11 books like Fourth Wing
What Fourth Wing does so well is stack a lethal training ground, a heroine everyone underestimates and a rival who keeps saving her life against his better judgement. These picks take one of those things apiece and run with it, from vampire tournaments to genuine dragon-rider epics.
Updated September 2026
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Deadly trials where the underdog shouldn't survive
The Serpent and the Wings of Night by Carissa Broadbent 2022
A mortal contestant fights her way through a tournament designed to kill her, allied with the one rival she can't read — the setting is a vampire court rather than a war college, and the tone is darker and colder.
Fireborne by Rosaria Munda 2019
Cadets compete for dragon-rider rank in a brutally political academy, with two narrators whose loyalties cut across each other; the romance is a quieter thread here and the revolution politics take the foreground.
Nevernight by Jay Kristoff 2016
A school where failing your lessons means dying, and a heroine whose grudge drives every choice she makes — the prose is far more stylised and the body count considerably higher.
Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao 2021
Pilots bond to enormous war machines in a system that chews through the weak, with a furious heroine at the centre; the anger is much sharper-edged and the romance resolves as a throuple.
Enemies, arranged marriages and sworn rivals
A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas 2015
The cornerstone of the fantasy-romance shelf, with a mortal heroine caught between dangerous fae and a love interest who improves considerably on acquaintance; the pacing is slower to start and there's no military structure to it.
The Bridge Kingdom by Danielle L. Jensen 2018
A trained fighter is married off to the enemy king she was raised to destroy, and the chemistry runs on the same knife-edge as Violet and Xaden's — but the magic is minimal and it's a tighter, more political story.
A Shadow in the Ember by Jennifer L. Armentrout 2021
Brooding immortal love interest, a heroine raised as a weapon, and banter that keeps interrupting the peril; Armentrout's world leans on gods and prophecy instead of academies.
The Cruel Prince by Holly Black 2018
Mutual loathing sharpened into something else entirely, with a mortal girl outmanoeuvring people who could kill her easily; it's chillier, cleverer and not remotely spicy.
Dragons and their riders, taken seriously
Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey 1968
The bonded dragon-and-rider relationship that most modern romantasy is descended from, including the telepathic link Violet and Tairn share; the worldbuilding is science-fictional and the romance reads very much of its era.
Lord of the Fading Lands by C. L. Wilson 2007
A fated bond between a warrior king and a woman nobody thinks is worthy of him, with winged beasts and a war closing in; the emotional register is more courtly and less sweary.
The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon 2019
Dragons on an epic scale, with women carrying the whole weight of the war; it's a standalone doorstop with four viewpoints and a romance that takes its time.
If you also liked…
- A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
- Sarah J. Maas
- Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling
- Percy Jackson by Rick Riordan
- 1984 by George Orwell
Questions
- Is anything here as spicy as Fourth Wing?
- A Shadow in the Ember and A Court of Thorns and Roses are comparable or hotter. The Cruel Prince and Fireborne are essentially closed-door.
- I want dragons specifically — where should I start?
- Fireborne is closest in feel, with cadets competing for riders in a military academy. If you want the bond itself done at length, Dragonflight is where the whole idea comes from.
- Are these standalones or more series commitments?
- Swordheart and The Priory of the Orange Tree can be read alone and finished. The rest are first books in series, though The Bridge Kingdom and The Serpent and the Wings of Night both end at a reasonable resting point.