Read Next · Updated June 2026
Poppy and Hawke ruined you for ordinary love interests, and the forbidden-guardian, sworn-to-protect-her tension is hard to find again. These are the romantasy reads that come closest: arrogant immortal heroes, slow-burn betrayal, and heat that climbs as the series goes. Each one is rated on the 1-5 chilli scale.
by Jennifer L. Armentrout · Blood and Ash #2
Keep going first: book two is where the series turns notably spicier and the betrayal from book one detonates. The obvious next read before you branch out to anything else.
by Sarah J. Maas · ACOTAR #1
The other pillar of modern romantasy and the most common Blood and Ash crossover. Slower to ignite than Poppy and Hawke, but the world and the romance pay it all back by book two.
by Carissa Broadbent · Crowns of Nyaxia #1
Arrogant, magnetic vampire love interests cut from the same cloth as Casteel, a lethal trial, and a slow-burn enemies romance in a sumptuous dark court. A near-perfect read-alike.
by Melissa K. Roehrich
Passed around constantly as the Blood and Ash hangover cure. A heroine bound to a brutal court, arrogant fae males, hidden power, and an enemies-to-lovers burn that brings the heat.
by Sarah J. Maas · Crescent City #1
If you love the banter and slow-burn devotion of Poppy and Hawke, Bryce and Hunt deliver it in a neon modern-fantasy city wrapped around a gut-punch mystery.
by Danielle L. Jensen · The Bridge Kingdom #1
Lower on spice, high on the betrayal-and-loyalty tension that defines Blood and Ash: a warrior princess married into enemy territory as a spy, falling for the king she was sent to ruin.
by Rebecca Yarros · The Empyrean #1
The romantasy juggernaut nearly everyone reads alongside Blood and Ash. Dragons, a deadly war college, and a banter-heavy enemies-to-lovers romance with serious spice.
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.
Finish Poppy and Casteel's arc first (A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire onward), then The Serpent and the Wings of Night and ACOTAR are the most-recommended next series for that same forbidden, spicy, court-intrigue feel.
From Blood and Ash sits around a 4 and climbs to a 5 in later books. The Serpent and the Wings of Night, Lady of Darkness, ACOTAR, and Fourth Wing all land near a 4.
They are the two most cross-recommended authors in romantasy. Armentrout tends to bring the heat sooner, Maas builds a slower burn across more books. Most readers of one end up devouring the other.
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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