A running list of books that earned a permanent spot on my shelf (mentally or literally). Updated whenever something new wrecks me in the best way.
Sections
5
⚔️ Deadly Trials & Dark Academies
🦇 Shadow Daddies & Fae Courts
🐉 Gods, Monsters & Mythology
🗡️ Dark Magic & Morally Grey (The Villain Era)
🗺️ Zero Spice / Epic Plot
⚔️ Deadly Trials & Dark Academies
Greek Mythology in a war college? I'm in.
Blood of Hercules
Surviving the trials and overthrowing a tyrant king will take cunning, courage, and an iron will... but even that may not be enough
Servant of Earth
A powerless outcast thrust into a brutal Fae academy.
Crown of Light and Shadows
Fae Academy? Shadow Daddy? Let's go!
Crown of Light and Shadows by G.K. DeRosa
Fae Academy and Shadow Daddy Part 2!
Crown of Flames and Ash
Perfect for lovers of spice, suspense, dark academia, and morally gray love interests.
Watch Your Back
Rife with sizzling tension, gut-wrenching angst, addictive banter and ever-growing stakes — and an academy? get outta here
Of Blood and Aether
Dark tale of revenge and second chances
The Blackened Blade
high-stakes romantasy that blends Arthurian legend with forbidden, slow-burn enemies-to-lovers tension
Avalon Tower
🦇 Shadow Daddies & Fae Courts
A fae rebel. A ruthless dragon commander and a deadly trial that will turn their lives upside down.
Empire of Flame and Thorns
a fated pair who uncover a world-changing secret and are thrust into a violent class war, navigating love, loss, and devastating betrayals.
A Forbidden Alchemy
A Pirate, a siren and some fae walk into a romantasy
The Ever King
Captured by a king of darkness. Forced to find the light within.
A Dawn of Onyx
🐉 Gods, Monsters & Mythology
enemies become lovers, monsters stalk a cursed realm, and a forgotten princess finds the strength to tear off her crown and become the warrior she was never meant to be
Shield of Sparrows
Damned by gods and threaded by fates, two mortals must embrace the darkness to find their true destinies.
In The Shadows
gothic dark fantasy about a shunned woman who is forced beyond the mortal realm's forbidden boundary into a terrifying world of cursed souls and grotesque creatures.
Anathema
ok the male love interest is a ghost? half dead? YEAH OK LET'S GO
Vesselless
Bonded monsters, forbidden attraction, deadly trials, royal intrigue, and a true, enemies-to-lovers, slow-burn romance, all set in a brutally lavish, high-stakes world where darkness means death. Grab a blanket, turn on your nightlight, and get ready...
One Small Echo
🗡️ Dark Magic & Morally Grey (The Villain Era)
magic is fueled by pleasure and pain and an obsessive detective must infiltrate a brutal gang of dark mages
Silvercloak
The war is over, the dark forces have won, and the hero who was supposed to save them is dead.
Rose in Chains book by Julie Soto
You know the most dangerous kind of villain? A woman with nothing left to lose.
Heavenly Bodies
🗺️ Zero Spice / Epic Plot
Powerful Dark Academia, no spice!
Blood Over Bright Haven
Epic fantasy meets murder mystery in this inventive and mystic tale.
