Authors Like Sarah J. Maas: 7 Romantasy Writers

Sarah J. Maas did not invent romantasy, but she defined it. Across Throne of Glass, A Court of Thorns and Roses, and Crescent City, she perfected a formula that now dominates bestseller lists: immersive, high-stakes fantasy worlds; slow-burn romances with brooding, powerful love interests; fierce heroines; and a willingness to let the romance share equal billing with the plot. If you have devoured everything Maas has written and need somewhere to go next, the genre she helped explode is overflowing with talent.

Below are seven authors who each capture a different part of the Maas experience — the world-building, the romance, the fae, or the fairytale — with a starting point for each.

What Makes a Sarah J. Maas Read-Alike

Maas’s appeal rests on a few specific pillars. There is the immersive, multi-book world you can disappear into for thousands of pages. There is the slow-burn romance, usually with a dangerous, devoted love interest. There is the fierce, flawed heroine who grows enormously across the series. And there is the escalating stakes — each book bigger than the last. Most read-alikes lean hard into one or two of these, so the best pick depends on which kept you turning pages. The recommendations below are organised that way.

It also helps to know your heat and age level. Maas spans YA-flavoured adventure and steamier adult romance, and the authors below sit at different points on that scale — Holly Black and Leigh Bardugo lean younger and more plot-forward, Stephanie Garber sits in the whimsical middle, while Raven Kennedy and Carissa Broadbent run hotter and more adult. Matching that, as much as the world-building, is the secret to a next read that truly clicks.

Rebecca Yarros — The Addictive Romance

Rebecca Yarros is the author most often handed to Maas fans, and for good reason. Fourth Wing drops its heroine into a brutal war college for dragon riders, and combines the high-stakes world, the slow-burn enemies-to-lovers romance, and the sheer bingeability that define Maas. If you read Maas mostly for the romance and the can’t-stop-reading momentum, start here.

Carissa Broadbent — The Fae-Adjacent Epic

Carissa Broadbent has become a romantasy favourite with the Crowns of Nyaxia series. The Serpent and the Wings of Night sends a human adopted by a vampire king into a deadly tournament, and it shares Maas’s blend of immersive world-building, tournament stakes, and a central romance that earns its heat. A natural next series for ACOTAR readers.

Leigh Bardugo — The World-Builder

For Maas’s gift for an immersive, interconnected universe, Leigh Bardugo and the Grishaverse are essential. Six of Crows — a heist novel with a brilliant ensemble and several slow-burn romances — is the perfect entry point. Bardugo’s world-building and morally grey characters give Maas readers exactly the depth they crave, with prose a notch sharper.

Holly Black — The Dark Fae

Holly Black writes the cruel, glittering fae courts that ACOTAR fans adore. The Cruel Prince pits a mortal girl against the wicked fae nobility in a story of power, scheming, and enemies-to-lovers tension. Black is the master of the morally grey love interest and the political fae court — core Maas pleasures.

Danielle L. Jensen — The Fated Romance

Danielle L. Jensen writes immersive fantasy with strong romantic throughlines. A Fate Inked in Blood, a Norse-inspired romantasy about a shield-maiden bound to a fated destiny, delivers the world-building and the slow-burn romance Maas readers want, with a fresh mythological backdrop.

Raven Kennedy — The Fairytale Steaminess

For readers who want Maas’s romance dialled steamier and rooted in fairytale, Raven Kennedy is the pick. Gild, the first Plated Prisoner book, reimagines the Midas myth into a dark, lush, emotionally charged series. It is more romance-forward than Maas, but the immersive world and the captive-heroine arc will resonate.

Stephanie Garber — The Fairytale Spectacle

Stephanie Garber brings the magical spectacle and swoony romance of Maas in a slightly more whimsical key. Caraval plunges its heroine into a magical, dangerous game where nothing is as it seems. Garber’s lush imagination and central love story make her a comfortable next stop for Maas fans who also love a fairytale atmosphere.

How to Choose Your Next Read

If you read Maas for the addictive romance and momentum, start with Rebecca Yarros. For fae-adjacent tournament stakes, read Carissa Broadbent. For deep world-building, go to Leigh Bardugo. For cruel, glittering fae courts, read Holly Black. For a fated, mythological romance, try Danielle L. Jensen. For steamy fairytale retellings, read Raven Kennedy. And for magical spectacle, read Stephanie Garber.

The romantasy boom Maas helped ignite means you will never run out of worlds to fall into. Pick the writer who matches whatever hooked you in ACOTAR or Throne of Glass, and a whole new series — usually several — is waiting.

One tip for navigating the genre: almost every author here writes in long, interconnected series, so starting at book one and reading in order matters more than it does in standalone fiction — jumping in midway is the quickest way to spoil a slow-burn romance you would otherwise have loved. If Rebecca Yarros is where you land, our Fourth Wing books in order guide maps the Empyrean series, and our best romantasy books roundup gathers many more worlds to fall into. And if you have not yet compared the two biggest names in the genre head to head, our ACOTAR vs Fourth Wing breakdown is a good place to decide which series to binge first.