I don’t know about you, but I am absolutely obsessed with books with crowns on the cover! I’ve been looking through my favorite crown-themed covers lately, and I found so many I love that I couldn’t help put together a list of the most captivating and beautiful ones!
1. The Elements of the Crown – Kay L Moody
Talise can easily manipulate the elements. Coming from a crime-laden land, her only chance for a better life is to become Master Shaper. If she wins the competition for the position, she will work for the emperor, live in the palace, and escape her inevitable death. Seemingly impossible obstacles arise, making winning the competition incredibly difficult. As Talise is forced to make an impossible choice, she learns that holding too tightly to her past may destroy her future
Buy The Elements of The Crown here
2. The Cruel Prince – Holly Black
From bestselling author, Holly Black, comes the story of Jude, a mortal girl who has been stolen away to the High Court of Faerie. Despite the fact that many of the fey despise mortals, Jude wants so badly to belong. The one who despises her the most however, is Prince Cardan, the most wicked son of the High King. In order for her to win a place at court, she must defy Prince Cardan. However, civil war threatens and Jude will have to risk her life to save not only her sisters, but Faerie itself.
Buy The Cruel Prince here
3. Red Queen – Victoria Aveyard
Victoria Aveyard’s Red Queen is one of the most iconic titles in this collection of books with crowns on the cover!
Red blood serves the elite: Silver-blooded individuals who have superhuman abilities.
Mare Barrow is a Red, barely making it by in a poor village as a thief. A twist of fate brings her in front of the Silver court, where she discovers the impossible: she has a special ability of her own. In order to cover this up, the King forces her to pretend that she is a lost Silver princess. As she is drawn into the world of the Silver, Mare makes the choice to risk everything and use her position to help a Red rebellion.
In this dangerous game, one wrong move can cause her death.
Buy Red Queen here
4. Furyborn – Claire Legrand
When Rielle Dardenne risks everything to save her best friend, she exposes herself as one of a pair of prophesied queens. Rielle must endure seven magical trials to prove that she is the Sun Queen. She will be executed if she fails.
A thousand years later, Eliana is a bounty hunter for the Undying Empire. When her mother vanishes, Eliana teams up with a rebel captain, only to find that the evil in the empire is more horrible than she had ever imagined.
Rielle and Eliana fight in a war that spans millenia, and the connections between them will ultimately determine the fate of their world.
Buy Furyborn here
5. Three Dark Crowns – Kendare Blake
On the island of Fennbirn, a set of triplets is born in every generation. Each is a queen, a posessor of a coveted magic, and an equal heir to the crown. Arsinoe is a naturalist, she has has the ability to control the fiercest animals and bloom the most beautiful plants. Mirabella is an elemental, able to start storms and spark flames at the snap of her fingers. Katharine is a poisoner, one who has the ability to ingest the most dangerous poisons without any dire consequences.
However, becoming the Queen is not only determined by royal birth. Each girl must fight for it in a game of life of death. When the sisters turn sixteen, the battle begins. The last queen alive gets the crown.
Buy Three Dark Crowns here
6. The Guinevere Deception – Kiersten White
With problems reigning in the kingdom, Merlin has come up with a solution: send Guinevere to marry King Arthur and be his protector. The only catch is that Guinevere’s true identity, and her real name, must remain a secret.
In order to keep Arthur safe, Guinevere must navigate a difficult court, duplicitous knights, and a strange girl with long black hair who rides on horseback through the woods towards Arthur. But when your whole existence is a lie, how can you trust even yourself?
Buy The Guinevere Deception here
7. Ash Princess – Laura Sebastian
When she was six, Theodosia’s country was invaded, and her mother, the Fire Queen was murdered. Crowned Ash Princess – a title of shame – Theo is now living her new life as a prisoner. For ten years, Theo lives as a prisoner in her own home, until one day the Kaiser forces her to do something unthinkable. As a result, she has blood on her hands, and has lost all hope of reclaiming her throne. However, she does have a weapon: her mind. Power isn’t always won on the battlefield, and the Ash Princess has seen her people enslaved and her land ruined for long enough.
Buy Ash Princess here
8. Crown of Coral and Pearl – Mara Rutherford
Nor has dreamed of seeing the beauty of Ilara, the kingdom that rules her village. However, when an accident leaves her with a permanent scar, her sister Zadie becomes the likely candidate to marry the Crown Prince – with Nor left behind. When Zadie is badly injured, Nor sets out to Ilara in her sister’s place. Unfortunately her future husband, Prince Ceren, is forbidding and cold. As Nor grows close to Ceren’s brother, she discovers unsettling truths about the royal family, and a plot to destroy her home. Nor wants to save her people, but discovering her strength may end up costing her everything
Buy Crown of Coral and Pearl here
9. Heartless – Marissa Meyer
One of my favorite books with crowns on the cover is Heartless by Marissa Meyer!
Long before she becomes the terror of Wonderland, Catherine is just a girl who wants to fall in love. Though she is a favorite of the unmarried King of Hearts, her interests lie in opening a bakery shop with her best friend. But such a goal is unacceptable for a woman who could be the next queen.
Then Catherine finds love in Jest, a mysterious and handsome court joker. Because their relationship would offend the king and infuriate her parents, they keep it as secret as they can. Catherine is determined to fall in love on her own terms, and to define her own destiny. But unfortunately, fate has other plans.
Buy Heartless here
10. The Traitor Prince – C.J. Redwine
Continuing this collection of books with crowns on the cover is The Traitor Prince!
The crown prince of Akram, Javan Najafai, is returning home from ten years spent away at an elite boarding school. However, his return home is cut short when an impostor takes his place. Now, no one believes that Javan is the true prince.
Javan is thrown into Maqbara, the most dangerous prison in the kingdom. The only way for Javan to get out and gain an audience with the king is to fight in Maqbara’s yearly tournament. The only one who can help him is a person named Sajda, who has been a slave to Maqbara’s warden for her whole life. Javan and Sajda will have to outwit the warden, fight deadly creatures, and escape the prisoners who want so badly to kill Javan. If they fail to win, they will be trapped in Maqbara forever, and the secret Sajda has been hiding will kill both of them.
Buy The Traitor Prince here
11. The Selection – Kiera Cass
The Selection is the chance of a lifetime for the thirty-five girls that get to participate. They have the opportunity to escape poverty, live in the palace, and compete for the heart of Prince Maxon. However, for America Singer, being Selected is a nightmare. She has to give up her relationship with her secret boyfriend, Aspen, and compete for a crown she isn’t interested in. Then she meets Prince Maxon and realizes there may be more to life than what she had dreamed of.
Buy The Selection here
12. Four Dead Queens – Astrid Scholte
Keralie Corrington is one of Quadara’s most skilled thieves and a liar. On the other hand, Varin is an upstanding citizen of Quadara’s enlightened region, Eonia. Unexpectedly, Varin and Keralie both find themselves entangled in a conspiracy that has left all four of Quadara’s queens dead. With no other options, the two join forces, trying to discover who killed the queens. Their reluctant partnership begins to turn into romance, and they must overcome their own dark secrets in order to be able to stay together. But before they can do that, they have to untangle the secrets behind the dead queens, and find a way to stay alive.
Buy Four Dead Queens here
13. The Traitor’s Kingdom (The Traitor’s Trilogy Book 3) – Erin Beaty
Sage Fowler has gained victory for her kingdom at a terrible cost. Now, Sage is about to face her biggest challenge in order to avoid a war with a rival kingdom. However, when an assassination attempt destroys the peace, Sage and her fiancé put themselves at risk in order to reveal the culprit. But in a game of traitors, the only certainty is betrayal.
Buy The Traitor’s Kingdom here
14. Dark of the West – Joanna Hathaway
When Athan Dakar’s mother is shot and killed, his dad is convinced that it is the work of his rival, the Queen of Etania. Determined to avenge his wife’s murder, he comes up with a plot to overthrow the queen. Athan is sent undercover to Etania to gain intel from her children. However, Athan’s mission becomes complicated when he falls in love with the girl he has been assigned to spy on: the queen’s daughter, Aurelia. Aurelia feels the attraction too. With a war on the horizon and diplomatic ties barely holding together, Athan and Aurelia struggle to remain loyal to their families and to each other.
Buy Dark of the West here
15. Grace and Fury – Tracy Banghart
Groomed her whole life to become a Grace – someone to stand by the throne as the example of the perfect woman – Serina Tessaro has a chance to create a better life for her family and to keep her sister, Nomi, out of trouble. Nomi catches the Heir’s eye instead though, and Serina takes the fall for the dangerous secret that Nomi has been hiding.
Nomi is now trapped in a life that she never wanted, and her only option is to surrender to her role as a Grace so that she can save Serina. However, a traitor walks undetected in the palazzo, and deception follows her wherever she goes. While Nomi is trapped in the palazzo, Serina is imprisoned on an island where she is forced to fight to the death to survive.
One wrong move could cost the sisters everything.
Buy Grace and Fury here
16. Reign of the Fallen – Sarah Glenn Marsh
Reign of the Fallen is an incredible book with a crown on the cover!
Odessa is a master necromancer, working with the Kingdom of Karthia’s ruling Dead. Her job requires her to raise dead nobles by retrieving their souls from a dangerous world called the Deadlands. The cost to being raised is that the Dead have to remain shrouded. If even an inch of skin is exposed, the Dead are turned into bloodthirsty Shades.
A dramatic increase in attacks by Shades brings suspicion and fear to the kingdom. A conspiracy soon comes to light: Someone is purposefully creating Shades and training them to attack innocent people. As she fights alongside her fellow mages, Odessa must untangle the plot to destroy Karthia. If she doesn’t, the Shades will take everything and everyone that she loves.
Buy Reign of the Fallen here
17. The Queens of Innis Lear – Tessa Gratton
Based on William Shakespeare’s King Lear, this story tells of three daughters, one crown, a forest that chooses the rulers of the land, and an all out war. Get ready for love, treachery, fate, families, and power combined to create an absolutely enthralling story!
Buy The Queens of Innis Lear here
18. Rule – Ellen Goodlett
This book is absolutely breathtaking, I couldn’t resist adding it to this list of books with crowns on the cover!
The king’s heir has just been murdered, rebellion brews, and the king is dying. There is one last option for the kingdom of Kolonya. The King summons three girls who arrive to learn that they are his illegitimate daughters. One of them is to become the new heir to the throne. But there is someone in Kolonya who will stop at nothing to keep the girls from ruling.
Buy Rule here
Honorable Mentions
These fantastic books don’t have crowns on the cover, but they do have the word “crown” in the title! I couldn’t resist adding these beauties to the list!
19. Crown of Midnight (Throne of Glass Book 2) – Sarah J. Maas
Celaena Sardothien is the king’s Champion, and she is not loyal to the crown at all. However, working against her evil master in secret is not easy. Celaena tries to untangle the secrets and mysteries buried in the glass castle, but she can trust no one. Not even her allies.
When an unspeakable tragedy crushes Celaena’s world, she must finally decide who she is loyal to, and who she will fight for.
Buy Crown of Midnight here
20. Crown of Feathers – Nicki Pau Preto
Last in this collection of fantasy books with crowns on the cover is Crown of Feathers!
Veronyka is an orphan who wants to become a Phoenix Rider from the stories of old. After her sister betrays her, Veronyka sets out to find the Riders – and disguises herself as a boy in order to join them. In the meantime, the empire has discovered the Riders’ return and intends to destroy them completely.
Buy Crown of Feathers here
That wraps up my list of YA fantasy books with crowns on the cover! Tell me in the comments which beautiful cover you love the most! Which crown would you wear?
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