The Fantasy Romance Book Series Dominating The NYT Best Sellers List

Romantasy, a genre defined by its combination of romance and fantasy, has exploded in popularity with the rise of magical series like Sarah J. Maas's "A Court of Thorns and Roses" and the boom of BookTok as an online space for readers. Since the release of "Fourth Wing" in April 2023, "The Empyrean" series by Rebecca Yarros has been the newest genre phenomenon, with Kindle readers obsessed with the steamy, dragon-centered romance.

The series has continued to dominate the New York Times Best Sellers list since its debut, with the New York Times reporting that "Onyx Storm," the third installment, sold over 2.7 million copies in the first week of its January 2025 release. The title has oscillated between the number one and number two spots on the outlet's Combined Print & E-Book Fiction Best Sellers list, with earlier installments also maintaining high rankings. The "Fourth Wing" series is a big hit among adult titles, with the success demonstrating that the romantasy genre is here to stay.

If you're unfamiliar, "Fourth Wing" and its follow-up novels center around Violet Sorrengail, a twenty-year-old thrust into the brutal world of dragon-riding at the Basgiath War College. Sent there under the command of her military mother, she must survive challenging training while fighting against the growing attraction she feels to Xaden Riorson and navigating her chronic illness. "I read fantasy growing up and I never saw that; I saw these powerful heroines," author Rebecca Yarros, who is diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, told The New York Times. "I wanted to tell a story about a girl who should not succeed, and who should not be able to endure an overly brutal environment."

With its massive popularity, "The Empyrean" saga has incited its fair share of criticisms and one-star reviews, with some readers finding issues with the use of tropes and the writing style. Still, fans of the series cite its explicit, enemies-to-lovers romance and dragon-centered fantasy world as major draws, with the military-inspired setting lending itself to lots of action and intrigue. In this way, with "Fourth Wing" being among the BookTok adaptations we can't wait for and having at least two more installments in its series, it doesn't seem like the hype for the series will be dying down anytime soon.