by Arianna Blakeley (PWR 2026)
If you are a fantasy lover, you surely have encountered the explosive new subgenre coined romantasy. Barnes & Nobles has even added an aisle dedicated to romantasy titles that have gone viral. As with the insurgence of any new book trend, there is always mixed opinion surrounding what to do with the new genre. Criticism is good, healthy even; however, the criticism I see of romantasy stems from a larger problem, a low view of romance in fantasy as a valid literary concept.
The fantasy community’s issue with the genre seems to be around romance’s increasing importance to the storylines of romantasy books. The more romance is in a fantasy story, the more of a “girl book” it is and, therefore, less credible, lesser quality, and lesser fantasy.
Romantasy vs. romantic fantasy
The first place I see an unfair discrediting of romantasy is in defining the subgenre. Fantasy books with romance have been distilled into two categories: romantasy and romantic fantasy. In romantasy books, romance is so central to the plot the story would fall apart if you removed the romance. Distinct to that are romantic fantasy books with romance as a subplot to the main plot.
There are two problems with these subgenre divisions, first, it assumes that “good” stories have (romantic) relationships that can be removed and have no effect on the plot. This isn’t the mark of a pure fantasy story; if there are any relationships in a book that are so lackluster they could be cut at no effect to the plot, that’s just poor writing.
Second, the distinction between romantasy and romantic fantasy had been born out of a need to defend books that fall into the former category. Fantasy blogger Grace uses Holly Black’s book The Cruel Prince and Rebecca Yarros’ Fouth Wing as an example of this. Grace writes, “If you ever look up The Cruel Prince on social media (especially Book Tok), you’ll be met by devout fans who insist that the novel is a political fantasy novel with a minor romantic subplot – or at most, romantic fantasy – and anyone who classifies it as romantasy is ‘objectively wrong.’” Yet the book has the elements and is often tagged in the romantasy section of bookstores.
When readers discuss Fourth Wing (which has earned its deserved criticism for lackluster writing), there is no question that the book belongs in romantasy. In the minds of many fantasy readers, romantasy is a genre synonymous with mediocre. When a book like The Cruel Prince is placed in that category, its fans feel the need to overemphasize the political plot and underemphasize the romance plot, so it doesn’t get lumped into the subgenre people generalize as trashy, fantasy romance.
The effect of romance in fantasy books
This leads me back to my main point, the more romance in a fantasy book, the less credibility it has among some fantasy readers. There seems to be an attitude in the fantasy community that lots of romance cheapens the genre and is not the kind of thing a real lover of fantasy should enjoy. Why? The genre of romance (whether in fantasy or on its own) is very saturated. This leads to many excellent books, many poor books, and the vast majority somewhere in the middle. This is true for any oversaturated market, but that doesn’t disqualify the genre topic itself.
A common online reader sentiment is, “I hate romantasy because all romantasy is trash.” Huh? All? There are hundreds of thousands of books in the subgenre, and all are bad? Statistically, that’s unlikely. I hate horror books, but that doesn’t mean all horror books out there are bad. No other genre gets this kind of treatment the way romantasy does. I can’t help but ask the question if the dismissal boils down to who romantasy is written by and who its written for: women.
Romantasy is the book version of the movie world’s “chick flick.” It is a culturally accepted idea that these comedy romances are made for women, and thus men make fun of them. However, prolific fantasy author Brandon Sanderson often shares the books he reads and recommends the ones he enjoyed reading. In September 2025, he recommended contemporary romance book Book Lovers by Emily Henry. In a TikTok, Sanderson expressed his frustration at people’s surprise that a serious fantasy author would pick up a “girl book.” He said both that he thought we were already over this asinine distinction and that his childhood was shaped by “girl books” like the Dragon Prince by Melanie Rawn, which he described as “romantasy before romantasy existed.” In the description of the video, he says that reading outside your typical genres is a great way to grow as a reader and writer.
If an author like Sanderson can see the merit in romantasy, why does the fantasy world insist on broad brushing it as terrible?
This leads me to what I feel is a valid critique of the romantasy genre: the sex. While I see many people trashing romantasy for being bad fantasy, I don’t see a lot of people criticizing the half of romantasy that is just plain erotica, or as it’s been coined “faery porn.”
Romantasy is here to stay, it’s not going to ruin traditional fantasy, and there is enough space in the world for high fantasy and romance-heavy fantasy to exist together.
There is well established literature that says those consuming increasing amounts of pornography experience neural connection issues and often have less gray matter in the prefrontal cortex. For so many women, the sexual content in explicit romantasy is addicting because authors intentionally interweave sex into the action of the main plot. Sarah J Maas said in an interview with Cosmopolitan that she doesn’t just throw sex scenes in for fun. Maas said, “I tried to make the sex tied to the plot and the characters, and make it feel like it is a real result of what’s happening in the world and these characters’ lives.” The issue is the unashamed and widespread recommendation of this kind of content.
This may ruffle some feathers, but you’d never see men get on the internet, in mass, and romanticize pornography as a fun and moral pastime. It is a source of great shame for many men. Women are consuming this hyper-sexualized content and advocating that it is good, which scientifically isn’t true for the development of the human brain or in the way pornographic content harms real relationships by creating unrealistic expectations.
It is important to note that not all romantasy contains gratuitous sex. There are many beloved and high-quality series that have little to no sex in them, but to escape the romantasy trash stigma, these series are given the romantic fantasy label, even when the only difference in content is sex versus no sex and the romance levels are similar.
Romantasy isn’t a subgenre that can be swept into the trash bin in a single worthless monolith. There are blow-your-socks-off excellent books, barf-in-my-mouth bad books, and it-kinda-made-me-snooze middle of the rung romantasy books. In short, it’s like any other genre.
There are complex human topics wrestled with in the pages of romantasy novels. It is clear that some of the dismissal of romantasy’s credibility comes from cultural misogyny of “women’s literature.” Books written by women for women are sidelined by men as “chick lit”; this attitude is not a cute appreciation of female creativity, but a disbelief that these stories could have any benefit or meaning for male readers. Parts of the subgenre deserve real critique for the harm they may be doing to the minds of young women. This is a real, scientifically based critique for the subgenre, but one I don’t see many people make because it is unpopular to poke at the negatives of pornography. I imagine as the trend continues, we will see studies done on the effects of this literature in thirty-some years, and my guess is it won’t be positive.
So, what is the point? Why care about the opinions surrounding romantasy? As fantasy lovers, romantasy has acted as a gateway for many readers who would never pick up a high fantasy book in their life. That’s exciting! It was certainly my gateway into more traditional fantasy books.
Romantasy is here to stay, it’s not going to ruin traditional fantasy, and there is enough space in the world for high fantasy and romance-heavy fantasy to exist together.
Are you a fantasy writer interested in exploring your craft more deeply? Join us for the Taylor University Professional Writers Conference Pre-conference Track on “Fantasy and Worldbuilding,” July 23-24, 2026. Ages 16 and up.
PWR Blog 