Dark is subjective. Often this genre comes with Trigger Warnings (TW) and/or Content Warnings (CW). These triggers could contain Kink, BDSM, Non-Con, Dub-Con, Taboo Relationships. . .amongst soooooo many other things, blood, murder, chaos of the wicked and debauched. You name it, it probably exists within the pages of this genre.
I will point out that I will not be recommending any books that have Incest or Underage Relationships, that being said, ALWAYS check the TW’s and CW’s, as I am human which means I can make mistakes. As a general rule though, there are only a few things I don’t fuck with in life or in literature, and Incest – especially incest with an adult and a child, aka pedophilia, is my number one absolute no-no-no. So you won’t find that kind of dark in my recommendations.
Dark Romance/Dark Reads/Taboo/Mindfuck – it’s an ever changing landscape from book to book and reader to reader. Not much in the genre of dark romance novels bothers me, I don’t carry many triggers with me when I read and my morality in literature is not the morality I carry in life. I don’t waste my time policing other readers preferences. I don’t report books on Amazon or trash them on Goodreads. If I don’t like a book, I move on, every once in awhile I will write a quick review on Goodreads as a heads up for other readers. I don’t trash Authors or Readers or Anyone. If you see books that I recommend that you can’t fuck with, that’s okay.
With all of this said, I hope you find something or many somethings to enjoy on my list of the DARK AND TWISTED VARIETY. xo
2013, I was a newbie to the online book community, and here was this seemingly innocuous book floating around being recommended on the down-low. With a mysterious synopsis and reviews that shared next to nothing of the content of the pages within. On the recommendation of one my favorite bloggers, Maryse of Maryse’s Book Blog, I went in completely blind and found out how truly dark, twisted and spellbinding this novel truly was. I read it in 2013 and it is still one of my favorite books, I am still able to vividly conjure details of this story to the surface of my memories all these years later. Go in blind. But expect many a trigger and many a wtf moment to occur. In the end, I find it to be one of Tara Brown’s best books she’s ever written.
Compelling, disarming, cracks your literary morality wide open and leaves you to lay in the mess of what you thought you could or couldn’t get behind in literature. Wanderlust was my first introduction to the beauty of Skye Warren’s novels, it most certainly wasn’t my last, although it has retained it’s position as one of my favorite books, especially by the Author herself. A novella that packs a punch, grips you by the proverbial throat and doesn’t let go until the very last sentence. It is merciless, violent, with kidnapping, rape, dub-con, amongst other murky twisted waters to drown in. And yet even with all of this, I found myself instilled with hope and a love for the characters. Another of those 2013 gems that has stayed with me.
Heed the warnings. There is a plethora of disturbing content within the pages of this incredible story published back in, you guessed it, 2013. This is not your typical love story, it’s paved with dark and depraved actions and yet. . .it builds to such beauty. It took pain, to find that beauty but wow, is it worth it. At 535 pages, it’s a doozy of a book with twists and turns, secrets and sex, non-con, dub-con, forced marriage, mind-fuckery galore and a gloriously perfect well deserved, strongly fought for ending. This is my favorite of Jettie Woodruff’s books, it gave me a book hangover that took many a moon to get over. I’ve got it on paperback and recommend it to anyone and everyone in the book community that loves their romance with a bit of dark and twisted.
I can’t seem to find it available to purchase at the moment or why, maybe it got banned on Amazon?