Books Like Phantasma
If you finished Phantasma and want more deadly trials, deals and bargains, demons, 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, Phantasma is:
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The picks
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1. Caraval
Shares: deadly trials, deals and bargains, forbidden love
Scarlett finally gets her invitation to Caraval, a magical week-long game, and her sister vanishes the night they arrive. Julian the sailor is her very unreliable partner. Dreamy and purple, and you won't know what's real, which is either the point or the problem.
- Deadly Trials
- Deals and Bargains
- Morally Gray
- Forbidden Love
Content warnings
Physical or emotional abuse, Kidnapping
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2. Voidwalker
Shares: deals and bargains, forbidden love
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
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3. A Court of Thorns and Roses
Shares: deals and bargains, deadly trials
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
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4. A Touch of Darkness
Shares: deals and bargains, 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
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5. Daughter of No Worlds
Shares: forbidden love, deadly trials
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. A Witch's Guide to Fake Dating a Demon
Shares: demons, deals and bargains
Mariel botches a spell and summons Ozroth, a grumpy demon who's stuck with her until she agrees to a bargain. She refuses. So they fake date to annoy her mother instead. Small-town cozy fantasy with much more open-door heat than the cover lets on.
- Demons
- Witches
- Deals and Bargains
- Forced Proximity
Content warnings
Physical or emotional abuse
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7. Neon Gods
Shares: deals and bargains, forbidden love
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
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8. Daughter of Smoke & Bone
Shares: forbidden love, demons
Karou is a blue-haired art student in Prague whose foster father is a monster, literally, and whose errands go through doors that open anywhere. Then an angel shows up and the doors start burning. The back half turns into a long flashback, and that's where the heartbreak is.
- Forbidden Love
- Demons
- Found Family
Content warnings
War, Genocide, Graphic violence, Death of a loved one
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9. Kingdom of the Wicked
Shares: demons, deals and bargains
Sicilian witch summons a prince of hell to find out who killed her twin. Wrath is the best part, and the spice goes up a lot in book two.
- Witches
- Demons
- Enemies to Lovers
- Revenge
Content warnings
Murder, Gore, Death of a loved one
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10. The Wretched Divine
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
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11. These Vile Hearts
Shares: deals and bargains, forbidden love
Maddox is type 1 diabetic, just lost her job and her insurance, and makes a deal with a dryad queen: kill the Redwood King and get cured. Then she mistakes his cursed brother Castor for him. Funny, angry about real healthcare, and a very good debut.
- Deals and Bargains
- Curses
- Enemies to Lovers
- Forbidden Love
Content warnings
Murder
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12. Wintersong
Shares: deals and bargains, forbidden love
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
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13. City of Bones
Shares: demons, forbidden love
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
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14. Legendborn
Shares: demons, deadly trials
Bree joins an early college program at UNC after her mom dies and stumbles into a secret society of Arthurian descendants who hunt demons. Grief drives the whole thing, and the way it digs into Southern history sets it apart from every other King Arthur book.
- Demons
- Dark Academia
- Deadly Trials
- Love Triangle
Content warnings
Death of a loved one, Graphic violence, Murder
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15. Once Upon a Broken Heart
Shares: deals and bargains, forbidden love
Evangeline Fox makes a deal with Jacks, the Prince of Hearts, to stop the wedding of the boy she loves. The price is three kisses, collected whenever he likes. Sugary fairy-tale prose with a hero who is absolutely not a hero.
- Deals and Bargains
- Curses
- Morally Gray
- Forbidden Love
Content warnings
Murder, Death of a loved one
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