2025 Goodreads Choice Awards: Best Romantasy of the Year

It’s that time of year to discover the Best Romantasy in the 2025 Goodreads Choice Awards! I’ve got the entire list of 20 nominees up for Best Romantasy in the 2025 Goodreads Choice Awards below because readers cannot get enough of this romance category as well as this year’s winner.

Which book got your vote this year? Share in the comments below!

For the nominees for this year’s best romance, check out my post on the 2025 Goodreads Choice Awards Nominees for Best Romance!

*Disclosure: This post may include affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

2025 Goodreads Choice Awards:
Best Romantasy WINNER

Onyx Storm
by Rebecca Yarros

After nearly eighteen months at Basgiath War College, Violet Sorrengail knows there’s no more time for lessons. No more time for uncertainty. Because the battle has truly begun, and with enemies closing in from outside their walls and within their ranks, it’s impossible to know who to trust.

Now Violet must journey beyond the failing Aretian wards to seek allies from unfamiliar lands to stand with Navarre. The trip will test every bit of her wit, luck, and strength, but she will do anything to save what she loves—her dragons, her family, her home, and him.

Even if it means keeping a secret so big, it could destroy everything.

They need an army. They need power. They need magic. And they need the one thing only Violet can find—the truth. But a storm is coming…and not everyone can survive its wrath.

My book review of Onyx Storm.

2025 Goodreads Choice Awards:
Best Romantasy Nominees

Alchemised
by SenLinYu

“What is it you think you’re protecting in that brain of yours? The war is over. Holdfast is dead. The Eternal Flame extinguished. There’s no one left for you to save.”

Once a promising alchemist, Helena Marino is now a prisoner—of war and of her own mind. Her Resistance friends and allies have been brutally murdered, her abilities suppressed, and the world she knew destroyed.

In the aftermath of a long war, Paladia’s new ruling class of corrupt guild families and depraved necromancers, whose vile undead creatures helped bring about their victory, holds Helena captive.

According to Resistance records, she was a healer of little importance within their ranks. But Helena has inexplicable memory loss of the months leading up to her capture, making her enemies wonder: Is she truly as insignificant as she appears, or are her lost memories hiding some vital piece of the Resistance’s final gambit?

To uncover the memories buried deep within her mind, Helena is sent to the High Reeve, one of the most powerful and ruthless necromancers in this new world. Trapped on his crumbling estate, Helena’s fight—to protect her lost history and to preserve the last remaining shreds of her former self—is just beginning. For her prison and captor have secrets of their own . . . secrets Helena must unearth, whatever the cost.

Shield of Sparrows
by Devney Perry

Long ago, the gods unleashed monsters upon the five kingdoms of Calandra to remind us that humans are insignificant—that we must pray to the gods for mercy throughout our fragile, fleeting lives.

I didn’t need a deity to remind me I was powerless. Being a princess had never been more than a performance—twenty-three years of empty titles and hollow traditions. My sister revels in the spectacle, basking in the attention and flawlessly playing her part. I was never asked to be part of the charade.

Until the day an infamous monster hunter sailed to our shores. The day a prince walked into my father’s throne room and ruined my life. The day I married a stranger, signed a magical treaty in blood, and set off across the continent to the most treacherous kingdom in all the realm.

That was the day I learned that not all myths are make-believe. That lies and legends are often the same. And that the only way to kill the monsters we fear was to become one…

My book review of Shield of Sparrows.

Enchantra
by Kaylie Smith

When Genevieve Grimm’s mother dies, Genevieve wants answers no one can give… until she receives an invitation to Enchantra, a cursed palace frozen in time and full of deadly temptations.

Arrogant and dangerously handsome, Rowin Silver meets her at the door to Enchantra and refuses to let her inside. But Genevieve finds her own way in… And soon realizes her mistake.

Enchantra is a twisted labyrinth, carved from marble and silver, a place of devils and illusions where Rowin’s family are trapped forever in a deadly game. One hunts, the others hide—until a single survivor remains. Genevieve must win or die.

Rowin tells her he’s the deadliest of the Silvers. That he always wins. They can compete together… but only if they convince his family they’re desperately in love.

Genevieve knows she can’t trust Rowin, but she’ll do whatever it takes to survive the fatal trials ahead. As they hunt and hide together, Genevieve tries to ignore the desire burning between them. She absolutely cannot fall for this man. Cannot forget that she’s pretending to be in love.

Because Genevieve’s heart says Rowin will honor their deal. But her head says he’s going to betray her. That this is just another lethal game. After all, it was Rowin who taught her Enchantra’s first rule… Never, ever trust your heart.

The Knight and the Moth
by Rachel Gillig

Sybil Delling has spent nine years dreaming of having no dreams at all. Like the other foundling girls who traded a decade of service for a home in the great cathedral, Sybil is a Diviner. In her dreams she receives visions from six unearthly figures known as Omens. From them, she can predict terrible things before they occur, and lords and common folk alike travel across the kingdom of Traum’s windswept moors to learn their futures by her dreams.

Just as she and her sister Diviners near the end of their service, a mysterious knight arrives at the cathedral. Rude, heretical, and devilishly handsome, the knight Rodrick has no respect for Sybil’s visions. But when Sybil’s fellow Diviners begin to vanish one by one, she has no choice but to seek his help in finding them. For the world outside the cathedral’s cloister is wrought with peril. Only the gods have the answers she is seeking, and as much as she’d rather avoid Rodrick’s dark eyes and sharp tongue, only a heretic can defeat a god. 

Rose in Chains
by Julie Soto

The war is over, the dark forces have won, and the hero who was supposed to save them is dead. 

Captured as her castle is overrun by the enemy, Briony Rosewood knows that the world as she knows it is changed forever. The dark forces have won and her people face imminent servitude, imprisonment or death. 

Stripped of her Magic and her freedom, Briony and the other survivors are quickly sold off to the highest bidders in an auction–and as Evermore’s princess, she fetches the highest price. After a fierce bidding war, she’s sold to none other than Toven Hearst, scion of a family known for their cruelty. 

Yet despite the horrors of her new world and the role she must learn to play within it, all is not lost. Help–and hope–may yet arise in the most unlikely of places…

Dire Bound
by Sable Sorensen

Only the worthy survive the Bonding Trials.  She’ll risk her life—and her heart—to be one of them.
 
Meryn Cooper has always hated the Bonded, elite warriors who form mental links with the massive, vicious direwolves they ride. While they live in luxury, Meryn struggles to keep her family out of poverty. When her little sister, Saela, is kidnapped—stolen across the border by the immortal monsters her country has spent centuries fighting—Meryn’s world falls apart.
 
Desperate to cross the front and save her sister, Meryn enlists in the army and is thrown into the deadly Bonding Trials, where any mistake will cost her life.  
 
Now Meryn must survive four months of training at the castle. She is bound to a feral direwolf who refuses to communicate. The other trainees would love to spill her common blood. And her cold and beautiful instructor, Stark Therion, is eager to punish any weakness.
 
Everything is a competition, and everyone is out to get her—everyone except the dangerously handsome crown prince, whose attention adds another target to her back. In the castle, every smile hides a knife…and the halls hide dark secrets. 
 
It’s bond or bleed. Duel or die. Failure is ruin.

On Wings of Blood
by Briar Boleyn

Welcome to Bloodwing Academy. Expect magic. Expect competition. Expect blood.

I didn’t sign up for this. A half-fae in a school of highblood vampires? That’s a recipe for suffering.

I’m Medra Pendragon, last of the dragon riders—or so they tell me. Funny thing is, there are no dragons left. Not a single one. But somehow, that hasn’t stopped the vampires from deciding I’m worth capturing. Now I’m stuck at Bloodwing Academy, where the highbloods run everything, and blightborn like me? We’re just blood in their veins, pawns in their games.

But that’s not even the worst part. Enter Blake Drakharrow: cold, arrogant, and way too gorgeous for his own good. He’s been tormenting me since the moment we met, and now, thanks to some ancient ritual, we’re betrothed. He acts like he owns me, but I’m not going down without a fight.

Bloodwing isn’t just a school—it’s a battlefield. Highbloods fight for power, and if you’re weak, you’re dead.

Between deadly competitions, lies that could get me executed, and a dragon-shaped secret looming over my head, all I have to do is survive. Easy, right? Except I’m starting to think the real danger isn’t the academy—it’s what I’m becoming in this twisted game of power.

And Blake? He might just be the one who pushes me over the edge.

They think they can control me. They think they can use me. But they have no idea what they’ve awakened.

Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales
by Heather Fawcett

Emily Wilde has spent her life studying faeries. A renowned dryadologist, she has documented hundreds of species of Folk in her Encyclopaedia of Faeries. Now she is about to embark on her most dangerous academic project yet: studying the inner workings of a faerie realm—as its queen.

Along with her former academic rival—now fiancé—the dashing and mercurial Wendell Bambleby, Emily is immediately thrust into the deadly intrigues of Faerie as the two of them seize the throne of Wendell’s long-lost kingdom, which Emily finds a beautiful nightmare filled with scholarly treasures.

Emily has been obsessed with faerie stories her entire life, but at first she feels as ill-suited to Faerie as she did to the mortal world: How can an unassuming scholar such as herself pass for a queen? Yet there is little time to settle in, for Wendell’s murderous stepmother has placed a deadly curse upon the land before vanishing without a trace. It will take all of Wendell’s magic—and Emily’s knowledge of stories—to unravel the mystery before they lose everything they hold dear.

A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping
by Sangu Mandanna

Sera Swan used to be one of the most powerful witches in Britain. Then she resurrected her great-aunt Jasmine from the (very recently) dead, lost most of her magic, befriended a semi-villainous talking fox, and was exiled from her Guild. Now she (slightly reluctantly and just a bit grumpily) helps Jasmine run an enchanted inn in Lancashire, where she deals with her quirky guests’ shenanigans, tries to keep said talking fox in check, and longs for the future that seems lost to her. But then she finds out about an old spell that could hold the key to restoring her power…

Enter Luke Larsen, handsome and icy magical historian, who arrives on a dark winter evening and just might know how to unlock the spell’s secrets. Luke has absolutely no interest in getting involved in the madcap goings-on of the inn and is definitely not about to let a certain bewitching innkeeper past his walls, so no one is more surprised than he is when he agrees to help Sera with her spell. Worse, he might actually be thawing.

Running an inn, reclaiming lost magic, and staying one step ahead of the watchful Guild is a lot for anyone, but Sera Swan is about to discover that she doesn’t have to do it alone…and that the weird, wonderful family she’s made might be the best magic of all.

Our Vicious Oaths
by N.E. Davenport

Princess of the Aether Dominion, Kadeesha wants nothing to do with fae politics. She is a warrior, first and foremost, and believes her greatest strength is leading her squadron of elite winged serpent flyers to protect her homeland. But bound since infancy to be betrothed to the Hyperion High King, ruler of all Dominions, she has no choice but to do what men have chosen for her.

Repulsed by the idea, she decides to spend one last night of freedom—in the arms of a dangerous stranger who takes her to sexual heights she’s never experienced before…but who is only using Kadeesha to set a trap for the High King.

For the High King and the kings of his six Dominions were responsible for the decimation of the Apollyon Court, and its new king, Malachi, wants his pounds of flesh.

On Kadeesha’s wedding day, Malachi and his special forces attack. Her father is killed, and Malachi wounds the High King, ultimately taking Kadeesha as hostage back to his land.

But she is no true hostage. The two form a pact: she will help lure the High King so Malachi can kill him once and for all, and he in turn will not harm Kadeesha or the Aether people. And as much as Kadeesha hates politics, she is now the Queen of her folk. Fae bonds are unbreakable…and so, perhaps, is the attraction Kadeesha and Malachi feel for each other. For even as they must publicly display their connection to provoke the High King’s jealousy, they struggle to resist the powerful allure between them in order to achieve their ultimate goals.

Wild Reverence
by Rebecca Ross

Born in the firelit domain of the under realm, Matilda is the youngest goddess of her clan, blessed with humble messenger magic. But in a land where gods often kill each other to steal power and alliances break as quickly as they are forged, Matilda must come of age sooner than most. She may be known to carry words and letters through the realms, but she holds a secret she must hide from even her dearest of allies to ensure her survival. And to complicate matters . . . there is a mortal boy who dreams of her, despite the fact they have never met in the waking world.

Ten years ago, Vincent of Beckett wrote to Matilda on the darkest night of his life―begging the goddess he befriended in dreams to help him. When his request went unanswered, Vincent moved on, becoming the hardened, irreverent lord of the river who has long forgotten Matilda. That is, until she comes tumbling into his bedroom window with a letter for him.

As Fate would have it, Matilda and Vincent were destined to find each other beyond dreams. There may be a chance for Matilda to rewrite the blood-soaked ways of the gods, but at immense sacrifice. She will have to face something she fears even more than losing her magic: to be vulnerable, and to allow herself to finally be loved.

My book review of Wild Reverence.

Mate
by Ali Hazelwood

Serena Paris is orphaned, pack-less, and one of a kind. Coming forward as the first Human-Were hybrid was supposed to heal a centuries-long rift between species. Instead, it made her a target, prey to the ruthless political machinations between Weres, Vampyres, and Humans. With her enemies closing in on her, she has only one option left—if he’ll have her.

As Alpha of the Northwest pack, Koen Alexander commands obedience. His authority is so absolute, only a fool would threaten his mate. It doesn’t matter if Serena doesn’t reciprocate his feelings, nothing will stop him from keeping her safe.

But power-hungry Vampyres and Weres are not the only threats chasing Serena. Sooner or later, her past is bound to catch up with her—and Koen might be the only thing standing between her and total annihilation.

My book review of Mate.

Accomplice to the Villain
by Hannah Nicole Maehrer

REWARD OFFERED: Apprentice to The Villain wanted for treason (light), magical property damage (alleged), and one incident involving a weaponized scone (accurate). Frequently seen with a grumpy frog (crowned, judgmental). Answers to “Evie” or “Stop that.”

Evie Sage didn’t mean to become the right-hand woman to the kingdom’s most terrifying villain. One minute, she was applying for an entry-level position that promised “light paperwork and occasional beheadings,” and the next, she was knee-deep in magical mayhem, murder plots, and an entirely inappropriate crush on her brooding, sharp-jawed, walking disaster of a boss.

Now, with a magical prophecy unraveling, assassins showing up in the break room, and a suspicious amount of frogs wearing crowns, Evie has to figure out how to survive her job without setting the kingdom on fire—or her dignity, which is hanging by a very sarcastic thread.

Being evil-adjacent was never part of the five-year plan. But then again…neither was falling for The Villain.

The Songbird & the Heart of Stone
by Carissa Broadbent

Mische lost everything when she was forcibly Turned into a vampire–her home, her humanity, and most devastating of all, the love of the sun god to whom she had devoted her life. Now, sentenced to death for murdering the vampire prince who Turned her, redemption feels impossible.

But when Mische is saved by Asar, the bastard prince of the House of Shadow with a past as brutal as his scars, she’s forced into a mission worse than execution: a journey to the underworld to resurrect the god of death himself.

Yet, Mische’s punishment may be the key to her salvation. In a secret meeting, her sun god commands her to help Asar in his mission, only to betray him… by killing the god of death.

Mische and Asar must travel the treacherous path to the underworld, facing trials, beasts, and the vengeful ghosts of their pasts. But most dangerous of all is the alluring call of the darkness–and her forbidden attraction to Asar, a burgeoning bond that risks invoking the wrath of gods.

As her betrayal looms, the underworld closes in and angry gods grow restless. Mische will be forced to choose between the redemption of the sun or the damnation of the darkness.

Bonds of Hercules
by Jasmine Mas

I’m Hercules, but my powers are not what they seem.

I’m trapped in a marriage with my two enemies and I’ve accidentally joined a cult. To make matters worse, Augustus and Kharon are trying to seduce me. It doesn’t help that my mentors, Achilles and Patro, are acting really strange.

Now, a dangerous prisoner has escaped from the Underworld, and things are spiraling out of control. Men are fighting over me. Mysteries are unfolding left and right. And I’ve had enough.

Everybody better beware because I’m fighting in the Gladiator Competition and seizing my power. Things are about to get very messy. For Sparta.

Immortal
by Sue Lynn Tan

The young heir to a mortal crown, Liyen ascends a precarious throne when her grandfather dies, vowing to end her kingdom’s obligation to the immortals and take vengeance against those she feels responsible for his death.

When she is summoned to the Immortal Realm, she seizes the opportunity to learn their secrets and to form a tenuous alliance to safeguard her people, all with the one she should fear and mistrust the most: the ruthless God of War. As they are drawn together, a treacherous attraction ignites between them—one she has to resist, to not endanger all she is fighting for.

 But with darker forces closing in around them, and her kingdom plunged into peril, Liyen must risk everything to save her people from an unspeakable fate, even if it means forging a dangerous bond with the immortal… even if it means losing her heart. 

The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy
by Brigitte Knightly

When Osric Mordaunt, member of the Fyren Order of assassins, falls ill, he realizes he needs the expertise of a very specific healer. As fate would have it, that healer belongs to an enemy faction, the Haelan Order.

Aurienne Fairhrim and her fellow Haelan are inundated by sick children suffering from an outbreak of a long-forgotten Pox. Unable to get the funding needed to launch an immunization program, the Haelan Order is desperate for money – so desperate that when Osric breaks into their headquarters to bribe Aurienne to heal him, she is forced to accept.

As Osric and Aurienne work together to solve not only his illness but the mysterious reoccurrence of the Pox, they find themselves ardently denying their attraction which only fuels the tension between them.

Silver Elite
by Dani Francis

TRUST NO ONE.

Wren Darlington has spent her whole life in hiding, honing her psychic abilities and aiding the rebel Uprising in small ways. On the Continent, being Modified means certain death—and Wren is one of the most powerful Mods in existence. When one careless mistake places her in the hands of the enemy and she’s forced to join their most elite training program, she’s finally handed the perfect opportunity to strike a devastating blow from inside their ranks.

LIE TO EVERYONE.

But training for Silver Block can be deadly, especially when you’re harboring dangerous secrets and living in close quarters with everyone who wants you dead.

AND WHATEVER YOU DO, DON’T FALL FOR YOUR GREATEST ENEMY.

As the stakes grow ever higher, Wren must prove herself to Silver Block. But that’s easier said than done when your commanding officer is the ruthless and infuriatingly irresistible Cross Redden, who doesn’t miss anything when it comes to her. And as war rages between Mods like her and those who aim to destroy them, Wren must decide just how far she’s willing to go to protect herself . . . and how much of the Continent is worth saving.

The Wrath of the Fallen
by Amber V. Nicole

When Gods dance with Monsters, the world will tremble.

A BEAUTIFUL ENEMY ONCE SAVED HIM.

With the return of Samkiel, the rightful heir to the throne, tensions grow in the remaining realms. Battle lines begin to form between those pledging their loyalties to either Samkiel or Nismera. War looms on the horizon, and Samkiel must deal with his growing power. Without the Ring of Oblivion, the dark ancient force living under his skin begins to lash out.

Meanwhile, an ancient power calls to Dianna, plaguing her dreams with messages of retribution. Samkiel, seeking to protect the woman he loves, sets out on a desperate search for answers, but the solution will mean a dangerous voyage to the one place he dares not go—the Otherworld.

BUT WHO IS THE REAL MONSTER?
It is a race against time as Nismera hunts for Vincent and Camilla, seeking what they stole. Her thirst for power and her armada only grow stronger as she rampages across the realms. Forces, primal and eternal, have taken notice, forcing Ig’Morruthens and gods to work together on a quest to reclaim an object capable of unraveling reality. An unlikely bond is formed in blood and fire, leaving all affected with no choice but one—save the realms or themselves.

Related Book Lists:

• 2025 Goodreads Choice Awards for Best Romance
• 2024 Goodreads Choice Awards for Best Romantasy
• 2024 Goodreads Choice Awards for Best Romance
• 2023 Goodreads Choice Awards for Best Romantasy
• Best Romantasy Books of All Time
• Most Anticipated New Romantasy Books of 2025

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