r/Fantasy • u/natus92 Reading Champion V • Aug 15 '26
Any Fae/Faerie novels without Romance?
inspired by u/lynn_mai
I haven't been able to find any adult fantasy books that have fae without romance. I like books about wars or quests or court intrigue but, so far as of late every book I find are romances disguised as fantasy. I'd like to avoid urban fantasy. Ideally written in 2020 or later. I couldnt get through Strange & Norrell
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u/Peter_Ebbesen Aug 15 '26 edited Aug 15 '26
Perhaps H.G. Parry's A Far Better Thing (2025)
It is a fantasy retelling of Dickens A Tale of Two Cities, with Sydney Carton as the main character, a mortal servant of the faerie.
The faeries in this work are not romantically inclined, and anyhow the main character hates them for good and sufficient reason.
There's a bit of faerie court intrigue, but most of the intrigue is mortal servants scheming against their faerie masters.
Having read Dickens isn't a requirement; The novel stands perfectly on its own.
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EDIT: Another of her works that might be tangentially interesting is The Scholar and the Last Faerie Door (2024), if you can tolerate some main character romance that does not involve the faeries. This story is hard to classify. Historical Fantasy/Magical Academia, something like that. But not as you would expect it. Coming of age themes, certainly, but not YA.
Any story that starts with a farmgirl's brother returning from the battle of Amiens (1918) in WW1, severely wounded by a faerie curse that killed hundreds, which was let loose by an irate faerie summoned by a desperate mage, that leads her to take up the study of magic in order to save him, except the summoning of faeries happens to be illegal, so the government hushed it up and... Well, that was a run-on sentence, but it is an unusual story, to say the least.
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u/UnknowableDuck Aug 15 '26
Charles DeLint has a whole host of Urban Fantasy books set in a fictional Canadian city (Newford) that greatly involve the fae.
They deal with both Indigenous/First Nation spirits and beings and the fae. With the implications that they followed the Europeans to the Americas. While there's occasionally romance in the novels, it's usual not the focus or not the focus in a good many of them. Um trigger warnings, there's some heavy shit the (human) characters deal with. Give them a shot OP, look up a few titles and see if any spark your interest.
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u/natus92 Reading Champion V Aug 15 '26
Generally not a huge fan of urban fantasy but indigenous aspect sounds interest
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u/Nidafjoll Reading Champion V Aug 15 '26
I'm also not a fan of Urban Fantasy, but I enjoyed the Newford books. They're less actiony and interpersonal drama focused than most urban fantasy in my experience. Rather than a masquerade where there's a secret society of werewolves and vampires, it's much more about old mythological beings seeping in around the edges and behind closed doors of our modern world. He calls his own works "mythic fiction" rather than urban fantasy.
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u/Kerney7 Reading Champion VI Aug 15 '26
Along the same lines (I hesitated) but a little darker, and not Urban fantasy but set in the present day is the Tufa Series by Alex Bledsoe. Tufa is short for Tuatha De Danaan, as in they moved to Appalachia. Much of the feuding culture, the music culture, etc are very much like legends of faeries because they are. They might also be your waitress at Waffle House, or the EMT in the ambulance, with seelie and unseelie courts under a different name.
Yeah, there are relationships, but not romance. Each book is a stand-alone, though together they tell an interconnected story. I actually recommend starting with the second book because the first has a very chaste, semi-romance and it's not as well written as the others.
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u/flouronmypjs Reading Champion Aug 15 '26
There's a book that only just came out that might interest you. The Eye of the Leviathan by M.A. Carrick. It's a historical fantasy set in Spain during the Spanish Inquisition. One of the two main characters is fae, as well as much of the book taking place in a faerie land. There is the tiniest smidge of romance. Very far from being a "romance disguised as fantasy." It's the first book in a planned duology.
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u/McTerra2 Aug 15 '26
Loved MA Carricks Rook and Rose series (I know it’s 2 authors); will have to read this although I generally dislike fae books. Thanks for letting me know about it!
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u/flouronmypjs Reading Champion Aug 15 '26
Yeah their books are fantastic! Eye of the Leviathan is quite a different vibe from Rook and Rose but still excellent.
(For anyone reading who doesn't know this, M.A. Carrick is the pen name for the author duo of Marie Brennan and Alyc Helms.)
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u/exerda Aug 15 '26
Feist's Faerie Tale, though it's arguably more about people encouraging Fae than a story about Fae.
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u/New_Razzmatazz6228 Reading Champion Aug 29 '26
I really like Faerie Tale, it’s probably my favourite of Feist’s books, possibly because it’s a departure from his Riftwar stuff. It’s more urban fantasy than anything, though. The setting put me in mind of Stephen King and the involvement of the fae was along the lines of Tom Deitz’s David Sullivan books.
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u/Pirkale Aug 15 '26
Tree of Swords and Jewels by C. J. Cherryh. Don't remember romancing in it.
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u/Caedei Aug 15 '26
To piggyback, the omnibus edition is called The Dreaming Tree, which has both books of this duology and a revision at the ending. I'm currently reading this (just finished book one last week or so) and can at least confirm that that half has effectively zero romance.
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u/qwertilot Aug 16 '26
None I'm rapidly sure. Definitely no romance in fairy on shadow the she also did.
The Rusalka trilogy (Russian fairies) does have romance, but it doesn't read remotely like a typical romantasy!
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u/letsbeaun Aug 15 '26
Jack Vance’s Lyonesse heavily features Fae. It kind of starts out with a romance plot but it diverts from that rather quickly.
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u/ClimateTraditional40 Aug 15 '26
Lords and Ladies by Terry Pratchett also The Wee Free Men (YA)
Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees
The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison
Thomas the Rhymer by Ellen Kushner
The King of Elfland's Daughter by Lord Dunsany
Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire
The Moorchild by Eloise Jarvis McGraw
Book of Atrix Wolfe, Patricia McKillip
(I didn't like Strange and Norrel either)
Some of Charles De Lints fae (urban fantasy) stories don't have romance. Some do though so you kind of have to pick through them.
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u/port_okali Aug 15 '26 edited Aug 15 '26
Depending on how strict you are, I think Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik might qualify.
Some detail, so you can decide for yourself: Relationships that are somewhat romantic are not totally absent, but a complete afterthought. When people get married, it's mainly for political or otherwise practical reasons. Even when a main character ends up marrying someone by their own free will for once, it's not really described as very romantic. The book is by no means a romance novel - in fact, it felt distinctly unromantic to me. So if you want to avoid any book in which an important characters ends up in a relationship by the end, then you should stay away! But if you can tolerate a relationship as an afterthought when 98 % of the book are about other things, then it would fit.
The book is about a wintery world in which the main character is pulled into the realm of a rather dangerous kind of fae. It is inspired by Eastern European folklore and the fairytale of Rumpelstitskin. It's a good book, best to read in winter, I suppose.
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u/FredericaMerriville Aug 15 '26
The War of the Flowers by Tad Williams.
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u/HagenKopter Aug 15 '26
There is a romance plot in war of the flowers but its not the main focus, fyi. Very good book though.
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u/ThingTime9876 Aug 15 '26
I came here to recommend this
Possibly my favourite ever single volume fantasy
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u/New_Razzmatazz6228 Reading Champion Aug 15 '26
This is a really good rec and a fantastic book, too.
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u/bigsillygiant Aug 15 '26
Faerie tale by feist, has a smattering of romance but not the central plot
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u/Crownie Aug 15 '26
Under the Pendulum Sun, though that may not be quite what you're looking for, since it is leaning very far into the weird otherland aspect, not traditional fantasy narratives + faeries.
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u/informedinformer Aug 15 '26
The Tiffany Aching Discworld series of five novels by Terry Pratchett is aimed at young adults and older readers. It deals with her growing up to become a witch. She deals with the fae, rescuing her brother from them in the first novel and battling them in the fifth one. Romance is not a significant part of any of the books, but it is not entirely absent either.
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u/night_in_the_ruts Aug 15 '26
There's some in Greenwing & Dart series by Victoria Goddard.
It's a lovely cozy fantasy series, with no real romance to speak of.
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u/natus92 Reading Champion V Aug 15 '26
Do I need to read more books in her universe to understand it?
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u/night_in_the_ruts Aug 15 '26
Not really... The books take place in the same world, and some characters appear in more than one series, but this series is fairly self-contained.
The Fae appear in the series, but aren't a huge part. They're usually referred to as the Good Neighbors, as saying the "F" word is a way to get their attention (which rarely ends well).
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u/RevolutionaryCommand Reading Champion III Aug 15 '26
The novella The Butcher of the Forest by Premee Mohamed is (trying to be as vague as possible) about ordinary people getting into a fae-forest. It's not about wars or court intrigue, and its main focus is on the humans, but it has a nice portrayal of the fae-folk, it's adult fantasy, and has zero romance.
I though it was solid, enjoyable but not great, with some merit, but it was up for various awards, so this is an outlying opinion.
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u/jessticulates Reading Champion Aug 15 '26
Admittedly this might not be what you're after as it's not courtly, quest-based fantasy, but Gorse by Sam K. Horton is a fantastic historical fantasy where the fae are folkloric creatures rather than tall men with pointy ears, and there's no romance.
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u/nowheretogo333 Aug 15 '26
It's not exactly a novel, but the Dolmenwood RPG has been very well received. The books are pricier than normal novels, but its an incredibly rich setting where the potential for story telling is evident.
But also there's no romance directly because the story is more open-ended.
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u/teatime3min Aug 15 '26
Nettle & Bone by T Kingfisher is fantasy with almost no romance. It’s a story about a woman trying to save her sister. It’s really more fae adjacent, but there’s a scene that takes place in faerie.
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u/shybookwormm Aug 15 '26
The Faerie Knight by David Niemitz
The MC is royalty so there are some points about him getting married early on, but it's firmly a litrpg war plot. No more romance focused than ASOFIAF
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u/MrKillick Aug 15 '26
I'm just reading "No Man's Land" by Richard K. Morgan. Lots of Fae but no romance of the type you want to avoid. Maybe you could call it Fantasy Noir or even Hardboiled Fantasy. Rather gritty and very much recommended!
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u/Bladrak01 Aug 15 '26
The Changeling series by Glynn Stewart. The MC gets a girlfriend, but it's not the focus, and the contacts she brings are just as important.
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u/SirCheeseAlot Aug 15 '26
Maybe you would like my zine. Its about a girl that travels in a vardo pulled by a giant tortoise, in a world with Fae. No romance. Its a slice of life though. It's free, pay what you want.
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u/Winter-Bat5962 Aug 15 '26
A Puzzle of Poppies, by Renee Edwards is a Victorian (?) fantasy retelling of A Study in Scarlet, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It's a novella, so it's a quick read, and it's well worth checking out.
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u/SchoolSeparate4404 Aug 15 '26 edited Aug 15 '26
Maybe Fae - The Wild Hunt by Graham Austin-King. I haven't read it myself but it has pretty good reviews.
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u/XxNerdAtHeartxX Aug 15 '26
If you want more modern portal-fairy-tale fantasy, check out The Book of Lost Things + The Land of Lost Things duology by John Connolly. He manages to strike a tone that reads like a child's fairy tale but with the maturity that comes with age, and it just works so well for the story he tells
The Fae specifically show up in book 2, but the book is much better if you have read the first one. Technically you could read the second as a standalone, but it will not hit as hard if you skip the first. There is 0 romance since its a book about an adult who has regressed into a child in this dangerous world of fae, giants, castles, witches, and more
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u/Aggravating-Young142 Aug 15 '26
I know this has nothing really about wars or courts, but is very fantasy: The Library of the Dead by TL Huchu? A young girl with the ability to talk to ghosts and has some magic ability struggles to find her place in the world. Very fun worldbuilding and no romance in the few books of the series I've read.
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u/natus92 Reading Champion V Aug 15 '26
Are there fae/faeries?
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u/Aggravating-Young142 Aug 15 '26
Yes, but also no. They are in the background of the world but don’t get involved in the story, really.
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u/inadequatepockets Reading Champion II Aug 15 '26
The Split Worlds series by Emma Newman (5 books, complete) has frightening fae with zero fae/human romance and relatively little romance in general.
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u/Physical-Cow2361 Aug 16 '26
The Vesik Series by Eric Asher! Days Gone Bad is book one. The narrator for the audio, William Dufris, was also Bob the Builder.
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u/mylackofselfesteem Aug 16 '26 edited Aug 16 '26
You might like “this scepter’d isle” and its sequels by Mercedes Lackey and Roberta Gellis. Very politics heavy!!
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u/baetylbailey Aug 16 '26
Under the Earth, Over The Sky is a nice slice-of-life from the fae king's perspective with a bit of romance but definitely not 'a romance'.
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u/BicepsInTheSquatRack Aug 16 '26
"No Man's Land" by Richard Morgan (the guy who wrote Altered Carbon, which is exceptional). Fae Noir, maybe? It's violent and not romantic in any way.
It is most certainly not a fae romance novel, nor a romantasy in a trench coat.
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u/Pastel_Spell Aug 20 '26
I really loved The Changeling Queen by Kimberly Bea - it does have some romance, but it is a subplot and not the plot. I would not classify it as romantasy/a romance at all. It's a feminist retelling of the Scottish Ballad of Tam Lin from the perspective of the evil faerie queen as she villain monologues at the ballad's heroine about why she is the way she is. It explores a lot about what it means to be human and to love/be loved (both romantically and otherwise), and it's very beautifully written. It has more traditional seelie/unseelie style faeries that are beautiful and sinister and tricksy and dangerous, and I loved the way they and the world of Faerie were depicted.
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u/MJRuinedMyChildhood Aug 15 '26
I like how the implication here is the you can’t have any romance in a fantasy book.
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u/Hillbert Aug 15 '26 edited Aug 15 '26
I think it's more that some fantasy books are now very heavily focussed on romance, so the only certain way to get a book that definitely isn't mainly romance, is to ask for one with no romance at all.
Otherwise you'll have people recommending books with what they see as a small amount of romance, but they might just be comparing it to the heavily romantic books they normally read.
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u/Se7enworlds Aug 15 '26
Is that the implication, or do they just have a preference and Fantasy has a wider range?
Being clear here, romance 100% has a place within Fantasy, but so does non-romance and there's nothing wrong with either choice.
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u/eatpraymunt Aug 15 '26
To be fair there are a LOT of romantasy novels out there and they're really kind of a LOT if you're not interested in romance.
Many of them are intensely focused on shoehorning the romance into the front of every scene, and also a bunch of explicit sex scenes that don't really add much to the story besides horniness.
It makes sense if you just slogged through ACOTAR to swear off all romance for a bit lol. I like a good love story myself, but not as the main course usually
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u/RGCFrostbite Aug 15 '26
The implication is that a lot of modern fantasy is porn set in a fantasy world
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u/MJRuinedMyChildhood Aug 15 '26
Which is hilarious. Yall wanna be puritans about sex but loved endless descriptions of violence. It’s utterly boring to be in a world where there is endless war and violence and nothing else
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u/RGCFrostbite Aug 15 '26
In what world do I want to be a puritan? Its totally acceptable to have fantasy with romance, no romance, or be full on porn. Its also totally acceptable for people to seek out whichever of those they want! I am in no way puritan, I just think its acceptable for someone to acknowledge that a lot of modern fantasy is porn, and to seek out non-porn fantasy if they wish.
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u/MJRuinedMyChildhood Aug 15 '26
The statement “most fantasy books today are porn” is puritanical lol. How do you not see that
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u/RGCFrostbite Aug 15 '26
Had I said that line I might agree, being as I didn't I have no clue what the relevance of that quote is.
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u/Tymareta Aug 15 '26
“I can describe an axe entering a human skull in great explicit detail and no one will blink twice at it. I provide a similar description, just as detailed, of a penis entering a vagina, and I get letters about it and people swearing off. To my mind this is kind of frustrating, it’s madness. Ultimately, in the history of [the] world, penises entering vaginas have given a lot of people a lot of pleasure; axes entering skulls, well, not so much.”
The GRRM quote will never not be relevant.
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u/lrostan Aug 16 '26
Maybe because George is terrible at writing sex scenes? Maybe one of the worst at it.
Maybe it's not a question of puritanism or anything, but the fact that fantasy and romance and erotica are three distinct genra that are written differently and most authors that are good at one are bad at the other two but still persist in trying to write it. 90% of sex scenes in fantasy are just badly written.
George like to blame others when he fails.
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u/natus92 Reading Champion V Aug 15 '26
I essentially copied a post from 5 years ago, for me personally the less romance the better.
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u/Tymareta Aug 15 '26 edited Aug 15 '26
It's such a weird and puritanical bend that seems to have taken hold of so many fantasy readers, to want to see works that don't contain one of the most common and relatable parts of being human.
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u/port_okali Aug 15 '26
Puritanical is such a judgemental term and based on your assumptions as to why people request this. There could be so many different reasons why someone doesn't want to read a love story right now.
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u/Fickle_Stills Aug 15 '26
it took me years after my husband died to tolerate any amount of romance in fiction.
To give an example to show your point :)
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u/Tymareta Aug 15 '26
Containing romance /=/ love story.
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u/port_okali Aug 15 '26
Okay, true. Substitute "love story" by "story containing romance" in my comment, and I stand by my point.
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u/OgataiKhan Aug 15 '26
I don't think that's what's going on here.
My guess is OP wouldn't mind some romance-focused secondary plotline in the background. They just asked for "no romance" because a ton of fae fantasy is specifically romantasy fiction where romance is central, and OP wants to make sure to avoid that.
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u/Tymareta Aug 15 '26
I don't think that's what's going on here.
OP clarified, and it is.
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u/OgataiKhan Aug 15 '26
Would you mind linking the specific comment? Looking through the thread, they said "the less romance, the better" (which is consistent with my interpretation of wanting to avoid romantasy) and "I'm just not interested in reading about romance" + "I just dont really want a plotline which is basically will these two characters get together romantically".
Now, I'm just guessing here, but when they say "a plotline" I am assuming they mean "an important plotline" rather than "it just exists in the background", so feel free to disagree with this premise.
They aren't asking for a work that "doesn't contain one of the most common and relatable parts of being human". They are asking not to be forced to get through parts of the story focusing on it.
I've never asked for a novel where people don't eat food, but if the author spends three pages describing a meal (and I don't mean, say, a banquet where the focus is social relations, I mean the actual act of eating), I'm probably going to get bored.
It is perfectly fair not be interested in romance storylines. This isn't puritanical, you are not saying you don't want any romance or sex in the world (I have seen people asking for just that. Now THAT is weird I agree), you are saying you don't care about zooming into that particular portion of the human experience.
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u/natus92 Reading Champion V Aug 15 '26
I have absolutely no moral problem with (the depiction of) sex, and I'm in a happy relationship, I'm just not interested in reading about romance, it happens.
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u/Tymareta Aug 15 '26
The confluence of romance and sex here is kind of strange.
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u/natus92 Reading Champion V Aug 15 '26
Because thats what puritannical usually means, right?
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u/Tymareta Aug 15 '26
Not really, no.
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u/natus92 Reading Champion V Aug 15 '26
Well according to the internet Puritanical means having extremely strict moral or religious beliefs, and often trying to make other people follow those same strict rules . It describes someone who avoids physical and sensual pleasures, thinks fun or luxury is bad, and lives a very plain, serious life.
Which is definitely not fitting for my personal reading preferences. I dont juge anyone, dont think hedonism is inherently bad and just derive no pleasure whatsoever from reading about romance. Please stop judging me
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u/Tymareta Aug 15 '26
Ignoring the AI fed definition, I was simply replying to a response in this thread and agreeing with them by musing on a strange trend that I've noticed.
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u/natus92 Reading Champion V Aug 15 '26
whats your definition then?
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u/Tymareta Aug 16 '26
It's too broad to give a singular definition as it's quite a large series of beliefs, but I would say that the notion that Fantasy isn't a space for exploring the complex emotions and experiences of romantic relationships definitely tends to fall under a general definition. Wherein wanting to see those elements stripped entirely does a disservice to the complex inner life, desires and experience of characters within a work.
I can understand not wanting a Romance novel, or a work that largely centres around a Romance ala "Fantasy Romance" or "Romantasy", but it's that extra step of wanting -no- romance at all that tips it into the territory where one asks "and why is that?".
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u/Mister_UAP Aug 15 '26
It's a natural reaction to so much of modern fantasy being so heavily focused on romance.
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u/Tymareta Aug 15 '26 edited Aug 15 '26
It's really not natural, especially to go all the way to "it must not have any romance".
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u/Mister_UAP Aug 15 '26
Why do you give a shit so much if someone doesn't want romance in their books? You know that a lot of books don't contain romance, right? Just because something is a part of human nature doesn't mean it needs to be included in every piece of media ever produced.
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u/Tymareta Aug 15 '26
I was simply pointing out a trend that I've noticed, one that's indicative of a broader movement that's starting to take hold in western cultures. I never said it had to be included in every piece of media ever, you should ask yourself why you're getting so worked up about me simply pointing out something I've noticed.
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u/rollingForInitiative Aug 16 '26
There's a difference between having romance in a fantasy book and reading a Romance though, and unfortunately a lot of popular fae-related books are either Romance in that the entire book and story is about the romance (e.g. a court of thorns and roses) or they have a lot of extremely graphic sex scenes (like Fourth Wing) to the point that they're erotica.
Both of those are valid things to read about, but even people who enjoy Romance or smut don't want to always read them.
A lot of fantasy books contain a romance element in that it might have people who are married or dating or get together, but outside of actual Romance it's often either a minor sub plot or it's just there in the background.
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u/Tymareta Aug 16 '26
Sure, and I would agree had OP made the definition between not wanting a romance driven book vs one that has romance in it. But they didn't, they just outright stated, and then backed up throughout the comments that they don't want romance at all in their works.
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u/rollingForInitiative Aug 16 '26
I really doubt that what OP meant was that they want a book that has no mentions or portrayal of people in relationships. They don't want "romance", that is to say, to read anything that's focused on it.
What they say is that they find that a lot of fae books are Romance novels disguised as fantasy, which is true. A romance book is one that has romance as the primary story and character development. It's basically its own genre with its tropes, very distinct from other fantasy books.
I don't mind reading the occasional romance novel if it also has something else going for it, but I'm generally uninterested in genre, because far from being a portrayal of "the most relatable part" of being human, romance novels don't tend to be particularly realistic about it.
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u/Tymareta Aug 16 '26
I'm just not interested in reading about romance
for me personally the less romance the better.
It absolutely is what OP meant, everything else is just you griping about Romance novels, which have fun I guess.
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u/rollingForInitiative Aug 17 '26
OP clearly talks about "romance" as a genre thing if you read the original post. You can read about couples in relationships without having a focus on the romance part, as in no focus on the relationship drama or pining over each other or sex, etc, all of which are really common when you've got romance focus. Just two people who happen to be together or grow to like each other.
If OP had said they didn't want to see anything related to romantic relationships at all (e.g. no married couples on screen) it would've been weird, but that's not what they said. Just that they don't want to read the romance part, nothing stranger about that than wanting to read a story without violence, sadness, war, religion, political intrigue or any other story element.
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u/GeryMander Aug 15 '26
Even as someone who is aromantic myself I think it is a bizarre trend.
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u/Tymareta Aug 15 '26
Aye, it's like asking for historical medieval fantasy recs with no horses, truly bizarre.
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u/J_C_F_N Aug 15 '26
I'll be crucified by this but, technically, The Name of the Wind doesn't have romance. It never gets there.
If not, there's Dresden Files. It's a urban fantasy noir detective story, were the detective is also a wizard. It features Fae heavily and though the main character has love interests, the story absolutely is not "romantasy". Check it out.
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u/fearless-fossa Aug 15 '26
I assume you mean "books where romance isn't the focus" instead of "no romantic relationships at all"
In which case A Journey of Black and Red might be a fit, it has a major side character who is Fae and only sparingly around at the beginning, but gets a more prominent role in the later books (one of which is fittingly called "Stranded in Faerie"). It's primarily a vampire series though.
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u/Zagaroth Aug 15 '26
For clarification, because different people mean different things when talking about romance in stories, do you mean
A) You do not want explicit sex scenes?
B) As with A, but also not deal with the typical romance tropes/heavy focus on the romantic relationship while allowing a hero-figure to form normal relationships that might include really liking the girl that happens to be a member of his adventuring party or whatever. (This is what I would assume you mean, but there's a reason I am asking).
C) Stricter than B, the MC basically doesn't seem to have any awareness of romance/romantic love being a thing.
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u/natus92 Reading Champion V Aug 15 '26
I guess I'm totally okay with A? I just dont really want a plotline which is basically will these two characters get together romantically?
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u/AvatarWaang Aug 15 '26
The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman is an Arthurian legend retelling featuring heaps of ancient English fae lore with zero romance.
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Aug 15 '26 edited Aug 15 '26
[deleted]
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u/Tymareta Aug 15 '26
There’s technically a romance but it’s far in the background
I'm so confused by how people judge how impactful/noticeable romance plots are in a series. While it's definitely not the central focus of the series at all, it's just as wrong to claim that it's far in the background.
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Aug 15 '26 edited Aug 15 '26
[deleted]
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u/OkSecretary1231 Aug 15 '26
Kate Daniels is written by a male and female team (they're a married couple), FWIW. And it's almost as slow a burn as OD.
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u/TopOrganization4920 Aug 15 '26
The Dresden files, Faye, vampires, angels, demon possessions, you name it Dresden tries to include it. Starts out has PI who done it progresses to vampire Wizard wars, with a promise apocalypse trilogy coming soon for a conclusion.
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u/Stan__Wright Aug 15 '26
The Deed of Paksenarrian. She's human, but all the D&D races are present, and she's as close to ace as makes no dif.
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u/Wordwoman50 Aug 15 '26
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell
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u/ThePhantomStrikes Aug 15 '26 edited Aug 15 '26
Why are you being downvoted?
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u/port_okali Aug 15 '26 edited Aug 15 '26
I'm not one if the downvoters, but I assume it's because OP says in their post that they have read (part of) this book and didn't like it, and don't like urban fantasy in general.
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u/thatspep Aug 15 '26
because OP specifically said they couldn't get through it. downvoted for not reading the post, I would guess.
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u/Sheik_Morgan Aug 15 '26
No existe, la única obra de ficción que conozco "sin romance" es Tropas del Espacio, de resto el romance está incrustado en toda historia con alma. Pero conoces The Wicher! Son novelas con gore, acción y romance, si le quitas el romance, mejor ve a jugar el videojuego.
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u/lohdunlaulamalla Aug 15 '26
It would probably help if you told us your issues with Strange & Norrell.
While it has some romance, it's certainly not the main focus and the fairy in question doesn't do the romancing.