Books like A Court of Thorns and Roses
by Sarah J. Maas · 2013
Updated June 2026
Book data: Open Library · Taste signals: BookTaste model
🌹 A Court of Thorns and Roses is a romantasy novel set in a deadly, seductive world of immortal fae, where mortal huntress Feyre is dragged into a court of beauty and ancient magic after killing a wolf in the woods. Fans are hooked by the slow-burn enemies-to-lovers tension, lush world-building, and a romance that escalates from hostility to obsession. The series gets progressively darker and more explicit, leaning hard into court intrigue, high-stakes sacrifice, and deeply flawed, magnetic characters. If you loved the intoxicating pull of forbidden desire wrapped in dangerous fae politics, these picks were chosen for you.
Picked by taste overlap — not popularity alone.
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A Court of Mist and Fury
Sarah J. Maas · 2016
🌿 Romantasy💔 Enemies-to-Lovers✨ Fae World✨ The direct sequel to ACOTAR, A Court of Mist and Fury is widely considered the peak of the series — a devastating enemies-to-lovers slow burn set deep in fae court politics with an entirely new, morally complex love interest.
- Matches
- direct sequel same world · enemies-to-lovers slow burn · fae court intrigue
- Differs
- much darker emotional tone · new primary romance · longer, more complex plot
- Skip if
- Skip if you want to explore outside the ACOTAR universe first — this is the next book in the same series.
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●●● strong · ●●○ medium · ●○○ light · ○○○ none
Solid = this book · dashed = A Court of Thorns and Roses
From Blood and Ash
Jennifer L. Armentrout · 2020
🌿 Romantasy💔 Enemies-to-Lovers🔥 Slow Burn🔥 Forbidden romance between a Chosen maiden and her ruthless guard drives this romantasy with the same slow-burn tension and dangerous, secretive world that ACOTAR fans crave.
- Matches
- forbidden enemies-to-lovers romance · dangerous mysterious hero · slow burn tension
- Differs
- less fae, more gods and myths · grittier and more explicit · different magic system
- Skip if
- Skip if you dislike very explicit romance scenes — this series gets significantly more graphic than ACOTAR.
Solid = this book · dashed = A Court of Thorns and Roses
The Cruel Prince
Holly Black · 2018
✨ Fae World💔 Enemies-to-Lovers🏰 Court Intrigue🏰 Holly Black's fae courts are the blueprint for ACOTAR's world — The Cruel Prince delivers mortal-in-a-deadly-fae-court tension and an intoxicating enemies-to-lovers dynamic with biting political scheming.
- Matches
- mortal in fae court · enemies-to-lovers · dangerous fae politics
- Differs
- YA, less explicit romance · shorter and faster paced · protagonist is more cunning than fierce
- Skip if
- Skip if you need adult-level romance heat — this is YA and the romance is slower and less central.
Solid = this book · dashed = A Court of Thorns and Roses
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Taste radar — read from the themes shared across A Court of Thorns and Roses and the picks below
Strongest taste signals: 🌿 Romantasy · 💔 Enemies-to-Lovers · ✨ Fae World
How taste signals are generated
BookTaste's model reads the themes, moods, settings, and reader hooks of the base book, then scores every pick across those same axes — what overlaps, what diverges. Ordered by taste fit, not by popularity.
Kingdom of the Wicked
Kerri Maniscalco · 2020
💔 Enemies-to-Lovers🔥 Slow Burn🌑 Dark Themes🌑 A Sicilian girl summons a dangerously seductive demon prince to avenge her twin's murder — same morally grey, magnetic anti-hero energy and slow-burn forbidden romance that defines the ACOTAR experience.
- Matches
- dangerous supernatural love interest · slow burn forbidden romance · dark atmospheric world
- Differs
- Victorian Sicily setting, not high fantasy · murder mystery plot structure · no fae or courts
- Skip if
- Skip if you need a fully immersive secondary world fantasy — this is historical fiction with demons, not epic world-building.
Solid = this book · dashed = A Court of Thorns and Roses
Throne of Glass
Sarah J. Maas · 2012
🌿 Romantasy🏰 Court Intrigue📖 Series Depth⚔️ Sarah J. Maas's other beloved series starts with an assassin in a deadly royal court — if you love Maas's voice and world-building style, this is the natural companion series with similar romantic tension and high-stakes politics.
- Matches
- same author same voice · deadly royal court politics · strong heroine with love triangle
- Differs
- more action, less romance focus early on · no fae until later books · longer series commitment
- Skip if
- Skip if you specifically want the fae world and explicit romance from the start — the early Throne of Glass books are more YA action-fantasy.
Solid = this book · dashed = A Court of Thorns and Roses
An Ember in the Ashes
Sabaa Tahir · 2015
💔 Enemies-to-Lovers🔥 Slow Burn🌑 Dark Themes🌑 A forbidden romance between a slave and a soldier in a brutal Roman-inspired empire delivers the same electric tension, danger, and slow-burn yearning of ACOTAR with genuinely brutal stakes and gorgeous prose.
- Matches
- forbidden slow burn romance · dangerous oppressive world · morally complex characters
- Differs
- no magic or fae, Roman-inspired setting · dual POV structure · more political resistance themes
- Skip if
- Skip if you need fantastical magic and fae creatures — this is a gritty military empire with minimal supernatural elements.
Solid = this book · dashed = A Court of Thorns and Roses
Frequently asked
- What makes a book similar to A Court of Thorns and Roses?
- The key ingredients are enemies-to-lovers romance with serious tension, a dangerous non-human love interest (fae, demon, or similarly powerful), and a richly built world with political stakes. The best ACOTAR reads also have a heroine who starts out of her depth but grows into her power — the emotional push-pull is as important as the fantasy setting. 🌹
- Are there books like ACOTAR that are less explicit?
- Absolutely — The Cruel Prince by Holly Black hits the same fae court and enemies-to-lovers beats at a YA level with much less explicit content. An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir also has intense slow-burn romance without graphic scenes. Both deliver the forbidden tension without the heat level of the later ACOTAR books.
- What should I read after finishing the whole ACOTAR series?
- From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout is the most-recommended next step — it has the same forbidden romance intensity and addictive slow burn in a different mythology. After that, Crescent City by Sarah J. Maas scratches the same itch and even crosses over with ACOTAR characters. 🔥
- Is there a book like ACOTAR but with a darker, more adult tone?
- Yes — Kingdom of the Wicked by Kerri Maniscalco leans into darker themes with a morally ambiguous demon hero, and the atmosphere is gothic and gritty throughout. If you want to stay in high fantasy, A Court of Mist and Fury (book two in the ACOTAR series) is significantly darker and more emotionally complex than the first book and is where the series truly hits adult territory. 🌑
Book data and covers from Open Library. Picks and taste signals are generated by BookTaste's taste model.