Our Mid-Year Romantasy Favourites: 10 Books We Can't Stop Recommending in 2026
Share
We're halfway through 2026, and it's shaping up to be one of the strongest years romantasy has had yet — sequels finally paying off years of waiting, genre-bending debuts, and a few books that don't even want to be called romantasy at all (and earn the right to say so). Here's what's been living in our hands, our Crate boxes, and our group chats this year.
1. Wonders Never Cease — Lexy Hudson
Simply put: this book is beautiful, and it has stayed with us long after we finished it. Set inside an elite London ballet company, it follows Trix and the company's mysterious, meteoric rising star Sander, whose past holds something stranger than either of them expects. It's a slow-burn romance told with real love and knowledge of the ballet world, and it's also a rare book in the genre built around an asexual central relationship that's never treated as a problem to solve, just a love story told fully on its own terms. One of our picks for The Bound this year.
2. Aicha — Soraya Bouazzaoui
A fictionalised origin story for Aicha Kandicha, a figure from Moroccan folklore, set against the fight to drive Portuguese colonisers from Morocco. This one leans further into historical fiction and myth than most books on this list, with romance as a thread rather than the engine — but the rage, grief, and rebellion at its centre make it one of the most striking debuts of the year for readers who want their fantasy rooted in real history and underrepresented mythology.
3. Starside — Alex Aster
Alex Aster's first adult romantasy (she's well known for her YA Lightlark series). Enemies-to-lovers, a deadly quest across a realm split between gods and mortals, and a heroine whose only reason for entering a lethal competition is vengeance. If you want plot-forward romantasy with a sword-based magic system, this is the one to pick up before book two arrives.
4. Blood Bound — Ellis Hunter
The debut fantasy romance everyone's been passing around this spring. Written by the author duo behind the pen name Ellis Hunter, Blood Bound centres two heirs — one a witch bound to a death duel, one a blade-juggler searching for her missing friend — on opposite sides of a war neither of them chose. Dragons, witches, and a found-family thread that's just as strong as the romance. First in the Cursed Covenant trilogy.
5. Innamorata — Ava Reid
Ava Reid herself will tell you this isn't a romantasy — it's gothic dark fantasy first, with love as the doom at its centre rather than the destination. We're including it anyway, because if you love the genre for its atmosphere, its morally tangled characters, and its willingness to let a love story end in ruin, this island of necromancers and noble houses will scratch every itch. Not for readers who want their happily ever after guaranteed.
6. This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me — Ilona Andrews
Who wouldn't want to wake up inside their favourite book? Maggie gets exactly that — pulled into the fantasy series she's loved since childhood — only to discover that while she genuinely cannot be killed, everyone around her very much can. It's funny, it's high-stakes, and it's stuffed with the found-family warmth Ilona Andrews is known for, wrapped around dueling princes and a kingdom heading toward a war Maggie already knows the ending to. Book one of Maggie the Undying.
7. A Stage Set for Villains — Shannon J. Spann
A romantasy where the gods are dead and all that's left are the Players — godlike performers whose shows can bend reality itself. Riven infiltrates their travelling theatre, the Playhouse, to break a curse, and strikes a bargain with its charismatic, dangerous lead that puts her own morality on trial. Told in acts and scenes, with a magic system built entirely around performance and illusion — one of the most original premises we've read this year.
8. Vile Lady Villains — Danai Christopoulou
Lady Macbeth and Klytemnestra, two of literature's most infamous women, wrenched out of their own tragedies and thrown together in a realm built from stories themselves. A sapphic, richly intertextual reimagining that asks what happens when women written as villains get the chance to write their own ending. Dense, dark, and unlike anything else on this list — a strong pick if you want your romantasy shelved next to your classics.
9. Light Wielder — Rachel Schneider
The sequel to the BookTok phenomenon Metal Slinger, picking up four years after the war it started. Jovie and Acker's fractured bond is put through the wringer here — this is a book about whether love can survive the unforgivable, not a fresh meet-cute. If you loved Metal Slinger, this is the one you've been waiting for.
10. Fury Bound — Sable Sorensen
Book two in the Wolves of Ruin series, and a full-throttle continuation of the revenge, spice, and power struggles that made Dire Bound a breakout hit. Meryn's arc gets messier and higher-stakes here, with the kind of dark romantasy tension that rewards readers who like their heroines a little unhinged and their bonds a little dangerous.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best romantasy book of 2026 so far? There's no single consensus pick, but Starside by Alex Aster and Blood Bound by Ellis Hunter are two of the most talked-about adult romantasy releases of the year, alongside the BookTok-driven success of Light Wielder by Rachel Schneider.
What romantasy books are coming out this summer? July and August 2026 bring a wave of sequels and new fantasy romance across the darker end of the genre — worth checking our Crate and Bound picks each month if you want curated new releases without the doomscrolling.
Is Innamorata by Ava Reid a romantasy? Not by the author's own description — Reid has said it's dark gothic fantasy first, with romance as a devastating undercurrent rather than the genre's traditional happy ending. Readers who love romantasy for atmosphere and morally complex characters tend to love it anyway.