How The Term ‘Romantasy’ Is Misleading Readers

We’ve all heard it… X is the new ‘romantasy’ release of the year. If there’s a supernatural creature and romance, surely that means it’s Romantasy… especially if it has been written by a female author. But I beg to differ! Sometimes it’s just an epic fantasy book with a bit of romance… sometimes it’s a paranormal romance. As someone who started this blog way back in the golden age of YA Paranormal Romance, I think these genres are vastly different. I know the term ‘Paranormal Romance’ isn’t used in marketing anymore but I personally think it is just as relevant today as when Twilight released in the 2000s. Romantasy seems to have become an umbrella term to use widely to grab readers attention, but in doing so it actually misleads a lot of readers. There are three main issues I have with using the Romantasy label:

• Epic Fantasy books with a minor romance subplot are promoted as Romantasy
• Paranormal Romance books are promoted as Romantasy
• Romantasy books are all spicy

Romantasy Labels When It’s Epic Fantasy

I’ve seen epic fantasy that has a minimal amount of romance in there marketed and publicised as Romantasy. It may grab more readers attentions this way, but it that actually a good thing? It’s going to leave readers disappointed and leaving negative reviews because they’re picking up a book expecting one thing and getting another. I personally have fallen into this trap. I enjoy both Romantasy and Epic Fantasy books, but sometimes I’m in the mood for one over the other. I remember giving a very popular fantasy book a low rating, because I went into it expecting a fantastic romantic story just set in a fantasy world, but what I got was an in depth fantasy world with very little romance. I ended up rating it low, because of my expectations. I went in expecting one thing, and was sorely disappointed to find another. I will be trying this book again, as I’m sure I will enjoy it when my expectations are different, but I could have avoided this completely if my expectations had been correct the first time around.

Here’s 5 books I’ve seen promoted as Romantasy when they are in fact not. (Note: Some of these have not been promoted as Romantasy by the author or publisher; but more so the bookish community)

Is it Romantasy or is it a Paranormal Romance?

I mentioned this a little in the introduction of this post. I started this blog back when Paranormal Romance was very popular. I remember back then there being a lot of discussion over whether a book is a paranormal romance (PNR) or an urban fantasy and the resounding answer was if it’s plot first, romance second it is urban fantasy but if it is romance first, it’s paranormal romance. The similarity between then is that they were both set in this world. So in my experience and opinion, if a book is set in this world and focused on romance it is a PNR book. But now I see a lot of YA paranormal romance books being repackaged as ‘Romantasy’. For me, if it is set in a whole new world with new rules and romance is the main focus, then it’s a romantasy however if it’s set in our world… whether that be in the UK, Europe, America… and there is a fantastical creature, such as an angel or a vampire, it’s paranormal romance, it’s not Romantasy. But these are all getting coined as Romantasy which it making it hard for readers to actually figure out what it is they are reading. There’s a lot of readers who do not like epic fantasy worlds. They want fantastical creatures but integrated into out own world… in other words, a paranormal romance, but all of these books are getting mixed in with complex worlds with lots of world building and it’s not helping them to easily find what they want.

Here’s some recommendations of books I’ve seen promoted as ‘Romantasy’ but they’re actually Paranormal Romance

Romantasy Has To Have Spice…

I’ve left my biggest frustration to last. The idea that if a book is a Romantasy it has to have graphic sexual scenes included. This is just not true! Is this what is popular right now? Yes… but it’s not true. I came across a post in a Facebook bookish group last weekend where someone was asking for recommendations of some romantasy books with little to no spice. They explained that they love the romantasy genre but don’t want a graphic sex scene every 40 pages or so. The majority of the comments were people saying ‘you don’t like romantasy, you want epic fantasy’. You can have a romance centred book without graphic scenes. Romantasy or Romance is not synonymous with spice. And I hate that the book community doesn’t seem to see this. There are many romantasy books you can find that have little to no spice.

Here are a few recommendations of some Romantasy books with little to no spice.

This is in no way me hating on Romantasy. I love Romantasy… but I do think there are problems with misusing the term. I feel like all of these issues are detrimental to the book community. It’s making it harder for readers to find what they want. Some readers don’t want to read new things or things outside of their comfort zone because they know what they like. And I feel like using the Romantasy label in the way that we do is making it harder. It’s making people have to do a phenomenal amount of research before picking a book. There’s no way you can go to a romantasy section or a fantasy section of a bookstore and just trust what you’re going to find in it. It’s also making more people rate some of these books low rating, and it’s not about the book, it’s about the expectations going in and how people are not getting that.

What do you think about the use of Romantasy? Do you think it’s misleading or do you love all uses of this new term?