Books Like Wicked
If you finished Wicked and want more fae, forbidden love, slow burn, 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, Wicked is:
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The picks
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1. From Blood and Ash
Shares: forbidden love
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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2. A Feather So Black
Shares: fae, forbidden love, slow burn
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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3. Daughter of No Worlds
Shares: slow burn, forbidden love, found family
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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4. House of Earth and Blood
Shares: fae, slow burn, found family
Urban fantasy Maas: phones, clubs, angels and a half-fae party girl hunting whoever killed her best friend. The first 200 pages are a slog and the last 200 are a sprint.
- Fae
- Demons
- Morally Gray
- Slow Burn
Content warnings
Graphic violence, Gore, Murder, Drug or alcohol abuse, Death of a loved one
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5. Lady of Darkness
Shares: fae, slow burn, found family
Scarlett Monrhoe and her sisters were raised to torture and kill on command, and she is very good at it. Book one is long and stingy with the romance. Readers who push on say the later books are where it catches fire, in every sense.
- Assassins
- Fae
- Slow Burn
- Found Family
Content warnings
Sexual assault, Murder, Torture, Physical or emotional abuse, Graphic violence
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6. The Last King of Faerie
Shares: fae, forbidden love, found family
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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7. A Dawn of Onyx
Shares: slow burn, fae
A healer gets caught fleeing her village and ends up working in the enemy king's castle, and yes, the brooding commander is more than he looks. If you've read ACOTAR, you'll know exactly where this is going, and that's sort of the point.
- Captor and Captive
- Enemies to Lovers
- Forced Proximity
- Slow Burn
Content warnings
War, Graphic violence
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8. Ash
Shares: fae, forbidden love, slow burn
Cinderella with a fairy named Sidhean who wants to take Ash away forever, and the King's Huntress Kaisa, who teaches her to love the woods again. A quiet, lyrical sapphic retelling where the fae are cold and the human is warm.
- Fairy Tale Retellings
- Fae
- Forbidden Love
- Slow Burn
Content warnings
Physical or emotional abuse, Death of a loved one
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9. Assistant to the Villain
Shares: slow burn, forbidden love, found family
Evie needs a job, and the Villain needs an assistant who won't flinch at heads on spikes. It started as the author's TikTok skits and reads like it: an office comedy that's goofy, cozy and not remotely dark despite the title.
- Villain Gets the Girl
- Slow Burn
- Forbidden Love
- Found Family
Content warnings
Graphic violence
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10. Lament
Shares: fae, forbidden love, slow burn
Deirdre, a shy harpist, plays the competition of her life alongside a gorgeous flute player named Luke, who happens to be an assassin sent by the Faerie Queen to kill her. Early Stiefvater, a bit rough, steeped in Irish folk music.
- Fae
- Assassins
- Forbidden Love
- Slow Burn
Content warnings
Death of a loved one, Murder
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11. The Darkest Part of the Forest
Shares: fae, found family, forbidden love
In Fairfold, tourists come to gawk at a horned boy asleep in a glass coffin in the woods. Then Hazel finds the coffin smashed and empty. Two romances, one of them queer, and a brother-sister story that hits just as hard.
- Fae
- Curses
- Found Family
- Forbidden Love
Content warnings
Graphic violence, Physical or emotional abuse
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12. A Cursed Kiss
Shares: fae, 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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13. A Fate Inked in Blood
Shares: slow burn, forbidden love
Viking romantasy. Freya is a shield maiden with a prophecy on her head and a jarl's son who is very much not her husband. Feels like Vikings meets a political chess game.
- Gods and Mythology
- Slow Burn
- Forbidden Love
- Court Intrigue
Content warnings
War, Graphic violence, Physical or emotional abuse
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14. Bonded by Thorns
Shares: fae, found family
Beauty and the Beast, except there are four fae beasts and nobody has to choose. Cozier than most here, but steamy.
- Fae
- Why Choose
- Fairy Tale Retellings
- Curses
Content warnings
Physical or emotional abuse, Graphic violence
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15. Bride of the Shadow King
Shares: fae, slow burn
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
Read more than just Wicked? Tap everything you've loved and we'll build a reading list around all of it, not just this one book.