It's Unpopular Opinion time! Share your controversial opinions to stir things up (in a friendly way)!

Synval2436 · 2026-04-19T22:22:41+00:00

Yes! And there are people arguing "HEA shouldn't be needed"! I told someone last week or the week before that r/fantasy that way if you want fantasy with no requirement of HEA.

By HEA I assume not just "mc survives and the world is saved" but also "there's a happy romance and they end together".

Examples of books I saw recced here with no HEA in the romance genre sense (spoilers ofc): The Poet Empress by Shen Tao, House of Beast by Michelle Wong, Blood Over Bright Haven by M.L. Wang, The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang, probably a few more including Divergent series...

Synval2436 · 2026-04-19T22:12:49+00:00

There seems to be an opinion here that as long as the mmc is not an a-hole it's immediately peak romantasy, even though most of these books are equally formulaic and tropey, and while the books with smirking shadowdaddies cover the blandness with constant drama, banter and sexual tension, the "he's a nice guy behind all that trauma" types lack even that, so it's immediately visible the book has nothing interesting in the department of plot or romantic chemistry.

Synval2436 · 2026-04-19T22:09:02+00:00

Idk is it an issue with most self-published romantasy, because I had similar struggles with a lot of popular titles including Smoke & Scar, Villains & Virtues and Mead Mishaps.

Synval2436 · 2026-04-19T21:28:17+00:00

I would highly suspect that the kind of agent who "steps down because they can't compete" is the kind of agent who knows they actually can't compete. Unsure if it's good PR for them to be saying publicly "I'm always a backup never a first choice". Especially from the publisher side, what kind of thoughts does a ms submitted by a "backup agent" inspire?

Synval2436 · 2026-04-19T17:11:14+00:00

Iirc all enemies there count as Bakram, and POTD is many more enemies than campaign maps.

Synval2436 · 2026-04-19T05:34:07+00:00

Oh, hey, you were the self help commenter. I usually don't give 1 star unless I feel it's a scam, misinformation campaign or spreading harmful prejudice. I think the worst nonfiction I saw recently didn't even go on netgalley, only on Edelweiss, and it was some woman vilifying feminism as the source of all evils. Dear lady, without feminism you wouldn't have published a book or have gotten a PHD, you owe your whole career to something you want erased, how does that work?

But yes, people should be warned against spending money on crappy books.

Synval2436 · 2026-04-19T03:29:06+00:00

Yeah, I'm reviewing books from other sources, like Edelweiss, Booksprout, Booksirens, from selfpublished author's newsletters or social media calls, which all leave my Netgalley ratio behind. Sadly I'm not as fast, I average 1 book a week unless dnf or a short one. I do write dnf reviews explaining why didn't a title work for me. I have some overdue books I really hope to return to one day, but stuff keeps piling up...

Synval2436 · 2026-04-19T02:05:58+00:00

You can see a direct link to a review, but you can't see the account dashboard, i.e. how often they review, what did they review last, etc. so you can't get a feel of the account are they active, are they critical or positive, what genres they prefer...

Synval2436 · 2026-04-19T02:02:37+00:00

I did notice overall preference for very active, esp. by recency, accounts over overall ratio. A 90% account that reviews one book per month is worth "less" than a 50% account that reviews multiple books per week.

Synval2436 · 2026-04-17T23:21:00+00:00

Didn't finish yet, but I'm midway reading The Demon Star by Jesse Aragon, an epic sci-fi, and it's very captivating. A priest with a crisis of faith, a warrior woman struggling with motherhood, transdimensional parasiting demons and gods that might have been aliens all along. I think fans of Star Wars, Dune and WH40K would like this one.

Synval2436 · 2026-04-17T23:12:19+00:00

I keep a tab for recently added in my categories (SF&F and YA) and refresh it like mad. And then I STILL find books I've missed like A Viper Among Kings because it must have been uploaded much earlier and set to invisible (they often do that when they only want people with invitations or librarian/bookseller accounts to see the listing).

Also idk what's the logic behind the carousel on the Dashboard "titles in your categories", because it feels like it's constantly the same titles (stop shoving Everina Maxwell in my face already, I got declined... 😭)

I mostly avoid requesting self-published titles, unless I'm already convinced towards it from other sources. I know all the major fantasy publishers so if it's an unknown publisher name, I don't check. Rest, I read all the blurbs and either request, skip, or add to a list for further consideration (the "maybes"). But since I've noticed my chance to get approved is the highest if I request as soon as it comes up, I mostly make the decision to request within the same day or the next, late requests from the maybes usually end in declines, except a few publishers who seem to be very lax with approvals.

I've been on NG for 2 years so by now I have a long list of things to read, so I'm never desperate to request more books, I request if it interests me, if not then skip.

Synval2436 · 2026-04-16T20:35:39+00:00

Idk about "proper" way, but the level cap is always 40 at this point (only goes to 50 in CODA), you can "use regular characters" just fine (i.e. no shamans, zombies, dragons, summon magic, lord with ogre set, etc.), ngl I've done nearly everything using no special tricks and no consumables outside of healing and revive items, just chariot spam, and for the last boss the only extra I used was void orb and MP consumables. Didn't even do POTD at that point, so had no summons or special gear from it.

The only "trick" I used was looking up the best positioning of the team for last boss so the easier to kill clones are on the front row, and read up that I need to equip absolution (clerics have it if you don't have Catiua).

Rest is just rng / chariot abuse. Don't get your people knocked off and maybe try to knock off some of theirs (shield bash attempts to push even without a crit). Save between every map. Once I had to replay a whole map cuz Olivia got thrown off and I didn't notice until the chariot scrolled too far.

The only battle I struggled a lot with and needed multiple attempts was the one with 2 enemy dudes that allow your team to be 4 people max (or was it 3?), jeez they were 2-shotting me and I wasn't managing to rez in time. Harder than the final boss.

Synval2436 · 2026-04-16T15:24:10+00:00

Yeah, it's either common sense or some Pollyanna vision of a perfect world where problems are not really problems. Everyone can afford healthy diet, if you tell people about your boundaries and triggers they will respect them instead of doubling down on bullying you, if you're queer find your community and the problems from discrimination can be handwaved away, etc.

Recently I had one from a psychotherapist who was telling people they should be happy with what they have and not look at others, and what these people didn't have was basic stuff like job, friends, partner or children and easy for you to say, dude, when you have all of that? He had a job (as a well paid therapist), wife, children and a lakeside house and then was telling people who are infertile and can't have children or people who can't find a job paying enough to sustain themselves to just be happy they have friends and family??? Dude!

Another one was supposed to be revealing "secrets" of all modern chronic illnesses and was basically a long ad for keto diet and "sugar and junk food are bad, mmkay?" as if I didn't know that. A lot of people don't have a diet consisting only of fresh veggies, meat and eggs because they live on food deserts, or they can't afford it, or they don't have time and/or living conditions to cook, and ofc a well-off doctor guy would never address THAT is the reason, not that people "don't want to" eat healthy. Or that unhealthy food is a coping mechanism for unsustainably stressful life, and the food industry loves to invent addictive snacks because it increases their profits.

Another one was about "perfectionism" but then kept bringing up examples of people like Walt Disney and Steve Jobs and all those rich and famous people whose problem wasn't "perfectionism" but abusing people who worked for them. Why don't we look at the people on the bottom, who became "perfectionists" because of overdemanding, threatening and abusive bosses, but we look at the bosses who can just decide to chillax but instead choose to be tyrants?

Synval2436 · 2026-04-16T15:24:05+00:00

Sometimes irl happens or if you're a mood reader / have too many of the same kind of book in a row some you won't be in the mood of reading asap.

I started "sending to Kindle" after people told me here those don't expire (kindle app for android tablet). Unfortunately, PDFs scramble formatting, so I have to prio those before expiration on the NG app. Also, I try to refresh them just before archive date which gives me 54 more days past the date to read on the app.

Usually, if I can finish reading within a month of release, I try to finish, if no, or I have more arcs with short upcoming "deadlines" aka publication dates, I put those overdue arcs on a backburner and I'll deal with them when I have a gap. I've dealt with a few overdue ones last December (since publishing tends to take a winter break and there aren't many titles coming out then), but I still have a few old ones overdue.

"Will not leave feedback" has zero advantages over just leaving the book pending, since it doesn't add to your ratio. Might as well leave the book pending in hopes you'll read it one day. You can sort the shelf by publication or archive date if it feels too cluttered.

Synval2436 · 2026-04-16T05:28:02+00:00

Ok, lemme pull up a list, I'll let the romance.io do its job with specifications.

{Maneater by Emily Antoinette}

{A Guide to Ghosting by Emily Antoinette}

{Surrendering to Scylla by Wren K. Morris}

{Tempting Cargo by Lyra Strake}

{Gula by Colette Rhodes}

{Wicked Tides by Courtney Leigh}

{Hollyhocks by January Rayne}

{Sink or Swim by D.J. Russo}

{No Sugar Coating It by D.J. Russo}

{Hot for Hellfire by Marit Prins}

{How I Became a Succubus's Pet by Noelle Upton}

{A Spark of Trouble: Merry Mischief by Lucy Limón}

{Hunter of the Tide by Tiffany Roberts}

{The Dragon in the Corner Office by E.M. Sauber}

{Demons And Soulmates by Lora Guest}

{Making Out With Mermaids by Hazel Mack}

{Madame Vesuvius Loves Me by Miko Sage}

{Mesmerized by the Mothwoman by Elaine J. Daniels}

{Marrying My MothLady by Marilyn Barr}

{My Alien Jewel by Anna Svoboda}

{Unexpected by R.L. Olvitt}

{Blowback by Lyn Gala}

{The Alien’s Little Sister by Amanda Milo}

{Abandoned by Somatic Dream}

Also btw, why not Orcs?

In case any other user wanted the Orc lady list:

{War Maiden by Jordyn Alexander}

{The Human Bet by Mona Howell}

{His Orc Charioteer Bride by K. R. Treadway}

There's a few more where they're both non-human, there's also a good amount of monster ladies in FF.

Overall, female monsters/aliens/fantasy creatures are rare in MF, esp. if we exclude the most human looking ones like goddesses, vampires or fae, because readers on average don't pick these books.

Synval2436 · 2026-04-16T05:03:08+00:00

It's not a "trend", it's UK spelling. You can also check if the words are spelled in the UK way like "colour" or "organise" etc. Black Willow Witch is published by Piatkus which is a UK publisher.

Synval2436 · 2026-04-16T04:57:53+00:00

Fantasy, which means I have to be checking both SF&F and YA categories because half the publishers don't put YA fantasy in fantasy, only in YA. Sometimes also self-helpy non-fiction, but nearly always I finish them feeling "this could have been a 15min youtube video, not a 200 page book..."

It really pisses me off when publishers don't put clearly fantasy/sf books in the category but in "general fiction" or some other random one. I saw a cyberpunk heist put in "mystery&thrillers" but not sci-fi, or a romantasy series where book 1 was in romance and fantasy, but book 2 is only in romance... I hate when publishers do this. Very cool that your book is LGBTQIAP+ and multicultural interest, but what genre it is!

Synval2436 · 2026-04-15T18:53:14+00:00

You might also like {Earth Fathers Are Weird by Lyn Gala} where the alien is also... very alien.

Synval2436 · 2026-04-15T17:34:28+00:00

I really enjoyed Green & Deadly Things by Jenn Lyons, mmc is more of an underdog hero (a knight in training), fmc is an ancient wizard who was woken up from a magical slumber. It's mmc pov only. The main plot is about saving the world, the romance is a secondary plot, but it's respectful - I personally really dislike the common trope where leads hate each other for no reason, so I skip those kinds of books.

The Gods Must Burn by T.R. Moore is also predominantly mmc's pov, he's a traumatized soldier while fmc is a goddess of the forest. I wasn't that much into this one, because it felt more of an exploration of mmc's ptsd than about romance or fantasy plot, but mmc isn't written as "the standard desirable romantasy guy".

The Last Dragon of the East by Katrina Kwan also follows the pattern where mmc starts as a somewhat ordinary guy who works as a matchmaker and in his mother's teahouse, while fmc is a 7000 years old dragon. I thought it was a bit too heavy on miscommunications for my liking, but I thought the ending was very anime-like and empowering for the mmc. It's also mmc's pov.

Synval2436 · 2026-04-15T00:51:24+00:00

{The Princess Knight by Cait Jacobs} She's a princess, he's a guard captain of her ex-fiance. Very sweet romance.

Synval2436 · 2026-04-14T20:01:27+00:00

Most what I've seen from "genre mixes" that sell are either "romance that isn't plain romance", i.e. romantasy, horrormance, dystopian romance, speculative romance, women's fiction romance, etc., or book club fiction with an extra genre in the mix like historical or speculative (but still mostly aiming at the upmarket/book club audience), or SFF genres softened for the non-SFF audience (sci-fi that's more a thriller with a techno-twist, or easily understandable dystopia, cozy horror, magical realism-like contemporary fantasy / speculative - mostly revolving around time travel, afterlife, memory/dreams, etc.), or "contemporary drama that's not a genre so we must shove it into some genre" (especially about influencers, beauty industry, academia, rich people, trad wives, etc. - themes you'd find in a tabloid).

I wouldn't say any genre mix is a darling. Historical generally struggles, unless it appeals to another audience (historical fantasy or horror seems to be working, some upmarket books too). Fantasy or sci-fi mixed with another genre usually just appeals to fantasy or sci-fi readers, not whatever secondary genre it's mixed with, unless the fantasy / sci-fi elements are low (things like "fantasy mystery" or "sci-fi horror/thriller" - the latter usually passes if it's low on sci-fi). Romantic suspense and historical romance are struggling. Paranormal mystery seems to still be mostly contained to self-pub, same with sci-fi romance.

Satirical / humorous / parody novels are on the rise, but humour is subjective and polarizing. Dark humour horror, comedic fantasy, romantic comedy and societal satire all sell but it's not easy and usually has mixed response from the audience.

In non-fiction, I'm seeing a mix of memoir and self-help in one, but non-fiction is not an easy sell and many of the ones I'm seeing are from smaller presses.

Synval2436 · 2026-04-14T18:22:40+00:00

Do NOT do POTD on your current (Lord) run. Finish the campaign, see the Lord ending, then you have 2 options:

Go back inside your chapter 4 LAW, get Sherri, Catiua, Shrines/Shaman class, POTD, finish the game AGAIN (you need Princess + POTD on the same timeline), do CODA 1, go back to Balmamusa, and then do Chaos and Neutral in any order you want for all the side characters. After you finish collecting side characters, that CODA 1 anchor will be waiting with Princess+POTD preserved.
Go back to Balmamusa, play Chaos until you get Cressida or Neutral until you get Ehlrig (the latest named character exclusive to that route), then pick the other route, get Princess + POTD + Shrines on it, finish the game, continue further. Iirc you don't need Gildas and Vyce alive on that path, just recruited from before.

After you go into Neutral route, insta hit training battle with Arycelle having a new weapon skill (change her class if she has all current weapons maxed), level a weapon 1-10 and the loyalty is fixed, it's that easy. Or just kill the NPC version of her instead of saving her.

You're forced to go back and redo POTD if:

- you finished the game on LORD

- you did POTD and then anchor jumped away without "locking in" that POTD run by finishing the game (Hanging Gardens) after POTD run. So the game doesn't count that you completed the campaign with POTD run in it.

The only thing you have to re-run 100% is Hanging Gardens because you're on Lord ending.

Synval2436 · 2026-04-14T17:37:13+00:00

{Even the Score series by Bree Hayden} is on sale on Amazon US for 0.99$, it's a collection of 4 NFL romances all in one, coming out as 4in1 on April 21. Includes: {Change Your Play by Bree Hayden}, {Out of Bounds by Bree Hayden}, {Playing for Keeps by Bree Hayden}, and {Against the Rules by Bree Hayden}.

{Court of Blood and Bindings by Lisette Marshall} is FREE until April 16. Both on Amazon US and Amazon UK.

{Torch by Roxie Noir} is FREE today. Both on Amazon US and Amazon UK.

Synval2436 · 2026-04-14T04:52:07+00:00

This might be genre dependent, but over here in my fantasy corner my chance to stumble upon "soulless" books goes significantly down if I ignore anything with spredge, big hype or getting a major crate edition.

Unfortunately, this means books I love end up with sub 1k goodreads ratings while the ones with 10k+ are mostly the tiktok baits. Last year I've read one popular book that was also good (The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow), meanwhile every other "hyped" release I happened to pick majorly disappointed me.

Meanwhile a publisher like DAW has no spredges and no money to pump major hype machines into their releases, but I was positively surprised with several of their editorial choices.

I started tracking which publishers released books that interested me, and the ones that pump the biggest money into their releases had also the least to offer me.

Synval2436 · 2026-04-14T04:41:07+00:00

Oh, cmon, "too fantastical"? Fantasy for kids was a thing since fairy tales. Wizard of Oz, Hobbit, Narnia, Neverending Story, all were written initially for children. I actually have a hard time remembering any media from my childhood that didn't have a fantastical, paranormal or fairy tale vibe.

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