burn toward a reveal. The series sprawls; the first three are the pull.
The Cruel Prince — Holly Black. Enemies who are genuinely cruel to each other, in a faerie court where that is the local language, and a heroine who wins by being worse than the people around her. Less spice, more knives. The wanting is the same.
If it was the found family and the banter
Powerless — Lauren Roberts. An ordinary girl in a kingdom where being ordinary is a death sentence, a prince who is supposed to kill her, and the kind of trials structure that makes a book impossible to put down at midnight. Younger in tone than Fourth Wing, and it knows it.
Quicksilver — Callie Hart. A thief, a fae warrior who owns her, a frozen court, and a heroine whose mouth gets her into every scene worth reading. Spicier than most on this list, and unbothered about it.
If it was Violet: the body that doesn’t cooperate, and the mind that does
The Serpent and the Wings of Night — Carissa Broadbent. A human girl raised by the vampire king, entered into a tournament designed to kill her, and a rival who is exactly the kind of quiet, watchful, deadly man this genre was built to deliver. The tournament gives it Fourth Wing’s structure; the heroine’s stubborn, breakable body gives it Violet’s stakes.
Throne of Glass — Sarah J. Maas. An assassin instead of a rider, a competition instead of a quadrant, and a heroine whose competence is the romance for the first two books. Eight books long. You have been warned, and you will not listen.
Wherever you go next, mark the chapter that turns. Every book on this list has one, and it is never the one you expect.
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