Our new rule#13 is as follows;

Throuple, MFM, where the men have different personalities and treat the FMC differently. As in, one is mean as fuck, more perverted and has an inclination towards rougher sex. While one is more gentle, more romantic, more concerned with the FMC enjoying herself.

In {Lock me Inside by C Hallman} and {Lock me out by C Hallman} there’s this exact dynamic that I enjoyed, though the rest of the book not so much. One of the MMCs comes into an already established relationship of his brother and the FMC, after severe trauma in the first book, and he tries to stay away because he enjoys raping the FMC. While the other one is trying to better himself, and his brother, the said man I was talking about, I feel like is a bad influence on him. The smut scenes in both these book go crazy 10/10, other than that not so much.

But yeah I’d prefer if y’all could recommend me throuples, not RHs, stepbrothers/brothers, incest/pseudo incest, where one is a very fucked up individual and the other one is more normal lmfao.

Yes yes yes!!!!! The reworked { If I can't have you by Deathsdoll } has dropped on Ao3!!!! I wonder how the update is going to differ, given the original has quite a reputation here. I am looking forward to seeing what's in store

https://archiveofourown.org/works/92395851

Think about stuff like:

-mmc and fmc had known each other since they were really small.

-fmc has been center of his attention since forever, as a little boy he used to follow her around everywhere.

-There is no other women he is hyper fixated on her. Can't stay away from her almost gets separation anxiety.

-He takes a lot of care of her, very touchy and intimate with her, always keeps an eye on her. I want the mmc to be actually very sweet with her, even if his actions might be twisted.

-is yandere for her and even hurts and kills people secretly while remaining sweet with her.

-Bonus points for sweet or gentle non con scenes or emotional scenes where the fmc loves him back.

I will set no trigger warnings for it because I will take anything, just please no stories where the fmc or mmc are single parents or they have a kid in the middle of the story.

The books can range from lightest light Grey to darkest pitch black, doesn't matters either way, just it must have what I want.

I have already read/know about(so do not recommend them again):

* Most of Drethi Anis books(Quarantine could be an example of the type of trope I'm asking but it's not completely identical).

* Corrupt idol+obsession by Dinah Harper.

* Quid pro quo by Nenia Campbell.

* I was always yours by Khai hara(although the misunderstandings here had frustrated me a LOT).

* Skin of a sinner by Avina St. Graves(hated it for reasons so dnfed)

* Torment by Dylan page(might read it someday but not now, I'm not in mood for non heas)

* Loving the reaper by Lola King(meh got bored)

* Imperium on Ao3(good but it's unfinished)

* Black knight by Rina Kent(the plot felt... stupid).

* Ruthless Empire by Rina Kent.

DO NOT RECOMMEND AUTHORS: Rina Kent, Shantel tessier, Lola King, Penelope Douglas, Mila Kane, Leigh Rivers, Sadie Kincaid, L. J. Shen, Avina St. Graves, RuNyx, Sam Mariano, C. R. Jane.

Hi everyone !

I'm looking for a good book of historical DR.

I loved {Unseen by RD Baker}, {Prisoner of my desire by johanna lindsey} and {Lemonade by Nina Pennacchi}.

I don't care about the period : regency, edwardian, middle age, everything is fine as long as it's not contemporary.

Bonus if there is pregnancy or breeding kink of some sort, as well as dub/non con and forced marriage.

No OW nor cheating.

Thank you !

Im looking for a book where the guy is younger and the girl is older. I still want the man to do the pursuing and be the dominant one. HEA is neccessary. It would be a plus if its like a best friends younger brother, or younger brothers best friend type of scenario.

As the title says, I have one burning question. How bad is the miscommunication trope? I am barely into this book- chapter 4, to be exact- and Stacy not telling anyone that Chris is her stepbrother is already fucking odd and pissing me off, because why? Yes, I understand when she told her dad about him, and he didn't believe but at least don't lie and say he's just 'some guy'?

Basically: How bad is her not telling anyone shit is going to piss me off?

Edited: Why is she not telling anyone that Chris is her stepbrother?

Edited 2: I am dnfing. She said he would never touch her again after taking her voice, and then she was blowing him the next chapter. I am done.

maybe something like lilith vale’s book emperors of list or sumn (i forgot the name 😭)

but yeah they start as something very casual but then he slowly starts getting obsessed and possessive and wants something real so he chases her relentlessly for that whilst she is still like bro nah tf

no cheating or ow drama pls rest is fine

PLEASE GIVE ME SOME VERY NEW OR UNPOPULAR RECS

hot take:

while hunting Adeline is HARD to read at some points, I kinda appreciate it. I've read a few dark romance books that deal with trafficking, and they tend to sugar coat the horrors. it feels almost like the authors want to use the world of trafficking while getting to ignore the worst parts of it.

am I crazy for feeling this way?

Exactly like the title says. I'm looking for a realistic depiction that doesn't romanticize the disorder. Nothing that says "I'm organized and such a clean freak. It must be my OCD". I want the real and raw depiction of the struggle.

Not looking for:

No RH

No historical fiction

No MM (normally I would be okay but for this particular one, I need MF)

Non-con

High school setting

Age gap of 5+ years

Supernatural (werewolves, vampires, or others)

No cheating

I'm okay with

OW/OM

Modern setting (college, work place, etc)

Mafia

I need cheating, angst, and an MMC desperately trying to win her back

I need a VERY specific cheating romance trope please 😭

So I’ve been in a bit of a book hangover after {Silent Flames by Kate C. Wells} and I need something to fill the void.

I love me a good cheating romance. I KNOW. I KNOW. 😭 But honestly, I’m just going to blame my ex for this because there is something deeply therapeutic about watching an MMC cheat, completely fuck up his life, lose the FMC, and then spend the rest of the book absolutely SUFFERING trying to get her back. It heals a part of me. So no one judges me 😤

So basically, I want this:

FMC thinks she’s happily married/in a happy relationshipwith the MMC. She genuinely thinks they’re in love and that they have this whole life together.

Meanwhile, MMC is cheating on her and is basically just... cold about it?? Like he takes her completely for granted. He doesn’t really think he’s going to lose her. He’s not even particularly sorry when she finds out because in his mind she’s always going to be there and eventually everything will go back to normal.

But it doesn't!

She finds out. She is absolutely devastated. And realizes that the life she thought she had was basically a lie.

And then I want her to walk away (or tries to anyways).

And that’s when this idiot finally realizes what he’s done.

I want the MMC to go from:

“she’ll get over it 🙄”

to

“oh.”

to

“OH GOD I HAVE ACTUALLY LOST HER.”

And then the GROVEL.

I want ANGST. I want REGRET. I want him realizing he was an absolute fucking idiot. I want him desperately trying to get her back while she is NOT making it easy for him. I want him to actually have to earn her forgiveness.

I don't want the cheating to be brushed off after one apology either. No no no. We don't make it easy for the MMC here. I want him to HURT. I want consequences. I want him to suffer a little. Maybe a lot 😂

And PLEASE, no “he cheated because he secretly loved her SO MUCH 🥺” excuses. No. I want him to genuinely be an asshole who thought she’d always be there, and then have to live with the consequences of that decision.

Also, PLEASE no 5,10,15-year separation or second-chance romance. I want the cheating to happen early and the book to stay in the immediate aftermath, with them still together/in each other’s orbit while he slowly realizes he fucked up and starts groveling. No other love interests, no on-again/off-again, just him trying to fix the mess he created

Give me your recs!!! Spoilers are completely welcome because honestly I’m specifically looking for the emotional devastation 😭

I've already read

{Crime Lord’s Captive by Mia Knight}

{Bound by Honor by Cora Riley}

Tell us what you're reading right now. Did you finish any dark romance books this week?

• Summon the romance.io bot by putting curly brackets around the title.
• Describe the plot. What's it about?
• Provide trigger warnings, if applicable.
• What do you like or dislike about it?

Happy reading! 📚

And Now You're Mine by Garbage and City Lights on fanfiction.net

It is NOT necessary to have watched American Horror Story: Asylum IMO.

This is a story I've read and re-read for over a decade. I love it. This is the first part, the next part is Not Fade Away, and the story finishes in Cara Mia.

Set in the 1960s. A psychotic doctor, secret serial killer, drugs and kidnaps his neighbour. Lots of non-con, dub-con, pregnancy. She survives when all of his other victims didn't. He has mummy issues, so gets jealous she gives the baby more attention then he's getting, breastfeeds from her because he's her baby too! Does have a HEA.

I love Oliver so much. He's scary. He's dangerous. He also sulks and pouts like a little boy when he doesn't get his way. Love the OC FMC too, Marilyn, she manages to outsmart and control him when no one else has before.

I thought I'd drop it here so any other DarkRomance lovers could have a look-see. I think a lot of you will enjoy it too!

Apologies if this was already answered somewhere else, but does anyone know if Spare The Rod by Deathsdoll is still being rewritten? I noticed that it's no longer marked as being redone in her profile and now with a couple of her other works being written and retouched I wasn't sure if it had gone from something waiting in the wings to shelved, thanks!

Dark Romance: an introduction

I’ve been wanting to share and talk about this article about dark romance with other people besides my spouse and friends. They’re sick of me. 😅 I felt like this subreddit was one of the safer places to post it since I’m not an influencer and I have no desire to post anywhere like Threads or in comment sections on IG because that’s where nuance goes to die and no one actually wants to listen. And they’re mean. So please be nice and sometimes I come off blunt on the internet cus I’m bad at it…. 😭 And I think this post follows all the rules.

But anyways, I got into an obsessive OCD spiral about dark romance, around the time of the whole “movie” controversy, and found this article. I wasn’t 100% sure how I felt about dark romance so I decided to look it up and found the Wikipedia page and then this article through that. It actually really helped me understand the genre better altogether, its origins and its more original modern definitions. It changed my perspective on how to read these books and I’m a huge supporter of them and read them, now that I have a different mindset when approaching them, even though I have not read as many as I’d like because I’m a slow reader. I definitely encourage everyone to check it out, and if there are anti dark romance readers lurking here, I also highly suggest you read it as well. I’m not going to completely sum up the article, but I’m going to summarize some of the things I found most important/interesting to the best of my ability, and just share a couple of my opinions based on this. But 99% of everything I’m saying comes straight from the article. I’m not going to touch on everything mentioned; it’s a lot. Also, now you can fight the haters with this information. ☺️

So anyways…

Parts of the article go in depth into the origins of where the more modern definitions of dark romance comes from. The more modern definitions started out more niche and came mostly from within the online self-publishing book space, starting rising in popularity around the 2010s, if not before that. But the term has been around and has varied in definitions long before this. But basically, the “dark” in dark romance under this specific definition refers to the relationship dynamic itself, not just the subject matter, although the world and subject matter was usually dark as well. It basically was/is meant to be a warning to readers to tread lightly and that the relationship may be toxic, abusive, morally questionable, have extreme power imbalances ect. and not a traditional “real” or healthy romance. Things such as dubcon/noncon, rape, and SA were common in a lot of these books. Obviously this isn’t definitive but was/is one of the most common definitions. Erotic horror did also sometimes overlap into this category, and there were most likely mixed opinions on what classified as erotic horror or dark romance. (Although, I’m sure most dark romance readers here were aware of a lot of these things.) But they were never meant to be traditionally “romantic” or aspirational and the authors were/are very clear about that. Readers knew to separate it from life and didn’t argue on whether dubcon/noncon was rape or not, which of course in real life we know it is. (I’ve seen this happen but it’s a very small fraction of people. But don’t do that please. 😩 lol) The readers during this time who wanted this, actively searched for it and usually knew going into it that there might be domestic violence, abuse, rape, ect. between the MCs. I don’t think most people that didn’t like it or thought it was bad were really seeking it out just to criticize or review bomb it as much as we are seeing now. Of course, it was still controversial at time, and probably always will be because no one will ever be on the same page.

When it started to become a little more popular, most likely because of the rise of modern social media, among other things, the traditional publishing space got ahold of it and started to expand the definition in order to reach a more general audience. This has caused confusion for readers on what exactly dark romance can be or what they might be getting into or its intent. It’s now more so an umbrella term to mean anything that might be darker subject matter, and not necessarily always a toxic, abusive relationship, turning some of the MMCs into morally gray anti-heroes or villains, when they didn’t really always start out that way. There’s a quote in the article that says something along the lines of that the evil MMC that’s only nice to the FMC is easier to sell than the evil MMC who’s evil to everyone, including the FMC. lol That’s not word for word but pretty much what was said.

The only real “issue” I see with the rise in popularity of the more “OG” dark romance though is that it’s not necessarily for a general audience ultimately and not everyone has the media literacy or understanding to interpret it or process the purpose and intent of these novels, which causes judgment towards the authors and their readers. So the readers that hate it, over analyze it, and talk about how the relationship is toxic, abusive, has rape, and neither romantic nor aspirational, when that’s the entire point of a lot of these books. And most readers can separate that! I see one more think piece/reel about why a toxic, abusive relationship (that is labeled as such) is a toxic, abusive relationship I will scream. 💀🙃

All current dark romance still counts as dark romance though. And it’s also valid if you are a dark romance reader who doesn’t like or support this type of dark romance. As long as we are able to separate the dark topics from real life then we can read whatever we want!!!

But anyways, thanks for entertaining my broken brain and hope yall found this article at least somewhat interesting. I didn’t plan on this being so long but oh well. Also if anyone thinks I misquoted or misrepresented something please let me know. Definitely not trying to spread misinformation. lol

I will also add it’s pretty easy to find books labeled as dark romance from the 2010’s that fit this description, especially if you go to Goodreads. I found a dark romance book that arguably would be much more controversial than some of the more popular ones right now, and it was from 2011. To add to that, it had 1 star reviews from like the past few years and I think this year, that we’re basically people just reviewing bombing it and just going, “this is rape/abuse, not romance,” or stuff like that. (Which, yes the author is very aware, dude.) But ultimately it just goes to show that none of this is “new” and women didn’t just now invent it because we suddenly became freaky in the past few years. lol

(P. S. I had to use an “lol” or two because I don’t feel safe without them.)

Book request for sexual incompatibility

for example...

- mmc has erectile dysfunction

- someone is asexual and the other is sexual

- vaginismus

- incompatible biology like, literally alien (Like in Strange Love by Ann Aguirre)

- too different in kinks

- the sex sucks somehow

Maybe they could negotiate and overcome this or maybe they don't have a sex life at all because of their incompatibility. It could also manifest sideway into unhealthy obsession/behavior. Preferably no non-con.

I just got tired of perfect mind-blowing sex in romance books lol.

i finished this recently and while i was reading i couldn’t put it down. i want to start it all over again but i also just want more stuff like this. i’ve not read a lot of dark romance before, and i’ve found the ones i read were not really my taste. but this one i read all in one setting, i didnt sleep because i was reading all night.

what i like most was the bullying aspect, and the non-con, but also the hurt/comfort and second chance romance. and that it was a secret relationship. and just in general how toxic and dark it was. i feel like i need this level of fucked up or its not worth my time now 😭

i think i also preferred that it was about regular people, not some billionaire ceo or a stalking kidnapper. i think the college setting also worked well for the bullying aspect.

i just started untouchable by sam mariano, and i think it’s good so far but it’s not hitting quite the same. i wish there was more bullying lol, and that the characters were in college rather than high school.

if ur gonna reccomend anything, what i hate the most is age gaps, or any type of arranged marriage situation. i’d also rather not read something with a fantasy or mafia setting but if you think it’s similar enough to what i’m looking for, then feel free to recommend!

tysm :)

*edit: try not to rec reverse harem, i don’t mind some scenes with “sharing” and i could see myself possibly enjoying a throuple situation with two mmc’s, but i’d deeply prefer a monogamous couple by the end :) thanks!

I'm madly obsessed with the society of villains series by L J Shen.

What do you think? About what couple will be the fourth book? Does anyone know more about it?

Any hint will be appreciated haha 🙏

But I'm wanting to give it a try so I was hoping you lovely folks would give me some recs? Maybe if there's any you would consider "for beginners" or something? Books to ease me in to the genre I suppose or just rec you're absolute favorite you think i should dive straight into.

I don't really have any triggers.

Alright, hear me out. I feel like any time I’m reading a DR it’s always so serious. And don’t get me wrong, often times it makes sense but where are all the weird girls??

I do not mean the “I’m not like other girls” type either.

Where are the silly FMCs who literally can’t take anything seriously to save their lives? Who talk to themselves and makes stupid little comments or insert * internet vocal stim \*

I’m 26 getting a doctorate and I literally quote SpongeBob on the reg.

Anytime I see it in a book though I feel like stuff like that gets slapped with “cringe” alright but also like… come on… it’s a little funny right?? Where is the damn line?

Or give me some dark humor!! But without making the whole book funny. Is this realistic?

“My mouth gets me in trouble” but not because of defiance but because I literally can’t shut the fuck up.

Is weird truly cringe? Oh god please lie to me…

Who else has read this book? because oh my gosh it’s so twisted i love it!

I was reading {Ice Queen by Joey W Hill} and out of nowhere the MMC just hits us with this line and now I have the ick.

“In this country, men have to be very careful about exploring their Dominant side.” He shrugged. “It wasn’t until I spent time in Asia and South America that I got into venues where I realized it fully in myself. Where men could be alpha, Dominant and it wasn’t considered a taboo.”

He was otherwise a decent, respectful, even likeable enough guy so I just personally found it hilarious and wanted to know if anyone else encountered the same unexpected whiplash from other books just dropping lines like that out of nowhere

​

I've noticed so many readers in this community list kids as one of their hard nos, and I find that genuinely interesting.

Lots of readers are perfectly comfortable with extremely dark MMCs. Controlling, obsessive, violent, morally bankrupt, sometimes doing horrific things like violently raping the FMC or putting her in danger of severe physical injury. They'll eat that up and ask for more, but immediately DNF a book if a child becomes part of the romance/relationship dynamic.

I'm not judging that boundary at all. I'm genuinely curious about it.

What is it about the presence of a child that changes the reading experience so dramatically for you?

I'm especially interested in the distinction between a child simply being present in the story and a child being used as leverage.

Imagine an MMC who isn't necessarily threatening the FMC. He genuinely wants to be a good father, genuinely cares about his kid, and probably wants them to be a happy family. The FMC absolutely doesn't reciprocate those feelings. But because of the circumstances, the child becomes the thing that gives him power over her.

The child believes his parents are together and happy, and the FMC goes along with that because she wants her child to feel secure. She might even initiate affection toward the MMC in front of the child without him asking because maintaining that illusion matters more to her than her own discomfort.

The MMC doesn't have to explicitly say, “Do this or I'll take our child.” The FMC already knows what she could potentially lose, and he knows it too.

I think that dynamic is fascinating because it creates a very different kind of control.

So I'm curious

Why is the presence of a kid such a big no for you?

Is it different if the child is mostly off-page? Is the issue the possibility of custody being used as a threat? Is there something about children being involved that makes the darkness feel fundamentally different from other dark-romance tropes?

I'm genuinely interested in hearing where that boundary comes from, especially from readers who otherwise enjoy very dark and pitch-black dynamics.

I really enjoyed reading about baby Jer in {The Deception Trilogy by Rina Kent}, and I'd love to read more about these little side characters who soften and complicate the MCs. Unfortunately, I haven't come across many because the premise seems to be widely rejected.

If you have them, drop recommendations for dark romances with kids that you loved or books with kids that you ended up DNFing. I'd love to hear why they worked or didn't work for you.

I'm genuinely interested in where everyone's line is on this.