A genre of swords and soulmates: the rise and rise of ‘romantasy’ novels

It was approaching midnight on Monday when author Sarah J Maas entered a New York City bookstore to surprise fans celebrating the imminent publication of her latest novel, House of Flame and Shadow. As she walked towards the stage, wearing a Valentino bouclé tweed skirt, the crowd realised what was happening, and began to scream.

“Look at you guys, what the fuck? This is amazing!” she shouted. Not many authors are treated to a rockstar reception like this – but Maas’s books, the most popular of which are the Throne of Glass and A Court of Thorns and Roses series, have sold 37m copies worldwide in 38 languages.

The American novelist is among a new generation of uber-bestselling authors writing “romantasy”, a portmanteau of “romance” and “fantasy” applied to novels that blend elements of both genres. Alongside Maas on bestseller charts is Rebecca Yarros, whose novel Iron Flame became Waterstones’ highest-selling pre-order title in a single day, four months ahead of its release last November.

It is unclear where the “romantasy” label originated: though Bloomsbury said it coined the term to “identify the genre [Maas] was spearheading”, the term was posted on Urban Dictionary as early as 2008. In any case, its usage has exploded in the last year on social media and in marketing copy for fantasy romance titles.

Romantasy authors are selling well in part because of their huge popularity on social media; Maas’ publisher, Bloomsbury, says that videos with hashtags connected to her books have more than 14bn views on TikTok alone. On “BookTok”, the corner of the platform dedicated to book-related content, fans share their rankings of book series, theories about what might happen in future novels, compilations of favourite quotes and outfits inspired by books.

Such novels are typically set in fantastical worlds, with fairies, dragons, magic, but also feature classic romance plotlines – enemies-to-lovers, soulmates, love triangles. “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,” explains Ajebowale Roberts, an editor at HarperCollins.

“The Bachelor meets The Hunger Games” is how Canadian author Nisha J Tuli describes one of her romantasy novels, Trial of the Sun Queen. “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,” she adds. “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.”

Romantasy novels often have explicit sex scenes, referred to online as “spice” or given the reclaimed label “smut”. Kerri Maniscalco, author of Throne of the Fallen, says that spicy books allow a “safe space for readers to explore their own fantasies” in an unapologetic way. “It’s really interesting to see readers online exploring that too and not being shy or ashamed”. HarperCollins’s Roberts says that seeing an “increased reader demand for spicy new adult books” led to the publisher’s Magpie imprint planning a dedicated list of romantasy titles, called the Midnight Collection, which will launch in spring.

The genre’s appeal may also be down to its “bold heroines” and “strong yet nuanced female characters”, says Kathleen Farrar at Bloomsbury. “These stories have attracted huge numbers of female readers who may previously not have felt particularly welcome or catered for in the fantasy market.”

Romantasy “allows women to have it all”, says Christina Clark-Brown, who shares book recommendations on the Instagram page ninas_nook. “There is no damsel who needs saving 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.”

Related: Mills & Boon launch ‘spicy’ Afterglow series to woo TikTok book lovers

Georgia Summers, whose book The City of Stardust was released in January, says that “we’re seeing fantasy normalise queer romance, normalise having people of colour in fantasy and have it not be the traditional white male medieval village scenario”.

While many bestselling romantasy novels have predominantly white and straight main characters, Tuli says this is “slowly, slowly” changing. “All my main characters are brown girls, which is obviously very rare in this genre as of now,” she explains. “But that’s something that very much from day one has been really important to me because I never read anything like that before five years ago.”

The Midnight Collection is launching with Lore of the Wilds by Analeigh Sbrana, which features an all-Black cast. “The Midnight Collection was born out of real reader demand and our readers come from all walks of life so it’s only fitting that our list reflects the depth and breadth of the diversity of our readers,” says Roberts.

The popularity of romantasy may also be a sign of the times. “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,” says Maniscalco.

Summers explains that while another subgenre of fantasy, “grimdark”, was popular in the early 2010s with “gritty, dark” tales such as Game of Thrones, we are now seeing “the rise of cosy fantasy and romantasy and fairytale fantasy – books that have a bit more of an uplifting feel to them.”

These books offer readers a sense of hope, she adds. Fantasy has “done so well all of a sudden, in these recent times, when hope seems a little bit in short supply”.