Fae kings. Talking dragons. Elvish laws. The many different fantasy worlds you find on bookshelves are becoming unified by a secondary genre: romance. The meld of romance and fantasy has been so successful that it’s led to the opening of romantasy bookstores, catapulting romantasy titles like Onyx Storm to the top of the bestseller list, and re-igniting midnight release parties for titles by Sarah J. Maas.
Romantasy, which was originally logged on Urban Dictionary in 2008, has risen to massive prominence. However, if you search the term on Google Trends, it only really picks up steam in 2023. So how did it go from a relatively unknown subgenre to the genre of the fastest-selling adult novel of 2025?
The History of Romantic Fantasies
On the one hand, romantic fantasy as a term and a subgenre was established well before romantasy. You can trace romantic fantasy all the way back to the Medieval period. Chivalric romances about knights who went on quests to win the hearts of fair maidens were written and shared as early as the 12th century. The poem “Tristan and Isolde” features love potions, poisons, and miracles.
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Another piece of romantic fantasy performed in schools around the world is A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare. A lot of romantic fantasies throughout the centuries have hearkened back to mythology. Shakespeare even included an infatuation between a fae queen and an accidental shifter, which are both common in contemporary romantasy.
Romantasy Bubbling Up
Dark fantasy movie adaptations from the 1970s and 1980s included romantic plotlines, like Charles Perrault’s Donkey Skin and John Boorman’s Excalibur. In 1987, War for the Oaks by Emma Bull is cited as an early example of the current trend, with a female rock musician getting involved in the war of a faerie realm. The Princess Bride by William Goldman came out in 1973, but gained a new level of popularity as a romantic fantasy with the 1987 film adaptation.
We can also look to what current romantasy writers were reading about 20 to 30 years ago. Tamora Pierce’s books mainly focused on young girls in fantasy settings, with romantic elements. Twilight reintroduced a generation to the joys of paranormal romance. It depends on if you consider vampires a fantasy or a supernatural element, but the impact of Twilight is clear in the continued popularity of warring fantastical factions and non-human loverboys.
Contemporary Romantasy
When I attended the release event for A Power Unbound by Freya Marske in 2023, she mentioned that there was now more of a market for romantasy. At the time, I had heard the portmanteau but wasn’t familiar with it as a unified genre. In Marske’s case, A Marvellous Light was a runaway hit in 2021, before the large-scale embrace of romance plus fantasy. By the time the concluding book of her trilogy, A Power Unbound, came out, she had joined a growing genre shelf. At the event, she also announced that her book Swordcrossed would be released by fantasy publisher Tor’s new romance-focused imprint, Bramble.
Romantasy’s rise in relevance and recognition is due to BookTok championing the A Court of Thorns and Roses series by Sarah J. Maas. Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros was a surprise success in early 2023, adding more fuel to the romantasy fire.
However, the more you look into the history of fantasy with a tinge of romance, the more you’ll find. Writer Kayleigh Donaldson examined romantasy for Paste Magazine. She noted that while publishers were quick to jump on the trend with new titles aligned to Maas and Yarros, there is a treasure trove of romance novelists who were always blurring the lines between hard fantasy and romance. Donaldson identifies that novels like Kushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carey and the Black Jewels series by Anne Bishop blended romance and fantasy, but they were marketed more as fantasy than romance. Now, we understand that genres can blur, shift, and come together.
Romantasy Drama
Like BookTok itself, romantasy is subject to criticism. There are two major camps of criticism: internal and external.
An issue more often raised by romantasy fans themselves is a problem with the publishing world writ large: it’s very white and heterosexual. The most popular authors of the genre are largely white, and many of the stories center on tall, sexually domineering men and the object of their obsession. Not to yuck anyone’s yum, but the rush to recreate the success of Maas and Yarros has led to a flood of very similar-sounding relationship dynamics. It reflects the most popular romance novels of all time as well: a powerful man, some damsel-adjacent woman who accesses her power through a connection with the man. This isn’t to say that these books have no diversity or different expressions of gender and sexuality, but it’s important to take a step back and assess what these trends mean.
The external camp of haters is more focused on the degradation of literature caused by the flood of “fairy porn” and other diminishing terms. A recent article caused a lot of drama by accusing the readers of romantasy for being too obsessed with escapism. A lot of these critics have a streak of misogyny to them. The claim is that romantasy fans tend to stick to the genre, endlessly consuming porny fantasy books with no literary merit.
However, the same could be said of mystery fans: people will read the same kind of comforting, escapist detective story over and over again, but that genre doesn’t receive the same sort of ire. There will always be a group of people who intensely scrutinize what women are reading and believe it speaks to the downfall of society. Even George Eliot wrote a call-out essay called “Silly Novels by Lady Novelists” to snark on her contemporaries.
Romantasy is not immune to criticism, but neither is any genre. Healthy debate of a genre’s internal tropes and biases is crucial. As we continue to watch this genre dominate, the Read Harder Challenge is a great way to keep yourself motivated to flex your reading muscles.
The Future of Romantasy
We’ll likely see more exciting Romantasy subgenres pop up as this genre continues to evolve. I asked other Rioters for their favorite romantasy reads, and Jess Pryde’s favorite, That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon by Kimberly Lemming, provides a much-needed comedic spin on the genre. Susie Dumond’s recommendation, When the Tides Held the Moon by Vanessa Kelly, stars a beautiful merman. And finally, several writers mentioned their love of Consort of Fire by Kit Rocha, a deeply immersive sapphic romantasy.
As romantasy continues to drive the publishing industry with book sales and popularity, we can push for more diverse stories and continue to argue for the literary merit of the best of them.