I like fantasy. I like romance. But I am not a young adult. I am not interested in one more teenage girl with dead parents going to magic school, faerie court or dragon training. Of the 20 “Romantasy” nominees on the Goodreads Choice Awards, I’ve read “A Dawn of Onyx” and “The Hanging City,” the only grown-up books on that list. I Dnf’d “Fourth Wing,” because FOMO, but not my jam.
What possible distinction is there between “Romantasy” and “YA Fantasy?” Who is writing for us olds?
by Kit3399
12 Comments
Romantasy often includes explicit sex scenes and YA is written for minors between the ages of 12 and 18 so no, it’s not YA. There can certainly by YA romantasy but a lot of it is not for children
Romantasy – [Morning Glory Milking Farm]
YA Fantasy – **NOT** [Morning Glory Milking Farm]
**EDIT**: I think YA is a misnomer because most people think YA = Teenagers, but a young adult is like 18~22.
Try something in the [Liaden_universe](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liaden_universe) it mixes space opera with fantasy and romance.
There are multiple free ebooks on both Amazon or Baen.com, many libraries carry them as well.
No. Same reason why horror isnt just another name adults. Goosebumps is a whole diffrent ball park from gone to see the river man.
Ya is pretty much teen lit. Romantsy can be very very smutty so no.
If you’re looking for Romantasy with older lead characters, T Kingfisher’s World of the White Rat books – specifically the Paladin novels – are absolutely spot on. Tender, sweet, funny and very real.
ETA: this is quite a common request over on r/Romantasy so there are some good threads with lots of recommendations.
The writing quality and complexity is similar to YA, but it’ll include a lot of pornographic passages.
Romantasy is just fantasy with romance focus. It can be either adult or ya. It’s a label to distinguish it from other fantasy subcategories such as epic fantasy
Sarah J. Maas would fit into what you’re looking for. She has several series out right now and while most of them are about young women with dead parents doing xyz (faerie court, investigating a murder by a demon, being the king’s assassin) they’re smutty af so definitely not YA.
Romantasy is just romance with a fantasy backdrop. They’re adult. Women can write adult books. I know it’s shocking, but women can.
There is YA and adult that fit it, just like there is for scifi, mystery and fantasy. It’s similar to paranormal romance but with more epic fantasy elements.
You basically have to ignore goodreads on this. (they are owned by amazon) so this award is just another way to push the same romantasy that already gets pushed on tiktok.
Its why there is romantasy + fantasy + ya, so these megasellers dont cannibalize each other in the same category.
if you’ve ever seen one of these images with a bookcover and arrows with tropes pointing to it, thats what goodreads tries to sell – fourth wing was sold like this too, apparently it’s”Hunger games + Harry Potter + dragons!!! + enemy to lovers + found family”.
If you want to read anything else I recommend either using another site or use the lists and groups that are user created.
you want the r/fantasyromance subreddit, the youngest MC I have there is 25.
> I am not interested in one more teenage girl with dead parents going to magic school, faerie court or dragon training.
You forgot to mention that despite the dead parents and other disadvantages she turns out to be super special and powerful and of course she gets the hot guy.
Romantasy is supposed to be more new adult leaning (that’s what I heard, I’m not a romance reader) with more explicit scenes. But I think the problem is, that it’s currently a very hyped trend in the genre, so everything that sort of fits the bill gets that label.