If you loved how Liadan moves between mortal duty and the Fair Folk’s designs—healing when she’s abducted by the Painted Man’s band, pushing back against the sidhe’s manipulations, and choosing her own path despite omens—then you’ll savor how Vasya bargains with Russia’s chyerti and stands against priestly and political pressure. Like Liadan’s woodland encounters and warnings, the hearth-god and the winter-king in The Bear and the Nightingale feel ancient, intimate, and perilous, with a heroine who refuses to be steered by fate.

Liadan’s wary, then fiercely loyal connection with Bran after she’s taken to heal his wounded outlaw mirrors Agnieszka’s prickly, gradually tender partnership with the Dragon. If the moments where Liadan and the Painted Man learn to trust each other under threat—dodging clan reprisals and sidhe meddling—made your heart catch, Uprooted offers that same chemistry as Agnieszka and the Dragon face the Wood’s corruption and find power together.

Like Liadan defying her family’s expectations, refusing Eamonn of the Northwoods’ designs, and choosing a path that tangles with outlaw justice and otherworldly will, Aerin steps beyond courtly strictures to write her own story. If you admired Liadan’s resolve and quiet courage as a healer navigating feuds and fae warning, Aerin’s dragon-slaying and hard-won autonomy will give you that same thrill of a woman shaping destiny instead of bowing to it.

If Marillier’s lush, poetic voice in Liadan’s tale—where a healer’s choices ripple through family, clan feuds, and the Fair Folk’s riddling demands—enchanted you, McKillip’s lyricism will feel like home. As Liadan balances love for Bran against expectations and prophecy, Sybel grapples with love, vengeance, and the cost of power among legendary beasts, all rendered in language that shimmers with the same hush of myth.

If the outlaw–healer pairing of Liadan and Bran—born from kidnapping, patched with trust, and tested by political entanglements—hooked you, Radiance offers a similarly heartfelt bond forged across a chasm. Brishen and Ildiko begin as strangers from alien courts, then build intimacy through small acts of care and candor, much like the moments where Liadan’s gentleness chips away at the Painted Man’s defenses amid feuds and the sidhe’s shadow.