What Should You Read If the Dragon Bond Hooked You?
Violet's bond with Tairn and Andarna isn't just a magic system, it's the emotional spine of Fourth Wing. These five treat the human-dragon bond the same way, as the actual relationship the book is about.
- Eragon by Christopher Paolini (2003): The original YA dragon-bond template. A farm boy and his dragon Saphira grow up together across four books, with the telepathic bond doing exactly what Violet and Tairn's does.
- His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik (2006): A Napoleonic-war naval captain gets adopted by a dragon instead of the other way around. Less romance, more military strategy, and a genuinely moving human-dragon partnership.
- Fireborne by Rosaria Munda (2019): A dragon-riding academy built on a class revolution, where two rivals raised almost as siblings compete for the top position. The closest read-alike to Fourth Wing's training-yard structure.
- When the Moon Hatched by Sarah A. Parker (2024): A viral BookTok pick later picked up by HarperCollins, where dragons literally become moons when they die. Darker and more lyrical than Fourth Wing, with a slower-burn enemies-to-lovers pull.
- The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon (2019): A dense, standalone epic where becoming a dragon rider is one character's entire arc. Go here if you want the world-building depth of a five-book series packed into one 800-page book.
What Should You Read for Xaden and Violet's Slow Burn?
The enemies-to-lovers pull between Violet and Xaden, an execution order standing between them, is doing as much work as the dragons. These four lean into that dynamic hardest.
- The Bridge Kingdom by Danielle L. Jensen (2020): A warrior princess trained her whole life to spy on and destroy her new husband's kingdom, then has to decide if the marriage she was sent to sabotage is worth keeping.
- Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross (2023): Two rival journalists write anonymous letters to each other through a magic wardrobe, not realizing who's on the other end, while gods wage war around them. Angst over heat.
- Powerless by Lauren Roberts (2023): A girl from the powerless slums and a prince hiding his own secret both compete in the same deadly trials. Written by a BookTok creator who filmed the entire process.
- Kingdom of the Wicked by Kerri Maniscalco (2020): A witch summons a demon prince to help avenge her murdered twin sister, and the bargain between them turns into something neither intended. Dark, Sicilian-set, and morally messy.
What Should You Read If the War-College Trials Hooked You?
Basgiath, the parapet, and the ravine aren't just setting, they're the plot. These four treat a brutal training or trial system as the main event.
- The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang (2018): An orphan tests into an elite military academy, and the book gets progressively darker as training gives way to actual war. Almost no romance, all consequence.
- An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir (2015): Blackcliff Military Academy trains soldiers from age six, and the story follows a spy sent to infiltrate it and a Mask forced to enforce its cruelty. Dual POV, high stakes.
- The Serpent and the Wings of Night by Carissa Broadbent (2022): A human girl raised by vampires enters the Kejari, a tournament to the death, to earn her place. Same deadly-contest structure as Fourth Wing's trials, with vampires instead of dragons.
- Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao (2021): A concubine-pilot kills the ace pilot she's paired with instead of dying like she's supposed to. A brutal, mecha-piloting trial system standing in for Fourth Wing's parapet.
What Should You Read If You Came From ACOTAR?
If Fourth Wing was your first romantasy after years of Sarah J. Maas, or the other way around, these bridge the two worlds.
- A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas (2015): The book that arguably built the modern romantasy wave. A human huntress is dragged into a fae court, and the slow burn shifts from her first captor to someone else entirely by book two.
- Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas (2012): An assassin competes to become the king's champion. Less overt romance than early ACOTAR, more court intrigue and a training-competition structure closer to Fourth Wing's.
- House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas (2020): Maas's adult series, denser and more explicit than ACOTAR. A half-fae party girl turned investigator teams up with a fallen angel to solve her friend's murder.
- From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout (2020): Explicitly marketed to ACOTAR readers by its own publisher. A sheltered, veiled princess and the guard hiding his identity from her, with an enemies-to-lovers arc that runs just as hot.
Is There a Lower-Spice Option?
Spice level is the single biggest variable across this list, and it's worth being honest about upfront. From Blood and Ash and The Bridge Kingdom run explicit and open-door, roughly Fourth Wing's heat or higher. An Ember in the Ashes, The Poppy War, and Eragon keep romance secondary or entirely off the page. If you want the genre's cozy, low-stakes comfort with zero spice at all, Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree (2022) follows a retired orc barbarian opening a coffee shop instead of picking up a sword again. High fantasy, low stakes, no closed door to worry about.
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| If Fourth Wing gave you... | Read this next | Why it's the closest match |
|---|---|---|
| The dragon bond | Fireborne | Same academy structure, same emotional weight placed on the bond itself |
| The enemies-to-lovers slow burn | The Bridge Kingdom | An arranged marriage between enemies, with the same trust-building arc |
| The deadly trial system | The Poppy War | A military academy exam that turns genuinely brutal, minus the romance softening it |
| The ACOTAR-adjacent court politics | A Court of Thorns and Roses | The same court-intrigue-meets-romance engine that helped build the genre |
| The explicit heat level | From Blood and Ash | Open-door spice built around the same enemies-to-lovers structure |
| Wanting zero spice at all | Legends & Lattes | All the fantasy comfort, none of the closed door |
How Many Books Are in the Fourth Wing Series So Far?
The Empyrean series is planned for five books. Three are published: Fourth Wing (May 2023), Iron Flame (November 2023), and Onyx Storm (January 2025), all from Red Tower Books. Onyx Storm alone sold roughly 1.3 million copies across its first week at BookScan-tracked outlets, per Publishers Weekly. Book four is untitled and has no release date; Rebecca Yarros confirmed in March 2026 she's writing it full-time. Threshing Day, a September 29, 2026 short story collection featuring 13 stories about existing Empyrean characters, is a companion release, not book four, so don't mistake one for the other while you wait.
Why Does Romantasy Feel Like a Community, Not Just a Genre?
Romantasy readers don't just read and move on, they discuss, annotate, and buddy-read in public. #BookTok has passed 370 billion views, #romantasy sits around 800 million, and #FourthWing alone has drawn over a billion, spawning fan art and cosplay most single-book fandoms never reach.
Pew Research found in an April 2026 survey that 75% of U.S. adults read all or part of a book in the past year, but only 7% belong to a book club, women at roughly twice the rate of men (10% vs. 5%). Romance sales back up the appetite: print romance units were up 24% year over year in 2025, with romantasy posting triple-digit growth within that category, according to Circana BookScan. Most romantasy readers are reading alone and want more community than the book itself provides. A recurring club is one route there, and our guide to finding a book club covers library groups, Goodreads threads, and silent book clubs that require zero small talk.
Reading is also one of the most-selected interests Introvrs members pick at onboarding, 888 members as of August 2026, per internal platform data. Introvrs (introvrs.com) is a platonic friendship app, not a dating app, that matches you directly with one compatible person based on shared interests like reading, so the conversation about whether Xaden deserved that gets to start from an actual overlap instead of a comment section. If that first exchange about a book goes quiet, that's normal, most single conversations do. Reply about a specific plot point instead of a generic greeting, and it tends to pick back up. Once the talk moves past the book itself, a few deep questions to ask friends keep it from stalling out.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Fourth Wing Finished, or Is Book 4 Still Coming?
Fourth Wing isn't finished. The Empyrean series is planned for five books, and only three are out: Fourth Wing (2023), Iron Flame (2023), and Onyx Storm (2025). Rebecca Yarros confirmed in March 2026 that she's writing book four, but it has no title or release date yet. Threshing Day, a short story collection releasing September 29, 2026, is a companion piece, not book four.
What Should I Read Next If the Dragon Bond Was Your Favorite Part?
Fireborne by Rosaria Munda and His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik both center the dragon-and-rider bond as the emotional core, not a backdrop. Fireborne adds a dragon-riding academy and class-revolution politics close to Fourth Wing's stakes. His Majesty's Dragon is lower on romance and higher on war strategy, so it fits if you loved the bond more than the kissing.
Are All Fourth Wing Read-Alikes This Spicy?
No. Spice level varies a lot across romantasy. From Blood and Ash and The Bridge Kingdom run about as hot as Fourth Wing, with explicit, open-door scenes. An Ember in the Ashes and The Poppy War keep romance mostly off the page. Legends and Lattes has none at all, just a cozy fantasy coffee shop, if you want the genre's comfort without any heat.
What's the Actual Difference Between Fantasy Romance and Romantasy?
They overlap more than they differ. Romantasy is the newer, broader term readers and publishers use for any fantasy where a central romance drives the plot, popularized by BookTok around 2020. Fantasy romance is the older, more specific label for the same books. Fourth Wing, ACOTAR, and From Blood and Ash all get called both, depending on who's recommending them.
Is It Weird to Bond With a Match Over a Spicy Book?
No, and it reads as exactly what it is: two people who like the same genre. Talking about a book's tension or a character's arc isn't a signal about anything else, the same as discussing any show or hobby you share. If you'd rather it stay clearly platonic, saying so directly is easier than worrying the topic implies it.
Where Do Romantasy Readers Actually Talk About These Books?
Mostly on BookTok, where #FourthWing alone has drawn over a billion views and #romantasy sits around 800 million. Beyond hashtags, Goodreads buddy reads, Fable clubs, and Discord servers built around specific series host the deeper discussion threads. Introvrs (introvrs.com) is a different route to the same thing: a platonic friendship app that matches you directly based on shared interests like reading.