Novels With No Love Interest(s) / No Romance
Novels With No Love Interest(s) / No Romance
Novels that have no lasting romantic relationships. There will be no smut, ecchi, or harem (if MC attracts people, I don't mind until MC becomes interested in them or is clearly unable to say no to them). Romance involving any combination of genders is still 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, especially if the raws are incomplete, but I'll try my best to verify. I'll try to update this rec list as I read. No promises though, so my descriptions may be outdated.
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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, especially if the raws are incomplete, but I'll try my best to verify. 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 No promises though, so my descriptions may be outdated.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
176 Followers
Created: Sep 5th, 2020, Updated: Aug 11th, 2025
Created Sep 5th, 2020
Updated Aug 11th, 2025
0 Chapters Every 8.8 Day(s) 4131 Readers 41 Reviews N/A
4/5: Pretty interesting premise. The MC is something of a savant; cold, kind, smart and s*upid all at once. He's able to see emotions, but not understand them. The story is his journey to learn more, although this curiosity for the world takes a bit of time to develop. It’s not a particularly deep novel despite this, more so a light read.... more>>
238 Chapters Every 0.9 Day(s) 2656 Readers 37 Reviews 08-24-2025
4/5: Decent read if you like a story where the MC tends to stay a few steps ahead and centers around misunderstandings (but on purpose).... more>>
400 Chapters Every 2000 Day(s) 878 Readers 16 Reviews 06-15-2025
3/5: Features a female protagonist, quite the rarity on this list. Misunderstanding comedy.... more>>
#29Yama Rising
20 Chapters Every 83.2 Day(s) 1104 Readers 16 Reviews 08-16-2020
3.5/5: Set in modern parallel world with supernatural elements and kingdom building later on (it really picks up about 100 chapters in). Worldbuilding is quite good despite the presence of small plot holes and is very well-researched in history and mythology.... more>>
510 Chapters Every 1.1 Day(s) 17208 Readers 114 Reviews 08-15-2025
3.5/5: A dungeon + hunter game-apocalypse novel; the MC has a burst of character development in the first few chapters after and causing his little brother's death, and regresses to five years ago with the help of his sacrifice. ... more>>
34 Chapters Every 148.1 Day(s) 2390 Readers 33 Reviews 10-16-2020
3.2/5: If you've ever wanted to read about an evil spirit of plague and death trying to take over the world(s), this is it. Gets a little old the more you read, though.... more>>
341 Chapters Every 1.9 Day(s) 723 Readers 9 Reviews 08-06-2025
3/5: 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 156.6 Day(s) 3105 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 133.1 Day(s) 1185 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>>
279 Chapters Every 47.6 Day(s) 13379 Readers 60 Reviews 07-30-2025
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 125.2 Day(s) 1915 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 42.5 Day(s) 2436 Readers 28 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 219.5 Day(s) 3489 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>>
202 Chapters Every 1.4 Day(s) 10626 Readers 47 Reviews 08-23-2025
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>>
621 Chapters Every 1.7 Day(s) 2641 Readers 37 Reviews 08-24-2025
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>>
24 Chapters Every 10.5 Day(s) 2717 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>>
255 Chapters Every 4.1 Day(s) 7368 Readers 71 Reviews 08-04-2025
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 119.6 Day(s) 1586 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>>
#44Elqueeness
188 Chapters Every 4.1 Day(s) 4258 Readers 23 Reviews 08-22-2025
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 119.1 Day(s) 1771 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 110.7 Day(s) 2900 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 38.3 Day(s) 1805 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>>
#49Youjo Senki
9 Chapters Every 397.9 Day(s) 6962 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>>
43 Chapters Every 107.7 Day(s) 626 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