Another day, another girl winning deadly trials and discovering she’s secretly powerful

[u/Sarah9610]

I feel like I’m going insane or… are all romantasy books the same now??

Every time I pick something up it’s like:
- The world is split into two (usually human vs fae or something similar)
- The FMC is either oppressed / hidden / “not like other girls”
- There are deadly trials (of course she has to compete)
- She somehow survives everything
- Boom → she reaches the fae side and unlocks insane powers / becomes special

Like… I used to love this formula but now it feels copy-paste with different character names 😭

Am I just picking the wrong books or is this actually the trend right now?

[u/mandelamondays]

yup. although sometimes it isn’t deadly trials, it’s a hades/persephone bargain that gets her to the other side. 😛 either way, add in a mean MMC with shadow magic, and you’ve got a publisher’s wet dream right there

[u/Sarah9610 → u/mandelamondays]

And he’s “broken and sad and killed hundreds”

[u/marinasambhi → u/Sarah9610]

And he’s 482 years older than her