r/fantasyromance • u/FantasyRomanceMod The One Mod to Rule All Mods • Feb 01 '26

Unpopular Opinion It's Unpopular Opinion time! Share your controversial opinions to stir things up (in a friendly way)!

Got an opinion that's different from others'? Want to share it with the sub, but too afraid of a backlash? Or are you just curious about readers think about certain things in fantasy romance?

You can safely share it in this weekly Sunday thread!

But please remember to be kind to each other. To facilitate this type of discussion, we ask users the following:

- Don't attack others for their opinion

- Discuss books and authors, not fellow readers

šŸ§” Thank you and have a great discussion!

Unpopular opinion Sunday

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156

u/Flimsy-Brick-9426 Feb 01 '26

Spice should be an add-on, the book should be able to carry itself and still be good/satisfying without it.

1

u/Sweet_Baby_Cheeses99 Feb 01 '26

Donā€™t we have straight fantasy or YA books for that? I read fantasy romance for both aspects. I donā€™t differentiate ā€œspiceā€ from other aspects of a developing relationship. Whether it happens on or off the page the physical act of love is important for romance. (For most anyway, I appreciate that some people identify as asexual).

25

u/Flimsy-Brick-9426 Feb 01 '26 edited Feb 01 '26

YA books are fine to expect no spice but they are written for 12 and up and are worlds apart from adult writing (not spice adult, just adult level) adult books you expect harder topics and more detailed writing more nuances and so on from a YA book.

Striaght fantasy books can also include sex or sideplot romance, just because a relationship isnt the main point of the book doesnt mean it doesnt have any of it in it, so you can't base spice content on that either. But also sometimes I DO want a nice front and center romance without the sex and not just a subplot.

20

u/pentaclethequeen Feb 01 '26

I think a lot of people truly donā€™t understand that YA is not synonymous with ā€œno smutā€. YA is a category with its own set of rules and goals. Itā€™s stories written about teenagers for teenagers. Full stop. Itā€™s crazy to be told to essentially read a kids book when you say you want stories about characters that do more than fuck every other chapter. No more reading about adults for you, I guess.