Latest news with #romantasy
ABC News
20 hours ago
- Entertainment
- ABC News
How Powerless author Lauren Roberts became a bestseller at just 22 years old
The idea for Lauren Roberts' debut novel came to her when she was just 18 years old. So she did what any teenager with access to a phone would do next: start a live stream to share her idea with BookTok. "And [my followers] were like, 'We want to read it!' Telling me to add this trope and that trope," the US writer tells ABC Arts. She spent the next three months writing Powerless, which went on to become a bestselling YA romantic fantasy (romantasy) novel, in between studying at college and working a part-time job. "I'd be up until 4am every day writing, and then I'd wake up and go to school and then [to my job] and do all of that all over again." After finishing the first draft, Roberts hired a freelance editor to help shape her manuscript, asked her mum if she could leave college and moved back home, where she Googled: "How to self-publish a book." Somehow, in 2023, she pulled it together and published her debut just after her 19th birthday. The world was very interested, as it turns out, in Roberts' protagonist Paedyn Gray, a pickpocket from the slums of Ilya considered a powerless Ordinary in a society that only serves Elites with special abilities. Until, that is, she unwittingly saves the life of Prince Malakai and is thrust into the kingdom's annual purging competition, a series of deadly trials meant to showcase the most powerful Elites and reinforce the tyrant King Edric's rule. By late 2023, Roberts had signed a deal with a traditional publisher who wanted to pick up the first instalment in her dystopian tale of romance and political intrigue. Since then, she's written four more books (the third novel in the Powerless trilogy, Fearless, came out in April) and become a New York Times bestselling author. And a TV adaptation is underway. All this by the age of 22. "I can't believe this has happened. I didn't imagine this would ever be a thing," Roberts says of her success. She says life has simultaneously changed "so much" and "not at all". She's still living in the same apartment with her cats. But she's quit her part-time job and is now writing romantasy full time. "I get up and I just write most of the day. But, aside from incredible [book] tours — when I get to meet so many people that love these books and it's like, 'Whoa, this is crazy' — it doesn't feel big. It's just me in my apartment." Roberts is still learning to navigate the pressure — and scrutiny — that have accompanied her success. Not only is she a young author new to the publishing world, who started out as a BookTok influencer, she's also faced criticism over what some readers believe are similarities between her debut and popular YA fantasy series such as Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games and Victoria Aveyard's Red Queen. Roberts has been open about this for years. "Absolutely, there are similarities to The Hunger Games … and to so many other amazing books out there," she says now. "And that's how it is because there are billions of works." Still, the Goodreads pages for her books are filled with reviews by readers arguing the Powerless series is, at best, derivative and too heavily reliant on romance and dystopian fiction tropes and, at worst, a rip-off of various fantasy novels. Roberts says this "can be a little frustrating". "But I do remind myself that, a lot of the time, they're 14-year-olds and we know how the internet is. And at the end of the day, there's inspiration from every angle, and tropes are something that are in every book. "On the internet, I don't feel the need to address it because it's simply not true." This strategy is working — for now, at least. While Roberts can't say much about the Powerless TV adaptation, she confirms, "There are things happening behind the scenes [and] we're very excited." There's also an upcoming international book tour, including Australia. "We're travelling from one side of Australia to the other, with tons of stops, and I'm really excited to answer the readers' burning questions," she says. There are more books in the works, too, including another Powerless novella titled Fearful, out in September. After that, Roberts plans to slow down the release schedule. Not only did she write Powerless in three months, she also finished the first drafts for follow-up books Reckless and Fearless in the same amount of time. Roberts wrote Powerful, the first Powerless novella, in just 28 days. "It is daunting. It's not like, 'I'll just write for two hours today and whatever.' It's definitely three months of head-down writing," Roberts says of her process up until now. "This past year, it has been go, go, go. So I'm reaching a point where I do want to space out the books a little more. Nothing crazy, but even just writing one book a year." Rebecca Yarros, another high-profile romantasy author, signalled plans to do the same in November 2023. At the same time, the publishing industry is facing increasing comparisons to fast fashion, with some readers attributing the "Sheinification of books" to what they perceive as the decreasing quality of fantasy novels. The Powerless series is frequently brought up as part of these conversations online. Roberts doesn't let the criticism get in her way, instead choosing to "focus on the positives". She says her number one goal in finishing the Powerless series is "staying true to what 18-year-old me started". Lauren Roberts will be discussing Powerless at events in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Perth from June 21-29.
Irish Times
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
The rise of romantasy: Escapist books become more popular as real-world challenges loom
You're all alone. Abandoned, scared and defenceless. Then a tall, dark, handsome and magical stranger enters – and you're swept up in an exciting adventure. Swept up, that is, until you close the pages of the book before you. Romantasy – a blend of romance and fantasy – is the term that has been given to the rapidly rising literary genre that is taking over bookshelves here and abroad. Authors including Sarah J Maas and Fourth Wing writer Rebecca Yarros are queens of the genre, netting sales in the millions across the globe – Yarros's new novel Onyx Storm sold 2.7 million copies in its first week of sales in January – but Irish authors are also part of the literary trend, with names such as Catherine Doyle, Sarah Rees Brennan and Jessica Thorne sealing deals for romantasy novels with international publishing houses. In romantasy fiction, human heroines are often plunged into fantastical realms, where faeries, vampires and magical beings rule, and love blossoms between unlikely characters and in thrilling circumstances. Often, the suitor is older or immortal, while the usually very young heroine tends to be capable (though they may not know it), beautiful (though they may not realise it), and forced to take on death-defying challenges (almost always). What's the appeal of such fiction for readers? 'It's wish fulfilment,' says Mila Taylor (37) a Dublin -based librarian who hosts the Wisteria romantasy book club in Dundrum Library. 'It's living a greater, better, more exciting life. Another thing you see in a lot of romantasy books is not only romance, but a sense of friendship, loyalty and community.' READ MORE 'It's taking off, even among people who don't read,' says Nikki Shields (37) a corporate marketer who is a member of the Wisteria book club. 'Lots of people are getting into it. Romantasy is its own world. It follows normal life – it's somewhat realistic – but there's a magical element. There are different elements of folklore, it manages to combine old worlds and new worlds without it seeming ridiculous.' Nikki Shields: 'Romantasy is somewhat realistic but there's a magical element.' Photograph Nick Bradshaw With a large following among female readers in their 20s through to their 40s, romantasy also appeals to teenagers who may have come to the genre through their enjoyment of young adult novels such as Twilight by Stephenie Meyer or Leah Bardugo's Shadow and Bone fantasy series. 'Most of my reading right now is in the romantasy genre,' says Chloe Horgan (16), from Dublin. 'It's very popular with people my age. The two genres mixed together add layers to the story, plus most of the time the stories tend to be very easy to read.' Around the country, bookshops are creating new sections devoted to the romantasy genre. In the Dubray bookshop in Rathmines, Dublin, bookseller Molly O'Neill shows me to their section devoted to romantasy and fantasy fiction. 'When I'm in meetings on Zoom with representatives from publishers and they're trying to sell us the books for three months from now, they are saying the word romantasy a lot,' O'Neill says. 'I'm hearing it more and more, especially in young adult fiction and fantasy.' The romantasy section of the Eason bookshop on O'Connell Street, Dublin As a fan of romantasy herself, how did she get into the genre? 'I've always read fantasy,' she says. 'My sister had some of the Sarah J Maas books so I started reading them. Sarah J Maas isn't exactly high literature but I will read all of her. The Cruel Prince by Holly Black is another classic in the genre. It's quintessential romantasy.' We pause by a shelf featuring a new romantasy bestseller from Galway author Catherine Doyle entitled The Dagger and the Flame. 'There's a group of thieves and a group of assassins and it's a Romeo and Juliet-type story,' O'Neill says, describing 17-year-old heroine Seraphine and her love interest Ransom, heir to the Order of Daggers. What did she think of the plot? 'I wouldn't forgive him for some of the stuff he does. The male characters in romantasy tend to be very tortured. It's a grumpy sunshine kind of thing, but the girls are always the sunshine and the man is always the grumpy.' Catherine Doyle, Galway author of romantasy bestseller The Dagger and the Flame Grumpy sunshine? That's a BookTok term, referring to a love story where one character is dark and brooding, and the other cheerily optimistic. It's part of a shorthand often used online on Reddit, Goodreads and StoryGraph alongside others that are sometimes easy to understand ('love triangle'), and sometimes require a certain leap of the imagination ('reverse harem' is where the woman character has many male lovers). For younger readers in particular, BookTok and Bookstagram – the book-loving corner of Instagram – play a large role in driving sales and sparking interest. Books are given 'spice' ratings online to indicate how much explicit sexual content is in them. On BookTok, popular posters will merrily spend whole videos unpacking the amount of 'spice' in romantasy novels. For readers new to the genre, the surprise may lie in discovering how conservative many of the offerings actually are. Yes, it's true there are plenty of longing looks cast in A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas, but her human heroine Feyre Archeron (19) spends most of the first novel in the series chastely mooning over the 'muscled midriff' of her masked suitor Tamlin, a High Fae and High Lord of the Spring Court who can transform into a beast. [ From the archive: Sarah J Maas: 'Just because you have great hair doesn't mean you can't kick ass' Opens in new window ] In The Cruel Prince by Holly Black, a romantasy that follows the adventures of Jude who is brought up in the faerie world after her human parents are murdered, the pace of the action would make Jane Austen look almost racy. Or as one Reddit user puts it: 'it's low/almost no spice.' Many romantasy novels are grounded under the wider category heading of young adult fiction, and many romantasy authors, like Catherine Doyle, started off writing for young adults. Doyle began writing romantasy during Covid, when she penned a trilogy with her sister-in-law Katherine Webber called Twin Crowns. 'It's about a witch and a princess separated at birth. We wrote it for the love of the genre and as a bright spot during the pandemic. It turns out we were tapping into something that publishers were crying out for. We were very fortunate to sell Twin Crowns to 20 different foreign publishers at a time when everyone was looking for light, escapist fantasy.' [ Catherine Doyle: 'Death and loss do exist in the world of children, so I never try to shy away from them' Opens in new window ] In Doyle's opinion, the reason the romantasy genre has become so successful is because it plays off classic fairytale tropes readers have grown up loving. 'Even as adult readers so many of us never lose that grá for whimsical, childlike concepts,' Doyle says. 'Magic, adventure and enchantment continue to appeal, romantasy just makes them more accessible to us.' Escapist literature may also be becoming more popular as real-world challenges – from job insecurities to the realities of emigration or housing issues – loom for a new generation of readers. Reality biting? Burying your head in a romantasy novel might seem a solid option. When Mila Taylor first arrived in Ireland in the early 2000s from Poland with her family, fiction was an important refuge for her as a lonely teenager struggling to find her way. Librarian Mila Taylor, founder of the Wisteria book club at Dundrum Library. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw 'I joined fifth year in Tullow Community School in Carlow. It was a huge adjustment because I was one of the few non-Irish people there,' she says. 'I found my group of people in the migrant group mostly and we all loved fantasy. I went on to university, I started meeting people, and going to book clubs. Then I met my wife, who is a writer. And an opening came up in the council in the library section so I moved: I did the degree and became a librarian.' Now a librarian with Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, Taylor founded the Wisteria book club in March in part because she wanted to nurture readers who may crave the community that books can offer. She is protective of the romantasy genre, as she believes it often comes in for unfair criticism from highbrow readers who dismiss it as 'popcorn fiction' without ever bothering to read it. As with women's literature in the 1990s, there's a sense that women are being scorned for their reading tastes. This, she says, is unfair. 'Fiction helps you develop empathy,' she says. 'It helps you look at things from a different point of view. Romantasy has that extra something to it that makes it more wish fulfilment, but also fun. It's already becoming mainstream and hopefully more accepted.' Nikki Shields believes the genre is ephemeral but enjoyable, and maybe that's the point. 'I wouldn't be reading them the whole time,' she says. 'I don't like that they all blend into one, to a degree. I find some of them are quite lazy in their writing and ideation because they're just trying to tap into something that's a popular scene. But I enjoy reading them while I'm reading them. They're otherworldly.' Perhaps the genre's very simplicity is also its strength: it has the capacity to bind readers together and build community. In the United States, fans in their thousands attend literary gatherings to have a chance to be close to romantasy stars like Yarros and Maas. Just as with Twilight and Harry Potter, there are midnight release parties for books and costumes for Halloween based on iconic characters such as Feyre Archeron. For fans of the genre, these literary gatherings and parties are invaluable in a world where so many are isolated online. For Taylor, her love of romantasy and fantasy fiction has given her both a career and a community. Having had a tough start in Ireland in the 2000s, is she in a good place in life now? 'I'm in a very happy place,' she says. 'A love of stories and books is what got me here.'
Vogue
11-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Vogue
Romance Books are So Back—And Moms are Obsessed
The story goes a bit like this: She's the youngest daughter of a starving family, he's a prince whose kingdom is suffering from a curse. Though she doesn't know it, her love is the only thing that can save his kingdom from ruin. It could be the plot of a children's fairytale—or the plot of Sarah J Maas's for-adults book series A Court of Thorns and Roses, which has been credited with starting a bookbound sexual revolution. 'Romantasy,' the literary genre that fuses fantasy stories with adult-only romance plots, is the leading book genre according to market research company Circana BookScan. It's also growing by leaps and bounds, with 1.9 million books sold since January 1 alone. Hop on BookTok (the TikTok community dedicated to reading books) and you'll find romance books rebranded: Words like 'spicy' and chili pepper emojis are common positive reactions to a story, and there are hashtags dedicated to tropes like 'friends-to-lovers' and 'marriage of convenience.' It's a pretty good glow-up for the once-maligned romance book category. 'A seed was planted for the craze about 20 years ago or so with the Twilight series,' says New York Public Library librarian Anne Royer. 'Romance wasn't the main plot in that or The Hunger Games, but these are the books millennials were raised on. It makes sense that they want a similar story but with more adult content now that they are adults.' She adds that Maas's A Court of Thorns and Roses (ACOTAR) was the third most checked out book from the library last year. It's just another industry proving the common saying of 'sex sells' true. But for a lot of women—especially mothers—diving into the genre is helping them reconnect with themselves and escape the everyday. 'There is so much sex in this book,' says Let Them author and mother-of-three Mel Robbins, who listened to ACOTAR as an audiobook. 'You literally blush. And what's so cool about dramatic audio is that I would have my earbuds in all day long. I would be washing dishes, but I'm not in my kitchen with my hands in my soapy water, I'm literally flying with Rhysand through the skies of Prythian.'
ABC News
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- ABC News
Romantasy isn't just hot, it's shaping modern day fairy tales
Some describe it as a full-blown escape. For others, they'll jokingly tell you it's cheaper than therapy. For millions of devoted readers, romantasy is a world unto itself and a way of life. Romantasy-themed balls and book clubs, romantasy sweatshirts and tote bags, flowing romantasy-inspired gowns and even romantasy-inspired tattoos are a small part of a growing community. Its home is predominantly on social media, courtesy of TikTok hashtag #BookTok, where impassioned fans rave about their favourite romantasy characters with videos that achieve viewing numbers in the millions. It's where devotees whipped themselves into a frenzy over the long-awaited release of Onyx Storm earlier this year, the third book in the Empyrean series by Rebecca Yarros. The latest misadventures of Xaden and Violet sold 2.7 million copies in its first few weeks of release and is now the fastest-selling adult novel in 20 years. And fellow romantasy author Sarah J Maas, who wrote the A Court of Thorns and Roses series, was the highest-grossing author in 2024, contributing $16 million to the Australian publishing industry according to her publisher Bloomsbury. But what is romantasy and why does it attract such a loyal fanbase? And is it just about the sex lives of elves and fairies? Or something more? Romantasy is a portmanteau of romance and fantasy or, as romance author and academic Jodi McAlister likes to describe it, "a collision of these two genres". "A romance novel only has two rules. It has to have a central love plot, and it has to have a happy ending," she explains. "In romantasy, we are thrown into a fantasy world. It's [the fictional kingdoms of] Navarre in Fourth Wing or Prythian in A Court of Thorns and Roses." While the often-explicit sex scenes make it seem like these books are preoccupied by impressive wingspans and skilled swordplay, complex world-building sits at the heart of romantasy. Much like Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, romantasy features fantasy worlds with sophisticated political systems and unique cultures. Referred to as "secondary world fantasy", it's what makes it so distinct from romance stories. But according to Dr McAlister, romantasy is not a new phenomenon. "We only have to look back as far as Twilight to see it, but it goes back so much longer than that." It's this secondary world fantasy that drew Sabine Paglialonga to romantasy stories. "I love getting completely swept up in a place that feels so real that I'm still thinking about it while I do the dishes or in the middle of work meetings," says the romantasy influencer who is known as @spellboundpagess online. "It's a world that cannot exist in our reality, but we so desperately want it to be real", says Alexandra Squires, who runs romantasy-inspired social media account @readingandrapture. "It sparks a feeling in me that reminds me of being a kid where you would imagine something into existence and have the most fun with it. "We lose that as we get older so to be able to read something as an adult, which has those adult themes too … but which also sparks a childlike sense of joy and wonder? That is so special for me." Fantasy and romance are a "natural marriage" that raises the stakes of the other, according to Dr McAlister. "The romance genre is necessarily quite intimate because you focus on a central couple or a central throuple, but at the core of the romance is the relationship. But put that in a fantasy realm and you can crank the stakes up to 100 because now we're in the realms of life or death. The reverse can be said for fantasy, which is often so expansive and complex it obscures the human element. "It can get so big, so political, so concerned with the machinations of power and geopolitical intrigue, that you forget about the people at the heart of it. And no one cares about the people at the heart of it until they care about the people. "Romance is a really good way to do that." Steamy, graphic sex dominates much of romantasy fiction, often referred to by fans in online discussions as a novel's 'spice' rating. One chilli pepper signifies low-level sex, while three chilli peppers (or more) often means abundant explicit sex. Female protagonists are vocal and enthusiastic participants when it comes to steamier scenes, but according to Dr McAlister, this centring of women's pleasure is "not new". "Sex has been in romance forever so romantasy is not newly explicit," she says. "Romance is a genre that's by women for women, so women's lives and pleasures have been centred in romance for a long time. As we've moved into the 21st century, this has really started to come to the fore with sex." Tattoos as a declaration of love and loyalty however feels entirely contemporary. Main male characters (MMC) are usually described as being swathed in large, inked markings that often cover their torsos and creep up their necks. They signify loyalty to a people or unbreakable mateship and fated love. "Tattoos and the idea of magical marking is interesting … If you know someone is your mate because it's written on their body, that kind of bone-deep certainty is something I think people crave a lot in their real life," says Dr McAlister. Our romantasy influencers are unequivocal about their love for the genre. For Alexandra, it's escapism in its "most pure form". Sabine enjoys romantasy because "real life doesn't cut it". "While contemporary or urban fiction is great and all, it doesn't take me far enough. I want a full-blown escape. "Send me to live with the Fae, teach me healing magic, and throw in a dangerously attractive, brooding ancient MMC who falls hopelessly in love with a seemingly ordinary female lead. Bonus points if he's ready to burn the world down for her. "It's the ultimate fantasy."
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Romantasy festival A Million Lives slammed by authors and attendees: 'Fyre Fest of books'
Authors and attendees say they were duped over the weekend after promised romantasy book event A Million Lives broke their hearts. "It felt like Fyre Fest of book festivals," Kait Disney-Leugers, who's written several books including Love Across the Tabletop, said on TikTok. "We were told there's been over 600 tickets sold. I did not see those people. There were more authors at their booths than there were attendees, and I'm not exaggerating. It was that bad." She noted that "at every point of the last two days, everything was f---ed up, not delivered on, or just half-assed. There was no water there, even in the vending machine at the top of the stairs. Because, by the way, we were in the basement exhibit hall. Had no water. There was no swag bags for people who paid to go to this. No badges, wristbands." Her reference to the disastrous 2017 Fyre Festival, where what was touted as a luxe experience ended up being full of cheese sandwiches, FEMA tents, and, yep, no water, was not a compliment. And Disney-Leugers was far from the only one with a complaint. The official description of the May 2-3 event in Baltimore from company Archer Management was hyped as "the perfect event to make more bookish friends! This event will include a vendor hall, panels, a content creation room, fandom cosplay meet ups, a cosplay competition and a ball." Tickets cost from $50 to $250 for one that included a Lavender Romance Ball. Author Stephanie Combs shared footage of her and friends dressed up and excitedly heading to the fancy fete, only to be disappointed at what looked like a minuscule number of people there. "When you gotta laugh so you don't cry," Combs captioned her post. "A million lives or a million lies? I was an attending least we looked fantastic." TikToker Azthia Bookwyrm told PEOPLE she accepted an invitation to cover the event as an influencer. But when she arrived, she found she'd been moved from the Hilton Inn near the venue to a Days Inn. She said more authors were there than readers and that the whole thing was a "huge financial loss." In fact, there were so many people upset with what they got for their money, that the company publicly apologized for the ball, the day after it took place. Over the next few days, Archer's Instagram offered additional words of regret. In one, the post read, "I wholeheartedly apologize for how the event turned out this weekend. We are currently processing refunds as fast as we can." The company projected that all refunds would be made by May 31. "We take full responsibility for the way that AML was handled," another noted. "We are doing refunds for every attendee, author, and vendor. We are also canceling all of our future events and will be processing refunds for those as well."Finally, the company listed some of the authors and vendors who participated and asked people to support them "after our mistakes this past weekend." Many of the commenters were supportive, crediting Archer Management with owning up to their error, although some still had questions. "I thought it was a good first go. The question is, what really went wrong?" Instagram's jzimansky asked. "Can we get an actual explanation? I don't necessarily care about a refund. I just want to know what really went wrong." Others commented, "Thank you for making this right for all of us" and "We all make mistakes, and it sounds like you're really trying to do the right thing. That's all we can do when we mess up!" But that didn't cut it for Rocky Road Publishing LLC: "Events like this that are not organized correctly make us rethink about wanting to attend as an author, publishing company, or just an attendee. I'm glad you are making it right, but it's still unacceptable it happened in the first place." In addition to Fyre Fest, the A Million Lives event's implosion is reminiscent of several other spectacular failures, including the September 2024 unauthorized "Bridgerton ball," which saw fans of the Netflix show outraged by the quality of a Detroit experience for which they paid $150 to $1,000, depending on the package purchased. The similarly unofficial Willy Wonka experience in Glasgow, Scotland, made headlines in March 2024. Despite the original debacle, Fyre Festival 2 was scheduled this year for May 30 to June 2 on Isla Mujeres in Mexico and eventually relocated to Playa del Carmen. Then, in April, the festival was postponed indefinitely, and founder Billy McFarland, the subject of two documentaries, put the Fyre Festival brand up for sale. "This brand is bigger than any one person and bigger than what I'm able to lead on my own. It's a movement. And it deserves a team with the scale, experience, and infrastructure to realize its potential," the convicted felon said in a statement posted on the "Own Fyre" website. Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly
