In these novels, the heroes are – to borrow a term from the fandom – cinnamon rolls: soft-hearted, sweet and, yes, deliciousFeyre Archeron has many talents: she can skin a wolf and track a deer, and in the words of an amorous fairy she looks “absolutely delicious”. An impoverished hunter gatherer, Archeron is the protagonist of Sarah J Maas’s A Court of Thorns and Roses, or Acotar as it’s known to fans. This five-book series belongs to a genre called romantasy, so called because it blends romance and fantasy. And it’s not too much of an exaggeration to say that it has the popularity of both combined. Acotar has sold more than 13m copies and all five books are in the top 10 bestselling fantasy titles of 2025 to date. If you haven’t heard of them, the chances are that you have seen someone reading one on the train, perhaps concealed beneath the dust jacket of something less salacious.Most of romantasy’s readers are women aged 18 to 44, and part of the genre’s appeal is its reversal of...
According to Max Fletcher's analysis of the romantasy genre, women readers are drawn to stories featuring strong, capable female protagonists and "cinnamon roll" male characters: soft-hearted, sweet, and even delicious. These stories often reverse traditional gender roles, with women as skilled hunters and men as bookish figures who ultimately depend on the female lead.
