Books Like Red Rising, With the Romance Turned Up
By Sera VossSci Fi Romance Author
The closest books like Red Rising with romance at the centre are Shards of Honor, The Hunger Games, The Winner's Curse, Red Queen and Winter's Orbit.
If you want the door open as well, add Polaris Rising, Secondborn and The Hurricane Wars.
The last pick is this site's own book, The Starfall Accord: the war and the sabotage on one warship, closed door, human only, with no aliens.
Read three chapters freeHow Big Is the Red Rising Romance?
The Red Rising romance is real, but it is a thread, not the engine.
Penguin Random House's blurb says Darrow is driven by the memory of a lost love, and Wikipedia's plot summary says he and Mustang develop romantic feelings.
romance.io readers rate the first book 2 out of 5 for heat, which on their scale means behind closed doors.
Every book below keeps some of the class war, the military pressure or the betrayal.
Then it gives the love story more room.
The Starfall Accord is this site's own book, written by Sera Voss.
Every other book named here belongs to its own author, and none of those mentions is paid, sponsored, or an affiliate link.
It has no reader reviews yet because it has not launched, so the free opening chapters are the fairest test.
Sera Voss's The Starfall Accord is an enemies to lovers, slow burn space opera romance set on a decommissioned warship.
It brings forced proximity, a found family crew, political intrigue and dual POV (told by both leads).
The book is closed door and human only, with no aliens.
Skip it if you want a sprawling saga, because it stays on one warship and one couple.
You can read the first three chapters for free, and no email address is needed.
Read three chapters freeHow These Were Picked
Each book had to match at least one pillar of Red Rising, meaning a class or caste system, a military school or war, or a betrayal that turns the plot.
Each also had to have a romance that a publisher, a retailer listing, Wikipedia or reader tags actually describe.
Picks come from publisher descriptions and reader ratings, not from anyone claiming to have read them for this page.
romance.io's scale runs from 1 (glimpses and kisses) and 2 (behind closed doors) to 3 (open door) and 4 (explicit open door).
Is heat your first filter? The closed door romance database shows the source behind every rating it lists.
The Five Closest Fits, Low Heat
These keep the heat at 1 or 2 and put the romance closer to the centre than Red Rising does.
1. Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold
Baen Books, 1986.
Book one of the Vorkosigan Saga.
Cordelia Naismith commands a survey ship.
War throws her together with Lord Aral Vorkosigan, the enemy officer people call the Butcher of Komarr. The two strike their own private peace.
Baen's own listing calls it a science fiction romance, and Cordelia's Honor, the Baen omnibus that collects it, carries the headline When Enemies Become More than Friends.
Wikipedia notes that Vorkosigan was left for dead by a treacherous rival, and reader tags include enemies to lovers, dual POV, military and political intrigue.
Why it fits: two officers from opposing sides, war politics and treachery within the ranks.
Heat: 1 of 5 on romance.io, glimpses and kisses.
Cast: human.
Bujold has said she built the Vorkosigan universe without aliens and used bioengineered humans instead.
2. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Scholastic Press, 2008.
First of a trilogy, written for young adult (YA) readers.
The rich Capitol makes its twelve poor districts hand over teenagers for a fight to the death, and the whole thing is televised.
Penguin Random House's own Red Rising blurb says Pierce Brown's book channels the excitement of The Hunger Games.
Why it fits: class war between a rich centre and poor outer districts, with a past rebellion hanging over everything.
Romance: Wikipedia describes Peeta's long unrequited love for Katniss, and Haymitch sells them to the audience as star crossed lovers.
Readers tag a love triangle and a slow burn.
Heat: 1 of 5 on romance.io.
Cast: human.
It is set in a post apocalyptic North America, and no source mentions aliens, so it passes the no aliens filter.
3. The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2014, first of the Winner's Trilogy.
The heroine is a general's daughter in an empire that loves war, and she buys a slave at an auction.
She falls for him and hides it, while he keeps a secret of his own.
Macmillan sells it as a star crossed romance and a story of rebellion, and the Red Rising link is the empire itself, which enslaves the people it conquers while a rebellion builds underneath.
Heat: 1 of 5 on romance.io.
Readers tag enemies to lovers, forbidden love, slow burn and dual POV.
Cast: the blurb calls him a fellow human.
Some readers tag it with magic, but no publisher source confirms that.
It is fantasy, not space opera.
4. Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
HarperTeen, 2015.
First of four books, with a heroine whose red blood should make her powerless.
When she turns out to have a power only the Silver elite should have, the court passes her off as a lost Silver princess.
From inside the palace she spies for the Red Guard rebellion.
HarperCollins calls it a sweeping tale of power, intrigue and betrayal, and Wikipedia lists romantic fantasy among its genres.
Why it fits: a caste set by blood, a rebel working undercover inside the ruling class, and betrayal at court.
That echoes Darrow's infiltration of the Gold ruling class.
Heat: 1 of 5 on romance.io.
Readers tag a love triangle, enemies to lovers and betrayal.
Cast: no aliens.
Silvers have supernatural abilities, so this is not a plain human world, which is why the table flags supernatural powers.
5. Winter's Orbit by Everina Maxwell
Tor Books, 2021.
Standalone, with a companion novel.
A prince nobody rates highly is told to marry the widowed envoy of a restless vassal planet, meaning a world the empire rules.
His new husband is also a murder suspect.
Macmillan calls it a romantic space opera and ends its description on a legendary love story amid the stars.
The couple is two men.
Why it fits: an empire, a rebellious vassal planet, and a military plot to seize power from the Emperor, per Wikipedia's plot summary.
Heat: 2 of 5 on romance.io, behind closed doors.
Readers tag arranged marriage, slow burn, dual POV and political intrigue.
Cast: unclear, so check before you buy if this matters to you.
Readers tag it with aliens, and a quote on Macmillan's page mentions alien tech, but no source confirms alien characters on the page.
Where The Starfall Accord Fits
This section covers the site's own book, The Starfall Accord, so read it as the author's pitch and not an independent verdict.
It is a human only military space opera.
The Coalition and the Dominion, both human, fought a war, and a fragile truce called the Accord now holds between them.
Kira Vasic of the Coalition boards the decommissioned warship Meridian with orders to assess Commander Thane Aldric and, if it comes to it, to end him.
Instead, the two are forced into a joint investigation.
A saboteur is taking the ship apart from the inside.
What it shares with Red Rising:
- A war, rival factions and a political accord nobody fully trusts.
- A decommissioned warship crewed by both sides of that war.
- Sabotage from inside the ship, with no one fully trustworthy.
- Enemies to lovers across the lines of that war.
Where it is honestly different:
- It is a romance first. The love story is the plot, not a thread inside it.
- It is one standalone book, not a six book saga, and it stays on one ship.
- It is closed door. Every intimate scene happens off the page, and the first kiss lands in chapter 15 of 22.
- It is human only, with no aliens on either side of the war.
The crew is found family among a working crew, and the ship creates forced proximity that the setting supplies, with no coincidence needed.
It runs 22 chapters and more than 90,000 words, and it ends in a guaranteed happily ever after with no cliffhanger.
The book is AI assisted and edited by a human author.
Read three chapters freeRead the Opening Free
The first three chapters of The Starfall Accord are free with no email address required, and you get the boarding, the first confrontation, and a ship that won't let either of them leave.
Read three chapters freeThe ebook is $4.99 USD as an EPUB and PDF, yours to keep, coming soon direct from the author.
Australian buyers pay GST and EU buyers pay VAT on top where it applies. UK ebooks carry no VAT.
Neither file carries copy protection, and the full book and what is in it has its own page.
Frequently asked questions
Is there romance in Red Rising?
Yes, but it is a thread rather than the engine.
Penguin Random House's blurb says Darrow is driven by the memory of a lost love.
Wikipedia's plot summary says he and Mustang develop romantic feelings.
romance.io readers rate the first book 2 out of 5, behind closed doors, and the later books in the saga 1 or 2.
Which books like Red Rising have more romance?
For low heat, start with Shards of Honor, The Hunger Games, The Winner's Curse, Red Queen and Winter's Orbit.
For open door heat, try Polaris Rising, Secondborn or The Hurricane Wars.
Fourth Wing fits the war college side, but it is rated 4 out of 5 for heat by romance.io readers and it has dragons.
Which books like Red Rising have no aliens?
Lois McMaster Bujold has said she built the Vorkosigan universe of Shards of Honor without aliens.
No source found mentions aliens in The Hunger Games, Red Queen or Polaris Rising, though Red Queen's Silvers have supernatural abilities.
Winter's Orbit is unclear, because readers tag it with aliens and its publisher page quotes a mention of alien tech.
The Starfall Accord is human only, with no aliens.
Is The Starfall Accord like Red Rising?
It shares the war, the rival factions, the military setting and the sabotage from inside.
It is a romance first, told on one warship over one standalone book, so it is not a sprawling epic like Red Rising.
It is closed door, human only and enemies to lovers, with a slow burn and a guaranteed happily ever after.
Where can I get The Starfall Accord?
The Starfall Accord is an EPUB and PDF ebook, yours to keep on any device, coming soon direct from the author at spacemance.com.
The free three chapter sample is available now, with no account required.