Books Like The Cruel Prince: 8 Picks With Age and Spice

The best books like The Cruel Prince depend on what you loved. For more of Elfhame, Holly Black's own The Stolen Heir duology is the obvious next read. For a faerie bargain, try An Enchantment of Ravens. For a heroine who schemes her way to a crown, read The Shadows Between Us. Every pick below has an age and romance note from Common Sense Media and a series status from the publisher or a dated listing.

TL;DR: The Cruel Prince is rated 14+ by Common Sense Media, with "passionate embraces" and little more. Five of our eight picks stay at that heat or slightly above (1 or 2 out of 5): The Stolen Heir, An Enchantment of Ravens, The Shadows Between Us, The Winner's Curse and Once Upon a Broken Heart. For an adult version, Quicksilver is rated 18+ and sits at 5 out of 5.

Books like The Cruel Prince (quick answer)

CSM is Common Sense Media. Spice uses the FaeShelf spice scale, placed from each review's romance notes.

Key Takeaways

• Most read-alikes for The Cruel Prince are YA. Six of the eight picks are rated 13+ to 15+ by Common Sense Media, close to The Cruel Prince's 14+.
• Three are finished series and two are single books, so you can read them without waiting.
• Same world: The Stolen Heir and The Prisoner's Throne are Holly Black's Novels of Elfhame, set after The Queen of Nothing.
• For adults: Quicksilver (18+) and The Serpent and the Wings of Night move the faerie and court intrigue into explicit romance.

Overview: what The Cruel Prince sets as the bar

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black is the first book of the Folk of the Air, first published January 2, 2018. Common Sense Media rates it 14+ and says it uses "elements of celtic folklore and mythology as inspiration for a tale of courtly intrigue". The romance stays mild: "jude shares passionate embraces with two supporting characters". On our scale that is 1 out of 5.

Readers asking for read-alikes say the same thing. One r/RomanceBooks reader (December 2022) listed "The things I love most about Cruel Prince are: --Fantasy with excellent worldbuilding --Enemies to lovers romance --Cruel hero --Badass heroine". That combination is what most people searching for books like The Cruel Prince want again: a faerie court, a heroine who plots, and romance that stays mostly off the page. The trilogy ended with The Queen of Nothing in 2019, so readers who finish it have nothing left in the main series.

Image: FaeShelf table built from Common Sense Media reviews, checked October 2026

Analysis: books like The Cruel Prince, one by one

1. The Stolen Heir by Holly Black (2023). The closest match, because it is the same world. Little, Brown Books for Young Readers published it on January 3, 2023, at 368 pages, and pitches it as "a runaway queen. a reluctant prince." Common Sense Media calls it "the first volume of a new fantasy duology by holly black" and rates it 14+. Romance is light: "a couple kisses and cuddles infrequently, and mostly offscreen", a 1 out of 5. The second book, The Prisoner's Throne, came out in 2024. Black has said that "when i got to queen of nothing, i realized i wanted to write about oak and suren".

Cover image: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, via Open Library

2. An Enchantment of Ravens by Margaret Rogerson (2017). A single book about the fair folk. Common Sense Media describes it as "a stand-alone fantasy, set among the" fair folk, "(faeries) of british folklore", and rates it 13+. Its human painter takes on "rook, the prince of autumn" as a client. The romance: "they share passionate embraces but pull back before they get carried away", a 1 out of 5.

3. The Shadows Between Us by Tricia Levenseller (2020). For readers who loved Jude's scheming more than the faeries. The heroine's plan, in the publisher's blurb: "1) woo the shadow king. 2) marry him. 3) kill him and take his kingdom for herself." Feiwel and Friends published it on February 25, 2020, at 336 pages, for ages 13-18, and one blurb calls it "full of schemes and court intrigue". Common Sense Media rates it 15+ and notes the "couple has sex, with little described". That is a 2 out of 5, the warmest of the YA picks. Readers point to it for the same reason: one r/RomanceBooks commenter called it "a YA fantasy romance with enemies to lovers, the LI is a cruel king".

4. The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski (2014). No faeries, but the political enemies-in-love setup. Macmillan calls it a "star-crossed romance" and the first volume of the Winner's Trilogy, which ended with The Winner's Kiss in 2016. Common Sense Media rates it 13+ for "a couple of steamy kisses", a 1 out of 5.

GODEEPER: Liked the faerie courts but want a grown-up, higher-heat version? Our ACOTAR list is sorted by heat. Books Like ACOTAR: 8 Fae Romantasy Picks Before ACOTAR 6 →

5. Once Upon a Broken Heart by Stephanie Garber (2021). A heroine and a dangerous prince with a bargain. Evangeline "strikes a deal with the charismatic, but wicked, prince of hearts", and "he asks for three kisses". Flatiron published it on September 28, 2021, at 416 pages, for ages 13-18. Common Sense Media rates it 13+ and lists "a few scenes of kissing and groping" plus "some wedding-night innuendo", a 2 out of 5. The trilogy closed with A Curse for True Love in 2023, and a novella, The Mirror of Infinite Endings, followed in 2026.

Cover image: Flatiron Books, via Open Library

6. Powerless by Lauren Roberts (2023). This is the "books like The Cruel Prince and Powerless" crowd's crossover. An ordinary heroine meets "kai azer, the youngest of two princes of ilya", during "purging trials that mimic the hunger games", per Common Sense Media, which rates it 14+ for "mild kissing but plenty of touching and tension leading up to it". That is a 1 out of 5. No faeries. The trilogy ended with Fearless in 2025, and Wikipedia says the series runs to five parts with two novellas. Goodreads average: 4.12 (October 9, 2026).

7. Kingdom of the Wicked by Kerri Maniscalco (2020). A darker prince, from hell rather than Faerie. Emilia, one of twin "streghe - witches", meets "wrath, one of the wicked-princes of hell". Publishers Weekly filed its review under "genre: children's". We found no review describing the romance clearly enough to place it, so it is not rated. The series has three books, ending with Kingdom of the Feared. Goodreads average: 3.86 (October 9, 2026).

8. Quicksilver by Callie Hart (2024). The answer to "books like The Cruel Prince but spicy" or "for adults". The heroine ends up "bonded to a handsome fae named kingfisher", and Common Sense Media rates it 18+, saying its "explicit sex scenes include lengthy descriptions". That is 5 out of 5, a long way from The Cruel Prince. A second adult option is The Serpent and the Wings of Night (2022), which Publishers Weekly describes as "an addictive enemies-to-lovers romance" set around "a divinely sponsored tournament to the death" and files under "genre: romance/erotica".

Our take

This take uses only the reviews, publisher pages and listings cited above. If you finished The Queen of Nothing and want the same world, read The Stolen Heir first; it keeps the age rating and the light romance. If you want something new at the same heat, An Enchantment of Ravens and The Winner's Curse are the safest, and both are finished. The Shadows Between Us is the best match for Jude's ambition, with a little more heat. Readers searching "but spicy" should know the jump: Quicksilver is rated four years older than The Cruel Prince and is explicit.

GODEEPER: Want more finished series you can read straight through? Completed Romantasy Series: 8 Finished Series With No Waiting →

Frequently Asked Questions

What should I read after The Cruel Prince? For more of Elfhame, read Holly Black's The Stolen Heir (2023) and The Prisoner's Throne (2024), a duology set in the same world. Common Sense Media rates The Stolen Heir 14+, the same as The Cruel Prince, with only a few kisses, mostly offscreen, so the heat level stays the same too.

Is there a spicy book like The Cruel Prince? Quicksilver by Callie Hart is the adult option: a heroine bonded to a fae, rated 18+ by Common Sense Media, which says its explicit scenes include lengthy descriptions. The Serpent and the Wings of Night is a second adult pick, an enemies-to-lovers romance that Publishers Weekly files under romance and erotica.

Are there standalone books like The Cruel Prince? Yes. An Enchantment of Ravens by Margaret Rogerson (2017) is a stand-alone set among the fair folk of British folklore, rated 13+ by Common Sense Media. The Shadows Between Us by Tricia Levenseller (2020) is also a single book, about a heroine who plans to marry, then kill, the Shadow King.

Is Powerless like The Cruel Prince? Partly. Powerless pairs an ordinary heroine with Kai Azer, a prince of Ilya, during deadly trials that Common Sense Media compares to The Hunger Games. It is rated 14+ like The Cruel Prince, but it has no faeries. Its trilogy ended with Fearless in 2025, so you can read all three now.

Is The Cruel Prince series finished? Yes. The Folk of the Air trilogy ended with The Queen of Nothing in 2019. Holly Black then wrote The Stolen Heir (2023) and The Prisoner's Throne (2024), set in the same world, which Wikipedia lists as her Novels of Elfhame. Both books are out, so that duology is finished as well.

Related Reading

• Romantasy books like guide: every "books like" list on FaeShelf, sorted by what readers loved.
• Books like Fourth Wing: war colleges, dragons and enemies to lovers, with sourced spice.
• Romantasy tropes guide: enemies to lovers, fae courts and the other tropes in this list.

References

• Common Sense Media: The Cruel Prince
• Goodreads: The Cruel Prince (checked October 9, 2026)
• Wikipedia: Holly Black bibliography
• Hachette Book Group: The Stolen Heir
• Common Sense Media: The Stolen Heir
• Common Sense Media: An Enchantment of Ravens
• Macmillan: The Shadows Between Us
• Common Sense Media: The Shadows Between Us
• Macmillan: The Winner's Curse
• Common Sense Media: The Winner's Curse
• Macmillan: Once Upon a Broken Heart
• Common Sense Media: Once Upon a Broken Heart
• Wikipedia: Stephanie Garber bibliography
• Common Sense Media: Powerless
• Wikipedia: Powerless (novel)
• Goodreads: Kingdom of the Wicked
• Common Sense Media: Quicksilver
• Publishers Weekly: The Serpent and the Wings of Night
• r/RomanceBooks: enemies to lovers fantasy like Cruel Prince