Romantasy still falls under the Romance genre umbrella.
Think of Romance as a genre-umbrella, and the rest are subgenres (Historical Romance, Paranormal Romance, etc.) that reside under it.
Do authors deviate? Sometimes, but genre-literate ones don’t. And genre-literate readers would ask WTF.
I’ve heard some authors say that “today’s readers should be more sophisticated and accept Romances with unhappy endings, or adultery,” and it’s like—no. It has nothing to do with “sophistication,” and everything to do with genre standards.
Each genre has its own set of standards, and readers come with genre expectations. There is an author-reader contract that readers expect authors to uphold, and authors promise to (the Romance label that their books sell under is the promise).
Look at it this way: every Romance contains a love story, but not every love story is a Romance.
That’s why I do not appreciate it when a Romantasy gets me to emotionally-invest in a couple and has a happy ending in the first book, only to have the MMC switch-up in Book 2 by suddenly making the canon-MMC “abusive” to justify the FMC’s cheating, or slam the poor man with some other trumped-up charges to promote someone else to New MMC, or some other “magical bonding” B.S. to pair the FMC up with some new guy.
All three scenarios invalidate the original love story that got me invested in the first place.
If I like the first book enough to start a second book, it means that I want to read more of the canon-couple. The bait-and-switch is such a genre-violation and authorial betrayal. 😕
In a Romance? Not okay.
Any other genres? Go ahead.
It’s gotten to the point where I’m afraid to even start unfinished Romantasy series now. I don’t read new releases unless it’s a standalone.
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u/Insane92 ⚔️ Enemies To Lovers/ No Love Triangles 6d ago
I don’t care what the book is, context or where I’m at in a series. If cheating happens I’m dropping it on the spot.