Hidden gems
Underrated romantasy
Romantasy with Goodreads averages of 4.0 or higher and fewer than 40,000 ratings each, a fraction of what the big names get. Court intrigue, fae bargains, queer and sapphic love stories, standalones and series openers, from no spice to high spice. Each one is here because the readers who found it rated it highly, not because it is everywhere.
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1. A Taste of Gold and Iron
Alexandra Rowland · 2022
MildAdultOften left off romantasy lists, it gives you Ottoman-inspired court politics and a prince and bodyguard who earn each other's trust one scene at a time.
Kadou, the shy prince of Arasht, can taste the purity of gold and silver with his fingertips, and after a public humiliation at court he takes charge of investigating a break-in at one of the city's guilds to prove his loyalty to his sister, the queen. His new bodyguard, Evemer, plainly thinks very little of him. Court intrigue, a counterfeiting plot and a long, careful slow burn between a prince and his guard, mild spice, happy for now.
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2. Paladin's Strength
T. Kingfisher · 2021
SteamyAdultT. Kingfisher is better known for horror, but her paladin romances have grown-up leads, real kindness, jokes that land and a monster-hunting plot, and this one stands on its own.
Istvhan is a paladin of a dead god, tracking a killer across the continent. Clara is a nun hunting the raiders who burned her convent and carried off her sisters. They meet at sword point, their quests become one, and Clara is keeping a secret about why her order was targeted. Banter, the walking dead and a grown-up slow burn, steamy, happy ending.
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3. Reign & Ruin
J.D. Evans · 2020
ExplicitAdultA self-published book that won the SPFBO fantasy contest, with a heroine who wins with politics instead of a sword and a slow burn that turns properly steamy.
Naime is heir to the Sultanate of Tamar, but as a woman she will be married off so that a husband can rule in her place, unless she finds another way. Makram, the feared death mage and brother of the ruler of neighboring Sarkum, comes to her in secret looking for an alliance while magic fails and war gathers. Politics first, then a slow burn that turns very steamy, high spice, happy ending.
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4. Thorn
Anna Burke · 2019
MildAdultA small-press sapphic Beauty and the Beast with under 2,000 Goodreads ratings, wintry and a little cruel, with a Huntress in place of the Beast.
When Rowan's father brings home a white rose from the Huntress's land, the Huntress comes to collect, and Rowan goes with her to a frozen mountain peopled only by the creatures of the hunt. It gets her out of a marriage she never wanted, but the curse on the mountain runs deeper than the village stories. Beauty and the Beast between two women, dark and wintry, mild spice, happy ending.
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5. Dreams Lie Beneath
Rebecca Ross · 2021
SweetYoung adultThe Rebecca Ross book most Divine Rivals fans haven't read: a standalone, so you get rivals to lovers, dream magic and a whole ending in one volume.
Clementine has trained for years to take over from her father as the town's warden, the magician who fights the nightmares that come to life each new moon, when magic spills down from the mountain. Then two rival magicians arrive to challenge for the post, and all she wants is revenge, until she gets closer to the younger one, Phelan. A standalone of dream magic and rivals who fall for each other, no spice, happy ending.
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How to Find a Nameless FaeA.J. Lancaster
6. How to Find a Nameless Fae
A.J. Lancaster · 2025
SteamyAdultSelf-published in 2025 and only just picked up by Tor, it is a cozy Rumpelstiltskin turned around, with a heroine who has stopped waiting, a house with opinions and some steam.
Princess Gisele was promised to a fae sorcerer before she was born, and decades later he still hasn't come for her, while the unpaid debt wrecks her life. So she hunts him down and finds a nameless lord in a living magical house who wants nothing to do with her, and the debt binds them together until they recover his lost name. Rumpelstiltskin turned around, dry humor, steamy, happy ending.
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7. Spellbreaker
Charlie N. Holmberg · 2020
SweetAdultPublished by Amazon's own fantasy imprint and rarely named next to the big series, it is a quiet slow burn with no spice in a Victorian setting, best read with the sequel at hand because of the cliffhanger.
Elsie is an unlicensed spellbreaker in an alternate Victorian England, quietly undoing the aristocracy's enchantments for a secret group called the Cowls. When the wizard Bacchus Kelsey catches her at it, she buys his silence by fixing the unruly spells on his estate, while wizards keep turning up murdered and their spellbooks stolen. Slow burn, no spice, cliffhanger.
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The Scattered BonesNicole Scarano
8. The Scattered Bones
Nicole Scarano · 2023
SteamyAdultA self-published standalone that reads like a mythic quest, a reverse Orpheus where she crosses the realm for him, and it is darker and sadder than its spice level suggests.
Sellah was promised as a child to the primordial goddess and sworn to stay untouched as her vessel, until a thief named Kaid broke into the temple and into her life. He paid for it: his body was cut apart and hidden across the realm, and now a figure called the Stranger promises to bring him back if she can find every bone. A dark, grief-soaked quest and a forbidden love, steamy, happy ending.
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9. Sorcery and Small Magics
Maiga Doocy · 2024
SweetAdultThe highest-rated book on this list, a cozy queer rivals-to-lovers road trip through a monster-filled wood, though the romance only reaches a first kiss here and grows over the trilogy.
Leo is good at small, pretty magic and nothing else, until a forbidden spell goes wrong and binds him to obey his longtime rival, the gifted and insufferable Sebastian Grimm. Neither can afford to be found out, so they head into the Unquiet Wood, full of monsters and outlaws, after a sorcerer who can undo curses. Rivals stuck together, a very slow burn that only starts here, no spice, open ending.