Here are 7 books that Throne in the Dark fans have personally recommended if you like Throne in the Dark. Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of Role Playing

Chelsea Zhao

From Chelsea's 3 favorite reads in 2024.

Unknown Author Why Chelsea loves this book

This had so many things that I loved!
- Older characters (48 and 50)
- Geeky Gamers
- Bi/Demisexual rep
- friends to lovers
- hilarious mix-up (she thought he was 20, he thought she was 80)
- teens who felt like teens

Keep in mind that we do have some harder topics: biphobia, homophobia, mentioned death of a parent, talk of end-of-life care

I seriously loved these characters and their relationship so much. I loved how snarky and funny that they could be. And I loved the demisexual representation!

By Cathy Yardley ,

Why should I read it?

5 authors picked Role Playing as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

From Cathy Yardley, author of Love, Comment, Subscribe, comes an emotional rom-com about two middle-aged gamers who grow their online connection into an IRL love story.

Maggie is an unapologetically grumpy forty-eight-year-old hermit. But when her college-aged son makes her a deal―he’ll be more social if she does the same―she can’t refuse. She joins a new online gaming guild led by a friendly healer named Otter. So that nobody gets the wrong idea, she calls herself Bogwitch.

Otter is Aiden, a fifty-year-old optimist using the guild as an emotional outlet from his family drama caring for his aging mother while…


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Book cover of Aggressor

Aggressor by FX Holden,

It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan.

The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to run…

Book cover of Bride

Lena Gibson Author Of Racing Towards Destiny

From Lena's 3 favorite reads in 2025.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Writer Reader Teacher ASD Karate black belt

Lena's 3 favorite reads in 2025

Lena Gibson Why Lena loves this book

I absolutely loved this story (and it's sequel)! While it is a departure from Ali Hazelwood's usual contemporary STEM romances, she brought her A-game to this series as well. I was captivated by the rich world-building and immersive feel from page one. We are sucked into a world with vampires, weres, and humans and their centuries-long war for dominance, all told through the perspective a vampire who feels misunderstood and alone. I loved the character Misery, who will do anything to find her best friend, the sister of her heart, including marry an Alpha were she has never met so she can search in his territory. For anyone who loves fantasy, romance, or who enjoys great love stories of any genre, this book is for you.

By Ali Hazelwood ,

Why should I read it?

6 authors picked Bride as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.


Book cover of Howl's Moving Castle

Joe Mahoney Author Of Adventures in the Radio Trade: A Memoir

From Joe's 3 favorite reads in 2024.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Broadcaster Family man Dog person Aspiring martial artist

Joe's 3 favorite reads in 2024

Joe Mahoney Why Joe loves this book

I was curious about this book after having seen the movie. I quite like the movie, but I love the book. It's terrific, and quite a bit different than the book. It's written with humour, panache and originality. Terrific characters and concepts. Howl pops right off the pages. If you love inventive fantasy, you'll love Howl's Moving Castle.

By Diana Wynne Jones ,

Why should I read it?

25 authors picked Howl's Moving Castle as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 10, 11, 12, and 13.

What is this book about?

Now an animated movie from Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki, the oscar-winning director of Spirited Away

In this beloved modern classic, young Sophie Hatter from the land of Ingary catches the unwelcome attention of the Witch of the Waste and is put under a spell...

Deciding she has nothing more to lose, Sophie makes her way to the moving castle that hovers on the hills above her town, Market Chipping. But the castle belongs to the dreaded Wizard Howl, whose appetite, they say, is satisfied only by the souls of young girls...

There Sophie meets Michael, Howl's apprentice, and Calcifer…


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Book cover of Trusting Her Duke

Trusting Her Duke by Arietta Richmond,

A Duke with rigid opinions, a Lady whose beliefs conflict with his, a long disputed parcel of land, a conniving neighbour, a desperate collaboration, a failure of trust, a love found despite it all.

Alexander Cavendish, Duke of Ravensworth, returned from war to find that his father and brother had…

Book cover of Paladin's Grace

Hannah Hassall

From Hannah's 3 favorite reads in 2025.

Unknown Author Why Hannah loves this book

It was something new for me and I really liked that

By T. Kingfisher ,

Why should I read it?

6 authors picked Paladin's Grace as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Stephen’s god died on the longest day of the year…

Three years later, Stephen is a broken paladin, living only for the chance to be useful before he dies. But all that changes when he encounters a fugitive named Grace in an alley and witnesses an assassination attempt gone wrong. Now the pair must navigate a web of treachery, beset on all sides by spies and poisoners, while a cryptic killer stalks one step behind…

From the Hugo and Nebula Award winning author of Swordheart and The Twisted Ones comes a saga of murder, magic, and love on the far…


Book cover of Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries

Lissa Sloan Author Of Glass and Feathers

From Lissa's 3 favorite reads in 2024.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author

Lissa's 3 favorite reads in 2024

Lissa Sloan Why Lissa loves this book

I found Emily Wilde and her world simply delightful! The atmosphere (real and faerie) is gorgeous, and the characters wonderful, funny, and romantic. All in all it's a delightful escape!

By Heather Fawcett ,

Why should I read it?

17 authors picked Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A curmudgeonly professor journeys to a small town in the far north to study faerie folklore and discovers dark fae magic, friendship, and love in the start of a heartwarming and enchanting new fantasy series.

“A darkly gorgeous fantasy that sparkles with snow and magic.”—Sangu Mandanna, author of The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches

Cambridge professor Emily Wilde is good at many things: She is the foremost expert on the study of faeries. She is a genius scholar and a meticulous researcher who is writing the world’s first encyclopaedia of faerie lore. But Emily Wilde is…


Book cover of Sorcery of Thorns

Julia Harms

From Julia's 3 favorite reads in 2024.

Unknown Author Why Julia loves this book

Interesting premise. Love the grimoires

By Margaret Rogerson ,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Sorcery of Thorns as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 14, 15, 16, and 17.

What is this book about?

All sorcerers are evil. Elisabeth has known that as long as she has known anything. Raised as a foundling in one of Austermeer's Great Libraries, Elisabeth has grown up among the tools of sorcery-magical grimoires that whisper on shelves and rattle beneath iron chains. If provoked, they transform into grotesque monsters of ink and leather.
Then an act of sabotage releases the library's most dangerous grimoire, and Elisabeth is implicated in the crime. With no one to turn to but her sworn enemy, the sorcerer Nathaniel Thorn, and his mysterious demonic servant, she finds herself entangled in a centuries-old conspiracy.…


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Book cover of The Duke's Christmas Redemption

The Duke's Christmas Redemption by Arietta Richmond,

A Duke who has rejected love, a Lady who dreams of a love match, an arranged marriage, a house full of secrets, a most unneighborly neighbor, a plot to destroy reputations, an unexpected love that redeems it all.

Lady Charlotte Wyndham, given in an arranged marriage to a man she…

Book cover of Contagion

A.K. Caggiano Author Of Throne in the Dark

From my list on fantasy that makes you giggle and swoon.

Why am I passionate about this?

Every morning when I sit at my computer, I’m reminded by a post-it note stuck to my monitor that my self-ordained purpose is to “bring readers joy.” Like many, I escaped into books as a child, and I’ve been seeking out stories that encapsulate wonder, delight, and, most importantly, love ever since. I began my self-publishing journey in 2020 and am thrilled to have found my place in the fantasy romance genre, writing romcoms with a heaping spoonful of ridiculous magic. I’ve written a number of standalone novels as well as a (sub)urban fantasy series, Vacancy, and a traditional fantasy romance series with a satirical twist, Villains & Virtues.

A.K.'s book list on fantasy that makes you giggle and swoon

A.K. Caggiano Why A.K. loves this book

This book should perhaps be classified as sci-fi, but hear me out: the bulk of this novella follows two characters, one who is technically supernatural (we just happen to call him an alien), as they break out of captivity and quest through a forest. That’s fantasy enough for me, and the syrupy sweetness of these two can overcome any hesitation over on-page, spacey jargon.

I’ve never read a book that so wholly gets into the head of a non-human species as this, and it also had me cracking up the entire time. Simmi, the alien in question, is a germaphobe, to put it lightly, but his partner in escaping, Aurora, is patient and kind with him, and the love that blossoms between them is kick-your-feet delightful.

Book cover of Role Playing
Book cover of Bride
Book cover of Howl's Moving Castle

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