How Rebecca Yarros’ Empyrean Series Came to Dominate Modern Romantasy

Romantasy has come to thoroughly dominate modern publishing. Thanks to a few choice titles and the almighty algorithms of TikTok, this new breed of genre mish-mash has led to a boom in the romance world. Take the trope-y goodness of a classic love story and meld it with the dramatics and world-building of high fantasy and you’ve got the good stuff that’s filling up bookstore shelves everywhere. While Sarah J. Maas has been widely credited with kickstarting this new era with her A Court of Thorns and Roses saga, another writer has been cashing in big with an addictive blend of dark academia, steamy passion, and dragons.
The Empyrean series, written by Rebecca Yarros, became an instant sensation. The first installment, Fourth Wing, was published in April 2023 by Red Tower Books, an imprint of Entangled Publishing, and it immediately became the hottest read on BookTok. It was one of the most borrowed titles in American public libraries during 2023 and 2024 and it’s been on the New York Times bestseller list for 77 weeks. Yarros quickly followed that up with the sequel, Iron Flame, published in November of the same year. The trend only grew from there, and Yarros became a star at fan conventions where she received rapturous responses one would be more likely to expect at Taylor Swift concerts. With the recent arrival of the third book, Onyx Storm, which received release parties akin to the heyday of Harry Potter and Twilight, the success is expected to continue.
The series follows Violet Sorrengail, the daughter of General Lilith Sorrengail, the commanding general at Basgiath War College in the kingdom of Navarre. Students must choose which of the school’s four quadrants to align with. While everyone expects the wallflower Violet to become a scribe, she is forced into joining the deadly dragon rider quadrant, where warriors are trained to ride these majestic creatures in defense of attacks by griffin fliers from the neighboring kingdom of Poromiel. Violet is small and deals with chronic pain, and just getting to the Quadrant kills more students than helps them. To make matters worse, as the daughter of a general, she’s got a giant target on her back.
The Empyrean series is kind of the perfect romantasy series in the way that something like Deadpool is the perfect blockbuster hero. It’s a concept that is highly familiar yet jazzed up with enough flair and solid storytelling to keep readers hooked. Every detail can be reduced to a trope that can be sold to the masses (a popular way for BookTokers to promote their favorite reads.) It’s got a bit of everything: a love triangle, a smart heroine who becomes a badass, academic and political intrigue, various dramatic trials and battles, dragons, and, of course, sex. If you were to put together a romantasy bingo card, the Empyrean series would get a full house by the end of the first book.