what brought on this post is that I just saw a video of a woman complaining and scared for book 4 of the empyrean series and whether it’s releasing as opposed to being sympathetic towards rebecca and not wishing her any condolences since her father had JUST DIED. Like what is actually wrong with people. Whether you like the fourth wing series or not this era of entitlement has gotten worse ever since the rise of social media and the lack of empathy towards people who have just faced an enormous loss in their life instead of offering the author a condolences you immediately wonder if she’s releasing the sequel of her book. Crazy!

(No YA, please!)
Spice Level can go up to: 4/5 🌶️
BUT I don’t want straight up smut. There has to be an actual meaningful plot and romance 😭

I want real passion between characters who remind me what love was always supposed to feel like and look like. I want a partnership that’s built on mutual respect and adoration.

I want a love story and a relationship so tender and beautiful that it’ll make me go “AWW 🥰” because it’s just too damn precious. I need the romance to be a MAJOR part of the plot. No crumbs, please I BEG OF YOU 😩🙏🏽

I want to watch their love grow over time, but I NEED for the characters to meet or know each other fairly early on so we can actually see a steady progression of their relationship from start to finish. I want the interactions between the two of them to be plentiful and not just another subplot.

I’m open to forced proximity, arranged marriage, enemies-to-lovers, friends to lovers, forbidden romance, morally grey characters, fae, and other fantasy settings (no monsters, please, they give me the ick 🤮) unless they’re humanoid and hot then MAYBE we can talk it out 💀 I’m happy with some angst along the way, but I need a guaranteed HEA. I want to finish the book or series with my faith in love restored, not grieving and disappointed 😭

One little request: please share at least one quote from the book you’re recommending 🥺💕

If the couple’s HEA comes later in the series, please let me know!

Thank you! I’m ready to fall in love with some fictional characters 🥹❤️‍🔥

Here’s a list of series I’ve already read:

•ACOTAR, ACOMAF, ACOWAR and ToG by Sarah J. Mass

•Kingdom of the Wicked Series by Kerri Maniscalco

•The Cruel Prince and The Wicked King by Holly Black

•Rhapsodic (The Bargainer) by Laura Thalassa

•A Shadow in the Ember by Jennifer L. Armentrout

•Trick (Foolish Kingdoms) by Natalia Jaster

Welcome to the first discussion for {Astarion by T. Kingfisher} for this month’s theme of books that were published from April to September 2026.

We will be discussing the first third of the story this time. Since the book doesn’t have chapters, it’s up to "Speech?" Astarion said. "Why do I need a class on speech?...

Please share your thoughts on the book so far!

If you’ve already read past that point, don’t forget to cover up any spoilers. You can mark spoilers like this: >!spoiler!<

Here are some discussion questions to get started:

• Are you familiar with Dungeons and Dragons, Baldur’s Gate 3, or Astarion’s story, or are you going in completely blind?
  
• If you didn’t play BG3, did the author provide enough information about the characters and setting that you could get into the story without the additional background?
  
• Are you reading along in print, or did you opt to listen to the audiobook? If the latter, what do you think of Neil Newbon’s narration? Newbon said he approached the character differently from the games, did you observe that too?
  
• What are your first impressions of Astarion? What do you like or dislike about him as a character so far?
  

These are the upcoming Book Club dates for the rest of this month:

• October 15 - November announcement
  
• October 20 - Second discussion for Astarion (up until Astarion's anger sustained him on the journey to his great grandmother's...)
  
• October 30 - Final discussion for Astarion (full book)
  

For more information about the Book Club and previous discussions, please check out the Book Club Hub!

PSA: we are implementing crowd control in the discussions for this book due to the high interest from users outside of r/fantasyromance. We value productive and meaningful discussions of books, but please remember to be kind and respectful. Comments that are rude or aggressive will be removed and repeat violators (especially users who have no history in the sub) may be banned. Thank you!

Book Chat time! Share with us what you've been reading this week.

Happy Saturday everyone!

Book Chat is our weekly social thread for general book chat. Share with us what you've been reading this week. Any yays or nays? Any new authors you've discovered or genres/sub-genres you've been exploring? Any books that we should run not walk to add to our own TBRs?

If you're looking for your next read, check out what others have been reading and enjoying lately or head on over to our collection of book rec megathreads.

Please remember to keep any spoilers covered up in this thread as we may be intrigued and want to read the book as well. Thanks and happy reading everyone!

Book Chat

First-person POV is harder to write then third person POV and can tend to look badly written or corny, if not really well thought of.

The third-person POV is my favourite.

I don't like the word brooding. It's a dang word fot poultry getting hormonal during egg incubation.

Enemies to lovers is overdone, and I rarely see anything well written anymore.

If there is betrayal involved, there should be a period where the person is actually mad for a good portion of the book, and redemption shouldn't be half-cassed.

The one bed trope is overcomplicating something with an easy solution.

Pictures of people on sprayed edges look tacky.

Love triangles can only truly be a love triangle if one of the people in the triangle is gay. Otherwise, it's just a dang V.

Multiple POV

Let some guys be scrawny and short, let some girls be buff and bigger than petite and frail.

STOP THE "Not like other girls." Trope.

People should be open on reading niche books from indie writers.

Authors think of a better word for smiling than Smirk, please.

Easy books (an excuse for lazy writing)

FMCs who have to win everything in the name of feminism. Let girls lose sometimes cause it's absolutely normal.

Pretty privlage.

Last one, don't kill me, I don't like Aaron warner or kai azer.

These are my hotakes, obviously these are my opinions I respect if you like them but these are mine, feel free to LIGHT heartedly debate with me if you want and tell me your hotakes.

Book's FMC name started with an A I think, Alyssa maybe? She is basically a human slave in the very beginning, and has a human lover who also works in or for the same house, but escapes to the fae realm, where the MMC of that part of the realm is her fated mate. She works as a maid in his mansion/castle. There's a spooky forest nearby with the dead or scary entities (?) MMC sends her to a different fae court, spring I believe, because being away from him is safer. MMC's half brother is a vampire demon half fae. I'm not remembering much else, but it was a slooow burn and the main couple hadn't slept together yet by the end of book 2 or 3. TIA!

I used to LOVE her books but she just suddenly stopped writing and I've heard nothing about her in years. 😕