Books Like These Vile Hearts
If you finished These Vile Hearts and want more deals and bargains, curses, enemies to lovers, 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. A Cursed Kiss
Shares: curses, enemies to lovers, 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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2. A Court This Cruel and Lovely
Shares: enemies to lovers, 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
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3. Once Upon a Broken Heart
Shares: deals and bargains, 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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4. A Court of Thorns and Roses
Shares: enemies to lovers, curses, deals and bargains
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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5. Kingdom of the Wicked
Shares: enemies to lovers, 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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6. Serpent & Dove
Shares: enemies to lovers, forbidden love
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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7. These Hollow Vows
Shares: deals and bargains, enemies to lovers
Brie hates the fae, then her little sister gets handed over to the Unseelie to pay a debt. Her way in is posing as a bride for the Seelie prince Ronan while the shadowy Finn works his own angle. Pick a team early, because readers are still arguing.
- Fae
- Love Triangle
- Court Intrigue
- Deals and Bargains
Content warnings
Kidnapping, Graphic violence, Death of a loved one
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8. To Kill a Kingdom
Shares: enemies to lovers, curses, forbidden love
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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9. Voidwalker
Shares: deals and bargains, enemies to lovers, 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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10. 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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11. A Deal with the Elf King
Shares: 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
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12. 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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13. Faebound
Shares: forbidden love, enemies to lovers
Two elven sisters, a disgraced soldier and a fortune teller, get exiled and stumble into the fae everyone said were extinct. The main romance is sapphic.
- Fae
- Forbidden Love
- Enemies to Lovers
- Court Intrigue
Content warnings
War, Graphic violence, Death of a loved one
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14. Heartless Hunter
Shares: enemies to lovers, forbidden love
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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15. Stolen Songbird
Shares: forbidden love, 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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