Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. This week’s topic is a genre freebie, so I decided to do 10 fantasy-romances (or romantasies) with royal protagonists.
1. The Bridge Kingdom by Danielle L. Jensen
Series: The Bridge Kingdom #1
Page Length: 356
Publication Date: Oct. 16, 2018
Synopsis: A warrior princess trained in isolation, Lara is driven by two certainties. The first is that King Aren of the Bridge Kingdom is her enemy. And the second is that she’ll be the one to bring him to his knees.
The only route through a storm-ravaged world, the Bridge Kingdom enriches itself and deprives its rivals, including Lara’s homeland. So when she’s sent as a bride under the guise of peace, Lara is prepared to do whatever it takes to fracture its impenetrable defenses. And the defenses of its king.
Yet as she infiltrates her new home and gains a deeper understanding of the war to possess the bridge, Lara begins to question whether she’s the hero or the villain. And as her feelings for Aren transform from frosty hostility to fierce passion, Lara must choose which kingdom she’ll save… and which kingdom she’ll destroy.
2. Castles in Their Bones by Laura Sebastian
Series: Castles in Their Bones #1
Page Length: 528
Publication Date: Feb. 1, 2022
Synopsis: 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.
Life abroad is a test. Will their loyalties stay true? Or will they learn that they can’t trust anyone—not even each other?
LINKS: Goodreads | Amazon | Review
3. The Liar’s Crown by Abigail Owen
Page Length: 448
Publication Date: Aug. 30, 2022
Publisher: Entangled: Teen
Synopsis: Beauty and the Beast meets Snow White in this upper YA fantasy where a black heart is disguised by beauty, the purest soul is hidden within a beast, and a gift of hope is laced with death.
Everything about Meren’s life is a lie. As a hidden twin princess, born second, she has only one purpose—to sacrifice her life for her beloved sister if death comes for her. Meren has lived 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, their dominion under threat of eternal winter, and the sinister King Erebos has sent her sister a flower. The first seen in a thousand years. With that gift, he seeks to wed her. Untrusting, Meren does what she was born to do and secretly takes her sister’s place on the eve of the coronation. Which is why, when a man made of shadow kidnaps the new queen…he gets Meren by mistake.
As Meren tries to escape, all the lies start to unravel. Not just her lies. The Shadow Ranger who took her has secrets of his own. He struggles to contain the shadows he wields—other faces, hideous faces, that terrify her. Winter is at the walls. Darkness is looming. And the only way to save them all is to kill Erebos. But to kill the king is to destroy the king, including the only good piece of his soul left—the Shadow Ranger who has stolen Meren’s heart.
LINKS: Goodreads | Amazon | Review
4. For the Wolf by Hannah Whitten
Series: Wilderwood #1
Page Length: 448
Publication Date: June 1, 2021
Publisher: Orbit Books
Synopsis: The first daughter is for the Throne.
The second daughter is for the Wolf.
For fans of Uprooted and The Bear and the Nightingale comes a dark fantasy novel about a young woman who must be sacrificed to the legendary Wolf of the Wood to save her kingdom. But not all legends are true, and the Wolf isn’t the only danger lurking in the Wilderwood.
As the only Second Daughter born in centuries, Red has one purpose-to be sacrificed to the Wolf in the Wood in the hope he’ll return the world’s captured gods.
Red is almost relieved to go. Plagued by a dangerous power she can’t control, at least she knows that in the Wilderwood, she can’t hurt those she loves. Again.
But the legends lie. The Wolf is a man, not a monster. Her magic is a calling, not a curse. And if she doesn’t learn how to use it, the monsters the gods have become will swallow the Wilderwood-and her world-whole.
LINKS: Goodreads | Amazon | My Review
5. A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer
Page Length: 484
Publication Date: Jan. 29, 2019
Publisher: Bloomsbury YA
Synopsis: Fall in love, break the curse.
Cursed by a powerful enchantress to repeat the autumn of his eighteenth year, Prince Rhen, the heir of Emberfall, thought he could be saved easily if a girl fell for him. But that was before he turned into a vicious beast hell-bent on destruction. Before he destroyed his castle, his family, and every last shred of hope.
Nothing has ever been easy for Harper. With her father long gone, her mother dying, and her brother constantly underestimating her because of her cerebral palsy, Harper learned to be tough enough to survive. When she tries to save a stranger on the streets of Washington, DC, she’s pulled into a magical world.
Break the curse, save the kingdom.
Harper doesn’t know where she is or what to believe. A prince? A curse? A monster? As she spends time with Rhen in this enchanted land, 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 . . . and it will take more than a broken curse to save Harper, Rhen, and his people from utter ruin.
LINKS: Favorite Quotes | Goodreads | Amazon
6. Prince of Song and Sea by Linsey Miller
Author: Linsey Miller
Series: Princes #1
Page Length: 352
Publication Date: Oct. 4, 2022
Publisher: Disney Press
Synopsis: Before Prince Eric’s mother, the Queen of Vellona, went missing two years ago, she reminded him about the details of the deadly curse that has plagued his entire life. The curse? If he were to kiss someone other than his true love, he would die. With a neighboring kingdom looking for any excuse to invade their shores, and rumors of ghost pirates lurking the seas, Eric is desperate for any information that may help him break his enchantment and bring stability to Vellona. The answers he has been searching for come to him in the form of a letter left from his mother that reveals Eric must find his true love, the one with a voice pure of heart,or kill the sea witch responsible for cursing him in the first place.
Now Eric is on a quest to find the Isle of Serein, the witch’s legendary home. But after he is rescued by a mysterious young woman with a mesmerizing singing voice, Eric’s heart becomes torn. Does he enter a battle he is almost certain he cannot win or chase a love that might not even exist? And when a shipwrecked young woman with flaming red hair and a smile that could calm the seven seas enters his life, Eric may discover that true love isn’t something that can be decided by magic.
7. Royal Decoy by Heather Frost
Series: Fate of Eyrinthia #1
Page Length: 370
Publication Date: June 18, 2020
Synopsis: A SERVANT blackmailed into becoming a princess’s decoy.
A BODYGUARD determined to keep her alive. A PRINCE forced to execute his father’s brutal laws. A PRISONER used to keep him compliant. A WORLD on the brink of war.
In one horrible night, Clare goes from kitchen maid to royal decoy. She has three months to become the princess’s perfect double so she can ensure her betrothal to an enemy prince. Desperate to survive, Clare throws herself into self-defense training, taught by her distractingly attractive bodyguard. The danger increases when a ruthless assassin begins stalking her, intent on ending the tenuous peace.
Across the northern mountains, Prince Grayson is his father’s ultimate weapon. He carries out the king’s harsh orders because the one person he cares about is his father’s prisoner. Grayson’s silent obedience is tested when his father plans to exploit the marriage alliance between two of their greatest enemies. If Grayson submits, the blood of thousands will spill. If he resists, the girl who means everything to him will die.
The fate of Eyrinthia hangs in the balance. Some want peace. Some want war. All will be thrown into chaos.
LINKS: Goodreads | Amazon | Review
8. A Veil of Gods and Kings by Nicole Bailey
Series: Apollo Ascending #1
Page Length: 347
Publication Date: April 27, 2022
Synopsis: A god fighting his fate. A prince burdened with secrets. And a romance that could end in flames.
Apollo is a deity… almost. Half mortal and refusing to take his position as god of the sun, he spends his nights drowning out haunting memories and his days avoiding responsibilities.
Until his father forces him into an ultimatum:
Ascend immediately.
Or spend the year mentoring under the obnoxious Prince Hyacinth.
Forced together, Apollo and Hyacinth grapple with their mutual disdain for each other.
But what starts as a kindling of irritation begins to burn into something new. A spark that, if it turns to flame, could incinerate everything they’ve always protected.
A reimagining of the Greek myth of Apollo and Prince Hyacinth, this NA, enemies-to-lovers fantasy series is a whirlwind journey full of romance, intrigue, and enthralling characters.
LINKS: Goodreads | Amazon | Review
9. Rise of the Vicious Princess by C.J. Redwine
Page Length: 400
Publication Date: June 14, 2022
Synopsis: The first in a YA political fantasy duology about a fierce princess determined to bring lasting peace to her kingdom regardless of the cost to her heart.
Princess Charis Willowthorn is the dutiful sword of Calera. Raised to be ruthless and cunning, her only goal is to hold her war-torn kingdom together long enough to find a path toward peace with their ancient foe, Montevallo, even if the cost is her own heart.
When violence erupts in the castle itself and an unseen enemy begins sinking Calera’s ships, Charis realizes a threat much greater than Montevallo is coming for her people. So she forms a plan. By day, she is Calera’s formidable princess intent on forging an alliance with Montevallo. By night, she disguises herself as a smuggler and roams the sea with a trusted group of loyalists, hunting for their new enemies. And through it all, there’s the one boy she can’t have—who guards her life but steals her heart.
But her enemies are much closer than Charis realizes, and her heart isn’t the only thing she has left to lose.
LINKS: Goodreads | Amazon | Review
10. A Dawn of Onyx by Kate Golden
Series: The Sacred Stones #1
Page Length: 456
Publication Date: Dec. 15, 2022
Publisher: The Daisy Press
Synopsis: Captured by a king of darkness. Forced to find the light within.
Arwen Valondale never expected to be the brave one, offering her life to save her brother’s. Now she’s been taken prisoner by the most dangerous kingdom on the continent, and made to use her rare magical abilities to heal the soldiers of the vicious Onyx King.Arwen knows better than to face the ancient, wicked woods that surround the castle on her own, which means working with a fellow prisoner might be her only path to freedom. Unfortunately, he’s as infuriating as he is cunning—and seems to take twisted pleasure in playing on Arwen’s deepest fears.
But here in Onyx Kingdom, trust is a luxury she can’t afford.
To make it out of enemy territory, she’ll have to navigate back-stabbing royals, dark magic, and dangerous beasts. But untold power lies inside Arwen, dormant and waiting for a spark. If she can harness it, she just might be able to escape with her life—and hopefully, her heart.
LINKS: Goodreads | Amazon | Review
I’ve enjoyed a lot of these but still have a few to read. Great list!
Thanks so much, Joanna! 🙂
I haven’t read any of these yet. I did buy my daughter A Curse So Dark and Lonely, though. She loved it.
Nice! That’s such a good series. 🙂
Great list! There are a few on here I still need to read.
Thanks, Yolanda! 🙂
A very interesting and specific list, Julie. Great job.
Thanks, Carla. 🙂
I love any and all Little Mermaid retellings and such, and I still need to read that Prince Eric book.
Oooo, I think you’ll love it!
Love this list! There are quite a few that I’ve already read but more that are still on my TBR and that I’m only hearing about for the first time. We love romantasy with royals 😍