These days, if you ask any woman under the age of 24 what book she has on her nightstand, the answer is very likely to be a romantasy by Sarah J. Maas.
“Romantasy”—a portmanteau of “romance” and “fantasy” (think Bridgerton meets The Lord of the Rings)—exploded in popularity during the pandemic, largely due to the rise of the social-media reader community BookTok. Maas, who had already published 13 romantasy books by 2020, became an overnight phenomenon. Her books set up camp at the top of the New York Times best-seller list and have remained there ever since. She’s basically the Taylor Swift of publishing.
