Best Romantasy Books to Start With
New to Romantasy? These are the best entry points — accessible, highly rated, and not overwhelming.
- 1 Shadow and BoneShadow and Bone #1Leigh Bardugo★★★★★ ★★★★★ 3.97 · 🕯️🕯️🕯️ Serious
Orphan soldier Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Shadow Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life—a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free.
Chosen OneComing of AgeDark Lord - 2 An Ember in the AshesAn Ember in the Ashes #1Sabaa Tahir★★★★★ ★★★★★ 4.22 · 🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️ Dark
Laia is a slave. Elias is a soldier. Neither is free. Under the Martial Empire, defiance is met with death. When Laia's brother is arrested for treason, she must make an unimaginable choice. In a city of mirrors and shadows, two people discover that their fates are entwined.
RebellionComing of AgeForbidden Romance - 3 Divine RivalsRebecca Ross★★★★★ ★★★★★ 4.41 · 🕯️🕯️🕯️ Serious
NO GOD NO CREATURE NO WAR CAN COME BETWEEN THEM The epic new enemies-to-lovers fantasy novel filled with hope and heartbreak from number one SUNDAY TIMES bestseller Rebecca Ross
Enemies to LoversForbidden RomanceWar Between Kingdoms - 4 A River EnchantedRebecca Ross★★★★★ ★★★★★ 4.07 · 🕯️🕯️🕯️ Serious
THE #1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER A sparkling debut fantasy with Celtic tones set on the magical isle of Cadence where two childhood enemies must team up to discover why girls are going missing from their clan. Enchantments run deep on the magical Isle of Cadence. The capricious spirits that live there find mirth in the lives of the humans who call the land home, but that mischief turns to malevolence as girls begin to go missing. Adaira, heiress of the east, knows the spirits only answer to a bard's music, enticing them to return the missing girls. But there's only one bard capable of drawing the spirits forth by song: her childhood enemy, Jack Tamerlaine. He hasn't stepped foot on Cadence in ten long years, content to study music at the Mainland university. But as Jack and Adaira reluctantly work together it becomes apparent the trouble with the spirits is far more sinister than first thought and an older, darker secret lurks beneath the surface, threatening to undo them all. 'An alluring and rich tale, at once a fast-paced mystery and a love story as warm as a hearth' Ava Reid, bestselling author of The Wolf and the Woodsman
Enemies to LoversRivals to AlliesQuest - 5 The Jasad HeirSara Hashem★★★★★ ★★★★★ 4.07 · 🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️ Dark
At ten years old, the Heir of Jasad flees a massacre that takes her entire family. At fifteen, she buries her first body. At twenty, the clock is ticking on Sylvia's third attempt at home. Nizahl's armies have laid waste to Jasad and banned magic across the four remaining kingdoms. Fortunately, Sylvia's magic is as good at playing dead as she is. When the Nizahl Heir tracks a group of Jasadis to Sylvia's village, the quiet life she's crafted unravels. Calculating and cold, Arin's tactical brilliance is surpassed only by his hatred for magic. When a mistake exposes Sylvia's magic, Arin offers her an escape: compete as Nizahl's Champion in the Alcalah tournament and win immunity from persecution. In exchange, Arin will use her as bait to draw out the Jasadis he's hunting. To win the deadly Alcalah, Sylvia must work with Arin to free her trapped magic, all while staying a step ahead of his efforts to uncover her identity. But as the two grow closer, Sylvia realizes winning her freedom as Nizahl's Champion means destroying any chance of reuniting Jasad under her banner. The scorched kingdom is rising again, and Sylvia will have to choose between the life she's earned and the one she left behind.
Lost HeirRevenge StoryLast Of Their Kind - 6 Of Blood and FireThe Bound and the Broken #1Ryan Cahill★★★★★ ★★★★★ 4.37 · 🕯️🕯️🕯️🕯️ Dark
Of Blood and Fire is a classic Epic Fantasy adventure. It takes all the familiar fantasy tropes - elves, dwarves, giants, and dragons - and adds a fresh, contemporary twist.
Coming of AgeChosen OneDragon Rider - 7 Heart of the Sun WarriorThe Celestial Kingdom #2Sue Lynn Tan★★★★★ ★★★★★ 4.19 · 🕯️🕯️🕯️ Serious
After winning her mother’s freedom from the Celestial Emperor, Xingyin thrives in the enchanting tranquility of her home. But her fragile peace is threatened by the discovery of a strange magic on the moon and the unsettling changes in the Celestial Kingdom as the emperor tightens his grip on power. While Xingyin is determined to keep clear of the rising danger, the discovery of a shocking truth spurs her into a perilous confrontation. Forced to flee her home once more, Xingyin and her companions venture to unexplored lands of the Immortal Realm, encountering legendary creatures and shrewd monarchs, beloved friends and bitter adversaries. With alliances shifting quicker than the tides, Xingyin has to overcome past grudges and enmities to forge a new path forward, seeking aid where she never imagined she would. As an unspeakable terror sweeps across the realm, Xingyin must uncover the truth of her heart and claw her way through devastation—to rise against this evil before it destroys everything she holds dear, and the worlds she has grown to love... even if doing so demands the greatest price of all.
Political IntrigueQuestDark Lord - 8 Jade CityThe Green Bone Saga #1Fonda Lee★★★★★ ★★★★★ 4.15 · 🕯️🕯️🕯️ Serious
On the island of Kekon, jade is a magical resource that gives warriors enhanced speed, strength, and perception. Two rival clans—the No Peak and the Mountain—have controlled jade for generations. When a new drug threatens to democratize jade's power, an old feud erupts into all-out war.
Political IntrigueWar Between KingdomsMagical Artifacts - 9 Daughter of the ForestSevenwaters #1Juliet Marillier★★★★★ ★★★★★ 4.19 · 🕯️🕯️🕯️ Serious
Sorcha is the youngest child and only daughter of Lord Colum of Sevenwaters. Her six beloved brothers are bewitched into the forms of swans. To rescue them, Sorcha must complete an impossible task—a task that binds her to silence while she faces exile, captivity, and a forbidden love that could destroy everything.
Cursed CharacterCurse BreakingForbidden Romance - 10 Strange the DreamerStrange the Dreamer #1Laini Taylor★★★★★ ★★★★★ 4.36 · 🕯️🕯️ Mild
The dream chooses the dreamer, not the other way around—and Lazlo Strange, war orphan and junior librarian, has always felt he was meant for another world. When a mythic city appears out of nowhere and a band of legendary warriors arrives to recruit people for a rescue mission, Lazlo must decide how far to follow his dreams.
Chosen OneOutcast HeroQuest - 11 RadianceGrace Draven★★★★★ ★★★★★ 4.20 · 🕯️🕯️🕯️ Serious
The Prince of No Value~Brishen Khaskem, prince of the Kai, has lived content as the nonessential spare heir to a throne secured many times over. A trade and political alliance between the human kingdom of Gaur and the Kai kingdom of Bast-Haradis requires that he marry a Gauri woman to seal the treaty. Always a dutiful son, Brishen agrees to the marriage and discovers his bride is as ugly as he expected and more beautiful than he could have imagined.~The Noblewoman of No Importance~Ildiko, niece of the Gauri king, has always known her only worth to the royal family lay in a strategic marriage. Resigned to her fate, she is horrified to learn that her intended groom isn't just a foreign aristocrat but the younger prince of a people neither familiar nor human. Bound to her new husband, Ildiko will leave behind all she's known to embrace a man shrouded in darkness but with a soul forged by light.Two people brought together by the trappings of duty and politics will discover they are destined for each other, even as the powers of a hostile kingdom scheme to tear them apart.
Political MarriagePolitical IntrigueForbidden Romance