Disliking Dark Romance Doesn't Redefine It
My books have every component of a romance. Just not in the way you wanted
Why I Don’t Really Write Trigger Warnings (And Why I Probably Never Will)
Some readers come to my books expecting classic romance, safety, or an exact trigger checklist.
I don’t write that. I write serious dark romance in a brutal science fiction world.
Expectation vs. Reality
Recently, I saw a review that said: “This isn’t a romance. I didn’t find any trigger warnings.”
And I thought—that’s interesting.
Because the very first pages of My Wild Pet contain exactly that: a note about tone, content, and intention. A “Dear Reader” section that doesn’t mince words about what you’re getting into. It’s right there at the front of the book. But apparently, for some readers, it doesn’t count unless it’s formatted as a bulleted checklist.
Here’s the truth I’ve learned as a writer: if someone is looking for a checklist, my stories are probably not for them.
The Problem With Trigger Warnings as a Checklist — For Me, Specifically
I want to be clear, other authors use trigger warnings very well, and I have no issue with that. If their writing allows for a clear, honest list of what readers are walking into, that’s a great tool.
But my books can’t be reduced to bullet points. I actually tried in My Human Wife, and I quickly realized I couldn’t cover what I actually explore because a lot of it doesn’t sit squarely in categories or isolated actions. The darkness in my books is continuous. It’s about power, control, coercion, survival, and the strange and uncomfortable ways people sometimes fall in love inside the terror of life.
Here’s a concrete example: it’s not just that Briar bites off a man’s penis in the first chapter of My Wild Pet. A bullet point could cover that. What a bullet point can’t cover is how that act ripples through every interaction that follows, how it shapes who she is, how others treat her, and what it costs her. That’s the actually dark part. And no checklist captures all of that, think of them as microaggressions if you will.
This doesn’t make my books better or worse than dark romance with trigger lists. It’s just me trying to be honest about what I’m writing.
What I Do Tell Readers
I don’t hide what my books are. I make it clear from the very first pages.
In My Wild Pet, I open with: This story you’re holding isn’t easy. It wasn’t easy to write. These aren’t light-hearted worlds, and these characters aren’t heroines waiting to be rescued. They are confused and resistant. Brave in strange and uncomfortable ways. They fight, flinch, submit, survive, and sometimes, they even fall in love with the very thing that first frightened them.
In Their Human Receptionist, I say it even more plainly: Humans exist as currency, entertainment, and property. That’s the premise. That’s the world. That’s the tone.
If you pick up a book about humans being kept as pets by aliens with sex clearly on the cover I assume you already understand you are not entering a safe story. And I always welcome DMs. Anyone who wants to ask me about specific content before reading, I will tell them anything they need to know. That offer has been and still is always open.
However recently, I’ve also added a broad content list on my website for readers coming to Their Human Receptionist from outside the genre. The list can be found here: Their Human Receptionist Broad Triggers
Though I’ll be honest, I don’t think even that fully captures the conditions Eve is forced to endure. Some things have to be lived on the page.
Why I Don’t Write Sanitized Stories
I just can’t promise a sanitized story and I never will.
Because I’m not writing fantasy as escapism. I’m writing stories that ask uncomfortable questions about humanity, morality, the human condition (which I would argue is driven by falling in love and sex) and what we’re capable of. Stories where romance doesn’t arrive cleanly, consent is complicated by power, and connection forms in ways that aren’t easy to categorize or defend. I write about aliens and spaceships, yes, but underneath it, I’m asking: what’s the best we could hope for from first contact? In my world, being taken as a pet might be it. That’s the kind of darkness I’m chasing in my books.
Not Liking Dark Romance Doesn’t Redefine It
You are absolutely allowed to dislike my books. You can rate them one star, two stars, or wish you’d never opened them. That’s your right as a reader.
But saying “this isn’t romance” because it didn’t feel safe, or because it didn’t fit your definition of romance — that’s something different. And honestly, as a romance author, it stings in a specific way.
Because here’s the thing, my books have every component of a romance. There is a central love story. There is emotional development between two people. There is an HEA or HFN. By every structural and genre definition, my books are romance novels. The genre doesn’t require that the journey be comfortable, that the power dynamic be equal, or that you personally root for the couple from page one. It requires that two people find their way to each other and mine do, every time.
What that review is really saying is not, “this isn’t romance.” It’s actually saying, “this is not the kind of romance I wanted.” And those are very different statements. One is a genre classification. The other is a personal preference. Conflating the two and leaving a public review that declares a book “not romance” because it made you uncomfortable doesn’t just affect one author. It muddies the waters for an entire genre and for the readers who are actively looking for exactly what I write.
Disliking dark romance doesn’t redefine it. The genre existed before that reader picked up my book, and it will exist after.
So, Who Are My Books For?
My books are mostly for readers who already know what they’re getting into. Readers who understand that when an alien takes a human as a sex pet, by default, it’s going to be dark, dirty, and uncomfortable. They don’t need a checklist because the premise is the warning.
More than anything, my readers share one understanding: love can happen in the most awful circumstances — human history is testimony to that. What matters is that two people still choose each other at the end, despite everything. That’s the story I keep telling, in different ways, across every book.
Final Thoughts
I’m not trying to make everyone comfortable. I’m not saying readers with triggers shouldn’t be cautious — they absolutely should. I’m just saying, I’ve been honest about what I write. I welcome the conversation. But I won’t pretend my kind of darkness fits neatly into a checkbox, because human behavior doesn’t fit into a checkbox.
My books aren’t for everyone. And I’m genuinely okay with that. I’d rather have readers who get what I’m doing than readers who wish I wrote something different.
If you want something dark that makes you think about the human condition with aliens, spaceships, and the unsettling question of what’s really out there, welcome to the Imperial Cage.
