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You know what? I love a good love story. I have a few movies that are my “feel good” flicks that I always have to watch when I’m having a bad day and they include: Memoirs of a Geisha, Moulin Rouge, Ever After: A Cinderella Story, and Pride and Prejudice.
See any trends?
My original copy of Ella Enchanted.
Growing up, my favorite book of all time was Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine (and wow, the new cover design for the 25th anniversary is gorgeous). I still read it from time-to-time, if we’re honest. Like, just look at this thing. The inside cover is even signed with my name, my grade at the time (it was the 5th, if you’re curious), and the name of my teacher because I was so afraid I’d lose this book and I wanted people to have a way to get it back to me if it fell out of my backpack. It’s just that amazing.
I hope that one day, somewhere, someone feels that way about one of my books. That’s serious author goals right there.
But now, let’s get into it: just what is clean fantasy romance?
Clean fantasy romance is what happens when you take a romance novel, set it in a fantasy world, and then focus on the love story minus all the bodice-ripping. There might also be a lack of foul language and maybe even a lack of violence, to round out the book’s squeaky clean state. Clean fantasy romance is also sometimes referred to as spice-free, behind closed doors, innocent, etc. etc. (You get the idea).
Just between you and me, though: I do include a bit of violence in my clean fantasy romance stories. But I make sure it’s always driving the story forward and isn’t gratuitous.
5 Reasons I Write Clean Fantasy Romance (For Adults!)
#1 There are already plenty of spicy romantasy books out there.
Right?! Like, just go to Amazon right now and search for fantasy romance or romantasy books and you’ll see what I mean. Even if you specify that you want clean or no spice romantasy books, you’ll still get hit with ads for the spicy ones. It’s a lot harder these days to find books without smut in them, which is actually rather frustrating. Thankfully, we have book bloggers like The Fruitful Reader out there bringing us awesome lists of clean reads so we don’t have to fight with the Amazon algorithms. Bless.
#2 So many clean fantasy romance books are classified as YA (young adult).
You know when you spy a book with a pretty cover and a cool-sounding premise and then you dive into the blurb and it starts off like, “17-year-old Jennifer…” That’s about the moment I sigh and hit the back button.I love YA. I grew up reading YA. I’m definitely not hating on YA. But, like… I’m 35 years old now, you know? It’s gotten hard to relate to a character barely out of puberty. (Unless it’s Ella from Ella Enchanted. I’ll never get too old for you, girl.)
And I know I’m not the only one out here who feels that way!
#3 Sex scenes detract from the overall story.
There, I said it. I have never read a book (and I’ve read a lot of them!) in which the sex was necessary to the story. Instead, sex scenes just slow down the pacing, take us out of the plot, and dump us into this pocket dimension dominated by words like turgid, manhood, and seed.Maybe that’s your thing. I’m not here to “yuck your yum.” (I actually really dislike that phrase for some reason? I don’t know what it is about it, but it’s the equivalent of the word “moist” to a lot of people for me.)
I get it. I understand why so many romance authors rely on smut in their stories. For one: sex sells. For two: a lot of readers these days demand it. For three: after a wedding, you consummate the marriage, right? So it’s a relatable step in a relationship — an easy way for the author to say, “Hey, look! They’re in a committed relationship now! They just did the deed!”
But, man. I’ll take Darcy kissing Elizabeth’s hand any day over an explicit romp in the sheets.
#4 Reading about sex is boring (and writing about it is, too).
Yeah, that’s right. I said that, too. Look. (Or as my three-year-old son would say, “Look at me.“) I’ve read the Sookie Stackhouse books (the series off of which the showTrue Blood is based). I’ve read A Court of Thorns and Roses (up until like… the third book? And then SJM lost me, but no hate there. She’s an absolute queen of the genre). I’ve read some other stuff off of Kindle Unlimited that we’re not going to talk about because my mom reads this blog. (Hey, momma!)TL;DR: I’m not a prude.
But, man, there are only so many ways you can write about sex. And let’s say you have a long-running series that started out spicy, so you have to keep upping the spice levels to keep your readers interested and it’s just like… that’s where you lose me.
For me, feeling like you have to sprinkle smut throughout your love story to keep people interested and engaged is sort of like using swear words in your day-to-day life. Sure, you can call someone a f-ing idiot. It’s easy. It’s right there. It’s in your vocabulary.
Or you could tell them that they’re the reason shampoo bottles come with instructions.
#5 I want my books to be a legacy for my children to enjoy.
This is a big one for me.
I think about all the Hollywood stars who went nude in a film and regretted it afterward when I come to this point because this is exactly how I would feel if I published spicy romantasy books. My children are going to read these one day. My children’s friends are going to read these one day. The parents of my children’s friends are going to read these one day. The ladies I know from church are going to read these one day. My in-laws and my mom are going to read these one day.Yeah, sex sells, but I’m not worried about that. I just want to write a good story.
And I want to write books that my kids can one day hold up in class at show and tell and say, “My momma wrote this!” without their poor teacher having heart palpitations.
Where do you fall on the spice meter?
I’m so glad this genre has books with enough spice (or the lack thereof) to suit all sorts of tastes. All my love goes out to my fellow authors, whether you write spicy or clean.
Do you have a favorite clean fantasy romance author? Drop their name in the comments below! I’d love to feature them and their work on the blog some time.
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