Dragons. Magic. Enemies who, let’s face it, are obviously going to fall in love by the end.

Romantasy has taken over.

If you’ve been anywhere near BookTok recently, you’ll know what we mean. Books like Fourth Wing and A Court of Thorns and Roses have brought fantasy romance firmly into the mainstream, along with sprayed edges, enormous special editions, and fictional men people have surprisingly strong opinions about.

And people aren't casually dipping in for a chapter before bed either. They're joining book clubs, swapping recommendations, and devoting entire weekends to books that could probably double as doorstops.

I mean, obviously, a good storyline helps.

But the timing of our romantasy obsession is interesting too.

We're living in a world where practically everything wants our attention.

Maybe spending a few hours somewhere completely imaginary is part of the appeal.

Real life has quite a lot of tabs open 

Emails, WhatsApps, news alerts, work chats, TikTok.

Then there's that message you opened this morning, forgot to reply to, and have now left just long enough to make replying feel a bit awkward.

We're very good at being constantly available. Guilty as charged.

Reading doesn't really let you do that.

If you're properly into a book, your attention has to stay there. You need to remember who everyone is, which kingdom is at war, and why these two characters who clearly fancy each other are still pretending they don't.

For a while, everything else gets pushed into the background.

And there's some research behind that feeling.

A 2025 review of reading and wellbeing found that one reason people value reading is the opportunity to get some distance from everyday stressors. The researchers also identified things like self-understanding, perspective-taking, and social connection as possible ways reading for pleasure could support wellbeing.

It doesn't mean a fantasy novel is a treatment for stress.

But it does make disappearing into one for a few hours feel like a pretty good way to spend your time.

Maybe escapism gets a bad name

“Escaping reality” sounds like something we're supposed to feel slightly guilty about.

We should be dealing with our problems. Working on ourselves. Going for a walk. Listening to an educational podcast while we go for the walk.

But sometimes you don't want to improve yourself.

Sometimes you just want to know if the woman with magical powers is finally going to get with the man she’s spent the last 400 pages pretending she can’t stand.

And that's absolutely fine.

Not every hobby needs to become another part of our wellness routine.

In fact, that might be exactly what makes reading appealing. You aren't necessarily doing it to achieve anything.

You're doing it because you want to know what happens next.

Your phone isn't very good at letting you do one thing

There’s another reason reading feels slightly different to a lot of our downtime.

Think about watching television.

How often are you just watching television?

Your phone comes out during the adverts. Then during a slightly boring bit. Then you check Instagram, reply to someone and realise you've missed the last five minutes of whatever you were supposedly watching.

A book is less forgiving.

Lose concentration for three pages and suddenly someone has died, there's a war happening, a dragon has set fire to the village, and you have absolutely no idea why.

So you go back.

There has also been research into what spending time inside fictional stories might do beyond simply holding our attention.

A 2024 meta-analysis found small positive effects of reading fiction on social cognition, including things like empathy and understanding other people's perspectives.

Small is important here.

Reading romantasy isn't going to turn you into an emotional genius.

But spending hours following the thoughts, motivations and relationships of other people – even imaginary ones – may exercise some interesting social-cognitive skills.

Whether those people have wings is presumably less important.

Then TikTok somehow made reading social

This is probably the funniest part of the whole thing.

One of the hobbies getting us away from our phones has been massively boosted by...

Our phones. Shock.

BookTok has turned something traditionally quite solitary into a shared experience.

Someone posts about a book.

You buy it.

You finish it.

You immediately go back online because you desperately need to find someone else who has read the ending.

There are book clubs, reading challenges, reviews, theories and comment sections full of people debating fictional relationships as though they personally know everyone involved.

Research into shared reading programmes has found that reading with others can support feelings of connection and community.

BookTok obviously isn't a structured shared-reading programme, so we shouldn't pretend the research proves TikTok is improving our wellbeing.

But the social side of reading is easy to recognise.

A book gives people something to talk about.

And sometimes that's half the fun.

Maybe the dragons aren't really the point

Romantasy isn't a new mental health intervention.

It's entertainment.

Good, addictive, occasionally ridiculous entertainment.

But perhaps that's exactly what we're looking for.

Something absorbing enough to hold our attention for longer than 30 seconds. Something we can do without checking an email halfway through. Something we enjoy without needing it to make us healthier, smarter or more productive.

If romantasy does that for you, brilliant.

If you'd rather have a murder mystery, thriller or cheesy romance, the dragons are optional.

The important bit might simply be finding something you actually want to get lost in.

And if you realise an hour later that you haven't checked your phone once?

Maybe that's enough of a benefit on its own.

References

• Sirisena, M. et al. (2025) ‘Reading for wellbeing: a realist review of evidence’, Perspectives in Public Health.
• Wimmer, L. et al. (2024) ‘Cognitive effects and correlates of reading fiction: Two preregistered multilevel meta-analyses’, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 153(6), pp. 1464–1488.
• Järvholm, K. et al. (2025) ‘Shared reading as an intervention to improve health and well-being in adults: a scoping review’, Frontiers in Psychology, 16, 1484839.
• Carney, J. and Robertson, C. (2022) ‘Five studies evaluating the impact on mental health and mood of recalling, reading, and discussing fiction’, PLOS ONE, 17(4), e0266323.
• Dodell-Feder, D. and Tamir, D.I. (2018) ‘Fiction reading has a small positive impact on social cognition: A meta-analysis’, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 147(11), pp. 1713–1727.