Books Like Gilded
If you finished Gilded and want more fairy tale retellings, curses, deals and bargains, 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, Gilded is:
Last updated
We may earn a commission when you buy through links on this page. It doesn't change what we recommend. How we make money.
The picks
-
1. Wintersong
Shares: fae, deals and bargains, captor and captive
Liesl trades herself to the Goblin King to get her sister back from the Underground, and the bargain turns into a marriage. Labyrinth for grown-ups, with music at its heart. Lush and moody, though some readers feel the second half drifts.
- Fae
- Deals and Bargains
- Captor and Captive
- Forbidden Love
Content warnings
Kidnapping, Death of a loved one
-
2. Hunted
Shares: fairy tale retellings, captor and captive, curses
Yeva, a huntress in a snowy Russian-style kingdom, tracks the Beast that killed her father and ends up his prisoner, being trained to hunt for him. Beauty and the Beast with folktales, a bow and a heroine who hates the ballroom.
- Fairy Tale Retellings
- Captor and Captive
- Curses
- Slow Burn
Content warnings
Kidnapping, Animal death, Death of a loved one
-
3. The Hollow Kingdom
Shares: captor and captive, fairy tale retellings, deals and bargains
Kate and her sister move to Hallow Hill, and Marak, the six-fingered goblin king, decides Kate is going to be his bride. Older YA and oddly sweet, the original goblin-husband book for a lot of readers. Marak is genuinely ugly and somehow it works.
- Captor and Captive
- Arranged Marriage
- Fairy Tale Retellings
- Deals and Bargains
Content warnings
Kidnapping
-
4. Wildwood Dancing
Shares: fae, fairy tale retellings, curses
Every full moon Jena and her sisters slip through a portal in their Transylvanian castle to dance with the folk of the Other Kingdom. Twelve Dancing Princesses with a dash of the Frog Prince, and Gogu the frog steals the show.
- Fae
- Fairy Tale Retellings
- Curses
- Forbidden Love
Content warnings
Physical or emotional abuse, Death of a loved one
-
5. A Court of Thorns and Roses
Shares: fae, fairy tale retellings, curses
Beauty and the Beast with fae and a lot more blood. The first half is slow and the second half under the mountain is why everyone kept going. Book two is where it gets good, honestly.
- Fae
- Enemies to Lovers
- Fairy Tale Retellings
- Curses
Content warnings
Graphic violence, Torture, Murder, Dubious or non-consent
-
6. The Sweetest Fiend
Shares: fairy tale retellings, fae, captor and captive
Pied Piper retelling. The Piper clears a plague from her city and takes 130 people as payment, her included. The first half is plague and survival, the back half gets very explicit, and it ends mid-fall.
- Fairy Tale Retellings
- Fae
- Captor and Captive
- Deals and Bargains
Content warnings
Kidnapping, Graphic violence
-
7. A Court This Cruel and Lovely
Shares: fae, deals and bargains, curses
Prisca has hidden her magic her whole life. Then a fae prince turns up who needs exactly that, with a curse sitting in the middle of it. Clear ACOTAR comp and a fine one to read next.
- Fae
- Enemies to Lovers
- Deals and Bargains
- Forced Proximity
Content warnings
Graphic violence, Physical or emotional abuse
-
8. A Curse So Dark and Lonely
Shares: fairy tale retellings, curses
Harper, a girl from DC with cerebral palsy, gets snatched into Prince Rhen's cursed kingdom, where every autumn ends with him turning into a monster. The quiet guard commander Grey steals the whole book. Clean YA, more about duty than kissing.
- Fairy Tale Retellings
- Curses
- Forced Proximity
- Slow Burn
Content warnings
Graphic violence, Kidnapping, Murder, Death of a loved one
-
9. A Deal with the Elf King
Shares: fae, deals and bargains, curses
A village healer gets claimed as the elf king's bride. Softer than most on this site, but it's a full fae-bargain story in one book.
- Fae
- Arranged Marriage
- Deals and Bargains
- Curses
Content warnings
Death of a loved one
-
10. Ash
Shares: fairy tale retellings, fae
Cinderella with a fairy named Sidhean who wants to take Ash away forever, and the King's Huntress Kaisa, who teaches her to love the woods again. A quiet, lyrical sapphic retelling where the fae are cold and the human is warm.
- Fairy Tale Retellings
- Fae
- Forbidden Love
- Slow Burn
Content warnings
Physical or emotional abuse, Death of a loved one
-
11. Six Crimson Cranes
Shares: fairy tale retellings, curses
Princess Shiori's stepmother turns her six brothers into cranes and curses her so that every word she speaks kills one of them. The Six Swans through East Asian folklore, plus the betrothed she tried to ditch. Gentle YA with real heart.
- Fairy Tale Retellings
- Curses
- Arranged Marriage
- Slow Burn
Content warnings
Death of a loved one, Graphic violence
-
12. The Darkest Part of the Forest
Shares: fae, curses
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
-
13. An Enchantment of Ravens
Shares: fae, curses
Isobel paints portraits for fae patrons who pay in enchantments. She paints human sorrow into the eyes of Rook, the autumn prince, and he hauls her off to stand trial for it. Short and pretty, a little thin on romance, but the fae are genuinely uncanny.
- Fae
- Forbidden Love
- Forced Proximity
- Curses
Content warnings
Graphic violence
-
14. Bonded by Thorns
Shares: fae, fairy tale retellings, curses
Beauty and the Beast, except there are four fae beasts and nobody has to choose. Cozier than most here, but steamy.
- Fae
- Why Choose
- Fairy Tale Retellings
- Curses
Content warnings
Physical or emotional abuse, Graphic violence
-
15. Curse of the Wolf King
Shares: fae, fairy tale retellings, curses
Beauty and the Beast with a bookworm who'd rather be a spy. Gemma Bellefleur needs King Elliot's curse broken so she can buy her freedom, and he needs someone to fall for him before it kills him. Funny, cozy, a good palate cleanser between dark reads.
- Fae
- Fairy Tale Retellings
- Curses
- Forced Proximity
Content warnings
Graphic violence
Read more than just Gilded? Tap everything you've loved and we'll build a reading list around all of it, not just this one book.