Fans of Dark Romance Love Dangerous Alpha Males, Just Not In Real Life

With dark fantasies and alien romances becoming increasingly popular, some may wonder if it’s an unhealthy obsession

Romance novels account for 25% of all books sold in the United States alone, according to a 2018 study. In fact during the pandemic, romance novels practically soared and Bridgerton “served as a gateway for more readers to indulge in the romance genre”

A subgenre of romance that is climbing the walls of popularity is Dark Romance.

In Dark Romance, all the dark, kinky, slimy, hedonistic things that fluffy romance veer away from — dark romance stays right there with the dubious content. Even more surprising…women are loving these tales of kidnappings, and occasional knife play.

In a SciFi Romance novel I just finished reading, the antihero/male protagonist, does not ask permission before having sexual relations with the main character and she is confused and satisfied at the same time. Now, one may wonder —

How is this okay?

Well, the context surrounding how they ended up that way, may explain it a little better, but overall these are not yesteryear’s beaus. The men in these books are not perfect. They are not beta. They are not nice.

It is not okay.

Another favorite author I adore, has written a story about a woman who loves being carved up and a handsome man who enjoys doing the carving.

Dark.

Romance.

As popular dark romance author, Ana Huong says: “We love it because it is fiction, and we can critically enjoy it.”

It is no different than watching The Fast and the Furious or a Zombie Apocalypse movie or some other gory horror movie.

We enjoy them because of the thrills, but we are not going to go out of our way to literally chop up people or race cars under trains.

Anyway, I am not that new to dark romance, as I’ve been introduced to some very dramatic novels since V.C. Andrews’ Flowers in the Attic.

However, what is new, is the label warnings I see on Amazon.

Before you purchase a dark romance book, you may see something that looks like this:

This book features emotionally triggering moments, dubcon, BDSM, and improper sexual relations with multiple people…

I’m not kidding!

A reader got triggered and nearly had my favorite author’s book vanish forever because they were “not expecting it to be so dark”.

Dark romance intrigues me and other readers

Let’s be real.

We like the bad guys.

We fall for the villains more than the heroes. I am generalizing, but I think it is a good generalization. Dark romance feature alpha male billionaires, wolves, vamps and more — and we LOVE them. They have edge. They give that uncommon, earth shattering, soul breaking kind of sex — but there is a deeper reason that these archetypes will not translate well to the real world.

Fiction adds sweetness and nuance — the real world does not(usually)

I’ve never read 50 Shades of Grey which is loosely based on the Twilight series. It caught the attention of married and single women alike, and from what I understand, the main guy, Christian Grey is into BDSM and submission or something like that.

In fiction, alpha males are not just strong and have flaws…they actually protect and love their women as they grow. Granted, it is a fictional tale so they mature faster than us real life humans, but they have something to offer besides just darkness. Darkness is the main dish, but there are other sides to these fellas.

For instance, in Elizabeth’s Stephens’ book Taken to Sky, the half cyborg, half Drakesh dragon Jerrock, is an assassin. He knows he wants to kill Ashmara(a reaver Esmiri pirate). He wants her gone, yet the more they fight and survive together, the more he tries to figure her out; we notice endearing things he does for her, until overall they eclipse the darker side of him.

In reality, a guy who wants to kill a woman, or harm her in some ways and finally does it…there isn’t any HEA(Happily Ever After), no growth, no nothing.

Reality is stranger and harsher than fiction.

I don’t hear about real life men being domineering jackasses, abusive, but then wash their partner’s hair, take her out to eat and then spoil her( I’m sure there are outliers to this).

Why Twilight was dangerous but popular

The highly successful hit series, Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, sparked a whole Team Edward, Team Jacob fandom online.

However, I remember when Beth Felker Jones revealed in her book , Touched by a Vampire: Hidden Messages in the Twilight Saga, that teen and tween girls were fawning over a vampire — a dead guy who was possessive and sometimes left Bella alone for months.

Now, having read the entire series myself, I would say some of that is true, but Edward tried to be the wise one and do the right thing. Bella was the one infatuated with becoming a vampire even though members of Edwards family thought it an insane idea.

Overall the message was clear: Our daughters do not need to be fawning over vamps and wolves. Why couldn’t the human boy Mike be chosen?

Well…

Mike was not mysterious🤷🏾‍♀️

Granted there are romances out there about the tragic antihero who is not a beast, but just a human guy. A mysterious guy nonetheless, and therefore it brings a certain level of excitement to a gal’s reading experience.

I would like to balance this discussion by introducing my ironic or dichotomous reading habits.

Although I thoroughly enjoy dark, sizzling romances, I’ve always been a fan of most Christian Romances as well. The men are not overly grouchy usually, they are not beasts, they are not aliens and you can forget about sex scenes.

However, the men are very strong in differing ways, they dote on their partners, and they believe in family. These are manly traits too, and some readers may view them as “beta” , but I wouldn’t say that. Just like every woman is different, every man is different also.

Readers are just looking for a good time between the pages.

That’s it. That’s all.

Thank you for reading!