Best Romantasy Books

The book that made romantasy a household word. Violet Sorrengail enters a war college for dragon riders and gets assigned to work with Xaden Riorson, the son of a rebel her mother executed. Yarros built the tension with craft and patience, and the dragon bonding scenes give the romance an epic backdrop that elevates everything. The sequel Onyx Storm confirmed this as one of the defining fantasy series of the decade.

The book that launched a thousand romantasy careers. Feyre is a mortal huntress who kills a wolf in the forest and ends up in the immortal fae world — and the romance that develops has layers that keep revealing themselves across five books. The second book, A Court of Mist and Fury, is widely considered one of the best fantasy romances ever written. Start here and don't stop.

Poppy is a Maiden destined for the gods, forbidden from being touched or loved, and Hawke is her guard with a secret that changes everything. Armentrout builds the forbidden tension to almost unbearable levels before the plot explodes in directions nobody saw coming. The Blood and Ash series has sold millions of copies and has the most devoted fandom in modern romantasy.

Black pioneered the modern enemies-to-lovers fae romance. Jude is mortal in a world of immortal fae, and Cardan is the prince who makes her life hell — until the power dynamics shift in ways neither of them expected. The Folk of the Air trilogy is sharp, dark, and funny in a way that much romantasy isn't, with a female protagonist who schemes as hard as she loves.

Sicily, 1888. Emilia bargains with a demon prince to find her twin's murderer, and the demon is exactly as dangerous and attractive as advertised. Maniscalco writes historical fantasy with a gothic sensibility that feels distinct from the more standard medieval or fae settings of most romantasy, and the slow-burn tension between Emilia and Wrath is built with exceptional patience across four books.

A fantasy arranged marriage between a human woman and a fae king who is not entirely what he appears. Monster romance and fae romance have exploded in popularity for exactly the reasons this book demonstrates — the power imbalance creates a tension that is simultaneously dangerous and compelling, and watching the relationship develop from distrust to genuine connection is deeply satisfying. For readers who want romantasy with darker edges.

Lara is trained from birth to be a spy, then married off to the enemy king she's supposed to destroy from the inside. Jensen executes the enemies-to-lovers arranged marriage plot with exceptional precision — you know where it's going and you enjoy every step of the journey. The Breaker Queen duology is a perfect tight romantasy with no filler and a genuinely satisfying resolution.

Maas's third series moves romantasy into an urban fantasy setting — a world where humans, fae, angels, shifters, and demons coexist in a modern city, and a half-fae party girl is forced to investigate her best friend's murder. The Crescent City series is Maas at her most adult and most willing to go to dark places, and the central romance takes longer to develop than ACOTAR but hits just as hard.