Just don’t call it “fairy smut”

Last fall, I packed five thick fantasy novels for a 7-day trip to Hawaii: One Dark Window, Two Twisted Crowns, When the Moon Hatched, Priory of the Orange Tree, and The Jasmine Throne. My husband watched me sit on my suitcase to get it closed and said, “You know ebooks exist, right?”

I finished all five books in seven days.

Sitting in literal paradise, reading about complex magical worlds with elaborate politics and devastating emotional stakes, something clicked. These weren’t guilty pleasure reads. These were sophisticated stories with rich non-Western cultures, queer representation, and plot twists that blindsided me. I’d been enjoying romantasy, but I hadn’t been taking it seriously. These were some of the best books I’d read in any genre.

But here’s what really surprised me: when I started mentioning my discovery, women came out of the woodwork. A colleague at a conference. My neighbor. A distant LinkedIn connection. Once I opened the door, it seemed like half the professional women I knew were either discovering romantasy or completely obsessed with it.

These are women I’d never heard talk about books, but they were devouring fantasy novels. The seventh grader who ate lunch alone in the library reading Dragonlance was doing cartwheels inside my chest. We’re not alone anymore.

The books we don’t admit we love

Last week, when I mentioned my latest read to a colleague, she rolled her eyes: “Oh, you mean fairy smut.” Another friend called it “dragon porn with feelings.” The word “smut” does heavy lifting in these dismissals – it implies these books are embarrassing, pornographic, less than art.

I’m not pretending there’s no smuttiness involved. There’s sex! But Game of Thrones featured graphic rape scenes, brutal violence, and prostitution subplots. While people called that out at the time, it didn't define the franchise. The difference? Romantasy centers women’s perspectives and desires instead of treating us as background decoration or trauma plot devices.

I don’t want to dismiss or downplay the romance elements, but reducing complex fantasy worlds with intricate magic systems and political intrigue to “smut” misses the point entirely.

The real question is: why do we feel the need to hide books that bring us joy?

What romantasy offers that traditional fantasy doesn’t

Classic fantasy has a woman problem. Tolkien’s female characters are what feminist critic Catherine Stimpson called “the most hackneyed of stereotypes…either beautiful and distant, simply distant, or simply simple.” Even D&D, which I still enjoy, depicted women as busty armor-wearing decorations.

There have always been exceptions. Ursula K. Le Guin was writing gender-bending sci-fi in the 1960s. Robin Hobb created complex female characters in epic fantasy. But they fought upstream against male-dominated publishing and readership.

The difference with romantasy is scale and perspective. These books don’t just include women, they center women and nonbinary characters. The world-building serves our fantasies instead of asking us to squeeze into male power fantasies.

Romantasy tropes cater to what women actually want:

The competent older partner - A 200+ year old fae who has his life together, protects your independence, and doesn’t need you to mother him or manage his emotions

Enemies to lovers - That arc from mutual hostility to acceptance shows that love can bloom even when things seem hopeless – appealing to women who struggle with feeling worthy of love

Found family and personal growth - No matter how dysfunctional your origin story, you can find your people and reach your potential

Consent and agency - Female protagonists make active choices about their bodies, magic, and futures instead of things happening to them

Friendship between women - Genuine female bonds that aren’t competitive or centered on male attention

Emotional magic systems - Magic tied to feelings, relationships, and personal growth rather than just combat and destruction

These themes resonate especially with professional women who spend their days navigating corporate environments where their perspectives often feel secondary, where emotional intelligence gets undervalued, and where “likability” becomes a professional requirement.

When fantasy gets dark

Romantasy isn’t monolithic, and it isn't all roses and sunshine. A significant subset ventures into much darker territory. Dark romantasy features morally complex characters, brutal political systems, worlds where violence and trauma exist alongside love stories.

These “grimdark” books feature broken protagonists who are physically and emotionally scarred. They do terrible things, but with enough complexity to keep you invested. When you add romance, you get stories where characters find healing despite (or because of) their damage.

Examples of darker tropes include:

• Revenge arcs where the heroine gets justice for wrongs done to her

• Morally gray love interests who’ve committed atrocities but evolve

• Survival stories requiring impossible choices with lasting consequences

• Dark academic or political settings where power corrupts but love offers redemption

This darker content is therapeutic, in a way. It takes legitimately scary topics like social breakdown, male violence, and systematic cruelty, and allows readers to confront them in a safe and controlled setting.

In a chaotic world, there’s something deeply satisfying about fictional characters who endure terrible things and don’t just survive, but thrive. They get revenge. They find their people. They have transformative sex with partners who prioritize their pleasure.

It’s fantasy in the truest sense, and sometimes that’s exactly what we need. I do think this side of the genre can contribute to its stigma.

The romantasy book map

It took me a while to navigate the romantasy landscape when I first started reading these books. There is such a wide breadth of sub-genres, ranging from young adult (YA) closed door romances with barely even kissing to grim-dark "why choose" romances with orgy scenes. Like I said, a wide spectrum.

It's a little frustrating to try and sift through recommendations that treat the genre all the same. So I'm setting off on a little side quest, a project to map the full romantasy landscape from cozy fantasy romance to the darkest grimdark. We'll see where it goes, but it's a fun little project to keep my programming and AI skills sharp AND more deeply explore these books that I love.

Stay tuned for more on this project as I make progress!

Give yourself permission to read for pure joy

It can be hard to carve out time to read fiction. I get it. But reading romantasy is like picking up fresh flowers on your way home, a small pleasure that brightens everything. Like baking cookies just because you love the smell. Like staying in bed an extra ten minutes on Sunday morning because you can.

These are small acts of choosing joy over optimization.

You don’t have to justify this reading with professional development goals. There’s no test afterward. You can read beautiful, complex stories simply because they transport you somewhere else for a few hours and make you forget your inbox exists.

The secret community of professional women reading fantasy is bigger than you think. We’re done apologizing for books that center our perspectives, desires, and fantasies.

Welcome to the club. We’ve been waiting for you.

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