Books Like The Wrath and the Dawn
If you finished The Wrath and the Dawn and want more fairy tale retellings, enemies to lovers, arranged marriage, 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. Six Crimson Cranes
Shares: fairy tale retellings, curses, arranged marriage
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
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2. To Kill a Kingdom
Shares: enemies to lovers, fairy tale retellings, curses
Lira is a siren who takes a prince's heart every year on her birthday. Elian is a prince who hunts sirens. Her mother curses her into a human body and sends her after him anyway. The Little Mermaid with knives, in one fast standalone.
- Enemies to Lovers
- Fairy Tale Retellings
- Curses
- Forbidden Love
Content warnings
Murder, Graphic violence, Physical or emotional abuse
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3. A Court of Thorns and Roses
Shares: enemies to lovers, 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
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4. Stolen Songbird
Shares: arranged marriage, curses
Cécile is kidnapped and dragged under the Forsaken Mountain to marry Tristan, a troll prince whose people are cursed to stay buried there. These trolls are beautiful and vicious, closer to fae than fairy tale ogres. The rebellion subplot is the sleeper hit.
- Captor and Captive
- Arranged Marriage
- Forbidden Love
- Court Intrigue
Content warnings
Kidnapping, Physical or emotional abuse, Graphic violence
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5. 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
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6. A Cursed Kiss
Shares: curses, enemies to lovers
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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7. For the Wolf
Shares: fairy tale retellings, curses
Red, the queen's second daughter, is sent into the Wilderwood as a sacrifice to the Wolf and finds a grumpy Warden named Eammon bleeding into the trees to keep them back. Red Riding Hood meets Beauty and the Beast with forest horror. Slow and tender.
- Fairy Tale Retellings
- Curses
- Forced Proximity
- Slow Burn
Content warnings
Gore, Graphic violence
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8. Gilded
Shares: fairy tale retellings, curses
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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9. Heartless
Shares: fairy tale retellings, 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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10. Hunted
Shares: fairy tale retellings, 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
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11. Kingdom of the Wicked
Shares: enemies to lovers, revenge
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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12. Serpent & Dove
Shares: arranged marriage, enemies to lovers
A witch on the run ends up married to a witch hunter. It's exactly as chaotic as it sounds, with a dark streak that shows up in the back half.
- Witches
- Arranged Marriage
- Enemies to Lovers
- Forbidden Love
Content warnings
Graphic violence, Murder, Physical or emotional abuse
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13. The Hollow Kingdom
Shares: arranged marriage, fairy tale retellings
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
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14. These Vile Hearts
Shares: curses, enemies to lovers
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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15. Wildwood Dancing
Shares: 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
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