Zero signings attended. Ten speeches fully prepared.
This post is part of Top Ten Tuesday, the weekly bookish linkup hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl at thatartsyreadergirl.com/top-ten-tuesday where book bloggers everywhere answer the same prompt each week. This week is authors I have met, and I have to be upfront with you: I have met zero of them. My author encounter record is a clean sheet.
I run a site where you can browse 750+ romantasy titles. I have opinions about acknowledgment pages. I have never once stood in a signing line. Every tour stop is four hours away and the tickets sell out while I am asleep.
So here is my twist: ten authors I have not met, what I would say if I did, and one honest exception at the end.
Sarah J. Maas, for A Court of Mist and Fury. I have a considered point about how the Night Court reframes everything in book one, and I know exactly how it would go. I would open my mouth and say "the bat boys" to a professional novelist. ACOMAF still sits near the top of our top rated fantasy romance books list, which I would also mention, out of order, twice. Then I would ask something about A Court of Splintered Harmony that she is not allowed to answer, and she would smile the way authors smile in October.
Holly Black, for The Cruel Prince. She wrote the modern rulebook for fae romance books, and Jude Duarte taught a generation that the correct response to a cruel fae prince is to out-scheme his entire court. What I would say: thank you for never letting Elfhame be safe. What I would want to ask: how do you write someone that unlikeable and that beloved at once.
Rebecca Yarros, for Fourth Wing. I would plan a thoughtful question about writing dragons with real personalities instead of set dressing. I would then ask whether Tairn would like me. He would not.
Rebecca Ross, for Divine Rivals. Iris and Roman, the typewriters, the letters going through a wardrobe to the one person who should not be reading them. I would apologize for crying on public transport and she would have to pretend that is unusual. It is not.
Sarah A. Parker, for When the Moon Hatched. Dragons die and become moons. I want to know how long she sat on that idea before writing it down, and whether she knew straight away it was the best worldbuilding premise of the decade.
Feyre is broken and traumatized from her time in the Spring Court. Dragged into the Night Court by a creature of terrifying power and beauty, she finds herself on the edge of a dark abyss. In a world of privilege and beauty, cruelty and nightmares, she must learn to trust in order to survive.
Jude was seven when her parents were murdered and she and her two sisters were stolen away to live in the treacherous High Court of Faerie. Ten years later, Jude wants nothing more than to belong there, despite her mortality. She'll have to outwit the cruel prince who rules there.
Violet Sorrengail was meant to become a scribe until her commanding general mother orders her to enter the dragon rider academy. She must survive deadly competition and paranormal creatures while uncovering dangerous secrets. As her world expands, so does her capacity for power and love.
Two rival journalists communicate through anonymous letters to a god, blending passion and politics in a world where divine intervention shapes human fate. As their connection deepens, they discover they're playing with forces beyond their control. What begins as competition becomes something far more dangerous.
Speck discovers a mythical world where dragons hatch from the lunar sky, and she finds herself caught between protectors and hunters. The warrior who finds her is complex and dangerous, but he teaches her that power comes in many forms. As dragons emerge and the stakes rise, she must choose which world she truly belongs to.
Carissa Broadbent, for The Serpent and the Wings of Night. Oraya is human, raised by a vampire king, and entered in a tournament built to kill her. It is my best argument for why enemies to lovers fantasy books land hardest when both people are genuinely dangerous. I would say thank you, then ask about Raihn in a tone that gives me away instantly.
Jennifer L. Armentrout, for From Blood and Ash. Poppy is forbidden from speaking, touching, or being seen, and the book spends itself dismantling every one of those rules. I would not ask about the twist. I would look at her meaningfully and she would know.
Chloe Gong, for Foul Lady Fortune. 1930s Shanghai, espionage, a marriage of convenience, and an aesthetic nobody else in the genre is working in. I would ask about the research and then quietly want the cover as a print.
Hannah Whitten, for For the Wolf. Second daughters get given to the Wolf in the Wilderwood, and the Wolf turns out to be one tired man in a haunted forest doing his best. I would tell her the forest frightened me more than the romance soothed me, and mean it as a compliment.
Heather Fawcett, for Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries. A cranky academic cataloguing faeries in footnotes is the most specific thing I have ever wanted without knowing it. If you sort by heat, our guide to what spice levels mean puts this one at the gentle end. Worth it anyway.
Here is the honest exception. I have met authors, just not the way the prompt means it. The site takes submissions and indie authors actually use it, which still surprises me. Renee Asher emailed about Savage Monsters two days before it released, which is a level of nerve I admire. That is not a signing line, but an email from the person who wrote the book is the closest thing on my record.
That is my ten. If you wandered over from the linkup: hello, welcome, this whole site is what happens when a reading habit stops being casual. Every book above is cataloged with tropes and ratings, the best romantasy series to binge list is a good next stop, and the romantasy recommendation quiz will match you to one in about a minute. Tell me in the comments which author you have actually met, and whether you managed a full sentence. I read every single one.
A paranormal romance where danger and supernatural passion collide in a world of ancient magic and forbidden connection. Two souls bound by fate and danger discover their bond might be their only salvation. Love here means accepting the darkness within and without.
Chosen from birth to usher in a new era, Poppy's life has never been her own. The life of the Maiden is solitary. But when Hawke, a golden-eyed guard, enters her life, everything changes. As secrets are revealed and danger closes in, Poppy must decide between duty and desire.
In 1930s Shanghai, a woman spy accepts a dangerous assignment that will reshape her nation's future. She carries secrets that could destroy her and a gift she cannot fully control. Espionage, betrayal, and hidden identities define her perilous mission.
Red is the second daughter, sacrificed to the Wolf in the Wilderwood as her kingdom's tradition demands. But the Wolf is not what she expected, and the forest is dying. Dark fairy tale retelling with Beauty and the Beast bones and a gothic atmosphere that seeps into every page. The romance is slow and earned, and the magic system ties beautifully to the forest itself.
A prickly Cambridge professor studies the fae on a remote Scandinavian island. Her academic nemesis shows up with his own agenda. Cozy enemies-to-lovers between academics, charming dry humor, and fae research turning into something more.
Luna is worshipped as a lunar goddess on a floating isle, which makes her the prize in a succession race between three heirs she'd rather not marry. Then wyverns twisted by shadow start dropping death from the skies, and finding out who is making them matters more than any throne. Multi-POV dark romantasy with arranged bonding, why choose romance and a runic alchemy system.
Our spice guide explains exactly what each heat level means.
Read the Spice Guide
Half of them outsold traditional publishing. Four of them just asked nicely.
Ten years, ten books, one increasingly unsupervised bookshelf.
Dragons. Danger. Romance. More of all three.
Be the first to share your thoughts.
Published September 2026 by The Fae Shelf editorial team. Updated regularly with new releases and community feedback.