I love myself some fantasy romance but I can’t get away from this one thing that infuriates me, which is the male lead’s hotness being overdescribed.
Books that I might have otherwise enjoyed get *instantly* ruined for me when the narrator does this (Fourth Wing, Serpent and Dove, many others) and I guess there’s no way for me to filter it out but to ask specifically for books that don’t have this. It especially annoys me when the two main characters are supposed to be enemies to lovers, or the MC supposedly hates the ML, but for some reason can’t stop thinking about how scorching hot he is. IMO it hampers romantic development and makes their love feel shallow.
Examples of books I enjoyed include Poison Study, Radiance, Master of Crows, and the Emperor’s Edge series. The MLs’ physical features are either rarely described or they’re just average looking people, and the charm comes from their actions/speech, if you get what I mean. Act hot not look hot or whatever.
(To be clear physical attraction/the ML being hot is ok, I just don’t want to be serenaded by descriptions of his godly features every other paragraph, and I want the actual romance to feel authentic beyond physical attraction. I would prefer if the physical attraction came after the romantic attraction even, like in Radiance, but that might be a hard ask.)
by juicygarlicbread
4 Comments
T Kingfisher is the way to go – Swordheart & the Paladin series for full on romance, Nettle & Bone for more of a subplot to the fantasy.
A Civil Campaign by Lois McMaster Bujold.
The main character is a 5ft-tall hunchback with lots of military experience, but he’s now entering two new battlefields – Politics and Romance.
Leads to one of the best (and funniest) public declarations of impending marriage right in front of an Emperor.
Lynn Flewelling’s Tamir Triad books have a wonderful slow build of a gradually evolving relationship as a subplot, with an additional layer of gender and class identity to take it further away from the typical tropes. Great books all round!
You’re reading romantacies not pure fantasy…