14-07-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Romantasy: A Starter Pack
If you've been anywhere near a bookstore, library or BookTok feed in the last five years, you've probably encountered a growing crowd of fae, dragon riders and fated mates of various magical persuasions. These are among the hallmarks of romantasy, the crossover genre that blends the passion and spice of romance with the escapism and high-stakes drama of fantasy.
The definition of romantasy is hotly contested and refers, at its narrowest, to romance-first stories with a secondary world (or 'high fantasy') setting. This list takes a more expansive approach, recognizing the slipperiness of genre boundaries and the many branches of the romantasy family tree (which includes what others might call paranormal romance, science fiction or historical fantasy). These books draw from a broad range of genre traditions: the Gothic literature of Mary Shelley and Sheridan Le Fanu, the urban fantasy trend of the 1990s (to say nothing of the urban fantasy revival of the 2010s), fairy tales, mythology, young adult fiction and the richly imagined worlds of fantasy and science fiction luminaries like Mercedes Lackey and Anne McCaffrey.
If there's one thing as reliable in romance as the happily ever after, it's romance readers' eagerness to recommend books to newbies. This list offers a few places to start — but once you're in, there's a whole internet out there waiting to tell you what to read next.
I want to start at the beginning
A Court of Thorns and Roses
The series that started it all! Maas's 'A Court of Thorns and Roses' began as a Y.A. series before transitioning to the adult section of the bookstore. In the first book, the human Feyre is brought as a captive to the faerie court of Tamlin, a High Lord of Prythian. Be prepared to wait a couple of books to understand the endgame: The arc of Feyre's romance takes a little while to unfold (and gets spicier as it goes on). There are currently five books in the series, with at least one more novel promised, so it's not too late to get it on the fun of obsessing over release schedules and fan theories.
If you read it and love it, try … 'Faebound,' by Saara El-Arifi; A.K. Mulford's Golden Court series; Mai Corland's Broken Blades series; or the Last Binding trilogy, by Freya Marske.
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