I really love Romantasy, it's just like most isn't good. Neither a good fantasy, nor a good romance, and while I like sex scenes too, this "is there spice in it??" is so ... overly sexual and horny like a teenager, overlooking every other part of a story.

I want the genre to improve because I do think, if written well, a romance can greatly enhance a story and develop its characters. However, it seems like most romantasy authors are only inspired by other romantasy authors, and readers aren't interested in books that don't fit the weirdly specific criteria of such novels. The community has become an ouroboros where it's seemingly impossible for new ideas to flourish. It also feels like a lot of people prefer romantasy because they believe it'll elevate them as readers above those who just read straightforward erotica, which is ironic because there is such an emphasis on "spicy" content in romantasy books.

Let's not forget the role the publishing industry plays in this whole discussion. We all know that "New York Times Bestseller" isn't so much a statement of quality as of quantity and you would think, with so many talented people in the book community disliking the current state of romantasy or romantasy in general, some authors would have tried to change the status quo, bringing some new and original ideas into the genre. Yet, such stories, new and original, are nowhere in sight -- because what sells right now are mislabeled enemies-to-lovers, he-falls-first, strong-female-lead, and so on and so forth. Search engines work with keywords, keywords like tropes that get asigned to books making them easier to find in an endless flood of already existing books, ironicly making them also less and less distinct from each other in the process. And Booktok has become a review page, a place of information for the curious reader as well as the curious publisher searching for the next big thing to make money of, for better or worse (worse, honestly. There is no better, just worse). No matter what they might say on their homepages, the publishing industry doesn't care about supporting good work, original ideas and skillful craft. They care about keeping their companies afloat. So, I believe, it is up to us, the readers, to expect more from the books we "waste" our time on, to never stop critizing authors and their pieces, to support what we love and punish what we deem bad by not spending any money on it. To keep ranting and hoping, praying that some of these franchises just silently fade away into nothingness. Or go out with a bang, I don't care, really, as long as we're finally rid of them. So, thanks for the rant, can't agree more, romantasy is a stagnant body of water that has started to rot a while ago. Time to move on to the next puddle.

8:45 agreed, 100% it’s a unrealistic standard for men.

Thank you for this. As someone who loves historical fantasy with romance in it (that’s what I write) I hate this genre. It just feels like such a cash grab. Edit: people are sending you death threats for your opinions? I’m not surprised, but I am disgusted.

As a fantasy reader, I respect anyone's right to enjoy the romance genre but it seems like so many of the mainstream "fantasy" novels aimed at women/girls are just cliched romance in drag as fantasy, designed only to cater to shipping. Never mind the atrocious romanticisation of ab*sive relationships that goes on.

i firmly believe that romantasy is a subgenre of romance, not of fantasy. the main plot is the romance, the writing style tends to resemble the average romance more than fantasy, it's most common flaws tend to be the same as romance's most common flaws (ex: the plot and world and characters outside of the main couple tend to be. lackluster. which is in my opinion just an extension of how one of the most common stumbles for a romance author is the plot outside of the main couple being incredibly contrived and flimsy). like, i think my annoyance with romantasy would go down at least *a little bit* if it were shelved with romance rather than sjm taking up almost an entire bookcase in the fantasy section, and if people stopped putting it in their "fantasy" recommendation lists. it's romance with a heavy fantasy element rather than fantasy with a heavy romance element. and some romantasy fans have tried to say that people who think romantasy isn't fantasy just have internalized misogyny and don't think books written by women can be categorized as fantasy. which (1) self report lmao. why do you think that something being romance makes it lesser? (2) i've read plenty of fantasy written by women, plenty of fantasy with a heavy romance element, and plenty of fantasy with a heavy romance element written by women that i would NOT characterize as romantasy. and i also don't think romantasy is just "any fantasy book i don't like". no, i don't like basically any romantasy book, but there are again plenty of bad fantasy books written by women with a heavy romance plot that i wouldn't consider romantasy, just shitty fantasy. this is why i think people who really like fantasy but not romance (such as myself) tend to dislike romantasy books while people who really like romance but not fantasy or especially people who really like both tend to enjoy them. because they're not fantasy, they're romance, so if you don't really enjoy romance you're probably not going to like them.

There's this book I pulled out of the shelf by chance at a bookstore that also has a reading area for certain uncovered books. It's Hexologist by Josiah Bancroft. The summary is hilarious "The king would like to be baked into a cake" and I just went with it. Sat down and read it. It got a lovely established married couple since the first 20 pages and they both goes on this journey to investigate what has plagued the king to have such delusions. They joked about their singed carpet. Quote and jokes with eachother while the husband is cooking and the wife is checking the mails if there's anything from the royals. My one rule about picking up a book for my reading comfort is that it must be written in "Third Person perspective". I get turned off and sour when the book just goes 'I ran to him' instead of 'With no hesitation in her steps, she broke off to his awaiting embrace'

the cupcakke remix took me out lmao

Romantasy is basically a creepy guy forcing himself on a doormat woman, and lots of smut. And it's almost always badly written. It's fanfiction that shouldn't have been published outside of AO3.

I'm not one for slow-burn for the most part but I absolutely despise the main couple fighting/breaking up as a way to add tension to the story. Why can't they get together at a believable pace but also stay together and have a healthy relationship for the rest of the book/series? With maybe the exception of unavoidable external forces keeping them apart. The fantasy part could easily help provide any sort of tension or challenges to overcome (preferably together). And that's the other part - it's so hard to find mature couples represented where they actually are equal partners and have a healthy relationship dynamic.

This video was funny, entertaining and well put together, I feel like I needed to see this so thank youu🤣 . Also loving the Zuko love in the video, Iroh and him were my absolute favourite characters❤️ imagine if Zuko and Katara were actually end game 😭

the age gap is so weird!!! like when the 500 years old characters are beefing with Nesta who is like 20.... get help yall

Emma (2020) is absolutely criminally underrated and in my mind THE spiritual successor to P&P (2005)! If you loved this one, try Northanger Abbey (2007) too-it’a also atmospherically shot with silly humor and wonderful chemistry between the leads (a brilliantly-cast Felicity Jones & JJ Feild), not to mention a gorgeous score!

As a late millennial woman who began reading with classic 90s/2000s fantasy authors (many of them women, like Diana Wynne Jones & Sherwood Smith), then went through my teens during the 2010s YA boom, I feel a lot of the frustration you describe at seeing patch-work tropes held together by soulless bad writing & barebones worldbuilding-precisely because there’s so many stellar examples of those same tropes being done well that I remember from before BookTok-driven publishing. It’s absolutely galling to think of all the money & resources going into churning out hardback, illustrated special editions of all these books that I seriously doubt people, even folks who enjoyed them, will want to re-read.

I feel like romantasy would be more bearable for me personally if the love interest was actually swoon-worthy. Like… maybe someone who is compassionate, or likes surprising you with breakfast in the morning, or sings while folding laundry, or gets emotional over puppies, or SOME amount of emotional intelligence. Or if we want dark romance, imagine a partner who will swing a sword FOR you, not AT you. Someone who tears apart your enemies if you’ll only give the word. Someone who is dark and terrifying but will always value their partner’s consent. There are a lot of different ways for a romantic partner to be sexy, but acting like a douchebag is, IMHO, not one of them.

Perhaps as you grow older, your tastes change quite a bit, but I used to be a big romantasy reader a few years ago. Yet recently every time I try to pick up a romantasy book, it’s an automatic DNF due to terrible writing, no plot, and an overwhelming amount of smut that has no purpose to the story. I really don’t understand why these books are getting published in the first place. It’s all tropes and no substance. A shame really.

This video hits all the points I've been feeling lately! As a long-time fantasy reader, it really irks me, the failed potential. Guess I'll go reread Kristin Cashore's Graceling realm books again...

I don't have a tiktok and I work at a bookstore, and I came across a few copies of Fourth Wing in ths fantasy sectio, drawn in by the cover and the general premise. So i bought it, thinking i was getting a high fantasy story with a bit of romance. No big deal. I had to force myself to finish the book because i was so disappointed fr. The worldbuilding, the plot holes, how the main character's disability was portrayed (aka conveniently disappears/gets toned down for certain plot points, also the ableist rhetoric of "if you push through it you'll get better and stronger!"), the modern "how do you do fellow kids" slang in a high fantasy setting, and not as much focus on the dragons than the "romance" (is it even enemies to lovers romance if the main character is making googoo eyes at the love interest from the get-go?) Now I've kinda been avoiding fantasy books bc so many end up being romantasy instead. I think I'll stick to horror for now lmaoo

Ahhhhh I love love this video but please don’t lump Roman from Divine Rivals with the rest of them. I mainly read classic/adult fantasy but I’ve given a few YA books a hate-skim-read and DR actually kinda got me out of a reading slump. So refreshing to see a love interest who was actually kind and sacrificial and dark-haired but NOT broody.

You know what else sucks? If you tell someone you didn’t like the first book of a romantasy series, they tell you the sequel is better. How about the writer make something that can stand on its own first?? I am not wasting my time on a romance if you’re gonna make them split by the sequel in favor of the rapist!

You more than earned a sub!! Put so much into words that I haven't been able to articulate! also 'bullying-to-babygirl' IS SO ACCURATE

I don’t really mind that romantasy readers like literotica, I just wish it was better advertised. Like read porn or whatever but please tell me if I’m about to read porn if I pick up this book

People are choosing their romantasy books the way people pick videos on the hub - tropes and intensity for a quick nut. What happened to Mills n Boone and 3rotica as a genre? Like. If its 3rotica I want it to be made obvious so I don't pick it up thinking it's a fantasy with a nice side-romance.

Do not give booktok girlies access to American Psycho. They would absolutely abuse that book.

I agree with everything said in this video. Especially the enemies to lovers trope…. I loved it so much because it was as good as none existing from my youth to 2016. It was a trope mostly alive in the fanon but not in the canon and it’s part of what made it so good. But now there’s NO tension or real yearning or real "will they, won't they" questioning if they ever will come together or not. Now it's always a dark-haired kinda abusive dude forcing himself on a constantly horny brain dead woman. And everything surrounds sex sex sex.

i have a book recommendation: I am reading the liveship traders triology by robin hobb currently. it is from the late 90s so its well before the tiktok romantasy glaze. it is part of a high fantasy series with a strong plot, strong world building, great character work, and with a hint of romance in the background. i totally reccomend robin hobb her writing is like the antithesis of tiktok romantasy.

this was like a kiss on the forehead

I hate the fact that nowadays popular books are based on tropes. Tropes only work in fanfiction! Especially something like enemies to lovers Also, 2000 years old vampire/demon/dragon always falls in love with a teenager🤪 after he tries to kill/manipulate/abuse her

This video hits so many good points! It makes me want to write romantasy books that defy the tropes. For example, I had an idea for a story about a wise old prophetess who believes her granddaughter is destined to be the chosen one, and marry the king of the fae and bring magic back into the human realm. But when the fae king comes to collect his bride, he chooses the grandma instead of the granddaughter, because he wants someone wise and kind to rule by his side. The grandma then has to prepare herself for being a queen and reconcile her relationship with her granddaughter, who is upset at her destiny being stolen.

I will take this opportunity to request actually good fantasy romance. Please reply to this comment with your recs

It’s insane how many talented authors get buried in the fantasy sections at stores now.

The love interests have edges… edges of cardboard…

I find it kinda frustrating that ACOTAR is so popular, while Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries (a far better book, IMO) isn't talked about as much

I dont mind romantasy existing but it irritates me to no end when i try to find high fantasy books and what im met with is 700 "a thing of x and y" books. same with booktok describing them as great fantasy novels and people asking "is there spice" under ever book rec

it's so annoying seeing the booktok girlies who read only romance smut doing a "I read nothing but fantasy for a week" videos and its literally the exact same as what they normally read but with magic and weird names.

As someone currently writing a more lighthearted romantasy novel with no intended smut (Maaaybe a fade-to-black scene but that would be it), no actual love triangle, an MMC who’s very much NOT a brooding asshole by any sense and who gets along pretty much immediately with the shy FMC who enjoys gardening and reading, videos like this make me half worry it won’t get picked up at all because that’s apparently the exact opposite of what readers want and half hopeful that people are tired enough of the same thing that it’ll at least have a shot at being published. >_>

What a beautifuuul accent ❤ where are you from? Do you already heard about darkromance books? I think it might be a good theme for a video, is really problematic. Grettings from Brasil 🤗🫶

Honestly, I loved Acotar, but my main problem with the books was the fact that every single character (except for the villains) were Mary Sue's. Feyre's only flaw was that she couldn't read, Rhys kept some secrets, Cassian could be a bit bitchy, Azriel was a hopeless romantic, Mor had secrets too, and Amren...I don't even think she had any flaws. SJM Only gives flaws to characters that she wants you to hate on, propose. I was so damn shocked when Nesta (one of the most troubled characters) Actually had flaws. In my opinion, if you can't make a good character with flaws than you need to up your writing game.

Romantasy gets on my last nerve. Not the fact that these books exist, because people can write whatever they want. It's the fact that they are misleading. These books are just smut disguised as "romance" and "fantasy. Lust is not romance. If you want to read that kind of content go ahead but don't pretend it's something else. Giving people wings or having dragons in your story is not enough to make it anything else than a discounted fantasy.

What upsets me the most about romantasy is the fact that the main fanbase of romantasy is formed by the same people who shames other people for, I dunno, wanting pretty and feminine female characters in videogames and comic books, calling them "incels", "mysoginists", "sexists"... The hypocrisy of some people, SMH

Girl we have the same opinion on everything hahha. Btw, are you German?

If romantasy was sold as a subgenre of romance FIRST i wouldn't have as much of an issue with it. Romance books, depending on their variety, can include very strange, implausible, imbalanced relationships as well as very fluffy surface level sugar and vanilla stuff. But FANTASY and speculative fiction at large has always been about exploring an idea and the sense of awe, and exploring new worlds and political adventure plots. Im so tiredddd.

Ja, seh ich prinzipiell alles ähnlich. War vor ein paar Jahren auch ganz vorne mit dabei, was YA fantasy und dann etwas später romantasy etc. angeht, weil ich zuvor von meiner Depression 5 Jahre vom Lesen abgehalten wurde. Als Wiedereinstieg war das genial. Konnte mich in eine andere Welt flüchten, neue Lieblingscharaktere finden und alles war super einfach zu lesen. Will jetzt auch nicht so tun, als hätte ich damals nicht ACOTAR gefeiert lol Heute sieht das bisschen anders aus wieder. Der Hype ist weg, alles ist sich viel zu ähnlich, um mir noch groß excitement zu geben oder schon von vorne herein so unfassbar schlecht geschrieben (*cough*From Blood and Ash*cough*), dass ich es nicht Mal im Ansatz ernst nehmen kann. ABER! hätte ich diese ganze seichte Kost nicht an diesem Punkt in meinem Leben gefunden, würde ich jetzt wahrscheinlich überhaupt nicht mehr lesen und hätte so, so viele wirklich tolle Sachen verpasst. Im Leben hätte ich nicht nochmal mit Dune angefangen z.B. oder hätte iwie 6000 Seiten oder was ORV gelesen 😂 Schon gar nicht wär ich über 2ha gestolpert oder Captive Prince (so viel besser als Cruel Prince) oder Nan Chan oder The Black Jewels oder Brom und und und. Von daher bin ich trotzdem froh, dass solche Sachen existieren, denn ich glaube, es geht vielen ähnlich wie mir und sie finden darin eine Art Sprungbett zu Besserem. Hab jetzt sogar trotzdem mal Fourth Wing angefangen weil ich einfach Bock auf ne dumme Story mit Drachen hatte, die ich vorm Einschlafen lesen kann, ohne viel Nachdenken zu müssen 😭🙌🏻

i have a friend who really enjoys this type of books and i feel kind of bad when she recommends them to me because i don't want to tell her that i find them pretty boring

This is such a nice video! Your channel deserves more recognition!

Great video! I hope your channel grows, I would definitely watch more of your opinions!

the only book on here i'd go to bat for is TCP. on the enemies to lovers section, idk if you simply forgot or if the information was revealed in the sequels, but the reason Cardan and his friends antagonize Jude is because Locke led his friends to believe that he liked her, implying that she's the reason why he and Nicasia broke up (spoiler: he was actually with Taryn, Jude's twin). the other books deserve to be put in a shredder though (sans Divine Rivals because i actually haven't heard of it).

I definitely get more out of the artwork used to market these books than the actual books themselves. The artists put more effort into the world than the damn authors do.

I think the two main problems here are: 1. Marketing. This is the big one. There's nothing wrong with a book being mostly romance and not much else (there's a whole genre for that in fact!) but these kinds of books shouldn't be recommended to people who are mostly in it for the fantasy element, because the fantasy stuff is usually just set dressing for the romance plot. We need a distinction between 'fantasy with a romantic subplot' and 'romance in a fantasy setting'. 2. Writers trying to do two things at once and not really succeeding at either. I think a lot of the authors you mentioned really just want to write a steamy romance with elves or fairies or werewolves or whatever, but because they're writing in the romantasy genre, they feel obligated to include more plot/worldbuilding that they just don't care that much about. If they just embraced the fact that they didn't want to write a fantasy story, but a love story in a fantasy setting, they could concentrate entirely on the romance and (hopefully!) develop it a little better.