Romantasy has stopped being a trend and started behaving like a permanent category, which changes what a year-end list is for. In 2023 the job was to point at the handful of books that existed. In 2026 there are more than a hundred and the job is to say which are worth your time and, more usefully, which kind of reader each one is for. Ten books, in release order, with what each is actually offering.
What changed in 2026
Three things, and they are all visible in the list below.
The first is contemporary authors crossing over. Devney Perry and J.R. Ward both have long careers in other subgenres and both published romantasy this year. That tends to raise the floor: writers who have shipped twenty books know how to structure a series, which has not always been true of the debut end of this shelf.
The second is that 2025’s debuts are now series. Dire Bound, Silver Elite and The Knight and the Moth all appeared on last year’s list as standalone-ish first books, and all three have sequels here. That is the point at which a category stops being a bubble.
The third is range. This list includes a dystopian, a gothic, a Beauty-and-the-Beast retelling, a shifter series and a courtly slow burn. Two years ago "romantasy" meant fae courts or dragons. It no longer does — which is worth knowing if you tried one and decided the genre was not for you.
The best romantasy books of 2026
In release order. Several are sequels, and those are flagged — do not start there.
Throne of Nightmares: A Novel — Kerri Maniscalco
Maniscalco’s Prince of Sin series has been the reliable middle ground between YA-adjacent romantasy and the properly adult end of the shelf, and this is book three. If you came to the genre through ACOTAR and found the darker Nyaxia-style books too bleak, this is calibrated for you — high courts, sharp banter, a hero who is genuinely dangerous but written with humour.
Crown of War and Shadow — J.R. Ward
The most interesting release of early 2026 on structural grounds: J.R. Ward, who essentially built modern paranormal romance with the Black Dagger Brotherhood, moving into high fantasy. Ward’s strengths — brotherhood dynamics, long arcs, men who are terrible at feelings — translate well. Worth reading if you want romantasy written by someone with twenty years of series discipline behind her.
The Light Under the Shadow Wing — Amanda Bouchet
Bouchet has been writing well-regarded fantasy romance since the Kingmaker Chronicles, and this is the slow-burn court-intrigue end of the spectrum rather than the trials-and-tournaments end. A good pick if the political manoeuvring in ACOTAR’s later books was your favourite part and you found Fourth Wing’s pacing too breathless.
Rites of the Starling — Devney Perry
Perry is a contemporary-romance name — small towns, cowboys, second chances — making the jump to epic romantasy, which is the defining career move of the last two years in this genre. She writes emotional interiority better than most of the fantasy-first authors, which is exactly what the subgenre has been short of.
Fury Bound — Sable Sorensen
The sequel to Dire Bound, which was one of the breakout BookTok romantasy debuts of 2025 and made the list last year. Shifters, a brutal world, and a heat level well above the genre average. Read book one first — this is not a standalone.
Broken Dove — Dani Francis
Follows Silver Elite, the dystopian-romantasy hybrid that was the surprise of 2025. It sits closer to science fiction than fae courts — a repressive state, a hidden ability, a rebellion — and it is the entry point on this list for readers who bounce off high fantasy but want the same enemies-to-lovers architecture.
A Curse of Beasts and Magic — Jeaniene Frost
Frost has been writing paranormal romance since before romantasy was a marketing category, and this is her working a Beauty-and-the-Beast frame — the same skeleton ACOTAR is built on. The craft is noticeably tighter than most of the current crop, which is what two decades of series writing buys you.
The Exquisite Torment of Loving Your Enemy — Brigitte Knightley
The conclusion to the duology that began with The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy, and the sharpest prose of anything on this list. A healer and an assassin, forced to work together, and a slow burn that is genuinely slow. If you are tired of romantasy that reads like a first draft, start with book one and read both.
The Lion and the Deathless Dark — Carissa Broadbent
Broadbent is the strongest world-builder currently working in the subgenre and Crowns of Nyaxia has become its most coherent long-form universe. Darker and less comic than Maas, with real internal logic to the vampire houses. Start with The Serpent and the Wings of Night if you have not.
The Knave and the Moon — Rachel Gillig
The sequel to The Knight and the Moth, which made last year’s list. Gillig writes the most atmospheric prose in mainstream romantasy — genuinely gothic rather than gothic-flavoured — and the first book’s ending demanded this one. The newest release on this list, out at the start of the month.
Where to start if you are new
None of these. Start with the books that built the category — A Court of Thorns and Roses or Fourth Wing — and use this list once you know which direction you want to go. Our romantasy explainer covers the boundary with epic fantasy, and books like ACOTAR maps the readalikes.
If you read last year’s list
Four of these are direct sequels to books on it: Fury Bound, Broken Dove, The Knave and the Moon and the second Dearly Beloathed. Our 2025 romantasy list is still up if you want to go back and fill the gaps first.
And if you would rather browse than be told, the whole catalogue filters by subgenre, trope and heat level — romantasy plus a trope is usually a better query than any list.