Dark romance books
Dark romance puts attraction alongside danger, power, or morally complicated choices. The books here are identified as dark romance in our catalog, rather than included just because they have a high spice rating.
Dark and spicy describe different things. A heat rating describes on-page intensity; it does not stand in for content warnings. Read each story's description and trope labels, and check the available book information before choosing.
How to choose your next read
Look for the relationship dynamic you want, then compare the premise and heat. Mafia romance is one possible setting for dark romance, but the two categories are not interchangeable.
Our spice-rating guide explains what the numbers tell you. Reading is through the app after early access is granted.
7 original stories to explore
-
The Herald's Welcome
Heat 5/5A mask-maker. A mortgage. One midnight, two answers. On Halloween night the Five Houses come to Penwarne Hall for the Masque. At midnight every guest gives a name to the Herald, and she answers Welcome or Turned out.
Revenge romance · Morally gray · Enemies to lovers
Explore this book -
Crimson Sacrament
Heat 5/5Three days after her father dies in a car bomb in Naples, London lawyer Valentina Marchetti agrees to marry the heir of the Roman family she suspects of his murder, on her own terms, with a way out written into the contract.
Enemies to lovers · Arranged marriage · Mafia romance
Explore this book -
The Light He Leaves
Heat 5/5Tuesday you wore the green sweater with the loose cuff. Your window takes about four seconds to open from the outside. Blair Keating hosts a true-crime podcast about four women, six years, and the porch light left burning after each.
Stalker · Morally gray · Touch her and die
Explore this book -
Wife of Record
Heat 5/5Ivy Sorel typed the trial that put Basile Arceneaux in Angola. Months later his family wants her dead, and the man they paid to do it is sitting at her kitchen table, drinking her tea. Anton Duquesne does not deny the contract.
Marriage of convenience · Forced proximity · Morally gray
Explore this book -
Not a Hand to Steady Her
Heat 4/5Nell Kersey finds a book that was never on the inventory: black leather, no title, her mother's name inked into a page three hundred years old.
Forbidden · Slow burn · Morally gray
Explore this book -
The Tell
Heat 5/5Laurel Pruitt's little brother Tommy owes a motorcycle club eleven thousand dollars. On a Friday night in a Nevada heat wave, she walks into the Kingsnakes' clubhouse with her savings in an envelope, and the president won't take it.
Morally gray · Motorcycle club
Explore this book -
House Lights
Heat 5/5Four thousand people have run from Josie. She plays the corpse in an Ohio haunted maze, and only one man never runs. For eleven nights Vaughn Burkett has stopped at her table, and every word proves he's been watching.
Stalker · Touch her and die · Morally gray
Explore this book