Genre Expectations
TL;DR: Can you market/sell a book as a romantasy if the main couple do not end up together at the end of the first book, but the plan is that they will eventually end up together later on.
Hi all! I've finally finished a manuscript draft and I'm powering through a second draft before it goes to an editor. Originally, it was supposed to be a dark romantasy, but *spoilers for the book you've never read or heard of* I've wound my way to no 'happily ever after' (does this subreddit flag the abbreviation for that? It gave me an angry message) as the manuscript has found itself. TL;DR it ends in tragedy. (Not really, just . . . the MMC thinks the FMC is dead.)
Anyway! Ze plan is that the main couple end up together, just after, you know . . . several bloody wars and such.
My question is about marketing. I've seen discourse about readers feeling betrayed when something is marketed as a romance when the main couple do not have, at minimum, a 'happy for now'. Which, in this case, they have a 'not so happy for now, but happy later'. Can I market this as a romantasy, or would it be safer to market it as a romantic fantasy/fantasy with heavy romance sub-plot? It is probably 65% romance, 35% fantasy. There is, to borrow BookTok lingo, spice. Open door, peen and all.
My issue is that the story could exist without the romance, I guess, but the main relationship does drive a significant portion of the plot — it would exist if they were just friends, but wouldn't be as powerful. The relationship between the FMC and MMC really is the cause of the inciting incident, since it's friends to lovers background, enemies to lovers(?) present. Okay, this has just become a rant. Thanks in advance!