Book Blogger Hop is a weekly feature hosted by Billy at Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer. Each week, a new book related question is posted and everyone can share their answers. This week’s question is:
How do you feel about the current state of romance novels?
I will be completely honest – I don’t read a lot of straight up romance. I’ve started reading a few here and there, particularly last year when I was working on reading the GoodReads Award winners, but I don’t really feel like I have read enough to have a strong opinion or even know how in particular the genre has changed over the years. The only trend I’ve really noticed has been the move towards very colorful, cartoonish cover art, which does make it very bright and inviting. I do prefer those to the ones with half naked people on the cover, but I may be in the minority for that lol.
I do find it interesting that we now have “romantasy” as its own genre. Most of those types of books would have, I think, been shelved in the fantasy section, as most classic romance would have been either contemporary or historical, but firmly rooted in the real world. Since romantasy has become so popular, I hope that it has gotten traditional romance readers to read more fantasy, and for fantasy readers to dip into the romance genre. Any time you can broaden your genre horizons, it’s a good thing, in my opinion.
Be sure to check out the other answers of this week’s Book Blogger Hop and let me know what you think about the current state of romance!
Categories: Book Blogger Hop
Life With No Plot 
I don’t read a lot of romance, and I know “romantasy” has always been a subgenre that wasn’t a subgenre. That being said, romance readers and authors are aware of the differences within the style and the marketing of those books. Meanwhile, romantasy has become an over-the-top “trend” pushing forward authors who have been published for years, and promoting the subgenre to teen readers! There has always been a level of romance in some fantasy books, but that doesn’t mean they fall under the romantasy subgenre. Not to mention, authors (i.e. Jacqueline Carey, Elizabeth Haydon, etc.,) who have been writing romantasy for years are not getting any promotion or any recognition for their role in this subgenre.
As long as the story is good, I’ll read it!
That’s true. I think Jacqueline Carey and Elizabeth Haydon would definitely be classified under Romantasy if they were published today. I actually went and looked at Kushiel’s Dart on GoodReads and it is tagged with fantasy, romance, epic fantasy, high fantasy and erotica. So if someone were searching for “romantasy” they wouldn’t find it. Compare that to A Court of Thorns and Roses series, which are all tagged with fantasy, romance and romantasy. I think someone who enjoyed the ACOTAR series would probably also enjoy the Phedre trilogy, but it may be hard for someone to find Carey’s work since it’s older and not officially part of the “Romantasy” that everyone talks about on BookTok. A shame, really, because I think Carey is a really good author.