The Problem With Romantasy

Hey friends! Welcome back to the Loose Leaf List. If you’ve walked into a bookstore any time in the last few months, you’ve probably seen shelves and display tables heaving with one of the trendiest genres of the last year: romantasy, which is a portmanteau of “fantasy” and “romance.”

Sometimes shelved in the fantasy section and sometimes mixed in with romance books, romantasy started out as a category primarily for self-published books, but has recently been picked up in a big way by traditional publishers. But there’s a problem with this new category of books: nobody actually knows what it means now.

What Is Romantasy Anyway?

As an intersection of two different genres, romantasy can get blurry. Is it any fantasy book with a romance element, or does the main plot have to revolve utterly and entirely around a romance?

It doesn’t help that previous attempts to describe a blend of fantasy and romance throw even more terms into the mix. Consider:

• Fantasy romance. This is a subgenre of romance, and follows the traditional genre norms of romance except that it takes place in a fantasy world.

• Romantic fantasy. This is a subgenre of fantasy, and follows the traditional genre norms of fantasy except that there is a significant romance element.

So is romantasy the same as fantasy romance, or romantic fantasy? Back when romantasy was primarily an indie publishing genre, it was firmly in the fantasy romance space. Unfortunately, these days, it appears to encompass both fantasy romance and romantic fantasy, depending on who you talk to.

The Book Industry Doesn’t Know What Romantasy Is Either

Look up lists of “Romantasy” online, and you’ll find books ranging from For the Wolf by Hannah Whitten (one of my favorite fantasy books that happens to have a large romance component) and King of Battle and Blood by Scarlett St. Clair (which is a spicy romance that happens to take place in a fantasy world).

I would describe the first of those books as romantic fantasy, and the second as fantasy romance. So why are both of them bundled into romantasy?

The answer, of course, is money. If romantasy is a popular genre, and labeling a book as romantasy makes it sell more, then (publishers might think) why not slap the romantasy label on anything fantastical that has a whiff of romance and rake in the cash?

The result is a nebulous genre that becomes a crapshoot in terms of whether you can find a book you actually like.

Who Is Romantasy For?

Personally, I read and enjoy romance sometimes, but I’m much more of a fantasy reader. If I pick up a book set in a fantasy world, I enjoy seeing some romance in it, but I primarily want solid worldbuilding and an interesting magic system — the things one expects from a good fantasy novel.

Similarly, I can imagine that someone who mainly reads romance might be intrigued by the idea of a romance set in a fantasy land, but they wouldn’t be super concerned with the fantasy elements themselves. Instead, they would be on the lookout for a satisfying, prominent central romance with a happily-ever-after or happy-for-now ending.

If you present a “romantasy” book to both me and this hypothetical romance reader, there’s a chance we would both enjoy it. But it’s likely that one of us would be disappointed — either because there was too little worldbuilding, or because there wasn’t enough focus on the central romance.

Personally, I don’t think a romantic plot in a fantasy book makes for a whole new genre. I’m happy to let romantasy be a romance subgenre (like it originally was in indie spaces anyway) and stick to what I enjoy best: fantasy that might happen to feature characters falling in love.

At the end of the day, despite all the confusion, the existence of a fantasy-romance fusion genre might help romance readers discover that they enjoy fantasy books, or help fantasy readers discover that they enjoy romance books. Encouraging readers to find new, unexpected favorite books is a great outcome in my eyes!

Do you enjoy romantasy/fantasy romance/romantic fantasy, whatever that may mean to you? Share in the comments!

What I Read This Month

I’m not usually much of a series girlie — I tend to prefer standalones, duologies, and mayyybe a trilogy every so often. So imagine my surprise when this month sucked me headlong into one of the most amazing series I’ve ever read!

A Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

An Ember in the Ashes is a popular YA fantasy novel that has been on my TBR for a whiiiile, and I am KICKING myself for not reading it sooner! After the first book enthralled me, I whizzed through the rest of the series, and I’m super excited for the spinoff novel, Heir, which is coming out in October. But those are reviews for a future newsletter!

(Also, since the setting is inspired by Ancient Rome, one might say it’s a … ROMANtasy) (Okay, but it has some great romantic subplots as well)

For more thoughts on the first book, see my full review of An Ember in the Ashes here!

Bride by Ali Hazelwood

Ali Hazelwood is one of the most popular romance authors of today, and while I’ve read a couple of her STEM contemporary romances before, this paranormal romance is my favorite book of hers so far. This may seem surprising, given that I just said fantasy romance is tricky for me! However, the fact that this book was set in the real world allowed me to turn off my fantasy reader brain and just appreciate the romance for what it is.

For more thoughts, see my full review of Bride here!

In Case You Missed It …

In which I round up my favorite fun posts that I made this past month!

This month’s YouTube video was all about my favorite book, This Is How You Lose the Time War, and the bonkers reason that it ended up becoming a bestseller:

For the Whovians over on TikTok, I talked about the Doctor Who guest characters that I think should have been regular companions on the show:

@looseleafellie

I love the existing Doctor Who companions, don’t get me wrong, but it’s fun to think about what might have been. #DoctorWho #WhoTok #David... See more

On Instagram, I hosted a live stream with author Sydney Langford about their new YA contemporary novel The Loudest Silence! We talked about d/Deaf representation, writing a central male-female platonic relationship in a genre obsessed with romance, Sydney’s experience as a young author, how they got their literary agent, and what they’re working on next. Watch the recording of the live stream here.

On Instagram, YouTube Shorts, and TikTok, I showed off my Doctor Who merch collection:

And finally, on Instagram and TikTok, I shared four pairs of words that I keep getting mixed up with each other:

Thank you so much for reading! Until next time, bookish friends.

Love,

Ellie