What is Romantasy and How It Has Changed the Fantasy Genre?

The recent popularity of romantic fantasy novels, or better known as romantasy novels, has taken over the book world. And it has helped propel romantasy novels to the top of the charts. Which is why we will be discussing what is romantasy and how It has changed the fantasy genre.

What is Romantasy?

Romantasy is a romance fantasy novel and it is a subgenre of fantasy where the plot is driven by romance. The adventure and the dragons are taking a back seat to the romance. That changes your typical fantasy novel from targeting a male audience to a female audience.

And it has taken off. It is a new twist to a popular and common genre that has had a lot of success in the past decade. Sarah J. Mass has come to define this subgenre with her popular series A Court of Thorn and Roses series.

New Records Set by Romantasy Novels

Mass’ latest novel House of Flame and Shadow from the Crescent City series became the third fastest selling fantasy novel with over 44,000 copies sold in the first week. The novel that sits at the top of that record was published last year.

Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros set a new record with over 57,000 copies sold in the first week in November. It is the second book in The Empyrean series and what makes this interesting is that both books were released in 2023. The third novel is almost guaranteed to shatter the record set by Yarros.

Setting a record is an amazing feat and it is hard to grasp that two of the three fasting selling fantasy novels were published in the past three months. What’s even crazier is that the success of Sarah J. Maas has her publishing company Bloomsbury to update their estimated profit outlook for 2024, just several weeks after Maas’ latest novel.

All of Maas’ novels have been selling more, not just one novel. Bloomsbury also published the Harry Potter series which is also a reason why Maas has been getting comparisons to J K Rowling. I do think Rebecca Yarros will be in the conversation but Maas has so many books out already that closing that gap will be almost impossible.

The Future of Fantasy Novels

How does this affect the fantasy genre you might ask? I believe you will see a lot more romantasy novels being published over the next decade or so. And just like any other genre or subgenre, the hype will die down.

These novels are thriving because they are good. These authors are talented. And yes, Tik Tok has helped push these books to the top of the bestseller lists. But a novel has to be good for it do well because at the end of the day, books thrive by recommendations.

You will see a lot of books that aren’t good but there will also be new authors that are good and have their own spins on the subgenre. But ultimately, the fantasy genre has been around for a long time and we will always have authors write fantasy novels that focus on the adventure aspect.

Conclusion

That is all for our discussion of the romantasy genre. It has had a successful 2023 and a great start in 2024! What do you make of this recent trend and the popularity of this subgenre? Let us know in the comments below!

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