7 Romantasy Books Like From Blood and Ash (Dark, Obsessive, Forbidden)
Greetings padawan! It’s been a busy time for me… mostly because of BOOKS… and pancakes.
If you have been through the Blood and Ash series, you already know the specific cocktail Jennifer Armentrout is mixing. Forbidden romance with a religious-architecture-collapsing twist. An obsessive hero whose plan was originally tactical and is now structural. A heroine whose body has been claimed by an institution that is going to lose her in the most uncomfortable possible way. The slow burn that pays off in heat scenes that do not flinch. The trope load compounding across the series.
The problem is that the Blood and Ash readers tend to bounce off softer comps. They want the specific intensity. They want the obsession to be load-bearing. They want the high heat without the apologies. Below are seven romantasy books that hit the same engine.
1. The Serpent and the Wings of Night by Carissa Broadbent
Oraya is a human raised by the king of the night, surviving in a vampire tournament where she is supposed to die. Raihn is a vampire who is supposed to be killing her. The tournament structure forces them to keep saving each other in scenarios where dying would be more convenient.
What makes this an FBA comp is the forbidden mechanic operating at every level of the worldbuilding. Oraya cannot want Raihn. Raihn cannot want Oraya. The system around them does not permit either of those things. The romance has to grow inside the prohibition, and Broadbent’s pacing on the duet’s heat-up matches the FBA reading rhythm exactly. The duet is finished. Read both back to back.
2. Gild (The Plated Prisoner) by Raven Kennedy
Auren is the gold-touched possession of King Midas. Slade Ravinger is the rival king. The architecture here matches FBA on multiple axes: a heroine who has been claimed by a controlling first relationship, a darker hero who notices her as a person before anyone else does, the slow recognition that the system she has been existing inside is the actual problem.
The series is six books long. The trope load compounds in every volume, and the heat scenes get more explicit as the series goes. By Book 4, Slade’s relationship with Auren is operating at a register that Casteel-and-Poppy readers will recognize and approve. The new audiobook editions are the cleanest format if you do not want to commit to a physical bookshelf footprint.
3. King of Battle and Blood by Scarlett St. Clair
Adrian Aleksandr Vasiliev is a vampire king. Isolde of Lara is the political bride sent to him to end a two-hundred-year war. She brings a knife to the wedding. He marries her anyway.
The FBA architectural overlap is the political marriage gradually becoming chosen marriage arc, which is a specific architectural move and which St. Clair runs at high heat. The heat is high and the trope load is concentrated. This is the start of the ongoing Adrian x Isolde series, so don’t go in expecting a finished duet.
4. Under a Fractured Sky (Soulbound Lament, Book 1) by AE McRoberts
Isadora is a priestess who believes her feelings could destroy the world. Evander is an alchemist who refuses to stop feeling. Put those two together, give them a love that keeps finding them across lifetimes, and you have a fairly spectacular problem.
Under a Fractured Sky opens the Soulbound Lament series with forbidden devotion, religious duty, and lovers who make the universe flinch. If Poppy’s collision between desire and everything she was taught hooked you, this belongs on your list. Lovers become enemies, enemies become lovers, and remembering each other comes with its own kind of damage. Come for the forbidden romance. Stay because apparently one lifetime of terrible decisions wasn’t enough.
5. Court of the Vampire Queen by Katee Robert
Mina is half human, half vampire, and her father sends her to Malachi Zion as part of his latest political scheme. What begins as another attempt to control her becomes a romance with Malachi, Wolf, and Rylan, and a chance to fight for her freedom.
The FBA reader will recognize the high heat plus dark hero plus political stakes triangle here, and Katee Robert is one of the few authors writing reverse-harem romantasy at this level of craft. The polyamorous architecture is the new variable. If you have been hovering on the edge of the RH subgenre and not pulled the trigger, this is the book that will make the case for you.
6. Quicksilver by Callie Hart
Saeris is a human woman who falls through a portal into a fae war. Kingfisher is an immortal fae general. He refuses to want her. He wants her anyway. The slow burn is built on his refusal.
The FBA architectural overlap is the immortal hero refusing to want a mortal heroine mechanic, and Hart writes it at the level of restraint that FBA readers will appreciate. Kingfisher does not break easily. When he breaks, the breaking is structural. The audiobook narrators are excellent if that is your format. The sequel, Brimstone, is out.
7. Phantasma by Kaylie Smith
Ophelia Grimm enters Phantasma, a deadly competition inside a haunted mansion, to win the wish that could save her sister. Blackwell is the mysterious stranger offering to help her survive in exchange for ten years of her life. The romance unfolds as she faces a series of lethal trials, with one rather inconvenient rule: don’t fall in love.
The FBA overlap is the dangerous bargain and forbidden romance inside a deadly competition. Smith leans gothic-horror, which is the new variable, but the trope rhythm is FBA-adjacent. The sequel is out and the world keeps expanding.
How to read this list
If you have just finished From Blood and Ash and want the closest possible substitute, The Serpent and the Wings of Night duet is the cleanest match. The architecture is the same. The duet is finished, which is a reading advantage if you do not want to wait for sequels.
If you have read the FBA series in full and want the next long-haul commitment, the order is Soulbound Lament, then The Plated Prisoner series, then Court of the Vampire Queen in full. Soulbound Lament follows its lovers across lifetimes, Plated Prisoner runs six books across kingdoms and realms, and Court of the Vampire Queen collects the Bloodline Vampires trilogy in one volume.
If the collision between desire and religious duty was your favorite part of FBA, try Soulbound Lament. Isadora’s faith makes her own feelings dangerous territory, and Evander is hardly going to make restraint easier.
If you liked this list, you’ll probably also want to read my list of 9 Slow-Burn Romantasy Books that Earn Every Almost-Touch and my 7 Romantasy Book with Reincarnated Lovers that will Wreck You
Tell me which dark romantasy book has been wrecking you lately!