Books Like Lady of Darkness
If you finished Lady of Darkness and want more assassins, fae, slow burn, 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, Lady of Darkness is:
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The picks
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1. House of Earth and Blood
Shares: fae, morally gray, slow burn
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
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2. Gild
Shares: fae, slow burn, morally gray
Auren is King Midas's gilded favorite, living in an actual birdcage and calling it love. Then raiders grab her on the road and a fae commander named Rip becomes her problem. Gild is slow and mostly setup. Glint is where the series takes off.
- Captor and Captive
- Fae
- Slow Burn
- Morally Gray
Content warnings
Sexual assault, Human trafficking, Physical or emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Murder
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3. Darkfever
Shares: fae, morally gray, slow burn
Mac goes to Dublin to find out who killed her sister and finds out she can see the fae. They're nothing like the stories. The romance with Barrons takes several books and gets very dark. This was dark fae before dark fae was a shelf.
- Fae
- Morally Gray
- Slow Burn
- Possessive Hero
Content warnings
Murder, Graphic violence, Death of a loved one
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4. Fortuna Sworn
Shares: fae, morally gray
Fortuna is a Nightmare who can see the fears of anyone she touches, and when her brother goes missing she ends up a prisoner of the Unseelie Court. Getting out costs her something very fae. Bleak, messy, and the love interest debate is half the fun.
- Fae
- Captor and Captive
- Deals and Bargains
- Morally Gray
Content warnings
Physical or emotional abuse, Torture, Kidnapping, Human trafficking, Graphic violence
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5. Daughter of No Worlds
Shares: slow burn, 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
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6. Kushiel's Dart
Shares: morally gray, slow burn
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
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7. Losing Wendy
Shares: fae, slow burn
Peter Pan retold as a mystery, with Wendy Darling, winged fae, mating marks and something killing in Neverland. Enemies to lovers on a very slow fuse. Darker than the premise sounds, and not everyone liked where it takes Wendy.
- Fairy Tale Retellings
- Fae
- Fated Mates
- Enemies to Lovers
Content warnings
Murder, Graphic violence
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8. Quicksilver
Shares: fae, morally gray, slow burn
Saeris is a thief who touches the wrong thing and gets hauled into the fae realm by a very rude fae warrior. Long, crude in a fun way and properly spicy once it gets there.
- Fae
- Enemies to Lovers
- Forced Proximity
- Morally Gray
Content warnings
Graphic violence, Gore, Murder
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9. A Broken Blade
Shares: assassins, fae, slow burn
Keera is the King's Blade, a half-fae spy who drinks to forget what she's done for a human king. Hunting a rebel called the Shadow drags her back toward the fae lands she abandoned. Indigenous-inspired and slower than the hype. Readers rate the first two books highest.
- Assassins
- Fae
- Court Intrigue
- Enemies to Lovers
Content warnings
Self-harm, Suicide or suicidal thoughts, Drug or alcohol abuse, Murder, Sexual assault
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10. One Dark Window
Shares: morally gray, slow burn
There's a monster living in Elspeth's head, and it talks. Gothic, foggy, strange in the best way. Feels like a dark fairy tale someone forgot to tame.
- Curses
- Morally Gray
- Forbidden Love
- Slow Burn
Content warnings
Graphic violence, Death of a loved one, Murder
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11. Rhapsodic
Shares: fae, slow burn, 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
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12. Wicked
Shares: fae, slow burn, 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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13. The Cruel Prince
Shares: fae, morally gray
A mortal girl raised in Faerie after the man who murdered her parents adopted her. Jude wants power, Cardan wants her gone, and nobody in this court is nice. No spice, all knives.
- Fae
- Enemies to Lovers
- Court Intrigue
- Morally Gray
Content warnings
Graphic violence, Murder, Physical or emotional abuse, Death of a loved one
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14. The Grey Bastards
Shares: found family, morally gray
Half-orcs riding war hogs patrol the badlands like a biker gang, and Jackal thinks his chief has gone soft. Crude, violent and a lot of fun if you can handle the language. The other two books in the trilogy are better.
- Found Family
- Morally Gray
- Grimdark
Content warnings
Graphic violence, Sexual assault, Gore, Murder
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15. The Stolen Heir
Shares: fae, morally gray
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
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