If you’ve seen the word “romantasy” everywhere lately, you’re not imagining it. It’s one of the fastest-growing genres in publishing right now — but what actually makes it different from regular fantasy or paranormal romance?

Fantasy vs. Romantasy

Classic fantasy is built around epic adventure: magic systems, mythical creatures, medieval-style kingdoms, and quests through dangerous lands. Think Middle Earth or Narnia. The plot drives the story, and romance, if it exists, is a side note.

Romantasy takes that same richly imagined world — magic, fae, dragons, hidden kingdoms — and puts a love story at the center of it. The romance is the plot, not a subplot. Add in higher stakes, immersive world-building, and (often) steamy content, and you’ve got romantasy.

Romantasy vs. Paranormal Romance

Paranormal romance is the older, broader category — romance with supernatural elements, like Twilight. It doesn’t need a fully built fantasy world; it can happen in a version of our own world with vampires or werewolves dropped in.

Romantasy narrows that down: full secondary-world fantasy setting, romance as the driving force, and usually a much stronger emphasis on immersive lore and world-building.

How Spicy Is It?

Heat levels vary a lot by audience:

• YA romantasy (like the ACOTAR series) keeps things lower-heat, aimed at teen and young adult readers.
• Adult romantasy has no ceiling — spice levels range from mild to extremely explicit, depending on the author and series.

A Personal Note

I didn’t set out to write romance. I grew up loving pure fantasy worlds, and that’s where I expected to stay. But somewhere along the way, personal experiences I couldn’t fully explain worked their way into my fiction — and what came out wasn’t quite fantasy and wasn’t quite memoir. It became something in between: a story I had to fictionalize to tell at all, filled in with imagination where memory left gaps.

That project became Bartholomew: A Fairy Tale — Book 1.