Books Like Throne of Glass: 10 Read-Alikes From a Binge Reader

I read all seven Throne of Glass books, roughly 4,500 pages, in one month. I would like that entered into the record before I say anything else, because you do not binge 4,500 pages of a series you do not like. You binge it because Sarah J. Maas writes page-turners the way other people breathe, and then you close Kingdom of Ash and discover that nothing on your shelf sounds right, because none of it is the thing you just finished. This list is for that week.

The books like Throne of Glass below are ones I have actually read, rated, and reviewed on this blog, sorted by which part of Celaena’s story you want more of: the assassin, the war college, the fae, the long series with a heroine who grows up in it. I read 80-plus books a year and most of them are romantasy, so the shelf is deep. Every rating is mine, spice levels are mine where I logged them, and my full Throne of Glass series review has the book-by-book breakdown, including the two I would let you skip.

The short version: The Bridge Kingdom for the assassin, Fourth Wing for the war school, From Blood and Ash for the long series with banter, and A Court of Thorns and Roses because it is the better Maas series and you should know that going in.

1. The Bridge Kingdom by Danielle L. Jensen

This book is about… Lara, a princess raised in secret as a weapon, is married to Aren, the king of a rival kingdom, with one mission: destroy his kingdom from inside. He is infuriatingly not the monster she was promised, and the kingdom itself is a bridge spanning a storm-torn sea.

Subgenre: assassin-bride romantasy / political fantasy.

The Throne of Glass overlap: The assassin. If you loved Celaena’s competence, the concealed blades and the calculus of a heroine who could kill everyone at dinner and has to pass the salt instead, this is that energy in a tighter, 356-page package. I said in my review that it is Throne of Glass with the wish granted.

Spice level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️ 3/5

My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4/5 stars. It broke my post-ACOTAR-and-Fourth-Wing slump, and I closed it a new Danielle L. Jensen fan. Read my full review here!

2. Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

This book is about… Violet Sorrengail, who was supposed to be a scribe, is forced into a war college where cadets bond with dragons or die trying, and the most dangerous cadet there has a grudge against her family name.

Subgenre: dragon-rider romantasy / military academy.

The Throne of Glass overlap: The trials and the school. Book one of Throne of Glass is a competition to become the King’s Champion, and Fourth Wing is that structure with dragons and a body count: a heroine underestimated on day one, a lethal institution, and a slow burn that runs the whole book.

Spice level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️ 3/5

My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4/5 stars. The dragon book that got me anyway. My notes are about the prose, not the pull. Read my full review here!

3. From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout

This book is about… Poppy is the Maiden: veiled, guarded, untouchable, her whole life scheduled around a destiny nobody asked if she wanted, until a new guard named Hawke joins her protection detail and becomes the one person she cannot want.

Subgenre: forbidden-romance romantasy / long series.

The Throne of Glass overlap: The long series with a heroine who grows into her power. Throne of Glass is seven books of Celaena becoming someone else, and Blood and Ash is the same shape: a sheltered girl, a hidden identity, a world that keeps getting bigger, and banter worth losing sleep over.

Spice level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ 4/5

My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4/5 stars. The book half the ACOTAR fandom reads next, and my husband Kyle was right to hand it to me. My Armentrout reading order keeps the prequels straight. Read my full review here!

4. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

This book is about… Feyre, a huntress keeping her family alive, kills the wrong wolf and is dragged into the faerie lands of Prythian as the price, where a curse, a court, and the High Lord of the Night Court are waiting.

Subgenre: fae court romantasy / the other Maas series.

The Throne of Glass overlap: Same author, same page-turner engine, stronger series overall. If you came to Throne of Glass first, ACOTAR is the obvious next step, and book two is the one that changed my reading life. Read them in order.

Spice level: 🌶️🌶️ 2/5

My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4/5 stars. Book one starts slower than I wanted (my rating is for book one) and A Court of Mist and Fury is the reason the series is famous. My ACOTAR reading order has ratings for every book. Read my full review here!

5. Daughter of No Worlds by Carissa Broadbent

This book is about… Tisaanah escapes slavery through sheer nerve and a half-wild magic she barely controls, and buys her shot at freedom by training under the Orders with Max, an exiled and deeply reluctant teacher.

Subgenre: rags-to-power romantasy / teacher-student slow burn.

The Throne of Glass overlap: The arc. This is the closest thing on my shelf to Throne of Glass’s rags-to-power spine, with cleaner prose, and I said exactly that in my review. A heroine whose ambition is treated as a feature, some reveals I did not see coming, and a war on the horizon.

Spice level: 🌶️🌶️ 2/5

My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3/5 stars. A really solid romantasy that keeps a little too much gas in the tank. I wanted it floored, the way Maas floors her set pieces. Read my full review here!

6. Quicksilver by Callie Hart

This book is about… Saeris, a thief in a desert city, pulls a sword-in-the-stone move by accident and lands in a fae realm at war, in the custody of Kingfisher, the coldest warrior in it.

Subgenre: fae romantasy / enemies-to-lovers with vampires and alchemy.

The Throne of Glass overlap: The fae. From Heir of Fire on, Throne of Glass becomes a fae story, and Quicksilver is the fae book the ACOTAR-and-Maas crowd adopted for a reason: courts, immortals, a heroine stepping into power, and a war that rests on her.

Spice level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️ 3/5

My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4/5 stars. A page-turner that had no business being this good with that many typos. Stop after book one, and my review explains why. Read my full review here!

7. Slaying the Vampire Conqueror by Carissa Broadbent

This book is about… Sylina, an assassin-priestess of a sisterhood sworn to the goddess of fate, gave up her eyes for the order and gained other ways of seeing. Her mission is Atrius, the vampire conqueror tearing through her homeland.

Subgenre: assassin romantasy / Crowns of Nyaxia universe.

The Throne of Glass overlap: An assassin heroine whose job is the man she is falling for, which is the Throne of Glass premise turned inside out. The Arachessen sisterhood is worldbuilding I genuinely admire.

My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3/5 stars. Fast and well built, a little restrained emotionally, and one twist short of what it was designed to do. Read my full review here!

8. Heartless Hunter by Kristen Ciccarelli

This book is about… Rune is a socialite by day and the Crimson Moth by night, smuggling witches out of a city that burns them. Gideon is the witch hunter who would burn her if he knew, and they start courting each other to spy on each other.

Subgenre: YA romantasy / witch-hunter romance, double agents.

The Throne of Glass overlap: The double life. Celaena spends the first book pretending to be someone else at court, and Rune spends this whole book doing it with higher stakes. It is also YA-leaning, which matches the register of early Throne of Glass better than most of this list.

Spice level: 🌶️ 1/5

My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3/5 stars. A great premise machine that keeps its darkest questions at arm’s length. The one to hand a teenager. Read my full review here!

9. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

This book is about… In the ruins of North America, the Capitol punishes its districts with an annual televised fight to the death between children. When Katniss Everdeen’s sister is chosen, Katniss volunteers.

Subgenre: deadly-trials YA / the original.

The Throne of Glass overlap: The competition. Throne of Glass opens with an assassin fighting for her freedom in a rigged contest, and this is the book that taught a generation of romantasy authors, Maas included, how that structure works. Katniss set the mold for the heroine with agency.

Spice level: none

My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5/5 stars. A classic of deadly-trials storytelling, full stop, and the reason the genre I write in exists. Read my full review here!

10. House of Earth and Blood (Crescent City) by Sarah J. Maas

This book is about… Bryce Quinlan, half-fae party girl in a modern city of angels, shifters, and demons, goes hunting for the killer of her best friend with a fallen angel assigned to watch her.

Subgenre: urban romantasy / a murder mystery in a trench coat.

The Throne of Glass overlap: Maas’s third series, for the completists. The scale, the found family, and the third-act fireworks are all here. So are 200 pages of exposition before the plot starts, and I am honest about that in the review.

Spice level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️ 3/5

My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3/5 stars. Worth the 200-page toll for book one. I cannot recommend the rest of the series, and I read all of it to be sure. Read my full review here!

Honorable Mentions

The Witch Collector by Charissa Weaks (3/5) opens with a heroine planning to kill the Frost King who took her sister, which is a very Throne of Glass motivation, and the prose is professional-grade even if the spark never quite caught for me. Metal Slinger by Rachel Schneider (3/5) is an enemy soldier, metal magic, and high seas, tracking as a four-star read until an ending I explain without spoilers. And A Court This Cruel & Lovely by Stacia Stark (3/5) is the one-day romp for when you want Maas momentum and nothing else.

The Ones I Would Skip

Because every books-like-Throne-of-Glass thread recommends them and I owe you my actual ratings: Powerless by Lauren Roberts was one star from me, A Dawn of Onyx by Kate Golden was one star, Gild by Raven Kennedy was one star, and Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross was two. Tastes differ, and mine runs toward stakes and set pieces. If you want more of that, my ranked list of the best romantasy books is the whole shelf in order.

Which Throne of Glass Book Is the Best?

From my series review, book by book: Throne of Glass 3/5, Crown of Midnight 4/5, Heir of Fire 2/5, Queen of Shadows 3/5, Empire of Storms 4/5, Tower of Dawn 2/5, Kingdom of Ash 3/5. Crown of Midnight and Empire of Storms are the peaks. The series is uneven, the heroine’s arc across seven books is the best thing in it, and ACOTAR is the stronger Maas series overall. All of that and the tandem-read question are in the full review.

If you want deadly trials without a seven-book commitment, I wrote one. The Ash Trials is on Kindle Unlimited: a heroine with no memory locked in a prison for the kingdom’s deadliest criminals, six trials, and two men who each swear the other is the monster. How I wrote it is its own post.

FAQ: Books Like Throne of Glass

What should I read after Throne of Glass?

A Court of Thorns and Roses if you have not read it, because it is the stronger Maas series. The Bridge Kingdom if you want the assassin, Fourth Wing if you want the school and the trials, and From Blood and Ash if you want another long series with a heroine who grows up in it.

Is ACOTAR better than Throne of Glass?

For me, yes. Throne of Glass has the bigger scope and the better seven-book heroine arc, and ACOTAR has the higher highs and fewer slumps. I rated every Throne of Glass book between 2 and 4 stars, and A Court of Mist and Fury is a five.

Which Throne of Glass book is the best?

Crown of Midnight (book two) and Empire of Storms (book five), both 4 out of 5 from me. Heir of Fire and Tower of Dawn are the slow ones.

Is Throne of Glass worth reading in 2026?

Yes, for assassins-and-epic-war fantasy readers, with the honest caveat that the series is uneven and the middle sags. If you want the shorter version of that answer, read the first two books and decide there.

Pick the part of Celaena you miss most, and clear a week. Here’s to the next 4,500 pages.