While one would think that stories of man-eating, fire-breathing, gold-hoarding reptiles would be rife with romantic subplots, one would be wrong. Dealing with the dragon in a fantasy tale tends to be top priority, with trivial things like love taking a backseat to the action. It’s hard to focus on your relationship when a flying fire dinosaur with a gold bullion bank account is threatening to turn the kingdom to cinders. Nevertheless, like tree growing in the ashes of a forest fire, sometimes love persists. These are the 10 best dragon fantasy books with romance.
The Priory of the Orange Tree
The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon is the story of a dragon so downright horrible that no one bothered to name it – The Nameless One is fabled to return, and it will bring untold destruction upon the land. The last time this guy reared its ugly head, romance died utterly, simply because there weren’t enough people left alive to fall in love. Now that the dragon is gearing up to awaken from its long slumber, Queen Sabran of the western kingdom of Inys has to figure out how to stop the mood-killer. Luckily, Sabran has a handmaiden who secretly belongs to an ancient sect of mages dedicated to protecting the world from the beast’s return. As the novel progresses, Sabran’s handmaiden begins harboring more than just magical secrets from her Queen, but a romantic secret as well. Slow burn sapphic love story about women who conquer a lizard king? I’m burning for it myself.
Fourth Wing
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarrow is the story of Violet Sorrengail, a young woman who hoped to spend her tenure at Basgiath War College as a scholar, nose deep in a book, not at all at risk of getting bitten off in the draconic wars that often ravage the land. Her military mother had other ideas, and enlisted poor Violet in Basgiath’s Rider Quadrant, whose academic exploits include mounting flaming lizards and riding them into the fire of battle. Surrounded by dangerous beasts and bloodthirsty classmates, Violet will have to rise through the cutthroat ranks in order to fly high. But hey, at least her commander is like… really hot. He’s not a fan of Violet because of what Violet’s mom did to him after the last war (his family fought for the rebels) but he’ll come around.
When The Moon Hatched
When The Moon Hatched by Sarah A. Parker is the story of a world where dragons are celestial bodies, they just curl right up and turn into moons in the sky! When they turn into space rocks, they’re supposed to stay that way, but some dragons didn’t get the memo. Some dragon moons fall back to the earth, shattering on impact and releasing the beasts within and throwing the world out of balance. A young assassin named Raeve is caught in the fallout of one of these moonfalls, and finds herself drawn into a complex political plot centered around her captor king. While the pair are initially mistrustful of one another, the perils of courtly intrigue cause these enemies to form an uneasy alliance, which, as you can guess, eventually blossoms into mutual devotion.
Tooth and Claw
Jo Walton’s Tooth and Claw is rife with dragon romance, because dragon romance is the only kind of romance there is! In this fantasy-of-manners, everyone is a dragon – all inhabiting a Victorian England-esque society straight out of Pride and Prejudice. While the dragonic aristocracy is highly civilized, they still retain some of their innate beastliness. Dragons eat each other in order to accrue power and wealth, and when the patriarch of a high ranking dragon family dies in the beginning of the novel, his children battle over who gets to inherit his monetary assets by chowing on his bodily ones. Despite the macabre nature of dragonkind, there’s still plenty of room for romance – particularly one between a draconic lady of means and the dragon man who fights to defend her inheritance from those who would steal it.
Song In The Silence
Song In The Silence by Elizabeth Kerner is a classic fantasy story about Lanen Kaelar, a young woman who fears that she’s doomed to live as the daughter of a horse breeder, never to leave her farm and seek out the legendary dragons she dreams of meeting. When her father dies, she dips, content to turn her back on a marriage proposal in order to go on a quest to find mythical fire-breathers. And yet after journeying to the faraway Dragon Isle, the prospect of marriage once again returns. Moments after meeting the handsome king of the dragons, the pair fall madly in love – despite knowing that their interspecies romance is doomed from the start. As if navigating a human/dragon relationship wasn’t hard enough, matters are only made more complicated when Lanen discovers that her true father promised her as a demonic sacrifice in exchange for magical power, and that demon lord has come a-knocking to claim what it is owed.
Promised In Fire
She’s a water fae who doesn’t quite know how to control her magic. He’s a grumpy dragon prince who she accidentally awakened with a wayward spell. Jasmine Walt’s Promised In Fire is an enemies to lovers story about two magical beings whose destinies are bound together by mistake, but soon realize that they were meant-to-be. At least, they will-be once the pair manage to solve the mystery of a magical plague that is corrupting the land, threatening the existence of all otherworldly beings alike. It’s convenient, because this plague serves as a common enemy between the warring dragons and fae – the fae did hunt dragons to near extinction after all. Dragon prince Einar has good reason to be grumpy, but the water fae Adara shows him that perhaps their kind can learn to coexist, and even learn to love one another.
Dragon Bound
Dragon Bound by Thea Harrison is the story of thief named Pia who commits the ultimate fantasy no-no: she tries to steal a small piece of treasure from a dragon’s hoard. Pia is caught in the act by the dangerous dragon Dragos Cuelebre, who decides to claim her as a treasure instead. The last thing the freewheelin’ Pia wants to do is spend her life in the captivity of a reptile, even if said reptile can shapeshift into sexy human form. And beneath Dragos’ draconic arrogance and aloofness, he’s actually a really sweet guy. He’s even willing to bring her back to New York City as the pair get to know each other, because surprise, this book isn’t set in some dreary medieval kingdom, but the hustlin’, bustlin’ modern world! A paranormal dragon shifter urban fantasy romance, how often do those come along?
The Last Namsara
Kristen Ciccarelli’s The Last Namsara is a YA romance story centered around princes Asha, a dragon slayer chosen to become the Iskari – a living weapon cursed with a lifetime of battle and aloneness. A prisoner of her job, she lays dragon head after decapitated dragon head at the feet of her royal father, but the monarchy isn’t keen on releasing her from her slaying duties anytime soon. In fact, he’s keen to use her as political leverage in an arranged marriage – rounding out Asha’s existence as one devoid of all joy. Asha is offered light in the darkness: kill the most powerful dragon in the land and escape her murderous 9 to 5. As she sets out on her quest to do just that, her fate becomes romatically entangled with the servant boy who shows her that dragons aren’t the villains that the stories make them out to be. The beauty of this story? How love changes not only the way we see the world, but the way we see ourselves for the better. Asha realizes she is more than a tool of war, she’s a person worthy of affection.
Dragon Actually
Looking for dragon romance with a headstrong protagonist? Dragon Actually by G.A. Aiken is the story Warrior princess Annwyl “The Bloody”, who is currently on a quest to overthrow her tyrannical brother – doesn’t get more headstrong than that. Annwyl’s quest grinds to a halt when she’s nearly murdered by her brother’s machinations, but is saved by a warrior with an equally badass moniker: Fearghus the Destroyer. Fearghus puts the “fear” in his first name by virtue of being an ancient and powerful dragon, and he’s decided to train Annwyl in the art of combat by having her spar against a sexy human knight. As Annwyl spends her days getting sweaty with a warrior and her nights in passionate conversation with a dragon, she begins to suspect that these two separate beings may in fact be one and the same.
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