8 Must-Read Spacemance and Romancifi Books to Dive Into Romantic Science Fiction

8 Must-Read Spacemance and Romancifi Books to Dive Into Romantic Science Fiction

By now, you’ve likely heard the term “romantasy”, that portmanteau of fantasy and romance popularized on TikTok but with a history that long pre-dates its very hashtaggable name. For lovers of second-world or magical-history tales who also love a great emotional (or sexy!) helping with their story, this subgenre has it all. But what if you’re a reader who’d rather be in space than at a wizarding school, or in a time loop than a portal fantasy? You’re in luck!

Though neither “spacemance” nor “romancifi” has really caught on as a portmanteau just yet, science fiction and romance can make a perfect mashup, blending voyages in space (and time), mecha battles, and heists with falling in love (and lust). Here are 8 recent spacemance or romanscifi novels—along with a few honorable mentions—that would make a perfect end to your summer reading stack—or a first read of Fall!

The Stars Too Fondly spacemance

The Stars Too Fondly by Emily Hamilton

When Cleo and her friends planned to break into the spaceship that was once the last hope for humanity (and now, humanity is without hope at all on a dying planet), they didn’t expect to steal it. They just wanted to figure out what happened—why the crew all vanished before it was supposed to launch back when the four of them were kids. But when the ship launches after Cleo touches the engine, headed on a path to the planet Earth once hoped to colonize, the four friends are stuck without a plan, alone in the universe except for a hologram programmed with the memories of their childhood hero, Captain “Billie” Lucas. Billie is none too happy to have been awakened by four trespassers, and none of them know how to turn the ship around and get back home.

As they start to plan out how to survive their journey, they learn more about the truth behind the mission, and what’s actually at stake. It’s an inconvenience that Cleo is falling for a hologram, but she knows how to deal. After all, a romance between people who can’t touch is doomed, isn’t it?

Hamilton does a fantastic job of providing artifacts throughout the novel, swapping points of view so that most of the text is in the third person, but featuring interspersed sections in italics that address the reader directly, providing background information in a conversational way that offers clues to the identity of the voice behind that text. Instant messaging logs, archived reports, and other documentation also provide hints about what happened to the original mission. The interplay between Cleo and her friends is smart witty and pitch-perfect, the kinds of things readers will wish they could come up with spur of the moment or that they find themselves shouting at characters in their favorite novels. And the romance is vital to the plot in a way that really blends the love story into the adventure, so that the two are dependent and entwined. Readers are sure to fall in love, but whether it’s with the world, the storytelling, or Cleo and Billie, it’s impossible to know.

Full Speed to a Crash Landing spacemance

Full Speed to a Crash Landing by Beth Revis

Hold your horses, romance fans—this is the first third in a novella trilogy, so don’t get upset when you land on a cliffhanger rather than a HEA in this first installment. Full Speed to a Crash Landing is short, but it packs a lot into a small space, all from the voice of unreliable narrator, Ada Lamarr.

It’s not that Ada lies to the reader, it’s just that she refrains from telling the truth–or sharing her motives–until everyone’s far too deep into her heist to pull back. She’s up to something, which becomes evident shortly after she’s rescued from her own breached ship. Despite hailing the nearby government vessel far earlier, the large ship declines to rescue her, suspicious of what she’s doing at the location of a crash that should be a government secret. But when she finally does get on the ship, she immediately connects with Rian White, the intriguing government agent in charge of the mission (if not the vessel). In fact, if there’s anything that can throw Ada off her game, it’s her strange attraction to Rian, something that almost makes her wish the version of herself she’s presenting is the real one…

Reading Ada’s voice is a sheer joy. She’s catty, caustic and utterly charming, able to win her way into the hearts of the crew she encounters (albeit reluctantly in some cases). Revis, through Ada, gives just enough hints about what’s going on that readers will be able to piece together at least part of it—while still not seeing the end that’s in store. Obviously, the chemistry between Rian and Ada deserves a follow-up, and the next cat-and-mouse installment is sure to be just as fun. 

Stars Hide Your First Spacemance

Stars, Hide Your Fires by Jessica Mary Best

The heist in Best’s YA spacemance is far more upfront than the one in Revis’s, but that makes it no less fun. Cass is a thief, and she’s got a good thing going with her friend Jax on their dying home planet. But Cass’s dad is getting sicker, and when she hears about a ball on a central planet where all the galaxy’s finest will be dazzling the crowd with their jewels, she decides to take her pickpocketing to the next level. 

She and her found family plot their heist and get her off-planet, but when she arrives, she realizes things aren’t likely to go according to plan. When she meets a rich noble who offers to give her a ticket to the ball and even buy her a new dress to attend, she’s suspicious, but she’s ready to take whatever leg up she’s offered. Even when she meets Amaris, another mysterious young woman—also, she assumes, a noble—who seems to be dissuading her from her task, she’s determined to persevere. This is her chance to steal a better life for herself and her family. She’s going to take it. No matter how much she and Amaris spark. And when a murder occurs at the ball, and Cass is set up to take the blame, it’s Amaris who teams up with her to clear her name—and maybe change the galaxy.

There’s something about a heist, plus a locked room mystery, all set in space, that makes for a hugely heightened romantic setting, and Best pulls it off with flying colors. The world-building here, from the governments that Cass doesn’t know much about to the way the rich ignore the plights of the residents of planets waiting to be terraformed, is a fantastic foundation to launch the plot, and Cass’s earnestness as a narrator, at odds with her con artist exterior, make her hugely sympathetic. Cass and Amaris’s connection vibrates with intensity (though at a PG-13 rating level), and readers will be rooting for them to find their way to a HEA.

Heavenbreaker cover spacemance

Heavenbreaker by Sara Wolf

This spacemance is for readers who like their mech engines on a slow burn—a very, very slow burn that looks like it won’t be resolved until later in the series. Synali’s commoner mother was murdered, on the orders of her noble father, and now Synali is determined to do whatever it takes to destroy her father’s House. First step? Murdering her father. But when she realizes she’s trapped after committing the deed, she takes the only route out: Disguising herself as a rider who competes in the huge jousting matches between mecha-like steeds. It’s a disaster. With no training, she can’t hope to compete, much less win, but if she dies inside the steed, at least the House will be disgraced…

She’s disappointed when she doesn’t die. Instead, she’s given a new mission by her benefactor: Win match after match in the most important tournament of their Station, and for each match, he’ll reveal, and kill, another one of the members of the House who conspired to murder her mother. Seven matches, seven deaths. If she wins it all, he’ll destroy the entire House for good. It’s too good an offer to refuse, and Synali is launched into the world of nobility, riders, and steeds—and stories of the Enemy responsible for scattering humanity across the galaxy. She’s also launched right into the path of Rax Istra-Velrayd, the champion of all the riders, who is instantly infatuated with the unknown woman who doesn’t seem to want to give him the time of day. Synali knows Rax is off the table—but she’s drawn to him all the same. Unfortunately, while that attraction burns across the pages whenever the two interact, there’s no satisfaction by the end of this cliffhanger ending, when the stakes are about to change for the Station forever.

Heavenbreaker is a much grimmer dystopian novel, brimming with violence and murder, than the others on this list, and readers who like their romantasies the flavor of Fourth Wing will recognize a lot of the same vibe here.

A Song of Salvation cover Spacemance Summer 2023 LGBTQ YA Books

Song of Salvation by Alechia Dow

This is the third and possibly final novel in Dow’s series that began with The Sound of Stars and progressed into Kindred. Each tale has featured unlikely couples whose actions help to stave off—or change—the reach of the Ilori Empire, which seeks to take over and destroy all planets in their path. Song of Salvation is a bonus romance: The two main point of view characters aren’t into each other, but both have their own love interest who plays an important role in the story. Zaira, who holds the soul and memories of a god, is supposed to be sacrificed by the Ilori. But when she escapes, getting help from Wesley Daniels, a pilot who thinks he’s only looking out for himself. Together, they intend to get wanted-celebrity Rubin Rima to Earth, where the war for the galaxy’s freedom has started, but their path twists and turns, leading them to other planets, and other destinies, before they find their futures.

Wesley and Rubin have a sweet romance that builds across their journey together; Zaira only dreams of her future love until most of the way through the book. All of the main characters have faced great losses, which makes them in tune with each other in a way that fully embraces found family tropes to their best. While this is a stand-alone, it’s enhanced by reading the other two books first, as the main characters from previous volumes show up at just the right moments. It’s a satisfying culmination to the series—but it leaves plenty of room in the galaxy for more tales to tell and songs to sing.

A Quantum Love Story spacemance romanscifi

A Quantum Love Story by Mike Chen

What if, in Groundhog Day, Bill Murray’s character had teamed up with another person within the time loop to try to get out? That’s the idea behind Mike Chen’s Quantum Love Story, where Carter Cho knows he’s in a time loop. When he first deviates from his path, he meets Mariana Pineda—and suddenly, he realizes that there’s more to life than repeating the same week over and over. But as he and Mariana get to know each other, time and time again, Carter begins to lose his memories of the loop. They’ll need each other to break out and find a future they can share.

Chen introduces Carter and the time loop right from the first page, and then readers get to know Mariana, her grief over losing her best friend, and her doubts about her own future career. A chance connection has the chance to change everything. This one doesn’t quite qualify as spacemance, since the story here revolves around a particle accelerator, but it’s a solid romanscifi with two alternating point-of-view characters and a HEA.

Navigational Entanglements Spacemance

Navigational Entanglements by Aliette de Bodard

Looking for a good enemies-to-lovers tale? Aliette de Bodard, probably best known for her Xuya Universe (which features a couple of spacemance titles as well!), launches readers into a martial arts space opera with Navigational Entanglements, where eight clans each send representatives to track down a Tangler—a mysterious and deadly alien creature that has escaped from the area of space where they are normally confined.

Việt Nhi of the Rooster Clan has no desire to go on this mission, but her elders give her no choice. Hạc Cúc of Snake Clan isn’t any more adept at making friends than Việt Nhi—but she finds herself drawn to the other woman’s perceptiveness. The two aren’t at all sure about their roles on the mission, a feeling that only grows as their mission leader is murdered—poisoned—and they have little time to find the creature before it wreaks havoc on a civilian city. Việt Nhi and Hạc Cúc have little choice but to work together—and explore the chemistry that grows undeniably between them. Pick this one up if you love queer romance, political intrigue, and plenty of tea.

For the love of beauty cover

For the Love of Beauty by Audrey Sharpe

Sometimes an author whose science fictional universe is predominantly known for its space opera elements (and not the romance) takes a turn and decides to tell a love story. Audrey Sharpe is twelve books deep into her Starhawke universe, but For the Love of Beauty, a “Beauty and the Beast” retelling in space, is only the second that’s really a spacemance.

When Uzuri Kimwei tracks down her father’s missing scout ship on a barren wasteland of a planet, she’s unprepared to encounter towering alien Grimdar, who seems to be able to move with the shadows. Sentenced to living out his life on this planet, Grimdar falls hard for Uzuri and knows she’ll be in his debt if he helps her reunite with her family. But only a death sentence awaits him in the rest of the galaxy—how can he dare dream of more? Lovers of fairy tale retellings or space adventures that focus on romantic elements should check out this standalone within Sharpe’s larger universe.

Honorable Mentions: Astronomy and Astronauts

While astronaut romances aren’t true spacemance (at least, not if it has to be science fiction to count!), there are so many great romances within this subgenre!

Two recent titles that shouldn’t be missed? The Kiss Countdown by Etta Easton, in which an event planner ends up fake dating an astronaut, who is willing to put her up in an apartment rent free if she’ll fake being his doting partner to his overbearing family. What could possibly go wrong? Hannah Reynolds’s YA Summer Nights and Meteorites pits a teenage girl who has given up on dating against her father’s research assistant, whom she’s been jealous of for ages. She definitely didn’t realize that’s who she was making out with on the ferry to Nantucket! The will-they won’t-they vibes get even more complicated when her astronomy research turns up something that could mean the end of their relationship. If all you need is a little space in your spacemance, don’t miss these romances!


Alana Joli Abbott is a reviewer and game writer, whose multiple-choice novels, including Choice of the Pirate and Blackstone Academy for Magical Beginners, are published by Choice of Games. She is the author of three novels, several short stories, and many role-playing game supplements. She also edits fantasy anthologies for Outland Entertainment, including Bridge to Elsewhere and Never Too Old to Save the World. You can find her online at VirgilandBeatrice.com.

 
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