It’s Read Around the Rainbow time! On the last Friday of every month, we’re a group of authors who blog about the same topic, and this month we’re taking a deep dive into dark romance, so… That’s it for me, folks! See you next month LOL
Nah, let’s see. Dark romance. I’m confused by what dark romance even is. I’ve googled and googled and tried to understand what makes a dark romance a dark romance. I see authors all over marketing books as dark that I think sound like any other book, and then we have books I quickly scroll past because *insert less favourable private thoughts* that they’re trying to sell like any other romance despite it being clear we’re dealing with a teen being coerced by a much older relative (for example). Books I personally think should come with a big red stamp saying TRIGGER all over the cover (if I’m having a bad day, at least LOL).
So what is a dark romance? Some search results say the things I’m thinking – dub and non-con, graphic rapes where the victim grows to love the rapists, obsessions, stalking, trafficking, captivity, torture, drugged without consent etc.
And don’t get me wrong! I’m down with torture and stalking and captivity and stuff like that, but not between love interests, which makes me think what I read isn’t dark romance.
Then we have other sites defining dark romance as love, passion and/or obsession set against a backdrop of darkness, danger or taboo.
And then I wonder if maybe what I’m writing is dark romance minus the taboo 😳. Not every story, but I have A Drop of Moonshine (by Holly Day), for example, where one of the MCs is an assassin, and they’re living in a world where every person is granted one government-sanctioned kill. The result is that no one dares to do anything because if you step on someone’s toes, you might be dead the next day. So dark, but the romance isn’t dark, they’re trying to survive together.
Oh, and I have The Snowflake. I love The Snowflake, but no one ever reads it LOL. It’s about Theophile Lekas who is an ice sculptor, and his muse is Dylan Mincer. So, naturally, he stalks Dylan and kills everyone who is mean to him, then he freezes their body parts and uses them to build an ice sculpture that will show Dylan how much he loves him. True love!
Side note here, but have you seen YOU on Netflix? Hubby and I are watching it now, and The Snowflake is a little like that.
So I guess, that yes, there I have a dark romance.
As for reading dark romances… I don’t. I mean I have a few that I’ve read that are… eh… makes me question my sanity a bit. I mean I love Bloodraven by P.L. Nunn, and that’s just not okay LOL. Graphic violence and graphic rapes, but yeah.
And it’s been many years since I read it, but Fallocaust by Quil Carter. It’s dark, so dark.
I want to mention Evenfall (In the Company of Shadows) too, but there is an author who shouldn’t be named, so… I won’t mention it 😉 (but you can read it for free here).
On my TBR? I don’t have dark romances on my TBR, I don’t think. I don’t really have a TBR, and I never read blurbs, so I don’t know what I’m getting into when I read, unless I’m re-reading an old book (which it seems is all I’m doing these days.)
That’s what you get from me concerning dark romances. Sorry, I couldn’t be more helpful LOL, but please check out what the others have to say!
Ofelia Grand 
Theres a few things here that I haven’t read for a while, so thank you for reminding me!
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