Beginner's Guide to Fantasy Romance and Romantasy
- Feb 5
- 4 min read
You like reading, right? You just don’t have the time, and life has taken away all ‘me times’ and hobbies, as it needs to be fed with work hours, e-mails, and circling back to some random stuff mentioned in meetings that have no point (or you weren’t listening). You also have a family, errands, and maybe a couple of hours a month for socialising, and that’s it. But you also have that one friend who has a similar schedule but keeps reading books like their life depends on it,
and just takes new ones weekly. You want to know a secret? It’s this new (sub)genre and a little bit of daily habits reorganisation.
Before I bought and read Fourth Wing (October 27th, 2024) out of spite and prepared to trash-talk BookTok/stagram recommendations, I was reading two to three books a year, mainly some contemporary fiction, a good crime novel, or non-fiction just to say that I haven’t abandoned my favourite hobby for adulthood. After finishing the book in 2 days, which was a huge shock to me, I immediately jumped to the next book in the series, and I haven’t stopped since. Why? It’s the genre! It’s addictive! It’s a perfect escape!
Romantasy (or Romantic Fantasy) is a sub genre of Fantasy Fiction that brings two seemingly separate worlds together - fantasy elements such as epic fantasy worlds, magic, creatures, and high-stakes situations with some level of romance.
There is a little bit of distinction between Romantasy and Fantasy Romance, and that is mainly in how heavy the romance plot drives the story, along with the amount of ‘spicy’ scenes in the story.
Just to be clear, I never liked reading romance novels. I found them too cheesy, too promising, and pointless, honestly, but Romantasy gave me a completely different view of romance tropes such as enemies-to-lovers, forced proximity, and others, as it’s so fun to read about the main characters choosing between their war-torn kingdom, power and prophecies, and their romantic interest. Imagine Frodo had a girlfriend in the Fellowship - that would have been a fun disaster.
One of the interesting things about Romantasy and Fantasy Romance is that it’s (somewhat) easy to read, when you get used to it; most books are page-turners once you meet the characters and their struggles. The choice of books is vast, and you easily develop a preference for tropes, settings, character arcs, and more.
Now that you have read my unnecessarily long introduction and you have decided to dip your toe into the fantasy romance/romantasy pool, here are some recommendations on where to start:
Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas is the first book in the series with the same name, but we all call it TOG.
I would recommend it to someone who has never read a book from the fantasy romance genre. It’s an eight-book series about the world’s most famous assassin Celaena Sardothien (and in my humble opinion, the OG of all the female main characters in the genre), with great world-building, an easy-to-grasp magic system, and low to almost non-existent spice through the series.
A Court of Thorns and Roses (or ACOTAR as the bookish community calls it) by Sarah J. Maas is an amazing start as well. If you still miss the fairy tales from your childhood but you are ready for a similar story with a twist, this book is right for you. Keep in mind that this is a book series, and if you do get hooked, you are in for a treat, but just so we are clear, there is some spice i.e. explicit scenes in it as the series progresses, if you are ok with that.
The Empyrean series by Rebecca Yarros, starting with Fourth Wing, the book that got me in this mess, is another great place to start, as it’s written in a way that even the readers who don’t read fantasy regularly can experience the world and understand the genre. Also, there are dragons, and they talk. 🙂 This is still an unfinished series, and the hype is real, so if you do decide to read the first book in the Empyrean series, don’t hate me for needing more. TV Show is on the way, as well, so it's perfect time to start reading.
Serpent and the Wings of the Night by Carissa Broadbent, and with that, the first book in the Crowns of Nyaxia series. If you were a Twilight fan (I was not) or Vampire Diaries TV show binger (guilty), this is a series that might ease you into the fantasy/romantasy genre with something that feels familiar but holds your hand through the process. Crowns of Nyaxia is a 6-book series, four (4) books already published that can be read as duologies, and it has all the good fantasy vibes that we are looking for.
And finally, Spark of the Everflame by Penn Cole, the first book in the Kindred's Curse Saga, is, in my opinion, a perfect example of a slow burn romance set in a world of magic, where characters navigate power struggles and growing civil war. I would definitely recommend this to someone who has never read a book with explicit scenes, as there are none in the first two books, and even when the scene happens, it’s nothing scandalous, and you can skip it if you are uncomfortable.
Of course, I can give you a list with over 80 series and 150+ books of ‘here’s what I would recommend’, but better to start small and discover for yourself. 😊
There is a thrill in giving a book a shot and finding it amazing.
