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I pretty much only read romance. I enjoyed it as a young/new adult but read other “more edifying” things too. I was a huge reader. Then life/work/kids happened, and I stopped reading for pleasure for a long time. When I felt called to restart I “eased” back into it with romance which I remembered brought me so much joy and laughs, which I really needed.

But I found I was so stressed and emotionally fragile that I didn’t enjoy the emotional sucker punches of a lot of other genres so I’ve stuck to romance.

During very stressful times when I was struggling, romance has been like a port of safety that gave me a place to retreat from the world for a little bit. I’m immensely grateful to the genre. And fantasy romance is just that much more of a relief because when the world is so different it’s just that much easier to lose yourself in it.

All of this is to say ACOTAR is right up my alley and I wanted to LOVE it but I abandoned book 1 about 1/2 way through because it’s was so slow and boring. I wanted the immersive, sexy joy of it but honestly I’m spoiled because when it comes to sexy fantasy the romance genre honestly does it much better.

But I’m still jealous because I’d really like the ACOTAR experience. In light of this thread I will try again and have the book on hold.

I feel like the fantasy/monster romance category is just exploding right now and I’m looking to read more great fantasy/romance (I just learned the word “romantasy”). For anyone interested I’d recommend Ruby Dixon:

Ice Planet Barbarians, by Ruby Dixon. Bonkers is the only way to describe this series but it’s a fun ride. Has a “fated mates” aspect and involves blue aliens who are just the most devoted, grateful partners. This series helped me get thru the pandemic.

Ruby Dixon is/was a self-published author whose books spread through the romance community on IG (and prob tiktok too). It was like a fun, little fire that spread from account to account. Her books were too “out there” for mainstream publishing until just recently. Her books have now been picked up for distribution by a couple of main stream publishers because they are really popular (and perhaps books like ACOTAR have opened up the genre?)

Dark City Omega, also by Ruby Dixon—this is a good entry point to the “omega-verse” (which is also bonkers—do you know what “knotting” is? I had to look it up 😬). It’s another approach to “fated mates” but in a darker, crueler world than IPB.

Does anyone else have romantasy recs?

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