Today, I’m going to be talking about my favorite dark romances. So, in my last recommendations article, I told you guys all about my six favorite soft romances and like soft spine but um, I’m a dark ass bitch and I like dark romances. They are some of my favorites to read so without further ado let’s get into it,
1. The Unrequited by Saffron A Kent
My first recommendation, for you guys, is The Unrequited by Saffron A Kent and we’re off to a Lana Del Rey, stalker, sad white girl, bang. This book is so good and so twisted and so taboo, but I must insist that you listen to the board today I’ll blow my Lana Del Rey. As you read this book it is essential listening and I believe, Leila talks about the album in the book. So it’s just perfection. So what does this book about? Imagine that Joe from Caroline cab misses you a little sister. That would be our main character Leila.
So Leila has been obsessed with the same guy for a long time and as readers, we are not supposed to know why Leila ends up going to a new college to kind of escape her past and escape her stalking tendencies. But oh no Leila ends up stalking a different guy instead and this time it is a college Professor. a married College Professor. The book is about her trying to get closer to her professor, under the guise of like tutelage. She’s, like oh yeah, like I want to be a poet I want to, be a writer and her whole plan all along is to get close to a professor and steal him away from his wife.
There are a few reasons why I enjoyed this so much, but I’m just going to give you the main two. The first one is the chilly atmospheric setting that this book had just suited the dark, stalker tendencies of Leila. It was set in Connecticut in the fall, and even though I was on a sunny beach when I read this book, I felt like I was in Connecticut, and we also don’t know who to root for do be root for Leila, Do we root for the wife? Do we root for this, professor, I don’t know, come to his senses and realize that he’s being stalked. I like that questions, are never answered, and I think of all of the books that I’m going to mention on this list. This one is by far the most unique I’ve not read anything even remotely similar to this in the romance genre, so I would give it a try. Trigger warnings for cheating suicide attempts, stalking and very, very questionable mental health, that’s just something to be aware of I’m going to be doing trigger warnings for all these books, just FYI.
2. Kill Switch by Penelope Douglas
The next book on my list is Kill Switch by Penelope Douglas. I hate to love goodness, no, not the story itself, I mean my attitude towards the main character Damon. This is the third book in a series of standalone novels by Penelope Douglas, and this is Damon's story he is one of four men that this series is going to be about. In the first two books, Damon is the villain of the story and in the third book, we’re getting more of a glimpse into his past and understanding more about his villainous tendencies. I can’t go into the detail of the plot of this series, because, while it is a series of standalone novels, I think the individual stories hold up best when you know what has come before it, you kind of get to know the characters a little bit more before you read their romances, so I’m not going to go into the plot of this specific book. But the series as a whole is about a quartet of gentlemen basketball players, they’re kind of hoodlums, and essentially three of the four dudes got prison for a couple of years.
Once they get out, they want to seek revenge on whoever has done them wrong in the past and who has supposedly helped had a part in them, going into prison in the first place. So each book is about each guy, their love interest, who, for some reason, always ends up having a part to play and the reason that these guys went to prison. But anyway, that’s what the series is about is sort of new adult, but it is post-high school, and honestly post-college. So I will say the romance in this book in and of itself is not inherently dark. There are not the same, dark themes that I feel run in some of these other books that were getting into there’s no real psychological abuse of either of the main characters towards each other or in the actual presence of the book. However, there are flashbacks to Damon’s past which it’s traumatic.
He has suffered so much abuse, and so many hardships and I think the overall tone and feel of the book it’s especially dark, even though this is considered a contemporary new adult romance. As I said, these flashbacks are incredibly haunting and give you a sense of hopelessness. That would not help you if you were currently depressed. So if you’re depressed maybe stay away from this series, but the transformation of Damon from the character that I loathe into a character that I love, I think, is so rare in books, and whenever an author can successfully do that. It’s something that I have to recommend to you guys, because it’s just fun so, like your previously mentioned, trigger warnings for Incest abuse, flashbacks, with brass trauma, and potential dubious consent, although I can’t think of any particular instance, that’s pretty common in Penelope Douglass’s books. Oh and also there’s a threesome.
3. Menace Scarlet Scars by JM Darhower
The next books on my list are Duology, Menace Scarlet Scars by JM Darhower. Menace and Grievous, for I am head over heels with Lorenzo Gambini. This is a classic mafia-style romance with an incredibly well-done humorous twist. The story is about a one-eyed mob boss named Lorenzo who gets pickpocketed by a sex worker named Morgan. Morgan has a past she’s trying to run away from Lorenzo is trying to get his revenge as most mob bosses do, and low and behold there is a way that they can help each other out. Much like Killswitch. I feel like this book takes a classic trope of a mafia romance and puts a fresh and exciting spin on it and I’ll tell you why first there are dual points of view, and let me tell you Lorenzo, is funny as fuck if you don’t like Wise crackers – you’re – probably not going to like this, and, if you’re going into this, expecting it to be a typical rough-and-tumble mafia, romance with like an annoying dude-bro alpha male like this is not it.
He is funny and he makes light of his situation in life. The fact that he has one eye and I also like that, I feel like the representation is pretty good. He has to shoot people right like a mob boss, but having one eye, messes with your depth perception and that’s something that plays into the book and ends up being kind of humorous. I don’t know a thing that happens, so I do I loved the humor and like the representation. That was the great number of two sex-positive prostitutes. We love this any time. There is any sort of sex work and a lot of mafia romances are any romances. It is looking down on and in this case, Morgan likes her work.
She does not feel ashamed. And there’s a part in the book where Morgan and Lorenzo have an interaction where they kind of discuss sex workers and they respect that they deserve and sort of the misogyny of the culture of the Mafia and I was like, Is this happening in mafia romance? It was so awesome, so feminist and so well done, and third, the plot was not too elaborate and you’re probably like, Should the plot be good that’s the thing I don’t think elaborate and good necessarily go hand in hand in a mafia romance. I feel like too often we get these double-crossed, shoot them up, search plots and I end up not giving the fuck. In this book, I think your plot sort of takes a backseat to the romance, but it’s still compelling enough to drive the story forward and kind of justify the fact that there are two books in the series, and I will say that pretty much all of the positive things that I have to say about the first book carry on into the second book: nothing dragged on. I enjoyed the conclusion and it felt very realistic, given the characters and where they had come from for this book, just trigger warnings for past assault and past trauma that are discussed.
4. Written With Regret by Ali Martinez
Another one of my favorite duologies is the Written With Regret, a Duology by Ali Martinez, psychological thriller fans this one’s for you or maybe not If you have taste, I don’t know judge for yourself. This book is about a girl who ends up getting shot at a mall when she’s a kid and gets saved by this guy who’s about 15 at the time, years later she can’t stop thinking about him, so, instead of just fondly remembering him, she decides to track him down to who he is sleeping with him, and then she ends up getting impregnated and leaves her baby on his doorstep. Four years after the abandonment homegirls back and she wants to meet her kid, but things are more complicated than they seem so going into this book.
I had no clue what to expect. It felt a lot like other indie romances that I had read. In that, there’s a single dad or there is this reason these characters have some sort of connection like years down the road you know they like met once and then they meet up again. But in this case, it’s like how are we going to sympathize with the female protagonist when she has done this sort of awful thing sort of stalking him, and then also sort of abandoned her kid, I will say the twist took me places that I was not expecting, but I kind of love, how everything fell in, I also felt that the romance felt kind of realistic, despite the sort of like unbelievable plot. Trigger warnings for this book, are gun violence and I believe, that’s it. I also want to note that this series could be considered just a typical contemporary romance, but I think some of the themes in this book are a lot darker than other contemporary romances I’ve read and it’s like the book opens up with the shooting. I’m not sure that I would consider that, like a warm fluffy contemporary, so we’re putting this in the dark romance category, especially at the ending of this book yeah.
5. The Siren by Tiffany Reisz
The last book on my list is The Siren by Tiffany Reisz. Fuck your morality, your senses, and your feelings because I have some dark erotica for you. The story follows the same Dominatrix, Nora who’s, trying to escape her past and find a new passion right. While doing so her life is rather quickly more complicated because it seems that Nora has never met a man that she didn’t like, case in point Zach the editor he’s fighting for his estranged wife, but he does this sort of will he won’t he thing with Nora the entire time that the book goes on. Don’t worry, that’s not the only shit she has to deal with. She also has to deal with the intrusive thoughts and actual presence of her former lover Soren, who just can’t seem to escape. There’s lots of history in the first book and there’s not a whole lot of explanation on what their past is, but you’re intrigued and you’re not sure if you should trust him, and then wait, there’s more. Of course, there’s going to be another love interest, and it is the guy that sort of like takes care of Nora, make sure she’s fed make sure she’s taken care of herself sort of placed a housekeeper and like nurturing role for her.
Even though he’s much younger and his name is Wesley, he lives in the house Nora, and again they’re sort of a will, won’t they? He has this sort of tender crush on her and she doesn’t know whether or not she wants to fully corrupt him. It’s complicated all right. There is so much I could say about this book because I truly believe that it is a work of art. I think it could be analyzed in so many different ways, but I’m going to get into the few reasons why.
I think you guys would like it number one. The morality makes this incredibly dark when you get the flash into Nora’s past life in the writing that she does and in her head flashbacks to the time that she spent with Sauron, you are so conflicted. Do we believe her? Do we trust Sauron who do we know? Who do we love? You also don’t know whether hate or love Nora, for trying to emotionally support her editor who’s going through this hard time, and then again, you also don’t know if you want to know where to kind of take that step and end up with Wesley. Who is this sweet and supportive guy and then, in the end, you don’t know if you should trust your judgment or not, and again I think that makes this book inherently dark.
It takes you places that I don’t think other romances do and it does it in such a caring and nuanced way that it had me craving the next book. In essence, the book is mind-blowing and it’s truly a favorite of mine. If you want to enter the dark underground world of BDSM erotica, this is a great place to start, especially if you tried to read Fifty Shades of Grey, and you thought it was all kind of like cheesy and stupid for trigger warnings. I would say the only one that I can think of off the top of my head is tension, an appropriate age gap romance that was never consummated.
6. Pennies by Pepper Winters
Then this last book, I don’t want to say that I recommend it, but it is a dark romance and it is something that I’ve read and got something out of it. It is Pennies by Pepper Winters. This book is truly a trainwreck that you cannot look away from. The book is about a girl named Pam, who is kidnapped and sold into sexual slavery.
This first book is about her experience in captivity. If you get a first-person account of what it is like to be abused daily if that is something that in any way, sounds like it could be triggering to you don’t pick this up. There is the depiction of mental abuse, sexual abuse, and physical abuse. At the end of this book, her body is broken and she will never recover. So it’s not what I would call light-hearted. A lot of people are going to find the depiction of abuse in these five books gratuitous.
However, I felt so deeply for the character, and I was so entranced by the writing that I felt compelled to continue to read, and the way the narrative has been written kind of makes It feels like a triumph of the human spirit. In a way and like I said the whole time I was reading, I was on the edge of my seat wondering if this girl is going to get saved. Also, I think it’s interesting that it’s not just the first book that is dark. She ends up getting saved in the first book, but we find out that her Savior is not necessarily pure and heroic, a guy that we would expect to be the savior of a girl from abuse. Like I said this book and the serious is not for the faint of heart, I don’t want to say that I recommend it or that I like enjoying it.
But it was a compelling, interesting read and if you read a lot of horror or you like books that deal deeply with psychology, I think this would be an interesting one to read. Trigger warning, like I said, for present tense for rape, abuse, anything you could make up it’s going to be in this book, and on that light-hearted note, those are all of my recommendations for my favorite dark romances.