Shield of Sparrows

Romantasy is a fantasy subgenre in which romance plays a central role in the story, blending the emotional intensity of a love story with the high stakes of a fantasy setting. Magic, politics, and dangerous conflict often surround a romantic relationship that develops throughout the work. This romantic plot is significant and often the driving force behind the characters’ choices and conflict. These stories often rely on storylines common in the romance genre broadly, including slow-burn relationships, enemies-to-lovers plotlines, or morally complicated relationships. The protagonist is typically a woman, and her love interest is often someone cursed, dangerous, or tied to the enemy. The connection between characters usually develops through forced proximity, a mix of tentative trust and potential betrayal, and shared missions.

Romantasy also focuses on characters facing difficult decisions. They often must choose between love and duty or between survival and connection. The world around them is rarely safe or simple, which makes the romance more intense and riskier. Recent popular examples—such as A Court of Thorns and Roses, From Blood and Ash, Serpent and the Wings of Night, and Fourth Wing—have helped define and popularize the genre, especially in the young adult and new adult markets. Social media platforms like BookTok (a subsection of TikTok with content focused on authors, books, and reading) have further fueled its rise, creating massive and passionate fan communities. The premise of Shield of Sparrows draws particularly on Danielle L. Jensen’s The Bridge Kingdom, a 2018 romantasy, as well as Andrzej Sapkowski’s fantasy classic The Witcher, featuring a once-human monster hunter made something else through a curious elixir and an enemies-to-lovers romance between a prince and a princess sent to betray him.