Paranormal or Fantasy Romance vs. Romantasy: What's the Difference (And Why You Should Care)
Updated: 4 days ago
Paranormal or Fantasy Romance vs. Romantasy: What's the Difference (And Why You Should Care)
Amazon will slap "paranormal" on anything with fangs, wings, or a monster boyfriend. But most readers know better. If you've ever opened a book expecting a Kresley Cole vibe and landed in a brand-new kingdom with a map in the front and no sign of modern conveniences, you've hit the real line between paranormal romance vs romantasy.
Paranormal or fantasy romance
So what's the difference? Well, paranormal romance keeps one foot in the modern world. Modern cities. Real mythology beneath the surface. Secret societies, hidden immortals, portals into layered realms, but Earth is still part of the story. That would be Larissa Ione's demon hospital under New York City, or J.R. Ward's brotherhood protecting their race in the shadows of Caldwell, New York. My Watchers and Warriors books live here too: fallen angels, shifters, witches, curses, and fated mates crashing into ordinary lives until the ordinary stops being ... well, ordinary.
From my experience (and what I've seen other authors do), fantasy romance is often interchangeable with paranormal romance and romantasy. It just depends on the author. While some sites claim fantasy romance is basically romantasy, the definitions seem more like a tomato-tomoto thing. Some say fantasy first, romance second. I primarily write paranormal romance, but I include dark fantasy romance in the definition because much of what I write contains urban fantasy elements like mystery, urban or modern residential settings, dark thriller vibes, urban clothing, and characters who live in two worlds (urban and fantastical). While I could simply stick to saying I write paranormal romance, I want readers to know there's a touch of urban fantasy, like mystery and grit, in the mix too.
As a side note, urban fantasy is very similar. It's just more focused on the derelict setting, keeping romance as the secondary plot. I'd lump the 2005 movie Sin City and the 1984 rock-and-roll movie Streets of Fire into urban fantasy. The cities feel like their own character and drive the plot, but romance burns beneath.
Paranormal romance vs romantasy
Romantasy lives in a fully fictional world that's built from scratch. Nothing from the real world remains at all. These stories have their own politics, magic systems, courts, and consequences. Romance is at the center, but the setting isn't Earth with monsters. It's somewhere ... else. Sometimes it leans toward epic fantasy or dystopian. Either way, it's always invented. And that invented world is the second half of paranormal romance vs romantasy.
Why the difference matters
Why should you care? Well, because the promise can be different. PNR readers typically want fierce, grown heroines, fated mates, found family, and supernatural danger stitched into a world that still feels close enough to touch. Romantasy readers want immersive invented kingdoms, young adult heroines (usually, but they do become tiresome for some readers), court intrigue, and love stories that reshape those worlds. Neither is better. They're just different tastes. PNR romance also lean toward more explicit love scenes. Yep, that's me.
Personally, I don't gravitate toward romantasy as a reader, and that's fine. Art is subjective. What I do ask is that we name our stories correctly, so readers can find the novels they actually want to read … and so those books stop getting mislabeled into the wrong categories.
If you want spice, immortals, and a reality that cracks open beside your own, you're in my realm. But don't expect a new layered policial system in my portal worlds. Most are hell-planes with little to no rules other than survival.
If I've piqued your interest in paranormal or fantasy romance, you can start to immerse yourself in my parallel realms with this free prequel, Angel Cursed. Come meet the Watchers by clicking on the link today.
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