Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor book cover

Books Like Daughter of Smoke & Bone

If you finished Daughter of Smoke & Bone and want more forbidden love, demons, found family, start here. Each pick shares at least two tropes with it, and we've rated every one for spice and darkness so you know what you're getting into.

For reference, Daughter of Smoke & Bone is:

Spice 1/5 Darkness 3/5

Last updated

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The picks

  1. 1. City of Bones

    Cassandra Clare · The Mortal Instruments #1 · complete series

    Spice 1/5 Darkness 2/5

    Shares: demons, forbidden love, found family

    Clary watches three teenagers kill something in a New York club that nobody else can see, and that's her introduction to the Shadowhunters, Jace in particular. Snarky and very 2007, and the book's infamous twist fueled a decade of forum fights.

    • Demons
    • Love Triangle
    • Forbidden Love
    • Found Family
    Content warnings

    Graphic violence, Murder, Kidnapping

  2. 2. Daughter of No Worlds

    Carissa Broadbent · War of Lost Hearts #1 · complete series

    Spice 3/5 Darkness 3/5

    Shares: forbidden love, found family

    A former slave with a talent for magic gets recruited into an order of warriors. Broadbent before Nyaxia, and the slow burn here is properly slow.

    • Slow Burn
    • Forbidden Love
    • Found Family
    • Deadly Trials
    Content warnings

    Physical or emotional abuse, Graphic violence, War

  3. 3. House of Earth and Blood

    Sarah J. Maas · Crescent City #1

    Spice 3/5 Darkness 3/5

    Shares: demons, found family

    Urban fantasy Maas: phones, clubs, angels and a half-fae party girl hunting whoever killed her best friend. The first 200 pages are a slog and the last 200 are a sprint.

    • Fae
    • Demons
    • Morally Gray
    • Slow Burn
    Content warnings

    Graphic violence, Gore, Murder, Drug or alcohol abuse, Death of a loved one

  4. 4. The Darkest Part of the Forest

    Holly Black · standalone

    Spice 0/5 Darkness 2/5

    Shares: found family, forbidden love

    In Fairfold, tourists come to gawk at a horned boy asleep in a glass coffin in the woods. Then Hazel finds the coffin smashed and empty. Two romances, one of them queer, and a brother-sister story that hits just as hard.

    • Fae
    • Curses
    • Found Family
    • Forbidden Love
    Content warnings

    Graphic violence, Physical or emotional abuse

  5. 5. The Wretched Divine

    Adalyn Grace · The Wretched Divine #1

    Spice 2/5 Darkness 4/5

    Shares: demons, forbidden love

    Grace's adult debut: a knight bonded to an angel has to team up with a demon to find a cure. Way darker than Belladonna and a bit overstuffed, but the emotional core is the most complicated thing she's written.

    • Demons
    • Forbidden Love
    • Enemies to Lovers
    • Morally Gray
    Content warnings

    Graphic violence, Death of a loved one

  6. 6. Clockwork Angel

    Cassandra Clare · The Infernal Devices #1 · complete series

    Spice 0/5 Darkness 2/5

    Shares: demons, found family, forbidden love

    Tessa sails to Victorian London to find her brother and gets taken by the Dark Sisters, who force her to learn she can shapeshift. The London Institute's Shadowhunters pull her out, and Will and Jem become the love triangle Clare fans cry about most.

    • Demons
    • Love Triangle
    • Found Family
    • Forbidden Love
    Content warnings

    Kidnapping, Death of a loved one, Graphic violence, Drug or alcohol abuse

  7. 7. The Last King of Faerie

    Cassandra Clare · The Wicked Powers #1

    Spice 1/5 Darkness 2/5

    Shares: forbidden love, found family

    Dru Blackthorn gets kidnapped from a nightclub and held prisoner in Faerie by Ash Morgenstern, while Kit and Ty have to stop sulking at each other long enough to go on a quest. The start of the last Shadowhunters trilogy. YA heat, out November 3.

    • Fae
    • Captor and Captive
    • Forbidden Love
    • Found Family
    Content warnings

    Kidnapping, Graphic violence

  8. 8. This Savage Song

    V.E. Schwab · Monsters of Verity #1 · complete series

    Spice 0/5 Darkness 3/5

    Shares: demons, found family

    In Verity, violence literally breeds monsters. Kate wants to be as ruthless as her father, who runs half the city, and August is a monster who'd rather be human. No romance to speak of. YA and the best of Schwab's books for teens.

    • Demons
    • Found Family
    • Morally Gray
    Content warnings

    Murder, Suicide or suicidal thoughts, Graphic violence, Physical or emotional abuse

  9. 9. Vampire Academy

    Richelle Mead · Vampire Academy #1 · complete series

    Spice 1/5 Darkness 2/5

    Shares: forbidden love, found family

    Rose is a half-vampire bodyguard in training, and her best friend Lissa is a Moroi royal. They get dragged back to St. Vladimir's after two years on the run, and her mentor Dimitri is extremely off limits. Mean girls, compulsion and blood, all very 2007.

    • Vampires
    • Academies and War Colleges
    • Forbidden Love
    • Found Family
    Content warnings

    Self-harm, Dubious or non-consent, Graphic violence

  10. 10. A Tempest of Tea

    Hafsah Faizal · Blood and Tea #1 · complete series

    Spice 0/5 Darkness 2/5

    Shares: found family, forbidden love

    Arthie runs a tearoom by day and a blood bar for vampires by night, and saving it means pulling off a heist with a crew of misfits. Her history with Jin simmers in the background. Ornate prose and a slow first act.

    • Vampires
    • Found Family
    • Forbidden Love
    • Morally Gray
    Content warnings

    Graphic violence, Murder

  11. 11. Assistant to the Villain

    Hannah Nicole Maehrer · Assistant to the Villain #1

    Spice 1/5 Darkness 1/5

    Shares: forbidden love, found family

    Evie needs a job, and the Villain needs an assistant who won't flinch at heads on spikes. It started as the author's TikTok skits and reads like it: an office comedy that's goofy, cozy and not remotely dark despite the title.

    • Villain Gets the Girl
    • Slow Burn
    • Forbidden Love
    • Found Family
    Content warnings

    Graphic violence

  12. 12. Between Two Fires

    Christopher Buehlman · standalone

    Spice 1/5 Darkness 5/5

    Shares: demons, found family

    France, 1348. The plague is killing everyone, and a disgraced knight ends up protecting an orphan girl who says angels speak to her. Fallen angels are making war on the world and the imagery is straight out of a medieval nightmare. Proper horror.

    • Demons
    • Grimdark
    • Found Family
    • Gods and Mythology
    Content warnings

    Gore, Graphic violence, Death of a loved one, Sexual assault, Harm to children

  13. 13. The Warded Man

    Peter V. Brett · The Demon Cycle #1 · complete series

    Spice 2/5 Darkness 4/5

    Shares: demons, found family

    Every night demons rise from the ground, and people survive behind magic wards. Arlen watches his mother die because his father froze, and decides he'll fight back. Great first half. The handling of sexual violence in the back half is a common complaint.

    • Demons
    • Found Family
    • Morally Gray
    • Revenge
    Content warnings

    Sexual assault, Graphic violence, Death of a loved one, Physical or emotional abuse

  14. 14. Phantasma

    Kaylie Smith · Wicked Games #1

    Spice 4/5 Darkness 3/5

    Shares: demons, forbidden love

    Ophelia Grimm is a necromancer with a cruel voice in her head who enters the Prince of the Devils' deadly game, where only one player wins a wish. Caraval meets a haunted manor, with a lot more heat. The cover did plenty of the selling on BookTok.

    • Deadly Trials
    • Deals and Bargains
    • Demons
    • Forbidden Love
    Content warnings

    Death of a loved one, Suicide or suicidal thoughts, Graphic violence

  15. 15. Wicked

    Jennifer L. Armentrout · Wicked #1 · complete series

    Spice 3/5 Darkness 2/5

    Shares: forbidden love, found family

    Ivy Morgan hunts fae in the French Quarter, and the Order's new transfer Ren Owens is way too charming to trust. New Orleans urban fantasy with classic Armentrout banter, lighter than Blood and Ash and more fun about it.

    • Fae
    • Forbidden Love
    • Slow Burn
    • Touch Her and Die
    Content warnings

    Graphic violence, Murder, Death of a loved one

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