If it was Girton’s bond with Merela Karn that hooked you—the secret lessons, harsh ethics, and tender loyalty amid Queen Adran’s deadly court—then you’ll love how FitzChivalry Farseer is taken in by the king’s shadow, Chade. At Buckkeep, Fitz learns poisons, stealth, and the cost of obedience, much like Girton infiltrating Prince Aydor’s circle and surviving the tourney by wits over strength. Assassin’s Apprentice pairs that same knife-edge intimacy of teacher and ward with courtly danger and moral knots that never untangle cleanly.

Loved how Girton sifted lies and rivalries in Maniyadoc to unmask the would-be killer circling Prince Aydor—while the stakes kept widening? In City of Stairs, diplomat-spy Shara Komayd investigates a scholar’s murder in Bulikov and pulls on threads that lead to state conspiracies and the not-so-dead remnants of divinity. With Sigrud as her unstoppable aide, the investigation spirals the way Girton’s does: each clue exposes a new layer of power, heresy, and peril, scratching the same itch for courtly secrets and sharp, methodical sleuthing.

If the backstabbing factions around Queen Adran—and Girton’s tightrope walk between patrons, rivals, and hidden agendas—kept you rapt, Baru’s rise through the Masquerade’s bureaucracy will grip you just as hard. She topples dukes in Aurdwynn with ledgers, leverage, and betrayals as cutting as any assassin’s blade. Like Girton choosing which lie to live with, Baru’s victories come with chilling costs, making every political gambit feel like a loaded dagger at a banquet.

If Girton’s willingness to do grim work—yet hold to a stubborn inner code learned from Merela—won you over, Kylar Stern’s journey under the legendary wetboy Durzo Blint will hit home. In the brutal streets of Cenaria, Kylar’s training forces choices as searing as Girton’s: when to kill, whom to protect, and what kind of person the job makes you. The fights are fiercer, the stakes bloodier, but that same moral tightrope you felt in the Tired Lands is front and center.

If Girton’s growth—from a hunted boy to a canny infiltrator who can best nobles in the tourney despite his clubfoot—was your favorite thread, Kvothe’s first-person account delivers that same intimate ascent. From surviving on the streets to mastering the University’s arcane arts, his voice pulls you inside every lesson, setback, and razor-edged triumph, echoing Girton’s mix of grit, ingenuity, and the dangerous knowledge adults only whisper about.