Those Books of Smut and Wonder

Do your heroes weep? Do they swoon with lust? Are they really confused by their new magical powers? Then you’re already a fan of romantasy.

For those still waiting to discover romantasy: It’s fantasy, with strong female protagonists and fewer boring bits—the long treks over major landforms in hard weather.

Sex is plentiful, but sex is not the genre’s defining feature.

You can go chapters before encountering a reference to someone’s toned body.

Far more significant are feelings and friendships between the heroes: enchanted beings with relatable self-esteem issues who don’t just seek and fight but also yearn and banter as they face down enemies who aren’t only evil, but super bitchy too.

Then the heroes cry and have orgasms (sometimes they orgasm first and cry after).

In the kingdom of romantasy, one writer reigns supreme: Sarah J.

Maas, the author of ACOTAR .

It sounds like a missile-defense system or an autoimmune condition, but it’s the acronym for one of the most popular series of novels for adults written in the 21st century.

A Court of Thorns and Roses is the first of many books about Feyre Archeron, a young huntress spirited into the faerie realm.

Humans hate the leaders of the faerie world, called the High Fae, who once enslaved them.

But as soon as one bursts through Feyre’s door, having shape-shifted into the body of a green-eyed, bearlike beast, the reader thinks, I bet some of these guys are going to be hot .

Feyre falls in love and breaks a curse and brings down a depraved fae queen, and that’s just in the first book—eventually she’ll assemble a crew of beloved sidekicks and a heap of supernatural powers.

On any given week, you can see every book in the series stacked in a column on the New York Times best-seller list.