Last updated: April 3, 2026
You finished Onyx Storm. You threw the book. You picked it back up. You finished it. You threw it again.
Now you need something to fill the gap until Rebecca Yarros finishes Book 4 which could be late 2026 or 2027, because she's plotting and the index cards are out but she is just getting started.
We sorted the best options by what hooked you most, because not everyone is here for the same thing. Some of you are here for the dragons. Some of you are here for the war college. Some of us are here for Xaden.
Not sure where things left off? Our Fourth Wing reading order covers every book in the Empyrean series plus everything we know about Book 4. Want to explore the Maasverse while you wait? Our ACOTAR reading order guide has you covered there too.
If you're building your TBR, Book of the Month is a great way to start. New members get their first book for $5, and they regularly feature romantasy in their monthly picks.
If You Loved the Dragons
You bonded with Tairn and Andarna. The dragon selection scene rewired your brain. You want more intelligent, sarcastic, fiercely loyal dragons who choose their riders and will absolutely kill the ones they don't.
While you wait for Book 4, these will tide you over
Starside by Alex Aster
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Alex Aster's adult romantasy debut dropped March 24, 2026, and the early buzz has been enormous. A world split between immortals and mortals, a deadly quest that opens once every fifty years, a vengeance-driven heroine with a blade most would kill to claim, and an enemies-to-allies romance with a king's guard named Raker who early readers can't stop talking about. The competition structure, the escalating stakes, and the spicy tension will feel immediately familiar to Fourth Wing readers, but the world is entirely its own.
If you want to be reading what everyone's going to be discussing this spring while you wait for Book 4, this is the pick.
Spice level: Moderate to explicit
Series length: Book 1 of a new series
Best for: Readers who loved the deadly competition and enemies-to-lovers tension
Starside released this month. Check out our new releases guide for the full write-up.
The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
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If Fourth Wing made you want more dragons but with deeper worldbuilding in a sprawling world across multiple continents, Shannon delivers at massive scale. Dragon riders, political intrigue across rival nations, a matriarchal society, and a magic system rooted in centuries of mythology all in one 800+ page standalone. The romance is present but not the engine. The worldbuilding is.
Shannon's dragons feel different from Yarros's. They're more mythological and even more woven into the world's religious and political fabric. If you finished the Empyrean series wishing Navarre had a deeper history and more geopolitical complexity, this is where you want to go.
Spice level: Low to moderate
Series length: Standalone (companion prequel available)
Best for: Readers who want epic dragon fantasy with scope and depth over romance heat
When the Moon Hatched by Sarah A. Parker
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In this world, when dragons die, they become moons. That premise alone should have you clicking "add to cart." Raeve is an assassin with a past she can't remember. Kaan is a brutal king consumed by the need to hatch a fallen moon and resurrect the dragon within. Parker's worldbuilding is dense and original. This isn't a trip into familiar fantasy territory.
The writing is lush and atmospheric, which means it won't be for everyone. But if you loved the way Fourth Wing created a world you could disappear into, Parker does the same thing but darker.
Spice level: Moderate, escalates in the sequel
Series length: 2+ books (ongoing)
Best for: Readers who want original dragon mythology with dark romantasy tension
Eragon by Christopher Paolini (The Inheritance Cycle)
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The OG dragon rider series. If you came to Fourth Wing without a fantasy background and want to go back to where the modern dragon-rider tradition started, Paolini's Inheritance Cycle is the classic. A farm boy finds a dragon egg, bonds with Saphira, and gets pulled into a war against a tyrant. The series matures significantly across four books — it starts as a Tolkien-inspired coming-of-age and ends as a genuine epic. No spice, but the dragon bond between Eragon and Saphira set the template that Violet and Tairn built on.
Paolini also returned to this world with Murtagh (2023), which means there's new content for readers who want to dive deep.
Spice level: None, clean fantasy
Series length: 4 books + companion novel (complete)
Best for: Readers who want the classic dragon-rider bond; readers new to fantasy who want more after Fourth Wing
If You Loved the Military Academy
Basgiath War College was the setting that made everything work. The deadly training, the squad dynamics, the instructors who might kill you, the hierarchy you had to survive. These picks capture that pressure-cooker academy energy.
Red Rising by Pierce Brown
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The closest match to Fourth Wing's "deadly training competition inside a corrupt system" structure, but for adults and at a significantly larger scale. Darrow infiltrates the ruling Gold caste through a brutal competition called the Institute think the Riders Quadrant crossed with Lord of the Flies on Mars and the series expands into full-scale interplanetary revolution. Brown writes action sequences as well as anyone working, and the political complexity deepens with every book.
If Fourth Wing's training sequences and squad loyalty were your favorite parts, Red Rising delivers that at a level that will consume your next several months.
Spice level: Low (romance isn't the focus)
Series length: 6 books (5 out, 6th forthcoming)
Best for: Readers who loved Basgiath's brutal training and want it at a massive scale
Daughter of Crows by Mark Lawrence
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If Basgiath was dangerous, the Academy of Kindness is lethal by design. A hundred girls are sold to the Academy each year. Ten years later, three emerge as avatars of vengeance, agents of retribution modeled on the Furies. Lawrence's academy makes Basgiath look like summer camp. Rue, a sixty-something protagonist who sold herself to the Academy and lived to regret the peace she found after is unlike any fantasy lead you've read this year.
This just released March 24, 2026, and readers are already calling it one of the best fantasies of the year.
Spice level: None, this is grimdark, not romantasy
Series length: Book 1 of a trilogy
Best for: Readers who loved Basgiath's deadly stakes and want them darker
Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao
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Giant mecha robots powered by male-female pilot pairs, except the female pilots routinely die from the mental strain and nobody cares. When eighteen-year-old Zetian volunteers to assassinate the ace pilot who killed her sister, she doesn't die, she kills him instead and emerges as the most dangerous person in Huaxia. The military academy structure, the corrupt system that sacrifices its soldiers, and the heroine who refuses to be a symbol for anyone else's cause will resonate hard with Fourth Wing readers.
Zhao reinterprets the rise of China's only female emperor but as mecha science fiction, and the feminist rage is genuine and unrelenting. This is a complete duology.
Spice level: Low to moderate
Series length: 2 books (complete)
Best for: Readers who loved Violet's defiance of the system and who wanted more feminist rage
An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir
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Laia goes undercover as a slave at the Martial Empire's greatest military academy in exchange for rebel help rescuing her brother. Elias is the academy's finest soldier and secretly, its most unwilling. Tahir builds a world inspired by ancient Rome where the military academy is the engine of an oppressive empire, and the two protagonists are on opposite sides of a system that's grinding both of them down.
The dual POV structure, the military training sequences, the forbidden connection between two people on different sides of a war, it all maps to Fourth Wing's DNA. Four books, complete, and the series gets progressively more ambitious.
Spice level: Low, YA with romantic tension
Series length: 4 books (completed series)
Best for: Readers who loved Basgiath's oppressive hierarchy and the rebellion simmering underneath
If You Loved Violet and Xaden
The enemies-to-lovers dynamic where both people have genuine reasons to distrust each other. The slow burn that earns every touch. The moment the power balance shifts and you lose your mind. These picks deliver a similiar emotional experience.
From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout
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The most consistently recommended Fourth Wing companion read, and the series most likely to fill the gap until Book 4 because Armentrout's world is enormous. Poppy is the Maiden, raised behind protective barriers she's never been allowed to question. Hawke is her guard. The "enemies-to-lovers" label undersells their dynamic. It's forbidden, dangerous, and deeply felt. The revelation that reframes everything in the first book hits with the same force as Fourth Wing's best twists.
Spice level: Explicit, comparable to ACOSF
Series length: 6+ books across two series (ongoing)
Best for: Readers who loved the forbidden dynamic and want enough content to fill months
The Serpent and the Wings of Night by Carissa Broadbent
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Oraya is the human daughter of the Vampire King, entering a brutal tournament where she is the only mortal among creatures who could kill her without thinking. If Fourth Wing's Threshing and the trials were your favorite sequences, The Serpent and the Wings of Night delivers that tournament tension across an entire book, with an enemies-to-lovers romance that readers describe as "cured my post-Fourth Wing hangover."
Spice level: Moderate to explicit
Series length: 3+ books (ongoing)
Best for: Readers who loved the deadly trials and want that intensity sustained
The Bridge Kingdom by Danielle L. Jensen
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Lara was raised as a weapon, trained to infiltrate the Bridge Kingdom by marrying its king and destroying it from within. Then she meets Aren, and the mission gets complicated. Jensen gives both characters genuinely conflicting loyalties that don't resolve easily. They're sharing a bed while actively working against each other, and neither can afford to flinch first.
The political marriage structure means the tension is baked into every scene. If you loved Violet and Xaden's dynamic where trust is the thing being fought over, not attraction, which was never the question. The Bridge Kingdom does this at a masterful level.
Spice level: Moderate
Series length: 2 books + companion duology (complete)
Best for: Readers who loved the trust-as-the-real-stakes element of Violet and Xaden
A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
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The other half of the pipeline. Readers go Fourth Wing to ACOTAR or ACOTAR to Fourth Wing, and both directions work because both series do the same thing: make you care about characters in danger and then put those characters through it. If you somehow haven't read ACOTAR yet, now is the time. ACOTAR 6 arrives October 27, 2026, and ACOTAR 7 follows January 12, 2027. Five books plus novellas means there's enough here to carry you deep into summer.
Spice level: Escalates significantly, explicit by ACOSF
Series length: 5 books + novellas
Best for: If you loved Fourth Wing and haven't read ACOTAR, this is your next series. Period.
New to the Maasverse? Our ACOTAR reading order covers every book, novella, and bonus chapter, plus 15 more books to read while you wait for ACOTAR 6.
If You Want the Same Pacing and Stakes
You read Fourth Wing in one sitting. You need that same propulsive energy, the feeling of being unable to stop turning pages because the stakes keep escalating and you genuinely don't know who's going to survive.
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
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The structural DNA is obvious: a deadly competition run by a corrupt government, a heroine who becomes a symbol against her will, and stakes that are genuinely lethal. If Fourth Wing was your entry point into high-stakes fantasy and you haven't read The Hunger Games, you should. And if you have read it, the prequel Sunrise on the Reaping, just won the 2026 Audie Award for Audiobook of the Year.
Spice level: None
Series length: 4 books (complete)
Best for: Readers who loved the deadly competition and "the system is lying to you" thread
Want more like this? Our Books Like The Hunger Games guide has 20 dystopian picks for adults.
We Who Will Die by Stacia Stark
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A Roman-inspired world ruled by merciless vampires, where Arvelle enters a gladiator arena called the Sundering to get close enough to assassinate the emperor. The competition structure, the dangerous alliances, the slow-burn romance, and the conspiracy that runs deeper than anyone told her, this is Fourth Wing's arena energy transplanted into a Roman vampire setting. An instant New York Times bestseller with strong BookTok momentum.
Spice level: Moderate, slow burn
Series length: 2+ books (ongoing)
Best for: Readers who loved the Threshing and want gladiator-level stakes with romantasy heat
Kingdom of the Wicked by Kerri Maniscalco
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Set in Sicily with a murder, a morally ambiguous Prince of Hell as the love interest, and a heroine with genuine stakes driving her forward. Wrath has Xaden's energy, brooding, dangerous, eventually yours, without requiring familiarity with epic fantasy conventions. If Fourth Wing was your first romantasy and you want to stay in that accessible register, this is the smoothest next step. Three books, all out.
Spice level: Low in book 1, escalates significantly
Series length: 3 books (complete)
Best for: Readers who want accessible romantasy with a brooding love interest and readers new to fantasy
How to Save on Your TBR
Book of the Month New members get their first book for $5. They consistently feature romantasy picks. Try it here
Libro.fm Audiobook memberships that support independent bookstores. Fourth Wing's audiobook (Rebecca Soler + Teddy Hamilton) is outstanding, and most of these picks have excellent narration too. Start listening
Bookshop.org Shop indie and support Ink & Imaginings. Every purchase through our links earns a commission that keeps this site running. Browse romantasy.
FAQ
What should I read after Fourth Wing?
The most common answers are A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas (the other half of the BookTok romantasy pipeline) and From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout (the closest match in romantic intensity and series length). For readers who loved the dragons specifically, When the Moon Hatched by Sarah A. Parker and Starside by Alex Aster are the top picks.
Is ACOTAR like Fourth Wing?
They share the same emotional DNA, dangerous world, earned slow burn, found family, morally complicated love interest, but they're set in very different worlds. ACOTAR is fae courts and political intrigue; Fourth Wing is military academy and dragon riders. The pipeline between them exists because both series make you care about characters in danger and then put those characters through it.
What are books like Fourth Wing with dragons?
When the Moon Hatched by Sarah A. Parker (dragons become moons when they die), The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon (epic multi-continent dragon fantasy), Eragon by Christopher Paolini (the classic dragon-rider bond), and Starside by Alex Aster (deadly quest with mythological creatures) all feature dragons prominently.
What are books like Fourth Wing but no spice?
Red Rising by Pierce Brown (deadly training, rebellion, epic scale), Eragon by Christopher Paolini (classic dragon rider fantasy), An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir (military academy, forbidden connection), and The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (deadly competition, corrupt government) are all excellent picks without explicit content.
Is there anything like Fourth Wing that's already complete?
Kingdom of the Wicked (3 books), The Bridge Kingdom (2 books + companion duology), Iron Widow (2 books), Eragon (4 books), An Ember in the Ashes (4 books), and The Hunger Games (4 books) are all complete.
Fifteen books. Some will wreck your sleep schedule. Some will make you throw your Kindle. All of them deliver some version of the feeling that made you fall for Fourth Wing in the first place, the dragons, the danger, the romance, the feeling that every page matters.
Happy reading. Don't forget to hydrate.
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