The Veiled Kingdom

The romantasy genre has skyrocketed in popularity in recent years. In 2023 and 2024, the romantasy genre gained ascendance thanks to the widespread influence of various social media trends, especially TikTok’s “BookTok” community. BookTok first rose to popularity in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic as users gathered to share book recommendations, review books, and forge communities focused on literature. BookTok helped popularize the romantasy genre; novels that fit this category blend fantasy and romance but maintain a primary focus on the romance aspects of the plot. Key features of romantasy books include sprawling and intricate world-building, unique magical systems, strong female heroines, and epic journeys featuring intense danger. The romantic relationships that drive these plots often engage with typical romance tropes and patterns, such as the enemies-to-lovers dynamic or the slow-burn romance. Popular series in the romantasy genre include Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros; A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas; Cruel Prince by Holly Black; and Crowns of Nyaxia by Carissa Broadbent.

Romantasy novels vary in their levels of sexual content, which BookTokers often euphemistically refer to as “spice,” but regardless of a book’s “spice level,” romance remains a central focus of every romantasy novel. Holly Renee’s The Veiled Kingdom and Stars and Shadows series both fall into the romantasy genre and focus on romantic relationships between characters who are initially enemies. Notably, The Veiled Kingdom adheres to many common tropes of the romantasy genre, for the fantasy elements of the plot have a deep impact on the world in which the characters live. Nyra and Dacre are both fae and can wield magic (although Nyra’s is currently suppressed). Likewise, the setting is split between the mythical city in Marmoris and the hidden city in which the rebellion lurks, and both places are rife with magic.

The protagonists are also typical models of romantasy characters. Nyra is a strong heroine who has withstood her father’s torture and has the strength to survive on the streets. Similarly, Dacre is a typical romantic interest, fitting the stereotype of the dark, brooding, and emotionally scarred male lead—a trope that many romantasy novels employ. Together, Dacre and Nyra pursue a tumultuous romance that easily fulfills the enemies-to-lovers plot pattern. Because Nyra is the princess of the Marmoris Kingdom and Dacre is the son of the rebellion’s leader, the two protagonists are on opposite sides of the broader political conflict that dominates the novel, and this grim reality puts them at cross-purposes even though they both condemn King Roan’s violence. Renee alternates between Nyra and Dacre’s perspectives in order to reveal their private thoughts directly on the page, and this approach allows for further exploration of both characters’ changing perceptions as their fraught romance progresses. These perceptions change from distrust and hatred to lust and longing: a shift that is emblematic of the enemies-to-lovers trope. However, the romance is complicated by Dacre’s betrayal of Nyra at the end of the novel, which raises uncertainties about their relationship that can only be addressed by the second book of the series, The Hunted Heir.