Romantasy is what you get when romance and fantasy begrudgingly set aside their rivalry and make a love-child that blends magic with stabbiness . . . but in a steamy way?
I confess that I used to think that romantasy wasn’t my thing, even though it’s hard to imagine that was ever the case. Because romantasy is awesome. The best of both worlds. Pffft, what was Past Me even thinking?! Now that Present Me has seen the error of my ways, I can see a very sunny, happy future stretching in the distance, chock full of romantasy reads!
This week’s Top Ten Tuesday is a love freebie, and I want to honor my newfound love of romantasy by sharing ones I’m looking forward to reading! This also is totally not a desperate attempt to sabotage all of your TBRs by cramming more romantasy into them.
Most of these are upcoming releases. Almost all of them, in fact. Only one is Present Me slightly throwing shade on Past Me. Okay, definitely throwing shade. But I feel like we’ve already established that Past Me deserved it, so I’m sure you’ll be on my side with this one.
The Darkness Within Us
Chrysantha Stathos has won.
By hiding her intelligence and ambition behind the mask of a beautiful air-headed girl, she has gathered important secrets, earned her father’s constant care, and become a wealthy duchess—all by age nineteen. Now, she is only one elderly, dying duke away from having all the freedom, money, and safety she’s ever wanted.
Or so she thought.
Turns out her little sister somehow snatched the true victory away from her: Alessandra is wedding the Shadow King, the most powerful man in the world. Meanwhile, after the death of Chrysantha’s no-good, lecherous husband, a man claiming to be the duke’s estranged grandson turns up to inherit everything that should be hers.
Chrysantha is enraged. There is no way that she’s going to let some man take everything from her. Never mind that he’s extremely handsome and secretive and alluring with mysterious powers… No, Chrysantha wants Eryx Demos dead, and in the end, a Stathos girl always gets what she wants.
Why I Want to Read:
- Sequel to one of my favorite romantasy reads, The Shadows Between Us
- A continuation of a very Slytherin romance
- The first was sufficiently stabby and fun, so I have high hopes for this one
- Cunning, conniving female protagonist just trying to improve her future
- Enemies-to-lovers is one of my favorite tropes
A Letter to the Luminous Deep
A beautiful discovery outside the window of her underwater home prompts the reclusive E. to begin a correspondence with renowned scholar Henerey Clel. The letters they share are filled with passion, at first for their mutual interests, and then, inevitably, for each other.
Together, they uncover a mystery from the unknown depths, destined to transform the underwater world they both equally fear and love. But by no mere coincidence, a seaquake destroys E.’s home, and she and Henerey vanish.
A year later, E.’s sister Sophy, and Henerey’s brother Vyerin, are left to solve the mystery, piecing together the letters, sketches and field notes left behind—and learn what their siblings’ disappearance might mean for life as they know it.
Inspired, immersive, and full of heart, this charming epistolary tale is an adventure into the depths of a magical sea and the limits of the imagination from a marvelous debut voice.
Why I Want to Read:
- I have a recent love for epistoleries
- A cozy mystery set in an underwater world sounds adorable
- I’m a fan of mysteries in the deep
- Even that cover looks cozy and charming!
- Not all romance can be stabby. Sometimes it’s also heartwarming and wholesome, okay?!
Smile and Be A Villain
Something is rotten in the state of Denmark… and that ‘something’ is magic.
HELSINGØR, 1536.
Ophelia is a disgraced handmaid to the queen, the cast-off lover of Prince Hamlet.
She is also a witch, and a good one at that. And she can see that Denmark is rotting from the inside out, afflicted by dark magic.
WITTENBERG, 1536.
Hamlet is a useless son, a failed heir. He is the prince of a nation about to fight a war they won’t win.
He doesn’t know about magic, but if he did he would use it to destroy their enemies—no matter the consequences.
As Hamlet and Ophelia find themselves increasingly torn apart, they must decide: how much are they willing to sacrifice in order to save Denmark?
And, by the end of it all, will they be beyond saving?
Why I Want to Read:
- Queer historical fantasy Hamlet retelling . . . which should be enough on its own
- I know, I know, but . . . that cover is stunning. Sorry, not sorry.
- Dark magic and witches
Lore of the Wilds
A stunning Romantasy debut about an enchanted library, two handsome Fae, and one human who brings them all together.
A library with a deadly enchantment.
A Fae lord who wants in.
A human woman willing to risk it all for a taste of power.
In a land ruled by ruthless Fae, twenty-one-year-old Lore Alemeyu’s village is trapped in a forested prison. Lore knows that any escape attempt is futile—her scars are a testament to her past failures. But when her village is threatened, Lore makes a desperate deal with a Fae lord. She will leave her home to catalog/organize an enchanted library that hasn’t been touched in a thousand years. No Fae may enter the library, but there is a chance a human might be able to breach the cursed doors.
She convinces him that she will risk her life for wealth, but really she’s after the one thing the Fae covet above all: magic of her own.
As Lore navigates the hostile world outside, she’s forced to rely on two Fae males to survive. Two very different, very dangerous, very attractive Fae males. When undeniable chemistry ignites, she’s not just in danger of losing her life, but her heart to the very creatures she can never trust.
Why I Want to Read:
- Have you seen that cover?!
- I’m a big fan of enchanted libraries. And just libraries in general, I suppose.
- Also Fae. Especially the handsome sort.
- Dark world with a protagonist just doing her best to survive.
Dark Moon, Shallow Sea
Raef wants revenge on the knights who killed his goddess, the moon. Her death darkened the night sky, stopped the tides, and left the shades of the dead without a path to the underworld.
Seeking revenge, Raef breaks into the knights’ temple and opens a box, expecting to find gold and jewels among the bones. Instead, he finds a living man, Kinos, sleeping inside.
Raef steals Kinos.
As they run from the knights and grow closer, Raef thinks he’s found a friend, love, and perhaps a secret that may lead to his goddess’s return. If they can’t solve the mystery of Kinos’s imprisonment, the moon will never rise again and the world will drown in ghosts.
Why I Want to Read:
- I preordered this one! And haven’t read it yet!!!
- David R. Slayton is a fantastic author.
- Queer romantasy
- I’m a fan of gods and goddesses and revenge and chaos
What the River Knows
Bolivian-Argentinian Inez Olivera belongs to the glittering upper society of nineteenth century Buenos Aires, and like the rest of the world, the town is steeped in old world magic that’s been largely left behind or forgotten. Inez has everything a girl might want, except for the one thing she yearns the most: her globetrotting parents—who frequently leave her behind.
When she receives word of their tragic deaths, Inez inherits their massive fortune and a mysterious guardian, an archeologist in partnership with his Egyptian brother-in-law. Yearning for answers, Inez sails to Cairo, bringing her sketch pads and an ancient golden ring her father sent to her for safekeeping before he died. But upon her arrival, the old world magic tethered to the ring pulls her down a path where she soon discovers there’s more to her parent’s disappearance than what her guardian led her to believe.
With her guardian’s infuriatingly handsome assistant thwarting her at every turn, Inez must rely on ancient magic to uncover the truth about her parent’s disappearance—or risk becoming a pawn in a larger game that will kill her.
Why I Want to Read:
- I’m a sucker for books about archaeologists
- Gives me strong The Mummy vibes
- Rivals to lovers
- Set in Egypt, with ancient magic
The Nightmare Before Kissmas
Nicholas “Coal” Claus used to love Christmas. Until his father, the reigning Santa, turned the holiday into a PR façade. Coal will do anything to escape the spectacle, including getting tangled in a drunken, supremely hot make- out session with a beautiful man behind a seedy bar one night.
But the heir to Christmas is soon commanded to do his duty: he will marry his best friend, Iris, the Easter Princess and his brother’s not-so-secret crush. A situation that has disaster written all over it.
Things go from bad to worse when a rival arrives to challenge Coal for the princess’s hand…and Coal comes face-to-face with his mysterious behind-the-bar hottie: Hex, the Prince of Halloween.
It’s a fake competition between two holiday princes who can’t keep their hands off each other over a marriage of convenience that no one wants. And it all leads to one of the sweetest, sexiest, messiest, most delightfully unforgettable love stories of the year.
Why I Want to Read:
- I’m a fan of the play on words that is the title (and also the movie it parodies)
- Sounds like an adult, steamier version of Rise of the Guardians
- Rivals to lovers
- Sounds both steamy and funny
Somewhere Beyond the Sea
A magical house. A secret past. A summons that could change everything.
Arthur Parnassus lives a good life built on the ashes of a bad one.
He’s the master of a strange orphanage on a distant and peculiar island, and he hopes to soon be the adoptive father to the six dangerous and magical children who live there.
Arthur works hard and loves with his whole heart so none of the children ever feel the neglect and pain that he once felt as an orphan on that very same island so long ago. He is not alone: joining him is the love of his life, Linus Baker, a former caseworker in the Department In Charge of Magical Youth. And there’s the island’s sprite, Zoe Chapelwhite, and her girlfriend, Mayor Helen Webb. Together, they will do anything to protect the children.
But when Arthur is summoned to make a public statement about his dark past, he finds himself at the helm of a fight for the future that his family, and all magical people, deserve.
And when a new magical child hopes to join them on their island home—one who finds power in calling himself monster, a name that Arthur worked so hard to protect his children from—Arthur knows they’re at a breaking point: their family will either grow stronger than ever or fall apart.
Welcome back to Marsyas Island. This is Arthur’s story.
Why I Want to Read:
- Sequel to one of my favorite books by one of my favorite authors, The House in the Cerulean Sea
- Except from Arthur’s point of view for a change (the cinnamon roll he is)
- Obviously will be the tearjerker, warm hug that I need
- I would like to move into Marsyas Island, please and thank you
- I mean . . . duh?
The Spellshop
Kiela has always had trouble dealing with people, and as librarian at the Great Library of Alyssium, she hasn’t had to.
She and her assistant, Caz, a sentient spider plant, have spent most of the last eleven years sequestered among the empire’s precious spellbooks, protecting the magic for the city’s elite. But a revolution is brewing and when the library goes up in flames, she and Caz steal whatever books they can and flee to the faraway island where she grew up. She’s hoping to lay low and figure out a way to survive before the revolution comes looking for her. To her dismay, in addition to a nosy—and very handsome—neighbor, she finds the town in disarray.
The empire with its magic spellbooks has slowly been draining power from the island, something that Kiela is indirectly responsible for, and now she’s determined to find a way to make things right. Opening up a spell shop comes with its own risks—the consequence of sharing magic with commoners is death. And as Kiela comes to make a place for herself among the quirky townspeople, she realizes that in order to make a life for herself, she must break down the walls she has kept so high.
Why I Want to Read:
- Cozy romantasy compared to TJ Klune and Travis Baldree
- Cottagecore! Which I didn’t know was a thing but I definitely want it.
- I’m a bit of a sucker for librarians.
- The cover looks so magical and cozy and inviting!
- Three words: sentient spider plant. I just . . . need to know.
Heartless Hunter
A steamy game of cat and mouse between witch and witch-hunter, played out against a backdrop of opulence, secrets, and bloody history.
On the night Rune’s life changed forever, blood ran in the streets. Now, in the aftermath of a devastating revolution, witches have been diminished from powerful rulers to outcasts ruthlessly hunted due to their waning magic, and Rune must hide what she is.
Spending her days pretending to be nothing more than a vapid young socialite, Rune spends her nights as the Crimson Moth, a witch vigilante who rescues her kind from being purged. When a rescue goes wrong, she decides to throw the witch hunters off her scent and gain the intel she desperately needs by courting the handsome Gideon Sharpe – a notorious and unforgiving witch hunter loyal to the revolution – who she can’t help but find herself falling for.
Gideon loathes the decadence and superficiality Rune represents, but when he learns the Crimson Moth has been using Rune’s merchant ships to smuggle renegade witches out of the republic, he inserts himself into her social circles by pretending to court her right back. He soon realizes that beneath her beauty and shallow façade, is someone fiercely intelligent and tender who feels like his perfect match. Except, what if she’s the very villain he’s been hunting?
Why I Want to Read:
- Witches and witch hunters
- I’m in favor of steamy games of cat and mouse
- Slow burn enemies to lovers
- Morally gray characters
Have I missed any upcoming romantasy that I absolutely should read? Feel free to add to my TBR in the comments!
This is such an awesome idea for a list😁 Some of these are new to me so of course I’ll be doing a deep dive and checking them out. I would add The Hunter’s Gambit by Ciel Pierlot.
Tammy @ Books, Bones & Buffy recently posted…AN EDUCATION IN MALICE by S.T. Gibson – Review
Thanks! I hope we both get to enjoy them. I somehow missed The Hunter’s Gambit, but it’s been rectified and added to my TBR. Thanks for the heads-up! It definitely sounds like something I’m going to enjoy. 😀
Good for you for trying something new and finding out you like it!
Here is my Top Ten Tuesday post.
Thanks! I feel like it’s really thanks to other bloggers that I’ve experimented so much with reading in the past few years. I see everyone else reading and loving certain things and it makes me want to give them a try. xD
You have a superpower because WHY do I want to add all of these to my TBR after reading your post?! All of these sound SO good! I have heard of one or two of them before of course but the majority are new to me and this post is making me feel *grabby handsy* and I WANT THEM NAOW. 😂
I mean, as far as superpowers go . . . it’s certainly no flight or invisibility or anything. But I guess I’ll take it! Obviously, you want to add them all because you have marvelous taste, m’dear. I hope you get to read (and love) all of these!
I have an eARC for A Letter to the Luminous Deep and I neeeed to read it. It sounds amazing. The Spellshop, too! And I didn’t know there was a sequel coming to the TJ Klune… Aaaah.
Nicky @ The Bibliophibian recently posted…Top Ten Tuesday: All About Love
Lucky. I hope it’s as good as it sounds! Yeees. I learned about Klune’s sequel last year, and I totally read the date wrong and was so excited . . . until a coworker pointed out that it was a little over a year until it would be released. T_T Waiting is hard.
Great list! I have several of these on my TBR pile (including a couple on the preorder list) and I’m looking forward to reading them. I hope you enjoy them too!
Here’s my TTT this week: https://bookwyrmknits.com/2024/02/13/top-ten-tuesday-quotes-for-galentines-day/
Thanks! I hope you enjoy them, too. 😀
I only dabble in this trope and normally only reach for books recommended by bloggers I trust who love them, but A LETTER TO THE LUMINOUS DEEP keeps catching my eye and I want to read it.
I hope you get a chance to give it a try and love it!
Several of these sound intriguing! Here is our Top Ten Tuesday.
Hope you get to read them!
I just heard about The Nightmare Before Kissmas earlier this week. They’re saying it’s like The Nightmare Before Christmas but steamier. Who knows! I hope you enjoy all of these.
Pam @ Read! Bake! Create!
https://readbakecreate.com/favorite-romances-read-in-2023/
Which is about the most perfect description for a book ever. xD How could anyone say no to that?!
Well… consider my TBR sabotaged! This is one awesome list, I have read a couple, but theres a few on there; The Spellshop, Somewhere Beyond the Sea & Heartless Hunter that are heading straight onto my TBR.
Woot woot! That’s what I like to hear! I mean . . . so sorry for your TBR. xD I hope you enjoy these when you get a chance to read them!
Going to add so many of these to my TBR! A Letter to the Luminous Deep is one I am really looking forward to. Great list!
Bwahaha, sorry (not sorry) about adding to your TBR. 😀 I hope you love it when you get a chance to read it!