15 Books Like Fourth Wing With Magic, Dragons, and Romance

Fourth Wing ended, and you’re still not over it. That’s the honest starting point for most people who land on this list.

Rebecca Yarros built something that’s genuinely hard to replace: dragons, a school built around survival, and a romance that builds its tension instead of rushing there.

Readers searching for books like Fourth Wing are usually chasing one specific piece of that formula, not the whole package, so this list covers a range on purpose.

Some picks bring more dragons and less romance. Others skip dragons entirely and lean into court politics, fae bargains, or straight-up death tournaments. A few go heavier on world-building, while others move faster and read lighter.

Figuring out which part of Fourth Wing hooked you—the danger, the slow burn, the training arc, or the found family—is the fastest way to find your next read on this list. Here’s what’s worth picking up next.

What Makes a Book “Like Fourth Wing”?

Before jumping into the list, it helps to know what you’re actually chasing. Fourth Wing isn’t just “fantasy with dragons”; it’s a specific mix, and most books like Fourth Wing borrow from a few of these pieces rather than all of them at once.

• High stakes that feel personal — Danger isn’t background noise; it’s tied directly to the main character’s survival, not some distant war happening off-page.
• A slow-burn romance — Tension builds over time instead of rushing, usually through an enemies-to-lovers or forced-proximity setup.
• A training ground or competition — Whether it’s a war college, a tournament, or trials for a throne, characters are constantly being tested against each other.
• A heroine who earns her growth — She’s not automatically powerful. She starts out overlooked or underestimated and fights her way into respect.
• Found family — A tight circle of allies who become as important as the romance itself.

Not every book on this list hits all five. Some lean harder into world-building, others into romance. Once you know which piece pulled you into Fourth Wing, the rest of this list gets a lot easier to sort through.

15 Books Like Fourth Wing You Need on Your TBR

1. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

• Genre: Fantasy Romance / New Adult Fantasy
• Publication Date: May 5, 2015
• Pages: 432
• Goodreads Rating: ~4.14/5
• Spice Level: 3/5 🌶️🌶️🌶️

Feyre isn’t an easy character to like at first, and that’s kind of the point. Sarah J. Maas starts this one with a loose Beauty and the Beast setup, then spends the rest of the series proving that first impression wrong.

Chances are you’ve already heard of this one; it’s one of the most talked-about fantasy romance series out there.

By book two, everything shifts, moving from a straightforward love story into something darker, layered with power plays, shifting loyalties, and real emotional weight.

Maas builds tension well, romantic and plot-driven both, which keeps you flipping pages long after you meant to stop.

For readers hunting books like ACOTAR and Fourth Wing in the same breath, this is usually the first name that comes up, and it earns that reputation.

My one caveat: book one is noticeably slower than the rest of the series, so give it a few chapters before deciding.

2. From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout

• Genre: Fantasy Romance / New Adult Fantasy
• Publication Date: March 30, 2020
• Pages: 656
• Goodreads Rating: ~4.24/5
• Spice Level: 4/5 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

I went in expecting another forgettable fantasy romance. That’s not what I got. Poppy has been sheltered her whole life because of a role she never chose, kept quiet, obedient, and untouched.

Underneath that, though, she’s curious, restless, and tougher than anyone gives her credit for. The world stays mysterious early on, and you don’t get every answer right away, which I liked.

It keeps you reading just to understand what’s actually going on. Then Hawke enters as her new guard, and that’s where the real tension starts. It’s not just romance either; court politics, buried secrets, and real danger all build underneath it.

By the end, you can tell it’s setting up something much bigger than one book can hold. Once the pieces start connecting, it only gets wilder from here.

3. The Serpent & the Wings of Night by Carissa Broadbent

• Genre: Fantasy Romance / Vampire Fantasy
• Publication Date: Aug 30, 2022
• Pages: 528
• Goodreads Rating: ~4.38/5
• Spice Level: 4/5 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

No dragons in this one, vampires instead, but the tournament setup runs on the exact same life-or-death stakes.

Oraya is human, raised by Vincent, the vampire king who adopted her after her family was killed. Surviving in a world built for vampires means she’s had to become just as sharp and just as dangerous.

When she enters the Kejari, a brutal tournament where the prize is a single wish from the goddess of death, she’s forced into an uneasy alliance with Raihn, a rival vampire she can’t decide whether to trust.

The enemies-to-lovers pull here is strong, slow-burn, real tension, and a genuine question of loyalty underneath it all.

Training sequences drag a little in the middle, but the tournament trials and the ending more than make up for it. This is one of the books similar to Fourth Wing I recommend most, just dressed in vampire lore instead of dragon-rider lore.

If you’re curious about the romance and steamy moments in Fourth Wing, check out our Fourth Wing Spicy Chapters guide for a chapter-by-chapter breakdown.

4. The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

• Genre: Epic Fantasy / LGBTQ+ Fantasy
• Publication Date: February 26, 2019
• Pages: 880
• Goodreads Rating: ~4.22/5
• Spice Level: 2/5 🌶️🌶️

At over 800 pages, this is the slowest, biggest commitment on this entire list and also one of the most rewarding. Priory is a standalone epic fantasy that reads like an entire trilogy packed into one book.

Different kingdoms, different belief systems, and centuries of dragon lore, both the world-protecting kind and the world-ending kind, all collide as an ancient threat starts stirring again.

You follow a handful of characters from opposite corners of the world, including Ead, a mage secretly guarding Queen Sabran while falling for her, a slow-burn romance that quietly drives a lot of the book’s emotional core.

It takes a while to get going, but once it clicks, it earns every one of those 800 pages.

If you’re building out a book series like Fourth Wing on your shelf with dense world-building and dragons that actually shape the plot, this belongs on it; just don’t expect a quick read.

5. Powerless by Lauren Roberts

• Genre: Young Adult Fantasy / Romantasy
• Publication Date: January 31, 2023
• Pages: 544
• Goodreads Rating: ~4.16/5
• Spice Level: 2/5 🌶️🌶️

This one leans harder into the dystopian side of things, but it still hits that same danger-romance-rebellion combo Fourth Wing fans are chasing.

Paedyn Gray is Ordinary in a kingdom that hunts anyone without powers, and she’s spent her whole life faking abilities just to stay alive.

When she’s mistaken for a hero and thrown into the Purging Trials, a set of deadly competitions built to showcase elite strength, she’s forced to survive right under the nose of Prince Kai, the very person tasked with rooting out people like her.

The tension never lets up, plot or romance. What makes it work is how personal it feels; Paedyn’s wit and grit carry the book, and her chemistry with Kai builds on real risk instead of convenience.

It’s the first in a trilogy, so don’t expect a clean resolution by the last page.

6. The Bridge Kingdom by Danielle L. Jensen

• Genre: Fantasy Romance / New Adult Fantasy
• Publication Date: October 16, 2018
• Pages: 384
• Goodreads Rating: ~4.13/5
• Spice Level: 3/5 🌶️🌶️🌶️

Political tension and slow-burn danger carry this one just as much as they carried Fourth Wing, minus the dragons, plus assassins and spies instead.

Lara is sent to marry King Aren of the Bridge Kingdom under the guise of peace. Her real mission is to destroy him from the inside.

She’s fierce, calculated, and not always easy to like, which is exactly what makes her arc land once duty and desire start pulling her apart.

The enemies-to-lovers dynamic here is sharp and grounded in real consequences, not just tension for its own sake.

Every scene carries weight, not only romantically but also in the constant threat sitting underneath it. For readers chasing books like Fourth Wing for the high-stakes romance and a heroine who earns her growth, this series delivers.

Related- 17 Best Second Chance Romance Books to Read Now

7. These Hollow Vows by Lexi Ryan

• Genre: Young Adult Fantasy / Fae Romance
• Publication Date: July 20, 2021
• Pages: 448
• Goodreads Rating: ~4.11/5
• Spice Level: 2/5 🌶️🌶️

Brie hates the fae and wants nothing to do with them until her sister gets sold to the sadistic Unseelie king to settle a debt.

To get her back, Brie strikes a deal to steal three relics from the rival Seelie court, which means posing as a potential bride for Prince Ronan while secretly working with Finn, an exiled Unseelie fae with his own agenda. Naturally, her feelings for both complicate everything.

The world is rich but easy to step into, and the emotional stakes hit harder than you’d expect from the setup. Brie isn’t a chosen one either; she’s resourceful, makes hard calls, and earns every win the hard way.

It leans more into court politics and fae lore than dragons or magic schools, but if you’re after books like Fourth Wing with romance and real risk attached, this is a strong pick.

8. To Bleed a Crystal Bloom by Sarah A. Parker

• Genre: Dark Fantasy Romance / Gothic Fantasy
• Publication Date: September 24, 2024 (Ace Books edition)
• Pages: 576
• Goodreads Rating: ~4.09/5
• Spice Level: 3/5 🌶️🌶️🌶️

This one trades the danger and dragons for something quieter and more unsettling, a dark retelling of Rapunzel with a lot more teeth.

Orlaith is raised inside a stone tower by Rhordyn, the powerful High Master who saved her as a child and has kept her sheltered ever since.

Every night she offers him a goblet of her own blood, no explanation given, no boundaries explained. As threats close in from outside the castle walls, cracks start forming in the careful world Rhordyn built around her.

The tension between them is slow, charged, and honestly a little uncomfortable at points; there’s a real power imbalance here, and Parker doesn’t rush past it. This isn’t fast-paced or action-heavy.

It takes its time building mood over momentum. If you’re drawn to emotional complexity and dark fairytale energy, it’s worth the read; just know it’s book one of a series.

Also Read- Read These Top 10 Older Woman Younger Man Romance Books

9. Fireborne by Rosaria Munda (The Aurelian Cycle 1)

• Genre: Young Adult Fantasy / Political Fantasy
• Publication Date: October 15, 2019
• Pages: 464
• Goodreads Rating: ~4.18/5
• Spice Level: 1/5 🌶️

Annie and Lee grew up in the same orphanage after a brutal revolution reshaped their world, one that now lets even the lowborn test into the elite class of dragon riders.

Years of training turned their friendship into rivalry, competing for the top spot in the fleet. Then survivors from the old regime resurface, and both of them are forced to choose between loyalty, family, and everything they’ve built.

Romance stays in the background here, which sets it apart from most of this list. This one leans harder into politics, class conflict, and the weight of choosing a side.

If you want books like the Fourth Wing series with sharper political stakes and less romance driving the plot, Fireborne is the pick.

10. Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas (Throne of Glass #1)

• Genre: Young Adult Fantasy / Fantasy Romance
• Publication Date: Aug 2, 2012
• Pages: 432
• Goodreads Rating: ~4.18/5
• Spice Level: 1/5🌶️

Celaena Sardothien is Adarlan’s deadliest assassin, pulled straight out of a labor camp and offered a shot at freedom if she can win the king’s competition and become his personal champion.

She’s paired up with Chaol, the guard captain who doesn’t trust her, and Dorian, the crown prince who can’t quite stay away from her, while competitors around her start turning up dead in ways that go well beyond human.

What starts as a straightforward tournament arc turns into something darker fast: ancient magic, buried secrets, and a threat lurking underneath the castle that’s more dangerous than anyone competing for the crown.

It’s the first book in an eight-book series, so there’s a lot of room to grow, and Maas takes full advantage of it in later installments.

A fierce, morally complicated heroine and a slow-burn love triangle layered over real danger, this is one of the genre’s foundational reads.

11. A Shadow in the Ember by Jennifer L. Armentrout (Flesh and Fire #1)

• Genre: Fantasy Romance / New Adult Fantasy
• Publication Date: October 19, 2021
• Pages: 656
• Goodreads Rating: ~4.37/5
• Spice Level: 4/5 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

Sera has been raised her whole life for one purpose: become the consort to Nyktos, the primal of death, make him fall in love with her, then kill him and end the decay slowly destroying her kingdom.

Trained in secret as an assassin while playing the part of the innocent Maiden, Sera carries a mission she can’t afford to fail, right up until Nyktos starts becoming someone she didn’t expect to feel anything for.

This is a prequel to Armentrout’s From Blood and Ash series, so newcomers can start here, though longtime fans will catch deeper mythology connecting the two.

It’s heavier on world-building and slower to build trust between its leads, but the tension and forbidden pull carry serious weight. If deep lore and high emotional stakes are what you’re after, this delivers both.

12. An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir (An Ember in the Ashes 1)

• Genre: Young Adult Fantasy / Romantic Fantasy
• Publication Date: April 28, 2015
• Pages: 480
• Goodreads Rating: ~4.23/5
• Spice Level: 2/5 🌶️🌶️

No dragons here, but a military academy training students to enforce a brutal empire hits that same institutional pressure Fourth Wing readers know well.

Laia is a Scholar, part of a class the Martial Empire treats as barely human, and when her brother is arrested for treason, she strikes a deal with the resistance to spy from inside Blackcliff, the empire’s most elite military academy.

There, she crosses paths with Elias, the academy’s top soldier and secretly its most reluctant, a man who’s spent years wanting nothing more than to walk away from what he’s being trained to become.

Told from both perspectives, the book splits its tension between Laia’s survival as a spy andThe story splits between Laia’s dangerous mission inside Blackcliff and Elias’s brutal Trials, which determine the next Emperor and Blood Shrike.

It’s darker and grittier than most books on this list, closer to dystopia than romantasy, and the romance stays a slow thread underneath the larger fight for freedom rather than the main event.

It’s the first in a four-book series, and it earns its reputation as one of the genre’s heavier hitters. If political stakes and a military training ground pulled you into Fourth Wing more than the romance did, this delivers that in full.

13. The Awakening by Caroline Peckham & Susanne Valenti (Zodiac Academy #1)

• Genre: Fantasy Romance / Academy Fantasy / Paranormal Romance
• Publication Date: August 28, 2025 (Special Edition)
• Pages: 448
• Goodreads Rating: ~4.21/5
• Spice Level: 3/5 🌶️🌶️🌶️

Twin sisters Tory and Darcy Vega grow up bouncing through foster care, no clue they’re anything but human, until a professor shows up and tells them they’re Fae, and not just any Fae, the long-lost heirs to Solaria’s throne.

Getting to Zodiac Academy means stepping into a world that wants them gone, especially the four Celestial Heirs currently in line for that same throne, who’d rather bully the twins out the door than share it.

This one leans hard into dark academia territory, bullying, chaotic politics, a full cast of magical creatures, and romance that gets messy fast.

The writing is rougher and less polished than Fourth Wing, more indie-fantasy energy than literary fantasy, but the addictive, can’t-put-it-down factor is real.

It’s the first book in the nine-book Zodiac Academy series, although the wider Solaria universe includes several connected series and can be a much longer reading commitment.

14. Spark of the Everflame by Penn Cole (The Kindred’s Curse Saga 1)

• Genre: Fantasy Romance / Romantasy
• Publication Date: June 18, 2024 (Atria paperback edition)
• Pages: 624
• Goodreads Rating: ~4.31/5
• Spice Level: 3/5 🌶️🌶️🌶️

No school setting this time, but the slow-burn intensity will feel familiar fast. Diem Bellator is a mortal healer in a world colonized by the Descended, cruel demigod offspring who rule over her people.

When her mother vanishes and a dangerous secret about Diem’s own past surfaces, she’s pulled straight into the world of descended royalty, watched closely by the dying king’s enigmatic heir, while a rebel alliance tries to recruit her into a brewing civil war.

It’s a slow burn in the truest sense, with political intrigue, forbidden tension, and a heroine who has to earn every bit of trust she gets, no shortcuts.

The romance builds over the full length of the book rather than rushing, and the payoff is part of why this one blew up on BookTok in the first place. It’s book one of a four-book saga, so there’s plenty of story left once you finish.

15. Trial of the Sun Queen by Nisha J. Tuli (Artefacts of Ouranos 1)

• Genre: Fantasy Romance / Romantasy
• Publication Date: November 19, 2024 (Forever paperback edition)
• Pages: 432
• Goodreads Rating: ~4.15/5
• Spice Level: 3/5 🌶️🌶️🌶️

Imagine being ripped from twelve years of imprisonment and thrown into a deadly competition to become the queen of a fae king. That’s the setup for Trial of the Sun Queen.

Lor has spent twelve years enduring torment under the Aurora King. When a sudden twist of fate lands her in the hands of his rival, the Sun King, she’s thrown into the Sun Queen Trials, competing against nine other women for the chance to become his queen.

Win, and she earns her freedom, plus a shot at revenge. The problem is, Lor doesn’t belong there at all, and the other Tributes want her gone by any means necessary.

The trial structure keeps the pacing tight, high stakes, constant betrayal, and enemies-to-lovers tension that builds book after book.

It’s the first in a four-book series, and for readers chasing books like Fourth Wing with a competition format and fae politics layered over the romance, this is a strong finish to the list.

My Top 3 Picks From This List

If you only have time for three, these are the ones I’d point you to first.

1. The Serpent & the Wings of Night — Closest match to Fourth Wing’s addictive pull. The enemies-to-lovers tension and tournament stakes hit almost identically.
2. Fireborne — My pick if you want the political depth Fourth Wing only hinted at. Less romance, more consequence.
3. Trial of the Sun Queen — The one I’d hand to someone who wants pure competition-driven tension without committing to an 800-page epic.

Final Thought-

Fifteen books, and every one of them chases a different piece of what made Fourth Wing impossible to put down. Some bring back the dragons.

Others swap them for vampires, assassins, or fae courts, but keep that same slow-burn tension and a heroine who has to fight for everything she gets.

If I had to pick just one, Fireborne earns it for readers who want the political weight Fourth Wing hinted at but never fully explored. For pure romantic tension, The Serpent & the Wings of Night comes closest to matching that addictive pull.

There’s no single right next read here, just whichever thread pulled you into Fourth Wing in the first place. Chase that, and you’ll land somewhere good.

Already picked your next read from this list? Drop a comment and let us know which one’s going on your TBR first.

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