Slow Burn Friends to Lovers Fantasy Recommendations?
So I just finished reading Summers at Castle Auburn by Sharon Shinn, which I think did the romance really well overall. Lately I’ve been reading a lot of romantasy/fantasy romance, but a lot of them are enemies to lovers! Was wondering if there were any good slow burn friends to lovers (preference on childhood friends). Some things I’m looking for below, though of course it doesn’t need to be a perfect match if you think it fits my general request in the title!!
Things I am pretty interested in (no particular order):
- Fantasy focus. I prefer my fantasy to romance ratio at ~75-25. Basically, the plot/world could stand on its own if there were never any romance. If there were a fantasy romance shelf and a fantasy shelf, I generally prefer books that would be placed in the latter (though I like the former too).
- No instalust. In my opinion, insta-yearning also counts as instalust (e.g., unable to get the other out of their head upon first meeting). For me, the “friends” part in friends to lovers involves not thinking about the other romantically right from the get-go.
- No love triangles! Or if there has to be one, preferably one where it’s so obvious who the final romance interest is that it’s basically not a love triangle. But preferably no love triangles.
- Friends to lovers! Preference on childhood friends to lovers. I’ll even take misunderstanding to friends to lovers as long as it’s cleared up pretty quickly or they aren’t angry at each other while the misunderstanding is going on. I don’t really like friends to enemies to lovers though (in my eyes, it’s just enemies to lovers with extra steps).
- Romance built on shared conversations/meaningful moments. Preferably, the romance doesn’t happen out of nowhere or for no reason! Well, ideally this is a given with slow burn, but I want my ‘aww’ moments lol.
- Neither character in the relationship described as “dangerously sexy”, “cuttingly snarky”, etc. I don’t really want them to be throwing out quips all the time; I prefer when they can get through a conversation without each of them making a funny snipe/witty riposte at the other. **Well, I do like witty/charming characters, but I also like quietly intelligent/thoughtful characters (who don’t only have those traits as their entire personality). I like people who you know are pretty firmly on the MC’s side - they can still have a personality other than just being “loyal”/”kind” though.
- Explicit (spicy) romance not necessary. The romance can also be implied but never really shown, not even with a kiss, and I’ll enjoy that too (like in Lockwood and Co) as long as there’s enough fuel for me to believe lol.
- M/F preference.
Books/Relationships I’ve liked:
- Main couple in Summers at Castle Auburn by Sharon Shinn! They’re a good example of almost all of the above I think.
- Cress and Captain Thorne from the Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer
- Lockwood and Lucy from Lockwood and Co by Jonathan Stroud
- Vis and Aequa from the Hierarchy Series by James Islington >!though it’s not like they thought about each other romantically, but I could see a possibility and was rooting for them… Until The Thing happened!<
- Adolin and Shallan from the Stormlight Archives by Brandon Sanderson
- Neema and Cain from the Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson. This is mentioned pretty early in the book if I remember correctly, but will spoiler anyway: >!Technically they’re childhood friends to “enemies” to lovers I guess, but they never really seemed to actively hate each other at the start and actually worked quite amicably together off the bat - which goes back to my point of being able to work with each other nicely despite being “enemies”.!<
- Emma and Mr. Knightly from Emma by Jane Austen
Some relationships from anime/manga that I also liked (for more references):
- Naoto and Kujo from Last Game by Shinobu Amano!! Also a good example of being almost all of my above points. They’re really cute together! (For anyone interested, would recommend you read past the first several chapters of them in their childhood, because their relationship dynamic goes through a big shift right after when it time skips)
- Shin and Lena from 86 by Asato Asato
- Kanoko and Souma from Usotoki Rhetoric by Ritsu Miyako (probably no one knows this but I’m putting them on this list because they’re also really cute together)
Posted Jul 29, 2026, 12:56 PM UTC
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