Recommend me some books

Calica

So I heard about Fourth Wing somewhere, thought it looked interesting, and read some reviews, good and bad... which told me I would probably agree with all the folks who hate it. But now I'm seriously jonesing for some good "a girl and her dragon" fantasy.

Stuff I have read:

• Pern. All of it. Love the setting, but I'm seriously frustrated by the stories, the characters, and Anne McCaffrey's writing style in general (and the less said about Todd, the better). Still, this is the grandmother of them all.
• The Temeraire novels by Naomi Novik, all except the last one or two, I think
• The Joust series by Mercedes Lackey
• The Pit Dragon trilogy by Jane Yolen
• The Rain Wild Chronicles by Robin Hobb

I'm looking for something similar to Pern and Fourth Wing, except as fantasy first and romance* second.** I especially like stories that are deeply interested in their characters and setting and not afraid of taking them apart to see what makes them tick, if that makes sense. YA stuff is fine as long as it's well-written.

I used to be a regular at my local libraries and bookstores, but I haven't browsed shelves since before COVID, so I don't even know what's currently on offer. Anybody got favorites they'd like to share?

*I don't mind romantic plotlines in stories, as long as they're 1) earned and 2) not unintentionally toxic. I do mind Romance, as in, the genre.

**learning as an adult that the Pern novels were written as Romance first and science fiction second explained so much of what I found off-putting about them, seriously. I read and re-read them as a kid because there was nothing else like them, but they frustrate me because other than the basic fact of A Story Where People Bond With And Ride Dragons, there's, like, zero overlap between the things the books are interested in and the things I am interested in.

Mugsley

My daughter fell into Booktok and bookTube last year. She recommended I try Red Rising and its series. I just got Red Rising for super cheap on Amazon and haven't read it yet. I've started Harlan Coben books.

This is a stretch but maybe also try the Bridge trilogy by William Gibson? Not a lot of romance in it.

There's also School of Good and Evil that my daughter read but I haven't.

obolon84

I've really gotten into the Cosmere books by Brandon Sanderson, but I know those can be a very love it or hate it thing.

The Divine Cities trilogy by Robert Jackson Bennett was a series that surprised me with how much I ended up liking it. It has an interesting premise where a country, using the powers of their gods, colonized the rest of the world. The gods all ended up being killed and the first book is set a few years later, as a kind of murder mystery.

Actually, another book I really liked that has a somewhat similar premise is Godkiller by Hannah Kaner. That does have a small romance subplot but I didn't think it was bad. Only the first book of the series is out so far, but it's a short one and a pretty easy read.

I've read the first four books of the Red Rising series and enjoyed them. I think the first one is the weakest, and does read as a pretty dark YA book, but the following books really expand the world and are a lot more interesting.

Quid

Sanderson's Skyward is very much a "Girl and her Dragon" with the dragon replaced by a space ship if you don't mind the change in setting. They're YA novels separate from everything else he does.