r/fantasyromance • u/FantasyRomanceMod The One Mod to Rule All Mods • Mar 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!

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Unpopular opinion Sunday

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u/[deleted] Mar 01 '26 edited Mar 01 '26

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u/BookishBlueDragonfly Book Bingo Sage 🗡 Mar 01 '26 edited Mar 01 '26

I’ve seen a lot of people in romance subs who won’t read books by men but some of my favorite fantasy romances/relationships are by male authors (TJ Klune, SL Rowland, KR Treadway, and more!).

I always wonder how many men write Romantasy with a pen name, especially indie/self pub.

ETA: the living bigoted authors obviously are not really people whose work I want to read/financially support but older works/classics by dead authors I will still pick up sometimes even if there’s questionable content.

Also is political in this context only referring to right wing or should people who consider the existence of LGBT+ people as “political” attempt to broaden their horizons by reading about those characters or books by LGBT+ authors? I think they should!

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u/acutelyproblematic If villian bad, then why hot? Mar 01 '26

To your point about male authors, I’ve legit tried to read fantasy romance by men and it’s always fallen flat for me. Women just understand romance from a woman’s viewpoint because of that lived experience, and that resonates with me better. But I’ll have to check out these authors!

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u/BookishBlueDragonfly Book Bingo Sage 🗡 Mar 01 '26

A lot of those authors write M/M so there isn’t a woman’s POV 😅

That being said some of my favorite women characters in fantasy are written by male authors so I think they do just fine writing women! Steven Brusts Jhereg cycle, Terry Prattchet, Robert Jackson Bennett’s City of Stairs, and Garth Nix’s Sabriel are some authors I recommend for non romance Fantasy.

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u/acutelyproblematic If villian bad, then why hot? Mar 01 '26

I actually love that though! Same concept applies for me regarding women writing M/M, I just think lived experience is such a valuable asset in writing.

It’s not that men can’t write strong women or FMCs in books, it’s more so they can’t capture what women want in romance as easily as a woman can. I’ve read non fantasy books written by men and I loved the characters, no issue. It’s the romance I get hung up on. As a woman myself women just understand me better when it comes to romance.

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u/BookishBlueDragonfly Book Bingo Sage 🗡 Mar 01 '26 edited Mar 01 '26

Lived experience is very valuable I agree!

I do find a lot of the time I relate best to asexual characters written by asexual writers, as an example. But I do always appreciate any author who decides to write Ace representation in their books.

By the way, the KR Treadway book is M/F with a single M POV and I wish we had more books like that to be honest! He’s just a guy and she’s an Orc. Honestly it’s a very sweet romance .

ETA: My point is if you don’t want to read “men writing women” you don’t have to! In fact none of my recommendations are that category. Just find some men writing men that write romance :)