In 2015, A Court of Thorns & Roses launched a romantic fantasy series by Sarah J. Maas that would take Young Adult audiences by storm, but not many books have been able to recapture that same magic.
Maas’ first novel in her series mixes elements of Scottish folklore (the story of Tam Lin) and the classic Beauty and the Beast. Featuring a gripping tale of a young woman taken to the faerie world after she kills a wolf in the woods, the story is as much a fairy tale retelling as it is a true romantasy.
Maas has gained a reputation as a stellar romantasy writer, and A Court of Thorns & Roses has proven itself a great crossover novel. Though it was published as YA, the story today is classified as New Adult, a classification usually aimed at those readers just out of high school and emerging in the adult world.
Romantasy that crosses those classifications has become more prevalent in the years since A Court of Thorns & Roses was published, but Maas’ book remains the most popular. A New York Times bestseller and on several “best of” lists, the book holds the crown when it comes to popular romantasy books.
|
A Court of Thorns & Roses Books |
Year Published |
|---|---|
|
A Court of Thorns & Roses |
2015 |
|
A Court of Mist & Fury |
2016 |
|
A Court of Wings & Ruin |
2017 |
|
A Court of Frost & Starlight (novella) |
2018 |
|
A Court of Silver Flames |
2021 |
While other novels were thought to take the crown from A Court of Thorns & Roses, these came the closest.
8
Crescent City By Sarah J. Maas
The first novel in the Crescent City series of books by Sarah J. Maas was published while Maas was still writing the series started by ACOTAR. Because of that, and because of the other series’ popularity, a lot of fans expected House of Earth and Blood to be just like ACOTAR.
The two series, and the first novels that kick them off, however, are very different. House of Earth and Blood follows a half-human, half-fae young woman whose life is full of partying until her friend is murdered by a demon, and she is accused of the act. She and a fallen angel are paired up to investigate.
If fans of Maas went into the novel expecting to find themselves a carbon copy of ACOTAR that would tide them over until the next installment of the series, they would have been disappointed. The Crescent City series is still a stellar fantasy series, with another on the way, but it is not the next ACOTAR.
7
From Blood And Ash By Jennifer L. Armentrout
Jennifer L. Armentrout’s Blood and Ash series often gets compared to the work of Maas – and for good reason. Like Maas, Armentrout weaves romance into fantasy stories that are also action-packed and full of political intrigue.
The first novel in the series kicks off with the story of Poppy as she is prepared for her role as Maiden in the kingdom of Solace. The Maiden is someone prepared for Ascension with the gods. That means being trained in combat by the guard and having an important role in the politics of the kingdom.
Poppy, however, falls for a guard and begins to learn troubling information about the kingdom in which she is set to play such a crucial role. Poppy’s story, learning the world around her is not the one she thought, mirrors Feyre’s story in A Court of Thorns & Roses.
Both young women find themselves drawn to someone unexpected as well, though the worlds built in each of the books make their romances very different from one another.
Though it’s not going to be an exact match for ACOTAR fans, it definitely provides plenty of reading material. There are six books in the series so far, as well as a spinoff series set in the same world.
6
Lore Of The Wilds By Analeigh Sbrana
While ACOTAR sees a human pulled into the world of the fae as punishment for her crime of killing a wolf in the woods, humans in Lore of the Wilds have been trapped in a similar land for longer than they can remember.
That provides the two novels with very different types of world-building, but readers and booksellers were still ready to compare the two when Analiegh Sbrana’s novel was first published.
The titular Lore is a human girl living in Duskmere. She not only dreams of adventure, but in solving the big mystery behind how her people ended up there in the first place.
ACOTAR is firmly a New Adult fantasy that allows YA readers to explore mature themes and darker subject matter across its sprawling series. Lore of the Wolds initially had those same comparisons, but the novel may give readers expecting the same tonal whiplash.
It veers from darker subjects into the realm of a cozy fantasy novel. It also reads much closer to YA, not bridging the divide between classifications quite as well.
5
The Shadows Between Us By Tricia Levenseller
While The Shadows Between Us is a romantasy like ACOTAR, that is where the similarities largely end. Booksellers hyped the novel as the next A Court of Thorns & Roses because, on the surface, two people who do not initially like one another falling for one another — it seemed like the same premise.
The romance itself, however, is vastly different, as is the world in which the story takes place. The Shadows Between Us sees a young woman scheme to seduce and kill the Shadowking to gain his power, only to find herself falling for him and saving his life repeatedly.
The world-building here is not as detailed as ACOTAR, either, since the novel was not written with the idea of setting up a sprawling fictional universe. As a romance between two villainous individuals in a fantasy world, it works, but not as an ACOTAR successor.
4
Divine Rivals By Rebecca Ross
Divine Rivals takes the idea of an office romance between rivals and sets it in a fantasy world. Some romantasy fans simply thought the use of magic and romance would make Rebecca Ross’ novel resemble ACOTAR, but the story plays out very differently despite the use of political factions in conflict as well.
Divine Rivals sees a young woman who lives in a land embroiled in a war between the gods. Her brother is a soldier, and living in a poor family, she sees her way out as getting a job at a local paper. With the help of a magical typewriter, she composes letters to her brother, which end up in the hands of her rival instead, and he writes back.
The trouble here is that Divine Rivals is very much a book that is setting up the future stories to be told. While ACOTAR does that as well, it does so with more depth of the characters. ACOTAR allows the reader to really get to know the characters before new stories in the sequel novels.
Divine Rivals teases out information over multiple installments instead.
3
The Cruel Prince By Holly Black
The Cruel Prince kicks off Holly Black’s Folk of the Air series, and it is one fantasy novel considered almost perfect by fans of the genre. Black and Maas are often talked about in the same breath when it comes to YA fantasy, so it makes sense that her books would garner comparisons to ACOTAR.
Much like A Court of Thorns & Roses, The Cruel Prince is set in a fantasy world in which the politics of the world play a huge role in the relationships of the novel. Here, those politics include the main characters trying to outsmart the ruling powers in society, and almost succeeding, but impulsivity often leads to problems with plans.
Much like ACOTAR, main character Jude is pulled into the faerie world despite being a mortal, and she has to learn to navigate the new world and its politics. She also has to navigate her feelings for a member of faerie royalty. Those broad strokes give the two novels a lot in common, but in the details, they diverge.
2
A Curse So Dark And Lonely By Brigid Kemmerer
A Curse So Dark and Lonely has certainly been able to capture a similar crossover audience to that of A Court of Thorns & Roses, finding success in both the YA and New Adult markets. It’s also been incredibly popular on BookTok, its success relying on the word of mouth of fans on social media.
Similar to ACOTAR, A Curse So Dark and Lonely is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast. While ACOTAR borrows elements from the classic story, Kemmerer’s novel more fully embraces it. A young woman with cerebral palsy who lives in Washington, DC, finds herself in a fantasy realm where the prince has been cursed.
The “season” repeats over and over again for the prince as he is cursed to become a monster at the end of each one if he does not find someone to love him. His guard is the only person granted the ability to pass between realms to find a new young woman to attempt to win his heart.
Interestingly, however, the novel has as much of a focus on the impending invasion by the prince’s hostile neighbors as it does the romance between the two characters, and it does a great job at bringing other people from the young woman’s life into the fantasy world.
Though the two stories are so different from one another, A Curse So Dark and Lonely is certainly a worthy successor to A Court of Thorns & Roses.
1
Fourth Wing By Rebecca Yarros
If any novel is the next A Court of Thorns & Roses, it’s Fourth Wing. Rebecca Yarros and Sarah J. Maas have cornered the New Adult romantasy market with their epic novels and the series that followed them.
Both of their novels center on a strong female protagonist who finds herself in unfamiliar territory, falling for someone she considers an enemy, and thrust into a high-stakes world where every move they make has to be calculated for their own survival.
While ACOTAR centers on faerie lore more, Fourth Wing centers on dragon lore. Both novelists put their own twists on the lore the reader might already know and build impressive worlds around their central couples.
Fourth Wing is certainly more action-oriented than ACOTAR is, but both stories have taken BookTok by storm and climbed bestseller lists. A Fourth Wing TV series is also in development, though the ACOTAR series has stalled in the development phase.
While waiting for another A Court of Thorns & Roses sequel, any of those romantasy novels are great to fill the void left behind, but none of them exactly line up to become the next version of the Sarah J. Maas novel.
- Publisher(s)
-
Bloomsbury Publishing
- Publication Date
-
2015-05-05
- ISBN#
-
9781619634442
- Genre(s)
-
Fantasy, Romance
