I was going to make this a list of my favorite dark erotic fiction and/or dark romance novels, but as I perused my Favorites shelf on Goodreads, I realized a lot of the books I’d listed weren’t proper erotica or romance. I thought about making this a list of my favorite novels, instead, but quite a few non-erotic and non-romantic books would have made the list as well. I do plan on making recommendation posts for dark romance and dark erotic fiction down the road, though.
So instead, this list is comprised of books I love that have strong elements of the dark erotic and/or dark romantic, but aren’t explicit or romance-centric enough for me to label the books as “dark romance” or “dark erotica.”
These books are what I describe in my blog post, Defining Genres: Literary, Upmarket, and Commercial Fiction, as “upmarket genre fiction.”
They don’t necessarily have the widespread appeal of your typical upmarket fiction novel, but they tend to be elevated, with exceptional writing, strong, nuanced themes and characters, and a penchant for breaking genre boundaries. Despite that, they have an engaging central plot and are still accessible.
In a nutshell, this list is comprised of smart speculative fiction with strong erotic and/or dark romantic elements. Really, my absolute favorite stuff and what I aim to write.
Anyway, without further delay, here it is.
These books range in their level of explicitness and how much, if any, time they devote to romantic relationships, but they’re all on this list because they’re books that sucked me in from the beginning and left me utterly satisfied. If you also enjoy well-written speculative fiction infused with dark erotic and/or romantic elements, I highly recommend these books.