While lately, the romance genre and bestseller lists have been obsessed with romantasy, in past decades (peaking in the 1990s and early 2000s) one of the most popular subgenres of romance also has fantasy roots: paranormal romance. The core authors in this subgenre use creatures from the fantasy (and horror!) genres like vampires, werewolves, ghosts, and other supernatural beings. But whereas in fantasy and horror, these supernatural creatures are beings to be feared and fought, in paranormal romance they are love interests. I thought it would be interesting to look at how the two subgenres are alike, and how they are different.

The classic paranormal romance (PNR) setup is a world very like our own – modern cities, technology, and recognizable society. Where PNR takes off is that there is usually a whole secret magical layer to the world of which the average person is completely unaware. This could be a single secretive paranormal species like hidden clans of werewolves or vampires, or an entire hidden world of magic and magical beings.

The romance comes in when a normal human — usually a woman — becomes aware of this magical layer. It could be they stumble upon it completely by accident. Or perhaps a member of the magical substrata seeks out a human woman, believing they are fated mates. Fated mates are big in paranormal romance. And who can argue against the comfort of knowing there is one being destined to love you for all eternity? Once the heroine becomes aware of the magic hidden in our world, she becomes the reader’s guide to understanding the magic. She is our point-of-view character, even if the story is not in first person. She discovers the magical beings, learns the rules of the world, and acts as our guide to the magic.

Some of the core paranormal authors and their signature series (some of which are still being published today) include:

• J.R. Ward – Black Dagger Brotherhood
• Jeaniene Frost – Night Huntress
• Karen Marie Moning – Fever
• Nalini Singh – Psy-Changeling
• Kresley Cole – Immortals After Dark
• Christine Feehan – Dark
• Lindsay Sands – Argeneau
• Thea Harrison – Elder Races
• Shelley Laurenston – Pride
• TJ Klune – Green Creek
• Sherrilyn Kenyon –  Dark-Hunter
• Kelley Armstrong – Women of the Otherworld

While there is less attention on the paranormal genre these days, that doesn’t mean that the books have disappeared. For a while they just were more often found in indie publishing, as the big publishers shifted to other genres like romantasy. If you still crave those uber-possessive alpha males and fated mate vibes, here are some paranormal romances that have been published in the last few years:

Cold Hearted by Heather Guerre

Guerre’s Tooth and Nail series is a good example of the interesting new takes on PNR that started coming from indie publishers. Cold Hearted is a werewolf novel set in Alaska. The heroine, Grace, has come to the small town of Longtooth on the run for something. As an outsider in town she knows something is wrong about the town, and about the handsome asshole local pilot Caleb. But it’s not until her trouble finds her that the secrets of both Grace and Longtooth come out. I loved the setting, I loved Grace, and I even like the closed off jerk Caleb. It’s a slower burn than a lot of paranormal romance, but it was worth it. The next book in the series, Hot Blooded, is also a solid and original take on vampires. Readers have been waiting a long time for book 4 in the series, but they all stand alone, so I’m not as cranky as I normally would be.

Bride by Ali Hazelwood

Hazelwood, darling of contemporary romance, took a step into the paranormal with Bride. She takes two of the most iconic PNR archetypes: vampires and werewolves. In Bride, there is an uneasy truce between the two factions. Misery is a Vampyre who is sent to be a hostage of sorts in a marriage of convenience to the alpha of the Weres. While there is enough worldbuilding to satisfy paranormal fans, this title and it’s sequel, Mate, still follow the rulebook of a Hazelwood romance. It’s enemies-to-lovers, but you’ve got to have a hero repressing his feelings and a heroine who is oblivious to every hint that while she thinks they are enemies, the hero is pining like a delicious evergreen.

Black Willow Witch by Suzanne Wright

Wright has been writing PNR for a long time. Her Phoenix pack first came out in 2012, and is followed by the Mercury Pack and Olympus Pride series. They are all about shifters, although there’s hints of other supernatural elements in her world. The worldbuilding is light, with a tight focus on the relationships rather than complicated setting details. They’re great, if a little formulaic. Black Willow Witch is a bit of a departure, although it maintains some of her trademarks: a protective shifter hero, a couple who fights their attraction, and some obligatory other woman drama. But this time out she has given readers a new world in a small town split between wolves and witches. The heroine, Emberlyn has inherited her grandmother’s house and needs to ally with local wolf alpha Ripper to stand against factions who want her power and his newly inherited land. I really liked this new direction.

Wolf Gone Wild by Juliette Cross

There was a decently long stretch where it felt like I couldn’t find a paranormal romance that really grabbed me. But then I found the Stay a Spell series, which kicks off with Wolf Gone Wild. There are so many things I love about this series. There’s the family aspect, with each book focusing on one of the Savoie sisters. There’s the setting of New Orleans, the idea place for witches like the Savoies can hide in plain sight. And of course, there are the couples. In this first book of the series, Mateo is a werewolf under a hex that prevents him from shifting. Even though wolfs and witches don’t always get along, he asks witch Evie Savoie for her help. I loved Mateo’s inner wolf voice (boy do he and his wolf bicker!), the obvious love between Evie and her sisters, and the excellent chemistry between the leads. If you’ve stepped away from PNR for a while, this series will remind you of everything there is to love about the genre, with a more modern feel than some of the domineering heroes of the classics of PNR.

One trend I have noticed in more recent paranormal romances is that a lot of them lean towards the romantic comedies that are most popular in romance today. They end taking themselves a lot less seriously, with more humor and a kind of trope-y approach to the story. There’s only one bed! She’s sunshine and he’s grumpy! You get it. And while there are still some where the supernatural is a secret world, they are more likely to start from the premise that everyone knows about magic and/or monsters. Here are some more examples of recent PNR books with a more modern feel:

• The Fake Mate by Lana Ferguson
• The Witch’s Guide to Fake Dating a Demon by Sarah Hawley
• My Roommate is a Vampire by Jenny Levine
• Fan Service by Rosie Danan
• The Ex Hex by Erin Sterling
• A Little Too Familiar by Lish McBride

WORLDBUILDING

It is not always easy to draw the line between Paranormal Romance and Romantasy. As mentioned, I think the main difference is that setting and worldbuilding. If paranormal romance is mostly our world with some tweaks, most romantasy titles are in what we would usually think of as second world or epic fantasy landscapes. Maybe they have some things in common with our world, but with magic embedded within all aspects of life. A common fantasy and romantasy setting is a pre-industrial society that echoes our world’s past.. But maybe the world is completely unrecognizeable. Full-on imagination time that presents the reader with a world for which only the author could draw you a map. My last post was a basic overview of romantasy, so head there for some of the more popular examples of romantasy from recent years, as well as romantic fantasy books that paved the way for what we call romantasy today.

If paranormal romance is our world and romantasy is not, there are some books that straddle a line. Maybe the heroine is from our world but is pulled into a fantasy realm. These are usually called portal fantasies. A couple of examples are the Aspect and Anchor series by Ruby Dixon, in which the different heroines are pulled into the world of the gods, and Jaysea Lynn’s marvelous For Whom the Belle Tolls, which has the heroine die and experience life and love in the Afterlife.

Another edge case between paranormal and romantasy in appeal is where the world is so changed that it is barely recognizable. In these worlds, the supernatural is usually right out in the open.  I think Nalini Singh’s Psy-Changelings lie very much on this line. The books are set in our world, with plenty of real world details like scenes set in the city streets of a mostly recognizable San Francisco. People drive cars (sort of) and use cell phones (fancy ones). But there are thousands of ways her world is different. The worldbuilding is seriously good. And the non-human elements of the Psy-Changeling world aren’t hidden at all. The Psy are industry leaders and dominate the cities, while the Changelings (animal shapeshifters) are the dominant powers in the wild areas. So maybe it’s romantasy? But there is a new couple every book, so… It doesn’t really matter which category you put them in, they are great. Some other books in our world but not….quite include the marvelous New Protectorate books by Abigail Kelly. I think this series (start with Consort’s Glory) has worldbuilding that’s as interesting as the Psy-Changeling series. Like that world there are various factions (elves, orcs, witches, vampires, and dragons) who divide up the US into territories and have uneasy relations.

RELATIONSHIPS

Another difference between the subgenres, although it is not a rule, is that paranormal romance usually comes in series and each book will focus on a different couple. There are exceptions like Karen Marie Moning’s Fever series or the Night Huntress by Jeaninene Frost, but the most common structure is that the author will give you a big cast of characters and pair up different characters in each series entry. The connections between series characters is usually tied to the fantasy setting (different members of a coven or werewolf pack, for example), but they could be normies tied together by bonds of family or friendship.  Romantasy, on the other hand, is much more likely to take a central couple and have their love story told over multiple books. That makes them more likely to be slow burn, slow building romances. PNR is more likely to be a fast burn, as the couple has to get their happy ending at the end of the book. Paranormal romance is also more likely to have a high steam factor, although there are some very, very smutty romantasy books out there.

BUT WHAT ABOUT URBAN FANTASY?

Just to make things extra complicated, is that there’s another genre that takes our world and adds fantasy monsters, just like paranormal romance. Some of them even have a strong romance in them! That genre is urban fantasy, and like paranormal romance, the heyday of the genre was in the 1990s and 2000s. While I did a whole post a few years ago about the difference between paranormal romance and urban fantasy, I can summarize it by using the general rule of thumb that if you can remove the romance from the book and it stands fine on its own without it, you’re probably looking at an urban fantasy. But if the romance is integral to the plot – even if there’s plenty of other action and worldbuilding –  it’s more likely to be paranormal romance. Are you more invested in the couple? Or in saving the world? There are a few other differences between Paranormal Romance, Romantasy and Urban Fiction, so I put together a venn diagram to show where they overlap and where they differ. It’s just some general characteristics that I have noticed over reading and reviewing in the genres for years, but certainly take it with a grain of salt! There are plenty of books that don’t follow the patterns here, but it might be something that could help you find which genre you might be craving.

As a fan of romance and a fan of fantasy, I enjoy all the ways you can combine them, and the specific flavor of romance/fantasy blend I gravitate towards is usually simply a matter of my mood in the moment.

Finally, for more books that combine romance and fantasy, don’t forget to play with the genre blender. I need to update it desperately, but you can still find some fun blends to explore.