12 Sapphic Fantasy Books Like Fourth Wing for Deadly Trials, Dangerous Women & Slow-Burn Romance
12 Sapphic Fantasy Books Like Fourth Wing for Deadly Trials, Dangerous Women & Slow-Burn Romance
No dragons required. Just impossible odds, dangerous women, and someone worth surviving for.
If Fourth Wing left you searching for another fantasy where survival is never guaranteed, attraction is inconvenient, and the women involved are entirely capable of killing someone, there are plenty of sapphic books worth adding to your TBR.
Not every book on this list has dragons. That isn’t really the point.
What makes Fourth Wing so addictive is the combination of high stakes, deadly competition, dangerous alliances, political secrets, powerful bonds and romance developing while everything around the characters is falling apart.
So if you want that energy again, but sapphic, start here.
Quick picks: What did you love most about Fourth Wing?
For deadly trials and assassins: Demonic Reign by Devorah Barrocas
For dragon bonding: The Blood-Born Dragon by J.C. Rycroft
For dragons and an academy setting: To Shape a Dragon’s Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose
For assassins and dangerous women: A Game of Hearts and Heists by Ruby Roe
For enormous fantasy worlds and political intrigue: The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
For death, trials and chaotic chemistry: Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
Now for the full list.
1. Demonic Reign by Devorah Barrocas
Best for: deadly trials, assassins, morally gray women and a sapphic slow burn
I wrote Demonic Reign, so I’m obviously not pretending to be an unbiased party here.
But if the part of Fourth Wing you loved was watching someone enter a system designed to kill them and somehow become even more dangerous inside it, this is the reason I’m putting it first.
Nyx enters the Shadow Syndicate’s trials believing she knows exactly who she is: the daughter of a demon king and an assassin capable of surviving whatever is placed in front of her.
She doesn’t.
The deeper she gets into the trials, the more the world she understands begins to fracture. There are assassins, deadly competitions, political manipulation, biblical and mystical angels and demons, a morally gray found family, bonded creatures and a sapphic relationship that develops slowly while both women have much bigger problems to deal with.
If Violet’s survival instinct was what kept you reading Fourth Wing, but you want the next protagonist carrying knives instead of riding dragons, start here.
Read if you want: female assassins, deadly trials, sapphic slow burn, morally gray characters, found family, angels and demons.
Bonus: Demonic Reign begins a completed sapphic dark fantasy duology, followed by Angelic Wrath.
READ DEMONIC REIGN →
2. The Blood-Born Dragon by J.C. Rycroft
Best for: dragon bonds with a sapphic lead
If removing the dragons from Fourth Wing is simply unacceptable, The Blood-Born Dragon deserves a place near the top of your list.
Des is a sellsword who unexpectedly becomes blood-bound to a dragon, creating exactly the kind of inconvenient supernatural connection that makes bonded-creature fantasy so much fun.
The book brings dragons, danger, pursuit and queer romance into a story that feels more mercenary adventure than military academy.
This is the one to reach for when your Fourth Wing withdrawal is specifically dragon-related.
Read if you want: dragons, magical bonds, sapphic fantasy, adventure and a dangerous heroine.
3. A Game of Hearts and Heists by Ruby Roe
Best for: assassins, rivals and much more romantic heat
An assassin. A poisoner. A dangerous job.
You can probably see why this belongs here.
Ruby Roe’s A Game of Hearts and Heists pushes much harder into romance than some of the books on this list, with two lethal women forced into each other’s orbit.
If your favorite part of Fourth Wing wasn’t necessarily the dragons but the tension created when two very capable people don’t know whether they should trust, kiss or kill each other, this is probably much closer to what you’re looking for.
Read if you want: sapphic enemies-to-lovers energy, assassins, forced proximity, danger and spice.
4. To Shape a Dragon’s Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose
Best for: dragons, training and challenging the system
Anequs discovers and bonds with a dragon, only to be pulled into an Anglish dragon school where the people in power are determined to teach her the “correct” way to exist.
She has other ideas.
To Shape a Dragon’s Breath is not simply Fourth Wing with a sapphic swap. The book has its own cultural, political and colonial focus, and the romance isn’t the primary engine.
But if you loved the combination of dragon bonding, education, rigid institutions and a heroine unwilling to become what that institution expects, this is an easy recommendation.
Read if you want: dragon school, queer characters, rebellion, political themes and bonded creatures.
5. The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
Best for: sapphic romance, dragons and enormous political stakes
If your response to Fourth Wing was essentially “good, but make the world even bigger,” meet The Priory of the Orange Tree.
This is a sweeping epic fantasy involving kingdoms, ancient threats, dragons, religion, court politics and a central sapphic relationship.
It is considerably slower and denser than Fourth Wing, so don’t pick it up expecting the same pacing.
Do pick it up if you want to disappear into a massive fantasy world where the romance exists inside something much larger.
Read if you want: epic fantasy, dragons, sapphic romance, queens, politics and extensive worldbuilding.
6. Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
Best for: deadly tests, swords and women who are terrible at communicating
Necromancers are being summoned. People are dying. Nobody seems particularly trustworthy.
Enter Gideon, carrying a sword and enough attitude to make an already strange situation significantly more entertaining.
Gideon the Ninth is not a conventional romantasy, and anyone recommending it as one is setting you up with the wrong expectation.
It is, however, deeply queer, filled with dangerous tests, mysteries, death and one of fantasy’s most memorable relationships between two women who have enough emotional damage to fill several additional novels.
Read if you want: deadly trials, necromancy, swordswomen, dark humor, mysteries and complicated sapphic relationships.
7. The Unspoken Name by A.K. Larkwood
Best for: assassins, gods and morally complicated loyalties
Csorwe is supposed to die as a sacrifice to a god.
Instead, a powerful mage offers her another life.
There is, naturally, a catch.
She becomes his sword-hand, carrying out thefts, killings and missions while helping him pursue his own ambitions.
This is an excellent next read if you want fantasy built around questions of loyalty, destiny and whether the person who saved you actually deserves what you’ve given them in return.
And yes, there is sapphic romance.
Read if you want: female assassins, gods, ancient powers, queer fantasy, political intrigue and morally gray relationships.
8. The Unbroken by C.L. Clark
Best for: military fantasy and political tension
If Basgiath’s military environment was one of your favorite elements of Fourth Wing, The Unbroken takes that interest somewhere much more political.
The story centers on Touraine, a soldier taken from her homeland as a child and raised to serve an empire, and Luca, a princess trying to secure her position.
Their lives collide against a backdrop of rebellion, colonial power and divided loyalty.
The romance here is messy because the politics are messy.
Exactly as it should be.
Read if you want: sapphic military fantasy, rebellion, morally complicated characters, politics and high-stakes relationships.
9. The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri
Best for: powerful women plotting against an empire
An imprisoned princess and a maidservant hiding forbidden magic find themselves in an alliance that could change an empire.
Neither woman is harmless.
That’s important.
The Jasmine Throne is fantasy-first, politically complex and much more interested in power than simply giving its characters an easy romance.
If you liked the conspiracies and rebellion beneath Fourth Wing, but want a story centered much more heavily on women, empire and political power, read this.
Read if you want: sapphic epic fantasy, rebellion, forbidden magic, political intrigue and ambitious women.
10. Crier’s War by Nina Varela
Best for: forbidden sapphic romance across enemy lines
Ayla wants revenge against the ruling Automae.
Crier happens to be one of them.
That would already be complicated enough before feelings become involved.
Crier’s War pairs political rebellion with a relationship between two young women who have every reason to stand on opposite sides.
It works particularly well for readers who enjoy romance that becomes dangerous because of what each character represents, not simply because somebody’s parents don’t approve.
Read if you want: forbidden romance, enemies-to-lovers tension, rebellion, political fantasy and sapphic yearning.
11. The Ones We Burn by Rebecca Mix
Best for: witches, assassination missions and dangerous sapphic attraction
Ranka is a blood-witch sent into a human kingdom with an uncomplicated assignment: marry the prince and kill him.
It becomes complicated very quickly.
The real threat may be his sister, Princess Aramis, and when a mysterious plague begins killing witches, the two women are forced to work together.
Murder assignment plus beautiful enemy princess is already a strong setup. Add blood magic, political conflict and a heroine struggling with what she has been shaped into, and things get considerably more interesting.
Read if you want: witches, sapphic romance, assassination plots, forced alliances, deadly magic and enemies-to-lovers tension.
12. Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan
Best for: forbidden love inside a dangerous court
Lei is taken from her home and selected to become one of the Paper Girls serving the Demon King.
Inside the palace, she meets Wren.
Their relationship is forbidden, but the larger story is also about surviving and resisting a system built to control them.
This is one of the heavier books on this list, and readers should check the content warnings before starting it.
For readers who like fantasy where romance and rebellion become inseparable, however, it is absolutely worth knowing.
Read if you want: sapphic romance, court politics, rebellion, forbidden love and darker fantasy.
So, what should you read after Fourth Wing?
It depends on what you’re actually missing.
If you want dragons, start with The Blood-Born Dragon or To Shape a Dragon’s Breath.
If you want massive fantasy politics, try The Priory of the Orange Tree or The Jasmine Throne.
If you want dangerous sapphic romance, pick up A Game of Hearts and Heists or The Ones We Burn.
And if what you really want is deadly trials, assassins, morally gray women, found family and a slow-burn sapphic romance, that’s exactly where Demonic Reign comes in.
READ DEMONIC REIGN →
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there a sapphic version of Fourth Wing?
There isn’t one book that recreates every part of Fourth Wing, but several sapphic fantasy books capture different pieces of it. The Blood-Born Dragon delivers dragon bonding, To Shape a Dragon’s Breath brings dragons and an academy setting, while Demonic Reign focuses on deadly trials, dangerous women and slow-burn sapphic tension.
What sapphic fantasy should I read if I loved the deadly trials in Fourth Wing?
Try Demonic Reign for assassin trials, Gideon the Ninth for dangerous tests and mysteries, or A Game of Hearts and Heists for lethal women and high romantic tension.
Are there sapphic fantasy books with dragons?
Yes. The Blood-Born Dragon, To Shape a Dragon’s Breath and The Priory of the Orange Tree are all good places to start if dragons are non-negotiable.
What should I read if I want a sapphic fantasy with female assassins?
Start with Demonic Reign, A Game of Hearts and Heists or The Unspoken Name. Each takes the assassin concept in a very different direction.
Is Demonic Reign a romance?
Demonic Reign is an adult dark fantasy with a sapphic slow-burn romance rather than a romance-first fantasy. The story centers on assassins, deadly trials, mystical lore, political conflict and Nyx’s discovery that almost everything she believed about herself may be wrong.