10 best fantasy books for adults with romance
Fantasy to fantasize about.
We’re living in a GLUT of fantasy romance books (thanks, BookTok).
The internet is filled with endless fantasy romance recs, but how do you know what’s your standard YA romantasy—there will likely come a time in every adult reader’s life when YA just doesn’t work for them anymore, and that’s okay!—and what’s bangin’, adult-oriented fantasy literature that includes romance? While I don’t claim to have all the answers, I do claim to have SOME.
If you’re looking for mature love stories, may I humbly suggest these 10 best fantasy books for adults with romance?
Paladin’s Grace by T. Kingfisher
What happens when you combine a cinnamon-sweet holy warrior and a perfume maker on the run from assassins? You get a recipe for love. T. Kingfisher’s Paladin’s Grace is a high fantasy rom-com centering around a paladin mourning their broken faith who falls head over spurs for a small business owner in over her head. If you’re looking for high-stakes action centering around two blood-spattered lovers fighting to save the world, you’ve come to the wrong place. Paladin’s Grace is essentially a slice-of-life story, where much of the literary drama revolves around how the characters feel rather than what they do. This is the kind of book you read in the back corner of a comfortable village inn with a cup of mulled wine. It’s sweet, warm, and cozy—like the best kind of love often is.
Buy Paladin’s Grace on Amazon.
Spear by Nicola Griffith
Have you ever wished the legend of King Arthur had more lesbians? You’re in luck! Spear is basically ALL LESBIANS. The story begins with a young woman named after a pointy stick who sets out on a journey to Camelot to become a renowned warrior. She then gets gloriously sidetracked wooing the most famous woman who appears in the original Arthurian tale: The Lady of the Lake. Eventually, the pair get wise to the fact that King Arthur and his wizard bestie Merlin aren’t as noble as the legends make them out to be, and have to thwart the would-be tyrants before they can assert their influence upon the land. If watching Chappell Roan performing as a knight at the VMA’s permanently altered your brain chemistry, this book is for you.
The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty
Nahri had a good thing going. She was raking in the cash swindling Ottoman nobles out of their possessions by faking spiritual abilities, but while performing a sham ritual, she just so happened to summon a very real djinn. S.A. Chakraborty’s The City of Brass is a Persian fantasy story inspired by the timeless One Thousand and One Nights and the city of djinn that appears within it. After the djinn tells Nahri that she comes from an ancient line of rulers who can trace their lineage back to the mythic city, the pair gallivant across the desert to return to the metallic metropolis. While on her adventures across the trilogy, Nahri has not one, but multiple romances, each with its own complex dynamic based around the ever-shifting politics of the city and the spirits within it. And you thought dating in New York was hard.
Buy The City of Brass on Amazon.
Forging A Nightmare by Patricia A. Jackson
John Milton was right, Paradise was indeed Lost, and the fallen angels made their home on Earth. They helped produce the populace that now lives in Forging A Nightmare’s urban fantasy version of New York City where the action is set, and Heaven knows there’s action here. Hard-boiled FBI agent Michael Childs discovers that the city is being stalked by a grisly serial killer whose targets all have twelve fingers and toes. Meanwhile, a Marine sniper believed to be KIA comes back to the city alive and well, though no longer entirely human. Patricia Jackson’s novel is about two lovers coming to terms with their (lack of) humanity, and realizing that though their bodies might not be 100% homo sapiens, the feelings in their hearts are quite human indeed.
Buy Forging A Nightmare on Amazon.
Kushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carey
Even a world founded by angels whose one law is “love as thou wilt” has its problems. A lot of problems, in fact. No one knows this fact better than Phèdre nó Delaunay, the unwanted daughter of a courtesan who is sold into indentured servitude. Lucky for her, being the protagonist of Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel’s Dart has its perks. She has the good fortune of being marked by an angel, which gives her the ability to experience pain as pleasure. She cultivates this ability after being purchased by a noble and trained to serve as a courtesan and spy, gathering information in the halls of power. Be warned, the prose in these novels is more flowery than a painting of Dutch tulip fields, and the romance is deep, tender, and sentimental. It’s a slow-burning wick in a gilded candelabra, but it’s worth it.
Empire of Sand by Tasha Suri
Did you devour the Jasmine Throne series and need a follow-up? Tasha Suri doesn’t disappoint. The romance in Empire of Sand starts in the worst way possible and ends in the best way possible. Mehr is the illegitimate daughter of a noble and is the inheritor of a powerful and coveted magic passed down from her mother’s side. After her power begins to manifest, she’s forced into an arranged marriage with Amun, a member of a mysterious religious order. While the marriage starts under icky circumstances, both Mehr and Amun begin to legitimately fall for one another, turning from begrudging allies to devoted lovers over the novel’s span. It’s a slow-burn romance about a couple who make the best out of a bad situation, and bring out the best in each other in the process.
The Winternight Trilogy by Katherine Arden
Katherine Arden’s The Winternight Trilogy references an underused and refreshingly rich fantasy mythos: Slavic folklore! Taking place in Imperial Russia, the action of the first book in the series, The Bear and the Nightingale, is set at the edge of the wilderness, where young Vasya spends most of her days rambling through the trees. As she ages, she realizes that she can see things that others can’t—the spirits of the woods. One spirit, in particular, has caught her eye, the frost demon Morozko, who she’ll have to lean on to thwart the rise of a deadly bear spirit corrupting the living to spread chaos throughout the land. Witchy girl falls in love with ice demon and sticks it to the orthodox society she lives in? Sign me up.
Buy The Winternight Trilogy on Amazon.
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
All Claire Randall wanted was a simple vacation—is that too much for a former WWII nurse to ask for? After the end of the Second World War, Claire and her husband decide to kick it in the Scottish highlands for a little R&R. After Claire touches a magic rock, her vacation is ruined … or saved? She’s transported back in time to the era of the Jacobite Risings, where Scottish clans warred against the British Crown. There she meets a group of highland warriors sorely in need of medical assistance in the war effort, which she is happy to provide. After all, their leader, Jamie Fraser, is very easy on the eyes. Things get even more complicated when Clair learns that her husband from the future’s ancestor is a particularly brutal officer in the British ranks, and she begins to rethink her life in the present in favor of the past. There’s a reason why Diana Galbadon’s Outlander is one of the best-selling romance series ever written, and it only takes a few pages to see why.
Buy the Outlander series on Amazon.
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
Warning: Madeline Miller’s The Song of Achilles will make you ugly cry. The action centers around Achilles and his beloved Patroclus (you know, the dudes Homer wrote about in The Iliad?). Miller reimagines their under-explored romance, beginning with the pair becoming best friends as children, and culminating in the fierce and tragic love they share as adults. Patroclus and Achilles are called away to fight in the Trojan War, where, if you know your Greek mythology, you’ll remember that fate is decidedly unkind to the pair. With prose that reads more like a poem than, well, prose, Song of Achilles is easily the most beautifully written book on this list. You’ll sob for the last 50 pages, and read it all over again.
Buy Song of Achilles on Amazon.
The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
The protagonists of Samantha Shannon’s The Priory of the Orange Tree have little time for romance, considering an ancient dragon is set to rise and devour the world. Queen Sabran of the West already has enough on her plate running a country, and the last thing she needs is a draconic apocalypse mucking things up. Lucky for her, she has her handmaiden Ead to look after her, though little does she know that Ead is a covert mage in service of the Priory of The Orange Tree, which has its own plots and plans for the realm. Things get even more complicated when an exiled dragon rider from the East shows up to help the gang take a stand against the awakening dragon god. The course of true love never did run smoothly; in this case, it starts as a slow burn marathon before breaking into a sweaty sprint.
(Featured Image: Orbit/Ecco Press/Red Wombat Studios)
Buy The Priory of the Orange Tree on Amazon.
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