Books Like Crescent City: 6 Picks, Starting With Maas's Own

For books like Crescent City, start with the list Sarah J. Maas gave herself in March 2020: "If readers want something in the vein of Crescent City, pick up anything by Nalini Singh, all of her books are brilliant." So take Angels' Blood if Hunt kept you reading, Darkfever for the murder case, and Magic Bites for a modern city that runs on magic.

City of Gods and Monsters is the one some Reddit readers call a copy, and its entry says why it sits last in our table. First, the heat: House of Earth and Blood sits at 4 on our spice scale, placed from Common Sense Media's note: "A few long scenes depict sexual acts, fingering, breast and nipple play, manual stimulation, dry humping, and 'dirty talk' dialogue." Of the six picks below, only Kingdom of the Wicked has a note we can place on that scale, and it lands at 1. For the other five, the table quotes the closest description we found and names whose words they are. We'd rather print someone's words than a number we can't back.

Books like Crescent City, at a glance

romance.io's labels come from its own five-step scale, as u/romance-bot posted them in a January 2025 thread. They aren't our numbers, so we don't print them as ours.

If it was the murder case

In May 2025, an r/fantasyromance thread asked readers who liked how Crescent City started, then quit or soured on it, "What did you like about it?" The top reply, u/coffee-rain-books at 27 points, opened with "What I loved in book 1: 1. The mystery". We counted the thread's 18 top-level replies on October 19: four name the mystery, as many as name Bryce, and nothing else about book 1 comes up more. u/Whenitsajar (5 points) said it most plainly: "the detective/murder mystery plot with a side of dystopian politics. And I liked that the romance was there but it wasn't the main story." Each of the three picks below opens on a murder the heroine has to solve.

Darkfever by Karen Marie Moning

Moning is on Maas's list. Penguin Random House's blurb opens with the case: "When her sister is murdered, leaving a single clue to her death", Mac goes to Ireland and learns she can see "into the dangerous realm of the Fae". The heat is where the sources split, in opposite directions. Publishers Weekly's 2006 review says it takes readers on "a darker journey, one dominated by the search for a powerful Faery magic and bereft of the romantic magic Moning's fans have come to expect." The publisher's blurb sells the opposite with "an alpha Fae who makes sex an addiction for human women". We side with PW for the table, because a review describes the book and a blurb sells it, but neither tells us what's on the page, so no number. The catch is length: PW says it "reads like a fragment of a larger story", and PRH lists 11 Fever books without saying whether more are coming. Read it if the case was the point. Skip it if you need the romance settled in book 1.

Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire

The purest detective story here. Publishers Weekly calls Toby "a changeling PI with a foot in both worlds", and "the dying curse of a murdered elven lady forces her to investigate the killing" against a "moody San Francisco backdrop". In the January 2025 thread, u/UsefulScarecrow (3 points) recommended it as "pretty fun" with one caveat: "It takes two or three books for the romance to kick off and it's a pretty slow burn". One praise quote PRH prints agrees, calling it "An incredible mix of action, mystery, fairy, urban fantasy, and just a smidgen of romance"; Felicia Day's, on the same page, is warmer: "The romance is real and awesome, but doesn't overshadow the adventure."

Then the count, which has two answers. PRH's page says "Book 1 of 18". Macmillan lists A Divided Duty as "October Daye (Volume 20)", on sale September 29, 2026, and McGuire's own book list shows DAW publishing through 2023 and Tor from 2025. We go with 20: PRH's count is the DAW run, and two Tor books have followed. Read it if Bryce the investigator was your favorite Bryce; our slow burn list has more books that take their time.

Kingdom of the Wicked by Kerri Maniscalco

Hachette's description puts it in two short lines: "Two sisters. One brutal murder." Emilia finds her twin's body, and Wrath, one of the "princes of Hell", turns up "tasked by his master with solving the series of women's murders on the island". Swap the angel for a demon prince and it's the nearest setup to Bryce and Hunt in this section. The heat runs the other way. Common Sense Media's note is "Two characters have a lot of romantic chemistry and share many longing looks and even kiss", a 1 on our scale, rated 13+. Hachette calls book 3 the "unforgettable conclusion to the Kingdom of the Wicked series", so the trilogy is finished. Pick it for the partnership at book 1's kissing-only heat (books 2 and 3 aren't placed on our scale); our low spice list has more at that level.

If it was a modern city running on magic

The poster of the January 2025 thread, u/Intelligent_Lie_841, asked for books "set in a modern world with magic (No Academy settings please!) but with better writing?" and added "I would appreciate some spice but not too much". The top reply, u/littlegreenwolf at 6 points, pointed at a genre: "Search up urban fantasy. Stuff like Kate Daniels or Patricia Briggs." Maas had said it herself in 2020: "I love urban fantasy; I love paranormal romance."

Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews

Atlanta, where "When the magic is up, rogue mages cast their spells and monsters appear, while guns refuse to fire and cars fail to start." Kate is a mercenary, and her case starts "when Kate's guardian is murdered", tangled in "a series of bizarre killings". Ilona Andrews is on Maas's list, and romance.io labels book 1 "Glimpses and kisses", the same label it gives Rosemary and Rue. PRH counts ten Kate Daniels books, and the authors' site calls Magic Triumphs "the final novel in the Kate Daniels main series". Read it for the city. Skip it if the romance has to carry book 1. For what the same authors are writing now, see our page on This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me book 2. The top reply's other name, Patricia Briggs, starts with Moon Called, which u/ChrystnSedai (2 points) listed under it.

City of Gods and Monsters by Kayla Edwards

The one Reddit argues about, and its publisher shelves it next to Maas: Simon & Schuster's Scarlett Press edition (April 21, 2026) calls it "urban romantasy", "perfect for fans of Ilona Andrews, Sarah J. Maas, and Cassandra Clare." Loren, a human in a city of supernaturals, "reluctantly joins forces with supernatural bounty hunters" to save a friend. In the January 2025 thread, u/purplelicious (1 point) called it "very similar to CC", and u/Amara2091 (1 point) went further: "Also the series is better than Crescent City."

Now the catches. Answering the poster's question about the newest book then out, u/Amara2091 (2 points) said "It definitely ends on a cliffhanger", and "There's more spice in the later installments". romance.io labels book 1 "Open door". Four books are out, and Goodreads lists six, the last two untitled. Goodreads readers also rate it 3.76 from 88,849 ratings, against 4.45 from 1,365,594 for House of Earth and Blood (both October 19, 2026). That gap is why it's last in our table. If you want the new editions, S&S has book 3 on sale November 17, 2026 and book 4 on February 2, 2027.

If it was Hunt

Maas's own cosplay pick, in the same 2020 interview: "I'd say Hunt, the hot angel warrior." The first author she recommended in that interview was Nalini Singh, and Singh's angel series is where that points.

Angels' Blood by Nalini Singh

Vampire hunter Elena Deveraux is "Hired by the dangerously beautiful Archangel Raphael" to track "an archangel gone bad", a job that drops her into "a killing spree like no other". A hunt for a killer with an angel in it: that's House of Earth and Blood's engine with the roles moved around. romance.io labels it "Open door", the same as City of Gods and Monsters, and Singh's own page promises "the razor's edge of passion" without saying more. The status is the best news. Penguin Random House calls Archangel's Eternity, the final book (May 5, 2026), "the hauntingly poignant conclusion". Of the long series here, it's the only one its publisher calls finished; Kate Daniels's ending comes from the authors' own site. Start it if you want Hunt's type and the whole run already in print.

Is City of Gods and Monsters just Crescent City?

In May 2026 an r/Romantasy poster, u/ashdauntless, listed a page of matches, from a friend named Dallas (Danika) to "Dude who fights demons (Hunt Athalar)", and asked "does this not seem like a lot to anyone else?" All four top-level replies put it down to tropes the genre shares. The top one, u/OddlyOtter at 19 points, opened with a flat "No." and went on: "These are all very common tropes in urban fantasy that have been around longer than crescent city."

u/Mother-Designer1605 (10 points), who said they hadn't read City of Gods and Monsters, turned it around: "I think Crescent City took a lot from many urban fantasy books before it", and named Feverborn, a later book in Moning's Fever series. The poster came round in a later reply: "the issue may be my own unfamiliarity with urban fantasy in general, rather than these two books being too similar." Against that, one January 2025 reader at 1 point called it "very similar". We side with the replies, and this list is built on it: Darkfever (2006), Magic Bites (2007) and Angels' Blood (2009) all came out inside what u/OddlyOtter calls "the Urban Fantasy/Paranormal Fantasy Craze of the 1990's-2000's." One limit on our counts: every point total here is the archived one from a day or two after each thread went up (January 5 and 6, 2025; May 2 and 3, 2025; May 17, 2026), not today's.

Our take: books like Crescent City, if we could hand you one

Angels' Blood. Singh is the first name Maas gave, Hunt is the character Maas picked for cosplay, and the series closed this May with its final book. Check the heat first: we can't place it on our scale, and romance.io's "Open door" is the only label we found. If it was the case and not Hunt that hooked you, take Rosemary and Rue, and give the romance two or three books.

Related Reading

• Books like ACOTAR: read-alikes for Maas's fae series, with heat for each pick.
• Books like Throne of Glass: her assassin saga's read-alikes, split by hook the same way.
• Vampire romantasy books: picks with vampires at the center, sorted by heat.
• Completed romantasy series: for when you want the ending in print before you start.
• Romantasy books like guide: our read-alike hub for Fourth Wing, ACOTAR and The Cruel Prince.

References

• We Are Bookish: Sarah J. Maas on Cosplay, Music, and Crescent City (March 3, 2020)
• Common Sense Media: House of Earth and Blood
• Goodreads: House of Earth and Blood
• TODAY: Crescent City 4
• r/fantasyromance: Calling people who liked how the Crescent City series started (May 2025)
• r/fantasyromance: Need a book like Crescent City (January 2025)
• r/Romantasy: Is City of Gods and Monsters basically just Crescent City? (May 2026)
• Penguin Random House: Darkfever
• Publishers Weekly: Darkfever
• Penguin Random House: Rosemary and Rue
• Publishers Weekly: Rosemary and Rue
• Macmillan: A Divided Duty
• Seanan McGuire: The October Daye Books
• Hachette: Kingdom of the Wicked
• Common Sense Media: Kingdom of the Wicked
• Hachette: Kingdom of the Feared
• Penguin Random House: Magic Bites
• Ilona Andrews: Magic Triumphs Sample Bonanza (May 14, 2025)
• Simon & Schuster: City of Gods and Monsters
• Simon & Schuster: City of Smoke and Brimstone
• Simon & Schuster: City of Lies and Legends
• Goodreads: House of Devils series
• Nalini Singh: Angels' Blood
• Penguin Random House: Archangel's Eternity