Still Thinking About Xaden? These 10 Books Like Fourth Wing Know Exactly How You Feel
March 02, 2026
Finished Fourth Wing and can't move on? Discover 10 romantasy books with the same dragons, enemies-to-lovers tension, and high-stakes magic that made Yarros's series unmissable.
You closed the final page of Fourth Wing and just sat there. Maybe you stared at the ceiling. Maybe you immediately turned back to page one. Either way, you know the feeling - that particular kind of literary devastation that only happens when a book has completely taken over your brain and refuses to let go. Rebecca Yarros built something genuinely special with the Empyrean series: a war college where the entrance exam might kill you, dragons with personalities sharp enough to cut glass, a slow-burn enemies-to-lovers romance that had readers screaming at their own hands for turning pages too fast, and a magic system laced with genuine dread. With hundreds of thousands of readers rating it among their favourite reads in recent memory, the book hangover is real, it is widespread, and it is brutal.
The good news is that the romantasy genre is richer than it has ever been, and if Fourth Wing was your entry point, you have landed in the right place. The books below have been chosen because they share the specific cocktail of elements that made Yarros's world so addictive - not just dragons or magic, but the texture of it: the dangerous academic setting, the tension between characters who should not want each other, the found family forged under pressure, the world that feels both thrilling and genuinely threatening. These are not vague genre-alikes. These are the books most likely to scratch exactly that itch.
What Makes Fourth Wing So Addictive?
Enemies to Lovers: Violet and Xaden's relationship is the beating heart of the book - built on mutual wariness, genuine danger, and the slow, agonising realisation that neither of them can stay away
Slow Burn: Yarros makes you wait, and the waiting is the point - every charged glance and loaded conversation earns its emotional payoff
Dark Academic Setting: Basgiath War College is not a school; it is a trial with a body count, and the stakes of every scene feel genuinely life-or-death
Found Family: Violet's wingmates become something more than allies - the bonds forged under pressure are as emotionally compelling as the central romance
Morally Grey Characters: Neither the heroes nor the antagonists are straightforward; the best characters in the book occupy uncomfortable, fascinating middle ground
Dragon Rider Bonds: The relationship between rider and dragon adds an emotional dimension that elevates the book beyond standard fantasy romance
Political Intrigue: The war college is only the surface - beneath it runs a current of secrets, betrayals, and power struggles that deepen with every chapter
Forced Proximity: Shared danger, shared spaces, and no clean exits for anyone - classic romantasy fuel
Strong Female Protagonist: Violet is an underdog who wins on intelligence and tenacity, not inherited power - she earns every inch
10 Books to Read After Fourth Wing
A Court of Thorns and Roses - Sarah J. Maas
If Fourth Wing was your introduction to romantasy, A Court of Thorns and Roses is the series most readers reach for next, and for good reason. Sarah J. Maas's world of fae courts, ancient bargains, and a human woman thrust into a world of impossible beauty and genuine cruelty shares the same addictive DNA as Yarros's war college. Feyre Archeron is hunting in a forest she can barely afford to feed herself from when a single, fateful act drops her into the territory of a High Lord she has every reason to fear. What follows is a slow-burn enemies-to-lovers dynamic stretched across a richly built world that keeps expanding with every instalment.
The enemies to lovers tension between Feyre and the fae she encounters is slower and more layered than Violet and Xaden's dynamic, but no less satisfying - and political intrigue runs through every court and every bargain. The found family that Feyre eventually builds is one of the most beloved in the genre. Readers who finish Fourth Wing hungry for the same combination of danger, desire, and world-building depth will find the ACOTAR series more than delivers. Five books in and the fandom is still growing, with new instalments expected well into 2026 and 2027.
A Court of Thorns and Roses
A Court of Thorns and Roses (ACOTAR) (Book 1)
A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas blends fantasy and romance, following Feyre Archeron as she enters a dangerous fae world filled with magic, curses, and slow-burn love.
The Serpent and the Wings of Night - Carissa Broadbent
This is the one that most reliably cures a Fourth Wing hangover, and readers who have found it tend to say so with considerable feeling. Oraya is a human girl raised in a world ruled by vampires, adopted by the vampire king himself - which makes her simultaneously protected and entirely isolated. When she enters the Kejari, a brutal once-in-a-century tournament where competitors fight to earn a wish from the gods, survival requires her to form an alliance with Raihn, a vampire she has every reason not to trust.
The deadly trials setting will feel immediately familiar to Fourth Wing readers, and the enemies to lovers relationship between Oraya and Raihn is constructed with exceptional care - their mistrust is earned, their eventual closeness is earned, and Broadbent never rushes either. The morally grey characters in the Crowns of Nyaxia series are genuinely complex, and the world-building has a dark, immersive quality that makes it easy to lose hours without noticing. The slow burn is real, the stakes are brutal, and the emotional payoff is worth every page of tension. This is the series that comes up most often when Fourth Wing readers ask what to read next.
The Serpent and the Wings of Night
Crowns of Nyaxia (Book 1)
The Serpent and the Wings of Night by Carissa Broadbent is a dark romantasy of deadly trials, vampiric courts, and slow-burn love where survival demands sacrifice.
From Blood and Ash - Jennifer L. Armentrout
Jennifer L. Armentrout's series has been running alongside and often ahead of the romantasy wave, and From Blood and Ash remains one of the genre's most purely addictive opening instalments. Poppy is a Maiden - a sacred, chosen figure who lives under strict rules of conduct, forbidden from being touched, seen without her veil, or forming connections outside of her role. Hawke is her guard. The tension that develops between them is immediate, loaded, and impossible to ignore.
Armentrout is a master of the slow burn and the forced proximity dynamic, and the world beneath Poppy and Hawke's story contains layers of political intrigue and hidden history that keep unfolding across a series now running to seven books. The morally grey characters here are drawn with considerable skill, and the found family that builds around Poppy across the series is among the most emotionally satisfying in the genre. For readers who responded most strongly to the tension and the romance in Fourth Wing, this series delivers in exactly those areas.
From Blood and Ash
Blood And Ash (Book 1)
From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout is a fantasy romance of prophecy and power, where a sheltered chosen one uncovers dangerous truths—and an even more dangerous love.
Throne of Glass - Sarah J. Maas
Before ACOTAR and long before romantasy became the genre's dominant conversation, Sarah J. Maas began building the world of Throne of Glass - and the series that unfolds across eight books is, by the end, one of the most ambitious and emotionally epic in the genre. Celaena Sardothien is an assassin pulled from a labour camp to compete in a tournament to become the king's champion. She is brilliant, ruthless, frequently hilarious, and carrying wounds that the series takes years to fully excavate.
The early books lean more into the deadly academic setting and competition dynamics that Fourth Wing readers will recognise, and the slow burn romantic threads - there are several, and they are all handled with Maas's characteristic patience - pay off across a timeline that spans years of reading. The political intrigue deepens substantially as the series progresses, and the found family that assembles around the protagonist is, by the final instalment, one of the most beloved in fantasy romance. This is a commitment, but for readers who want the full depth of the romantasy experience, there is nothing quite like it.
The Quicksilver (Fae & Alchemy, #1) - Callie Hart
For readers who loved the combination of a brutal training environment, a lethal male lead, and a slow burn that operates almost entirely through charged silences and tension-filled proximity, Quicksilver is one of the most recommended titles in the post-Fourth Wing landscape. Set in a world of fae and alchemical magic, it follows a young woman who finds herself drawn into a dangerous world alongside a male lead who is - at seven feet of formidable, lethal fae - the kind of character description that explains itself.
The enemies to lovers dynamic is built with care, the forced proximity is structural to the plot, and the morally grey characters include both leads in ways that make the romance feel earned rather than inevitable. The Fae & Alchemy series has grown a dedicated following among Fourth Wing readers specifically because it captures that combination of danger, desire, and slow emotional revelation that Yarros does so well. With a third instalment in the series, there is enough to read now and plenty of anticipation for what comes next.
Quicksilver
by Callie Hart
Fae & Alchemy (Book 1)
Quicksilver by Callie Hart follows Saeris Fane, a half-fae in brutal Ironside, who makes a deal with gang leader Kingfisher to save her kidnapped brother. This dark fantasy romance delivers alchemy magic, enemies-to-lovers tension, and morally grey characters.
Kingdom of the Wicked - Kerri Maniscalco
This is the series for readers whose favourite element of Fourth Wing was the layered, dangerous relationship between the protagonist and a morally ambiguous male lead - and who want that dynamic placed in a world steeped in Sicilian folklore and demonic mythology. Emilia is a young Sicilian woman investigating the murder of her twin sister, drawn into a deal with Wrath, one of the seven Princes of Hell, as the only lead she has.
The enemies to lovers dynamic between Emilia and Wrath is one of the slow-building, thoroughly earned varieties, and Maniscalco gives both characters enough depth that their antagonism feels grounded in genuine character rather than plot requirement. The political intrigue of the demonic courts runs beneath every interaction, and the atmospheric world - gothic, sensory, steeped in the heat and darkness of nineteenth-century Sicily - makes every scene feel richly textured. The morally grey characters here are genuinely morally grey, and the series rewards readers who enjoy watching two people who should be adversaries find, gradually and against their better judgement, that they cannot be.
Kingdom of the Wicked
Kingdom of the Wicked (Book 1)
Kingdom of the Wicked by Kerri Maniscalco follows Emilia, a Sicilian witch whose twin is murdered. She summons demon prince Wrath for vengeance, beginning an enemies-to-lovers romance. This romantasy blends Italian culture, murder mystery, and demon intrigue.
Iron Flame - Rebecca Yarros (The Empyrean, #2)
This belongs on the list because the most common answer to "what should I read after Fourth Wing?" is simply: the next book. Iron Flame picks up immediately where its predecessor left off, and the world Yarros has built expands in every direction - the stakes are higher, the relationships are more complicated, and the revelations about the world of Navarre reframe much of what readers thought they understood. The enemies to lovers dynamic evolves into something harder and more charged, the found family is tested, and the political intrigue reaches a scale that makes Fourth Wing feel, in retrospect, like an extended prologue.
For readers still deep in the Fourth Wing book hangover who have not yet continued the series, this is the first stop. The third instalment, Onyx Storm, is also available, and the Empyrean series is expected to run to five books total.
Iron Flame
The Empyrean (Book 2)
Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros is a high-stakes fantasy sequel where survival, rebellion, and dragon-rider bonds are tested as Violet faces brutal truths and escalating war.
A King of Battle and Blood - Scarlett St. Clair
Isolde is a mortal queen who finds herself bound in marriage to Adrian Aleksandr Vasiliev - a vampire king who rules the most powerful empire in the known world and who has spent centuries being feared, not accommodated. The match is political; the antagonism is genuine; and the enemies to lovers tension that develops between them has the kind of slow, grudging heat that Fourth Wing readers will recognise immediately.
Scarlett St. Clair's Vampire and Witch series leans into forced proximity, morally grey characters, and a romantic dynamic where both parties are strong-willed enough that neither capitulates easily or early. The world has the darkness and the political complexity that makes romantasy satisfying beyond its central romance, and the series has earned a devoted readership among fans of Yarros and Maas. For readers who found Xaden Riorson compelling specifically because he was a threat as much as a love interest, Adrian is the natural next destination.
The Cruel Prince - Holly Black
Holly Black's Folk of the Air series is the one that established much of the template for the morally grey, deeply antagonistic love interests that dominate romantasy today - and it holds up extraordinarily well. Jude Duarte is a mortal girl raised in the fae world, always an outsider, always aware that she is one misstep from erasure. Prince Cardan is beautiful, cruel, and the source of most of her difficulties at the faerie court. The relationship that develops between them is one of the genre's great constructions: antagonistic, escalating, and built on two characters who are more alike than either wants to admit.
The enemies to lovers dynamic here is among the most purely executed in modern fantasy, and the political intrigue of the faerie courts is intricate enough to reward careful reading. The morally grey characters - including Jude herself, who makes choices that complicate easy sympathy - give the series a sharp edge that distinguishes it from softer entries in the genre. Three books, tightly plotted, deeply satisfying.
The Cruel Prince
by Holly Black
The Folk of the Air (Book 1)
The Cruel Prince by Holly Black is a dark fantasy where a mortal girl navigates deadly faerie courts, political intrigue, and dangerous rivalries in a world ruled by cruelty.
When the Moon Hatched - Sarah A. Parker
For readers whose favourite element of Fourth Wing was the dragons - specifically the bond between rider and dragon, the weight of that connection, and the emotional dimension it adds to the story - When the Moon Hatched is the most directly relevant recommendation on this list. Parker's world is built around dragons so enormous they become moons when they die, and the mythology surrounding them is original, detailed, and emotionally resonant in ways that feel entirely distinct from Yarros's Navarre while scratching the same fundamental itch.
The slow burn romance is patient and beautifully constructed, the world has the kind of internal logic and atmospheric density that makes it easy to get completely lost in, and the found family elements give the emotional core of the book real weight. This is the series that most consistently surprises Fourth Wing readers who expected something derivative and found something genuinely its own - a world worth investing in across however many books Parker writes next.
When the Moon Hatched
Moonfall (Book 1)
When the Moon Hatched by Sarah A. Parker is a dark fantasy romance of moon-bound magic, forbidden love, and devastating choices shaped by fate and sacrifice.
Ready to Find Your Next Obsession?
Every book on this list was chosen because it shares the specific texture of what makes Fourth Wing so difficult to recover from: the danger, the longing, the relationships built under pressure, and the worlds that feel real enough to grieve when you have to leave them. If you want to explore the tropes that run through all of them - enemies to lovers, slow burn, found family, morally grey characters, forced proximity - Trope Trove has dedicated pages for each, with further recommendations built around the specific elements that matter most to you.
Your next book hangover is waiting.