Read Next · Updated June 2026
Feyre and Rhysand set a bar most books never reach, which is exactly why the post-ACOTAR hangover is so brutal. These are the lush, court-driven romantasy reads that come closest: slow burns that turn scorching, bargains with a price, and worlds you will not want to leave. Every pick is rated on the 1-5 chilli scale.
by Jennifer L. Armentrout · Blood and Ash #1
The single most-recommended ACOTAR read-alike. A chosen maiden forbidden to be touched, the golden guard sworn to protect her, and a love interest who rivals Rhysand for swagger. It only gets spicier from book one on.
by Sarah J. Maas · Crescent City #1
More Maas, a fresh flavour: a modern-fantasy city, a half-fae party girl, a brooding fallen angel, and a mystery that wrecks you. The slowest of slow burns with the payoff ACOTAR fans live for.
by Carissa Broadbent · Crowns of Nyaxia #1
Vampire courts instead of fae, but the DNA is pure ACOTAR: a sumptuous dark world, a deadly trial, and a slow-burn enemies romance between a human and the rival she cannot stop circling.
by Kerri Maniscalco · Kingdom of the Wicked #1
A witch hunting her twin's killer strikes a bargain with a wickedly handsome prince of Hell. Sicilian-gothic atmosphere and a deal-with-the-devil romance built on exactly the bargain trope ACOTAR readers adore.
by Laura Thalassa · The Bargainer #1
A fae bargainer who appears each time the heroine calls his name, collecting favours across years and stealing her heart along the way. Dark, dreamy, and bargain-driven, it has long been whispered to share ACOTAR's bones.
by Danielle L. Jensen · Saga of the Unfated #1
Norse mythology, a fated bond, and a heroine whose power makes her a weapon every faction wants. The court politics and slow-burn devotion scratch the ACOTAR itch from a colder, sharper angle.
by Sarah J. Maas · Throne of Glass #1
To live in Maas's wider world a while longer: an assassin-heroine epic that starts lighter on spice and builds into sweeping romance and devastating stakes across eight books.
Stop reading about other people's slow burns and step into your own. Play a choose-your-own-adventure romantasy where every choice shapes the plot and the romance, or write your own spicy book boyfriend from scratch and bring him to life.
From Blood and Ash is the most-recommended next read, followed by The Serpent and the Wings of Night. Both deliver the lush world, slow-burn romance, and spice ACOTAR fans are chasing.
Many readers do. House of Earth and Blood (Crescent City) and Throne of Glass are set in connected worlds and scratch the same itch, so finishing Maas's catalogue is a natural step before branching out.
From Blood and Ash, House of Earth and Blood, and The Serpent and the Wings of Night all land around a 4. Kingdom of the Wicked, Rhapsodic, and Throne of Glass sit closer to a 3.
It is the standard romance-reader heat scale, from 1 (sweet, closed-door) to 5 (very explicit, open-door). It rates only how steamy the on-page romance gets, so you can match a book to your taste before you start.
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