your post-ACOTAR reading prescription ♡
because “something like ACOTAR” means six completely different things depending on who you ask
Finishing the ACOTAR series creates a very specific kind of problem.
Someone recommends you “another book like ACOTAR,” but what they really mean is that the book contains fae and at least one attractive man with questionable communication skills.
Not helpful.
Maybe you miss Velaris. Maybe you want another romance capable of temporarily reorganizing your personality. Maybe you were secretly more interested in the courts, alliances and power games than anyone’s mating bond.
Or maybe ACOTAR introduced you to fae fantasy and now you want to know how weird that rabbit hole can actually get.
So we’re going craving by craving. You might arrive here knowing exactly what you want next, or discover halfway down the page that apparently court scheming was the real reason you were having such a good time.
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01 / if you miss the Night Court atmosphere
Quicksilver
Callie Hart
If your ACOTAR homesickness is less about a particular trope and more about the feeling of entering a seductive fantasy world where beautiful things are probably dangerous, start here.
Saeris Fane has spent her life surviving in an unforgiving desert, hiding strange powers and stealing what she needs to stay alive. One very bad decision involving a sword and a gate lands her somewhere considerably more dangerous.
There are fae. There are secrets. There is an extremely inconvenient man.
The world feels darker and more adult than early ACOTAR, but it scratches that same itch of being dropped into a magical realm full of new rules, hidden agendas and people you absolutely should not be trusting this quickly.
dark fae atmosphere ★★★★★ /5
•
romance ★★★★★ /5
spice 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ /5
plotgirlie reality check: considerably less stargazing over Velaris, considerably more terrible decisions.
02 / if the romance took over your brain
From Blood and Ash
Jennifer L. Armentrout
Maybe what you actually miss is being far too invested in two fictional people’s inability to stay away from each other.
Poppy has spent her life as the Maiden, isolated and controlled while waiting for an Ascension that determines far more than her own future.
Then Hawke enters the picture.
Duty gets tangled with attraction, secrets start cracking open and Poppy begins questioning exactly how much of the world she has been told to believe.
This is much more romance-forward than some of the other books here, which makes it the easiest choice for the reader who came to ACOTAR for fantasy and stayed because fictional men became a logistical problem.
romance ★★★★★ /5
•
secrets ★★★★☆ /5
spice 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ /5
plotgirlie reality check: if relationship drama is the reason your bedtime became 2:17 a.m., this is the obvious prescription.
03 / if you secretly cared more about the courts
The Cruel Prince
Holly Black
If your favorite ACOTAR conversations involved courts, alliances, rulers and wondering who was quietly planning something awful, I would move you away from romance-heavy recommendations entirely.
Jude is mortal in a world of faerie power, and she wants something much more dangerous than love.
she wants influence.
That means learning how people lie, where power really sits and how to survive among fae who have spent their entire lives believing mortals are beneath them.
The romantic tension is there, but the real addiction is watching Jude become increasingly difficult to underestimate.
♟️ court politics •
♟️ dangerous fae •
♟️ questionable alliances
♟️ people who should absolutely not be trusted
plotgirlie reality check: significantly less spice, significantly more scheming.
04 / if you miss finding your people
A Fate Inked in Blood
Danielle L. Jensen
One of the most satisfying parts of ACOTAR is watching Feyre slowly move from surviving alone to finding people and a place where she actually belongs.
Freya begins somewhere very different, trapped in an unwanted life while secretly carrying divine magic that could change the future of an entire nation.
Once that secret is exposed, she is pulled into a world of warriors, political ambitions, prophecy and people who suddenly have very strong opinions about what her life should become.
There is also Bjorn, who is supposed to train and protect her.
Naturally, everyone behaves impeccably and nothing becomes complicated.
that was a lie.
belonging + loyalty ★★★★☆ /5
•
warrior energy ★★★★★ /5
spice 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ /5
plotgirlie reality check: destiny is apparently much easier when accompanied by an attractive warrior. allegedly.
05 / if you want fae who are actually strange
Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries
Heather Fawcett
This is for the reader who finished ACOTAR and thought:
“okay, but what are faeries supposed to be like when they aren’t running nightclubs?”
Emily Wilde is a Cambridge scholar studying faerie folklore in a remote northern village. She is brilliant at research, considerably less brilliant at people and much happier cataloguing dangerous magical creatures than attending a social function.
These fae feel rooted in folklore. They are beautiful sometimes, horrifying sometimes and operating according to rules humans would be wise to understand before wandering into the woods.
There is romance, but it is not trying to recreate Rhys and Feyre.
That is exactly why I like it here.
the vibe shift:
less ✦ seductive fae court fantasy
→
more ✦ academic field notes written dangerously close to actual faeries
spice: 🌶️ /5, but the faerie lore is doing plenty of work.
06 / if your main note was “more spice please”
The Serpent and the Wings of Night
Carissa Broadbent
Sometimes we do not need an elaborate diagnosis.
Sometimes the reader simply wants an adult fantasy romance with danger, chemistry and enough heat to justify keeping the Kindle brightness suspiciously low in public.
Oraya is the adopted human daughter of a vampire king who enters the Kejari, a lethal tournament held by the goddess of death.
Her best chance of surviving involves an alliance with Raihn, a dangerous rival she has every reason not to trust.
You get a high-stakes fantasy world, attraction under terrible circumstances, violence, power struggles and a romance that is very much part of the main event.
danger ★★★★★ /5
•
romance ★★★★★ /5
spice 🌶️🌶️🌶️ /5
plotgirlie reality check: not pure spice with fantasy wallpaper. there is an actual plot trying to kill everyone too.
still hovering?
the 10-second version
you miss the Night Court: Quicksilver
you want another romance to consume your free time: From Blood and Ash
you want ruthless fae politics: The Cruel Prince
you miss belonging, warriors and romance: A Fate Inked in Blood
you want faeries that feel like folklore: Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries
you would simply like things hotter: The Serpent and the Wings of Night
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