Books Like Throne of Glass: 8 Picks by What Hooked You

Ask r/fantasyromance for books like Throne of Glass, as one April 2026 thread did, and the top reply (u/Minimum-Material-783, 26 points) is The Road of Bones, book 1 of Demi Winters's Ashen series. The same series topped a louder thread in November 2025, where the poster wanted "the new current obsession on TikTok": "The Ashen Series by Demi Winters. You're welcome." That's u/cidavid, 340 points. So for the long saga, start with The Road of Bones; for the competition, The Serpent and the Wings of Night; for an assassin at the center, The Wolf and the Crown of Blood, after you've read its heat note.

The heat note matters because Throne of Glass book 1 sits at 1 on our spice scale, placed from a Common Sense Media line about "a couple of hot, long-awaited kisses". Five of the eight picks below run hotter, two sit at the same 1, and one we can't place yet. The table says which.

Books like Throne of Glass, at a glance

Chart: FaeShelf; source for each level is the note named in the table

If it was the long saga

Throne of Glass is a long commitment: Bloomsbury's page lists the later books from Crown of Midnight to Kingdom of Ash, plus the prequel novellas. Length is what the April 2026 thread was really asking for: the poster wanted "an epic series with lots of twists and turns" and added "Don't mind spice but it's also not necessary."

The Road of Bones by Demi Winters

"A woman on the run. A crew of Viking mercenaries. A forbidden romance." That's the author's own pitch. Silla hides in a supply wagon of "the notorious Bloodaxe Crew" while "the queen's ruthless assassin" hunts her down the road. It's "Book 1 in the 5-book ashen series", and the author's books page has book 4, Embers of Chaos, on pre-order. The top reply in the April thread called it "very TOG-esque to me (but with spice)". One wrinkle if you open that comment: it credits the book to Rachel Gillig, but the count it gives, "three books (plus a novella) out so far", is Demi Winters's, whose press kit says "3 novels and 1 novella have been published as of 2026".

Then the spice. Winters's own content warnings say the series "is intended for audiences 18 +" and list "graphic sex". A note that calls the sex graphic without counting scenes is a 3 on our scale, the same band as The Bridge Kingdom below, and romance.io's label, posted by u/romance-bot in the same thread, lands in the same place: "3 out of 5", "Open door". Read it if you want ToG's sprawl with the door open. Skip it if the long-awaited kisses were the point.

Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey

Phèdre is sold into servitude as a child and trained into an "Exquisite courtesan, talented spy...and unlikely heroine" in a realm of "deadly courtiers". Tor calls it the first book in the Kushiel's Legacy series. u/chodoyodo (9 points) sold it with a warning attached: "every book's huge and the plots are cray cray", and "be mindful of the content warnings before you delve it gets rather dark at times". It's a 4 on our scale, from Publishers Weekly: "Not everyone will go for Phèdre's graphic if elegantly described sexual encounters, which usually involve the infliction of pain, whether from lashing, branding or even cutting." Pick it for the court politics. Skip it if Throne of Glass's kisses were about your limit, or if pain on the page is.

House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas

The same author, rated 17+ by Common Sense Media. Bryce teams up with Hunt, a Fallen angel whose skills are "set to one purpose-assassinate his boss's enemies, no questions asked". Bloomsbury lists House of Sky and Breath and House of Flame and Shadow after it. The note, "A few long scenes depict sexual acts", makes it a 4. If what you miss is Maas's voice, this is the obvious next shelf, and our ACOTAR read-alikes cover her other one.

If it was the competition

Book 1's engine is a contest: if she beats "twenty-three murderers, thieves, and warriors in a competition", she walks out of prison as the King's Champion. Two picks run on the same engine: Powerless sits at 1, and we can't place The Serpent and the Wings of Night yet.

The Serpent and the Wings of Night by Carissa Broadbent

Macmillan's pitch is "The Hunger Games meets vampires". Oraya, the adopted human daughter of the vampire king, enters the Kejari, "a legendary tournament held by the goddess of death herself", and has to ally with Raihn, "an enemy to her father's crown… and her greatest competition". It's the first of the Crowns of Nyaxia books, and the author's reading-order page already lists a sixth main book. We can't place its heat from any note we can quote yet, so no number. Pick it if the contest was your favorite part of book 1; if you need the heat settled first, take Powerless until we can place this one. Our Serpent read-alikes go further down this road.

Powerless by Lauren Roberts

Paedyn, an Ordinary who "poses as a Psychic", saves a prince and "finds herself thrown into the Purging Trials". The note behind our 1: "Mild kissing but plenty of touching and tension leading up to it." That's Throne of Glass's own heat, and Simon & Schuster calls Fearless the trilogy's "thrilling conclusion", so the series is finished. It's the safe pick for a reader who wants the trials and nothing hotter than book 1. The later books climb to 2, which our low spice romantasy list tracks book by book.

If it was the assassin

Book 1's heroine is an assassin first. These three put a trained fighter with a target at the center, and they're as far apart on heat as this list gets.

The Wolf and the Crown of Blood by Elizabeth May

Bryony "was born to die-again and again", sacrificed and resurrected to appease the gods, until the god-king sends "an immortal assassin known only as the Wolf". Bloomsbury calls it "A thrilling and incredibly sexy new romantasy series". Publishers Weekly is less charmed: "the emphasis on over-the-top kinky sex frequently supersedes both story and theme". That's a 5, the top of our scale and the hottest pick here. Pick it if the assassin plot hooked you and you want the heat turned all the way up; skip it if story comes first, since that's exactly PW's complaint.

The Bridge Kingdom by Danielle L. Jensen

Lara is "A warrior princess trained in isolation", sent to Ithicana "as a bride under the guise of peace" and ready to "fracture its impenetrable defenses". The author's own note lists "Explicit (consensual) sexual content", a 3 on our scale. Penguin Random House names five books in the series. Pick it if the warrior-with-a-mission setup was the hook; skip it if open door is past your line.

Graceling by Kristin Cashore

"Katsa's Grace is killing." As the king's niece, she's his "brutal enforcer" until she meets Prince Po. Publishers Weekly's note keeps it at 1: "Their exquisitely drawn romance (the sex is offstage)". HarperCollins lists a sequel, Fire, and a companion, Bitterblue, and the award line "ALA Best Book for Young Adults". Of the three assassin picks, it's the only one at 1, so it's the one to take if the killing skills hooked you and the kisses were enough.

What the threads didn't agree on

The November thread comes with a caveat. Its poster wasn't asking what reads like Throne of Glass but for "the new current obsession on TikTok", so its 340 points measure hype, not likeness. Within that thread, the Ashen answer drew about four times the next reply that names a book, u/WildFlame11's 84 for Wolf King and Fourth Wing. Not everyone bought the premise. u/October_13th (47 points) answered: "I don't think there is a single series that's "it" right now."

On October 16 we went back to the April thread, the one actually asking for ToG read-alikes, and tallied its nine highest-voted top-level replies. Melissa K. Roehrich's books came up in three of them, more than any other author. u/WeirdBag2917 (15 points) gave the reason: "big ToG vibes with the multiple POVs and relationships". Only two of those nine answers, The Road of Bones and Kushiel's Dart, are books we've placed on our scale, and that gap is our to-do list. Treat the Roehrich books as the readers' pick, not ours. Every point count in this article is the archived one from about two days after each thread went up (November 28, 2025 and April 13, 2026), not today's total.

Our take: books like Throne of Glass, if we could hand you one

The Road of Bones. It's the top answer in the thread that asked for books like Throne of Glass, and the hype pick in the one that asked what's next on TikTok. The catch is in the author's own warnings: 18+, with "graphic sex" on the list. If that's a dealbreaker, take Powerless: the same contest engine, the same heat, and an ending already in print.

Related Reading

• Books like Fourth Wing: another trials-and-war pick list, split by what hooked you.
• Books like From Blood and Ash: long series with a heroine kept under guard.
• Romantasy books like guide: every read-alike list we've published, in one place.
• Completed romantasy series: for when you want the whole series out before you start.

References

• r/fantasyromance: What's the new current ACOTAR/Throne of Glass? (November 2025)
• r/fantasyromance: Look for series like tog (April 2026)
• Bloomsbury: Throne of Glass
• Common Sense Media: Throne of Glass
• Demi Winters: The Road of Bones
• Demi Winters: All books
• Demi Winters: Press kit
• Macmillan: The Serpent and the Wings of Night
• Carissa Broadbent: Reading orders
• Simon & Schuster: Powerless
• Simon & Schuster: Fearless
• Common Sense Media: Powerless
• Bloomsbury: The Wolf and the Crown of Blood
• Publishers Weekly: The Wolf and the Crown of Blood
• Penguin Random House: The Bridge Kingdom
• Danielle L. Jensen: The Bridge Kingdom
• HarperCollins: Graceling
• Publishers Weekly: Graceling
• Macmillan: Kushiel's Dart
• Publishers Weekly: Kushiel's Dart
• Bloomsbury: House of Earth and Blood
• Common Sense Media: House of Earth and Blood