Spicy dragons with Maddy Belton

Publishing, like every other aspect of life, is not immune from the trends cycle. In fact, it’s probably far more susceptible to what’s in vogue or not than it would like to admit. Remember when Gone Girl took the reading world by storm, and ushered in domestic noir in the process? Or that moment a few years ago with contemporary, female-focussed fiction was suddenly all being printed with covers of faceless women? If you think nobody else has influenced your reading taste, then we’re here to remind you that the Miranda Priestley cerulean sweater rule applies to books too.

And we thought it was about time we got into one of publishing’s most, well, horny trends of the moment: romantasy.

A blend of romance and fantasy genres, today’s guest, agent Maddy Belton, explains that romantasy novels are ones in which the high stakes of a fantasy novel (two, often magical or otherworldly political factions, which may or may not be human, are fighting for good and evil) are matched by the stakes of a love affair. Fourth Wing, the first in Rebecca Yarros’s sexy dragon saga the Empyrean series, offers a good case in point: our confused heroine is bound together, through the magic of dragons, with a man she is told wants her dead due to inherited political alliance. Furthermore: they both fancy each other.

In this episode we delve into how and why Romantasy has become such a force to be reckoned with, what it tells us about why we read what we do, and where to start if we’re curious.

And a reminder: we’ve now set up an In Haste bookshop.org page - this is where you can buy all of the titles featured in the show. We’ll benefit from a tiny bit of kickback, which helps keeps the podcast in production. And if you love In Haste, we rely on substack subscriptions to exist. We’d love it if you were able to upgrade yours today.

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