Who doesn’t love a romantic book about romance amidst a monarchy and a royal court?
Because there are SO many royal YA books, I’m doing three separate lists: contemporary royal romances, historical royal romances, and YA royal fantasy romance!
YA Books About Royalty: Fantasy Royals is a list comprised of YA books about royalty focusing on fantasy and royal romance.
Fantasy royal books offer the opportunity to incorporate imaginary kingdoms, magical elements, fae and fairy characters, and/or all kinds of supernatural happenings into a story. Royal romance is usually part of the story!
Hope you enjoy YA books about Royalty: Fantasy royals and I hope you will add your own favorite titles in the comments!
UPDATED in 2023! Great new titles and a lot more diversity in the YA Royal Fantasy genre!
Disclosure: as an Amazon Affiliate I may receive a small percentage of qualifying purchases.
Table of Contents for YA Books about Royalty: Fantasy Royals
Fairy Tale Inspired Royal Young Adult books
Young Adult books about Royal Assassins
Young Adult books about runaway or secret royals
Royal Cinderella stories for teens and young adults
Young Adult stories about Mages and Magic
YA Books about Fae and Fairies
Royal YA enemies to lovers stories
YA Books About Royal Sisters
YA Books About Royalty: Fantasy Royals
Find all the best teen fictional royal stories, filled with adventure and romance!
Fairy Tale Inspired Royal YA Books
This list includes YA retellings of Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, Rapunzel, Red Riding Hood, and more!
Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge. Beauty and the Beast retelling? Yes please!
Betrothed to the evil ruler of her kingdom, Nyx has always known that her fate was to marry him, kill him, and free her people from his tyranny.
But on her seventeenth birthday when she moves into his castle high on the kingdom’s mountaintop, nothing is what she expected—particularly her charming and beguiling new husband.
Nyx knows she must save her homeland at all costs, yet she can’t resist the pull of her sworn enemy—who’s gotten in her way by stealing her heart.
The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer.
A series of Sci-fi books inspired by Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, and Rapunzel.
Cinder (2012)
Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. . . .
Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness.
But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction.
Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.
Scarlet (2013)
Halfway around the world, Scarlet Benoit’s grandmother is missing. It turns out there are many things Scarlet doesn’t know about her grandmother or the grave danger she has lived in her whole life.
When Scarlet encounters Wolf, a street fighter who may have information as to her grandmother’s whereabouts, she is loath to trust this stranger, but is inexplicably drawn to him, and he to her.
As Scarlet and Wolf unravel one mystery, they encounter another when they meet Cinder. Now, all of them must stay one step ahead of the vicious Lunar Queen Levana, who will do anything for the handsome Prince Kai to become her husband, her king, her prisoner.
Cress (2014)
Cinder and Captain Thorne are fugitives on the run, with Scarlet and Wolf in tow. Together, they’re plotting to overthrow Queen Levana and prevent her army from invading Earth.
Their best hope lies with Cress, a girl trapped on a satellite since childhood who’s only ever had her netscreens as company. Unfortunately, she’s being forced to work for Queen Levana, and she’s just received orders to track down Cinder and her handsome accomplice.
When a daring rescue of Cress goes awry, the group is splintered. Cress finally has her freedom, but it comes at a higher price than she’d ever expected.
Winter (2015)
Princess Winter is admired by the Lunar people for her grace and kindness, and despite the scars that mar her face, her beauty is said to be even more breathtaking than that of her stepmother, Queen Levana.
Winter despises her stepmother, and knows Levana won’t approve of her feelings for her childhood friend–the handsome palace guard, Jacin.
But Winter isn’t as weak as Levana believes her to be and she’s been undermining her stepmother’s wishes for years. Together with the cyborg mechanic, Cinder, and her allies, Winter might even have the power to launch a revolution and win a war that’s been raging for far too long.
Among the Beasts and Briars by Ashley Poston (2022)
A lush, fairy-tale inspired royal fantasy
Cerys is safe in the Kingdom of Aloriya. It has been this way for hundreds of years, since the first king made a bargain with the Lady who ruled the forest that borders the kingdom. But as Aloriya prospered, the woods grew dark, cursed, and forbidden.
When cerys was young, she barely escaped as the woods killed her friends and her mother. Now Cerys carries a small bit of the curse in her blood.
As a new queen is crowned, things long hidden in the woods descend on the kingdom itself. Cerys is forced on the run. It’s up to her to find the legendary Lady of the Wilds and beg for a way to save her home.
But the road is darker and more dangerous than she knows, and as secrets from the past are uncovered amid the teeth and roots of the forest, it’s going to take everything she has just to survive.
A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Bridget Kemmerer. Based on Beauty and the Beast! Also check out my entire list of Beauty and the Beast retellings! And my list of YA Books about Curses!
Prince Rhen was cursed by a powerful enchantress to repeat the autumn of his eighteenth year over and over. He knew he could be saved if a girl fell for him. But that was before he learned that at the end of each autumn, he would turn into a vicious beast hell-bent on destruction.
Nothing has ever been easy for Harper but she learned to be tough enough to survive. But when she tries to save someone else on the streets of Washington, DC, she’s instead somehow sucked into Rhen’s cursed world.
As she spends time with Rhen, she begins to understand what’s at stake. And as Rhen realizes Harper is not just another girl to charm, his hope comes flooding back. But powerful forces are standing against Emberfall.
Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim (2022)
Inspired by the Grimm Brothers’ Six Swans!
Shiori’anma, princess of Kiata, has a secret. Forbidden magic runs through her veins. Normally she conceals it well, but on the morning of her betrothal ceremony, Shiori loses control. At first, her mistake seems like a stroke of luck, forestalling the wedding she never wanted. But it also catches the attention of Raikama, her stepmother.
A sorceress in her own right, Raikama banishes the young princess, turning her brothers into cranes. She warns Shiori that she must speak of it to no one: for with every word that escapes her lips, one of her brothers will die.
Penniless, voiceless, and alone, Shiori searches for her brothers, and uncovers a dark conspiracy to seize the throne. Only Shiori can set the kingdom to rights, but to do so she must place her trust in a paper bird, a mercurial dragon, and the very boy she fought so hard not to marry. And she must embrace the magic she’s been taught all her life to forswear–no matter what the cost.
Of Curses and Kisses by Sandhya Menon. A Beauty and the Beast retelling at a boarding school.
For Princess Jaya Rao, nothing is more important than family. When the loathsome Emerson clan steps up their centuries-old feud to target Jaya’s little sister, nothing will keep Jaya from exacting her revenge.
Then Jaya finds out she’ll be attending the same elite boarding school as Grey Emerson, and it feels like the opportunity of a lifetime. She knows what she must do: Make Grey fall in love with her and break his heart.
Grey Emerson is a misanthrope. Thanks to an ancient curse by a Rao matriarch, Grey knows he’s doomed once he turns eighteen. Sequestered away in the mountains at St. Rosetta’s International Academy, he’s lived an isolated existence—until Jaya Rao bursts into his life, but he can’t shake the feeling that she’s hiding something. Something that might just have to do with the rose-shaped ruby pendant around her neck…
Of Princes and Promises by Sandhya Menon. A retelling of the Frog Prince!
Royal Assassin Stories
The Queen’s Assassin by Melissa de la Cruz (2020)
A royal assassin and his apprentice fall in love.
Caledon Holt is the kingdom’s deadliest weapon. No one alive can best him in speed, strength, or brains. Cal is also the Queen’s Assassin, bound to her by magic and unable to leave her service until the task she’s set for him is fulfilled.
Shadow of the Honey Glade has been training all her life to join the Guild, hoping that one day she’ll become an assassin as feared and revered as Cal. But Shadow’s mother and aunts expect her to serve the crown as a lady of the Renovian Court.
When a surprise attack brings Shadow and Cal together, they’re forced to team up as assassin and apprentice. Even though Shadow’s life belongs to the court and Cal’s belongs to the queen, they cannot deny their attraction to each other. But now, with war on the horizon and true love at risk, Shadow and Cal will uncover a shocking web of lies that will change their paths forever.
Song of Wraiths and Ruin by Roseanne Brown (2020)
A grieving crown princess finds herself on a collision course with an assassin.
For Malik, the Solstasia festival is a chance to escape his war-stricken home and start a new life with his sisters in the desert city of Ziran.
But when a vengeful spirit abducts his younger sister, Nadia, as payment to enter the city, Malik strikes a fatal deal—kill Karina, Crown Princess of Ziran, for Nadia’s freedom.
But Karina has deadly aspirations of her own. Her mother, the Sultana, has been assassinated; her court threatens mutiny; and Solstasia looms like a knife over her neck.
Grief-stricken, Karina decides to resurrect her mother through ancient magic . . . requiring the beating heart of a king. And she knows just how to obtain one: by offering her hand in marriage to the victor of the Solstasia competition.
When Malik rigs his way into the contest, they are set on a heart-pounding course to destroy each other. But as attraction flares between them and ancient evils stir, will they be able to see their tasks to the death?
The Shadows Between Us by Tricia Levenseller (2020)
Alessandra plots to marry (and then kill) the mysterious Shadow King
Alessandra is tired of being overlooked, but she has a plan to gain power: Woo the Shadow King. Marry him. Kill him and take his kingdom for herself.
No one knows the extent of the freshly crowned Shadow King’s power. Some say he can command the shadows that swirl around him to do his bidding. Others say they speak to him, whispering the thoughts of his enemies. Regardless, Alessandra knows what she deserves, and she’s going to do everything within her power to get it.
But Alessandra’s not the only one trying to kill the king. As attempts on his life are made, she finds herself trying to keep him alive long enough for him to make her his queen―all while struggling not to lose her heart. After all, who better for a Shadow King than a cunning, villainous queen?
Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas (2018)
An unforgettable asassin-turned-heroine and her adventures.
In a land without magic, an assassin is summoned to the castle. She has no love for the vicious king who rules from his throne of glass, but she has not come to kill him. She has come to win her freedom. If she defeats twenty-three murderers, thieves, and warriors in a competition, she will be released from prison to serve as the King’s Champion.
Her name is Celaena Sardothien.
The Crown Prince will provoke her. The Captain of the Guard will protect her. And a princess from a faraway country will befriend her. But something rotten dwells in the castle, and it’s there to kill. When her competitors start dying mysteriously, one by one, Celaena’s fight for freedom becomes a fight for survival-and a desperate quest to root out the evil before it destroys her world.
The Wrath and the Dawn by Renée Ahdieh (2016)
A woman finds herself married to a murderous king – can she survive?
Every dawn brings horror to a different family in a land ruled by a killer. Khalid, the eighteen-year-old Caliph of Khorasan, takes a new bride each night only to have her executed at sunrise.
So it is a suspicious surprise when sixteen-year-old Shahrzad volunteers to marry Khalid. But she does so with a clever plan to stay alive and exact revenge on the Caliph for the murder of her best friend and countless other girls.
Shazi’s wit and will, indeed, get her through to the dawn that no others have seen, but with a catch . . . she’s falling in love with the very boy who killed her dearest friend.
She discovers that the murderous boy-king is not all that he seems and neither are the deaths of so many girls. Shazi is determined to uncover the reason for the murders and to break the cycle once and for all.
Graceling by Kristin Cashore (2008)
This is a trilogy but the first book about a royal assassin is by far my favorite!
Katsa lives in the Seven Kingdoms where selected people are born with a Grace, a special talent that can be anything at all. Katsa’s Grace is killing.
As the king’s niece, she is forced to use her extreme skills as his brutal enforcer. Until the day she meets Prince Po, who is Graced with combat skills, and Katsa’s life begins to change.
She never expects to become Po’s friend. She never expects to learn a new truth about her own Grace—or about a terrible secret that lies hidden far away . . . a secret that could destroy all seven kingdoms with words alone.
Kiss of Deception by Mary A. Pearson (2014)
Princess Lia is torn between two men. Which one is the assassin?
In a society steeped in tradition, Princess Lia’s life follows a preordained course. As First Daughter, she is expected to have the revered gift of sight―but she doesn’t―and she knows her parents are perpetrating a sham when they arrange her marriage to secure an alliance with a neighboring kingdom―to a prince she has never met.
On the morning of her wedding, Lia flees to a distant village. She settles into a new life, hopeful when two mysterious and handsome strangers arrive―and unaware that one is the jilted prince and the other an assassin sent to kill her.
Deception abounds, and Lia finds herself on the brink of unlocking perilous secrets―even as she finds herself falling in love.
YA Books About Runaway Royals, Secret Royals, or Royals in Disguise
Venom and Vow by Anne Marie McElmore and Elliott McElmore (2023)
Cade McKenna is a transgender prince who’s doubling for his brother. Valencia Palafox is a young dama attending the future queen of Eliana. Gael Palma is the infamous boy assassin Cade has vowed to protect. Patrick McKenna is the reluctant heir to a kingdom, and the prince Gael has vowed to destroy.
Cade doesn’t know that Gael and Valencia are the same person. Valencia doesn’t know that every time she thinks she’s fighting Patrick, she’s fighting Cade.
And when Cade and Valencia blame each other for a devastating enchantment that takes both their families, neither of them realizes that they have far more dangerous enemies.
Nameless Queen by Rebecca McLaughlin (2020)
When suddenly anyone can be queen, can a Nameless really rule?\
Everyone expected the king’s daughter would inherit the throne. No one expected me.
It shouldn’t be possible. I’m Nameless, a class of citizens so disrespected, we don’t even get names. Dozens of us have been going missing for months and no one seems to care.
But there’s no denying the tattoo emblazoned on my arm. I am queen. In a palace where the corridors are more dangerous than the streets, though, how could I possibly rule? And what will become of the Nameless if I don’t?
Cast in Firelight by Dana Swift (2021)
Adraa and Jatin have been betrothed to each other to unite their kingdoms. But when each adopts a secret identity and they meet, will sparks fly?
Adraa is the royal heir of Belwar, a talented witch on the cusp of taking her royal ceremony test, and a girl who just wants to prove her worth to her people.
Jatin is the royal heir to Naupure, a competitive wizard who’s mastered all nine colors of magic, and a boy anxious to return home for the first time since he was a child.
Together, their arranged marriage will unite two of Wickery’s most powerful kingdoms. But after years of rivalry from afar, Adraa and Jatin only agree on one thing: their reunion will be anything but sweet.
The Ash Princess series by Laura Sebastian
A royal princess loses her crown and must fight for her birthright.
Theodosia was six when her country was invaded and her mother, the Fire Queen, was murdered before her eyes. On that day, the Kaiser took Theodosia’s family, her land, and her name. Theo was crowned Ash Princess – a title of shame to bear in her new life as a prisoner.
For 10 years Theo has been a captive in her own palace. She’s endured the relentless abuse and ridicule of the Kaiser and his court. She is powerless, surviving in her new world only by burying the girl she was deep inside.
Then, one night, the Kaiser forces her to do the unthinkable. With blood on her hands and all hope of reclaiming her throne lost, she realizes that surviving is no longer enough. But she does have a weapon: her mind is sharper than any sword. And power isn’t always won on the battlefield.
For 10 years, the Ash Princess has seen her land pillaged and her people enslaved. That all ends here.
Guinevere Deception by Kiersten White.
A changeling insists that she’s Guinevere in this retelling based on King Arthur!
Princess Guinevere has come to Camelot to wed a stranger: the charismatic King Arthur. With magic clawing at the kingdom’s borders, the great wizard Merlin conjured a solution: send in Guinevere to be Arthur’s wife.
The catch? Guinevere’s real name–and her true identity–is a secret. She is a changeling, a girl who has given up everything to protect Camelot.
To keep Arthur safe, Guinevere must navigate a court in which the old (including Arthur’s own family) demand things continue as they have been. The new, those drawn by the dream of Camelot, fight for a better way to live.
The Beholder Anna Bright.
A princess in search of a suitor.
Selah has waited her whole life for a happily ever after. As the only daughter of the leader of Potomac, she knows her duty is to find the perfect match.
But after an excruciatingly public rejection, Selah’s stepmother suggests an unthinkable solution: Selah must set sail across the Atlantic to visit a series of potential suitors—and if she doesn’t come home engaged, she shouldn’t come home at all.
The Red Queen series by Victoria Aveyard (2015)
Mare Barrow’s world is divided by blood–those with common, Red blood serve the Silver- blooded elite, who are gifted with superhuman abilities.
Mare is a Red, scraping by as a thief in a poor, rural village, until a twist of fate throws her in front of the Silver court. Before the king, princes, and all the nobles, she discovers she has an ability of her own.
To cover up this impossibility, the king forces her to play the role of a lost Silver princess and betroths her to one of his own sons.
As Mare is drawn further into the Silver world, she risks everything and uses her new position to help the Scarlet Guard–a growing Red rebellion–even as her heart tugs her in an impossible direction.
One wrong move can lead to her death, but in the dangerous game she plays, the only certainty is betrayal.
Finnekin of the Rock series by Melina Marchetta (2010)
Books about secret or missing royals are my favorite and this YA classic fantasy series does not disappoint!
Finnikin was only a child during the five days of the unspeakable, when the royal family of Lumatere were brutally murdered, and an imposter seized the throne.
Now a curse binds all who remain inside Lumatere’s walls, and those who escaped roam the surrounding lands as exiles.
Finnikin, now on the cusp of manhood, is compelled to join forces with an arrogant and enigmatic young novice named Evanjalin, who claims that her dark dreams will lead the exiles to a surviving royal child and a way to pierce the cursed barrier and regain the land of Lumatere.
But Evanjalin’s unpredictable behavior suggests that she is not what she seems.
The False Prince (Ascendance Trilogy #1) by Jennifer A. Nielsen (2012)
In a discontented kingdom, civil war is brewing. To unify the divided people, Conner, a nobleman of the court, devises a cunning plan to find an impersonator of the king’s long-lost son and install him as a puppet prince.
Four orphans are recruited to compete for the role, including a defiant boy named Sage. Sage knows that Conner’s motives are more than questionable, yet his life balances on a sword’s point — he must be chosen to play the prince or he will certainly be killed.
But Sage’s rivals have their own agendas as well. As Sage moves from a rundown orphanage to Conner’s sumptuous palace, layer upon layer of treachery and deceit unfold, until finally, a truth is revealed that, in the end, may very well prove more dangerous than all of the lies taken together.
The Blood Heir series by Amalie Wen Zhao (2019)
When her father is assassinated, a princess must flee to save her life.
In the Cyrilian Empire, Affinites are reviled. Their varied gifts to control the world around them are unnatural—dangerous.
Anastacya Mikhailov, the crown princess, has a terrifying secret. Her deadly Affinity to blood is her curse and the reason she has lived her life hidden behind palace walls.
When Ana’s father, the emperor, is murdered, her world is shattered. Framed as his killer, Ana must flee the palace to save her life.
To clear her name, she must find her father’s murderer on her own. But the Cyrilia beyond the palace walls is far different from the one she thought she knew. Corruption rules the land, and a greater conspiracy is at work—one that threatens the very balance of her world.
There is only one person corrupt enough to help Ana get to its core: Ramson Quicktongue.A cunning crime lord of the Cyrilian underworld, Ramson has sinister plans—though he might have met his match in Ana. Because in this story, the princess might be the most dangerous player of all.
Cinderella Inspired YA Royal Romance
Midnight Strikes by Zeba Shahnaz (2023)
This one is Cinderella meets a time loop sci-fi!
Seventeen-year-old Anaïs just wants tonight to end. As an outsider at the kingdom’s glittering anniversary ball, she has no desire to rub shoulders with the nation’s most eligible (and pompous) bachelors. Especially not the notoriously roguish Prince Leo.
But at the stroke of midnight, an explosion rips through the palace, killing everyone in its path. Including her.
The last thing Anaïs sees is fire, smoke, chaos . . . and then she wakes up in her bedroom, hours before the ball. No one else remembers the deadly attack or believes her warnings of disaster.
Not even when it happens again. And again. And again.
If she’s going to escape this nightmarish time loop, Anaïs must take control of her own fate and stop the attack before it happens.
But the court’s gilded surface belies a rotten core, full of restless nobles grabbing at power, discontented commoners itching for revolution, and even royals who secretly dream of taking the throne. It’s up to Anaïs to untangle these knots of deadly deceptions . . . if she can survive past midnight.
Cinderella is Dead by Kaylynn Bayron (2021)
A futuristic f/f Cinderella story!
It’s 200 years after Cinderella found her prince, but the fairy tale is over. Teen girls are now required to appear at the Annual Ball, where the men of the kingdom select wives based on a girl’s display of finery. If a suitable match is not found, the girls not chosen are never heard from again.
Sixteen-year-old Sophia would much rather marry Erin, her childhood best friend, than parade in front of suitors. At the ball, Sophia makes the desperate decision to flee, and finds herself hiding in Cinderella’s mausoleum. There, she meets Constance, the last known descendant of Cinderella and her step sisters.
Together they vow to bring down the king once and for all–and in the process, they learn that there’s more to Cinderella’s story than they ever knew . . .
The Selection by Kiera Cass (2012)
A competition to win the hand of a prince
For thirty-five girls, the Selection is the chance of a lifetime. The opportunity to escape a rigid caste system, live in a palace, and compete for the heart of gorgeous Prince Maxon. But for America Singer, being Selected is a nightmare. It means turning her back on her secret love with Aspen, who is a caste below her, and competing for a crown she doesn’t want.
Then America meets Prince Maxon—and realizes that the life she’s always dreamed of may not compare to a future she never imagined.
The Betrothed Kiera Cass (2020)
The author of The Selection series is back with a story about a noble girl who is engaged to a king but in love with a commoner.
A would-be queen. A handsome young king. A perfect match…or is it?
When King Jameson declares his love for Lady Hollis Brite, Hollis is shocked—and thrilled. After all, she’s grown up at Keresken Castle, vying for the king’s attention alongside other daughters of the nobility. Capturing his heart is a dream come true.
But Hollis soon realizes that falling in love with a king and being crowned queen may not be the happily ever after she thought it would be. And when she meets a commoner with the mysterious power to see right into her heart, she finds that the future she really wants is one that she never thought to imagine.
Cinder by Marissa Meyer.
See the synopsis above – a cyborg Cinderella in a sci-fi setting!
YA Royal Stories About Mages and Magic
Violet Made of Thorns by Gina Chen (2022)
Violet is a prophet and a liar, influencing the royal court with her cleverly phrased but not always tru divinations. Honesty is for suckers, like the oh-so-not charming Prince Cyrus, who plans to strip Violet of her official role once he’s crowned at the end of the summer. Unless Violet does something about it.
But when the king asks her to falsely prophesy Cyrus’s love story for an upcoming ball, Violet awakens a dreaded curse, one that will end in either damnation or salvation for the kingdom—all depending on the prince’s choice of future bride.
Violet faces her own choice: Seize an opportunity to gain control of her own destiny, no matter the cost, or give in to the ill-fated attraction that’s growing between her and Cyrus.
The Other Merlin by Robyn Schneider (2021)
Welcome to the great kingdom of Camelot!
Prince Arthur’s a depressed botanist who would rather marry a library than a princess, Lancelot’s been demoted to castle guard after a terrible lie, and Emry Merlin has arrived at the castle disguised as her twin brother since girls can’t practice magic.
Life at court is full of scandals, lies, and backstabbing courtiers, so what’s a casually bisexual teen wizard masquerading as a boy to do? Other than fall for the handsome prince, stir up trouble with the foppish Lord Gawain, and offend the prissy Princess Guinevere.
When the truth comes out with disastrous consequences, Emry has to decide whether she’ll risk everything for the boy she loves, or give up her potential to become the greatest wizard Camelot has ever known.
Also check out the sequel, The Future King (2023)
Reign of the Fallen by Sarah Glenn Marsh (2018)
The story of a royal necromancer
Odessa is one of Karthia’s master necromancers, catering to the kingdom’s ruling Dead. Whenever a noble dies, it’s Odessa’s job to raise them by retrieving their soul from the Deadlands.
But there is a cost to being raised: the Dead must remain shrouded. If even a hint of flesh is exposed, a grotesque transformation begins, turning the Dead into terrifying, bloodthirsty Shades.
A dramatic uptick in Shade attacks raises suspicions and fears around the kingdom.
Someone is intentionally creating Shades by tearing shrouds from the Dead – and training them to attack. Odessa is forced to contemplate a terrifying question: What if her magic is the weapon that brings the kingdom to its knees?
Odessa must untangle the gruesome plot to destroy Karthia before the Shades take everything she loves.
Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead
This iconic YA series and its spin-offs feature a royal court of vampires.
For more information on the entire series, check out my series of posts called Vampire Academy Revisited: St Vladimir’s Summer School.
You can also check out my post on the very best YA Vampire Books!
The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson (2011)
Once a century, one person is chosen for greatness.
Elisa is the chosen one. But she has always felt powerless, useless. Now, on her sixteenth birthday, she has become the secret wife of a handsome and worldly king—a king whose country is in turmoil. A king who needs her to be the chosen one, not a failure of a princess.
And he’s not the only one who seeks her. Fierce enemies, seething with dark magic, are hunting her. A daring, determined revolutionary thinks she could be his people’s savior. Soon it is not just her life, but her very heart that is at stake.
Elisa could be everything to those who need her most. If the prophecy is fulfilled. If she finds the power deep within herself. If she doesn’t die young. Most of the chosen do.
Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
A West African-inspired story of royalty, magic and danger
Zélie Adebola remembers when the soil of Orïsha hummed with magic. Burners ignited flames, Tiders beckoned waves, and Zélie’s Reaper mother summoned forth souls.
But everything changed the night magic disappeared. Under the orders of a ruthless king, maji were killed, leaving Zélie without a mother and her people without hope.
Now Zélie has one chance to bring back magic and strike against the monarchy. With the help of a rogue princess, Zélie must outwit and outrun the crown prince, who is hell-bent on eradicating magic for good.
Danger lurks in Orïsha, where snow leoponaires prowl and vengeful spirits wait in the waters. Yet the greatest danger may be Zélie herself as she struggles to control her powers and her growing feelings for an enemy.
River of Royal Blood by Amanda Joy (2019)
Two sisters fight for the right to sit on the Ivory throne. This one has both magic and assassins! And sisters!
Sixteen-year-old Eva is a princess, born with the magick of blood and marrow, something not seenfor generations in the country of Myre.
The last known practitioner of this magick was Queen Raina, who toppled the native khimaer royalty and massacred thousands, including her own sister, eight generations ago.
Living in Raina’s long and dark shadow, Eva must now face her older sister, Isa, in a battle to the death if she hopes to ascend to the Ivory Throne–because in the Queendom of Myre only the strongest, most ruthless rulers survive.
When Eva is attacked by an assassin just weeks before the battle with her sister, she discovers there is more to the attempt on her life than meets the eye.
As tensions escalate, Eva is forced to turn to a fey instructor of mythic proportions and a mysterious and handsome khimaer prince for help in growing her magick into something to fear. Because despite the love she still has for her sister, Eva will have to choose: Isa’s death or her own.
Orphan Queen by Jodi Meadows (2015)
When Princess Wilhelmina was a child, the Indigo Kingdom invaded her homeland. Ten years later, Wil and the other noble children who escaped are ready to fight back and reclaim Wil’s throne. To do so, Wil and her best friend, Melanie, infiltrate the Indigo Kingdom palace with hopes of gathering information that will help them succeed.
But Wil has a secret—one that could change everything. Although magic has been illegal for a century, she knows her ability could help her save her kingdom. But magic creates wraith, and the deadly stuff is moving closer and destroying the land.
And if the vigilante Black Knife catches her using magic, she may disappear like all the others….
The Star Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi (2016)
Maya is cursed. With a horoscope that promises a marriage of Death and Destruction, she has earned only the scorn and fear of her father’s kingdom.
Her whole world is torn apart when her father, the Raja, arranges a wedding of political convenience to quell outside rebellions. Soon Maya becomes the queen of Akaran and wife of Amar.
Neither roles are what she expected: As Akaran’s queen, she finds her voice and power. As Amar’s wife, she finds compassion, protection, and desire.
But Akaran has its own secrets — thousands of locked doors, gardens of glass, and a tree that bears memories instead of fruit. Soon, Maya suspects her life is in danger.
Yet who, besides her husband, can she trust? With the fate of the human and Otherworldly realms hanging in the balance, Maya must unravel an ancient mystery that spans reincarnated lives to save those she loves the most… including herself.
YA Books Featuring Fae Royalty
The Cruel Prince by Holly Black (2018)
There’s no better place for royal intrigue than a Fae Court!
Jude was seven years old when her parents were murdered and she and her two sisters were stolen away to live in the treacherous High Court of Faerie. Ten years later, Jude wants nothing more than to belong there, despite her mortality. But many of the fey despise humans. Especially Prince Cardan, the youngest and wickedest son of the High King.
To win a place at the Court, she must defy him–and face the consequences.
In doing so, she becomes embroiled in palace intrigues and deceptions, discovering her own capacity for bloodshed. But as civil war threatens to drown the Courts of Faerie in violence, Jude will need to risk her life in a dangerous alliance to save her sisters, and Faerie itself.
All that Glows by Ryan Graudin (2014)
Emrys, a spirited and charismatic Faery Guard of the British monarchy, is sent to London to guard Richard, the bad-boy prince of England, from assassins and paparazzi.
Despite her status as a guard of the royals, Emrys struggles with her feelings as she tries to not fall in love with the charming prince.
But when an ancient Fae murders the king, Richard’s father, and starts attacking the other royals, Emrys must risk everything to hunt through London’s magical dark side in order to protect her charge—and the boy she loves.
A Court of Thorns and Roses series by Sarah J. Maas (2020)
When 19-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a beast-like creature arrives to demand retribution for it. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she only knows about from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not an animal, but Tamlin – one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled their world.
As she dwells on his estate, her feelings for Tamlin transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie and warning she’s been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae.
But an ancient, wicked shadow over the faerie lands is growing, and Feyre must find a way to stop it… or doom Tamlin – and his world – forever.
The Iron King series by Julie Kagawa (2010)
On the eve of her 16th birthday, Meghan Chase learns that she is the daughter of the summer faery king, and when her half-brother is kidnapped, she must journey into a fantastical world she never imagined to face an unknown enemy and save the people she loves.
YA Books Featuring Royal Hate to Love Romance!
If you love royals and a good enemies to lovers story, check these out!
Cast in Firelight by Dana Swift
See description above!
An arranged marriage will unite two of Wickery’s most powerful kingdoms. But after years of rivalry from afar, Adraa and Jatin only agree on one thing: their reunion will be anything but sweet.
The Cruel Prince series by Holly Black
See description above.
Jude: “Cardan is even more beautiful than the rest. I hate him more than all the others. I hate him so much that sometimes when I look at him, I can hardly breathe.”
The Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas
Book two of the Court of Thorns and Roses series!
Feyre has undergone more trials than one human woman can carry in her heart. Though she’s now been granted the powers and lifespan of the High Fae, she is haunted by her time Under the Mountain and the terrible deeds she performed to save the lives of Tamlin and his people.
As her marriage to Tamlin approaches, Feyre’s hollowness and nightmares consume her. She finds herself split into two different people: one who upholds her bargain with Rhysand, High Lord of the feared Night Court, and one who lives out her life in the Spring Court with Tamlin.
While Feyre navigates a dark web of politics, passion, and dazzling power, a greater evil looms. She might just be the key to stopping it, but only if she can harness her harrowing gifts, heal her fractured soul, and decide how she wishes to shape her future-and the future of a world in turmoil.
Kingdom of the Wicked by Kerri Maniscalco (2020)
One set of twins, one brutal murder and a quest for vengeance.
Emilia and her twin sister Vittoria are streghe — witches who live secretly among humans, avoiding notice and persecution.
One night, Emilia finds the body of her beloved, missing twin. Devastated, Emilia sets out to find her sister’s killer and to seek vengeance at any cost-even if it means using dark magic that’s been long forbidden.
Then Emilia meets Wrath, one of the Wicked-princes of Hell she has been warned against in tales since she was a child. Wrath claims to be on Emilia’s side, tasked by his master with solving the series of women’s murders on the island. But when it comes to the Wicked, nothing is as it seems…
To Kill a Kingdom by Alexandra Christo
Princess Lira is siren royalty. With the hearts of seventeen princes in her collection, she is revered across the sea. Until a twist of fate forces her to kill one of her own.
To punish her daughter, the Sea Queen transforms Lira into the one thing they loathe most―a human. Robbed of her song, Lira has until the winter solstice to deliver Prince Elian’s heart to the Sea Queen and or remain a human forever.
The ocean is the only place Prince Elian calls home, even though he is heir to the most powerful kingdom in the world. Hunting sirens is more than an unsavory hobby―it’s his calling.
When he rescues a drowning woman in the ocean, she’s more than what she appears. She promises to help him find the key to destroying all of sirenkind for good―but can he trust her? And just how many deals will Elian have to barter to eliminate mankind’s greatest enemy?
YA Books About Royal Sisters
Are these sisters confidantes or rivals?
You can also check out my list of YA Books About Sisters!
Twin Crowns by Catherine Doyle and Katherine Weber (2022)
Wren Greenrockhas always known that one day she’d steal her sister’s place on the throne. Trained from birth to return to the palace and avenge her parents’ murder, she’ll do anything to become queen and protect the community of witches who raised her. Or she would, if only a certain guard wasn’t quite so distractingly attractive, and if her reckless magic would stop causing trouble. . . .
Princess Rose Valhart knows that with power comes responsibility—and she won’t let a small matter like waking up in the desert with an extremely impertinent (and very handsome) kidnapper get in the way of her duty. But life outside the palace is wilder and more beautiful than she ever imagined, and the witches she has long feared might turn out to be the family she never had.
But as coronation day looms and each sister strives to claim her birthright, an old enemy becomes increasingly determined that neither will succeed. Who will ultimately rise to power and wear the crown?
Liar’s Crown by Abigail Owen (2022)
Everything about my life is a lie. As a hidden twin princess, born second, I have only one purpose―to sacrifice my life for my sister if death comes for her. I’ve been living under the guise of a poor, obscure girl of no standing, slipping into the palace and into the role of the true princess when danger is present.
Now the queen is dead and the ageless King Eidolon has sent my sister a gift―an eerily familiar gift―and a proposal to wed. I don’t trust him, so I do what I was born to do and secretly take her place on the eve of the coronation. Which is why, when a figure made of shadow kidnaps the new queen, he gets me by mistake.
As I try to escape, all the lies start to unravel. And not just my lies. The Shadowraith who took me has secrets of his own. He struggles to contain the shadows he wields―other faces, identities that threaten my very life.
Winter is at the walls. Darkness is looming. And the only way to save my sister and our dominion is to kill Eidolon…and the Shadowraith who has stolen my heart.
Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake
n every generation on the island of Fennbirn, a set of triplets is born: three queens, all equal heirs to the crown and each possessor of a coveted magic.
Mirabella is a fierce elemental, able to spark hungry flames or vicious storms at the snap of her fingers.
Katharine is a poisoner, one who can ingest the deadliest poisons without so much as a stomachache.
Arsinoe, a naturalist, is said to have the ability to bloom the reddest rose and control the fiercest of lions.
But becoming the Queen Crowned isn’t solely a matter of royal birth. Each sister has to fight for it. And it’s not just a game of win or lose…it’s life or death. The night the sisters turn sixteen, the battle begins. The last queen standing gets the crown.
Castles in Their Bones by Laura Sebastian (2022)
Empress Margaraux has had plans for her daughters since the day they were born. Princesses Sophronia, Daphne, and Beatriz will be queens. And now, age sixteen, they each must leave their homeland and marry their princes.
Beautiful, smart, and demure, the triplets appear to be the perfect brides—because Margaraux knows there is one common truth: everyone underestimates a girl. Which is a grave mistake. Sophronia, Daphne, and Beatriz are no innocents. They have been trained since birth in the arts of deception, seduction, and violence with a singular goal—to bring down monarchies— and their marriages are merely the first stage of their mother’s grand vision: to one day reign over the entire continent of Vesteria.
The princesses have spent their lives preparing, and now they are ready, each with her own secret skill, and each with a single wish, pulled from the stars. Only, the stars have their own plans—and their mother hasn’t told them all of hers.
A River of Royal Blood by Amanda Joy
See the description above!
Do you have favorite YA books about royalty that feature fantasy royals? Tell me in comments and I will add them! I’m always updating this list!
Looking for more young adult and teen books featuring fictional royals and royal romance? Here is my list of contemporary romance YA books about royals and my list of YA historical fiction about royals.
Looking for even more royal content? Check out my Coronation Reading List!
+50,000 points for Queen Isaboe of Lumatere! She is my forever queen. <3
Same. She is my favorite!
I was surprised to see I had read three of these (The Selection, ToG, TWatD). I think Graceling would fit here too, no?
Definitely! I will add it.