
When they get to know their ‘enemy’ a bit better, many Romantasy characters realise they’ve never felt so strongly or deeply before, at last appreciating how shallow and inadequate previous relationships have been. In Kaylie Smith’s Phantasma, for instance, Ophelia realises that her ex, Elliott, made her feel broken. Freya from Danielle L. Jensen’s A Fate Inked in Blood, knew her husband Vragi was a dead loss, but hadn’t been aware quite how much passion he lacked until she met Bjorn. And though Feyre, in Sarah J. Maas’ A Court of Thorns and Roses, ends up remembering her former boyfriend Isaac with fondness, she realises their encounters were not a patch on what she experiences with Tamlin. We too often expect less than we deserve and even settle for a relationship that makes us sad and resentful.
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