WOW, you guys. You know how to reward curiosity.
Last time I hit you with a short survey to get a better understanding of what you like in fantasy romance and what you wish you'd see more often in books. I thought it would be interesting.
And boy, was it.
The answers to what you want more of, especially.
Here's a summary (and if you missed the survey last time, you can still get to play the fun "decode this book spine message" game that was linked at the end of it):
Collectively, you like a lot of flavors of fantasy romance. Books set in invented worlds are the frontrunner, but most of you also enjoy books set in our world, in historical(ish) settings like gaslamp and steampunk, in contemporary-feeling settings and also fairy tale retellings, epic fantasy, urban fantasy, portal fantasy and books with fae or shifters.
The least-popular category on the survey was monster romance, and even so, fully half of you like it. That's still a lot! 🐉
And you pointed out additional fantasy romance flavors you like that I should have thought to include as options, like dystopian, academy, dark romance, time travel and vampires.
Enemies to lovers 4EVA. To my complete lack of shock, this pairing got the most "I like it" votes. But very close on its heels is forced proximity, the sorts of stories where the future love interests have to work or deal with each other whether they like it or not. (Hooray, my current WIP has both!)
Grumpy/sunshine, fated mates and opposites attract were also very popular.
Least liked: wrong side of the tracks. So, OK, hear me out: If one of the love interests was well-to-do as a kid and the other was poor, but then their situations reverse and they're thrown together again (with a dash of forced proximity and enemies-to-lovers) ... well, that sounded so intriguing to me that I had to write it, sorry not sorry.
The things you want more of. I loved reading all of this. But since there were too many responses to share each one of them, here's a selection:
Different body types - fat, short, etc.
My favorite characters feel like actual people rather than cutouts being forced to follow a story path. Authors describe the characters as getting away from them.
Older characters.
Cinnamon roll hero with dark past.
More secondary characters from the ignored parts of LGBTQ, like ace, and aromantics.
An extrovert protagonist!! I always end up relating to the main characters friend more. I wish more main characters were loud, open, and confident, instead of quiet, shy, and secretive.
Religion that's not ridiculed.
Mixed race love, bi-racial characters, smaller chested FMC.
Positive, enthusiastic, and ongoing consent.
Bards, not enough bards in books.
Thank you for sharing your bookish opinions! And one more wow note: You live all over the world. No one claimed Antarctica as their home, but you're on every other continent.
(P.S. Would the seven of you residing in a "far cooler dimension" tell the rest of us how to get there, pretty please?)
📚🌟📚🌟📚
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