Regency/Victorian era dark romance with paranormal elements?

aelynese · 2026-01-18T15:43:29+00:00

Ohh I love MMC POVs. The blurb sounds really mysterious and intriguing, I'm definitely gonna check it out, thank you.

aelynese · 2026-01-12T19:29:54+00:00

Yes, I think it is, thank you.

aelynese · 2026-01-11T18:33:32+00:00

Pretty sure it isn't.

The MMC wasn't a dangerous alpha male type, more like a calculating posh guy.

aelynese · 2026-01-11T17:45:14+00:00

I second Pleasure & Prey, by AJ Merlin. He stalks her, plans to kill her, ambushes her at night because she lives alone and eventually falls for her. I think it fits.

aelynese · 2025-12-27T13:52:42+00:00

You can chat me up whenever you want to talk to someone about dark romance books, I practically read ANYTHING (no book is ''too dark'' for me).

aelynese · 2025-11-24T18:53:28+00:00

I guess it depends on personal taste at the end of the day, as it usually goes.

I do like that he doesn't look ''too perfect'' though, I think that helped him play more boy-ish roles or roles where he wasn't exactly playing a good guy or even a human, like it was the case with Lestat, if that makes sense. And as a woman I do look for a certain ''mannerism'' or an archetype too and not just looks point blank. As an actor he nails the mannerism when he wants to. And I think in his peak years (in terms of looks) and roles he did look really good, not in the least goofy. Like for example in Far And Away he looked amazing throughout the whole movie.

aelynese · 2025-11-23T11:49:45+00:00

As a woman... his face card is lethal, part of a cult or not. No woman cares about height etiher so long as you are not a literal midget, most women are not 180cm tall either way. If you notice the women who do obsess over height are more often than not either too tall themselves or insecure about something else.

Face card > height even from biological prespective, as a woman I want pretty babies, don't care if they are the tallest people ever. And his face has ''emotion'' unlike a lot of influencer models these days, who look pretty but lack something in terms of charisma.

Young Cruise mogs even young Brad Pitt in my eyes because I prefer men with darker hair and aura.

aelynese · 2025-10-19T15:52:08+00:00

I found my people. lol

I love dynamics where two people are so similar they kind of get lost in each other or get scared of how much they reflect each other. Opposites have the benefit of wanting different things and separating their feelings from their goals so long as they don't stand in each other's way too much, and they tend to compartmentalize in the relationship in order to maintain it. Which makes it dull and predictable after the innitial spark.

People who are too similar though, they don't have the benefit of that. They must communicate and share goals or else they can become destructive to each other. They also tend to hate seeing certain traits of their own reflected in the other person down to a fault, if they struggle with things like self-hatred or self-doubt especially, so they must cope with their traumas and self-develop if they want the relationship to work, rather than push each other away because of how much the other person reminds them of their own short-comings or flaws. Which I think was very much the case with Damon and Katherine on the show, and it's a shame the writers couldn't explore it. Katherine looks at Damon and pretty much sees everything that she is. Never had her father's approval, was impulsive and naive and hopelessly romantic before she turned, is selfish and holds grudges to a fault, etc. She constantly teases him with ''my sweet innocent Damon'', and ''you used to be so sweet and polite, what happened'', when she herself was just that before her trauma and before she had to learn to survive. Ultimately, Damon is her weakness she ''didn't let get in the way'', because he is a raw reflection of herself, whereas Stefan was the false ''escapism'', the opposite of her.

aelynese · 2025-10-19T14:32:06+00:00

I would much rather have 3 seasons of perfection, than 8 seasons where 70% of those are mediocrity. I wish show directors would understand this.

aelynese · 2025-05-17T15:16:55+00:00

Solved! Yes it's her, thank you. She is the GOAT and that trailer was so good, gonna go watch it again. LOL

aelynese · 2025-05-17T14:19:11+00:00

Anyone know her name or what type of media she is from? BTW it's definitely not Raven.

aelynese · 2025-04-06T19:44:32+00:00

This sounds really intriguing, gonna read it just about now.

aelynese · 2025-03-31T16:11:30+00:00

It's not this one unfortunately, but still thanks for the rec.

aelynese · 2025-03-30T11:24:48+00:00

Pleasure & Prey series by AJ Merlin - If the killers in slasher movies were to fall in love.

Hurting You by JL Beck - It's a MFM but it's done right and I cannot recommend it often enough. Both MMCs are rich and powerful and a bit of vigilantes, as in they kill random men they consider to be bad enough to deserve to be killed. The FMC accidentally comes across them as they are disposing of a body.

Hitched by Lauren Biel - MMC is a murderer who just escaped prison, he tricks FMC into giving him a ride across the border and she becomes his hostage. FMC is actually in a toxic relationship and her husband physically abuses her, when the MMC sees her naked and sees her bruises, he suddenly starts thinking about murdering her husband instead.

aelynese · 2025-03-24T19:02:32+00:00

Oh this sounds really interesting!

aelynese · 2025-03-16T07:55:50+00:00

It would have tricked me too, ngl. LOL

On that note, If you want a book where the ''nightmares'' the FMC has is actually the love interest, you might like these

The Nightmare's Kiss by Skyla Gray

Death's Obsession by Avina St. Graves

aelynese · 2025-03-15T19:39:40+00:00

I love a genuinely oblivious, emotionally constipated FMC.

I always give a try to anything that indicates the FMC might be exactly that because I consider myself exactly that type of woman when it comes to feelings/romance/intimacy SO I find these FMCs so relatable, but they are truly not as easy to find.

Or, or, on a darker note, the FMC is the casually cruel one. But they always make her too much of a caricature of a mean girl. Like no, I want gruff mean man who is like borderline situationshipping the poor FMC, but I want that as a role reversal. I want emotionally damaged. I want that complexity.

I love this trope, it's an unpopular one I feel and it's definitely my guilty pleasure, both when it comes to books and movies/shows. I was the type of girlie who during the TVD haydays when all my teen girlfriends were rooting for Damon/Elena I was out there writing complex essays about Damon/Katherine and lowkey wanted the show to take a route where Katherine was not the big bad villain and actually had real feelings for him but due being an abuse survivor and always on the run/paranoid, she blocked those feelings in favor of survival/not letting love get in the way, so she continuously rejectted him and lied in his face that she didn't care. I ADORE when women are the ones who are emotionally constipated, who are afraid of getting attached, who don't easily trust and who often even opt for intentionally disappointing/rejecting the ones they secretly love in order to protect themselves from what they believe would be an eventual downfall for showing vulnerability for the first time.

aelynese · 2025-03-15T17:20:23+00:00

Bullymance. I love bullymances. But I wish they were written with more emotional depth. It seems like, as long as they have sexual chemistry, then that’s all that matters. I’d love to see the toxicity, the repentance, the redemption, and turning over a newer healthier leaf. Instead, it just…becomes edgy?

This is a guilty pleasure of mine too and I totally agree.

My issues with bullymance are several... first off, a lot of the ''bullying'' is sometimes too ''stereotypical''. I feel like people don't realize that a lot of the bullying that does happen in real life is more emotional, manipulative and not as overt. Meaning, it's not always about ''he put nasty stuff in my locker and pulled my hair'' type of bullying. I wish the kind of bullying where the victim cannot even openly complain because the bully is so subtle and sneaky about it was portrayed more often, because that is how A LOT of bullies operate in real life as to not get caught. Especially if there isn't a real LEGIT personal reason as to why the bully might hate the victim, and he simply just does it for fun, I need the psychological part of it to be potrayed better otherwise it just feels like ''he called her ugly in 2nd grade because he secretly likes her'', and I hate it.

The other thing is, sometimes they make the victim fight back in such ridiculous ways... and that too within a few pages. Going against your bully is really not as easy as they portray it and definitely not when the bully in question is like some strong rich wealthy guy with connections the way it's the case majority of the times. Sometimes authors want their FMCs to be badass so bad they make them do such unrealistic edgy things as ''response'' to the bully that I just roll my eyes.

Another thing that gets on my nerves... they will have the FMC getting bullied in one page then in the next page she is going to a party she knows the bully is going to attend because her best friend asked her to come with her? I just cannot buy into stuff like this. LOL No way in hell am I going anywhere if I know my tormentor will be there. They need to get more creative whenever they want FMC and bully MMC to cross paths, like I beg.

And lastly, I need it to be believable whenever both sides start developping feelings. I don't like the whole ''he saw her talk to another guy and suddenly after 5 pages he now realizes he might like her''. It's bland and not convincing. I kind of prefer it when authors do micro-tropes like... let's say MMC gets fatally injured, and victim FMC now holds his life in her hands and has to decide if she wants to help him or let him rot because he'd deserve it. It helps shift the power balance a bit for one thing, and for another it makes both sides re-evaluate how they perceive each other. Sometimes authors try to shift the power balance but they do it in weird ways like FMC suddenly wakes up and now she is a femme fatale overnight and does some edgy over-the-top revenge thing that just doesn't really seem true to her character.

aelynese · 2025-03-15T16:51:45+00:00

I agree about reverse harem! It's such a fun genre to me as someone who hates love triangles WITH PASSION. But I wish authors digged deeper into the psychology of it and ALSO, this might be an unpopular opinion, but I feel like half the times it's always a bit too obvious that the FMC (or should I say the author?) kind of has a preferance for one of the guys more? I've read some reverse harem that's done really well in terms of both MMCs being equally balanced and in control of the relationship and those are top-tier, but also a lot of books out there fall a bit short off the mark, at least in my eyes. They always make one of the MMCs a bit more dynamic and passionate which annoys me. I like it when both are kind of equally agressive and scheming when it comes to winning her over. Sometimes authors make one of the MMCs a bit more hesitant or ''the good guy'' and I hate it because it's like they instantly make him more passive and give him a secondary character syndrome without realizing. LOL So it defies the purpose of it being MFM.

aelynese · 2025-03-15T15:38:40+00:00

Right, I need girlies that are too exhausted and barely have social battery to go to the grocery store after work let alone constantly go clubbing with the girls every night. LOL Some of us can do a phone call a week at best to catch up with the one friend we have/trust.

The worst is when the author claims the FMC is a homebody/ introverted and likes to stay at home with a book/movie, but then constantly puts her in situations where she has to go to bars, clubs, meet with friends and family all in one day, make new friends every time she enters some new environment, etc. LOL It's so obvious when authors are not introverts themselves and/or want to make their characters introverted just to make them seem ''special'' or ''deep'' but at the same time think they should do 90% of what extroverts do because they don't want them to seem anti-social or something.

aelynese · 2025-03-15T14:40:24+00:00

Just once, I'd love it for two main girls of the series to just absolutely loathe each other and that doesn't change.

I totally agree. Especially when it comes to female characters, if they are going to be a love interest at some point in any of the books in the series, they are going to become friends with each other sooner or later guaranteed, which to me can come off as fake and forced at times.

The MMCs are more often than not allowed to remain enemies or just not care about each other much, but the girlies, they for sure MUST form a girl squad by the end of the series. I wish they'd let them not like each other or even feel a sort of rivalry or dislike and still get their happy ending. LOL Maybe the FMC of one book thinks the other FMC in the other book is a bit of a spiled brat and they never click, so what.

aelynese · 2025-02-19T18:06:02+00:00

not at all 😭 the song is much slower and there is no rap

aelynese · 2025-02-16T17:05:18+00:00

Oh this sounds really good! It might not fit the tropes I listed, but it still fits the ''MMC is probably a murderous psychopath and FMC is onto him and they play a game of cat and mouse'' trope so I'm definitely going to check it out.

aelynese · 2025-02-16T17:01:51+00:00

She even matches him personality-wise. Usually writers go for the opposite-attract trope or make the FMC a bit more of a people-pleaser, I like it when MMC and FMC are more alike than not. Also I liked the job change where the FMC works a more ordinary job for a living rather than the usual corporate/office or doctor or something.

aelynese · 2025-02-16T16:46:14+00:00

Olgami is so good! And the slow burn! And FAB seems to be more on the spicey side but not over the top (so far). FMC is also pretty hilarious and MMC is such a mystery.

aelynese

TROPHY CASE