The Never List

The Never List follows the conventions of the popular “why choose” trope within the romantasy genre, a category that blends elements of romance with fantasy conventions. Both “why choose” novels and romantasy novels have seen an enormous boom on BookTok, a TikTok community focused on books and reading. BookTok has launched many romance titles into instant success, including Hannah Grace’s Icebreaker and erotic science-fiction romance Ice Planet Barbarians, which received a traditional publishing contract six years after its initial publication due to its TikTok success.

The term “romantasy” became popular in 2024, though romance-fantasy hybrid novels predate this terminology. Unlike fantasy with a romantic subplot, romantasy novels keep the romance narrative central. Romantasy often takes place in fantastical settings with magic systems given centrality to the world-building of that setting. What distinguishes romantasy from other romance subgenres is its sustained focus on a single romantic arc across multiple installments rather than introducing new pairings in each book. This narrative structure allows for slower-burn development, higher-stakes emotional arcs, and greater integration between plot and romance.