If you loved how Theodosia survives the Kaiser's court by playing the meek "Thora" while secretly plotting with Blaise and manipulating alliances with Crescentia and Prinz Soren, you'll click with Kestrel's razor-edged politicking in The Winner's Curse. Kestrel navigates the Valorian elite with fan-fluttering charm while waging a quiet war of strategy—especially once her bond with Arin, a conquered Herrani with secrets of his own, turns into a powder keg of loyalty and betrayal. It delivers that same heady mix of ballroom feints, clandestine meetings, and choices that can topple empires.

Theo's transformation—from the Kaiser's cowed "Ash Princess" to a tactician willing to spill blood, weaponize spiritgems, and even exploit Soren's trust—shows how trauma can twist intent. In The Young Elites, Adelina Amouteru undergoes a similarly gripping descent: empowered by dangerous abilities and scarred by abuse, she joins a faction of gifted outcasts and makes choices that blur hero and villain. If Theo's ruthlessness and the cost of her vengeance hooked you, Adelina's rise into shadow will absolutely grip you.

In Ash Princess, Theo is the stolen heir of Astrea, forced to honor Kalovaxian customs while plotting to free her people. Raybearer mirrors that colonial tension: Tarisai is bound by a supernatural command to love—and kill—the very prince who welcomes her into an empire that absorbs and refashions its subject cultures. If Theo’s struggle between affection for Soren and duty to Astrea moved you, Tarisai’s battle between chosen family and the legacy of conquest will resonate just as powerfully.

Theo’s iron resolve—enduring the Kaiser's cruelty, leveraging Crescentia's favor, and staking everything on a perilous bid for the throne—echoes through Three Dark Crowns. Here, sisters Mirabella, Katharine, and Arsinoe are pitted against one another in a deadly succession where court alliances, poisons, and raw will decide who survives. If you admired Theo’s grit under a jeweled cage, you’ll be riveted by these queens carving paths through blood and whisper campaigns.

If the brutal realities of the Kaiser's court—Theo’s public humiliations, the scars he leaves, and the danger laced into every smile—kept you turning pages, Girls of Paper and Fire channels that same raw intensity. Lei is taken to the Demon King’s palace as a consort, where survival means secrecy, small rebellions, and a love that becomes resistance. The claustrophobic court, the risk of exposure, and the hard-won defiance will feel achingly familiar in the best way.