Early last week the Hugo finalists (competing for arguably a most prestigious award in fantasy and science fiction) were announced here
I checked out the list, assuming that (as usual) I wouldn't have read or even heard of most of them, but I came away very pleasantly surprised by what I saw.
On the list of finalists for best novel is {The Everlasting by Alix Harrow} which is an excellent and swoonworthy romance. I made a gush post about it here immediately after reading it and continue to recommend it all the time -
Also on the best novel finalists list are {The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson} and {The Incandescent by Emily Tesh}, both of which appear to have strong romance components (they're still on my TBR so I can't verify but I've seen them recommended on the sub).
On the novellas list is {Cinder House by Freya Marske} and {The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar} both of which are queer romances. They're on my TBR and I'm very much looking forward to reading them.
There are more familiar names on the novellas list - Olivia Waite, Naomi Novik, and T. Kingfisher. These novellas are not billed as romances, but the authors all write romances that I love so I'll support all their endeavors. (And I'll hold out hope for at least a tiny slice of HEA in these novellas!)
In fact, all of the novella finalists except one are either romances or written by romance authors, which is very cool.
Finally, the {Emily Wilde series by Heather Fawcett} has been nominated for best fantasy series! I love these books and I'd love to see them win against some of the big name competition. If you haven't read them, I highly recommend checking out the audiobooks.
I know that in certain book spaces, romantasy is used almost like a slur. There are plenty of readers who will refuse to read fantasy with even a hint of romance or who will immediately dismiss its merits as not literary or serious enough. (Obviously this sub is not one of those spaces, thank goodness!) Looking at this list is so heartening to me, with great representation from the romance community. Beyond that, many of the authors tagged here write queer romances, and I'm crossing my fingers for high quality representation in some of these books as well.