Are you in the mood for more fantasy romance inspired by Asian folklore? Tore your way through The Girl Who Kept Winter and now you feel the cold winter wind blowing through the hole in your heart? You’ve come to the right place. These 10 books like The Girl Who Kept Winter should warm your little frozen heart.
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R.F. Kuang’s The Poppy War is set in a world inspired by China’s turbulent 20th century and centers around a young orphan girl named Rin who rises through the ranks of a prestigious military academy to become a powerful warrior in a war-torn nation. Through a healthy mix of disciplined training and psychedelic usage, Rin becomes a master of the mythical art of shamanism. While survival, and not romance, is the central theme of this tale, there is a little somethin’ somethin’ between Rin and five of the male characters throughout the grander trilogy of books. A love pentagon, you could say.
The first of The Green Bone Saga, Fonda Lee’s Jade City is an urban fantasy series centered around two crime families who control the jade trade on the island of Kekon. What’s the big deal with jade? In this universe, the green stone grants magical powers to those who possess it. No one uses jade quite as well as the Kaul family’s Green Bone warriors, defenders of the island of Kekon for generations. Will the Kauls be able to stand against the rival Ayts to assert control of the city once and for all? And how will the many romantic relationships in this series hold up in the turmoil?
Set in a fantastical world inspired by Chinese myth, Nghi Vo’s The Empress of Salt and Fortune is the story of In-yo, a young noblewoman from The North married to the tyrannical emperor of the South in a political alliance. In-yo’s struggle is told through the eyes of her handmaiden Rabbit, who is intimately devoted to the empress. “Intimately” as in Rabbit is totally crushing on In-yo. Despite romance not being the novel’s central focus, the pair’s supportive and loving relationship gives the young empress the strength to stand against her despot of a husband to reestablish peace and justice throughout the land.
Now a badass FX series, Shogun is the story of English navigator John Blackthorne who shipwrecks on the shores of 17th-century Japan. There, he is taken in by Lord Toronaga, a powerful warlord who seeks to become ruler of the land. While magic isn’t present in this historical fiction novel, the heart-wrenching romance between Blackthorne and the married noblewoman Lady Mariko more than makes up for it.
The Legend of Korra: Ruins of the Empire is the first of many Korra-centric Avatar comics. Set after the events of the show’s fourth season, Avatar Korra is tasked with rebuilding the Earth Kingdom—er, Empire—after the catastrophic rule of Kuvira nearly plunged the world into all-out war. At the heart of the series is Korra’s relationship with her best friend turned lover Asami Sato. We didn’t get to see the pair kiss or be coupley in the series, but hoo boy, do the comics make up for it.
The Priory of the Orange Tree is set in a fantasy world ruled by two rival civilizations; one that honors dragons, and another that fears them. As it turns out, the “fear dragons” civilization of the West has got the debate around the fire-breathing lizards right, as an ancient dragon called The Nameless One has just awoken and is threatening to destroy the world. Queen Sabran, ruler of the West, and her magical protector Ead embark on a quest to bury the fire-breathing menace once and for all. Slowly, surely, the flames of their queer love for one another begin to burn even hotter than dragonfire.
The Black Tides of Heaven by Neon Yang is the first of the Tensorate series, and oh, is it a doozy. Set in a fantasy world where people choose their gender later in life, the two twin children of Empress Sanao Hekate are sent to a monastery to undergo magical training and grow into adulthood. The pair have also been tasked to quash a rebellion of non-magic users, who seek to subvert the magical ruling class with the power of technology. As for romance, one of the twins Akeha becomes romantically involved with a revolutionary, and decides to stand against his mother, sister, and the government. If they won’t topple an empire for you, is it really love?
Chloe Gong’s These Violent Delights is a retelling of Romeo and Juliet set in 1920s Shanghai. Juliette Cai and Roma Montagov are the heirs to their respective crime families, and the pair of former lovers are now turned bitter enemies. Or are they? Bodies have begun piling up on the streets, and people are whispering about a monster stalking in the shadows. Roma and Juliette will have to put aside their differences to save their city from the grip of darkness and fall in love with each other all over again in the process.
Shelley Parker-Chan’s She Who Became the Sun is the story of a peasant girl who assumes her dead brother’s identity to rise to greatness in Mongol-occupied China. Having adopted her brother’s name, Zhu Chongba is trained in a monastery and later becomes a military figure in her nation’s rebellion against Mongol Rule. The romance? Zhu marries Ma Xiuying for solely political reasons … at first. What begins as a marriage of necessity soon blossoms into kingdom-conquering love.
The first novel in The Burning Kingdoms trilogy, Tasha Suri’s The Jasmine Throne is set in a fantasy world inspired by Indian myth. Malini is a princess imprisoned in a temple by her tyrannical brother, who seeks to rule the kingdom alone. With help from her magical maidservant Priya, the two women plot to overthrow Maliki’s brother and liberate the empire from his unjust rule. The beating heart of the series? The slow-burn romance between Malini and Priya. Who would have guessed that the fires of love could be stoked by political revolution? Screw dinner and a movie, topple an empire together.
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