Penguin Random House Announces New D&D Romantasy Book

Penguin Random House has announced The Feywild Job, a new D&D novel written by World Fantasy Award and Nebula-winning writer CL Polk. The new book is a romantasy novel, a popular and wildly growing book genre. The book features a rogue tasked with stealing a gem called "The Kiss of Enduring Love" and is teamed up with their ex-lover, a bard. The twist to the novel is that the rogue has a magical pact granting them powers in exchange for never falling in love.

The new novel is written by CL Polk, a writer with serious bonafides in the fantasy community. Polk's debut novel Witchmark won the World Fantasy Award in 2019 and their 2022 novella Even Though I Knew The End won the Nebula Award for Best Novella that year. Based on their website, this appears to be Polk's first foray into licensed media.

Below is the full description for The Feywild Job. The book will be released on June 30, 2026.

Sparks fly when bitter exes are forced to team up for an elaborate Feywild heist, in this cozy fantasy romance by the bestselling author of the Kingston Cycle and Even Though I Knew the End.

Saeldian has sworn never to fall in love. That oath isn’t just a personal promise, but rather a magical pact, granting them powerful abilities. The only catch? They must never give their heart away—a deal that Saeldian is perfectly content with. They’ve seen firsthand how messy love can get.

Saeldian prefers their no-strings-attached life as a con artist, pulling off heists and leaving a trail of broken hearts behind them. But when a grift goes horribly wrong, they catch the eye of a mysterious patron with a job offer they can’t refuse.

The mission? Steal a gem called “The Kiss of Enduring Love” and return it to the Feywild. Simple enough, until Saeldian discovers their ex-partner, Kell—a charming bard—is part of the team.
The last time Saeldian saw Kell, things hardly ended on good terms. A kiss became a betrayal, leaving Kell hurt and confused for almost a decade. But Kell can’t just walk away—not when this job might finally be his ticket back to the Feywild.

Forced to work together again, their adventure takes them from high-society parties to Feywild couple’s therapy. But as Saeldian and Kell rekindle their chemistry, they realize the gem is much more than a fey bauble, and their simple heist has summoned powerful enemies. . . .

 

[Mournblade94]

Then I'd say you don't really know the game. Saying it doesn't have combat for one is laughable given how important the mine is to progression

Congratulations for figuring that out. I literally admitted I never played the game. I called it cozy because that's what everybody that plays me tells me it is. I'm not really interested in Stardew Valley, its just played by family members often. I like the soundtrack though, I better I hear it enough.

Regardless though, you sound like a corporate think-piece saying that. Or that Disney's paid you off. Insincere. Not a trustworthy source. That's not how people talk about these rides. Folks just say "The big Avatar ride". There's an entire bit on this in Jenny Nicholson's video on the failed Star Wars hotel, but, y'know, as a four hour video its a bit hard to just drag up specific points in context.

I go to Disney every other year. I talk to people all the time when I'm there. I don't care what some random youtuber says; people call the rides as I say. Just because you haven't experienced it or listened to some youtuber talk about it really doesn't counter my experience or say much about it. I'm not concerned if you think I'm sincere. If you want to listen to a youtuber go for it. We all choose who we listen to.

No. No they're not evil. Might want to. Re-read that one again. They haven't been all evil for at least 20 years. Probably older

There was a whole FR novel about this. During 3.5e. They have a city and everything

Not sure what your going on about. I think you're the one that needs to read again if your talking about 20 years ago. Monster Manual 2014 pp. 246-47 all Orc and submonsters are listed Alignment: Chaotic Evil. Only Change is 2nd edition had them Lawful Evil. Volo's Guide To monsters in 2016 also has them as Chaotic Evil. Now we're at 10 years. AD&D Humanoids made them playable and kept the alignment evil. D&D Orc alignment weren't even a problem until Twitter people started complaining. WOTC marketing thought people would care about alignment I guess.

King Obould Many Arrows ruled an an evil empire. They were trying to start trading but they were still evil. The Red Wizards of THay are without doubt evil but they also care about an economy. Obould happened to be a smart orc that wanted to make trade. Nothing to do with alignment.

The novel your talking about talked about an ancient orc society that was in trade with Dwarves and Elves. Then in the Companions book Cattie Brie literally said the goddess told her Orcs were all evil. Ofcourse that is before corporate listened to people griping on Twitter/X. I am not talking about Elderscrolls OR warcraft. I'm talking about D&D orcs. D&D Orcs being good have documentation it is a recent move.

buddy, if you're caring about 'console and gaming computer', then mobile gaming which has utterly demolished other types of gaming is absolutely on the list. Just saying, you don't see new MMOs for a reason, and that's because its far more profitable to slap some characters in a gacha and watch the money come rolling in

I have no need to care about Mobile Games. The only MMO's I played were City of Heroes and Elder Scrolls which play more like single player games. Let video game publishers make all they can on mobile games. I have no reason to care about Mobile Games. the Games I like are PC or Console. I coach an Esports team that uses PC and Console. Mobile game doesn't come into my radar at all. Its irrelevant as an analogy. Rulesets aren't technology.

 

[Mournblade94]

This is a fascinating way to answer the question “are edgy kids saying Blue Sky Platform instead of woke now?”

You didn't pose a question in the first place. Take the information that is presented to you without drawing assumptions.

 

[Mournblade94]

Man, wait until these people hear about Spoutible, which makes the Blue Sky community -- which is a pretty middle of the road community, for the most part -- look far right.

Well I never heard of spoutible but I find Twitter type platforms too difficult to get to information so I don't really use any of them.

 

[Charlaquin]

You didn't pose a question in the first place. Take the information that is presented to you without drawing assumptions.

I didn’t?

Is “Blue Sky Platform” what the edgy kids are saying instead of “Woke” these days?

Looks like a question to me. Who’s the one making assumptions here?

 

[Dire Bare]

Do you need the D&D ruleset for that? Most of these cozy situations are just things the players can narrate and the DM make an encounter for.

Genre terms can be confusing, especially if you are unfamiliar with the genres in question! And all genre terms are overlapping and "fuzzy" (no clear boundaries). Cozy fantasy (Legends & Lattes) is not the same genre as cozy romance or romantasy.

D&D has been used to model a lot of genres beyond the core experience over the past 50 years, many of the most popular official settings are exactly that! Ravenloft blends D&D epic fantasy with gothic horror. Dark Sun blends classic D&D epic fantasy with sword & planet fantasy. Planescape takes D&D and adds a healthy dose of surrealism. When you stretch the core D&D experience into another genre, sometimes it helps to have new rules modules to help model the theme, sometimes it isn't necessary. Guidelines (not rules) are probably always helpful.

So why not a D&D cozy fantasy game book? Maybe with some rules support or maybe with just some guidelines and examples.

The novel "Legends & Lattes", which is sort of the prime example of "cozy fantasy" is practically set in a D&D fantasy world. The main character is a former adventurer who is a bit burnt out on delving dungeons and fighting evil sorcerers and so retires from adventuring and opens a coffee shop. I don't know if I need rules for this, but I'd love a game book detailing how to run cozy D&D games. And the book, Legends & Lattes, has combat, it has intrigue and conflict, but the primary focus is on the main character's journey recovering from her traumatic former profession and finding purpose and romance.

Romantasy blends romance fiction with fantasy fiction, of course. It's a relatively new genre, even though books that would fit within have been written for decades. Like cozy fantasy, its merely a shift in focus. A romantasy story could easily take place in any D&D setting, and it can involve all of the fun stuff like combat, dark magic, evil sorcerers, etc, etc. But the romance story line is either the main plot line or a very strong one.

In "The Priory of the Orange Tree", which is considered in the romantasy genre . . . romance was an important part of the story, but it was also a very action-packed epic fantasy with tons of combat and intrigue.

If cozy fantasy or romantasy doesn't sound interesting to you . . . that's fine. But you seem ready to sneer at the existence of these genres and the fans who love them. Or that they could be included in D&D, an already very big tent when it comes to including and appropriating from other genres.

 

[Dire Bare]

I like the 2024 rules set for the most part, but I definitely laugh at alot of the terrible art and assumptions.

Sigh. I suppose this is where I stop paying attention to your opinions on this.

If there are elements of the 2024 rules you don't care for, fine. If you prefer a more old school approach to "always evil" creatures like orcs, that's fine.

But damn, you seem to enjoy yucking others yum.

 

[Dire Bare]

Oh, and I wanted to add . . . if you are interested in a little romantasy in your D&D . . . check out Blue Rose, a setting from Green Ronin! It actually predates the current romantasy craze but fits squarely in the genre, IMO. There is a 5E version, a AGE version, some older versions for I think 3E and True 20. (AGE is Green Ronin's current house rules set, and True 20 is their earlier house rules set)

 

[Mecheon]

Congratulations for figuring that out. I literally admitted I never played the game. I called it cozy because that's what everybody that plays me tells me it is. I'm not really interested in Stardew Valley, its just played by family members often. I like the soundtrack though, I better I hear it enough.

Well, there you go. There's the truth

I go to Disney every other year. I talk to people all the time when I'm there. I don't care what some random youtuber says; people call the rides as I say. Just because you haven't experienced it or listened to some youtuber talk about it really doesn't counter my experience or say much about it. I'm not concerned if you think I'm sincere. If you want to listen to a youtuber go for it. We all choose who we listen to.

jenny nicholson
random youtuber

Buddy. Mate. She literately did The video on the Star Wars hotel. The video quote about it. The reason "Pillar in the way" was a short meme about high end experiences being ruined by minor things that should be noticed. Her video is flat out quoted in actual articles about said hotel, that's how far reaching it was

Next you're going to call Defunctland "random Youtuber"

Not sure what your going on about. I think you're the one that needs to read again if your talking about 20 years ago. Monster Manual 2014 pp. 246-47 all Orc and submonsters are listed Alignment: Chaotic Evil. Only Change is 2nd edition had them Lawful Evil. Volo's Guide To monsters in 2016 also has them as Chaotic Evil. Now we're at 10 years. AD&D Humanoids made them playable and kept the alignment evil. D&D Orc alignment weren't even a problem until Twitter people started complaining. WOTC marketing thought people would care about alignment I guess.

King Obould Many Arrows ruled an an evil empire. They were trying to start trading but they were still evil. The Red Wizards of THay are without doubt evil but they also care about an economy. Obould happened to be a smart orc that wanted to make trade. Nothing to do with alignment.

The novel your talking about talked about an ancient orc society that was in trade with Dwarves and Elves. Then in the Companions book Cattie Brie literally said the goddess told her Orcs were all evil. Ofcourse that is before corporate listened to people griping on Twitter/X. I am not talking about Elderscrolls OR warcraft. I'm talking about D&D orcs. D&D Orcs being good have documentation it is a recent move.

we're playing like this, huh

So I'd start with "hey look at Races of Faerun (2003) that literately has no alignments listed for any orcs". Secondly, those are monsters. If I bring up some random human barbarian enemy who's chaotic evil, does that mean all humans are chaotic evil? By your accounts, it apparently does. I can easily find so, so many random chaotic evil humans. Or lawful evil. Guess that means gotta ban humans from play

Secondly, no, I was talking about Many Arrows. Not evil.

Thirdly, no, its a longrunning issue. Just because you only heard about it on Twitter doesn't mean its had issues. If you want me to go and shake the Orcs of Thar thread again I can do that, but if you're telling me the book with 'red orcs' and 'yellow orcs' (You'll never guess what stereotypes they're playing off!) isn't a little racially coded, I got some big questions. The fact there's a whole Wikipedia article about this thing just in relation to Tolkein says a lot. If you're going to say 'its all twitter', then I'd love to hear your explanation for the 2001 and 2004 documents therein that pre-date Twitter.

I have no need to care about Mobile Games. The only MMO's I played were City of Heroes and Elder Scrolls which play more like single player games. Let video game publishers make all they can on mobile games. I have no reason to care about Mobile Games. the Games I like are PC or Console. I coach an Esports team that uses PC and Console. Mobile game doesn't come into my radar at all. Its irrelevant as an analogy. Rulesets aren't technology.

Yeah, sure you coach an esports team, buddy. Won't even tell me what it is, 'uses PC and console'. Do you think I was born yesterday? People focus on one system, we don't switch setups willy nilly. I've come pretty high up in Smash Bros tourney, I follow WoW and FFXIV world firsts, and I'm an ex Warcraft 3 modder. I think I know a thing or two about the esports scene.

Any real gamer would be saying they go after Umas at the very least. Not even going for the horse girls and saying you're in an esports team. Very 'believable'.

 

[slobster]

I'm rewatching all of Stranger Things right now to get refreshed so I can watch the final season. As I've been watching, I keep rolling my eyes at how over the top the various "bully" characters are in the show, how they constantly ridicule our main crew for playing the silly fantasy elves game of D&D.

I forget how judgemental and exclusionary people within the hobby can be at fellow players with different tastes.

Yes, I'm an adult dude who still plays the silly elf and dragons game. I also separately love all sorts of genre fiction, from bad Christmas romance movies to cheesy scifi horror flicks. I don't like any explicit kinky stuff in my D&D, hard pass, thanks. I do love the occasional steamy book relationship though!

Other people like other mixes of those things, and that's great! If you find yourself sneering at news of this romantasy D&D book, that's fair, it is an easy thing to laugh at. But I mean, it's easy to laugh at our WHOLE HOBBY. I guess try to remember what it feels like when people made fun of you for playing D&D, and let us have our fun as well?

 

[Dire Bare]

I'm rewatching all of Stranger Things right now to get refreshed so I can watch the final season. As I've been watching, I keep rolling my eyes at how over the top the various "bully" characters are in the show, how they constantly ridicule our main crew for playing the silly fantasy elves game of D&D.

I forget how judgemental and exclusionary people within the hobby can be at fellow players with different tastes.

Yes, I'm an adult dude who still plays the silly elf and dragons game. I also separately love all sorts of genre fiction, from bad Christmas romance movies to cheesy scifi horror flicks. I don't like any explicit kinky stuff in my D&D, hard pass, thanks. I do love the occasional steamy book relationship though!

Other people like other mixes of those things, and that's great! If you find yourself sneering at news of this romantasy D&D book, that's fair, it is an easy thing to laugh at. But I mean, it's easy to laugh at our WHOLE HOBBY. I guess try to remember what it feels like when people made fun of you for playing D&D, and let us have our fun as well?

The over-the-top bullies in Stranger Things are over-the-top, but genre appropriate. Stranger Things is a love-letter not just to the 80s, but to 80s TV and movies.

And . . . jock vs nerd bullying was a thing back in the 80s, moreso than today. I remember, I'm the same age as Will, Lucas, Dustin, and Mike are in the story. I remember the bullying. I remember the Satanic Panic. Watching Stranger Things was both wonderfully nostalgic, but also sometimes a little trauma-inducing . . . .