Fall of Ruin and Wrath by Jennifer L. Armentrout book cover

Books Like Fall of Ruin and Wrath

If you finished Fall of Ruin and Wrath and want more forbidden love, possessive hero, morally gray, 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, Fall of Ruin and Wrath is:

Spice 4/5 Darkness 3/5

Last updated

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The picks

  1. 1. From Blood and Ash

    Jennifer L. Armentrout · Blood and Ash #1

    Spice 4/5 Darkness 3/5

    Shares: forbidden love, morally gray, possessive hero

    Poppy is the Maiden, veiled and untouchable, and her new guard Hawke is far too interested in her. Very talky, very horny, and the twist lands if you don't see it coming.

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

    Graphic violence, Murder, Physical or emotional abuse, Kidnapping

  2. 2. A Fate Inked in Blood

    Danielle L. Jensen · Saga of the Unfated #1

    Spice 3/5 Darkness 3/5

    Shares: forbidden love, court intrigue, morally gray

    Viking romantasy. Freya is a shield maiden with a prophecy on her head and a jarl's son who is very much not her husband. Feels like Vikings meets a political chess game.

    • Gods and Mythology
    • Slow Burn
    • Forbidden Love
    • Court Intrigue
    Content warnings

    War, Graphic violence, Physical or emotional abuse

  3. 3. Ravenous

    Kresley Cole · Immortals Untold #1

    Spice 4/5 Darkness 3/5

    Shares: forbidden love, morally gray

    Cole kicks off a new arc set in her Immortals After Dark world, with rival supernatural factions in the Skein and enemies who absolutely should not be sleeping together. It's a fresh starting point, so you don't need twenty backlist books first.

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

    Graphic violence, Murder

  4. 4. Voidwalker

    S.A. MacLean · Beasts of the Void #1

    Spice 4/5 Darkness 3/5

    Shares: forbidden love, morally gray

    Fi is a smuggler who can walk the Void between worlds, and a job gone wrong drops her in front of Antal, an antlered daeyari lord whose species eats humans. He'll spare her if she helps him find whoever attacked his city. Predator and prey, with claws and tails and a lot of heat.

    • Deals and Bargains
    • Enemies to Lovers
    • Forbidden Love
    • Morally Gray
    Content warnings

    Graphic violence, Gore, Murder

  5. 5. A Touch of Darkness

    Scarlett St. Clair · Hades x Persephone Saga #1

    Spice 4/5 Darkness 2/5

    Shares: possessive hero, forbidden love

    Persephone bets with the god of the dead and loses. Hades and Persephone in modern day, with all the jealousy that comes with it. A comfort read for a lot of fans.

    • Gods and Mythology
    • Deals and Bargains
    • Possessive Hero
    • Forbidden Love
    Content warnings

    Graphic violence, Murder

  6. 6. Hush, Hush

    Becca Fitzpatrick · Hush, Hush #1 · complete series

    Spice 1/5 Darkness 2/5

    Shares: forbidden love, possessive hero, morally gray

    Nora's new lab partner Patch is a fallen angel, though she doesn't know that yet, and he's frankly a creep about it. This was the dark paranormal YA boyfriend of 2009. It hasn't aged well, and lots of readers still remember it fondly.

    • Forbidden Love
    • Possessive Hero
    • Morally Gray
    • Stalker Romance
    Content warnings

    Stalking, Murder, Graphic violence

  7. 7. Kushiel's Dart

    Jacqueline Carey · Kushiel's Legacy #1 · complete series

    Spice 4/5 Darkness 4/5

    Shares: court intrigue, morally gray

    Phèdre is a courtesan and spy who finds pleasure in pain, sold into a world of political betrayal. Dense and long, with real kink, and it was doing romantasy 20 years before the word existed.

    • Court Intrigue
    • Gods and Mythology
    • Morally Gray
    • Slow Burn
    Content warnings

    Dubious or non-consent, Torture, Sexual assault, War, Graphic violence

  8. 8. Spark of the Everflame

    Penn Cole · Kindred's Curse Saga #1 · complete series

    Spice 3/5 Darkness 3/5

    Shares: forbidden love, court intrigue

    Diem is a mortal healer in a kingdom run by the Descended, godlike rulers who treat humans as disposable. Her mother disappears, a rebellion wants her, and a Descended prince named Luther keeps showing up. A self-published hit that got a big reissue, and the series is finally finished.

    • Gods and Mythology
    • Forbidden Love
    • Court Intrigue
    • Love Triangle
    Content warnings

    Graphic violence, Murder, Death of a loved one

  9. 9. The Stolen Heir

    Holly Black · The Stolen Heir #1 · complete series

    Spice 0/5 Darkness 3/5

    Shares: court intrigue, morally gray, forbidden love

    Suren, the runaway child queen of the Court of Teeth, has been living feral in the New England woods when Prince Oak turns up asking for help on a quest. Set after The Folk of the Air, sadder than Jude's books, and Oak is far more slippery than he looks.

    • Fae
    • Court Intrigue
    • Morally Gray
    • Forbidden Love
    Content warnings

    Physical or emotional abuse, Graphic violence, Murder

  10. 10. The Veiled Kingdom

    Holly Renee · The Veiled Kingdom #1 · complete series

    Spice 4/5 Darkness 2/5

    Shares: forbidden love, court intrigue

    Nyra has spent her whole life hiding that she's really Verena, the lost fae princess of Marmoris, and Dacre, the man she can't stop wanting, has no idea. Fast and very spicy, light on worldbuilding. That's either the appeal or the problem.

    • Fae
    • Enemies to Lovers
    • Forbidden Love
    • Forced Proximity
    Content warnings

    Graphic violence, Murder, Death of a loved one

  11. 11. When the Moon Hatched

    Sarah A. Parker · Moonfall #1

    Spice 4/5 Darkness 4/5

    Shares: possessive hero, morally gray

    An assassin with a huge chip on her shoulder, a sky-king with a dragon and a lot of history between them. Huge, purple-prosed and divisive. People either love it or bounce off hard.

    • Dragons
    • Fated Mates
    • Possessive Hero
    • Morally Gray
    Content warnings

    Graphic violence, Torture, Physical or emotional abuse, Kidnapping

  12. 12. Faebound

    Saara El-Arifi · Faebound #1 · complete series

    Spice 2/5 Darkness 3/5

    Shares: forbidden love, court intrigue

    Two elven sisters, a disgraced soldier and a fortune teller, get exiled and stumble into the fae everyone said were extinct. The main romance is sapphic.

    • Fae
    • Forbidden Love
    • Enemies to Lovers
    • Court Intrigue
    Content warnings

    War, Graphic violence, Death of a loved one

  13. 13. Neon Gods

    Katee Robert · Dark Olympus #1

    Spice 5/5 Darkness 2/5

    Shares: forbidden love, possessive hero

    Hades and Persephone in a modern city run by the Thirteen. She runs away from a forced engagement to Zeus and makes a deal with the one man nobody crosses. Quick and very steamy.

    • Gods and Mythology
    • Deals and Bargains
    • Forbidden Love
    • Possessive Hero
    Content warnings

    Physical or emotional abuse, Graphic violence

  14. 14. Rhapsodic

    Laura Thalassa · The Bargainer #1 · complete series

    Spice 2/5 Darkness 3/5

    Shares: possessive hero, morally gray

    Callypso is a siren with a wrist full of black beads, each one a favor she owes Des, the Bargainer. Seven years after he vanished, he shows up to start collecting. The flashback chapters are heavy, and the burn is slower than the cover suggests.

    • Deals and Bargains
    • Fae
    • Slow Burn
    • Possessive Hero
    Content warnings

    Sexual assault, Harm to children, Physical or emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Graphic violence

  15. 15. This Monster of Mine

    Shalini Abeysekara · This Monster of Mine #1 · complete series

    Spice 3/5 Darkness 4/5

    Shares: morally gray, court intrigue

    A legal thriller in a Rome-inspired city. Four years after someone threw Sarai from a tower, she's back as a Petitor who can hear lies, assigned to Tetrarch Kadra, the feared judge whose voice sounds exactly like her attacker's. She works with him by day and plots against him by night.

    • Enemies to Lovers
    • Revenge
    • Morally Gray
    • Court Intrigue
    Content warnings

    Graphic violence, Torture, Murder, Physical or emotional abuse

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