Romantasy Round-Up 2024

Working Title: A review of romantasy's biggest news stories and publishing trends in 2024

Photo by Elin Melaas on Unsplash

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My goodness…it’s already the end of the year! I will be celebrating Yule tomorrow night, which means it is time to look back on 2024. A quick perusal of some of the year’s headlines has made one thing clear:

❤ 2024 was the year of romantasy ❤

Between beloved authors giving us more of the characters we love, major studios picking up the rights to titles with promises to bring our favorite characters to the screen, and traditional and indie publishers making a profit, it has been a banner year for a genre that is still considered up-and-coming.

If you have been thinking about making the jump from either romance or fantasy writing into romantasy, now is the time! All signs are pointing to the fact that romantasy is here to stay. Personally, I am really excited to be publishing in 2025. Someday when I look back, I will be proud to have contributed to what is clearly a cultural phenomean. Whether you are a reader or a writer, I hope you’ll join me!

But I’m jumping ahead. Let’s take a moment to review the top trends and achievemeants of 2024. These are in no particular order. Unlike other media outlets where most headlines are dreadful, I’m happy to say that this news is good news.

Romantasy Dominated the most-read books list on Goodreads in 2024

For those of you unfamiliar with Goodreads, it is an Amazon owned platform where people can keep track of the books they have read, rate them, and leave reviews for other readers. As someone who wears the hat of a public librarian as well as romantasy book coach, I find the self-reported information from readers to be a boon in understanding what folks want to read.

In 2024, they wanted romantasy.

The TOP THREE books were the juggernauts of romantasy. Over a million readers—1,093,669 to be exact—read Fourth Wing this year, with an average review of 4.57 stars out of five. This is simply incredible. The sequel, Iron Flame, also approached a million readers with 999,448. In third was my favorite A Court of Thorns and Roses. Despite being published in 2015, it still amassed (pun intended) 930,100 reads (one of which was me). The rest of the ACOTAR books were all included in the top 10.

Let that sink in. SEVEN of the top ten most read books on an Amazon owned platform were romantasy titles.

SIXTEEN of the top fifty books were penned by Sarah J. Maas, with a grand total of 21 titles being romantasy and/or romantasy adjacent (Bride by Ali Hazelwood and the Divine Rivals duology, which is marketed by Amazon as YA).

AMAZING!!!

Coming Soon-ish to a Screen Near You

Considering millions of readers are flocking to romantasy, it’s no surprise that the streaming giants are looking to get in on a piece of the pie. As of this writing, productions teams have purchased film rights to several franchises. In August of 2024, Jessical Karl of Bloomberg.com claimed that romtantasy has the "potential to be Hollywood's next Marvel.”

Yes please, especially if the producers can find a way to cast Chris Helmsworth in a shirtless role.

The folks behind the Outlander adaptation, Sony, just announced this week they are in the early stages of adapting Jennifer L. Armentrout’s five book series that beings with From Blood and Ash. OMG Poppy and Hawke are going to be on TV??? SQUEE!!! As soon as the cast has been announced, I will have all the details.

There is, sadly, a lack of ACOTAR adaptation updates since Margo Robbie was seen sharing a meal with SJM in New York this past September. Would Robbie be the perfect Feyre? Absolutely! But there are no other details. Considering that Sony was originally slated to produce the series and they’ve opted for From Blood and Ash instead, we might be waiting for some time to see Rhysand on screen.

The Fourth Wing Amazon adaptation is also in development, with Moira Walley-Beckett as the showrunner. (She also worked on Breaking Bad and Anne with an -E). Rebecca Yarros was quoted this past autumn saying that she really had no final say over who would be cast in the production, but she nonetheless was fighting for a diverse cast.

Romantasy shortlisted for Oxford’s Word of the Year

When I first started telling people I write a romantasy blog, there were some folks that raised a brow and asked if that was a made-up word.

All words are actually made-up. But I digress…

The term romantasy has recently found legitimacy in the most surprising of places: the hallowed halls of Oxford! Every year, the folks behind keeping the Oxford English Dictionary up-to-date vote on a new word of the year.

While romantasy was a finalist, it did lose out to brain-rot.

This feels very 2024. No further comment.

Romantasy Remains Profitable

You know you’re onto something when Bloomburg.com takes note of your profit margin. This past summer, they featured an article in which they projected romantasy books would make $610 million dollars this year. This was up from 2023’s haul of $454 million (in USD).

That is an eye-watering sum.

In the first five months of 2024, 11 million romantasy books were sold. Keep in mind that was before many of the year’s most popular titles, including Apprentice to the Villian, Quicksilver, and When the Moon Hatched were even published.

Bloomsbury, the publisher of SJM, stated the worldwide sales of Maas’ romantasy novels jumped 102% in the first half of their 2024 fiscal year. As soon as the final 2024 numbers are released, I will bring you those figures.

Articles of Note:

Obviously I’m not the only one out there writing about romantasy. Here are links to my three favorite articles this year:

Of course the girls are reading horny fairy books

What ‘Bridgerton’ reveals about the future of romantasy

My weeks of reading hornily

Final Thoughts:

While I didn’t get through as many books as I wished I could have, I read some fantastic stories this year. What’s even better is that a lot of my peers have read the same titles, and we have formed our own bookish community. 2024 was tough for a lot of people. We live in uncertain times, and yet there is something comforting in knowing that, in the world of romantasy, there is always a happily-ever-after.

Will romantasy be changing in 2025? While I don’t have a crystal ball to see into the future, I do think we will be seeing some disruptions to publishing because of AI. And while I don’t like to get political, I have started monitoring book bans a little closer. Will a genre that focuses on female power and pleasure be treated unfairly in the US market under the new administration? Only time will tell.

Nonetheless I choose to stay positive, because the only thing I can control is my mindset! And with that, I will also say I’m looking forward to making some more progress on my TBR in the coming year.

Happy Holidays dear readers! If your celebration includes gifts, I hope you have some very special books to curl up with in the New Year.

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