Books Like Wings
If you finished Wings and want more fae, love triangle, 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.
For reference, Wings is:
Last updated
We may earn a commission when you buy through links on this page. It doesn't change what we recommend. How we make money.
The picks
-
1. Wicked Lovely
Shares: fae, love triangle, forbidden love
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
-
2. The Iron King
Shares: fae, love triangle, forbidden love
On her sixteenth birthday Meghan Chase learns she's the daughter of the Summer King, right as her little brother gets stolen into the Nevernever. Puck, Ash of the Winter Court and fae made of iron. Very 2010 YA, and Ash is why people still recommend it.
- Fae
- Love Triangle
- Forbidden Love
- Court Intrigue
Content warnings
Kidnapping, Graphic violence
-
3. Ash
Shares: fae, forbidden love
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
-
4. Clockwork Angel
Shares: love triangle, forbidden love
Tessa sails to Victorian London to find her brother and gets taken by the Dark Sisters, who force her to learn she can shapeshift. The London Institute's Shadowhunters pull her out, and Will and Jem become the love triangle Clare fans cry about most.
- Demons
- Love Triangle
- Found Family
- Forbidden Love
Content warnings
Kidnapping, Death of a loved one, Graphic violence, Drug or alcohol abuse
-
5. Lament
Shares: fae, forbidden love
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
-
6. Red Queen
Shares: love triangle, forbidden love
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
-
7. The Darkest Part of the Forest
Shares: fae, 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
-
8. Wildwood Dancing
Shares: fae, forbidden love
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
-
9. Throne of Glass
Shares: love triangle, fae
An assassin dragged out of a salt mine to compete for the king's favor. Book one reads young. Stick with it, because by book four it's a full-blown fae war epic.
- Assassins
- Deadly Trials
- Love Triangle
- Court Intrigue
Content warnings
Graphic violence, Murder, Death of a loved one
-
10. An Enchantment of Ravens
Shares: fae, forbidden love
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
-
11. City of Bones
Shares: love triangle, forbidden love
Clary watches three teenagers kill something in a New York club that nobody else can see, and that's her introduction to the Shadowhunters, Jace in particular. Snarky and very 2007, and the book's infamous twist fueled a decade of forum fights.
- Demons
- Love Triangle
- Forbidden Love
- Found Family
Content warnings
Graphic violence, Murder, Kidnapping
-
12. The Last King of Faerie
Shares: fae, 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
-
13. The Stolen Heir
Shares: fae, forbidden love
Suren, the runaway child queen of the Court of Teeth, has been living feral in the New England woods when Prince Oak turns up asking for help on a quest. Set after The Folk of the Air, sadder than Jude's books, and Oak is far more slippery than he looks.
- Fae
- Court Intrigue
- Morally Gray
- Forbidden Love
Content warnings
Physical or emotional abuse, Graphic violence, Murder
-
14. 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
-
15. A Feather So Black
Shares: fae, forbidden love
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
Read more than just Wings? Tap everything you've loved and we'll build a reading list around all of it, not just this one book.