Novels With No Love Interest(s) / No Romance
Novels With No Love Interest(s) / No Romance
Novels that have no lasting romance or love interests. There will be no smut, harem (if MC attracts some people, I don't mind until it becomes a major part of the story or MC becomes interested in them), or ecchi, and BL/GL also count as romance. The list includes a personal rating and (often rambling) review/description.
Of course, it's also about my tastes, so this list will be mostly fantasy and action novels (op mc will be a common feature). I am a wordy person so I also don’t mind wordier books, too... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
The list is in no particular order, but novels with <100 chapters and on hiatus/slow updating (less/around as often as 1 chap/month) will go in the back. This is because I assume people are looking for binge reads like me.
DISCLAIMER: The list is subject to change and revision - my impression changes as I think about them/read more. I cannot guarantee a novel has no romance later. I'll try to update this rec list as I read. No promises though, so my descriptions may be outdated.
~
Similar lists (insert after the "viewlist/" in the URL): 68396, 3797, 46727, 20556, 7097, 25820, 47958, 19335, 48107, 50847, 29345, 44031
Of course, it's also about my tastes, so this list will be mostly fantasy and action novels (op mc will be a common feature). I am a wordy person so I also don’t mind wordier books, too... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
The list is in no particular order, but novels with <100 chapters and on hiatus/slow updating (less/around as often as 1 chap/month) will go in the back. This is because I assume people are looking for binge reads like me.
DISCLAIMER: The list is subject to change and revision - my impression changes as I think about them/read more. I cannot guarantee a novel has no romance later. I'll try to update this rec list as I read. No promises though, so my descriptions may be outdated.
~
Similar lists (insert after the "viewlist/" in the URL): 68396, 3797, 46727, 20556, 7097, 25820, 47958, 19335, 48107, 50847, 29345, 44031
170 Followers
Created: Sep 5th, 2020, Updated: Jun 5th, 2025
Created Sep 5th, 2020
Updated Jun 5th, 2025
310 Chapters Every 1.3 Day(s) 657 Readers 9 Reviews 06-18-2025
3.2/5: silly novel about MC's antics as an OP baby dragon. He's not actually terminally ill, the world is just out to kill him. He quickly adopts the mentality of a baby dragon, so he acts rather immature and doesn't abide as much by human morality. Some jumps in logic.... more>>
39 Chapters Every 152.4 Day(s) 3074 Readers 55 Reviews 03-29-2019
3.2/5: A lighter novel with an interesting premise: bringing video games, movies, and TV shows to a cultivation world. Plot is somewhat predictable, with not very much worldbuilding and explanation for the power system. ... more>>
38 Chapters Every 128.9 Day(s) 1169 Readers 24 Reviews 03-08-2020
3/5: A low-stakes turn-off-your-brain comedy power fantasy novel. The MC transmigrates into a newly-born minor god, the God of Games. The novel is about him growing his powers and playerbase- I mean, church. The MC sets up a game system for his believers, making them basically players of a real-life MMORPG. ... more>>
277 Chapters Every 47.4 Day(s) 13364 Readers 60 Reviews 03-30-2025
3.8/5: Lots of dark themes. A very OP fallen hero totally focused on his mission--end the apocalypse that's threatening the world he's been transported into and has been living in for years. ... more>>
57 Chapters Every 121 Day(s) 1892 Readers 48 Reviews 07-16-2020
3.5/5: MC transmigrates into an old, dead, evil xianxia/xuanhuan patriarch with a system and a bunch of villain disciples, most of which have already defected from his evil organization to make their own. He then rerecruits them into his organization, along with a few others. ... more>>
107 Chapters Every 38.3 Day(s) 2394 Readers 27 Reviews 05-12-2024
3.5/5: A little difficult to get into, but not bad later on, just with a little secondhand embarrassment. More meta than it seems, since we can even see the responses of the fictional readers and the author of MC’s world. ... more>>
144 Chapters Every 215.3 Day(s) 3485 Readers 55 Reviews 10-17-2017
3.5/5: In which the MC, in typical power fantasy fashion, has cheats and levels up a lot. However, he also runs around being a refugee and government rebel a lot as well. It's a decent read but gets sort of old after a few arcs. ... more>>
158 Chapters Every 1.3 Day(s) 10528 Readers 47 Reviews 06-22-2025
4.2/5: In which the MC, a prince, is transmigrated back in time as the youngest prince of the opposing country, who died in his past life. Political intrigue ensues as MC makes efforts to avoid the original's death.... more>>
588 Chapters Every 1.7 Day(s) 2489 Readers 35 Reviews 06-19-2025
4.5/5: Has the "God managing players/believers in fantasy world" aspect of I Am the God of Games, and the "summoning players to their world to help them out while saying it's VR" and kingdom building like in Shepherding Humanity, as well as the game dev elements. ... more>>
240 Chapters Every 17.9 Day(s) 7353 Readers 71 Reviews 06-20-2025
3.3/5: Why does it remind me so much of Crossing to the Future, It's Not Easy to be a Man? Anyway, a bit of a Gary Stu child soldier MC who eventually grows into an adult in a not awfully realistic magical military setting sums it up pretty well. Also, his naming sense is...not great. Maybe it comes off better in Korean?... more>>
37 Chapters Every 115.4 Day(s) 1562 Readers 54 Reviews 03-09-2020
3.5/5: Has a calm, relatively straightforward MC who one day finds out that, at midnight, he gets 24 hours of time freeze where he's the only one that can move. On top of that, he joins a 'game' and his time cheat carries over, allowing him to spend years in the game scenarios that are supposed to last months at most.... more>>
#37Elqueeness
173 Chapters Every 3.9 Day(s) 4220 Readers 23 Reviews 06-20-2025
3.5/5: Cinnamon roll MC's adventures in a medieval fantasy with his OP friends. Slapstick comedy, mostly static characters. BTW: there's a cute manhwa adaptation which is already ahead of the novel.... more>>
68 Chapters Every 114.9 Day(s) 1746 Readers 28 Reviews 06-27-2023
3/5: A fun little worldbuilding story about a guy building a civilization in his backyard. MC is a very flawed character personality-wise (or ability-wise. As the synopsis says, he's not very competent), and the in-backyard sandbox storyline borrows heavily from mythology. Not particularly compelling in terms of characters, but interesting premise and a good light read; later on, the story focuses much less on the main character and more on the stories of his backyard civilization inhabitants. It's a little weird.... more>>
95 Chapters Every 106.6 Day(s) 2879 Readers 15 Reviews 02-21-2022
4/5: A light-ish novel that's mostly about the MC defeating, dissecting, and evolving as they live and develop in a fictional prehistoric sea. Very few characters, and there isn't really a society that the MC interacts with.... more>>
200 Chapters Every 34.1 Day(s) 1794 Readers 27 Reviews 03-16-2024
3.8/5: A rare non-romance QT with a male protagonist. Know that he is a bit of a psycho, and the story has plot holes. But it's nonetheless a pretty good light read.... more>>
#42Youjo Senki
9 Chapters Every 390.9 Day(s) 6918 Readers 28 Reviews 04-04-2017
4.5/5: It's a pretty famous piece that I'm sure you can find better reviews for. ... more>>
24 Chapters Every 6.3 Day(s) 2676 Readers 20 Reviews 04-06-2025
3.3/5: Lennok (the MC) is a transmigrator who became his game character, a min-maxed wizard with a terrible constitution, hence his need to take medicine. MC himself is unwaveringly rational and has few personal ties. His end goal is to resolve his limited lifespan and various illnesses/conditions, as well as gain enough power to have his own way in the world.... more>>
43 Chapters Every 103.5 Day(s) 618 Readers 4 Reviews 06-22-2021
3.6/5: Similar to Shepherding Humanity, it's an accelerated-time world-/kingdom-building story, but the sci-fi is less fake, and the MC is also more rational. Although there aren't a lot of chapters out right now, it looks very promising, albeit bland.... more>>
Comments (24)
Nice list
Although I ended up reading worlds tree without realising it was dropped
@aShinyVaporeon ahh that's good to know. If they do update again, I'll be sure to give it a read :D
Sorry for the late reply, I didn't notice this before. Luckily it was saved
Lovely list! They all look interesting (i only read TCF and King's avatar haha)
Also, I would like to suggest "Omniscient Reader's viewpoint" it's action, survival novel/manhwa and it doesn't have romance in it :3
Oh, yeah, I did read up to like chapter 300 a while ago. It's one of those novels I'm not up to date with so I'm hesitant to add it to the list, thank you for the recommend!
I'll try to catch up on it and add it in. :D
Hi, glad you like it! This is where I put pretty much all of my romance-less reads; I haven't read a new one in a good while since I'm not around this site as much as I used to be.
You can try the other recommendation lists I linked, but I unfortunately don't have any other series to recommend personally.
love this list, thank you so much!
(early spoiler for ppl who didn’t read word)
i actually drop the story when he went to the new city and was trying to save her so do you know what happens after that