The handsome prince gets plenty of attention.

He’s brave. He’s charming. He’s probably got a white horse somewhere. And eventually, he’s supposed to ride off into the sunset with the girl.

But sometimes the villain is more interesting.

Maybe he’s cruel. Maybe she’s plotting a murder. Maybe he’s a literal Horseman of the Apocalypse. Maybe everybody in the story is waving giant red flags while you’re sitting there thinking, Okay, but hear me out.

These books are for that mood.

A quick warning before we get started: we’re talking about villains here, so some of these relationships are dark, messy and very far from healthy relationship goals. Kidnapping, revenge, manipulation and murder all make appearances.

Nobody said loving the villain was going to be sensible.

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The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

Jude was seven when her parents were murdered and she and her sisters were taken to live in Faerie.

Ten years later, she’s still human, still surrounded by powerful fae and completely determined to earn a place among them. One of the biggest problems standing in her way is Prince Cardan, the youngest son of the High King.

Cardan is cruel, arrogant and absolutely not introduced as somebody Jude should be falling for.

Which, naturally, makes things more interesting.

One thing to know going in: The Cruel Prince is fantasy first. The relationship between Jude and Cardan develops across the Folk of the Air series, so don’t go into book one expecting a straightforward romance.

Hooked by Emily McIntire

James has one goal: destroy Peter Michaels.

Then Peter’s daughter Wendy walks into his bar.

James decides the easiest way to get to his enemy is through her. Seduce Wendy, use her as part of his revenge plan and move on.

Very romantic.

Except James starts developing actual feelings for the woman he was supposed to be manipulating, and Wendy has no idea just how dangerous the man she’s falling for really is.

Hooked is inspired by Peter Pan, but this isn’t a sweet fairy-tale retelling. Hook is absolutely the guy we’re supposed to be worried about here.

If the darker romance part is what you’re here for, I also have a whole list of dark romance books where love gets dangerous.

Devil in Winter by Lisa Kleypas

Sebastian, Lord St. Vincent, already has a reputation.

And not a good one.

So when shy Evangeline Jenner needs to escape her family and proposes a marriage of convenience to one of London’s most notorious scoundrels, nobody is exactly expecting a fairy-tale romance.

Evie needs protection. Sebastian needs money. It should be a practical arrangement.

Then Sebastian starts doing the extremely inconvenient thing of caring about his wife.

Sebastian isn’t just being called a bad boy because it sounds good. He actually played the villain in the previous Wallflowers book before getting his own romance.

Sometimes redemption apparently starts with a very questionable marriage proposal.

The Unseelie Prince by Kathryn Ann Kingsley

Valroy wants the Unseelie throne.

Unfortunately for him, an ancient tradition says he needs a queen first.

His solution?

Steal a human.

Abigail ends up trapped in a strange and dangerous world where Valroy offers her a deal: survive his Maze and he’ll grant her deepest wish.

Of course, she’s also dealing with the fae prince who kidnapped her in the first place.

There’s really no pretending Valroy is secretly Prince Charming wearing black. The whole appeal is that he isn’t.

And if it’s the dangerous kingdoms, curses and dark magic you want more of, try these dark fantasy books set in magical kingdoms.

Malice by Heather Walter

We all know Sleeping Beauty.

Princess Aurora gets cursed. A handsome prince shows up. True love’s kiss saves the day.

Malice looks at that story and decides the villain deserves a turn.

Alyce is the Dark Grace, feared because of the strange magic running through her veins. She’s treated like a monster by the people around her, even though they’re perfectly happy to pay her when they need one of her magical abilities.

Then she meets Princess Aurora.

Aurora doesn’t treat Alyce like everybody else does. And suddenly the wicked sorceress and the princess at the center of the fairy tale are looking at each other very differently.

A sapphic Sleeping Beauty retelling where the princess falls for the woman everyone else calls the villain? Yeah, that belongs here.

Pestilence by Laura Thalassa

There are bad boys.

And then there’s one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Pestilence has arrived on Earth with the other Horsemen to help wipe out humanity. Sara Burns understandably decides this is a problem and attempts to kill him.

It doesn’t work.

Pestilence can’t be killed, and now he’s angry. He takes Sara prisoner and makes it very clear that he intends to punish her for what she did.

Somewhere between he’s here to destroy humanity and she literally shot him off his horse, a romance starts developing.

Honestly, once you’re romantically involved with the Apocalypse, I think we’ve officially passed morally gray.

The Beast and the Enchantress by Camille Peters

This one flips things around.

Astrid is an enchantress who’s been taught that magic should only be used for good.

Then an arrogant prince breaks her sister’s heart.

Astrid decides good can wait.

She curses him to look as ugly on the outside as she believes he is on the inside. The problem is that the spell also begins changing Astrid herself, forcing her to find a way to undo what she’s done.

Then she actually gets to know the prince she cursed and realizes he isn’t exactly the man she thought he was.

Here, the woman casting the curse gets to be part of the love story instead of simply disappearing once Beauty arrives.

The Book of G by Lily Archer

A man wakes up with almost no memory of who he is.

His body is scarred, his face is damaged and the only clue to his identity is an embroidered letter:

G.

He knows he had some kind of important past. He just can’t remember what it was.

Then there’s the woman who keeps getting in his way.

She also keeps telling him he’s a villain.

That probably isn’t what you want to hear when you’re trying to piece your life back together.

The Book of G lets a familiar villain tell his own story while he tries to figure out who he was. And, of course, there’s the woman who keeps insisting he’s the bad guy.

Assistant to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer

Evie Sage desperately needs a job.

She finds one working for the kingdom’s most infamous Villain.

There are definitely safer employment opportunities.

Instead, Evie becomes his assistant and ends up dealing with severed heads, evil plans, office problems and the fact that she’s starting to like her terrifying boss.

The setup is basically what would happen if a fantasy villain ran an office and somebody decided to turn the whole thing into a slow-burn romance.

The series follows Evie and her Villain as their relationship grows alongside all the plotting and general workplace evil.

The Shadows Between Us by Tricia Levenseller

Alessandra has a plan.

Woo the Shadow King.

Marry him.

Kill him.

Take his kingdom.

Simple enough.

The problem starts when other people try to murder him before Alessandra can finish her own plan. Suddenly she has to keep him alive long enough to marry him, while slowly realizing she might actually like the man she’s planning to kill.

This one gets bonus points because we aren’t just rooting for the dangerous king.

Alessandra is plenty villainous herself. Macmillan literally frames the pairing as a Shadow King and his “cunning, villainous queen.”

Throne in the Dark by A.K. Caggiano

Damien Maleficus Bloodthorne is the son of a demon.

His future is supposed to involve evil, dark magic and possibly destroying the realm.

Everything is going according to plan until Amma shows up.

She’s cheerful. She’s annoying. She’s a thief. And thanks to a magical accident, she’s now stuck with him.

Damien has to drag her along while he continues his very important villain business, even though killing her would solve quite a few of his problems.

Unfortunately, Amma starts being useful.

Even worse, Damien develops feelings.

The Ever King by L.J. Andrews

Erik is the scarred king of the Ever Kingdom, and he has spent years thinking about revenge.

His father was killed. Erik was trapped beneath the waves. His crown was stolen.

Then the daughter of his enemy accidentally breaks the chains holding the Ever.

So Erik steals her.

Fair is fair, apparently.

He plans to use her as a pawn in his revenge against her father. She is innocent. Erik knows she’s innocent.

He just doesn’t particularly care.

At least not at first.

Then the woman who was supposed to be nothing more than leverage starts becoming considerably harder to treat like a pawn.

Sometimes the Villain Is the Better Love Interest

I am not suggesting you should look at your actual dating life and think, You know what this needs? More kidnappers and demon spawn.

Probably don’t do that.

Books are different.

There’s something fun about a story that takes the character we’re normally supposed to hate and asks what happens when they fall in love. Maybe they change. Maybe they don’t. Maybe the person falling for them is just as questionable.

And sometimes that’s the best part.

The prince can keep the white horse.

Give me the villain who has absolutely no business being anybody’s love interest and then make me understand exactly how we got here.

If you want more romance with magic, danger and people making questionable choices, you can also check out When Dark Fantasy Gets Romantic: Love Triangles Full of Magic and Suspense.

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