I used to be a huge romance reader; I still add them to my shelves on the odd occasion, but over the last few years I have noticed a huge increase in the number of people pushing a different type of romance, less rose petals and more razor blades. Yep, Dark Romance is here to stay! While I think that everyone should read what they want, I can’t help wondering about the motives behind it.
Over the last few years, I have seen more and more people posting images on their social media of books with somewhat random covers, whether that’s skull masks, motorcycle helmets, or hockey sticks and parts of uniforms. They look harmless enough, but then you start reading the gushing 4- and 5-star reviews…and wonder what alternate dimension you’ve stepped into.
As I’ve already mentioned, I am not going to yuck anyone else’s yum, because reading is reading; but some of these stories perplex me.
In July, encouraged by so many incredible reviews, I picked up a series of books that, honestly, I am still struggling to process. They were sold to me as Dark Romance, which, according to The Romance Genre Specialist:
Gets its name from the content of the books within it, which often explore darker themes, like abuse, captivity, and dubious consent. Dark romances don’t pull punches, either; many put trauma and suffering on the page. This is a change from the way trauma used to be handled in romance, when it was part of a character’s backstory and might have been hinted at or even mentioned in passing, but wasn’t really confronted.
As a victim of DV and having had a stalker back in my early 20s, I don’t understand how anyone can consider this particular behaviour romantic, yet here we are!
The books in question were the first four in The Pucking Wrong series by C.R. Jane. I have seen so many bookstagrammers I respect promoting these books as ‘the best thing ever’ that I don’t know if I’m coming or going.
The author acknowledges that these men are walking red flags, and still girls are lapping it up! Is the fantasy that they can control these men, potentially tame them? Or is it that they like the idea of a little darkness in their MMCs and therefore someone who is very much ‘touch her and die’ is acceptable, especially if he’s muscular, sporty, wealthy and apparently has a very large appendage?
Now, I’m not going to say that this sort of fiction doesn’t have its place, because it does…but setting it in the real world, not fantasy or science fiction, seems a little too close for comfort (for me).
In The Pucking Wrong series, our lead characters are ice hockey players; they’re all handsome, wealthy, and scarily obsessive. I say scarily because when you list their ‘transgressions’, which are apparently romantic, they sound more like crimes someone would be up in front of a judge for! But apparently this is important in the Dark Romance genre; our heroes need to be morally grey (but morally grey and completely immoral are totally different things).
Lincoln Daniels is less walking red flag and more running night terrors, unless you’re attracted to the idea of someone getting your name tattooed on a very sensitive length of flesh. But his weirdness doesn’t stop there. In quick succession, he ensures that Monroe, the object of his affections, is:
- Homeless
- Jobless
- Penniless
- 100% under his control
- At one point, he also imprisons her, literally!
Quick question here: is this actually turning women on? I get, honestly, I do, the idea of giving up all control and being at someone’s mercy, but the rest of it is actually terrifying. I am not averse to the concept (and practice) of being tied up, but knowing that this guy is tying her up to prevent her from leaving when she discovers he’s not who she thought he was…yeah, big fat no there!
From there, the series grows even more unsettling. In Ari Lancaster, we have someone who didn’t have the perfect ‘golden boy’ past. He grew up in a children’s home and only because of his skill with a stick and a puck earned a scholarship to an elite private school. So far, so sane…right?
Wrong! He sees a girl he once knew on a billboard and upends his entire life in order to get close to her. Blake is a model, but once she was Layla, a girl in the same home that Ari grew up in. Now she’s the adopted daughter of ‘wealthy’ socialites who apparently treat her like rubbish when they’re not posing for the camera.
Blake and Ari are…well, instantly attracted, but he’s doing everything he can to manipulate her, including ensuring that her boyfriend is unable to reach her. When she thinks she’s messaging him, she’s actually messaging Ari because he took her phone and switched out a few things while also putting spyware on it!
He doesn’t go as far as Lincoln, yet he is just as unstable. I am guessing this isn’t an ice hockey thing, yes?
Walker Davis (undeserved nickname ‘Disney’) falls in love with Olivia at first sight. Olivia, like the other girls in this series, has had a traumatic upbringing. Used by her mother to get money, physically abused by her manager when she refused to perform, she’s had it tough since those who should care for her decided to place her under conservatorship because she wanted a break from the stage!
Anyway, he sees her and decides that the perfect way to woo this girl is to get her pregnant. Cue uncomfortable and criminal acts.
Walker disappointed me the most because when he was introduced in book 2, I thought he seemed to be the most level-headed. I was very, very wrong!
- He pokes holes in condoms
- Manipulates and lies to her
- Blackmails the only family who cares about her
Just those things alone are enough, but he also messes with her contraception (which many women know is not just to stop you getting pregnant)…
And then we get to Camden. He should know better; he’s been around the block, a seasoned older player on the team; he seems to have things together until he sees ballet dancer Anastasia for the first time.
He proceeds to trap her, manipulates her, lies to her, uses her fears to gain her trust, gets her thrown out of the homeless shelter where she’s been living, and all the while is playing ‘supportive boyfriend’.
All of these men have issues, and I didn’t really touch on the piercings, tattoos and more that had me both wincing for them and giving the descriptions the side-eye because they border on the psychotic and the ridiculous.
The biggest problem with these books, for me, believe it or not, wasn’t the men. Yes, they need help and a long prison sentence, but that wasn’t really the issue.
The women seem to have transformed from logical, strong, and independent thinking adults into simpering fools who laugh and joke as another essentially brain-washed idiot is forced (not quite kicking and screaming) into their enclave.
Each of these women has a job, an identity and has been through things, yet when these obsessive and disturbed men woo them in their peculiar and criminal way, it’s as though they lose all sense of self. At one point, when Anastasia is introduced to Monroe, Blake and Olivia on a private jet (why not), they’re joking about how their men love them so much they are super protective.
For me, as a reader, I love balance. Whether that’s when I am talking about my opinion of a book on the podcast, or reading something. I love a character with multiple shades of grey; they’re faceted, interesting, human! This series of books in particular (as this is honestly my only experience of the subgenre that is Dark Romance) seems to lack that balance.
Try as I might, I can’t help but notice that there are really only two types of characters in these novels (though there are three in this list, two of these are basically the same, just sold differently).
The anti-hero – he’s our obsessive, possessive, criminally-minded, handsome, wealthy love interest
The innocent heroine – she’s had a hard life, abused, penniless, talented, lonely, a victim waiting to happen
Everyone else (including: parents, friends, colleagues, siblings, adoptive siblings, teachers, employers) – they’re all evil, mean, cruel, crooked, criminal, abusive, violent, mentally unstable.
There is no balance, no grey scale here. Every character is either good or bad, with nothing in between to show humanity. We don’t see kindness for no reason. The perfect example of this has to be in the final of the four traditionally published books in the series, The Pucking Wrong Man.
Anastasia’s mother left when she was young; her father then broke her leg so badly he was sentenced to time in jail while she was passed off to a psycho and his parents as a foster child. Said psycho locked her in a cage, tormented and tortured her, took illicit photos of her and all the while his parents were nowhere to be seen, and the foster system abandoned her.
Said psycho child grows up to be even more abusive…Anastasia runs away and lives on the streets, occasionally staying in a homeless shelter while still attending ballet classes (?), and he manages to occasionally drag her back to his family home where he continues to torture her.
The ballet teacher is awful, her dance partner is sexually aggressive, and there is no such thing as friendship…unless you’re one of the ‘girls’ with Monroe, Blake and Olivia.
In this instance, you can see why she’d accept Camden as a hero. However, things take a turn when she realises the manipulation he’s done behind the scenes, and he locks her in his bedroom and leaves…only to come back and take advantage of her (without consent) while she’s asleep.
I get that Dark Romance has its place. What girl hasn’t read about Xaden Riorson, Rhysand, Quicksilver or Ransom and thought ‘yes please’? The big difference here (for me at least) is that they are fantasy men in a fantasy world, not real men in a real world.
Is Dark Romance setting girls up to believe they can change abusive men, or that if they meet someone with an abusive nature it’s because they are a member of the ‘touch her and die’ brigade rather than the ‘do something wrong and you’ll end up with a black eye’ gang?
There are some wonderful men out there who possibly would kill to protect their families, but that doesn’t mean they would go to the unbelievable extremes that Lincoln, Ari, Walker and Camden do. These fictional men are unhinged, and I honestly believe Dark Romance is giving young readers a very unbalanced view of romance.
Okay…so all romance gives an unbalanced view, but better to look at Joe down the road you went to school with and think he might shower you with rose petals and take you for a gourmet meal than seek out Pete from the biker gang who has a reputation for violence, and think that he’s your perfect partner!
Not that there isn’t a chance Joe could also be a bit of a jerk who’s hiding a dark past!
Oh, I give up…set realistic expectations, and if you get yourself into an awful situation, know that there is help out there.
