We’re revisiting a classic episode from Season 1, reported from Comic-Con 2025.

Romantasy has become one of the fastest-growing book genres in publishing — a blend of epic love stories and magical stakes that's capturing the imaginations of readers. Once dismissed as unserious or overly indulgent, the genre is now being embraced by a new wave of fans, thanks in part to #BookTok, viral buzz and social commentary that touches on real-world issues through fantastical stories.

On this episode of The Finest, we explore romantasy's rise, with roots in fan fiction, online communities and personal storytelling. We talk with San Diego authors, booksellers and fans, and hear from a professor who studies popular romance and romantasy fiction to understand what makes the genre so powerful — and why it's resonating so deeply across the culture.

"This idea that romance trivializes is not new," says Netta Baker, an advanced instructor of English at Virginia Tech. "All the way back in the 18th century, Ann Radcliffe novels were thought to stir improper passions in young women."

We also take you inside Comic-Con 2025, where romantasy panels drew some of the longest lines of the weekend, and unpack the genre's biggest misconceptions — that it's unserious, overly steamy or somehow not "real" fantasy. What we found instead was a powerful form of storytelling — one that reflects the real world, often giving women power and agency they don't always feel in daily life, and bringing thousands of people back to books.

Romantasy might just surprise you.

Guests:

• Netta Baker, Advanced Instructor of English at Virginia Tech
• Adalyn Grace, #1 New York Times and internationally bestselling fantasy author of the "Belladonna" series
• Kaylie Smith, #1 New York Times and USA Today bestselling dark fantasy romance author of the "Wicked Games" series
• Comic-Con 2025 attendees we met during romantasy panels and signings, including Autumn Mitchell and Julia

Books mentioned in this episode:

• "Flame and Thorns" by Marion Blackwood
• "A Court of Thorns and Roses" by Sarah J. Maas
• "Fourth Wing" by Rebecca Yarros
• "Throne of Glass" by Sarah J. Maas
• "Twilight" by Stephenie Meyer
• "A Curse Carved in Bone" by Danielle L. Jensen
• "Fifty Shades of Grey" by E.L. James
• "Belladonna" by Adalyn Grace
• "Phantasma" by Kaylie Smith
• "A Hunger Like No Other" by Kresley Cole
• "Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin

Mentioned in this episode:

• Brandon Sanderson | Bestselling fantasy author whose influence helped shift perceptions around genre fiction
• Anne Radcliffe | 18th century gothic novelist whose work sparked early moral panic about women reading romance
• Harlequins | Mass-market paperback romances, known for being inexpensive, widely available and foundational to how romance has been consumed and critiqued
• Fabio Lanzoni | Male model who became the iconic face of steamy romance covers in the '80s and '90s

Sources:

• What Is Romantasy, Anyway? (M. K. Lobb, Writer's Digest, 2024)
• Print Book Sales Fell 2.6% in 2023 (Jim Milliot, Publishing Weekly, 2024)
• Print Book Sales Saw a Small Sales Increase in 2024 (Jim Milliot, Publishing Weekly, 2025)
• These were the bestselling books of 2024. (Emily Temple, Lit Hub, 2025)
• Romantasy and BookTok driving a huge rise in science fiction and fantasy sales (Ella Creamer, The Guardian, 2025)
• How Dragons, Magic and Steamy Sex Took Over the Book World (Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg, Ellen Gamerman and Isabella Simonetti, The Wall Street Journal, 2024)
• The Power of BookTok: Why TikTok's Book Community Is Driving a New Era In Publishing (TikTok via Forbes, 2025)
• Erotica and Pornographby: A Clear and Present Difference (Gloria Steinem, Ms. magazine, 1978)
• Dragons and Sex Are Now a $610 Million Business Sweeping Publishing (Ella Ceron, Bloomberg, 2024)
• Federal Data on Reading for Pleasure: All Signs Show a Slump (Sunil Iyengar, National Endowment for the Arts, 2024)
• What Helps Stress, Your Mood and Brain Health? Books (Ari Cofer, Right as Rain by UW Medicine, 2024)
• 
  
• Does reading fiction make us better people? (Claudia Hammond, BBC, 2019)