Books Like Fourth Wing

Why Each Pick

Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros

The direct sequel, picking up right after Fourth Wing ends. Violet returns to Basgiath for her second year under new leadership set on breaking her, and the world finally widens beyond the college walls. It is longer, at 640 pages, with even harsher training and more relationship arguments in the middle. The content level is the same: explicit scenes, torture and violence. The series continues with Onyx Storm, published in 2025.

Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros

The third Empyrean book, for readers who have finished Iron Flame. Violet and her fellow riders leave Basgiath behind to look for allies beyond Navarre's borders, so the series finally becomes a journey story with a much bigger map. It keeps the same dragons, the same Violet-and-Xaden tension and the same content level: explicit scenes and plenty of violence. It only makes sense after the first two books.

An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

The closest match to Basgiath. Laia, a Scholar, goes undercover as a slave inside Blackcliff, a brutal military academy in a Rome-inspired empire, while Elias, one of its best soldiers, wants out. Like Fourth Wing, it pairs deadly trials with an attraction across enemy lines, told in two voices. It is YA with no explicit scenes, but the violence is harsh and includes threats of sexual violence. It opens a completed four-book series.

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

The other giant of the romantasy boom. Feyre, a human huntress, is taken into the faerie lands as payment for killing a wolf and finds a court under a curse. It is adult and explicit like Fourth Wing, with a heroine everyone underestimates, but it starts much slower: a Beauty and the Beast-style slow burn in an enchanted manor before a deadly run of trials at the end. The series widens considerably from the second book.

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

For a lethal heroine fighting through a deadly contest. Assassin Celaena Sardothien is pulled out of a salt mine to compete for the title of King's Champion while something dark stirs in the castle. It shares Fourth Wing's trials, danger and romance, and it is by Sarah J. Maas, author of ACOTAR. The early books are YA and much tamer; the eight-book series, including a prequel collection, turns more adult as it goes.

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

For the enemies-to-lovers tension. Jude, a mortal raised in the High Court of Faerie after her parents' murder, wants to belong among the fae who despise her, and Prince Cardan makes her life miserable. Where Violet earns her place by surviving training, Jude does it by scheming, so the plot runs on court politics and bargains rather than battles. It is YA and much tamer in heat, and the first book of a completed trilogy.

Divergent by Veronica Roth

For the train-or-be-cut arc. In a future Chicago split into factions, Beatrice Prior joins the fearless Dauntless, whose initiation is a ranked, violent contest where falling behind means being thrown out. Like Violet, she is underestimated and hiding a dangerous secret. It is YA science fiction rather than fantasy, with no dragons and a much tamer romance, and it opens a trilogy at 487 pages.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

The deadly-competition story that much of this genre builds on. Katniss volunteers to take her sister's place in a televised fight to the death, and survival depends on reading both the arena and the politics behind it. It is YA dystopian science fiction, shorter at 374 pages, with a love triangle instead of explicit romance and a sharper political edge. It opens a trilogy, with prequels published later.

A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

For war, betrayal and dragons on a much bigger canvas. Noble families fight for the Iron Throne while an old threat stirs in the frozen north, and dragons figure in the realm's history and its politics. It is adult epic fantasy told by many narrators, darker and slower than Fourth Wing, with romance as a side thread. Content note: explicit sex and heavy violence. The series is unfinished.