Books Like A Court of Thorns and Roses: 9 Fae Romantasy Series to Binge
Fae bargains, fated mates and court intrigue for readers who have re-read Prythian one too many times.
There is a particular kind of reader who walks into our shop, and we recognise them instantly: they have just finished A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas (possibly for the third time) and nothing else feels right. It is easy to see why. Feyre kills a wolf in the winter woods, is dragged into the faerie lands of Prythian as the price, and what starts as a Beauty and the Beast retelling swells into something far bigger: warring courts, bargains with teeth, a fated mate bond argued about in book clubs to this day, and the rare series that gets better as it goes.
The good news is that the ACOTAR itch is really several itches: the fae bargain, the mate bond, the court politics, the villain-shaped love interest, the sheer binge-ability of a long series. The nine books below each nail at least two of those, and between them they should keep you fed until Maas writes the next one.
What to read after A Court of Thorns and Roses
Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
The obvious first stop, and still the right one. A teenage assassin is pulled out of a death camp to compete for her freedom as the king's champion, and what looks like a simple tournament fantasy compounds over eight books into something enormous. Maas pulls the same trick she pulls with ACOTAR, quietly raising the stakes and deepening the romance until you look up and realise you have cancelled a weekend. Persevere past the first book; the series rewards it tenfold.
Find Throne of Glass at Ever After Books
From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout
Poppy is the Maiden: veiled, untouchable, promised to the gods, and thoroughly sick of it. Enter Hawke, a guard with a smirk and an agenda. This is the series most often pressed into ACOTAR readers' hands for a reason: forbidden romance, a world that is not what it seems, a twist that redraws the whole map, and considerably more spice. Long enough to binge properly, too.
Find From Blood and Ash at Ever After Books
Kingdom of the Wicked by Kerri Maniscalco
A witch in a Sicilian kitchen summons Wrath, one of the princes of Hell, to help hunt her twin sister's killer. Deals with a devil, simmering enemies-to-lovers tension and lush Italian food writing make this the pick for readers whose favourite ACOTAR flavour is the dangerous bargain. It starts YA-adjacent and matures with its heroine across the trilogy.
Find Kingdom of the Wicked at Ever After Books
These Hollow Vows by Lexi Ryan
A thief who despises the fae must steal from the Unseelie court to save her sister, and finds herself tangled between two brothers and several very bad bargains. Of everything on this list, it is the closest premise echo: mortal girl, faerie courts, deals that cost more than they seem, and a romance where trusting the wrong person is genuinely on the table.
Find These Hollow Vows at Ever After Books
A Deal with the Elf King by Elise Kova
Every generation, a human girl is taken across the veil to wed the Elf King and keep both worlds alive, and this time it is Luella, a herbalist who never wanted to leave home. This is the cosy end of the ACOTAR spectrum: Beauty and the Beast bones, a marriage-of-necessity that thaws beautifully, and a complete romance in a single volume when you cannot face committing to another five-book saga.
Find A Deal with the Elf King at Ever After Books
For the Wolf by Hannah Whitten
Second daughters belong to the Wolf, so Red walks into the Wilderwood expecting to die, and instead finds a cursed man holding a failing forest together with his own blood. Sacrificial bride, monster who is not the real monster, creeping sentient woods: it is ACOTAR's first act stretched into a whole, darker duology, with a romance built on shared burden rather than instant sparks.
Find For the Wolf at Ever After Books
Uprooted by Naomi Novik
Every ten years the wizard called the Dragon takes a village girl to his tower, and everyone assumes he will take beautiful Kasia, not clumsy, stubborn Agnieszka. Novik writes like a folktale told by firelight, the malevolent Wood is one of fantasy's great villains, and the prickly student-and-teacher romance smoulders in the margins. A standalone, and one of those books we replace on the shelf constantly because staff keep recommending it.
Find Uprooted at Ever After Books
The Wrath and the Dawn by Renée Ahdieh
The boy-king takes a new bride each night and has her executed at dawn, until Shahrzad volunteers, planning to survive long enough to kill him for what he did to her best friend. A One Thousand and One Nights retelling dripping with atmosphere, where revenge curdles into something far more complicated. For ACOTAR readers, the pull is the same: falling for the monster and then learning why the monster exists.
Find The Wrath and the Dawn at Ever After Books
Radiance by Grace Draven
A human noblewoman and a Kai prince are married off for politics, and each privately finds the other completely alien: he thinks she looks like a corpse, she thinks he has too many teeth. What follows is one of the warmest arranged-marriage romances in fantasy, built on jokes, kindness and slowly discovering that your assigned spouse is your favourite person. If the mate bond is your trope, this is the earned, adult version of it.
Find Radiance at Ever After Books
Keep the streak going
When you have burned through these, ask What Should I Read Next? for a match made to measure, pin the tempting ones to your TBR list, and wander the rest of our Fantasy collection, where the fae are always up to something.