If you loved how Camellia’s bid to become the Favorite entangles her in Queen Celeste’s secrets and Princess Sophia’s manipulations, you’ll click with the razor-edged palace games in Ash Princess. Theo is forced to smile, scheme, and survive under an occupying court where every favor hides a trap—much like the Orléans salons where a beauty appointment could cost you your freedom. The feints, betrayals, and mask-on mask-off power plays will scratch that same intrigue itch.

The way The Belles luxuriates in teahouses, arcana-laced treatments, and petal-soft decadence mirrors the immersive wonder of Strange the Dreamer. If Orléans’ confectionary details—from gilded gowns to the painful alchemy of beauty—enchanted you, Laini Taylor’s dream-bright city of Weep, with its blue-skinned mysteries and layered history, will sweep you up with equally opulent imagination and awe.

Camellia learns that shaping beauty has a price—blood, secrets, and the risk of becoming what Orléans most desires. In The Young Elites, Adelina’s powers come with similarly thorny choices. If Princess Sophia’s demands and the Belles’ forbidden truths made you ponder what power does to a person, Adelina’s slide into darkness—and the lines she’s willing to cross—will grip you with that same ethically charged tension.

If Orléans’ rigid ranks—Belles, Favorites, and clients—echoed as a glitter-coated cage, Uglies explores a world where surgical “perfection” maintains control. Like Camellia uncovering what the arcana truly costs and why Princess Charlotte’s condition must be hidden, Tally discovers the sinister logic beneath mandated prettiness. You’ll get that same sharp critique of curated beauty and who benefits from it.

If Dhonielle Clayton’s velvet-rich sentences—describing rose-toned creams, petaled gowns, and the ache beneath glamour—were part of the draw, The Star-Touched Queen delivers a similarly decadent voice. Chokshi’s language shimmers as Maya steps into a realm of illusions and peril, much like how Orléans’ beauty rituals dazzle while concealing danger. It’s the same heady blend of lyricism and menace.