Two years ago it would have been a nonsense word, but now romantasy is its own best-selling genre. And while we’ve all heard of Sarah J. Maas and Rebecca Yarros, there are several other writers making their way to prominence, including Kerri Maniscalco. She has written 10 books spanning three different series, raking in spots on all the big bestseller lists and amassing a dedicated fanbase on BookTok. Her latest work, Throne of Secrets, releases on October 29. It’s the second installment in her Princes of Sin series, the first of which — Throne of the Fallen — is one of the most frequently recommended romantasy books on my FYP.

Described as Bridgerton set in hell complete with ice dragons (say no more), Throne of Secrets follows Gabriel, the Prince of Gluttony, as he tries to take down journalist Adriana Saint Lucent before she can destroy his reputation for good. It promises to be a continuation of the universe readers fell in love with in the first book, complete with masquerade balls, wicked banter, and yes, its fair share of spicy scenes. And readers will have a new enemies-to-lovers couple to become utterly obsessed with.

That’s Maniscalco’s favorite romance trope to explore, she tells me over the phone just before lunchtime on a Friday. She loves all the tension and conflict, all the sparks flying whether the protagonists are clashing in a sword fight or staring longingly at each other across a ballroom. But during our convo, there’s zero tension at all. Maniscalco is so easy to talk to. It feels like we’ve always had each other’s phone numbers and we’re just two gals doing some catching up. And she filled me in on plenty — what it was like writing her newest book, how she came to love fantasy in the first place, and what a romantasy author reads when doing their research.

Scary Mommy: Obviously romantasy was not just invented, but it is having a major boom right now. Why do you think it has taken off so much in the last few years?

Kerri Maniscalco: I think the romantasy boom started in 2020, when everything was locked down and everyone was forced to just be by themselves. You look at TikTok taking off around that time, and I think it just became somewhere where people could bond. It started to create this community for readers. It became exciting again to talk about books. So, it’s like, while you’re just sequestered away by yourself, you’re forming these online BookTok communities and it was a really good escape from reality.

Just look at the political landscape, the social and economic landscape that is still continuing here — these are such turbulent times. Fantasy is a juggernaut of escapist literature, where you have these very big, impossible hurdles to overcome. When you throw romance into the fantasy, then you have this safety net of knowing that there’s going to be a happily ever after. So, no matter how dark it gets, those characters are going to come through together. And I think that’s something that everyone really is connecting to right now because they need it.

SM: Obviously Prince Envy, from Throne of the Fallen, is a regulation hottie. I’ve read a number of books where the male main character has this sort of shadow daddy thing going on: dark hair, tattoos, broody vibes. Why do you think this is such a universal fantasy guy we all want to read on repeat?

KM: Tall, dark, and handsome: there is just something about it that we all connect with. I wish I knew why. What do they call them on BookTok? Alpha-holes? (Editor’s note: An alpha-hole is a combination of the words alpha and asshole, and, well, you probably get the meaning.) You would never want that guy in real life. But when you see men like that in fiction, especially if they are the shadow daddies, or they’re these immortal beings that give no shits, it’s so interesting to see what they’re going to do on the page. And I think it’s tapping into that one desire of, I don’t want to call it a shit show, but you know what I mean? There’s something that is just so alluring about seeing what these guys are going to do, because they are not the heroes. They are not going to be saving the world for you. They’re going to burn the world for their girl and they don’t care.

SM: Shifting gears a little bit to talk about Throne of Secrets coming out in October. How are you feeling?

KM: I’m so excited. This book was really hard for me. I lost two pets within three weeks of each other and it was difficult to push through and get it done. But by the time we got to the fourth draft, it was becoming the escape story that I needed.

So, yeah, it was probably one of the toughest books to write just because of what was going on outside of writing and drafting. But my gosh, I had fun. I love Prince Gluttony and Adriana, and their relationship is just so fun. I love anything with rivals to lovers, or enemies to lovers, hate to love. I hope readers like it, but there’s always just that nervous bubble of anticipation where you just never know.

SM: I’d love to know how you approach research as a fantasy author. When it comes to fighting scenes or wielding weapons, how do you learn the mechanics? Or even just knowing all the names of different parts of a castle?

KM: So, for this whole universe, I really looked at religious texts. I studied the fallen angels and the seven deadly sins associated with them. I picked up a lot of occult books to read about demon summoning and stuff like that. A lot of the princes’ powers were pulled from occult texts.

Because I do historical settings in fantasy, I research everything. Let’s say we were doing a fighting scene and it’s outside the castle. It’s like, I don’t know what some of the castle terms are. So, you’re pausing to go, “What is a portcullis? What does this look like? How does this work? What is the function of that? How does it play into the scene?” So, I will know that I’m going to do a fight scene and it’s going to take place here, and I’ll look up all the different parts of a castle. Same thing with clothing. A lot of the time, I’ll look at regency blogs for that.

SM: Who are your influences as a writer? What authors have really informed the way that you write now?

KM: When I was a kid, I loved Shel Silverstein. I read Where the Sidewalk Ends like a thousand times. I was just really always fascinated by the whimsical nature of the poems; that was just always something that stuck with me.

My grandma, also. We would go for walks and she would be like, “Do you see this?” We would stop by a stream. And it wasn’t a stream, it was a babbling brook. And if we looked at the little circles of flowers, they were fairy mounds. She would really get my brain going, looking for the whimsy. I’m always just looking for something that feels a little fantastical.

Stephanie Garber and I are really good friends outside of publishing, too, so we’re always talking about stories and things that we love. She actually got me into watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

SM: Circling back to BookTok, there are a handful of authors and series that I see recommended there over and over and over. Who is an author that you feel deserves more hype?

KM: Oh my gosh. Talia Hibbert. Her books are so fun. She has really fun novellas and holiday themes and other full-length novels. I love her work; I just think it’s absolutely phenomenal. I do wish that you would see some other names, besides big, big ones, and more diversity [recommended online].

SM: What will you be working on next, once you get this book out into the world?

KM: I’m definitely working on the next Prince of Sin book. I don’t know if I’m allowed to say publicly yet which prince it is. We usually like to toy with my readers in the worst way online by making them guess. I haven’t really had a day off in like six months. So, I’m just starting to read again and will probably take a week to just stuff my head full of all the books I have missed out on the past year or two. And then, diving right into that next story, which I’m sure will be rivals-to-lovers or something.

Throne of Secrets comes out October 29, wherever books are sold.