Romantasyland: A Novel

by Emma MacDonald

Enemies-to-lovers? Don’t mind if I do.

Everything in Eve Lockwood’s life is grey—and not in a fun, morally ambiguous kind of way. No matter how much soggy takeout she orders or how many Friends reruns she binges, the only place she can truly escape is between the pages of her beloved romantasy novels. So, when an advertisement for a romantasy-lovers retreat crosses her path, Eve jumps at the chance to play out her favorite bookish fantasies with likeminded readers. What could go wrong?

Quite a lot, as it turns out. Namely, that while doing a retreat activity in the middle of the woods, she somehow trips and falls through a portal into a real-life fantasy world—and straight into the arms of a (ridiculously attractive) grumpy, woodland fae prince. Just her luck, honestly. At first, Eve is convinced it’s all part of the retreat, until she survives a monster attack, unlocks forgotten magic that apparently makes her The Chosen One™, and is shipped off on a quest to break an ancient curse all before lunchtime. Wonderful.

Unsurprisingly, it doesn’t take long for her quest to go off the rails, and Eve soon finds this storyline isn’t as perfect as her novels. With her newfound magic wildly out of control, her enemies-to-lovers arc with the prince staying firmly in the enemies stage, and a hot mysterious, shadowy figure lurking in her dreams, the curse seems more likely to break Eve than the other way around. Armed with only her knowledge of book tropes and a misguided belief that the main character can’t die, Eve must rise to become The Chosen One she was (probably not) destined to be, save the world, and get home . . . if she even wants to?

Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Romantasy, Adult, Fantasy Romance

448 pages, Paperback

Expected publication April 6, 2027

About the author

Emma MacDonald currently resides outside of Washington, DC, living out her dreams as a witch in the woods.

When she’s not writing, she can be found gardening, brewing potions, or chasing after her small menagerie of pets. Emma loves to write fantasy with a big splash of magic and romance.

Her debut Adult Fantasy dark academia novel, WHISPERS MOST FOUL, was published by Penguin Michael Joseph in October 2024, with its sequel WHISPERS MOST DEADLY soon to follow in Fall of 2025.

Reviews

[MagretFume]

Unfortunately this did not work for me.
I love portal fantasy and the cover definitely drew me in, but I felt let down by the rough writing.
The ideas were interesting but the characters felt flat, and the FMC behaved like a hormonal teenager.
Overall it's a 2.5. It can be entertaining under the right circumstances, but I expected better.

[Mimi Schweid]

I'm either going to love this or rage read, I can feel it in my bones.

[angelinabvby ۶ৎ]

i got the arc ehheheehheheeheh 💖💝💗💖💝💗💖💝💗

[Kelli]

I read this ARC for NetGalley. The concept is fun and honestly the cover art is what drew me to this book originally. I love the look of the book and one of the stars is just for the cover art.

I don’t think the writing and plot are for me, sadly. This reminds me of that book turned to movie - Austenland. Except it’s for fantasy lovers. Or that’s what Eve thinks when she is dropped into the world. It has every cliche trope you can think of and is kind of sarcastically written in that way. But dialog is so wooden that it doesn’t even have funny sarcastic banter. I could not care or get hooked into the story. It felt like I was reading a book that I didn’t want to stay in. It was like a terrible movie you keep on in the background but wish you could turn off.

[Leigh]

This book was a disappointment.
 
I love transmigration – it’s my guilty pleasure trope. This is the first American take on the trope that I’ve read (though I don't know if it counts as quite transmigration) and I must admit that I’m disappointed. I have very specific preferences on the transmigration trope, and unless the main character is transmigrating into a side character, villain, or otherwise “secret” characters, I really struggle with it. I think it’s much more fun that way. One thing Romantasyland has taught me about myself is that I am NOT a Chosen One fan when the Chosen One is the main character. It’s too easy for the author to fall into the over-reactive, exposition-heavy dialogue trap when it’s the main character who has to question every single thing about the new world they’ve fallen into. Never heard of “insert forest name here”? Eve is going to ask about it. Never heard of this type of monster? Eve is going to ask about it. Don’t know how long the standard life span is for these fantasy folks? Eve is going to ask about it. Would we all probably do the same thing in her shoes? Sure, but it’s not fun to trudge through the dialogue when it happens every other page.
 
That aside, the humor wasn’t hitting the right beats for me, and I had a hard time caring about any of the characters. I skimmed the last third of the book, read through the epilogue, and while I liked that Rowan ends the novel as more a “side character” (again, my transmigration preference rears its head), I just can’t justify liking it enough to give it a 3. This book may be worth a chance for anyone who hasn’t read transmigration as a trope before, but if you’re versed in it and have your own specific preferences about the trope, this may miss the mark.

[ror]

2.5

the idea of this book is really fun - a romantasy lover who is stuck in a mundane day-to-day life without much adventure or joy finds herself in a foreign land, with all the makings of a romantasy surrounding her.

now, beyond that is where things started to miss for me. she lands in this foreign land and immediately… wants to sleep with EVERYONE she sees. I get it, mythical beings are gorgeous, but her repetitive inner thoughts about everyone’s beauty and how much she wanted to hop into bed was super overpowering to any of the plot or character building. every character is hot, and I don’t really know much else about them! also, how am I to believe that our main character falls so deeply in love when one page ago she was fantasizing about someone else? the love story isn’t believable, and that’s a big miss for me.

this story is super chaotic. I think it was done intentionally to try and emphasize that the main character was a romantasy reader/fan, but we really don’t need EVERY trope, with another one popping up every few minutes. this could’ve been fun with the way that the author breaks the third wall in these moments, but it was way too overdone.

the fantasy world in this doesn’t seem fully fleshed out to me. we learn the names of the species and some of their powers (with random tidbits thrown out here and there) but I really don’t know much about the world. not to mention that everyone in that world is talking about the curse and the prophecy, but it’s never actually fully described to our main character. the world building here was lacking, but you can see that there are some promising ideas (most notably- the giant dogs in the form of ithil, various different monsters that they have to face, some of the gods in this realm).

I think that this story could’ve been much better if there was less focus on the main character’s lust for EVERYONE and more focus on world building, character development, and refinement of the tropes/challenges that they face. this was a romantasy with a barely outlined fantasy world and a lackluster love story.

thank you to netgalley and the publishers for the arc!

[Gabbi]

Thank you to Netgalley and Ballantine | Dell for the ARC copy of this book!

I was drawn to this book by the title and cover alone. "Romantasyland" what a fun play on many people's favored genre of books. After reading the description, I immediately knew I wanted to read the book, I mean who doesn't want to escape the mundane everyday life and teleport into a magical fantasy realm? I know I wouldn't pass up the opportunity.

The book was light-hearted and satirical. If you take this book at face-value, and enjoy silly and unserious reads, then you may enjoy this book.

However, I found myself bored and at times annoyed with the overuse of tropes. I understand that is the premise of this book, but I feel like it could have been executed differently. The FMC also would not stop talking about how attractive everyone else was. It got boring after awhile. In the end, I just could not relate to the protagonist, which led to me being uninvested in the story as a whole.

2.5⭐s. rounded up to 3⭐s

[Sydney McKay]

Review of ARC from NetGalley

Listen, I love a Isekai/portal fantasy novel. One of my favorite reads from this year was Ilona Andrews’s This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me. So I went into this book with high hopes and was really rather disappointed by Romantasyland.

The biggest issue with this book is that it is really shallow. The concept was really strong, but the author seemed to bank on the premise for much of her storytelling. Additionally, Eve is a really weak (and also shallow) main character, so the character work doesn’t really shore up the glaring underwriting of the entire novel.

Because this book, unlike TKWNKM, is a completely new world not based on a specific book with our main character loved, there needed to be much stronger world building. Instead, it felt like a lot of hand waving, especially through the narration of Eve. There’s a lot of this “well this looks straight out of every fantasy book/movie” or this looks like “The Lord of the Rings” without taking any further effort to build the world. Anything that can’t be explained to Eve (and to the readers) is kind of just scooted around as part of the chaos magic. Maybe it’s not fair to compare Romantasyland to TKWNKM, but I think the difference is stark and highlights some deeper issues with the narrative. Ilona Andrews has been writing in the fantasy genre for decades now, and it shows in their construction of both characters and fans. Maggie in their novel has a deep reverence for fantasy, for how it functions in our world, and her experience in the novel shows how jarring it is when our fantasy comes into conflict with our reality. In comparison, it kind of feels like Eve doesn’t even really like fantasy or romantasy books. She spends so much of her time calling the places, people, or situations she encounters cliches that it gives the impression that she has a disdain for this genre. I can’t and won’t make assumptions of Emma MacDonald’s reading tastes, but the impression I got from this particular novel is that this is an “easy” genre to write in because so much of it is the same across the board. The pointing out of the tropes-oh this is miscommunication, this is the racially ambiguous MMC (which kind of shocked me to see included at all because like ?), here’s the stereotypical evil king- it was all very strange because it didn’t go further than that. There was no commentary, no deconstructing what a person from our reality would make of it besides “this sucks in real life”, no real relevance to the plot at all. In Sarah Rees Brendan’s Long Live Evil, the FMC uses these tropes to better navigate her way through the world and manipulate the situation to her benefit. For Eve, it felt like she was on a safari pointing out all the animals she’s seeing. It doesn’t feel like MacDonals’s a fan of the genre, it didn’t feel like Eve is a fan, so it made it kind of uncomfortable to read. Maybe it is a lack of experience reading in or writing in the fantasy genre, or not having a firm grasp of it. But it was honestly gave the impression of lazy writing.

Now Eve did not making things easy to get into the narrative. Her first impression of everyone is “wow they’re hot I’d smash.” She’s so horny all the time. Which is a character type that I personally hate, so if I knew that I probably wouldn’t have picked up this book. With that being said, this could be charming with a different character’s personality but it really didn’t fit with her meekness. MacDonald could’ve leaned into the chaotic freewheeling bisexual a lot more but didn’t want to commit. Eve’s inner monologue was tough to listen to and the choices she makes are strange. It’s too bad because her background is kind of the perfect one to have for a portal fantasy FMC and she had the right motivations to really step up to being a Chosen One. But she’s just so shallow. As a result, the relationships she has also lack depth or any real connection. Which is further exacerbated by Eve constantly blaming it on tropes. Rowan’s being difficult because he is the “grumpy prince” or because the “miscommunication trope” is in full swing. It undercut Rowan’s actual thoughts and actions in a very frustrating way.

In the TLDR, this relied heavily on concept and reader’s previous experience with the genre which left us with an underdeveloped and shallow story.

[KC]

Book Review: Romantasyland by Emma MacDonald

Romantasyland promises a clever send-up of romantasy, but its self-aware premise never develops into sharp satire or a satisfying fantasy story. I picked it up for the cover, but once Eve enters the fantasy world, the story loses focus amid familiar elements: royal politics, dangerous quests, forced proximity, hot princes, and a chosen-one narrative. The premise could have allowed the novel to indulge in and critique the genre’s conventions. Instead, it mostly reproduces them with a knowing wink. Self-awareness is not the same as satire: familiar tropes need to be exaggerated, complicated, or recontextualized to reveal what they assume and how they function.

Here, the novel repeatedly points out its own conventions without asking what makes them appealing, limiting, or absurd. Royal politics could have exposed the shallow wish fulfillment of fantasy courts, but they remain decorative intrigue. The dangerous quest could have challenged the idea that trauma and peril automatically produce character growth, yet it mainly moves Eve toward the next expected revelation. The hot-prince romance could have interrogated the genre’s tendency to treat possessiveness, power imbalances, and instant attraction as proof of destiny, but it largely accepts those dynamics as romantic shorthand. Even the chosen-one plot, which might have questioned why fantasy heroines are granted importance only after being singled out by prophecy, ultimately reinforces that hierarchy.

Because these opportunities are missed, the tropes do not become objects of critique; they simply become the story’s machinery. Eve feels less like a fully realized person than a collection of recognizable protagonist quirks, including manufactured bookishness and “not like other girls” energy. Her transformation from ordinary reader to central figure also lacks the emotional development needed to make the fantasy of being chosen feel either convincing or meaningfully examined. The plot moves predictably from one expected beat to the next, and the romance is similarly underdeveloped. Forced proximity creates tension, but intimacy arrives as a required step rather than the payoff to meaningful connection.

The ending feels especially checklist-like: Eve returns through a portal, the story jumps forward, and phone calls lead to a cozy cottage happily-ever-after. These details might have been charming if they meaningfully reshaped the genre’s conventions; instead, they feel like familiar rewards disconnected from the preceding conflict. With thin characterization, predictable plotting, an underdeveloped romance, and satire that never substantially interrogates its tropes, Romantasyland is neither the sharp critique nor the satisfying fantasy it promises. I skimmed the final stretch after losing interest in the prose, pacing, and protagonist. Readers who enjoy chaotic, trope-heavy meta-romantasy may still enjoy it, but for me it was less a clever send-up than a trope checklist. 2 stars for the cover and the map.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC. This is my honest and voluntary review.

[Jamie Downer]

Thank you to Random House and Net Galley for a digital ARC. I read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Romantasyland is a US debut by author Emma MacDonald. In it, our protagonist Eve finds herself facing a lot of dead ends in her life: she’s lost her parents and her cat, she’s in a soul-sucking job, and she can’t even muster the courage to tell her attractive coworker that she likes her. Sigh.

So it totally tracks that going to a romantasy lovers weekend should add some spark to her otherwise humdrum life, right? Too bad she gets spirited away to another world and must now navigate a spate of familiar tropes. Turns out living them out is a lot less fun than reading about them…

For those who love the romantasy genre, this book will no doubt be a lot of fun. Emma MacDonald writes with a constant, self-deprecating wink to her audience about the reasons readers lose themselves in the genre, which includes an ongoing meta-narrative about the greater anxieties and difficulties of modern life that necessitate such mental/emotional escape. It’s clear she’s writing especially for those who fall outside of society ‘norms’ (ADHD, mental health, and LGBTQ+ identities are all represented throughout the book) and I commend her for knowing and writing for her audience well.

However, where I personally struggled with the book was wanting it to commit more tonally. I love a good satirical story, especially when it’s written with such love of the niche it’s critiquing. But I feel like the consistent self-awareness of the tropes that our protagonist was living out kept distancing me from what was actually happening to our heroine. Before the actual emotion of the moment could hit Eve (our protagonist), she would fire off yet another snappy quip or scathing commentary about how much-more-awesome this sort of thing is if you read it rather than live it. This had the effect of making it hard for me to care when Eve was trying not to care either.

The ‘I care now’ shift *did* come for me eventually—but it was nearly at the midpoint of the story… which is very, very late if you’re wanting to capture a reader. This is likely because I’m not the bullseye for the ideal reader. Someone who struggles with the same things Eve does (mental health, ADHD, etc.) might self-identify more so that they feel swept into her story. As it was, I found Eve’s constant self-deflection distancing rather than winsome.

However, once EVE HERSELF invested in what was happening around her—once she started to care about the stakes—that’s when I could finally invest alongside her.

And perhaps that is also the point—perhaps the author is showing us how deeply disengaged we are from the world we’re *actually* in… and if we can claw our way up out of our coping mechanisms, numbness, and disengagement, we, too, can find that there’s a beautiful, broken world around us filled with beautiful, broken people that we are called not to save, but to show up for in our own small, beautiful, broken ways.

[Mabel]

2.75 ⭐️
The idea behind this book is actually very creative; the execution, not so much.

I mean, who doesn’t want to be teleported to their favourite fantasy world and live happily ever after? What this story attempts is to show the non idealised reality of a fantasy world- and for me that kind of fell flat. I couldn’t connect with the main character Eve at all. In the beginning I thought she was a bit relatable, but once she gets to the Fantasy world, any and all character is put behind how horny she is, and how fuckable every other character is. I also couldn’t quite get behind the romance; it just seemed to me like she fell in love with the prince because that’s what happens in romantasy books, no actual romance needed.

The satirical commentary was there, just not particularly well done in my opinion. It simply isn’t enough to have a self aware main character pointing out all of the cliché tropes. (how often does that word appear in the book? Way too many).
If you don’t take it too seriously, I think you might enjoy this book, it just wasn’t for me.

[almas]

thank you netgalley and ballantine for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

i was almost about to dnf this at 20% but i stuck through.

what intrigued me the most and led me to request and start the book was its beautiful cover and the blurb. the story follows eve who gets isekai'ed into a fantasy world filled with people with wings and horns, a chaotic magic system, a curse to break, and gets stuck in a love triangle. it does sound fun right? it did to me, and well, it was not fun, unfortunately.

the things that i appreciated— eve being very self aware of every trope that she was thrust upon, the whole making fun of all the usual stuff that happens in all fantasy books in a satirical way— got old really fast. there were too many tropes and it felt like the plot was just filled with tropes and nothing else, and even though she was really self aware, and even though it was implied that it was a dumbass x grumpy trope, she never picked up on hints that should have been obvious to a girl who reads lots of fantasy books. also i mean i understand that she was surrounded by hot people and i would have admired all of them too, but why was she lusting after ALL of them? it came to a point that i just stopped caring about the whole romance aspect of this romantasy, even the smut was confusing to me.

in terms of plot, the idea was really interesting, but the execution lacked structure. the plot was too chaotic — i think trying to add every trope or element into it made it too much and too confusing. the worldbuilding was also lacking; the start had structure and a clear goal, but by 50% there were plot twists revealed (which were quite unexpected, i feel) and confusion began. i didn't know where everything was going. one second she was with this other dude, and now she's sleeping with another? ig that's where the love triangle comes into play, but it got too confusing for me to care about them anymore. I did like the co-relation of real life stuff like ADHD and autism to people kissed by annorath and ceanrath respectively in the fantasy world.

i think if the plot got more structure, lost a few unnecessary tropes used as plot devices, and the worldbuilding became stronger, the book would be much more interesting.

[MJ]

Romantasyland was ok.

Things I liked: the main fantasy plot was an interesting idea - the fight between order and chaos in this fantasy world. A woman dropped in from our world, but she is a huge fantasy reader and super self-aware, as she navigates why she is there and what she needs to do. I thought is was a fun idea to use the aspect of tropes, that our FMC is fully aware of, to build the world. I did like the FMC; she was fun and not a complete dummy; I liked that she was bisexual. Rowan was a good MMC and I would've like to learn more about him.

With that being said, I think the story has a lot of issues. As a whole, it's supposed to be a satire, but doesn't really subvert the genre enough to make any kind of commentary on it. The only thing it does is have a lot of tropes and a self aware FMC. It just reads as a poorly done romantasy, without any real romance. The characters are very underdeveloped and a bit shallow; they never have any real, deep, or meaningful conversations or development. I didn't believe any of the romance. The world is also underdeveloped, which makes the concept of the main plot not feel as meaningful. The writing is very repetitive - several times there are full sentences and phrasing that are repeated, and it doesn't feel intentional. I wish more had been done with the FMC's bisexuality and maybe would've made the story more interesting if she was gay or not sexually/romantically attracted to the MMC.

This story was easy to read and fairly fast paced, but I still struggled to get through it. I would like to check out other stories by Emma MacDonald, though, because the idea was so fun.

2.5/5 stars.
Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine for this eARC.

[Misty]

I have to be completely honest: this was a disaster. The concept was cute and appealing, but it totally missed the mark. The author leaned way too hard into the satirical aspect. So much so that everything else fell completely flat. The characters were unrelatable, the plot was unoriginal, and the writing was atrocious. The push to be new adult was unnecessary and forced. It read like a YA novel but with an excessive amount of expletives and a little bit of boring smut thrown in. I’ve read more compelling fanfics. This book needs a lot of polishing prior to publish, though I’m not sure even heavy editing could save it.

Thanks to NetGalley for the eARC.

[Morgan]

Romantasyland by Emma MacDonald is an action-packed, hilarious adventure filled with literally every writing trope in literary canon. If you are a fantasy lover, a romantic comedy enthusiast, and love writing and plot structures similar to your Wattpad favorites - this book is for you!

Thank you, NetGalley, Balantine | Dell, and Emma MacDonald for sending me this advanced review copy for free. I am leaving this review voluntarily and with joy in my heart!

Romantasyland tells the story of Eve Lockwood, a normal woman by any shake of the imagination. Clumsy, snack-loving, ADHD riddled, and firmly glued to romantasy books, she finds herself in a bit of a grief-fueled rut. When the opportunity arises to attend a fantasy bookish retreat with like-minded readers, she signs up in a beat of positivity. Like any introvert signing up for any social event literally ever, Eve later regrets her decision and attempts to negotiate herself out of attending. Nevertheless, she ends up at the event and tries to make the best of it.

At this point in the story, Eve and the fantasy reader group take a hike into the wilderness. Of course, the isekai mechanic firmly kicks in, and Eve is transported into a fantasy world. Facing a world unlike our own, Eve quickly learns that the men inhabiting the lands are extremely attractive and embody all of your favorite romantasy fantasy mechanics - wings, horns, shadows, oh my!

The first thing that struck me in these beginning chapters was the sheer volume of references, direct and modest, to other works in the romance, fantasy, and romantasy genres. I commend the author for not being too shy to fully commit to a wink-wink-nudge-nudge toward everyone’s favorite literary giants. However, I quickly felt that these references were less modest acknowledgements and more like a punch in the face. I lost count and appreciation after approximately ten tropes and did not enjoy this mechanic.

In reflection, I think that the author was attempting to incorporate a large number of tropes in order to poke fun at these literary mechanics and provide commentary therein. Likely, I think the message was supposed to land somewhere near making fun of romance, fantasy, and romantasy authors for selling and marketing their books purely off of tropes and clickable quotes. However, I do not think that the writing was successful in carrying this message. I felt extremely uninspired by the writing and overall scheme of mechanics.

It felt, to me, as if the plot structure fell victim to the next trope to be incorporated - almost as if the author was playing a creative writing game with a wheel to decide the next scene. The overall storytelling was hogtied by the reappearance of tropes, and could have been aided by way of a stronger editorial voice.

In addition, I think the overall plot shape needs sharp editing. As the story begins, there is a very clear direction of the story. There is a clear beginning and end for the quest Eve is sent on. However, that story is very quickly expanded and then consistently thrown into different directions. The overall discontinuity and shifts may read as exciting to some readers, but it reads as disjointed and uncomfortable to me. I felt that the story was just throwing the reader into a new direction without fully fleshing out previous ideas.

I would have really liked to luxuriate in this fantasy world. There were so many aspects, like the magic system, that I felt needed much more development to feel fully realized. I understand the limitations of working within a story about the potential end of the world, but the story could have benefited from a few beats of slice-of-life. Those quiet moments are where readers fall in love with the characters forever after, and that was missing here.

This being said, I genuinely feel that there is a good story here. The bones of this story are present! Further, I think that people will genuinely gravitate toward the cast of characters and the fantasy setting.

The characters are genuinely funny, and the dialogue feels natural and flows easily. I found myself laughing at Eve consistently. Her reactions to the events in the story were genuinely funny and quite entertaining. I won’t give any spoilers for the male love interest, but any person who loves enemies-to-lovers, morally grey men, dark humor, shadowy figures, and court intrigue will be fully satisfied.

Note: this is an open-door adult romance. There are scenes of an adult nature not appropriate for all audiences.

This book will work for any long-time fan of Kindle Unlimited, and bite-sized books similar to what we all read on Wattpad as girls. This book is similar in that the plot unfurls extremely quickly and works within traditional character archetypes without being bogged down with too many details. If you are someone who enjoys moving quickly through a book with a brisk succession of events one after another, you will really enjoy diving into this book!

[Samantha]

I really wanted to love this one because the premise had so much potential. A bisexual woman with ADHD who loves romantasy gets dropped into a world that seems to be built around all the tropes she knows and loves? I was immediately intrigued, and I really appreciated the bisexual representation throughout the book.

Unfortunately, the execution just didn’t quite work for me.

The biggest issue was the pacing. Everything moved so quickly that I rarely had time to settle into a scene, the world, or a relationship before we were off to the next thing. At the same time, the overall story somehow started to feel slow and a little dull. There were a lot of interesting reveals and ideas, but they often weren’t given enough time to really land. Even toward the end, things happened so quickly that I didn’t always have time to settle into the emotional moments before we were moving on.

I also struggled with the romance. I actually really liked the development between Eve and Rowan when we finally got some banter, vulnerability, and forced proximity. Those were some of my favorite parts of the book because I could actually feel their relationship developing. Unfortunately, that relationship kept getting pushed aside, and other romantic/sexual storylines started taking up space without ever feeling like a clear why-choose direction. One of the spice scenes was genuinely very good, but I still found myself wondering why that relationship needed to exist in the first place when I was more invested in the relationship the story had already started building with Rowan. (Though it would have been a fun dream scene to remove the emotional impact but have fun!)

The constant trope callouts were another struggle for me. I understand that Eve is intentionally self-aware because she knows romantasy tropes, and I think that could have been a really fun part of her character. I just wish that self-awareness had been handled more subtly. A small nod showing that she recognizes a familiar trope while still naturally playing into it could have been funny without feeling cheesy or overly obvious. Instead, the repeated direct callouts often pulled me out of the story.

As someone with ADHD myself, I also had mixed feelings about Eve’s ADHD representation. There were definitely moments where I recognized the way her brain worked, but by the end, some of her internal distractions during emotional scenes pulled me out rather than making me feel seen. There is a difference between recognizing a thought pattern and wanting to read that thought pattern interrupt an important emotional moment over and over. In particular, there were moments when Rowan was being vulnerable and Eve’s thoughts kept turning toward sex, which felt distracting rather than adding to the emotional impact of the scene.

That said, there were definitely things I enjoyed. The bisexual representation was a big positive for me, there were some fun worldbuilding elements, and I genuinely enjoyed several individual scenes and character interactions. The mysterious shadow figure was especially intriguing for a while, and I liked getting to see Eve and Rowan actually connect when the story slowed down enough to let them.

My biggest frustration is that I kept seeing glimpses of the book I wanted this to be. There are good ideas here, and I think with more room for the relationships and worldbuilding to breathe, some tightening of the pacing, and less reliance on directly calling out the tropes, this could become a much stronger story.

As an ARC, I’m also keeping in mind that there is still time before publication for editing and polishing. Overall, I didn’t hate it, but I found myself wanting it to be over for quite a while before I actually reached the end.

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine for the opportunity to read and review this ARC. My review will be posted on Goodreads and NetGalley, and will also be available on Barnes & Noble once the book is published.

[Julia]

2.5⭐️
Unfortunately, this one was more of a miss than a hit for me.

The concept is actually pretty interesting, but I just couldn’t connect with the characters. And honestly, for most of the book, I didn’t really care what happened to any of them.

One thing I will give it credit for is how naturally it works a bunch of popular tropes into the story. It’s not quite a deconstruction of the genre, but it’s not a parody either. It kind of sits somewhere in the middle, and I actually liked that part.

The characters, though, were a different story. The FMC is trying to collect every possible character trait like she’s filling out a checklist. She’s queer, she has ADHD (which gets brought up multiple times, although I can’t really say the book does much with it beyond telling us that she has it), she’s grieving her parents, she’s lonely, etc.

As for the MMC, well... he hates the FMC (except he actually doesn’t), because apparently we needed another popular trope checked off the list. In reality, he’s probably the biggest green flag in the entire book. He’s so ridiculously understanding that he’s even perfectly fine with the FMC hooking up with someone else. Sir, do you have any self-respect?

And as for that someone else... I genuinely don’t even know what to say. He actually could’ve made for a much more interesting main character, but alas, here we are. We got what we got.

And then there’s the romance.

At the beginning, the FMC has a little crush on her coworker. Then she gets yeeted into the magical world and suddenly every other character she meets inspires a horny thought or two. Girl, please!

But the biggest issue for me was the love triangle. I already have a complicated relationship with this trope, so for me to enjoy it, it really needs to be done well. And... yeah, this wasn’t it.

The FMC basically speedruns her way through both love interests over the course of two days, literally going from one bed to the other. She does acknowledge that this is weird, and I’ll give her that, but self-awareness doesn’t automatically make the behavior make sense. I’m sorry, but watching her bounce between two people like that felt less like romantasy and more like I’d accidentally picked up a contemporary melodrama.

Maybe I’m being overly picky, but the whole thing just didn’t work for me.

I finished this yesterday, and after having some time to think about it, I can kind of see how the FMC’s chaotic relationship choices might be explained by the whole chaos magic thing. So... okay, I guess? But that is simply not my jam.

I don’t think this is necessarily a bad book. It has a fun concept, some interesting ideas, and I can absolutely see why it works for other readers. I just don’t think I’m the audience for this particular flavor of chaos.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

[Jessica Petersen]

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for the opportunity to read 'Romantasyland' before its publication. This review is of my own opinion, and I encourage you to still check out this book if you're into satire, comedy, a self-loathing FMC with chaotic energy, and MMCs so hot, they'll distract you from the plot.

Please note that this review has potential spoilers!

This story follows Eve Lockwood - a down on her luck kind of gal who enjoys all things romantasy.

While having a pity party and moping about her crush Jess who already has a girlfriend, she agrees to go with Jess and Jess's girlfriend to a retreat for fantasy lovers.

While on said retreat, things get chaotic and Eve finds herself in an entirely different world. Hypocritical of her surroundings, she can't believe she fell into a world like the ones so loves to read about.

I enjoyed how humorous this story was and I enjoyed the chaotic ADHD energy that was here for the entirety of the story. (Yay for ADHD rep!!) I enjoyed how self aware Eve was of how ridiculous a lot of the tropes she encountered were, and I especially loved that she was basically like, "Yikes... this is better left in books and not real life."

I did struggle for a hot moment at the end of the book for what seemed like a last minute possible love triangle, and I was not for it.

The chemistry between her and the prince also seemed very lackluster and almost forced. At times, she has better chemistry with the alleged villain than she did with the prince and I won't lie; this is one of those times when I wished this WAS a why-choose because I couldn't picture the FMC with who she ended up with.

*possible spoilers ahead*

The ending as well seemed very rushed. One moment we were in a battle of gods that seemed like there was a lot of promise, to her then being transported home. It does get tied up SLIGHTLY, but it was such an abrupt ending that I wasn't expecting it to happen that way.

Aside from that, this story has satirical comedy, an extremely horny bisexual FMC, and lowkey an annoyingly handsome prince and a lip smacking "villain".

I didn't love this book, but I did definitely have a good time reading its ridiculousness and I think this can easily be a great palette cleanser for those wanting something silly before diving into something deeper.

2.5/5 stars! 3 stars for the sake of netgalley and goodreads.

[Niki]

*3.75 stars
Overall, I enjoyed reading this book, but there were moments when I didn't have the desire to pick it up. It has pros and cons, and I think they balance out. There does need to be a heavy edit before it is released, however.

Pros:
*The idea behind the plot is fun. Normal girl falls into a fantasy world and has to navigate a bunch of tropes (chosen one, only one bed, etc).
*There is a snarky "side" character that has some great entrances and exits, as well as some funny one-liners.
*There are a few stand out secondary characters, such as Tallis, that I enjoyed reading about.
*There is a giant, horned dog/pet that is absolutely adorable (despite the slobbery kisses).
*The world that Eve, the main character, falls into is interesting. I wish it had been built out some more, but I could still picture it reasonably well.
*The chapters aren't too long. It was an easy, quick-ish read.

Cons:
*The mention of all of the tropes gets a bit irritating deeper into the story.
*The phrase, "Which, like, fair/yeah/duh" is way overused. By the end of the book, I was rolling my eyes every time I read it.
*Eve's thoughts are annoying at times. She will think, oh this is a bad idea, but I'm going to do it anyway. That got old quick.
*For being a lover of fantasy and recognizing all of the tropes, Eve still makes that classic heroine in a new world dumb mistakes. She never asks questions and when things get revealed she will think, "I should have asked about that," or "I guess that was pretty obvious, how could I miss that?"
*I didn't quite believe the romance. The enemies-to-lovers transition was abrupt and clunky.
*The pacing was a bit weird. The action scenes wrapped up quickly, but the exposition seemed to drag a bit. Hopefully this gets finessed in the final edit.

Editing:
*This definitely needs a couple more edits. There were several missing words, as well as missing punctuation.
*The main character's thoughts/speech pattern was a bit too colloquial for my liking. She says "like" way too much.
*There were also a couple of misused words. For example, appreciably was used when it should have been appreciatively.

I would be interested to see how the final version of this book turns out, since it has a lot of potential. If it gets a really good edit and streamlines that pacing a bit more, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Romantasyland.

Thank you to Netgalley for the advanced copy.

[Carolyne]

Received an ARC from Netgalley

I didn't really enjoy this book, I honestly almost dnf'ed it around 10% but wanted to give it more of a chance. There were aspects to this book that were fun, and I understand that this is meant to be a more satirical kind of book, but it mostly fell flat for me. I found myself annoyed with the plot and I found the romance in this frustratingly unbelievable, which is bad if it's supposed to be a romantasy...

Our fmc in this bounces between 2 characters (not to mention being turned on by almost everyone she meets) and it just isn't done in a believable way. While she does take a second for some self reflection, it just was an unnecessary addition to the story to try and do a last minute love triangle. Even reading it I was surprised, assuming the story was going to go down a slightly different path than expected. I had no feelings towards any of these characters tbh, good or bad. None of the characters are super memorable and the overall plot was pretty clear, though that may be a symptom of this being a more cliche romantasy. Honestly I didn't really like many of the characters.

I wish the fantasy aspect of this world had been explored in better detail because it just didn't feel fleshed out or real. I wanted to know more about the magic and creatures but instead it felt like a 2d world that existed just to get our fmc out of her home world.

I'm not 100% sure why I kept reading but there was something there that kept me at least moderately entertained, so it gets more than 1 star from me. I wanted this to be a fun take on romantasy but instead it just didn't work and I think that might've been partially because of the constant trope drops. It was too cringe inducing for me and I hated every time it was time for a new one to be brought into the story. I think this story could've been stronger without the constant need to remind us we were reading a cliche romantasy full of tropes we see listed.

I don't think I'm going to be recommending this book because it just fell so flat for me but I'm sure there are readers out there that are the right audience. This book does have open door romance which I think was well written so at least I wasn't cringing there!

[Kate Laycoax]

I know this is such a niche thing to say, but this was basically Schmigadoon! but for romantasy readers, and I am kind of in love with that concept. If you've seen the show or the musical itself, you'll know exactly what I mean. It takes all the classic romantasy tropes we know and love, like the grumpy fae prince, The Chosen One™, enemies to lovers, ancient curses, shadow daddies, magical quests and lovingly pokes fun at all of them but clearly still loves the genre. To me, it never feels like it is actually making fun of romantasy or the people who read it, but instead more of a love letter to genre we all know and love and is fun and funny when it comes to the parody and the satire of it all. I loved catching all the references too and it was cool that Eve was just as trope aware as we are. She's constantly recognizing what's happening because she's read all these books before, and she is trying to navigate a real fantasy world based on what she's learned from fiction and that made for a really enjoyable, if wild at times, ride. Some of it was unbelievable but I think that's the point. It's such a different spin on regular romance and I did really like it.

I did want more from the romance though, and I think for a book centered around romantasy and an enemies to lovers relationship, I wanted way more focus on the romance itself and a lot more depth. It was surface level to me for most of it, and I just wanted more from this aspect.

Even with that, I thought it was funny, clever, and such a unique take on romantasy that I don't think I've really seen before. At the same time, I do think it lacked some depth. The satire and parody were definitely the strongest parts. It was a good read but I think there could have been more and fell a bit short of what I pictured.

Thank you to NetGalley, Emma MacDonald, and Dell for the eARC of this book.

[Riley Rudd]

Imagine falling into a fantasy world and living all your favorite, or least favorite, tropes!

This was such a fun read with an incredible premise. I mean, who hasn’t wished they could jump straight into a fantasy world? This book takes that idea and absolutely runs with it, throwing in so many of the clichés and tropes we all know from romantasy and making you realize just how ridiculous some of them can be when you take a step back. It felt like the perfect loving debunk of a fantasy book while still being a genuinely enjoyable fantasy in its own right.

The concept and worldbuilding were both really well done, and the characters were such a highlight. Everyone had a clear personality, which made it incredibly easy to “bounce between them” (iykyk). I enjoyed hating some of them and loved loving others. Tallis was easily one of my favorites, and I genuinely want to be friends with her. I only wish we had gotten a little more of her storyline!

Eve and Rowan were also so much fun together. Their banter was cute, the tension and yearning were there, and when the romance finally paid off, it felt completely earned. They were intimate and passionate in all the right ways, and the spice level worked perfectly for me. I tend to read books that either give me way too much romance or nowhere near enough, so the balance here was really refreshing. I was also very satisfied with where their story ended.

Overall, this had a fun world, memorable characters, great romance, hilarious takes on familiar tropes, and one of the most entertaining premises I’ve read in a while. I would absolutely recommend it to romantasy readers, especially anyone who loves the genre enough to laugh at all of its wonderfully ridiculous conventions.

Thank you to NetGalley, Dell, and Penguin Random House for providing me with an ARC!

[Alex Preedy]

I absolutely loved this book and the idea behind it! The concept of a romantasy reader suddenly being thrown into a fantasy world and experiencing all the tropes she has spent so much time reading about was SO much fun. Watching Eve realize that some of the things that are entertaining in books might not be quite as appealing when you’re actually living them was hilarious.
And the MMC! I absolutely loved him. He may have been the grumpy, brooding fae prince, but underneath all of that, he had such a golden retriever personality. Even at his grumpiest, he was genuinely kind, and I really enjoyed watching his relationship with Eve develop.
Eve herself was a lot of fun, although her attraction to basically everyone with a pulse became a little much for me at times. I also went into this expecting one type of romantasy based on the synopsis, so I was surprised when the story took an LGBTQ+ direction. Since that isn't typically my personal reading preference, it caught me off guard, especially because the synopsis didn't give much indication it would be part of the story.
That said, I really enjoyed the ending. And Silas showing up as his usual chaotic self was absolutely perfect. It was exactly the kind of ending this book needed.
Overall, this was such a fun, self-aware romp through all the romantasy tropes we love. It gave me humor, chaos, a swoony MMC, and a happily-ever-after—with just the right touch of chaos.

[Leslie Cedeño]

There’s two ways to take this book - at face value, in which case it’d be absolutely predictable and boring, or as a brilliant bit of satirical self awareness.

Eve is every millennial woman in her thirties - exhausted, lonely, mistaking usefulness for purpose and using literary escapism as a coping mechanism. Specifically, romantasy, in her case. (Somewhat predictably) Her parents are deceased and on the anniversary of their death, she drunkenly decides to put herself out there more by signing up for a fantasy retreat with her coworker. What follows is an isekai adventure of ACOTAR proportions.

Every trope is listed, criticized and then proceeds to unfold within the story’s context. Every character speaks with a generic British accent (with the exception of “knock-off elven nonsense”). The fantasy land she enters into is exaggerated to the nth degree (I mean, I too would love to visit a spa greenhouse with literal sapphire encrusted pathways and magic waterfalls). Each character introduced is the new most-gorgeous person Eve’s seen.

And, yet there’s moments of self-awareness that hit close to home, not to mention Eve’s ADHD first person brain is startlingly accurate in its ability to wander off into random bits nonsensical neurological pathways in the middle of important moments, that give this story an unexpected depth. Ultimately, it’s an even split between predictable romp and bitingly satirical.

[Katie May]

2.5/5 rounded up

I had a decent enough time with this though I can absolutely understand why this won’t be for everyone. The story and the use of tropes is actually really fun and the romance is entertaining since they’re from 2 different worlds and learning about each other is often really sweet.

The Gen Z writing style can get old really fast. There was also no need for this to be 450 ish pages. Eve needed a little more inner monologue instead of just describing what was happening or making quippy comments. The thoughts and feelings she does have come off as insincere because they’re all coated in gamer speak (it’s a lot of FTW type comments). A lot of thought went into this but the execution doesn’t land for me unfortunately.

Some niche complaints: I don’t really understand how going to the equivalent of a Ren Faire was to honor your deceased parents??? Also if I didn’t receive this as an arc I probably wouldn’t have picked it up based on the ‘plot, what plot?’ comment with the list of tropes in the beginning. There’s definitely plot but idk why you would add that in the beginning of a BOOK you’re trying to get people to read (it’s not super incredibly spicy to warrant that tag lol)

Thank you to Netgalley and Ballantine Books an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Paige]

I was drawn to this book by the cover and description. The FMC seemed relatable at first, feeling stagnant in life and wanting an escape from the boring (and a little sad) day to day by going on a fantasy retreat. It was once she found herself in an actual fantasy world is where things started to fall apart.

Upon arrival to this new world, the FMC wanted to bed nearly everyone she encountered which took away from any kind of excitement or desire to see the FMC actually end up with the MMC (or literally anyone) that was introduced. While she was navigating this new world, there were a lot of "ugh" and the use of expletives in place of other emotional responses which kind of took away from the story, thankfully the second half saw less of both of these in the dialogue.

The constant calling out of tropes also became distracting. I found myself mentally pointing them out as I was reading, then a few sentences later the FMC would outright say "this is a miscommunication trope" or "knife to the throat trope". Because of this, I changed how I was reading this book and read it as more of a parody of popular romantasy books which I think worked better.

Overall I didn't hate this book but I feel like it could have been much more fun if it leaned into subtle jabs at those overused tropes and if the FMC had maybe been a little more mature.

[Madison Martin]

Thank you so much to the publishers and NetGalley for letting me read this book in advance!

I picked up this arc for the absolutely beautiful cover and interesting description. However, I didn’t fall in love with the story or characters. It starts off with our main character working her awful 9-5 and her painful crush on her coworker who turns out to have a girlfriend. I was ready for the queer and ADHD representation, but other than her just saying she was/had those things, I feel like it fell a little flat.
Our main character magically falls into a magical realm that’s exactly like the type of books she reads (what a dream). Except the whole time instead of getting into the story, she constantly makes sarcastic remarks and points out every obvious trope. The romance was also lacking for me unfortunately. It’s a love triangle and one of the guys is supposed to represent the “enemies to lovers” trope, but he was more green flag than “I hate you”.
If you’re looking for a comedic take on a “Romantasy” then I would definitely point you in the direction of this book, however if you’re looking for an actual romantasy with believable plot and romance, then I might suggest something else.

[Tara Dawes]

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review - all opinions are mine.

2.5 stars rounded up to 3

I wanted to like this I REALLY did, the concept sounded like it would be so fun instead it was just boring, disjointed, and disappointing. I push through ARC's because I really don't want to DNF them but this one was a struggle to not put down and it ended up putting me in a reading slump.

It started well and there was some humor along with some very meta concepts, however it was all just laid on too thick and became tiresome. None of the characters were very memorable, the story itself was very by the numbers and some things were obvious early on, the FMC grated my nerves and the romance was lackluster and it really bugged me that she hooked up with someone that wasn't the MMC, had this been a why choose that would have been fine but that wasn't what this was. It was all just a bit of a nothing burger the kind of book you read and then promptly forget everything about it.

The concept was fun though and perhaps there is an audience out there that will love this one and I hope those people find it, but at the end of the day it just wasn't for me.

[Jen]

The cover? Stunning. The premise? Sign me up. The execution? It was...fine.

Considering the description sets it up as "satirical," and "hijinks-filled meta-romantasy" I would say this book mostly accomplished what it set out to. While that was enough to interest me in reading the book, unfortunately it didn't quite hit the way I had hoped going into it.

The plot moves fairly quickly from meeting Eve to her stumbling into a fantasy world. Her initial reaction to finding herself in this predicament is thankfully not as drawn out as some romantasy has a tendency to do, but I think this is also where some of the disconnect from the story happened for me. Eve is fine, her background is fine, everything that happens, all the characters, they are...fine. I understand what the book was trying to do, it was meant to poke fun and not be taken seriously, and while I can appreciate that, it just didn't really make me invested or care about anything that was happening.

I think if you are just looking for something silly and fluffy to pass the time with, then you will enjoy this book, but keep your expectations low.

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballentine for allowing me to read an advanced copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own and freely given.

[Stephanie]

I like many others really really wanted to love this book, but it's sadly a slog to get through. I had to force myself through the whole thing, and honestly idc if anyone lives or dies. I would normally dnf such a book, but it was free and I want to give my honest opinion on all of it.

You're not going to get much depth in the romance department, so if that's what you're here for look elsewhere. If you're looking for a funny take on romantasy then you're in the right place. I do like that the fmc was poking fun at romantasy tropes. All the references to other fantasy and romance novels were fun to see as well. It was about the only thing holding me to the book at that point though.

It does have a hea so no worries about that. There wasn't much chemistry to my mind between the fmc and mmc, but ehh it's a romantasy come hell or high water they will end up together.

The book does hit on some heavy topics like parental death, and whether you parent actually loved you. The mmc has to deal with the love part and the fmc is dealing with her parents' deaths.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.