How dragons, magic and steamy sex took over the book world
Love is torture. Just ask the lightning wielder who’s so passionate about a moody bachelor that when they finally fool around, she accidentally sets a bunch of trees on fire. Or the leading lady whose lying crush only fully commits to her after she plunges a knife into his heart.
Or the alluring heroine who tangles with the seven deadly sins in the form of seven hot princes and–guess what?–they’re total playboys. In the literary genre known as romantasy—a mix of fantasy and romance—heroines ride dragons to battle enemies and otherwise navigate magical realms, all while living their best sex lives. The books are tearing up the bestseller charts, delivering blockbuster sales in an industry that’s in a fight for readers’ attention.
Material that older generations might have labeled as smutty—a young heroine experiences sexual encounters that involve lip biting, hissing, growling and moaning—are now referred to as “spicy." “His biceps flex as he lifts me by the backs of my thighs, and I wrap my arms around his neck and my legs around his waist, my dressing gown caught between us as he pivots," writes Rebecca Yarros in “Fourth Wing," about a young woman who attends dragon-riding school and falls in love with a wingleader she initially thinks wants to kill her. These books are striking a chord with generations of readers who grew up on series like “Harry Potter" and “The Hunger Games," where fighting evil comes well before romance. In romantasy, the adult relationships matter as much as the high-stakes plots.
Sales of books from authors including Sarah J. Maas, Yarros and Rebecca Ross rose 45% last year to nearly 20 million copies, while overall U.S. book sales fell 2.6%.
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