Book list · 16 books
The Best Romantasy Books, From Gateway Reads to Spicy
Romance plus fantasy, from low-spice gateway reads to the books everyone whispers about. Here are 16 romantasy books in order of spice, with tropes, a spice rating and content notes for each one.
By Melanie Juarez
1 min read · Updated Oct 2026
The short answer
New to romantasy? Start with Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross: magic letters, rival reporters and almost no spice. Ready for more heat? Fourth Wing and A Court of Thorns and Roses are the two most people read next, and Quicksilver is where things get properly spicy.
Quick picks
Best first romantasyDivine Rivals · Rebecca Ross
The one everyone reads nextFourth Wing · Rebecca Yarros
When you want it spicyQuicksilver · Callie Hart
Romantasy is exactly what it sounds like: a fantasy world with a love story at the center, not off to the side. The magic, the wars and the scheming courts matter, but the book lives or dies on whether you want those two people together. (Curious how we choose books you can't see yet? Here's how a blind date with a book works.)
Because romantasy runs from clean YA to very explicit, we've ordered this list by spice: gateway reads first, the steamy end last. Every book has our spice rating, its main tropes and content notes. If you'd rather keep the fantasy and skip the kissing, our fantasy blind date is the better fit.
The full list
Evie Sage needs a job to support her family. The one she lands is assistant to the most feared villain in the kingdom. An office romance where the office has a dungeon.
If you liked: Divine Rivals, Heartless Hunter
Content notes
Violence, mostly played for laughs.
Iris Winnow types letters to her brother at the front and slips them under her wardrobe door. Someone writes back. Meanwhile, her rival at the newspaper, Roman Kitt, is making her life difficult.
If you liked: The Cruel Prince, Uprooted
Content notes
War, grief, a parent's alcoholism.
Jude is a mortal girl raised in the High Court of Faerie. She wants a place there badly enough to fight for it, and Prince Cardan, the cruelest of them all, wants her gone.
If you liked: Powerless, Kingdom of the Wicked
Content notes
Violence, murder, bullying.
Can't decide?
Let us pick your next romantasy
Pick romantasy and we'll hand-pick a brand-new book, wrap it so you can't peek, and tuck in snacks, stickers and a bookmark. You can rule out themes you'd rather skip before we choose.
In a kingdom where people without powers are hunted, Paedyn Gray survives by faking mind reading. Then she saves a prince's life and gets thrown into the Purging Trials.
If you liked: The Cruel Prince, Fourth Wing
Content notes
Violence, death.
Rune Winters is a socialite by day and, by night, the Crimson Moth, who rescues witches. Gideon Sharpe, a witch hunter, starts courting her, and neither of them is honest about why.
If you liked: Assistant to the Villain, Kingdom of the Wicked
Content notes
Violence, executions.
Every ten years a wizard called the Dragon takes one young woman from the valley to his tower. Everyone, including Agnieszka, is sure he'll choose her best friend.
If you liked: Divine Rivals
Content notes
Violence, body horror, an attempted sexual assault.
When her twin sister is murdered, Emilia does the one thing every witch is warned against: she summons a prince of Hell, Wrath, to help her find the killer.
If you liked: The Cruel Prince, Heartless Hunter
Content notes
Murder, grief, violence.
Feyre kills a wolf in the woods to feed her family. A beast-like faerie comes to collect the debt and takes her across the wall into the land of the fae.
If you liked: Fourth Wing, From Blood and Ash
Content notes
Violence, death, explicit sex.
Violet Sorrengail trained to be a scribe. Her mother, the commanding general, sends her to the dragon riders' war college instead, where cadets die every week and one of them has good reason to want her dead.
If you liked: Powerless, The Serpent and the Wings of Night
Content notes
Violence, death, graphic injury, explicit sex.
Oraya is the human daughter of the vampire king, in a world built to eat her. To change that, she enters a tournament held by the goddess of death and needs a dangerous rival on her side.
If you liked: Fourth Wing, A Court of Thorns and Roses
Content notes
Violence, gore, death, explicit sex.
Half-fae Bryce Quinlan is still wrecked by a murder two years ago when the killings start again. She's made to team up with Hunt Athalar, a fallen angel bound to the city's archangels, to find out who.
If you liked: A Court of Thorns and Roses
Content notes
Violence, grief, drug use, explicit sex.
Princess Lara has trained since childhood for one job: marry the king of the Bridge Kingdom, find its weaknesses and hand them to her father. Then she meets the king.
If you liked: From Blood and Ash, The Serpent and the Wings of Night
Content notes
Violence, a harsh childhood, explicit sex.
Poppy is the Maiden, chosen by the gods, veiled and forbidden to be touched. Then Hawke, a guard with golden eyes, is sworn to protect her, and he does not make it easy to behave.
If you liked: A Court of Thorns and Roses, The Bridge Kingdom
Content notes
Violence, gore, abuse by a guardian, explicit sex.
Misery Lark is a vampire sent to marry Lowe Moreland, the Alpha of the werewolves, to keep a shaky peace between their kinds. Each of them was raised to hate the other.
If you liked: From Blood and Ash, A Touch of Darkness
Content notes
Violence, explicit sex.
Persephone, goddess of spring, is a journalism student in New Athens. One card game with Hades later, she's bound by a contract: make life grow in the Underworld or lose her freedom.
If you liked: Bride, Quicksilver
Content notes
Explicit sex, violence.
Saeris Fane survives as a thief in a desert city where water is rationed. One very bad night later she's in the land of the fae, stuck with Kingfisher, a warrior with no patience for her.
If you liked: A Court of Thorns and Roses, A Touch of Darkness
Content notes
Violence, gore, explicit sex.
Where to start
Want low spice? Read Divine Rivals, The Cruel Prince or Assistant to the Villain first. If you want a big world with more heat, go to A Court of Thorns and Roses, Fourth Wing or The Serpent and the Wings of Night. Save From Blood and Ash, Bride, A Touch of Darkness and Quicksilver for when you know you want spice on the page.
How we rate spice
Our spice rating is our own editorial call, from 1 (closed door) to 5 (very explicit). It measures what's on the page, not how dark or violent the story is. A lot of romantasy is low on spice and high on stabbing.
Questions readers ask
What is a romantasy book?
What's a good first romantasy book?
Which romantasy books are the spiciest?
How do you rate spice?
Are the content notes complete?
Can't decide?
Let us pick your next romantasy
Pick romantasy and we'll hand-pick a brand-new book, wrap it so you can't peek, and tuck in snacks, stickers and a bookmark. You can rule out themes you'd rather skip before we choose.
About the author
Melanie Juarez
Co-founder, Blindly
Melanie is Blindly's co-founder and resident bookmom. She reads every reader's quiz answers and hand-picks each blind date herself, from the family-run Blindly home in California. Nothing makes her happier than matching someone with their next favorite read.
Read Melanie's story →
