Morally Grey Fantasy Books

When disgraced interior designer William Frank is hired to renovate a ballroom in the secluded city-state of Bloodgrove, he sees one last chance to save his reputation. Once celebrated in the capital, Will’s career collapsed after he was accused of practicing magic. Bloodgrove should be an escape: a private commission, a wealthy patron, and enough distance from scandal to begin again. But Duchess Elodie Ormonde is no ordinary client. As the last of her bloodline, she is locked in a ruthless struggle against the city’s noble houses for the coveted title of the King’s Red Hand. Her most dangerous rival is Eric Arcos—merciless, brilliant, and, most dangerously of all, beautiful. As Bloodgrove’s dark halls reveal their secrets, Will is drawn deeper into a world of ruthless ambition and treacherous desires. Caught between Elodie and Eric, he must face his magic before Bloodgrove devours him whole.

The wild is calling. The war is raging. Our leaders are lying. And I’m starting to play treason all too often in my dreams. The land is rife with secrets which whisper to me on the wind and the destiny I had so long desired is souring now that I’ve claimed it. I want to follow the path that has been laid out for me but with every step I take down it, my gut twists with doubts and my heart pounds to a traitorous beat. There is a secret in the heart of our lands. I don’t know who’s keeping it and I don’t know what uncovering it will mean, but I find myself wanting to unveil it for all to see. I’m torn between the life I’ve always claimed to want and the truth which is calling out for me to discover it. But if I allow myself to entertain these doubts which are rising in the corners of my mind then I may find myself a traitor to all I’ve ever been. Not that my heart minds treachery. It races for a man I should hate, thunders at the promise of his touch, pounds at the thought of his kiss. I shouldn’t ache for him the way I do. I shouldn’t want any of the things I yearn for in the dead of the night. But my eyes still find him in every room, my mind lingers on him when we are parted and my soul burns for him in every waking moment. He can’t be mine. I won’t be his. But perhaps fate has different designs in mind for us…

Some worlds deserve to be destroyed . . . Isla Crown has charted a new destiny and leapt into the unknown, determined to defeat her insidious ancestor, Lark, no matter the cost. But Skyshade is nothing like she anticipated, and she’ll have to use all of her skills just to survive, let alone end Lark for good. Meanwhile, Grim and Oro would sooner set fire to their own kingdoms than leave Isla stranded on a path toward certain death. But getting her back will involve forging an alliance—if they can find a way to forgive their long history of betrayals. The key to Isla’s return—and the fate of the realms—lies close to her heart. But in the face of her most powerful enemy yet, will Isla be able to reconcile her past in order to carve a future of her own making.

Fia Riftborne thought joining the Sidhe Guard was the hardest choice she'd ever make. She was wrong. Taken prisoner by the very shadows she was sworn to fight, Fia uncovers a devastating truth. The wraiths who brought destruction to the Isle's western border aren't monsters at all, but a race of people from a dying realm called the Kálfar, and they believe Fia's growing powers are tied to their survival. As war looms on two fronts, Fia must navigate a world of shadow magic and political upheaval. A disgraced Kálfar lord builds an army in the south while tensions within Sídhe reach a breaking point. And the Void that gave Fia her power is calling—but answering it means betraying everyone she left behind. The Guard. Her friends. Laryk. In a war where nothing is as it seems, choosing the wrong side could cost her everything, including the brooding commander whose darkness seems to recognize her own.

The sky is burning. The Reapers are keeping secrets. Vampires roam the wastes. And I’m headed down a path of destruction which can only end in death. I’m a soul cast adrift on a tide of grief and lies. A clock ticking down the moments to my inevitable destruction, and all I can do is race towards it. The nations are caught in this endless battle for supremacy and it’s hard to see myself as anything other than a pawn in the twisted games I’m helpless to control. The Waning Lands are screaming, soaked in blood for so long that even the rivers run red with it. But those screams are whispering riddles that only some of us can hear, begging us to see the signs and listen to the meaning beneath the words we chant so obediently. What if there is something more to this war? What if winning isn’t what actually matters? What if our magic isn’t the thing that truly divides us? My heart is hardened to the wants of the world and all who occupy it, yet still I hear them call my name. Perhaps it’s time I started listening and found out why the stars have set us this fate. Or if not the stars, then who? Something is rotting at the heart of our lands. So now I have a choice to make. Will I seek out the decay and work to destroy it? Or will I join it in its destruction of this world in vengeance for all the suffering it has offered me? I’m starting to want things I shouldn’t want. Desire a man I should hate. Care for a warrior I should only wish to harm. The point is, I’m beginning to feel like more than just another pawn in this endless game. But if I want to be the one who rolls the dice then I’m going to have to pay the price of playing for real. I only wanted to claim revenge for what I’d lost. Maybe Destiny isn’t done with me yet.

Crowned by destiny and driven by vengeance, Meryn Cooper rises to power against all odds, inheriting not only a throne but a kingdom on the brink of war. As Nocturna fractures under the weight of long-buried secrets and generations of lies, Meryn must rely on her bonded direwolf, Anassa, and a fragile network of allies to hold the realm together. Yet her rule is anything but secure, with commoners, nobles, and the elite Bonded all questioning her right to lead, drawing her into a dangerous web of politics and unrest. At the same time, her sister Saela remains in grave danger, raising the stakes of every decision Meryn makes. Amid the chaos, the one person she finds herself able to trust is Stark Therion, the powerful and enigmatic Alpha she once believed to be her enemy. His unwavering loyalty and magnetic presence challenge everything she thought she knew, and under his guidance, Meryn begins to unlock a level of power she never imagined possible. But with enemies gathering, dark forces invading her dreams, and her emotions growing ever more complicated, Meryn risks losing not only her kingdom but also her heart. In a world where blood will be shed, bonds will shatter, and fate itself will be tested, every choice carries the weight of survival.

For ten years, I've lived in a gilded cage inside King Midas's golden castle. But one night changed everything. Now I'm here, a prisoner of Fourth Kingdom's army, and I'm not sure if I'm going to make it out of this in one piece. They're marching to battle, and I'm the bargaining chip that will either douse the fire or spark a war. At the heart of my fear, my worry, there's him―Commander Rip. Known for his brutality on the battlefield, his viciousness is unsurpassed. But I know the truth about what he is. Fae. The betrayers. The murderers. The ones who nearly destroyed Orea, wiping out Seventh Kingdom in the process. Rip has power sizzling beneath this skin and glinting spikes down his spine. But his eyes―his eyes are the most compelling of all. When he turns those black eyes on me, I feel captive for an entirely different reason. I may be out of my cage, but I'm not free, not even close. In the game of kings and armies, I'm the gilded pawn. The question is, can I out maneuver them?

​Orphaned heiress Kidan Adane grew up far from the elusive society of vampires she was born into, where human bloodlines gain power through vampire companionship. She is obsessively protective, mildly nihilistic, and willing to do anything to save her loved ones. When her sister, June, disappears, Kidan is convinced a vampire stole her—the same vampire bound to her family bloodline, the cruel yet captivating Susenyos Sagad. To find June, Kidan must infiltrate the elite Uxlay University—where students study to inherit their family fortune and select vampire companions. Kidan must study an arcane philosophy, work with four enigmatic students, and survive living with Susenyos—even as he does everything to drive her away. It doesn’t matter that Susenyos’s wickedness speaks to Kidan's own violent nature and tempts her to surrender to a life of darkness. She must find her sister and kill Susenyos at all costs. When a murder mirroring June’s disappearance shakes Uxlay, Kidan sinks further into the ruthless underworld of vampires, risking her very soul. There she discovers a centuries-old threat. And June could be at the center of it. To save her sister, Kidan must bring Uxlay to its knees and either break free from the horrors of her own actions or embrace the dark entanglements of love—and the blood it requires.

The dragons are lost. The elements are at war. Enlisting isn’t optional. And I’m falling for a man who wants me dead. I’m a wielder of hearts and summoner of corruption. Heir to nothing and born to a fool in the wrong damn month. But I’m also one of only two Fae in this divided land of hellions who might be starting to see through the lies we’ve swallowed for so long. In the year we turn twenty-one, conscripts from across the warring nations of air, fire, earth and water are sent to Never Keep – the only place in our besieged continent where our magic can be Awakened. But something is wrong inside Never Keep. Something which might extend far beyond the reaches of this desolate fortress. Within the gothic walls of this frigid castle in the snow, we’re left to hold our own against the brutal Fae from the opposing lands. The Reapers are merciless. The Royals are lying. The Werewolves run rampant and Vampires roam the wastelands in bloodthirsty covens. But even though death lurks in every shadow of the Keep, it’s the least of my worries. I’m delving into secrets the stars don’t want me uncovering, making alliances with Fae born to be my enemy, falling for a sinner while promising my heart to a different heathen and somewhere amid it all, I’m supposed to win a war. I thought the only thing I had to do was survive my magical instruction. Turns out, fate doesn’t favour the wicked.

Isla Crown has secured the love of two powerful rulers and broken the curses that plagued the six realms for centuries, but few know the true origins of her powers. Now, in the wake of a crushing betrayal, Isla finds herself struggling to win respect as the newly crowned leader of two separate realms. Worse, her fellow rulers haven’t ceded victory quietly, and there are others in Isla’s midst who don’t believe her ascent to power was earned. As certain death races toward Lightlark and secrets from the past begin to unravel, Isla must weigh her responsibility to her people against the whims of the most dangerous traitor of all: her heart. Alex Aster’s intricate world expands after the riveting culmination of the Centennial games, delving more deeply into Isla’s memories of her past, as her future hurtles toward two possible fates.

Life was good. Cassandrea liked it the way it was. Not simple, but cosy. She owned a nice home in Borve, the capital of Ordeara, the southern kingdom ruled by a dragon king and his two sisters. A kingdom of mild weather and pleasant people, where humans and magical creatures coexisted peacefully. There was literally nothing to complain about. She even had a kind husband who was anything but boring. No kids yet, but that could change soon. So life was good. Until the night she woke with a rope around her neck.

Possession of dragon contraband in the Arterian kingdom guarantees one thing: a brutal execution. When twenty-two-year-old Katerina Blackwind finds a dragon egg buried in her father’s grave, her world begins to unravel. She’s tasked with returning the forbidden dragon hatchling—Daeja—north to the secretive Dragon Lands where dragons roam free and a rebellion group resides. But she can’t do it on her own. Smuggling a dragon hatchling across the realm during a war between Arterians and rebels means she can be killed by either side. She knows there’s only one person she can truly trust—her old flame, Cole Ashbourne. Yet, Cole is much different than the last time Kat saw him: deliciously chiseled in all the right places with a raw power lingering beneath the surface. Cole is torn between his responsibilities as a newly-promoted Captain in the King’s military and his heart. Kat works on a plan to get Daeja to the Dragon Lands while keeping a low profile at one of the King’s military outposts. Though, having a room next to the sinisterly provocative and kingdom’s best swordsman, Darian Raventhorn, proves to be anything but easy. Danger lurks at every turn and as more secrets are unearthed, Kat is left to question everything she thought she knew about dragons, her family, love, and the kingdom.

The stars are mocking us. The mask has fallen. Chaos reigns in the untamed lands. And I’ve lost sight of the woman I was in the face of the one I’ve decided to become. A truth more all-consuming than we could have ever prepared for has fallen into our laps. The chains which bound us to this place have shattered. And we are faced with the threat of a new alliance or scorning it in favour of a fresh war. One which I don’t trust we could win. Many secrets have been revealed to us at last but the full weight of them is more than any of us can bear. Everything we have lived and died for was in payment to this lie. And vengeance now calls my name like the baying call of a bloodhound. It is a call I will answer. We’ve come too far to back down now. I only worry what following this path to its conclusion will cost us. Because I’ve just realised that I want to claim my future after all. It calls to me with dark eyes and a shadowed soul. I never should have let myself fall into the trap of him. But here I am in his cage with no desire to free myself from it. All hail the coming of a new dawn, for when the sun rises next, it will illuminate far more than we have ever seen before…

Even as her heart is pulled in two directions, Helena fights to save Sparta in the face of a tyrannical king, in this romantasy retelling of Helen of Troy. Sparta is dying. Gods once ruled the land, until King Menelaus cast them out and crowned himself in their place. Now, drought scorches the earth and a mysterious affliction steals the breath from the living, while defiance is answered with death. When the king resurrects the ancient trials meant to choose his queen, Helena becomes her dying village’s only hope. Cursed with a terrible beauty, she steps forward, not for glory but survival. But beauty alone cannot save her from a crown stolen from the gods. Alone in a dangerous court, Helena must decide whom to trust: Achilles, a legendary warrior bound to the throne by blood and oath, or a mysterious prisoner bearing forbidden magic and long-buried truths. One guards her cage. The other whispers how to escape it. And one of them is lying. The fate of her people rests on Helena’s shoulders. If she chooses wrong, Sparta will not simply fall. It will kneel. Helena must claim the throne—or be destroyed by it.

Adrift in a sky shadowed by war, We seek, we ache, Searching for the woman who fled us. We shattered her heart, but she unfurled her feathers, Our sweetheart, our little dove, Escaping our talons on pure white wings. One of us soars over battlements, Haunted by past mistakes, Vowing never to repeat them. The other storms through walls of stone and hatred, Eager to destroy the shackles of his past, Determined to shackle her to him instead. Forever. Loyalties are torn. Friendships are tested. Among the chaos, one claim stands irrefutably: We will get her back. She will be ours. Come home to us, white Raven.

Love kills kingdoms… Back in Grim’s castle on Nightshade, Isla is reeling in the wake of a brutal battle and the devastating truths it exposed. Her future―and the fate of the world―now hinge on a heart split in two. Past Isla, who fell in love with the ruler of Nightshade, fights to resist feelings she considers treasonous. The Isla of the present, who has seen the ruin her powers can cause, will do anything to save Lightlark and its king. As the line between enemy and friend is tested, Isla is more desperate than ever to understand the oracle’s final prophecy and change her heartrending fate. But a storm is coming. And with it, a long-buried evil greater than anything the realms have faced before. With the clock ticking on her destiny and the survival of two warring kingdoms hinging on her own shattered heart, Isla Crown will either save the world―or destroy it.

I am an object of desire. My powers of seduction are my survival, my weapon, and my curse. I’m no stranger to obsession, but for the first time, I crave it. I love when he watches me, follows me, hunts me. In the mortal lands, I was safe from him. Navigating a city of ruthless vampires to save my sister from the human slave trade was already treacherous. But with the ruling vampire lord’s unrelenting focus on me, I fear his shadows might never let me go. Rune I’ve always watched her. But now I more than desire her; I thirst for her. She is my addiction, my soul, my Little Flame. I tried to let her go, but she found her way back to me, and I’ve taken that as permission. I’ll claim her in front of the whole world if that’s what it takes to protect what’s mine. As war and upheaval threaten the city I have ruled for centuries, it is this vulnerable, tempting human who poses the biggest threat of all. I might be Scarlett’s worst nightmare, but this little seductress will be my very undoing.

Return to the world of The Poisoner... In the shadows of 1890s Buffalo, a poisoner’s bite leaves more than just scars—even for the undead. Two years after fleeing London, Alina Lis has built something she never thought possible: a home. Leading a commune of women like herself, she's found a new, greater purpose; experimenting on the Vipera. But peace, she learns, is as fragile as a spider's web in winter. Silas Forbes, the Vipera she escaped, hasn’t forgotten. But his thirst for Alina threatens everything he's created in her absence. And he's brought another along for the hunt: Luka Novikov, the man who once betrayed her, now bound to them both by wounds that won't heal and debts that can't be paid. As human and Vipera worlds violently collide, old poisons surface and new alliances form. In a society where survival means choosing sides, Alina must protect the family she’s built, Silas must decide what price he’ll pay for his obsession, and Luka—marked forever by the poisoner’s kiss—must survive the clash of an immortal’s longing and a woman’s fury. Some venoms have no antidote. Some hungers can never be satisfied.

Jude knows exactly what she is: a mortal girl living in a land of immortal monsters. She watches the High Fae with a mixture of envy and revulsion, they are as beautiful and as lethal as blades forged in divine fire, destined to live forever while she withers. And then there is Prince Cardan, the youngest and most cruel son of the High King. Jude hates him with a visceral intensity that catches in her throat, a hatred so potent it borders on obsession. Stolen away to the treacherous High Court of Faerie at age seven after the brutal murder of her parents, Jude has spent a decade navigating a world that views her as nothing more than prey. Now seventeen, she is tired of cowering. Despite the disdain the fey hold for humans, Jude is determined to win a permanent place at Court, even if she has to bleed for it. To earn her standing, she must do the unthinkable: defy Cardan and endure the scorched-earth consequences of his wrath. But her act of rebellion pulls her deep into a web of palace intrigue and lethal deceptions. As she uncovers her own chilling capacity for violence, Jude realizes that a civil war is brewing, one that threatens to drown the Faerie realms in blood. To save her sisters and the only home she’s ever known, she must forge a dangerous alliance and risk everything, proving that in a world of magic, a mortal girl with nothing to lose is the most dangerous creature of all.

Power is a fickle thing; easy to seize in a moment of desperation, but notoriously difficult to keep. Jude Duarte learned this the hard way when she surrendered her leverage over the wicked King Cardan, only to be met with a betrayal that stripped her of her crown and cast her back into the gray, mundane world of mortals. Now, as the exiled and technically "powerless" Queen of Elfhame, Jude is biding her time in the human realm, fueled by a cold, simmering rage and a determination to reclaim the life Cardan stole from her. Her chance for a homecoming arrives unexpectedly when her twin sister, Taryn, shows up with a life-threatening problem that only Jude can solve. Returning to the treacherous High Court means Jude must go undercover, risking execution to navigate a palace that has grown even more lethal in her absence. She must face the stinging memory of Cardan’s treachery, and the complicated, magnetic pull he still exerts over her heart. But Elfhame is fracturing; old alliances have soured, and the drums of war are beating across the shifted landscape of the Fae. As Jude slips behind enemy lines, she finds herself entangled in a web of bloody politics and ancient grudges. When a dormant, catastrophic curse is finally unleashed upon the land, the stakes escalate from a personal vendetta to a fight for the realm's survival. Forced to choose between her ruthless ambition and the humanity she’s tried so hard to bury, Jude must decide what kind of Queen she truly wants to be, before Elfhame burns to the ground.

Aurelie Chantelune was born to serve. Raised as a knight in a kingdom ravaged by demons, she's spent her life honing her blade, driven by the memory of the monsters who tore her family apart and by the knowledge that she's one of the few who can stop them. If Aurelie can claim her first kill, she'll inherit a legacy passed down through the Chantelune bloodline: a soulbond with Yuriel, an angel whose power is vital to her kingdom's survival. But when those she loves begin turning into the very monsters she's sworn to destroy, Aurelie is forced to seek help from the last place she ever imagined. Desperate, she forges a second and far more dangerous bond with Severin, a demon she can hardly trust, but who claims to know how to end the war for good. With their lives and fates entwined, Aurelie, Yuriel, and Severin must team up to hunt down a cure capable of turning demons back into humans. But the more they learn about one another and the deeper their relationships grow, the more Aurelie begins to question the war and her place in it. With both of her bonded on opposing sides, she'll have to make a choice: continue to stand with the angels, or risk everything by trusting a demon.

When Maggie wakes up cold, filthy, and naked in a gutter, it doesn't take her long to recognize Kair Toren, a city she knows intimately from the pages of the famously unfinished dark fantasy series she's been obsessively reading and re-reading while waiting years for the final novel. Her only tools for navigating this gritty world of rival warlords, magic, and mayhem? Her encyclopedic knowledge of the plot, the setting, and the characters' ambitions and fates. But while she quickly discovers she cannot be killed (though many will try!), the same cannot be said for the living, breathing characters she's coming to love―a motley band that includes a former lady’s maid, a deadly assassin, various outrageous magical creatures, and a dangerously appealing soldier. Soon, instead of trying to get home, she finds herself enmeshed in the schemes―and attentions―of dueling princes, dukes, and villains, all while trying to save them and the kingdom of Rellas from the way she knows their stories will end: in a cataclysmic war.

He wants her head. She’ll settle for his soul. Once Jordeina was a beautiful island, and Azaleah Oakgards its crown princess. Since the coup and her family’s murders, she’s a fugitive cursed to bring disaster in her wake. Firestorms rage, plants wither, rivers run dry, and only her death can stop the world from burning until nothing but ash remains. Without a soul to anchor her, Azaleah has clawed her way to survival for centuries, and now, finally, she can reclaim it before the end of the world leaves her locked in a prison between realms. She’ll change her face, shift her scent, and trick the usurper king into claiming her as his mate. At his side, Azaleah will not only break his soul but his spirit, unmaking the Ruin King until only the hollow husk of a man remains. Marlow Swarzwolds is a tyrant, a killer, and a brute, but no fool. He knows his entrancing mate’s compliments and obedience are lies. Only when he baits her does she show the ruthlessness that ignites him. But what she’s hiding—and why—is just one more answer he can’t afford to chase as Jordeina collapses and the soul he’s tied to their dying lands perishes with it. How do you break the soul of a man who’s seen everything? Can Azaleah find a way to hide that her own is missing? And what happens when the collision of two royals burns hotter than the scorching world they’re trying to survive in?

I wasn’t created to love, only to destroy, but fate doesn’t ask permission. I wake to a world in chaos, the taste of stardust on my tongue and fragments of galaxies burning behind my eyes. No name, past, or idea of how I came to be here. In the ruins of a battlefield, four kings of this new world find me abandoned and alone. Each of them desperate to decipher who I am, and why I’ve been thrust into their war. They claim they have the power to protect me and help me discover who I am. A wraith whose shadows’ ignite sparks that dance beneath my skin. A fae with a silver tongue and lips I ache to trust. A vampire who drinks desire like wine and vows to ruin me sweetly. And a shape-shifting predator whose hungry gaze makes my pulse race. They circle me like wolves, drawn to a power and vulnerability they can’t resist. Their heated glances and whispered promises awaken something inside me...a longing that dances on the line between defiance and need. While I may feel the pull of each of them, I know deep down that I wasn’t made for their cages, gilded or otherwise. However, in a fractured world at war between humans and magic, I’ll need allies as I uncover who—and what—I truly am. As their sweet whispers tangle with my thoughts and their searing touches threaten to unravel me, fragments of my memories begin to surface. Each of them swears they’ll never let me go, but they’ll soon learn that love was never meant for me. Some call me death. Others, salvation. When I rise, the world will remember what it means to fall.

Elspeth and Ravyn have clawed their way through shadows to gather nearly all the Providence Cards, but the final, most elusive piece of the puzzle remains out of reach: The Twin Alders. With the Solstice fast approaching, the clock is ticking on their mission to cleanse the kingdom of the dark infection rotting its very soul. To find the last card, they must do the unthinkable, venture beyond the lethal, mist-choked perimeter of the forest that has served as their world's jagged border for generations. The only map they have is the one etched into the mind of a monster. The Nightmare, the ancient spirit living behind Elspeth’s eyes, is the only entity capable of guiding them through the white-out terrors that lie ahead. But the Nightmare is tired of being a passenger. As they draw closer to the source of the curse, the spirit’s grip on Elspeth’s consciousness tightens, and he is no longer interested in just sharing her body, he’s ready to claim it entirely.

Angharad Morgan has served them for as long as she can remember. She raises the recently dead to steal their secrets, a skill that has earned her a coveted place within the castle walls and the trust of the inner circle. Until she reveals a hidden power no one knew she had: she can kill by touch. Now they see her as a threat. To earn back their favor, Angharad travels to the windswept coast to hunt a dangerous exile, learn his secrets, and use her power against him. But he’s seen her in his dreams, and he’s been expecting her. He takes her captive in his tower just as it comes under attack. Bound by mysterious magic, they’re forced to work together against an unknown enemy, racing to find a relic that could heal the broken sky and awaken the dead gods. She wants to trust him—and surrender to the irresistible pull between them—but believing him might be the most dangerous choice she can make. Now the Order is coming for them both. Angharad must choose between the only world she’s ever known…and the man who makes her want to break it.

The Creators did not expect their beloved dragons to sail skyward upon their end. To curl into balls just beyond gravity’s grip, littering the sky with tombstones. With moons. They certainly did not expect them to FALL. As a deadly assassin for the rebellion group Fíur du Ath, Raeve’s job is to complete orders and never get caught. When a rival bounty hunter turns her world upside down, blood spills, hearts break, and Raeve finds herself imprisoned by the Guild of Nobles—a group of powerful fae who turn her into a political statement. Crushed by the loss of his great love, the grieving fae king Kaan Vaegor took the head of a king and donned his melted crown. Now on a tireless quest to quell the never-ebbing ache in his chest, he is lured by a clue into the capitol’s high-security prison where he stumbles upon the imprisoned Raeve … Echoes of the past race between them. There’s more to their story than meets the eye, but with dark fantasy elements woven through their tale, some truths are too poisonous to swallow.