- Fans of A Court of Thorns and Roses at Comic Con
Ever had a crush on a faerie? If not, then you clearly haven’t embraced the “romantasy” craze yet — the book genre, known for the “spicy” (a.k.a. smutty) scenes, that’s set to hit over $600 million in sales in 2024.
It all began with the A Court of Thorns and Roses (ACOTAR) series by Sarah J. Maas. The books were a pretty big hit when the first title was published back in 2015 but went truly, epically global when BookTok cottoned on more recently. Maas has now sold over 40 million copies of the five books in her series, in 38 different languages, and hashtags related to them have attracted more than 14 billion views on TikTok, by devoted fans of all ages who spout theories, play dress-up and rank their favorite titles.
It’s no surprise that the ACOTAR series, which begins with 19-year-old huntress Feyre being held captive by a sexy-but-dangerous faerie overlord after she kills a wolf in the woods, has now been optioned for a TV adaptation by Hulu too. Maas isn’t the only runaway success story in the genre either: Rebecca Yarros, author of the Empyrean series, which includes Fourth Wing, and Jennifer L. Armentrout, known for the Blood and Ash series, are also huge players and have adaptations in development at Amazon.
Of course, lusting over mythical figures is nothing new: look at Interview With The Vampire, Twilight and even Beauty and the Beast. But in the “romantasy” genre (we don’t need to explain that it’s a portmanteau of romance and fantasy, right?) the stories generally take place in mythical locations too, rather than fantasy figures invading small towns and high schools as they have in past bestsellers.
Romantasy books have a few other common factors too; many books in the genre feature classic romantic tropes like “enemies to lovers” stories and love triangles, just like in every good romcom, except with dragons, monsters, fairies and other magical figures as the protagonists instead of sassy magazine editors and brooding finance guys. “Romance readers have discovered that romantasy has all the tropes they adore, but set in a world they can escape to and get lost in,” Ajebowale Roberts, an editor at HarperCollins, said.
Canadian author Nisha J. Tuli is a big name in the genre too, and she describes her novel Trial of the Sun Queen as “The Bachelor meets The Hunger Games” — which sounds pretty fun to Us. “The thing I love about romantasy is that the romance can have these world-ending stakes that you just can’t get with an office romcom,” Tuli told The Guardian. “I love the whole ‘he murdered your whole family, but now you’re going to fall in love’ — something which you can really only create in a fantasy world.”
Let’s be honest, when we talk about “romance,” we usually mean sex — and most of the books feature explicit love scenes, referred to online as “spice” or “smut.” But, while many women had mixed feelings about the dynamic in the 50 Shades of Grey series that brought erotic books into the mainstream back in 2011, the fantastical element in the romantasy genre feels more empowering. “There is no damsel who needs saving,” book blogger Christina Clark-Brown shared. “But rather women are allowed to be powerful, go on epic quests, and find love with a partner who is an equal to them in every way.”
It’s also all about unapologetically exploring fantasies that will probably — OK, obviously — never come to life (well, apart from via some spicy role play, anyway.) Unlike the dated romance novels your grandma discreetly stashed in her shopping bag, the books often feature more diverse characters too — a big appeal for the younger, cooler TikTok audience who wouldn’t be caught dead with a traditional bodice-ripper.
“We’re seeing fantasy normalize queer romance, normalize having people of color in fantasy and have it not be the traditional white male medieval village scenario,” said Georgia Summers, author of The City of Stardust.
The other reason letting a little romantasy into your life might be so appealing? Well, the world has been a little depressing in recent years, and these books offer some fun, sexy and enthralling respite. “When you look at on the global scale what’s going on socially, politically, economically, Covid — all of these things are giving readers this need to escape,” Kerri Maniscalco, author of Throne of the Fallen, told The Guardian.
Alexandra Rowland, author of A Taste of Gold and Iron and Some by Virtue Fall, agrees. “I often talk about how as authors, sometimes the job is maybe not valued as much as it could be, but we are in the business of saving lives in a very real way,” she told the “Under The Radar Book Club” podcast. “How often have you been going through a really tough time and picked up just the right book, at just the right moment, that gave you that sense of peace and shelter and safety and joy?”
Tons upon tons of readers clearly agree: 11 million romantasy novels were sold in the first half of 2024, more than double over the same period last year. It helps that you can discreetly devour these books on e-readers and phones, so there’s no need for any embarrassment you might otherwise feel about delving into faerie smut in public; for all that guy on the subway knows, you’re just doing Wordle. Even print books are leaning toward more discreet text-only covers rather than featuring Fabio-esque models posing shirtless on the front.
Frankly, though, there’s no shame in it — these stars are all loud and proud about their love of romantasy, so you can be too!
