Books Like Fourth Wing: 9 Romantasy Reads to Devour Next
Dragon bonds, brutal war colleges and enemies-to-lovers tension for Basgiath graduates.
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros did not so much launch as detonate, and for good reason. Violet Sorrengail, bookish and brittle-boned, is forced into Basgiath War College, where dragons incinerate the cadets they deem unworthy and classmates will happily finish the job. Add Xaden Riorson, the brooding wingleader with every reason to want her dead, and you have the modern template for romantasy that reads like a dare: short chapters, constant peril, enemies-to-lovers tension you could bottle, and spice that arrives with genuine payoff.
What readers actually chase after Fourth Wing tends to be one of four things: the dragon bond, the deadly school, the slow-collapsing hostility between two people who cannot afford to trust each other, or simply that breathless, one-more-chapter pace. The nine books below cover all four angles, and we have flagged which itch each one scratches so you can pick your poison.
What to read after Fourth Wing
Fireborne by Rosaria Munda
The closest like-for-like match on this list: orphans of a bloody revolution compete in dragonriding tournaments for the rank of Firstrider, and the two frontrunners are best friends with a buried, catastrophic history. It trades spice for politics, and the moral questions cut deeper than Basgiath ever asks, but the aerial trials and rivals-with-feelings dynamic are all here. Criminally underread.
From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout
If it was the Violet-and-Xaden tension and the spice you loved, start here. Poppy, the veiled Maiden promised to the gods, meets a new guard with secrets stacked on secrets, and the forbidden slow-then-suddenly romance became a phenomenon for a reason. The pacing has the same compulsive, feed-me-another-chapter quality, and the series twist is a genuine jaw-dropper.
