How to Read More Fantasy as a Romantasy Reader?

If you are a romatasy reader, who feel that it’s high time to start reading more fantasy literature, that’s post is for you.

However, I must debunk something you may believe in – romantasy is a fantasy subgenre by definition: it’s literally a fantasy romace. Thus, feel free to already call yourself a fantasy reader!

Nevertheless, I am positive that by ‘reading more fantasy books’ you mean more reading books whose fantasy world-building is more advanced, or a magic system, or something similar – you propably mean these books to be more a fantasy than a romance, and I am here to help you explore the fantasy literature.

I believe there are three different ways of starting reading fantasy, or actually starting digging in every rabbit hole. As a professional nerd, I’ve started broading my knowledge in so many different fields from scratch. And I think that you may do it in three different systems:

A. Finding a part of a rabbit hole similar to those you already like, or are intrested to, or you have some knowledge about.

B. Starting with the classics, the most popular in each field: in the fantasy books it would be reading the highest ranked fantasy, such as ‘Harry Potter’, the Tolkienian works, ‘A Game of Thrones’ etc.

C. Trying a representant of every subgroup of the rabbit hole, for instance reading one book from each fantasy subgenre (high fantasy, court fantasy, heroic fantasy etc.), then deciding which one you like the most and then continuing to explore that specific sub-field.

How To Read More Fantasy as a Romantasy fan?

Today, I will tell you about the method A, in my opinion the best to start reading more fantasy as a romantasy reader. Although I prefer high fantasy or epic fantasy much more than romantasy, and I appreciate advanced world-building the most, I read romantasy from time to time and that’s the way I would begin my journey with other subgenres of fantasy if I were to start once again.

The key to the method A are associations. Play with them! Find the elements of any romantasy novel you like the most – a type of character, a certain part of world building, a motif or even a type of narrative of an author. You may even want to write them down. Then, search for the books that contains similar things you liked in the romantasy and simply read them!

Read my reviews and analysis of Sarah J. Maas' Romantasy Books!

☽ Throne of Glass, A Court of Thrones and Roses, Crescent City

I will try to present you this on the example of two the most popular romantasies – ‘Fourth Wing’ by Rebecca Yarros and ACOTAR by Sarah J Maas.

If you loved 'Fourth Wing'
Because of:

• Dragons •

Read 'A Game of Thrones' by George R.R. Martin!

Although the dragons doesn’t play the biggest role throughout the majority of the 1st novel, they are the important element of the lore and the world. Dragons are the symbol of the fallen house of kings and queens, the Targaryens. After the death of the last king of the Targaryens, Aerys II Targaryen and almost all of his relatives, in the land of Westeros under the direction of the new royal dynasty, the Baratheons, it is believed that dragons became extinct forever. However, the last daughter of the Targaryens, Daenerys, living at the back of the beyond, somehow may return dragons to Westeros. Gosh, I don’t want to spoil anything because I love ‘A Game of Trones’ more than any other epic fantasy book and I want every each one of you to enjoy this series as much as I do!

Find more of this glazing in my dedicated review of ‘A Game of Thrones'!

• Even More Dragons •

Read 'The Priory of the Orange Tree' by Samantha Shannon!

Written by my beloved Samantha Shannon, PRIORY and the whole universe of ‘The Roots of Chaos’ basicly rely on both dragons and wyrms. While dragons are sacred animals, connected to water and stars, wyrms are evil and they consist of fire. However, in the mythology and minds of the half of the land the book is set in, dragons are the same species as wyrms, that’s why they have been also percieved as an enemy of the humanity. In the religion of Queendom of Inys, the day the Nameless One, a wyrm, will enter the human world again it would mean the end of the world. The titular Priory believes in the legends of the Inys, however demonising the major hero of the Queendom. The women of Priory are trained to fight dragons and wyrms, without knowing that they differ. And when it is possible that the Nameless One will come back, all the heroines of the world must fight against him and his evil. With a beautiful portrayal of women, Samantha Shannon creates the world so beutiful that it is almost unbearable! I absolutely love it, what I discuss more in my review of ‘The Roots of Chaos’.

Read 'A Study in Drowning' by Ava Reid!

Effy and Preston are students at a prominent university, trying to solve the mystery of ‘Angharad’. It's an epic poem written by Emrys Myrddin telling a story of a titular girl that falls in love with the Fairy King, an immortal, legendary being. Believing in the story created by Myrddin, Effy is haunted by the Fairy King herself – she is cursed by perceiving the supernatural parts of the world, taken straight from the legends. Preston, on the other hand, is a down-to-earth and rational novice scientist, trying to discover the truth about who the real author of ‘Angharad’ is. Effy agrees to cooperate with Preston, slowly ruining her perception of the world centered around Emrys Myrddin and his works.

'A Game of Thrones' by George R.R. Martin cover image © Random House Worlds
'The Priory of the Orange Tree' by Samantha Shannon cover image © Bloomsbury Publishing
'A Study in Drowning' by Ava Reid cover image © HarperTeen

If you loved ACOTAR
Because of:

• A Fairy Tale Retelling •

Read 'Thornhedge' by T. Knighfisher!

‘Thornhedge’ is a retelling of ‘The Sleeping Beauty’. However, the titular Beauty isn’t the protagonist of this story – she is the villain. Toadling, the fairy godmother known of the original story, was replaced by a changeling after her birth as a princess. Toadling was then taken by fairies to their world and brought up as one of them. As an adult, Toadling was asked to bless a newborn baby with a magic spell. This act, however, didn’t end as planned. Years later, a Muslim knight encounters a mysterious Thornledge around a tower that is told to be a place of a curse. Toadling needs to stop the knight from breaking the curse no matter the cost, under a threat of death, since the tower is a place of living of the greatest evil.

• Passionate Faes •

Read 'The Cruel Prince' By Holly Black!

Jude is a human orphan living in the High Court of Faerie after the death of her parents. She must face the difficulties of living in the world she knows she doesn’t belong to, despite her deep desire. Her greatest opponent is Prince Cardan, known for his maliciousness. Will Jude finally manage to fit in the fay world and save it from the looming evil? Although I am not a fan of ‘The Cruel Prince’, I must admit the existence of all the similarities between it and ACOTAR. However, I prefer ACOTAR from these two series – ACOTAR is such a cheesy meme that makes me laugh. For me, ‘Cruel Prince’ lacks this comforting cringe of Sarah J. Maas’ prose.

• Kidnapped to magic land •

Read 'Stolen Songbird' by Danielle L. Jensen!

Cécile is believed to be the woman from the mysterious prophecy. According to it, a couple will be able to break the curse. Cécile is thus kidnapped and kept beneath the mountain, in Trollus – the troll city. Cécile is desperate to run away from the troll kidnappers, but they aren’t easy opponents. Eventually, Cécile makes friends in Trollus and falls for a mysterious Troll Prince Tristan, the leader of the mountain rebellion. For her surprise, Cécile may really become a woman from the prophecy, able to end the spell of Trollus.

'Thornhedge' Book Cover Tom © Doherty Associates
'The Cruel Prince' book cover © Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
'Stolen Songbird' book cover © Angry Robot

Speaking of ACOTAR...

Sarah J. Maas is an unique romantasy author, because literary universe consists of series with different romance level. ‘Throne of Glass’, her first written series, is the most fantasy one and some even claim it is high fantasy (no, it’s not). ACOTAR, or ‘A Court of Thrones and Roses’ has a lot more spice in it and romance is more emphasised. ‘Crescent City’, the last book series of Sarah, only aspires to be a urban fantasy, being in fact mostly an erotic novel. Thus, if you want slowly immerse yourself into the world of fantasy with more developed worldbuilding and are a fan of Sarah J. Maas, make sure to read her novels in order ‘Crescent City’ - ACOTAR - ‘Throne of Glass’: from the most romance to the least romance one.

Read my full review post about 'Fourth Wing' here!

If I had to summarize my experience with 'Empyrean' series I would say that I am more than satisfied with the level of the series, compared to my zero expectations. However, Yarros shows no creativity, neither in the plot nor in the world she presents.

———• ☾ •———

You may use these methods in differend fields as well. When I first started to explore metal culture and music, for example, I used the method B to get to know bands like Metallica, Guns ‘n’ Roses, Iron Maiden, Red Hot Chilli Peppers an so on. Then, I tried the method C to experience the variety of metal subgenres, listening to so differing from each other epic metal, metalcore, nu-metal, symphonic metal, gothic metal, trash metal etc.

And after discovering what subgenre I liked the most, I started the method A to find a metal twin for each song or band I liked – when I was constantly listening to epic metal, I connected my favourite Vision of Atlantis with Within Temptation because of the similar, strong vocal of the female frontman. Amaranthe and their stunning growls led me to Motionless in White, known for their metalcore technique. So, as you can see, there are multiple purposes of these methods!

How to Read More Fantasy as a Romantasy Reader?

How To Read More Fantasy as a Romantasy fan?

Read my reviews and analysis of Sarah J. Maas' Romantasy Books!