Latest news with #SarahJMaas
Time Out
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time Out
London now has a new bookshop totally dedicated to romance novels
Being out and about in London, chances are you've spotted someone reading the A Court of Thorns and Roses book series by Sarah J Maas. These fantasy books, filled with faeries, hunters and X-rate scenes, first blew up on a literary corner of TikTok (AKA BookTok), and now you can't catch the tube in the capital without seeing someone reading it. Now London has its first ever bookshop dedicated entirely to these kinds of romance books, as Saucy Books in Notting Hill officially opened at the end of last month. While these kinds of books are often called 'smut' or 'fairy porn' (many of them are packed full of NSFW scenes), they are extremely popular, particularly among young women. According to data gathered from 7,000 British booksellers, in 2024 there were record sales of 'romance and sagas' books, making up to £69 million. Sales of these 'romantasy' books even pushed UK fiction revenue above £1 billion for the first time. 'The popularity of the store speaks for itself,' Sarah Maxwell, the founder of Saucy Books, told the Guardian. 'We even had to ticket our first week and give time slots to customers.' Saucy books even has a corner of the store dedicated entirely to erotic fiction, which Maxwell calls the 'smut hut'. Maxwell told the Guardian that she thinks sexism, as well as 'snobbery and bias', is stopping these books, that are mainly read by women, from being as respected as they should be. 'I think there's an inherent misogyny around it. A lot of the time, the sorts of things that women like across arts and culture tends to get discounted. These books are about the female perspective and female gaze when most media is through the male gaze,' Maxwell said. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Saucy Books (@saucybooks) Saucy Books is open at 232 Westbourne Park Road, W11 1EP now. Yungblud is opening a new music venue in central London.
The Independent
6 days ago
- Business
- The Independent
Bloomsbury profits on track amid strong Sarah J Maas sales
Publisher Bloomsbury has said it is on track to meet market expectations as it hailed strong sales of the latest book by Sarah J Maas. The Harry Potter publisher said it is expected to reveal a rise in profits for the current financial year. The London-listed firm said it is on track to perform in line with market guidance, which has projected a pre-tax profit of £41.6 million for the year to February 2026. It comes after the company saw profits slip 22% to £32.5 million in the previous financial year. Industry analysts currently expect the business to reveal a fall in revenues to £335.9 million this year, compared with £361 million a year earlier. On Tuesday, Bloomsbury pointed to positive sales in its consumer division, highlighting strong sales of the paperback of House Of Flame And Shadow by Ms Maas in the UK and US, after its release in June. It also indicated it hopes for further positive sales from the launch of JK Rowling's Pocket Potter series next month, adding that it has a 'strong' list of further releases for the rest of the year. Bloomsbury said it is continuing with the integration of the recently acquired Rowman & Littlefield business into its non-consumer division. The company said it is making progress with its growth strategy launched last year. It said: 'We continue to execute our Bloomsbury 2030 vision focused on our growth, portfolio and people. 'The resilience of our business created through the portfolio of portfolios strategy underpins the confidence our Board has in the future.'
Daily Mail
12-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Why Gen Z is obsessed with reading dragon porn
Daily Mail journalists select and curate the products that feature on our site. If you make a purchase via links on this page we will earn commission - learn more Gen Z: Keep it down, I'm reading my book. Boomer: You've actually put down your phone? My new romantasy read – Onyx Storm by 44-year-old Rebecca Yarros – has me in a chokehold. Romantasy? Like Aragorn and Arwen's love story in The Lord Of The Rings? Nah, it's 527 pages of hot dragon-rider sex that topped both The Sunday Times and The New York Times bestseller lists. You're reading dragon porn? Everyone is. #Romantasy has more than a billion tagged posts on TikTok. So long, J K Rowling; hello, randy reptiles. It's not just dragons – sales of 75 million steamy fairy novels made Sarah J Maas, 39, the world's top-selling author of 2024. I saw that she was on The Times' bestselling authors list last year, and agreed with the commenter who wrote: 'Horny Hobbits! What on Middle Earth?' Laugh away, but romance sales have more than doubled since 2020. It's now the world's most popular genre. We all enjoy a good love story. It's about spice, not love. A literary agent told The Guardian: 'The steamier the sex, the better a book does.' I read Jilly Cooper's Rivals. Never seen the word c**k so often in one book. Lame. Bookfluencer Tierney Page would give it three at best on the spice-ometer. Isn't that the flavour scale at Nando's? It's a ranking of a book's smuttiness. So five chillies means full-on bonking? Five chillies is for books that are 'cooked', 'unhinged' and 'taboo', Page says. Dare I ask what qualifies? Dream lovers: romance (and romantasy) books are huge among Gen Z Try Taming Seraphine by Gigi Styx. It has a two-page list of triggers, from BDSM and bondage to knife play and exhibitionism. What would Jilly think? Makes Rupert Campbell-Black and his, erm, 'baseball bat' seem ideal boyfriend material. The hitman love interest is described as 'sexy as hell' and 'pant-melting'. The latter sounds more like an iron setting than a character description. One of the book's most popular quotes shared on TikTok is: 'I've killed two of the most important people in my life for you… Because I love you…' My idea of romance is more 'flowers and chocolates' than 'I'll take out my entire family to prove my devotion.' Fair. Maybe have a browse of West London's Saucy Books instead. Let me guess: Hugh Grant's store from Notting Hill has been turned into a sex shop? It's London's first romance-only bookshop, launched last month by 38-year-old Sarah Maxwell. They should have called it Randy Elf On A Shelf. TikTok sisters Avie and Jazzi's tour of the store hit 200,000 views, with shoppers loving its 'Smut Hut'. I imagine that'll cause some issues when people search it on Google Maps. It's a section for the store's most erotic titles, BBC News reported, arranged into sub-sections like 'Enemies To Lovers'. Aren't you lot embarrassed to read this stuff in public? Obvs not. Saucy Books is so popular it sells tickets with customer time slots. I was so mortified reading Fifty Shades at the beach I hid it under Orwell's 1984. Surveillance, submission, a guy obsessed with control: TBH they're not that different. If everyone's reading porn in public, maybe I'll cash in. In fact, a spicy rewrite of a classic novel is already simmering. Jane Eyrotic?
CNET
09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- CNET
Prime Day Deal: Score the First 3 ACOTAR Audiobooks for Free Through Audible
You've likely heard of the Court of Thorns and Roses best-selling fantasy series by Sarah J. Maas, also known as ACOTAR. If you haven't read it yet but are wondering what all the online memes and references are about, now's the perfect chance to learn... for free. Right now, Amazon Prime Day is offering huge savings on thousands of products and services, including three free months of Premium Plus when you sign up for Audible. With this limited-time offer, you'll also get one free monthly credit to purchase any premium selection title in Audible's extensive catalog. After three months, your subscription will auto-renew at $14.95 per month, which you can cancel anytime. With 4.6 stars out of nearly 290,000 on Amazon and over 3.8 million ratings on Goodreads -- yes, you read that right -- almost 4 million -- it's clear that many readers enjoyed this action-packed series of faerie lore. The ACOTAR series currently includes five books, meaning you can download and listen to the first three for free. And trust me, you won't want to stop after the first book. Audible offers over one million titles and 130 audiobook genres to listen to. Multiple membership tier options are available, starting with the cheapest Plus plan ($7.95 per month) and ending with the Premium Plus Annual Plan ($229.50 per year). Audible Premium Plus is the platform's most common plan. If anything, take advantage of this great Prime Day deal and dive into the fascinating world of ACOTAR for my sake. I can't be the only one with unwarranted AI "thirst traps" of Rhysand and the Bat Boys clogging up my social media feeds. Please. For more amazing discounts, check out the best Prime Day Deals under $25 or the best anti-Prime Day sales from retailers like Best Buy and Walmart. Why this deal matters Many of us don't have the time to actually sit down and read books like we'd prefer. Listening to audiobooks is a fantastic alternative. It allows you to learn, stimulate your brain and stay in the know about popular titles while completing other tasks like driving, cleaning, working or exercising -- and you can start for free today.
Irish Times
15-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
The rise of romantasy: Escapist books become more popular as real-world challenges loom
You're all alone. Abandoned, scared and defenceless. Then a tall, dark, handsome and magical stranger enters – and you're swept up in an exciting adventure. Swept up, that is, until you close the pages of the book before you. Romantasy – a blend of romance and fantasy – is the term that has been given to the rapidly rising literary genre that is taking over bookshelves here and abroad. Authors including Sarah J Maas and Fourth Wing writer Rebecca Yarros are queens of the genre, netting sales in the millions across the globe – Yarros's new novel Onyx Storm sold 2.7 million copies in its first week of sales in January – but Irish authors are also part of the literary trend, with names such as Catherine Doyle, Sarah Rees Brennan and Jessica Thorne sealing deals for romantasy novels with international publishing houses. In romantasy fiction, human heroines are often plunged into fantastical realms, where faeries, vampires and magical beings rule, and love blossoms between unlikely characters and in thrilling circumstances. Often, the suitor is older or immortal, while the usually very young heroine tends to be capable (though they may not know it), beautiful (though they may not realise it), and forced to take on death-defying challenges (almost always). What's the appeal of such fiction for readers? 'It's wish fulfilment,' says Mila Taylor (37) a Dublin -based librarian who hosts the Wisteria romantasy book club in Dundrum Library. 'It's living a greater, better, more exciting life. Another thing you see in a lot of romantasy books is not only romance, but a sense of friendship, loyalty and community.' READ MORE 'It's taking off, even among people who don't read,' says Nikki Shields (37) a corporate marketer who is a member of the Wisteria book club. 'Lots of people are getting into it. Romantasy is its own world. It follows normal life – it's somewhat realistic – but there's a magical element. There are different elements of folklore, it manages to combine old worlds and new worlds without it seeming ridiculous.' Nikki Shields: 'Romantasy is somewhat realistic but there's a magical element.' Photograph Nick Bradshaw With a large following among female readers in their 20s through to their 40s, romantasy also appeals to teenagers who may have come to the genre through their enjoyment of young adult novels such as Twilight by Stephenie Meyer or Leah Bardugo's Shadow and Bone fantasy series. 'Most of my reading right now is in the romantasy genre,' says Chloe Horgan (16), from Dublin. 'It's very popular with people my age. The two genres mixed together add layers to the story, plus most of the time the stories tend to be very easy to read.' Around the country, bookshops are creating new sections devoted to the romantasy genre. In the Dubray bookshop in Rathmines, Dublin, bookseller Molly O'Neill shows me to their section devoted to romantasy and fantasy fiction. 'When I'm in meetings on Zoom with representatives from publishers and they're trying to sell us the books for three months from now, they are saying the word romantasy a lot,' O'Neill says. 'I'm hearing it more and more, especially in young adult fiction and fantasy.' The romantasy section of the Eason bookshop on O'Connell Street, Dublin As a fan of romantasy herself, how did she get into the genre? 'I've always read fantasy,' she says. 'My sister had some of the Sarah J Maas books so I started reading them. Sarah J Maas isn't exactly high literature but I will read all of her. The Cruel Prince by Holly Black is another classic in the genre. It's quintessential romantasy.' We pause by a shelf featuring a new romantasy bestseller from Galway author Catherine Doyle entitled The Dagger and the Flame. 'There's a group of thieves and a group of assassins and it's a Romeo and Juliet-type story,' O'Neill says, describing 17-year-old heroine Seraphine and her love interest Ransom, heir to the Order of Daggers. What did she think of the plot? 'I wouldn't forgive him for some of the stuff he does. The male characters in romantasy tend to be very tortured. It's a grumpy sunshine kind of thing, but the girls are always the sunshine and the man is always the grumpy.' Catherine Doyle, Galway author of romantasy bestseller The Dagger and the Flame Grumpy sunshine? That's a BookTok term, referring to a love story where one character is dark and brooding, and the other cheerily optimistic. It's part of a shorthand often used online on Reddit, Goodreads and StoryGraph alongside others that are sometimes easy to understand ('love triangle'), and sometimes require a certain leap of the imagination ('reverse harem' is where the woman character has many male lovers). For younger readers in particular, BookTok and Bookstagram – the book-loving corner of Instagram – play a large role in driving sales and sparking interest. Books are given 'spice' ratings online to indicate how much explicit sexual content is in them. On BookTok, popular posters will merrily spend whole videos unpacking the amount of 'spice' in romantasy novels. For readers new to the genre, the surprise may lie in discovering how conservative many of the offerings actually are. Yes, it's true there are plenty of longing looks cast in A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas, but her human heroine Feyre Archeron (19) spends most of the first novel in the series chastely mooning over the 'muscled midriff' of her masked suitor Tamlin, a High Fae and High Lord of the Spring Court who can transform into a beast. [ From the archive: Sarah J Maas: 'Just because you have great hair doesn't mean you can't kick ass' Opens in new window ] In The Cruel Prince by Holly Black, a romantasy that follows the adventures of Jude who is brought up in the faerie world after her human parents are murdered, the pace of the action would make Jane Austen look almost racy. Or as one Reddit user puts it: 'it's low/almost no spice.' Many romantasy novels are grounded under the wider category heading of young adult fiction, and many romantasy authors, like Catherine Doyle, started off writing for young adults. Doyle began writing romantasy during Covid, when she penned a trilogy with her sister-in-law Katherine Webber called Twin Crowns. 'It's about a witch and a princess separated at birth. We wrote it for the love of the genre and as a bright spot during the pandemic. It turns out we were tapping into something that publishers were crying out for. We were very fortunate to sell Twin Crowns to 20 different foreign publishers at a time when everyone was looking for light, escapist fantasy.' [ Catherine Doyle: 'Death and loss do exist in the world of children, so I never try to shy away from them' Opens in new window ] In Doyle's opinion, the reason the romantasy genre has become so successful is because it plays off classic fairytale tropes readers have grown up loving. 'Even as adult readers so many of us never lose that grá for whimsical, childlike concepts,' Doyle says. 'Magic, adventure and enchantment continue to appeal, romantasy just makes them more accessible to us.' Escapist literature may also be becoming more popular as real-world challenges – from job insecurities to the realities of emigration or housing issues – loom for a new generation of readers. Reality biting? Burying your head in a romantasy novel might seem a solid option. When Mila Taylor first arrived in Ireland in the early 2000s from Poland with her family, fiction was an important refuge for her as a lonely teenager struggling to find her way. Librarian Mila Taylor, founder of the Wisteria book club at Dundrum Library. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw 'I joined fifth year in Tullow Community School in Carlow. It was a huge adjustment because I was one of the few non-Irish people there,' she says. 'I found my group of people in the migrant group mostly and we all loved fantasy. I went on to university, I started meeting people, and going to book clubs. Then I met my wife, who is a writer. And an opening came up in the council in the library section so I moved: I did the degree and became a librarian.' Now a librarian with Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, Taylor founded the Wisteria book club in March in part because she wanted to nurture readers who may crave the community that books can offer. She is protective of the romantasy genre, as she believes it often comes in for unfair criticism from highbrow readers who dismiss it as 'popcorn fiction' without ever bothering to read it. As with women's literature in the 1990s, there's a sense that women are being scorned for their reading tastes. This, she says, is unfair. 'Fiction helps you develop empathy,' she says. 'It helps you look at things from a different point of view. Romantasy has that extra something to it that makes it more wish fulfilment, but also fun. It's already becoming mainstream and hopefully more accepted.' Nikki Shields believes the genre is ephemeral but enjoyable, and maybe that's the point. 'I wouldn't be reading them the whole time,' she says. 'I don't like that they all blend into one, to a degree. I find some of them are quite lazy in their writing and ideation because they're just trying to tap into something that's a popular scene. But I enjoy reading them while I'm reading them. They're otherworldly.' Perhaps the genre's very simplicity is also its strength: it has the capacity to bind readers together and build community. In the United States, fans in their thousands attend literary gatherings to have a chance to be close to romantasy stars like Yarros and Maas. Just as with Twilight and Harry Potter, there are midnight release parties for books and costumes for Halloween based on iconic characters such as Feyre Archeron. For fans of the genre, these literary gatherings and parties are invaluable in a world where so many are isolated online. For Taylor, her love of romantasy and fantasy fiction has given her both a career and a community. Having had a tough start in Ireland in the 2000s, is she in a good place in life now? 'I'm in a very happy place,' she says. 'A love of stories and books is what got me here.'
