8 Dark Romances You Need To Read After Daggermouth
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Finished Daggermouth and now nothing is hitting the same? Yeah… you’re not alone.
Because when dark dystopian romance books really sinks their teeth in, with morally grey characters, high-stakes tension, and enemies who absolutely should not be catching feelings, most other recommendations suddenly feel a bit flat.
So if you’re hunting for what to read after Daggermouth that actually matches its energy, this list is for you. Rather than throwing generic enemies-to-lovers titles your way and hoping for the best, every pick here leans into what makes Daggermouth so addictive: sharp power dynamics, dangerous chemistry, and romances that simmer under real pressure.
These are eight romantasy and dark romances you need to read after Daggermouth — chosen for the same true enemies-to-lovers tension, morally grey leads, and high stakes that made H.M. Wolfe’s debut impossible to put down.
And yes, the tension is very much the point.
1. The Book of Azrael — Amber V. Nicole
Dark romantasy | Gods & monsters | True enemies to lovers | Slow burn
Released 2022 | Adult | Series: Gods & Monsters #1
If you loved the true enemies energy of Daggermouth, none of this “they were mildly rude at a ball” nonsense, The Book of Azrael delivers. Dianna is a fire-wielding shapeshifter who has spent a thousand years in servitude, and Liam (the World Ender, a myth to his enemies and a god to those loyal to him) is the creature she’s supposed to be hunting.
They start as outright enemies. They try to kill each other. And then, very slowly, they don’t.
What makes this such a satisfying read after Daggermouth is the same thing that makes both books work: the power dynamics are real, the stakes are cosmic, and the emotional payoff is earned over hundreds of pages rather than handed to you in chapter three.
Dianna is one of those rare morally grey FMCs who is genuinely complex, and Amber V. Nicole builds a diverse, queer normative fantasy world that feels intentional rather than tokenistic.
Fair warning: that cliffhanger ending will have you immediately reaching for book two.
Best for: Readers who loved Daggermouth’s true enemies energy and want cosmic stakes, a morally grey FMC, and a slow burn that takes its time earning every moment.
2. The Poison Daughter — Sheila Masterson
Dark romantasy | Vampires | arranged marriage | vigilante fmc | indie
Released october 2025 | Adult | standalone
Every person Harlow Carrenwell kisses dies. That’s the way she likes it and exactly what makes her useful to her family as an assassin. But the night she moves in to kill her newest target, he doesn’t die. And it turns out the only man immune to her magic is the man she’s been forced to marry.
The Poison Daughter has serious Daggermouth DNA: a forced political marriage, two people with every reason to want each other dead, and a romance that earns its heat through real animosity and hard-won trust. Harlow is a woman in her thirties with a traumatic past and a secret life as a vigilante for abused women — she’s nobody’s pawn, even when she’s playing the part. The twists in the second half are genuinely surprising.
This is a dark enemies-to-lovers romantasy standalone that rewards patient readers, and if you’re after that same combination of political intrigue and slow-burn tension that Daggermouth does so well, start here.
PSA Make sure to check the trigger warnings before diving in. This one earns its darkness.
Best for: Readers who are most hooked by Daggermouth’s political marriage and the slow unravelling of two people who should never have trusted each other. But did anyway.
3. The Wolf King — Lauren Palphreyman
romantasy | werewolves | kidnapping | forbidden romance
Released 2023 | Adult | series: Wolf King #1
Princess Aurora is on the eve of her arranged wedding when she spares the life of a young wolf at an underground fight ring and puts herself squarely in the sights of Callum, a powerful alpha. When he escapes, he takes her with him, deep into the wild northern lands where the werewolf clans are uniting for war.
What The Wolf King does well is exactly what Daggermouth does well: it takes the enemies dynamic seriously. Aurora and Callum aren’t adversaries because of a misunderstanding. They’re on opposite sides of a real war, and the forbidden attraction that builds between them is genuinely complicated by that.
Lauren Palphreyman brings a Highland-inspired atmosphere and strong political intrigue between the clans, giving this more texture than your average werewolf romance.
A trope-forward pick that fully leans into what it is — fast-paced, emotionally engaging, and ending on a cliffhanger that will send you straight to The Night Prince.
Best for: Readers who want to stay in that fast-paced, high-tension headspace after Daggermouth, and don’t mind a forbidden, morally grey romance that makes the stakes feel genuinely costly.
4. The Death-Made Prince — Lisette Marshall
Dark romantasy | norse inspro | morally grey romance | forced proximity | indie
Released october 2025 | Adult | series: Runewitch saga #1
Thraga is a runewitch sentenced to hang for avenging her lover’s murder. The night before her execution, a necromancer prince is thrown into her cell, and her only chance at saving the man she loves is escaping with the man she loathes.
The problem? Durlain is the son of the man who killed her mother, a fire mage, and deeply sarcastic about all of it.
This is one of those slow burn enemies-to-lovers books that presents itself as a fast-paced fantasy road trip and then sneaks up on you with something far more emotionally devastating. The bickering is razor-sharp, both leads are genuinely morally grey in ways that matter, and by the time the feelings arrive they are thoroughly deserved.
Readers who loved Daggermouth for its complex character dynamics and the sense that the romance is shaped by genuine history and genuine hurt will find a lot to love here.
Brutal cliffhanger. Book two cannot come soon enough.
Best for: Readers who loved that Daggermouth’s romance felt genuinely complicated by history and real hurt. This one sneaks up on you in exactly the same way.
5. We Who Will Die — Stacia Stark
Romantasy | roman inspired | vampires | arena | second chance
Released december 2025 | Adult | series: empire of blood #1
When her brothers’ lives are threatened, Arvelle makes a desperate vow to do the impossible: kill the emperor, an ancient vampire created by a god. To get close enough, she has to survive the Sundering — a brutal arena where only the fastest and deadliest are selected for the emperor’s elite guard.
The most powerful obstacle standing in her way is the Primus, the emperor’s protector. The problem is who’s under that armour.
We Who Will Die brings Daggermouth’s intensity to a vividly rendered ancient Rome-inspired world, and it’s a particularly strong pick for readers who love a romance made more complicated by shared history and real hurt.
Stacia Stark (the bestselling author of A Court This Cruel and Lovely) builds breathtaking arena combat alongside her slow burn, and the second-chance element adds emotional weight that fans of earned romance will appreciate.
If dark dystopian romance and deadly arena settings are your sweet spot, this is an easy next read after Daggermouth.
Best for: Readers who loved Daggermouth’s high-stakes world-building and want that same sense of a brutal system the heroine has to outmanoeuvre, with a romance that costs her something real.
6. Hollow — Caroline Peckham & Susanne Valenti
Dark romantasy | fae | magical competition | morally grey romance
Released november 2025 | Adult | series: crown of hearts & chaos #1
Every fifty years, the Great Hunt begins — and only those willing to enter a cursed, living forest have any hope of breaking the curse consuming the realm. Ferris Creed enters with no weapons, no noble blood, and no fae power. What she has is a sharp mind, an unbreakable oath, and the extremely bad luck of crossing paths with Prince Bane, the necromancer commanding the undead forces making everything worse.
From the bestselling authors of Zodiac Academy comes an atmospheric enemies to lovers dark romantasy that Daggermouth readers should find immediately familiar in tone. Bane is centuries-old, genuinely dangerous, and not the brooding-but-secretly-harmless variety. Ferris has to earn every inch of ground she gains.
The cursed forest itself is a character, giving Hollow that immersive, cinematic quality that makes you want to read it in one sitting.
Another duology opener with a cliffhanger, so fair warning, but the wait for book two only adds to the obsession.
Best for: Readers who were drawn to Daggermouth’s atmospheric tension and want an MMC who is genuinely dangerous, not performatively brooding but actually threatening.
7. To Cage a Wild Bird — Brooke Fast
Dark Dystopian Romance | prison setting | forbidden love | class warfare
Released november 2025 | Adult | series: divided fates #1
In the city of Dividium, crime means a life sentence in Endlock, a prison where the wealthy elite pay to hunt the inmates for sport. Raven Thorne is the most notorious bounty hunter in the city. When her brother is sentenced to Endlock, she gets herself arrested on purpose.
The last thing she expected was the prison guard who complicates everything.
If it was Daggermouth’s dystopian edge that grabbed you with the corrupt systems, the class warfare, the sense of a world deliberately designed to grind people down, then To Cage a Wild Bird is the most direct successor on this list.
It’s brutal, politically uncomfortable, and builds its forbidden romance on genuinely high stakes.
Brooke Fast’s debut doesn’t flinch from the horror of the world she’s created, which gives you a romance that feels costly and real rather than decorative.
Best for: Readers who want that dark dystopian romance energy á la Hunger Games meets dark romance, but with a morally complex heroine at the centre: This is the one.
8. A Vow in Vengeance — Jaclyn Rodriguez
Dark academia romantasy | tarot magic | forced proximity | indie debut
Released january 2026 | Adult | series: immortal desires #1
Rune Ryker has lost everything to the Immortals. Her family, her home, her freedom. When she engineers her own selection into the Immortal Realms, she ends up at the Forge: a cutthroat magic college where the immortal druids’ rare tarot magic is taught.
Her power turns out to be the rarest of all. And the only other person who wields it is Prince Draven — arrogant, ruthlessly ambitious, and absolutely the last person she can trust.
A Vow in Vengeance is the dark academia romantasy recommendation for readers looking for what to read after Daggermouth. All the political intrigue and power games, but set in a magic college with a tarot-based system and a rebel heroine who punches first.
Jaclyn Rodriguez’s debut has drawn comparisons to Fourth Wing and A Court This Cruel and Lovely, but it earns its own identity through Rune’s fierce loyalty and an attraction that feels genuinely dangerous to act on. A strong debut with a sequel already in the works, and an ending that makes the wait for it feel unreasonable.
Best for: Readers who loved Daggermouth’s power games and political tension and want that same electric push-pull, but with a dark academia setting and a magic system that makes everything feel even more dangerous.
Where to Buy These Books
All eight dark romantasy and dark dystopian romances above are available through Amazon UK and Waterstones. Several, including The Book of Azrael, The Death-Made Prince, and To Cage a Wild Bird, are also on Kindle Unlimited, so check there first if you’re subscribed.
Want More Books Similar to Daggermouth?
If you’ve worked through this list and you’re still not satisfied (same), here are the broader searches worth doing:
dark dystopian romance books
morally grey enemies to lovers romantasy
slow burn fantasy romance
They’ll all surface books that scratch a similar itch. I’ll be adding to this list as more Daggermouth-adjacent titles land. If it was Daggermouth’s political manipulation and layered history that hooked you most, my review of The Lies That Summon the Night might be worth a read before you decide what’s next.
Have you read any of these? Or found another book that scratches the Daggermouth itch?
Let me know in the comments and help update this list!
