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Quick verdict
Yes, Top 3 Audiobooks Like A Court of Forgotten Melody is worth your listening time: Fourth Wing, The Cruel Prince and Uprooted are romantasy audiobooks that give fans of Sarah J. Maas the fae courts, dragons and magic they want right now.
Each pick covers a different craving, so you can choose by mood instead of guessing. None of them needs a long series commitment before it pays off.
- Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros is the most bingeable pick, with dragon riders, rivalries and constant momentum.
- The Cruel Prince by Holly Black is the sharpest fae-court audiobook on this list, built on betrayal and politics.
- Uprooted by Naomi Novik is the coziest choice, a standalone fairy tale with a wizard’s tower at its centre.
What it’s about
This roundup is built for readers waiting on the next Sarah J. Maas book, and it sorts three fantasy audiobooks by the kind of world you want to step into.
Fourth Wing (Rebecca Yarros, 2023) follows a reluctant cadet at a brutal war college where riders bond with dragons or die trying. The Cruel Prince (Holly Black, 2018) drops a mortal girl into the High Court of Faerie, where every smile hides a knife. Uprooted (Naomi Novik, 2015) sends a village girl into a wizard’s tower to face a corrupted forest, and it won the Nebula Award for Best Novel.
Why it works as an audiobook
Romantasy suits audio because the genre runs on voice, tension and long, immersive stretches of listening.
Fourth Wing uses dual narration, with two performers trading perspectives, which keeps the banter and the danger lively on a commute or a long walk. The Cruel Prince is narrated by Caitlin Kelly, whose delivery makes the court’s cruelty feel personal. Uprooted, read by Julia Emelin, has a storyteller’s warmth that suits its folklore feel and its slower, atmospheric pacing.
If you tend to drift during descriptive passages on the page, these three are good ones to try in audio, because the performances carry the momentum.
Who should read it
Choose from this list if you love Maas’s mix of fierce heroines, slow-burn tension and courts full of dangerous secrets.
Pick Fourth Wing if you want fast pacing and high stakes. Pick The Cruel Prince if you like morally grey characters and scheming. Pick Uprooted if you want romance and magic in a self-contained story. If you can’t stand cliffhangers, note that The Cruel Prince and Fourth Wing both open series, so you may want the next book ready.
We can’t tell you yet how the upcoming Maas release will play out. What this list gives you is a way to stay in the same mood until it arrives.
Similar books
If you finish all three and still want more, these are the natural next steps:
- A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas: the series that started the fae-romance craze, well worth revisiting in audio.
- From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout: a slow-burn romance with a sheltered heroine and a lot of secrets.
- The Serpent and the Wings of Night by Carissa Broadbent: a darker, vampire-court take with a human girl among immortals.
FAQ
What should I listen to while waiting for the next Sarah J. Maas book? Start with Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros for dragons and high stakes, The Cruel Prince by Holly Black for a darker fae court, or Uprooted by Naomi Novik for a wizard’s-tower fairy tale.
Are these audiobooks similar to A Court of Forgotten Melody? They share the ingredients Maas fans love: fae or magical courts, slow-burn tension and fierce heroines. We haven’t compared them line by line with the new release, so treat them as mood matches rather than copies.
Which of the three is best for a first fantasy audiobook? Uprooted is the gentlest entry, with a self-contained story and a single narrator. Fourth Wing is the most bingeable, and The Cruel Prince is the best pick if you want sharp court politics.
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