The much anticipated release of the third installment in Rebecca Yarros’ New York Times Best Selling series “Fourth Wing,” this January 21st shows excitement for “romantasy” fiction is not ending anytime soon.

While the term “romantasy” has been around since the early 2000s, Bloomsbury Publishing claims to have coined the term to describe the iconic series, “A Court of Thorns and Roses” by Sarah J. Maas, in 2015. When you talk about “romantasy,” Maas’ name tends to come right after. Some even call her the “Queen of Romantasy.”

“I’m deeply honored to be called the queen of anything…But I think it’s so wonderful that people have become aware of the joys of romance and fantasy all in one,” said Maas in an interview with “Today.”

The first book in Maas’ series, affectionately called “ACOTAR” by fans, has spent a total of 39 weeks on the New York Times Best Sellers list since its release. Along with “A Court of Thorns and Roses,” both of Yarros’ “Fourth Wing” novels sit solidly on the bestseller list with “Fourth Wing” having spent 76 weeks total on the list since its release and its sequel “Iron Flame” spending 50 weeks.

Romantasy has seemingly appeared onto shelves in every bookstore out of nowhere but the hype has been on the rise online since 2021 with the community on TikTok called “BookTok.” This corner of the internet is used to discuss and recommend books and authors that readers have enjoyed recently or in the past. The tag “romantasy” has collected over 700 thousand posts.

Despite the huge amount of general support surrounding the genre, there are also a lot of criticisms aimed toward the authors and readers of romantic fantasy books. The most common critiques focus on the bland and shallow writing style that most of the big names, like Yarros and Maas, use in their novels. Those that participate in online reading spaces can agree that the attention given to these books may be undeserved.

This split of opinions on “romantasy” is not new or niche by any means. In fact, one of the highest selling book series of all time, selling 160 million copies total, continues to have a similar problem. “Twilight” by Stephenie Meyer has all of the characteristics that creates a “romantasy” book; supernatural elements, a female young adult protagonist, and a main plot that heavily relies on romantic clichés.

The “Twilight” series’ main character, Bella Swan, is a 17-year-old girl that moves in with her father in a rural town in Washington and falls in love with a vampire named Edward Cullin. They are the epitome of forbidden love.

Meyer writes Bella admitting, “About three things I was absolutely positive. First, Edward was a vampire. Second, there was a part of him - and I don’t know how potent that part might be - that thirsted for my blood. And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him.” Bella’s observation lacks the literary quality of other expressions of forbidden love made famous since Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” however, Meyer’s “Twilight” series spent over 235 weeks on The New York Times Best Seller list.

Negative opinions of romantasy could be attributed to the over use of clichés, shallow characterization, and vague descriptions or dialogue, but there’s also the factor that the authors and audience for romance is mostly women.

According to the Romance Writers of America, 82 percent of romance readers are female and the average age of these readers are 35-39 years old. This statistic also makes sense when you go into the romance section of any bookstore or the reviews of a romance novel online. The people who review romance novels are largely women.

“Some of the most scathing and ill-informed takedowns of romance have come from women,” said romance author Jennifer L. Armentrout in an interview on “The Fantasy Writers’ Toolshed” on YouTube.

Even though “romantasy” has its detractors, women continue to hold onto their books of dragons and love stories.

The future of “romantasy” isn’t clear, especially if TikTok, considered the home of “romantasy,” gets banned. More information about Rebecca Yarros and “Onyx Storm,” as well as her other books, are at entangledpublishing.com.