Books Like When the Moon Hatched
If you finished When the Moon Hatched and want more dragons, fated mates, possessive hero, 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, When the Moon Hatched is:
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The picks
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1. Fourth Wing
Shares: dragons
Violet is fragile and was supposed to be a scribe. Instead she's at a war college where cadets push each other off parapets and the dragons pick who lives. Fast, bingeable and meaner than the cover suggests.
- Dragons
- Academies and War Colleges
- Enemies to Lovers
- Forced Proximity
Content warnings
Graphic violence, Murder, War, Death of a loved one
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2. Fortuna Sworn
Shares: captor and captive, 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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3. Gild
Shares: captor and captive, 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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4. Darkfever
Shares: morally gray, possessive hero
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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5. Fire in His Blood
Shares: dragons, captor and captive, possessive hero
After the dragons came back and wrecked the world, Claudia is scraping by for her family when she ends up tangled with Kael, a dragon shifter. Ruby Dixon doing what she does: a little bit sexy, a lot cute, and very low stress for a post-apocalypse.
- Dragons
- Captor and Captive
- Possessive Hero
- Forced Proximity
Content warnings
Kidnapping, Graphic violence
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6. From Blood and Ash
Shares: morally gray, possessive hero
Poppy is the Maiden, veiled and untouchable, and her new guard Hawke is far too interested in her. Very talky, very horny, and the twist lands if you don't see it coming.
- Vampires
- Enemies to Lovers
- Forbidden Love
- Morally Gray
Content warnings
Graphic violence, Murder, Physical or emotional abuse, Kidnapping
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7. A Dowry of Blood
Shares: possessive hero, morally gray
Constanta, Dracula's first bride, writes to him about how she came to want him dead. Short, gothic and lush. It's really a book about getting out of an abusive relationship.
- Vampires
- Why Choose
- Possessive Hero
- Morally Gray
Content warnings
Physical or emotional abuse, Murder, Gore
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8. A Game of Thrones
Shares: morally gray, dragons
The Starks go south to serve a king who is drinking himself to death, and the Lannisters smile at them the whole time. Even if you've seen the show, the book is worth it for the chapters inside Ned's and Tyrion's heads. And yes, still waiting on book six.
- Court Intrigue
- Morally Gray
- Arranged Marriage
- Dragons
Content warnings
Sexual assault, Graphic violence, Murder, War, Harm to children
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9. Fall of Ruin and Wrath
Shares: possessive hero, morally gray
Lis is an orphan with a knack for seeing things she shouldn't, and she uses it doing jobs for dangerous people, until she crosses paths with Thorne, a very powerful immortal. Classic Armentrout: banter, heat and a lot of internal monologue. The sequel is a long time coming.
- Forbidden Love
- Possessive Hero
- Morally Gray
- Court Intrigue
Content warnings
Graphic violence, Murder, Physical or emotional abuse
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10. The Sweetest Fiend
Shares: captor and captive, morally gray
Pied Piper retelling. The Piper clears a plague from her city and takes 130 people as payment, her included. The first half is plague and survival, the back half gets very explicit, and it ends mid-fall.
- Fairy Tale Retellings
- Fae
- Captor and Captive
- Deals and Bargains
Content warnings
Kidnapping, Graphic violence
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11. Bride
Shares: fated mates, possessive hero
A vampire is married off to the Alpha of the werewolves as a peace treaty. Hazelwood's banter in a monster romance. Lighter on the dark, heavy on the yearning.
- Arranged Marriage
- Vampires
- Fated Mates
- Forced Proximity
Content warnings
Physical or emotional abuse, Graphic violence
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12. The Ever King
Shares: captor and captive, morally gray
Erik Bloodsinger, the sea fae pirate king, is mostly teeth and grudges, and he kidnaps the earth fae princess Livia Ferus right off her own shore. Salty, Viking-flavored and a blast once she starts biting back. You can skip the Broken Kingdoms books.
- Captor and Captive
- Enemies to Lovers
- Fae
- Morally Gray
Content warnings
Kidnapping, Graphic violence, Torture, Murder
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13. Rhapsodic
Shares: possessive hero, 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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14. Crave
Shares: possessive hero, fated mates
After her parents die, Grace moves to her uncle's boarding school in Alaska, which is full of vampires, witches and dragons. Jaxon is the brooding one. Long and very Twilight, and the guy most fans actually ship doesn't show up properly until book two.
- Vampires
- Academies and War Colleges
- Forbidden Love
- Possessive Hero
Content warnings
Death of a loved one, Murder, Kidnapping
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15. Hush, Hush
Shares: possessive hero, morally gray
Nora's new lab partner Patch is a fallen angel, though she doesn't know that yet, and he's frankly a creep about it. This was the dark paranormal YA boyfriend of 2009. It hasn't aged well, and lots of readers still remember it fondly.
- Forbidden Love
- Possessive Hero
- Morally Gray
- Stalker Romance
Content warnings
Stalking, Murder, Graphic violence
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