Best Books
Books Like Fourth Wing: 17 Reads for After the Empyrean
Quick answer
Read The Serpent and the Wings of Night by Carissa Broadbent next. It is the closest match to what makes Fourth Wing work: a human heroine who is physically outmatched by everyone around her, a death tournament most entrants do not survive, a forced alliance with the one rival she should never trust, and an adult slow burn with a similar heat level.
The 3-book shortlist: The Serpent and the Wings of Night (the romantasy match), Fireborne by Rosaria Munda (dragonriders ranked in a ruthless training program, YA, almost no spice) and Red Rising by Pierce Brown (Basgiath's brutality with the romance turned down). Waiting on the Empyrean? Book 4 has no title or date as of October 2026; status box below.
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Fourth Wing is really four books stacked on top of each other: a dragon-bond fantasy, a war-college survival story, an enemies-to-lovers romance, and a political conspiracy that turns the whole school upside down. Very few books do all four, so the list below is grouped by which part you loved most. Every pick says what it shares with Fourth Wing, where it is different, how much spice it has, and whether the series is finished.
Empyrean status, October 2026. Three novels are out: Fourth Wing (2023), Iron Flame (2023) and Onyx Storm (2025).
Confirmed Threshing Day came out on September 29, 2026. It is a companion collection of thirteen stories set on a single day, filed as Empyrean #3.5, and the official site calls it “not the continuation of Violet and Xaden’s story after Onyx Storm” (threshingday.com; rebeccayarros.com). Details: Threshing Day release guide.
Not confirmed Book 4 has no title and no release date as of October 2026. The series is planned at five books, so Book 4 is not the finale. Full order: Fourth Wing books in order.
All 17 picks at a glance
| # | Book | Best if you loved | Spice | Series status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fireborne Rosaria Munda | Dragons + rankings | None | Complete (3) |
| 2 | The Rage of Dragons Evan Winter | Brutal training | Low | Ongoing (2 of 4) |
| 3 | His Majesty's Dragon Naomi Novik | The rider-dragon bond | None | Complete (9) |
| 4 | When the Moon Hatched Sarah A. Parker | Dragons + adult romance | High | Ongoing (2) |
| 5 | The Poppy War R. F. Kuang | The academy, then war | None | Complete (3) |
| 6 | Red Rising Pierce Brown | The killing-school stakes | Low | Ongoing (6) |
| 7 | The Serpent and the Wings of Night Carissa Broadbent | Trials + enemies-to-lovers | Moderate | Ongoing (5) |
| 8 | Quicksilver Callie Hart | Banter + a grumpy hero | High | Ongoing (2) |
| 9 | From Blood and Ash Jennifer L. Armentrout | Twists + a guard with secrets | High | Ongoing (6) |
| 10 | A Court of Thorns and Roses Sarah J. Maas | The original romantasy blueprint | Moderate–High | Ongoing (5 + 2 dated) |
| 11 | The Bridge Kingdom Danielle L. Jensen | A trained-weapon heroine | High | Ongoing (6) |
| 12 | A Deadly Education Naomi Novik | A school that kills students | None | Complete (3) |
| 13 | Throne of Glass Sarah J. Maas | A competition to the death | Low–Moderate | Complete (7 + prequel) |
| 14 | Legendborn Tracy Deonn | Secret-society initiation trials | None | Ongoing (3) |
| 15 | Powerless Lauren Roberts | Trials + a forbidden prince | None | Complete (3) |
| 16 | An Ember in the Ashes Sabaa Tahir | The military academy | Low | Complete (4) |
| 17 | Iron Widow Xiran Jay Zhao | A furious heroine + giant beasts | Low | 2 books so far |
How we chose and how we rate spice
We started from the books that readers and booksellers recommend most often after Fourth Wing, then cut anything that only matched on marketing (a dragon on the cover is not enough). A pick had to share at least two of the four things above, and we checked every series count and status against the publisher or author listing, Goodreads and Open Library as of October 3, 2026.
Spice levels use four plain steps, based on the publisher’s age category (young adult or adult) and the consensus of widely documented reader reviews, not our own invention: None (kissing at most), Low (closed door or fade to black), Moderate (one or two on-page scenes), High (several explicit scenes). Fourth Wing itself sits at Moderate to High. Content notes flag violence or abuse that goes beyond what Fourth Wing shows.
If you loved the dragons and the war college
Basgiath, the Gauntlet, the bond with Tairn. These books put the training, the rankings and the dragons first and the romance second.
1. Fireborne by Rosaria Munda
The nearest thing to a YA Fourth Wing. After a revolution, orphans from every class compete to become dragonriders, and the rankings decide who leads the new republic.
- What it shares with Fourth Wing: dragon bonds, a cutthroat rider program with public rankings, and a tournament that decides who holds power. Annie, a lowborn rider, is the underdog everyone writes off.
- How it differs: it is young adult, the two narrators are childhood friends rather than enemies, and the politics (loosely inspired by Plato’s Republic) matter as much as the flying.
- Spice and content: None. Kissing only; war violence and the aftermath of a massacre.
- Series status: complete trilogy: Fireborne (2019), Flamefall (2021), Furysong (2022).
- Where to start: Fireborne (2019).
2. The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter
A revenge epic built around years of punishing military training, in a caste society that uses summoned dragons as weapons of war.
- What it shares with Fourth Wing: a lead who starts at the bottom of a military hierarchy and refuses to stay there, training sequences that hurt to read, and a war that keeps escalating.
- How it differs: the narrator is a young man, Tau, the romance is small, and the dragons are summoned terrors rather than bonded partners with opinions.
- Spice and content: Low. Violence is very high and graphic.
- Series status: ongoing. Two books are out, The Rage of Dragons (2017) and The Fires of Vengeance (2020). Book 3, The Lord of Demons, is listed by retailers for 2027, which we treat as tentative.
- Where to start: The Rage of Dragons (2017).
3. His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik
The Napoleonic Wars, with an aerial corps of dragons. A navy captain ends up bonded to a hatchling named Temeraire and has to join a branch of the military he looked down on.
- What it shares with Fourth Wing: the rider and dragon bond at the center of everything, a dragon with a real personality (Tairn and Andarna fans, this is your book) and a military unit with its own rules.
- How it differs: no romance to speak of, a gentler and wittier tone, and an alternate-history setting rather than a secondary world.
- Spice and content: None. Battle scenes, nothing graphic.
- Series status: complete in nine novels, ending with League of Dragons (2016).
- Where to start: His Majesty's Dragon (2006), published as Temeraire in the UK.
4. When the Moon Hatched by Sarah A. Parker
The pick for readers who want dragons and an explicit adult romance in the same book. Raeve is an assassin with a dragon of her own and a past that keeps unspooling.
- What it shares with Fourth Wing: dragons central to the plot, a bonded heroine, a cliffhanger ending and an adult romance with real heat.
- How it differs: it is darker and slower than Fourth Wing, the world-building is dense, and readers split hard on it. There is no school or academy.
- Spice and content: High, per widely documented reader reviews. Content notes: graphic violence, abuse and torture.
- Series status: ongoing Moonfall series: When the Moon Hatched (2024) and The Ballad of Falling Dragons (2026).
- Where to start: When the Moon Hatched (2024).
5. The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang
A war orphan from a backwater province studies her way through the exam into Sinegard, the empire’s elite military academy. Then the war comes, and the book stops being about school.
- What it shares with Fourth Wing: an underdog heroine everyone underestimates, sadistic instructors, a combat curriculum and a war that rewrites everything the students were taught.
- How it differs: this is adult grimdark drawn from 20th-century Chinese history, with no romance arc and atrocities on the page. It is the hardest read on this list.
- Spice and content: None. Content notes: genocide, drug use and sexual violence.
- Series status: complete trilogy: The Poppy War (2018), The Dragon Republic (2019), The Burning God (2020).
- Where to start: The Poppy War (2018).
6. Red Rising by Pierce Brown
Darrow, a miner from the lowest caste on Mars, is remade to infiltrate the ruling Golds through the Institute, a school where students fight, scheme and die.
- What it shares with Fourth Wing: a school where classmates can kill each other, a rigid color-coded hierarchy, a rebellion hiding inside the system and constant betrayals.
- How it differs: it is science fiction, the narrator is male and the romance is secondary. Readers often call it Fourth Wing without the spice, which is fair.
- Spice and content: Low. Content notes: graphic violence; sexual violence is referenced in the first book.
- Series status: six novels through Light Bringer (2023). A seventh, Red God, has been announced with no release date as of October 2026.
- Where to start: Red Rising (2014). Books 1–3 make a complete first arc.
If you loved Violet and Xaden: enemies-to-lovers romantasy
The banter, the danger, the “he could kill me and I still want him” tension. These are the romance-forward picks, all adult.
7. The Serpent and the Wings of Night by Carissa Broadbent
Our top pick. Oraya, the human adopted daughter of a vampire king, enters the Kejari, a goddess’s tournament that most competitors do not survive, and has to ally with the rival she should kill.
- What it shares with Fourth Wing: a fragile human among predators who wins on brains and nerve, a deadly multi-round competition, a slow burn with a dangerous man and a twist that reframes the book.
- How it differs: vampires instead of dragons, and the plot stays tight around one tournament rather than a whole school year.
- Spice and content: Moderate, per widely documented reader reviews: a slow burn with explicit scenes in the back half.
- Series status: Crowns of Nyaxia has five novels as of 2026, the newest The Lion & the Deathless Dark (2026). Books 1–2 complete Oraya’s story; later books follow other characters in the same world.
- Where to start: The Serpent and the Wings of Night (2022).
8. Quicksilver by Callie Hart
Saeris, a thief in a dying desert city, gets dragged into the fae world by Kingfisher, a cursed warrior who would clearly rather she did not exist.
- What it shares with Fourth Wing: a sharp-tongued heroine, a lethal and irritable love interest, a war in the background and plenty of verbal sparring.
- How it differs: fae and alchemy rather than dragons, a long book, and noticeably more explicit than Fourth Wing.
- Spice and content: High.
- Series status: Fae & Alchemy: Quicksilver (2024) and Brimstone (2025). Book 3 is untitled and listed for 2027, which we treat as tentative.
- Where to start: Quicksilver (2024).
9. From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout
Poppy is the Maiden, veiled and forbidden to be touched, until her new guard Hawke turns out to be far more than a guard.
- What it shares with Fourth Wing: a guarded heroine who learns to fight, a love interest hiding who he is, big reveals and a kingdom-level war.
- How it differs: a vampire-adjacent world instead of dragons, a much longer series, and a style readers either love or bounce off.
- Spice and content: High.
- Series status: six main novels through The Primal of Blood and Bone (2025); a seventh, The Throne of Bone and Ash, is listed with no date. A prequel series, Flesh and Fire, shares the world.
- Where to start: From Blood and Ash (2020).
10. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
If somehow you have not read it, this is the series that built the romantasy shelf Fourth Wing sits on. Feyre, a human hunter, is taken into the faerie lands as payment for a killing.
- What it shares with Fourth Wing: a mortal heroine among immortals, a romance with a dangerous powerful male, and a later war arc with huge stakes.
- How it differs: fae courts instead of a war college, and book 1 is a slower Beauty and the Beast retelling. The series hits its stride in book 2.
- Spice and content: Moderate in book 1, High from book 2.
- Series status: five books out. Book 6, A Court of Splintered Harmony, publishes October 27, 2026, and book 7 on January 12, 2027 (Bloomsbury). See ACOTAR books in order.
- Where to start: A Court of Thorns and Roses (2015).
11. The Bridge Kingdom by Danielle L. Jensen
Lara has been trained since childhood to be a weapon, then married off to King Aren of the Bridge Kingdom with orders to destroy him from the inside.
- What it shares with Fourth Wing: enemies-to-lovers between people on opposite sides of a war, a heroine who fights, and a romance that collides with loyalty.
- How it differs: spy intrigue rather than dragons or school, and a faster, leaner book.
- Spice and content: High, per widely documented reader reviews.
- Series status: six books through The Tempest Blade (2025). Books 1–2 complete Lara and Aren’s story; later books follow other characters.
- Where to start: The Bridge Kingdom (2018).
If you loved the deadly school and the trials
For readers who liked Basgiath as a setting: the rules, the rivals, the sense that the school itself wants you dead.
12. A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik
The Scholomance is a magic school with no teachers, where monsters come up through the drains and a good chunk of each class dies before graduation.
- What it shares with Fourth Wing: a school designed to kill you, alliances made for survival, and a prickly heroine (El) forced to work with the golden boy everyone loves.
- How it differs: first-person snark, almost no romance, and magic instead of dragons.
- Spice and content: None.
- Series status: complete trilogy: A Deadly Education (2020), The Last Graduate (2021), The Golden Enclaves (2022).
- Where to start: A Deadly Education (2020).
13. Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
Celaena Sardothien, an assassin pulled out of a death camp, competes to become the king’s champion. The competition is book 1; the series becomes a continent-wide war.
- What it shares with Fourth Wing: a lethal competition, a heroine with a hidden past, a love triangle and, later, witches who ride wyverns into battle.
- How it differs: it starts young adult and fairly slow, and the scope grows into full epic fantasy.
- Spice and content: Low in the early books, Moderate later.
- Series status: complete in seven novels ending with Kingdom of Ash (2018), plus The Assassin’s Blade prequel novellas. Order notes: Sarah J. Maas books in order.
- Where to start: Throne of Glass (2012).
14. Legendborn by Tracy Deonn
After her mother’s death, Bree Matthews joins an early-college program at UNC and stumbles into a secret society built on Arthurian legend, with brutal initiation trials.
- What it shares with Fourth Wing: a heroine who forces her way into an elite order that did not want her, combat trials, and a guarded love interest.
- How it differs: young adult, a contemporary campus, and a central thread about grief and family history.
- Spice and content: None.
- Series status: three books, Legendborn (2020), Bloodmarked (2022) and Oathbound (2025); a fourth is announced, untitled.
- Where to start: Legendborn (2020).
YA-safe alternatives
For younger readers, or anyone who wants the stakes without the spice. All are published as young adult.
15. Powerless by Lauren Roberts
Paedyn is an Ordinary pretending to have powers in a kingdom that executes Ordinaries, and she ends up in the Purging Trials alongside the prince trained to hunt her kind.
- What it shares with Fourth Wing: deadly trials, enemies-to-lovers with someone on the other side, and a heroine hiding the one thing that would get her killed.
- How it differs: lighter and younger, with kisses only.
- Spice and content: None.
- Series status: complete trilogy: Powerless (2023), Reckless (2024), Fearless (2025), plus two novellas.
- Where to start: Powerless (2023).
16. An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir
Blackcliff Academy trains the empire’s masked soldiers. Laia goes in as a slave and a spy; Elias is its best student and wants out.
- What it shares with Fourth Wing: a brutal military academy, a terrifying commandant, Trials that decide the future of the empire and a dual point of view.
- How it differs: a Rome-inspired world, no dragons, and a romance that is a slow tangle rather than a single pairing.
- Spice and content: Low. Content notes: violence and threats of sexual violence.
- Series status: complete quartet ending with A Sky Beyond the Storm (2020).
- Where to start: An Ember in the Ashes (2015).
17. Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao
Girls are drafted as concubine-pilots for giant transforming war machines, and most die. Zetian volunteers to avenge her sister and comes out on top.
- What it shares with Fourth Wing: a heroine underestimated by a whole system, paired combat partnerships that feel like bonds, and a rage-fuelled reinvention.
- How it differs: science fiction mecha instead of dragons, a polyamorous triad instead of a single love interest, and a story drawn from the life of Wu Zetian.
- Spice and content: Low.
- Series status: two books: Iron Widow (2021) and Heavenly Tyrant (2024). We found no announced date for a third as of October 2026.
- Where to start: Iron Widow (2021).
If you only read one from each group
- Dragons: Fireborne (YA) or When the Moon Hatched (adult, spicy).
- Romance: The Serpent and the Wings of Night.
- Deadly school: Red Rising or A Deadly Education.
- Younger readers: Powerless.
Coming at this from the other direction? Our books like ACOTAR list covers the fae-court side of romantasy, and our books like The Hunger Games list has more deadly-competition picks. Browse every list on our best book lists hub.
FAQ
What should I read after Fourth Wing?
The Serpent and the Wings of Night by Carissa Broadbent is the closest match: a human heroine in a deadly tournament, an enemies-to-lovers alliance and a similar adult heat level. For dragons without spice, read Fireborne by Rosaria Munda.
Is there a book after Onyx Storm?
Yes, but not Book 4. Threshing Day, a companion collection of thirteen stories filed as Empyrean #3.5, came out on September 29, 2026. Book 4 has no title or release date as of October 2026, and the series is planned at five books.
What books are like Fourth Wing with dragons?
Fireborne (YA dragonriders in a ranked training program), His Majesty’s Dragon (a rider-dragon bond in the Napoleonic Wars) and When the Moon Hatched (adult dragon romantasy with high spice).
Are there books like Fourth Wing without spice?
Yes. Fireborne, His Majesty’s Dragon, A Deadly Education, Legendborn and Powerless have no on-page sex scenes, and Red Rising keeps romance in the background.
Is Fourth Wing like ACOTAR?
They share a mortal heroine, a dangerous love interest and a romance-forward fantasy, but Fourth Wing is a war-college story with dragons while ACOTAR is about fae courts. Many readers love both; see our books like ACOTAR list.
Is Fourth Wing appropriate for teens?
Fourth Wing is published as adult fiction and contains several explicit scenes plus graphic violence. For teens, try Powerless, Fireborne or An Ember in the Ashes, which are published as young adult.
Seventeen books, four ways in. Start with The Serpent and the Wings of Night if you came for Violet and Xaden, or Fireborne if you came for the dragons.
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