Which Character Archetypes Dominate Best Selling YA Fantasy Books?

Aria Hale spent her entire life believing the Moon Goddess created someone just for her. Someone who would see her. Choose her. Love her. She didn’t expect her fated mate to be Alpha Blake Thorn—the golden boy of the pack… or that he would reject her in front of everyone on her eighteenth birthday. Humiliated, heartbroken, and stripped of her place in the pack, Aria runs into the Forbidden Woods, praying for the pain to stop. But instead of death, she finds something far more dangerous: The Dark King. Erevan is ancient, feared, and impossibly powerful. To the world he is a myth. To Aria, he is the first person who looks at her like she is worth the world. And when she collapses in his arms, he does the unthinkable— He claims her as his mate. In the Dark Realm, Aria begins to unlock abilities she never knew she had. Abilities that were never meant to exist in the mortal world. Abilities that could destroy everything she once called home. When she returns to her old pack, Alpha Blake realizes the awful truth: Rejecting her was the biggest mistake of his life. But it’s too late. Aria is no longer the girl who begged for love. She is the mate of a king. Chosen. Claimed. Unstoppable. And she will never kneel again. A rejected-mate romance filled with betrayal, power, jealousy, possessive love, and a heroine who rises from broken to legendary.

“Julian was born to lead. An Alpha’s daughter, fierce and untamed, destined to inherit power and command. But fate is cruel. In one blood-soaked night, her entire pack is slaughtered, her name erased, her legacy burned to ash. Forced into the shadows, she binds her breasts, silences her rage, and becomes a phantom hiding behind a boy’s name to survive the hunt. Until she’s captured by him. Lucian. The infamous Alpha King. A brutal warlord feared across the realm, dominant, unyielding and devastatingly lethal. He mistakes her for an assassin. She knows better. He is her fated mate and the one man her body burns for, the one soul she must never touch. Desire coils between them like a live wire, tempting fate with every stolen glance, every forbidden thought. But Lucian is cursed, dark magic coils through his veins, and Julian harbors secrets that could destroy them both. As lust ignites into obsession and deception turns deadly, ancient prophecies stir, and enemies circle like wolves in heat. Julian wasn’t born to run. She was born to conquer. And the Alpha King will either kneel at her side… or be brought to his knees beneath her.”

* The fourth book in the Love and Other Sorcery Series - Book One, The Mage's Heart, Book Two, The Golden Dragon's Princess, Book Three, Akyran's Folly * Love's Sacrifice Will Make You Stronger Tarragon, the first-born child of Queen Diandreliera of Uyan Taesil and her dragon husband, Aurien, is the child of prophecy in every way. She is beautiful, talented, well-learned, and a master of the sword she was born to wield. She is also as magnificent a golden dragon as her father when in dragon-form. Daethie loves and adores her older sister and envies her for all that Tarragon is and Daethie isn't. Short, small, dark haired, and unable to shift into a dragon, Daethie is fondly known as "the runt of the dragon litter." Whilst her siblings excel at Prince Akyran and Princess Ecaeris' Monster Hunting training, Daethie is a disaster more likely to harm herself than any monster that she encounters. When Prince Akyran brings Aien, the son of a local warlock who is well known for his villainy, to the castle as his hostage, Aien singles out Daethie to befriend, and Daethie falls hard and fast for the enigmatic warlock's son. With the increasing danger of monsters roaming their land, Tarragon leads an expedition to locate the portal that is allowing the creatures to cross from their world, but it is a dangerous, testing journey and one that not all will complete alive. What sacrifice will be made for love and the rescue of their world?

She was never meant to survive their world. Now she’s the only one who can burn it down. Lyra thought she was just a girl with strange dreams and a birthmark that shimmered beneath moonlight. But when a celestial event rips her from Earth and drops her into the brutal halls of the Academy of the Ascendant, she discovers a deadly truth: she’s the lost heir of a realm that erased her bloodline—and she’s carrying the forbidden magic that could unravel it all. The Academy is ruled by power and hierarchy. The weak are crushed. The strong ascend. And the Triad—three elite heirs born of elemental fire, storm, and air—will do anything to break her. Until they realize she’s more powerful than all of them. Mocked. Hunted. Desired. As Lyra unlocks the four elemental affinities no student should possess, she becomes the center of a prophecy that the Council has killed to keep buried. But it’s the fifth element—the forbidden Void—that marks her for something more. Survival means mastering her magic. Love could cost her everything. And rebellion might just start with a kiss. Perfect for fans of Zodiac Academy, Throne of Glass, and The Cruel Prince, Marked by Starlight is the explosive first book in a dark fantasy romance series filled with elemental magic, enemies-to-lovers heat, and a heroine who refuses to bow.

Seraphine Vale is whisked away to Aetherborn Academy after a terrifying magical incident, she expects answers, not four dangerously captivating boys who seem unnervingly drawn to her. Alaric, the cold vampire noble. Kade, the brooding werewolf with eyes like storms. Damien, the charming dragon prince. And Lucien, the beautiful, unreadable incubus who invades her dreams. Each boy reacts to Seraphine as if they’ve known her far longer than she’s been alive… and each one’s powers surge unpredictably around her. As forbidden feelings spark and jealousy rises, Seraphine discovers a chilling truth: a prophecy ties her fate to theirs and to a sealed ancient power capable of either saving or destroying their world. Dark forces begin stirring beneath the Academy, hunting her magic… and her heart. To survive, Seraphine must unravel the mystery of who she really is and which boy she can trust when love itself might set the prophecy in motion. Because awakening the Aetherborn doesn’t just change her destiny. It changes everyone around her.

"Custom demanded that Prince Urban get a love mark tattooed to the side of his left eye as an infant, just like the rest of his people, but to him, the stupid things have only brought on the scorn of his father, the misery of his siblings, and caused his entire kingdom to go broke from fighting so many wars over the irritating ink stains. When Urban’s sister must travel to Donnelly, the kingdom within the sand, for her arranged marriage to align two realms, he goes with her. But he no sooner steps foot inside their castle than his mark starts itching like a son of a bitch, telling him his one true love is near. It just figures, though, that the woman meant for him is completely forbidden. Now he must decide if he should ignore the persistent mark, telling him she's the one, in order to avoid a possible war between kingdoms, or if he should discover whether she's worth risking everything for so they can be together. Either way, his life gets sucked into chaos with threats of beheadings, dark magic lurking, castle traitors scheming, and sword fights eminent. Who knew one little tattoo could cause so much trouble? (ONE TRUE LOVE is the author’s first attempt at a fantasy romance. Please forgive her; she might’ve read an overabundance of Cassandra Gannon, Sarah J. Maas, and Eve Langlais books, then gone off to watch too many episodes of Supernatural, Game of Thrones, and Outlander, because this was the outcome.)"