Nine YA romantasy series, thirty-two books, and you can read every one of them to its last page today. Nobody who loves a slow burn wants to finish book two and find out book three is "coming 2028." Every series here has its ending on shelves already.
They're sorted by how much of your life each one asks for, shortest first. Each comes with its reading order (a few have real traps), the heat in plain words, and the content notes a teenager or a parent would want first.
For single books instead, the best romantasy books list ranks individual titles, mostly adult. Young adult fantasy novels covers YA fantasy where the romance is a subplot, and the YA fantasy romance hub collects the YA love stories you can read on NanoReads.
Before you commit to a series
Tick four or more and you're ready for the eight-book option at the bottom.
- You're fine with a love triangle, or with the love interest changing partway through (Throne of Glass does this).
- You can live with a cliffhanger between books, because most of these end book one on an open door.
- You want the heat to rise as the characters age, rather than stay at kissing level the whole way.
- You don't mind a middle book that is darker than the first.
- You're happy to skip companion novellas (you lose nothing important).
📚The commitment ladder
The Wrath and the Dawn
The boy-king of Khorasan takes a new bride every night and has her killed at dawn. Shahrzad volunteers to be next, because one of the dead girls was her best friend, and she plans to survive on stories and then kill him. A Thousand and One Nights retelling where the hate turns into something she didn't plan for.
- Reading order
- Two books, in order. Short companion novellas exist; skip them on a first read.
- Heat
- Fade to black. Longing does most of the work.
- Content notes
- Murdered brides (mostly off the page), grief, war violence.
Daughter of Smoke & Bone
Karou is a blue-haired art student in Prague who was raised by a monster who trades in teeth. Then she runs into an angel, Akiva, who has every reason to want her dead. Taylor's prose is the best on this list. Book two, the war book, is grim enough that some readers quit there.
- Reading order
- In order. The novella Night of Cake & Puppets is about the best friend and fits after book two.
- Heat
- Kissing and closed doors.
- Content notes
- War atrocities, an attempted sexual assault in book two, death of a parent figure.
Cursebreakers
A Beauty and the Beast retelling where Beauty is Harper, a girl from Washington, D.C. with cerebral palsy, who gets pulled into the cursed kingdom of Emberfall. Prince Rhen turns into a monster at the end of every failed season. The most interesting man in the room, though, is Grey, his guard commander.
- Reading order
- In order. Book two switches narrators, to Grey and a rival princess. Don't quit there.
- Heat
- Kissing only.
- Content notes
- Torture by the enchantress, violence, a parent dying of cancer back home.
Shadow and Bone
Alina Starkov is an orphan army mapmaker until a monster attack reveals she can summon sunlight. The Darkling, the most powerful man in Ravka, takes an interest, and BookTok is still arguing about the triangle between him and her childhood friend Mal.
- Reading order
- The Grishaverse trap. This trilogy first, then the Six of Crows duology, then King of Scars. Six of Crows spoils how this trilogy ends.
- Heat
- Kissing.
- Content notes
- War violence, manipulation and emotional abuse from a love interest.
Caraval
Scarlett has spent years writing to the mysterious Legend, begging for an invitation to his magical game. When one arrives, her sister Tella is kidnapped as the game's prize. Garber describes feelings as colours and tastes all the way through, and you'll either adore that or hate it.
- Reading order
- The trilogy first. The spin-off Once Upon a Broken Heart trilogy, about Evangeline and the Prince of Hearts, spoils twists from Legendary.
- Heat
- Kissing, with a lot of tension around it.
- Content notes
- A physically abusive father, death and apparent death.
Serpent & Dove
Lou is a witch hiding in a city that burns witches. A public scandal forces her to marry Reid, a devout witch hunter. Enemies to lovers inside a marriage of convenience. It's upper YA, and the hottest series here apart from late Throne of Glass.
- Reading order
- In order. The Scarlet Veil starts a spin-off and comes after book three.
- Heat
- One on-page scene in book one, frank by YA standards.
- Content notes
- Witch burnings, blood magic that involves cutting, violence.
The Folk of the Air
Jude is human, raised in Faerie by the general who murdered her parents in front of her when she was seven. Prince Cardan bullies her for being mortal. She decides to become dangerous instead of staying afraid. The twist at the end of book two still gets screamed about.
- Reading order
- The trilogy, then the illustrated novella How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories, then the spin-off duology starting with The Stolen Heir.
- Heat
- Kissing on the page, more implied off it.
- Content notes
- Parents murdered on the page, bullying, self-poisoning, violence.
Graceling Realm
Katsa is born with a Grace for killing and works as her uncle's enforcer, until she meets Po, a prince with a Grace of his own. Katsa decides she never wants to marry, and the book takes her seriously, which is rare in YA. Each later book follows a different heroine.
- Reading order
- Publication order works best. Fire is a prequel set decades earlier with a new heroine, and it still makes sense second.
- Heat
- Fade to black.
- Content notes
- Mind control, a villain's abuse of children and women (implied, heaviest in Bitterblue), violence.
Throne of Glass
Celaena Sardothien, the most feared assassin in Adarlan, is pulled out of a slave mine to fight for the title of King's Champion. Book one is a tournament story. By book four it's an enormous war epic, and the love interest of book one isn't the one at the end.
- Reading order
- Read the prequel stories, The Assassin's Blade, before book four. Tower of Dawn happens at the same time as Empire of Storms, so many readers alternate between the two.
- Heat
- Kissing early, on-page sex by book five.
- Content notes
- Slavery, torture, heavy war violence, prolonged captivity in the final book.
Why YA series age up as they go
The long series here start as YA and end closer to adult. The heroine ages a few years, and the heat and violence rise with her. Throne of Glass is the clearest case. A Court of Thorns and Roses, often the next series readers reach for, went further: it was shelved as YA in some places and later reissued for adults. It isn't YA, and our new adult fantasy romance list is where it belongs. Choosing for a younger reader? Go by the heat of the last book, not the first. The spice level checker explains the levels in plain words.
The romantasy glossary entry covers where the genre line sits, and the novella entry explains those little in-between books.
🐉Romantasy serials on NanoReads
All romantasy →A count before the covers: in our catalog, one book carries a YA romance tag (The Love Between Seasons, also in Portuguese). Two more read as YA-adjacent. The other five are adult romantasy, in their own row.
The Love Between Seasons has four royal heirs, promised to each other's best friends at birth, growing up together at the Academy of Seasons. Princess Haelina of Summer falls for Prince Hyron of Winter instead of her betrothed, and the seasons start to break. Nobody in it is a villain, which is what makes it hurt. Friends to lovers, forbidden, and the blurb reads clean. Read chapter one free.
The Silver Key opens on Elyra's eighteenth birthday, ten years after her mother vanished, with a letter: when the moon disappears, follow the key. That night the moon disappears. Auren, twenty-one and hiding something, travels with her. Slow burn and a prophecy; we haven't checked the heat in later chapters. Follow the key from chapter one.
The Gravity of Shattered Crowns is an academy enemies-to-lovers story set in space: a low-ranking engineer on a dying space station can manipulate gravity, so she's forced into an elite military academy, where her instructor is a disgraced rival prince with plans for her. Enemies to lovers, with "intense attraction" in the blurb. The ages aren't stated, so treat it as upper YA at least. Board the station, first chapter free.
These run 20 to 33 chapters each. Dragon Bond Academy is the one ladder graduates should try first. Broke and facing eviction, Violet Wynter is conscripted into a dragon-riding academy where the weak die, and clashes with an elite cadet while hiding a forbidden bond with a beast. Loved the tournament in Throne of Glass? Chapter one is free.
The other four are witch-meets-predator stories. Bloodlit Whispers follows a witch through neon Tokyo, hunting the demon lord tied to her missing sister. In Veil of Midnight, a vampire-hunting witch goes undercover as a dancer in the New Orleans club of the vampire king. Seattle Storm Witch puts a storm-witch private investigator on the murder of a vampire, and every clue points at the city's vampire Alpha. It's catalog-tagged steamy, so it's adult reading. In Dark Magic Desire, a man after a fresh start in the cursed town of Black Hollow meets a woman whose sparks are literal. All four open with a free chapter. For darker adult series past these, see dark romance series.