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. . . .

 

[Chaltab]

D&D is only allowed to have sex and nudity in video games and straight-to-DVD movies.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

I don't advice NSFW scenes in the tabletop even if the rest of players are adults. Today with rule34 you could find images of She-ra and Katra ... but most of audience would rather (sfw) romances like Tanis&Laurana, Riverwind&Goldmoon, Caramon&Tika, Gilthnatas and Silvara or Drizzt&Catti-brie.

Stryxhaven could be a perfect setting for an otome dating-sim videogame.

I can't understand after a decade the slang among the youngest ones can change but I feel to use "them" as pron for a single person is too forced. The evolution of the languange has to be by the most of native speakers, not only by a little group dictating the rest how we have to talk.

I don't like romantic stories where there are troubles because the couple is too stupid to fix some misunderstanding by means of social skills.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I can't understand after a decade the slang among the youngest ones can change but I feel to use "them" as pron for a single person is too forced. The evolution of the languange has to be by the most of native speakers, not only by a little group dictating the rest how we have to talk

Gendered pronouns are pretty much obsolete, when so much communication is digital, and there is, theoretically, no differentiation between genders in terms of employment or law. It’s natural that he/she will disappear over time. The dominance of English, with its loose rules around pronouns, will facilitate this.

 

[Parmandur]

Gendered pronouns are pretty much obsolete, when so much communication is digital, and there is, theoretically, no differentiation between genders in terms of employment or law. It’s natural that he/she will disappear over time. The dominance of English, with its loose rules around pronouns, will facilitate this.

As someone who has had to do written customer support for customers with names that I had zero cultural context to even make a guess at their gender...gender neutral pronouns are an absolute necessity for polite interaction.

 

[humble minion]

I’m not exactly a guru on the genre, but 'romantasy' is a category that covers a LOT of ground these days. The steamy shadow-daddy BookTok faves like Fourth Wing and ACOTAR probably get the most hype (and according to a friend of mine who is a very successful writer in a not-unrelated field, they sell in bonkers numbers and are basically keeping the publishing industry and physical bookshops solvent right now). But there's a lot more to the genre than that, and the lines do blur and it can be a matter of emphasis and marketing. Someone mentioned Priory of the Orange Tree as a romantasy example above, while I've read that but I personally would have called it a regular fantasy with a romance subplot. Most of the hundreds of early-90s D&D novels had a love interest, albeit most often a male-viewpoint one - are THEY romantasy? I mean, as one prominent example you could certainly make the argument for Dragonlance Chronicles fitting in there, the Tanis/Laurana/Kitiara thing.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

albeit most often a male-viewpoint one

Historically, “romance” has been used as a synonym for “female viewpoint”.

 

[TwoSix]

I’m not exactly a guru on the genre, but 'romantasy' is a category that covers a LOT of ground these days. The steamy shadow-daddy BookTok faves like Fourth Wing and ACOTAR probably get the most hype (and according to a friend of mine who is a very successful writer in a not-unrelated field, they sell in bonkers numbers and are basically keeping the publishing industry and physical bookshops solvent right now). But there's a lot more to the genre than that, and the lines do blur and it can be a matter of emphasis and marketing. Someone mentioned Priory of the Orange Tree as a romantasy example above, while I've read that but I personally would have called it a regular fantasy with a romance subplot, albeit most often a male-viewpoint one. Most of the hundreds of early-90s D&D novels had a love interest - are THEY romantasy? I mean, as one prominent example you could certainly make the argument for Dragonlance Chronicles fitting in there, the Tanis/Laurana/Kitiara thing.

Romantasy is definitely a "know it when you see it" vibe. The primary romantic entanglement takes up a lot of "screen time", as it were, and the progression of the main character's magical abilities is often tied up with their emotional status and development.

 

[kenmarable]

I can't understand after a decade the slang among the youngest ones can change but I feel to use "them" as pron for a single person is too forced. The evolution of the languange has to be by the most of native speakers, not only by a little group dictating the rest how we have to talk.

The author uses 'them' as their pronouns. This is an author including a character they identify with. Not sure how that is "too forced" when it is literally them referencing their own personal experience.

Just because you, by your own admission, aren't following along with the younger generation's evolution of language does not mean it is a little group dictating to anyone. Besides it is far from just the younger generation doing this, too. Everyone in my circles - friends, family, multiple work places, online communities, etc. were fine with this years ago and it's simply part of our language now.

This is what language evolving looks like whether any of us are personally happy or not with whatever direction it is going.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

Gendered pronouns are pretty much obsolete, when so much communication is digital, and there is, theoretically, no differentiation between genders in terms of employment or law. It’s natural that he/she will disappear over time. The dominance of English, with its loose rules around pronouns, will facilitate this.

There's also the fact that spoken Chinese lacks gender in pronouns, it's even less gendered than English overall, you'll notice that some Chinese people do occasionally make mistakes with gendered pronouns when speaking English.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

There's also the fact that spoken Chinese lacks gender in pronouns, it's even less gendered than English overall, you'll notice that some Chinese people do occasionally make mistakes with gendered pronouns when speaking English.

I did not know, but it makes the point that you can do without the things and nothing breaks. Gendered pronouns are an artificial creation of certain languages.