Books Like Stolen Songbird
If you finished Stolen Songbird and want more captor and captive, arranged marriage, forbidden love, 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.
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The picks
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1. The Bridge Kingdom
Shares: arranged marriage, court intrigue
Raised to be a spy, married off to the enemy king she's supposed to destroy. Tight and fast. Great if you like your heroine competent and in over her head.
- Arranged Marriage
- Enemies to Lovers
- Assassins
- Court Intrigue
Content warnings
Graphic violence, War, Physical or emotional abuse
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2. Red Queen
Shares: court intrigue, forbidden love, arranged marriage
Silver blood rules and red blood serves, and Mare is a Red with a power she shouldn't have. The king hides her in plain sight by betrothing her to his younger son. Peak 2015 YA: two princes, an arena and a twist people still argue about.
- Court Intrigue
- Love Triangle
- Forbidden Love
- Arranged Marriage
Content warnings
Graphic violence, Murder, War
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3. An Enchantment of Ravens
Shares: forbidden love, 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
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4. Heartless Hunter
Shares: forbidden love, court intrigue
A witch rescuing other witches from the gallows fake-dates the hunter tracking her down. Both are lying about everything. Twisty and quick.
- Witches
- Enemies to Lovers
- Forbidden Love
- Court Intrigue
Content warnings
Graphic violence, Murder, Death of a loved one
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5. Lightlark
Shares: curses, court intrigue
Every hundred years the island of Lightlark appears for the Centennial, a deadly game where six rulers fight to break their curses. Isla, the Wildling ruler, is hiding more than most. The TikTok hype was enormous and the reviews are split. Read it for the twists, not the prose.
- Deadly Trials
- Curses
- Love Triangle
- Court Intrigue
Content warnings
Murder, Graphic violence
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6. Once Upon a Broken Heart
Shares: curses, 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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7. Seraphina
Shares: forbidden love, court intrigue
In Goredd, dragons can fold themselves into human shape, and the treaty keeping the peace is barely holding. Seraphina is a court musician hiding exactly what she is. The romance with Prince Lucian is slow and sweet, and the prose is gorgeous if you don't mind a gentle pace.
- Dragons
- Forbidden Love
- Court Intrigue
- Slow Burn
Content warnings
Murder, Physical or emotional abuse
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8. The Last King of Faerie
Shares: captor and captive, forbidden love
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
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9. The Wrath and the Dawn
Shares: arranged marriage, curses
The caliph of Khorasan takes a new bride every night and kills her at dawn. Shahrzad volunteers to avenge her best friend and keeps herself alive with stories. A Thousand and One Nights retelling with slow enemies to lovers and gorgeous food and clothes.
- Fairy Tale Retellings
- Enemies to Lovers
- Arranged Marriage
- Curses
Content warnings
Murder, Death of a loved one, Suicide or suicidal thoughts
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10. Wicked Lovely
Shares: forbidden love, curses
Aislinn can see faeries and survives by never letting them know. Then Keenan, the Summer King, decides she's the girl who'll break his curse and simply will not leave her alone. One of the original YA fae books, and Seth is still the better boyfriend.
- Fae
- Love Triangle
- Forbidden Love
- Curses
Content warnings
Stalking, Physical or emotional abuse
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11. A Cursed Kiss
Shares: curses, forbidden love
Keelynn's sister died from a Gancanagh's cursed kiss, so she teams up with a witch and the half-fae Tadhg to bring her back. Irish folklore all the way down. There's a lot of miscommunication, but Tadhg carries it.
- Fae
- Curses
- Enemies to Lovers
- Morally Gray
Content warnings
Death of a loved one, Murder, Graphic violence
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12. A Feather So Black
Shares: forbidden love, court intrigue
Fern is a changeling who never fit at the human court that raised her, and the Otherworld is calling her back. Built on Irish myth with a love story that should not happen. Gorgeous prose, and a pace you have to be in the mood for.
- Fae
- Forbidden Love
- Slow Burn
- Court Intrigue
Content warnings
Graphic violence, Death of a loved one
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13. Bride of the Shadow King
Shares: arranged marriage, court intrigue
The shunned princess nobody notices gets picked as the Shadow King's bride instead of her golden sister, and goes off to a fae kingdom that may not want her either. More yearning than heat, and very soft-hearted for a book with this title.
- Fae
- Arranged Marriage
- Slow Burn
- Court Intrigue
Content warnings
Graphic violence, War
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14. Gilded
Shares: curses, captor and captive
Rumpelstiltskin from the miller's daughter's side. Serilda's tall tales catch the Erlking's attention, he locks her in his haunted castle to spin straw into gold, and a ghost boy named Gild does it for her. Long and slow in the middle, but the Wild Hunt is properly creepy.
- Fairy Tale Retellings
- Curses
- Deals and Bargains
- Captor and Captive
Content warnings
Kidnapping, Murder, Death of a loved one, Physical or emotional abuse
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15. Heartless
Shares: forbidden love, arranged marriage
Before she was the Queen of Hearts, Cath just wanted to open a bakery and dodge a proposal from the King of Hearts. Then the court joker Jest shows up. You know how it has to end and Meyer makes you hope anyway. That ending hurts.
- Fairy Tale Retellings
- Forbidden Love
- Arranged Marriage
Content warnings
Death of a loved one, Murder
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