The heroes are often very bad men, but you want to read about them and the heroines. One of the ones that has stuck with me as of late is Prisoner by Skye Warren and Annika Martin. Skye is one of the first authors I saw doing truly dark romance. Her books pull no punches. These are my own personal recs of books I've read. And note, none of these authors have asked me to feature their books or given me copies in exchange for promotion. However, if you have triggers around rape, violence, or anything in that zone, you may want to steer clear of these. You can step in and out of the world and still be safe. In many ways, that's the beauty of fiction. Some of these books go to really dark places. So you see the humanity underneath the dangerous, broken parts. Usually, very bad things have happened to him. Or something happens and he's redeemed on some level(as much as one of these guys can be redeemed.) Or the backstory is so well-crafted that you get it. It could be his version of his own moral code, some line he won't cross. I love when an author can pull that off.Īnd the key for me that separates this from just reading about really bad people is that even when the main guy is an anti-hero, he always has some seed that keeps you with him. When I read these, I have that thought-wow, I really shouldn't be rooting for these people or liking this hero or wanting this person to get the girl. The usual lines of morality are blurred. These are the guys who you really wouldn't want to mess with in real life, but who are so interesting to read about. For my purposes, a dark romance is one that has an anti-hero, a villain type as the lead guy, and/or completely mindf*cks you.

But that's not what I'm talking about today.

A really gritty romantic suspense could be considered dark if you focus on the fact that there is violence or murders or serial killers. Now, the definition of 'dark' can vary widely from person to person. Today, I'm focusing on dark romance-one of my favorites. I did something similar a few years ago, but I figured it was time to tackle a few other subgenres and to update some recs on older ones. I'm starting a new series of blogs today called What To Read.

The Hostage Bargain by Annika Martin