K is an INTJ, 5w4, and a cat person. She loves a pulse-thudding plot and a heat level hotter than a gun barrel on a battlefield. She enjoys accurate action sequences, scary villains, and smokeshow heroes with redemption arcs. T is an ENTJ, an 8w7, and a dog mom. She writes villains who square up, heroes who step up, and heroines who level up. She prefers her romance with a side of high-stakes geopolitical brinkmanship, because the only thing better than saving the world is celebrating the win afterward. K and T are long-time readers of high heat dark romances and look forward to sharing their writing with other spice aficionados.
She’s a beautiful young fashion photographer. He’s a gentleman of means and very specific tastes. When her lover introduces her to a world of refined tortures and illicit pleasure, the only question is how far she’ll go for love.
I love it because who doesn’t love a good banned book? This is one of the most infamous, the French phenomena that inspired the modern kink movement. The Triskelion features prominently here, and can still be found on collars across the world. The novel itself follows a young woman’s self-inflicted enslavement to a mysterious secret society, and is probably the only X-rated book you’ll feel more intelligent after reading. It’s also French, so you feel fancy while hiding the cover on the subway.
The classic French erotic bestseller that preceded Fifty Shades of Grey
A beautiful young French woman, known only as 'O', is taken by her lover Rene to a splendid mansion near Paris. Here, she is initiated into an elite secret society, where she must learn to serve the sexual fantasies of Rene and his fellow members. But she must also explore the nature of her own darkest desires - and confront just how far she is willing to go for love...
He’s calling in a debt. She’s on the bill of goods. She’d kill her feckless ex for getting her into this, but it seems the guy darkening her doorstep’s already saved her the trouble.
I love this book because it’s just the right amount of grittiness. J.T. Geissinger knows how to write chemistry.
You feel for the female lead, who’s pulling a bit of a low-key Miss Havisham after her fiancée leaves her at the altar. Enter: scarily intimidating, tough-as-nails new neighbour. It’s a bit instalove, but Geissinger knows how to sell it, and the action* scenes are done well once you get to them. And the smut is pretty steamy, too, if that’s your thing.
An Amazon Top 10 bestselling series with more than 2 million copies sold worldwide Winner of the Holt Medallion for Best Erotic Romance
Five years ago, my fiancé disappeared. He left me with a wedding dress I’d never wear. Left me with the kind of scars that can’t be healed. The man I built my future on vanished like a ghost. All that remained were my broken heart and a million unanswered questions.
Until a mysterious stranger arrives in town.
Tall, dark, and dangerous, Kage is as full of secrets as he is sex appeal. Though I know he’s hiding…
He’s heir to a violent legacy. She’s on the hunt for a story that’ll launch her career from Page Six to the six o’clock hour. When their paths cross, she knows she’ll follow this lead anywhere.
I love it because Miller’s really good at writing dark romance. It’s a tricky genre to get right because of the subject matter, but if you can nail it you get a sort of grim satisfaction from the underworld justice. But then one has to ask: what happens when someone comes around asking questions? What happens when emotions get in the way of objectivity or professionalism? And what do you do when someone you’re falling for is revealed to be a monster amongst monsters?
Karina Ashworth is willing to pay any price to be with the man she loves—a notorious fixer and the only man capable of making her walk away from everything she has ever known.
But power corrupts the soul too easily, and once Uilleam Runehart has his taste of it, there’s nothing he craves more. And when it comes to what he wants most, there is no line he won’t cross to get it.
With secrets plaguing them, and truths becoming harder and harder to tell, the things left unsaid between them might be their ruin.
Fans of NBC’s Hannibal will love this creep-cute between a debonair serial killer who dabbles in fine art and the talented ingenue who’s caught his eye. Problem: she’s also caught his professional rival’s interest, and he’s got a score to settle.
Why I love it: because I’m a sucker for the “dapper bad dude” trope. I’ll refer to the OG here—Hannibal Lecter has charisma, and class, when he isn’t giggly on Chianti. A serial killer with standards is fun to read about, and if you can throw in a rival—and maybe even a romance—more the better. (I also love a good villain and this one’s a proper weirdo.)
Cole Blackwell values control. He’s the hottest sculptor in San Francisco, wealthy, successful, and respected. His only weakness is the dark impulse he carefully conceals…
Mara Eldritch is a nobody. Broke and damaged, she works three jobs while creating paintings no one will ever see.
A chance encounter throws Mara into Cole’s path. When Mara escapes what appears to be certain death, Cole is intrigued. He starts stalking her, realizing there’s more to the struggling misfit than he ever would have guessed.
Cole becomes obsessed with Mara, breaking the rules that keep his true nature hidden. Mara knows he’s dangerous,…
The mob’s come calling for Aoife. Of course, when the guy making the call is 6 feet of scrumptious in a sinfully good suit… it makes sense to pick up the phone.
I love this book because there’s a huge ensemble cast—and they all feel like their own characters. Aoife, specifically; is bitingly funny, and Finn’s got a great conflict between the life he’s in, and the one he wants. It isn’t a redemption story, but it feels like one by the end. Akeroyd’s also got an extensive universe built up around this suite of characters, and it’s fun to follow the characters throughout the different series. It’s also a fresh mix of thriller plot and romance tropes; for instance, she lays the groundwork for a conspiracy that blends politics, the mob, and a secret society bent on controlling both in between blisteringly hot smut scenes.
Riona Araby is a barista with a "connected" family, a dirty book tucked under her pillow, and a secret desire to meet Master Right. When a chance meeting with a handsome stranger in the airport sparks the affair of a lifetime, Riona realizes her attraction to this dangerous man may cost everything she’s willing to give… and more.
Captain James Hardin – once of the US Naval Special Warfare Development Group and now of no fixed address – has blood on his hands, and a price on his head. On the run from the world’s most dangerous criminal, the Captain has few allies, many enemies, and no options. As Hardin’s past and Riona’s future collide they quickly realize that with stakes this high, there’s no time for caution.
I once saw a play at the renowned Oregon Shakespeare Theatre. A play about Sor Juana. It was a good play, but it felt like something was missing like jalapenos left out of enchiladas. The play kept nudging me to look further to find Sor Juana, and so for the next five years, I did so. I read and read more. I listened for her voice, and that is where I heard her life come alive. This isn’t the only possibility for Sor Juana’s life; it is just the one I heard.
Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, this brilliant 17th century nun flew through Mexico City on the breeze of poetry and philosophy. She met with princes of the Church, and with the royalty of Spain and Mexico. Then she met a stunning, powerful woman with lavender eyes, la Vicereine Maria Louisa, and her life changed forever. As her fame grew, she dared to challenge the diabolical Archbishop once too often, and he threw her in front of the Inquisition, where she stood, alone.
Sor Juana's work is studied still today, and justifiably so. Scholars study her months on end; mystics…
This astonishingly brilliant 17th century poet and dramatist, this nun, flew through Mexico City on wings of inspiration. Having no dowry, she chose the life of a nun so that she might learn, so that she might write, so that she might meet the most fascinating people of the western world. She accomplished all of that, and more.
One day a woman with violet eyes, eyes the color of passion flowers, entered her life. It was the new Vicereine, Maria Luisa. As the two most powerful women in Mexico City, the bond between them crossed politics and wound them in…
