Romance and fantasy have always paired well, but it really wasn’t until the last few years that the concepts blended and gained industry status. According to The Washington Post, romantasy is one of the fastest-growing genres right now! Many would contribute this to Queen Sarah J. Maas.
Regardless of who trailblazed the path though, there’s a reason romantasy books are so hot right now. It has all the major fantasy elements we know and love, plus a central love story—tapping into the highest-performing genre of fiction: romance.
The thing about romantasy books is one doesn’t work without the other—so you know the magical and romantic elements are going to be equally balanced, equally epic, equally fleshed out.
If you’re in your romantasy era too, here are 20 books with epic plots, magical creatures, and swoony romance to add to your TBR!
A Dawn of Onyx by Kate Golden
Blurb: Arwen’s been taken prisoner by a dangerous kingdom and made to use her magical abilities to heal the soldiers of the Onyx King. To make it out alive, she’ll have to work with a fellow prisoner, navigate back-stabbing royals, dark magic, and dangerous beasts. If she can harness the untold power within her, she just might be able to escape with her life—and hopefully, her heart.
Age category: New Adult
Release date: December 2023 | Goodreads | Amazon
“Who did this to you?”
A Nameless Curse by G.W. Prouse
Blurb: Ordered to uncover the rebel informants within the king’s court, Felicity finds herself amidst the gossip as the prince’s latest conquest. When her guild returns memories she hadn’t known they’d stolen, she questions her reality. To figure out who the real traitors are, she must choose where her loyalty lies. It’s not just her neck on the line—it’s her heart.
Age category: New Adult
Release date: October 2023 | Goodreads | Amazon
“You know”—she shot over her shoulder—”I could kill you in your sleep.”
Angel of Water & Shadow by Tory Guyon
Blurb: River assumes the voices she hears are a figment of her grief. She’s happy when they suddenly vanish—until a demon attacks her, a werewolf tries to eat her, magic manifests at her fingertips, and they aren’t there to explain. Instead, a hunter named Ryder is. Caught in a battle between supernatural realms, to save humanity, she must find the Voices and unlock her buried past.
Age category: Upper Young Adult / New Adult
Release date: May 2023 | Goodreads | Amazon
“I know how we can make this experience a little less wholesome.”
Blood & Steel by Helen Scheuerer
Blurb: With her death foretold, Althea only has three years to become a warrior legend. She fights to secure her place in the guild charged with the protection of the kingdoms. The hazing of the new trainees borders on deadly, but even more dangerous is her attraction to Wilder, her unwilling warrior chaperone. Will she pass the initiation test and take her place as a champion—or will the invading evil snatch away her dream?
Age category: New Adult
Release date: February 2023 | Goodreads | Amazon
“A legend is forged with blood and steel.”
Courting War by Hazel St. Lewis
Blurb: As punishment for killing too many wicked men, Theodra, Goddess of War, is sentenced to play in a deadly tournament. Her partner is the handsome Prince Kellyn, and even though they despise one another, tension burns between them. If their hatred turns to love, it will cost him his life: for Death has been waiting to collect on a deal she made with dear sister Theo years before.
Age category: New Adult
Release date: January 2024 | Goodreads | Amazon
“It only took mere seconds for her to straddle his waist and hold the knife to his throat.”
Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross
Blurb: The gods are warring again and Iris’s brother is missing from the war front. To combat her worries, she writes him letters and slips them beneath her wardrobe, where they vanish—into the hands of Roman, her rival. When he anonymously writes her back, the two of them forge a connection that will follow her all the way to the front lines of battle.
Age category: Young Adult
Release date: April 2023 | Goodreads | Amazon
“I am coming to love him, in two different ways. Face to face, and word for word.”
Heartless Hunter by Kristen Ciccarelli
Blurb: By night, Rune is the Crimson Moth, a witch vigilante who rescues her kind from being purged. To gain the intel she needs after a rescue goes wrong, she courts Gideon, a notorious hunter, who she can’t help but find herself falling for. He pretends to court her right back, and soon realizes she might be his perfect match. But what if she’s the very villain he’s been hunting?
Age category: Young Adult
Release date: February 2024 | Goodreads | Amazon
“Gideon, the thought of you inside that building… it felt like being held underwater.”
House of Bane and Blood by Alexis L. Menard
Blurb: To prevent war between two rival families and pay off her familiy’s debt, heiress Camilla strikes a bargain that plunges her into the city’s dark underbelly. When forbidden feelings rise for her new husband and dark family secrets come to light, she must discover the truth about her past before it gets them both killed or worse—collected.
Age category: Adult
Release date: October 2023 | Goodreads | Amazon
“You’re my dream.” He grabbed my perusing hand in his. “You’re the center of all my circles.”
Of Faith & Flame by C.C. Tyler
Blurb: Once, Evelyn was one half of a prophesied union. Now, haunted by failure and deserted by her magic, she hides, vowing to never trust her powers again. Kade has searched for her ever since, determined to fulfill the prophecy. Cloaked in anonymity, he offers to help her in hopes of securing their union—and the lines of truth and betrayal, allegiances and feelings, begin to blur.
Age category: New Adult
Release date: March 2024 | Goodreads | Amazon
“Evelyn conjured something wild and ravenous inside him, something he feared and craved all at once.
Of Fangs and Shadows by Jessica J. Ayala
Blurb: Daemons haunt the mortal realm, and the wolves have been called to battle. When Remus and Diane’s paths collide, they are forced to work together and must put their differences aside. He must face the dark, twisted truths of his past, as she discovers more about who she is and what she is truly capable of. All while battling the growing passion in their hearts.
Age category: New Adult
Release date: August 2022 | Goodreads | Amazon
“When and where you are, then and there I will be.”
Powerless by Lauren Roberts
Blurb: When the king decreed all those without abilities be banished, it made Paedyn a felon by fate. So, she poses as a Psychic in order to stay alive. When she saves a prince, she finds herself thrown into a competition that exists to showcase the Elites’ powers—the very thing she lacks. If that doesn’t kill her, the prince she’s fighting feelings for certainly will if he discovers what she is.
Age category: Young Adult
Release date: January 2023 | Goodreads | Amazon
“Remind me to to make you smile like that again, when you aren’t dying, and I have all the time in the world to memorise it.”
Promised in Fire by Jasmine Walt
Blurb: When a training mishap unleashes a hidden magic inside water fae Adara, she finds herself on the run. She meets Einer, who hates the fae yet somehow, she captures his heart. The last thing they want to do is join forces, but dark magic is sweeping through the land and if they can’t put aside their fueds, they’ll lose everything they hold dear.
Age category: Adult
Release date: January 2022 | Goodreads | Amazon
“I’d never seen anything so beautiful, or so deadly, in my life.”
Rise of the Cinder Fae by Whitney Dean
Blurb: In her desperation to prevent the downfall of her forgotten but magical kingdom, which is also home to the Cinder Fae, Elora drinks from an enchanted spring, convinced she can make the prince of the rival kingdom she loathes fall in love with her, and guarantee their safety. But magic takes to give… and she didn’t realize her heart would be the sacrifice.
Age category: Adult
Release date: February 2024 | Goodreads | Amazon
“Ruin,” emerges in a breath as the starry sky envelopes me.
Spark of the Everflame by Penn Cole
Blurb: In a world ruled over by the Descended, the cruel offspring of the gods, Diem yearns to escape. Her mother’s disappearance offers her a chance to enter the world of Descended royalty and uncover the mysteries she left behind. With the dying King’s heir watching her every move, she will have to navigate the unwritten rules of love, power, and politics in order to save her family—and all of mortalkind.
Age category: Adult
Release date: June 2023 | Goodreads | Amazon
“Those small idiosyncrasies littering his body were signs of his life and character, a map of his soul that only those who truly knew him could read.”
The Book of Azrael by Amber V. Nicole
Blurb: Dianna gave up her life to save her sister. She called upon anyone who would listen, not expecting a monster to answer. After the War, Samkiel locked himself away. An attack on those he loves sends him back to a realm he never wished to visit again. Now, enemies older than time must work together in hopes of saving both their world and every realm in between.
Age category: Adult
Release date: February 2024 | Goodreads | Amazon
“I didn’t remember how long we talked, but somewhere amidst her laughter and smiles, I decided I would rip the world apart for her.”
The Serpent and the Wings of Night by Carissa Broadbent
Blurb: The adopted human daughter of the Nightborn vampire king, Oraya’s only chance to become something more than prey is entering the Kejari: a legendary tournament held by the goddess of death. To survive, she is forced to make an alliance with rival, Raihn. Their blossoming attraction could be her downfall, in a kingdom where nothing is more deadly than love.
Age category: New Adult
Release date: August 2022 | Goodreads | Amazon
“I would beg,” he murmured. “For you, I would. You have fucking destroyed me, Oraya. Do you know that?”
The Veiled Kingdom by Holly Renee
Blurb: Nyra is captured by rebels who don’t know her true identity—the missing daughter of the king. She either joins them or faces their blades. Dacre, the son of the ruthless rebellion commander, becomes torn between suspicion and desire. Her loyalty to her kingdom clashes with her devotion to Dacre and the burning connection between them.
Age category: Adult
Release date: March 2024 | Goodreads | Amazon
He leaned forward and nipped his teeth on my inner thigh. “You’re mine.”
These Hollow Vows by Lexi Ryan
Blurb: When Brie’s sister is sold to the king of the Unseelie court, she makes a deal with him to get her back: steal three relics from the Seelie court. In order to gain access, she has to pose as a potential bride for Prince Ronan. She accepts help from a band of Unseelie misfits, led by Finn. Caught between two dangerous courts, she must decide who to trust with her loyalty and her heart.
Age category: Young Adult
Release date: July 2021 | Goodreads | Amazon
“Abriella, every star in that sky shines for you.”
Trial of the Sun Queen by Nisha J. Tuli
Blurb: Lor has endured years of torment under the Aurora King. Her only desire is to get free and pay him back for every moment of misery. When a surprise release finds her in the hands of the Sun King, she is thrust into a competition against nine others for the role of queen. She must win. If she loses, she dies, or worse—she’ll be sent back to the Aurora King.
Age category: New Adult
Release date: November 2022 | Goodreads | Amazon
“I’m not supposed to be doing this…but I can’t seem to help myself around you.”
Until the Stars Fall by Vanessa Rasanen
Blurb: Lieke has been a loyal servant to the fae crown her whole life… until she kills a fae noble. She begs the king for mercy and is shocked when it comes from the eldest prince who hates her. Now thrust into the role of bride-to-be, she has to choose between playing along with the fake engagement or following her heart to protect her people.
Age category: Adult
Release date: February 2024 | Goodreads | Amazon
“And I’m yours. From here and now to forever and beyond, we are one.”
Make sure to go to Goodreads for the full blurbs—I condensed as best I could ?
This post is a product of a silly little reel I posted on Instagram. Before you click, please no judgement on the spine fold—I’ve been ridiculed enough lol.
Part 2 is up! Peep the next 20 books here.
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