What do women really want from men? I delved into romantasy and found a good few clues | Max Fletcher

Sarah J Maas’s A Court of Thorns and Roses , or Acotar , has sold more than 13 m copies.

The five -book series belongs to a genre called romantasy, so called because it blends romance and fantasy.

Most of romantasy's readers are women aged 18 to 44 , and part of its appeal is its reversal of gender roles.

Despite its sexual content, Maas is more interested in friendship than any other F-word.

The societies romantasy depicts are often as chaotic as our own.

But everyone is given very clear roles that make their world more predictable than ours.

Their heroes may be secret softies, but it is no accident they are all titled.

The genre’s fans even codify books according to acronyms such as ETL .