Curated by Ashley Dickson-Ellison (@ashley_dicksonellison)
Romantasy books have this unique way of pulling you into a world where high stakes meet heart-pounding romance, and this genre is winning me over in recent years. Whether it’s the intricate world-building or the characters you root for even when they make tough choices, there’s something irresistibly captivating about these stories.
In this blog post, I’m curating some recent Romantasy reads we’ve reviewed on the blog —books that will sweep you off your feet and keep you on the edge of your seat. From magical heists to fairytale retellings, these novels balance fantasy and romance in a way that’s absolutely spellbinding. Click on the titles to see the full reviews. Click on the Bookshop and Libro links to purchase the books using our affiliate links.
(Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)
From the review: "I loved Children of Blood and Bone and couldn't wait to read this sequel. I did have to read up on some plot details about the first one before I dove into the second book, but it came back quickly, and I was thrilled to see the main characters as they grew in their leadership and in their sense of purpose. I appreciated the three main perspectives (Amari, Zélie, and Inan) and found that Adeyemi had good control over their unique voices and perspectives. It was fascinating to see the development of Inan and Amari's mother, Queen Nehanda, as a prime antagonist; it certainly made things more complex for both of them. I loved getting to know each of the main characters more deeply in this second novel, and I appreciated the unique struggles of each."
Roshani Chokshi's THE GILDED WOLVES (Jen's Review):
(Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)
From the review: "I love a heist. Whether it’s cinematic—like Ocean’s Eleven or The Da Vinci Code—or literary—like Leah Bardugo’s gorgeous Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom—heist narratives (when done well) are compelling and fast moving and just plain fun. They thrive on misdirection and subterfuge, both for characters within the story and for the reader. Roshani Chokshi’s young adult novel The Gilded Wolves, the first of a duology, falls solidly into the heist tradition. (Thanks to NetGalley for the egalley!)
"The Gilded Wolves opens in a late 1800s Paris imbued with magic. An established crew of diverse characters successfully has completed a series of missions and is, at the novel’s beginning, in the midst of another. In this world, certain people are adept at Forging, a sort of magical engineering, and a circle of Houses control the world. Each House represents a different facet of magic connected to fragments of the Tower of Babel."
(Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)
From the review: "It has been a while since I read a book like this one that so perfectly bridges a brilliant fantasy world with immediate, super-resonant social issues. Tracy Deonn's Legendborn is a masterpiece.
"Bree Matthews is 16 and trying to move on from her mother's death. She's built a wall to contain her grief and has escaped with her best friend Alice to an early college program at UNC. On one of their first nights there, Bree and Alice go with Charlotte, a UNC student from their hometown, to an outdoor party that is strictly against the rules. And Bree sees some extremely strange things: a weird, floating shape; a monster that appears out of thin air; and a boy and girl who each have hidden weapons at the ready to fight said monster. When the boy (Selwyn) realizes that Bree and a few others saw what happened, he orders them all to move in the other direction AND to forget what they saw. It works for everyone. Except Bree. And then Bree and Alice are caught by the police, taken back to campus disgraced and afraid they'll be expelled."
(Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)
From the review:
"I picked up Alix E. Harrow's A Spindle Splintered for two reasons: (1) I loved her novel The Ten Thousand Doors of January and (2) I love a good fairytale retelling. (Check out our most recent episode, all about fairytale retellings, for more recs along these lines.)
"This slim book—it's only 128 pages—is a retelling or remix of the Sleeping Beauty story (one of my favorites). Here, the protagonist, Zinnia Gray, is turning 21 and celebrating more (and differently) than most people do. She has a rare medical condition that results in early death . . . and nobody has ever made it past 21. She's tried to take advantage of the time she has—she's even earned an advanced degree with a focus on (of course!) fairytales and, in particular, on Sleeping Beauty. She sees parallels between her own fate and that of the cursed princess."
(Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)
From the review:
"I wanted to read this one from the moment I heard the description, which incorporates a retelling of "The Wild Swans" fairy tale woven in with East Asian folklore and myths. Thank you to NetGalley for my advance copy of Elizabeth Lim's Six Crimson Cranes in exchange for an honest review! This brilliant YA fantasy read focuses on Princess Shiori, who at the beginning of the story is worried about her upcoming betrothal to one of the lords of the kingdom. However, as forbidden magic latent within her suddenly blooms, she finds herself in a much more precarious situation than a simple unwanted betrothal."
Sarah J. Maas's HOUSE OF EARTH AND BLOOD - Another Great Read from an Auto-Buy Author (Jen's review):
From the review:
"This book, which launches Maas's new Crescent City series, does feel different from some of her other books. It's labeled as her first 'adult' series, but I don't think it felt any steamier than A Court of Thorns and Roses. It's also an urban fantasy book, so the world itself is different, but the world building is just as captivating as her other books. Yes, there are new types of creatures and divisions (houses) and a new city map to learn. But good world building persists no matter the type of world being built, and Maas is, I think, an expert.
"Her touch with characters is also as strong as always. Though she does shift perspectives through the novel, for me, the key protagonist is Bryce Quinlan, a character both strong and weak, certainly flawed, though with much to admire. This type of great, feminist character will certainly seem familiar from Maas's other books, and while Bryce fits a type, she is also definitely a distinctive and unique character."
(A note to our readers: click on the hashtags above to see our other blog posts with the same hashtag.)
Interested in what else we're reading? Check out our Featured Books page.
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