{"canonical":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/tropes/dark-romance","locale":"en","author":"Anna Zaires","type":"trope","modified":null,"data":{"label":"Dark Romance","slug":"dark-romance","pitch":"Anna Zaires writes romance with Dark Romance: The X-Club, Capture Me, Bind Me.","works":[{"title":"The X-Club","author":"Anna Zaires","canonical":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/the-x-club","year":null,"heat":5,"seriesTitle":null,"seriesOrder":0.5,"tropes":["Alien Romance","dangerous-attraction","Dark Romance","dubious-consent","human-alien-attraction","investigative-journalist-heroine","memory-loss","Novella","possessive-alien-hero","power-imbalance","secret-nightclub","undercover-investigation"],"summary":"A Krinar Exposé Prologue\n\nA young journalist. An alien sex club. A Krinar who won’t take no for an answer.\n\nAmy Myers is tired of writing fluff. She wants to work on serious assignments—and what better way to prove herself than to uncover something new about the mysterious Krinar, the aliens who took over the Earth just two years earlier? But when she meets Vair, the dark and sexy owner of a Manhattan x-club, she may get more than she bargained for…\n\nThe X-Club is a novelette/short story of approximately 10,000 words, set in the world of the Krinar Chronicles about three years before Mia & Korum’s trilogy. This erotic story serves as the prologue to The Krinar Exposé, a standalone romance novel to be released on November 13, 2018.","isbn":null,"updatedAt":"2026-11-05T23:59:42.368445+00:00"},{"title":"Capture Me","author":"Anna Zaires","canonical":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/capture-me","year":2015,"heat":5,"seriesTitle":"Capture Me","seriesOrder":1,"tropes":["betrayal-and-revenge","Captivity","captor-captive-romance","Dark Romance","Enemies to Lovers","Forced Proximity","hurt-and-comfort","international-espionage-thriller","mission-versus-the-heart","possessive-morally-gray-hero","Spies","spy-romance","trauma-survivor-heroine"],"summary":"She fears him from the first moment she sees him.\n\nYulia Tzakova is no stranger to dangerous men. She grew up with them. She survived them. But when she meets Lucas Kent, she knows the hard ex-soldier may be the most dangerous of them all.\n\nOne night—that’s all it should be. A chance to make up for a failed assignment and get information on Kent’s arms dealer boss. When his plane goes down, it should be the end.\n\nInstead, it’s just the beginning.\n\nHe wants her from the first moment he sees her.\n\nLucas Kent has always liked leggy blondes, and Yulia Tzakova is as beautiful as they come. The Russian interpreter might’ve tried to seduce his boss, but she ends up in Lucas’s bed—and he has every intention of seeing her there again.\n\nThen his plane goes down, and he learns the truth.\n\nShe betrayed him.\n\nNow she will pay.","isbn":null,"updatedAt":"2026-11-06T00:00:19.590938+00:00"},{"title":"Bind Me","author":"Anna Zaires","canonical":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/bind-me","year":2016,"heat":5,"seriesTitle":"Capture Me","seriesOrder":2,"tropes":["Captivity","cat-and-mouse-pursuit","criminal-underworld","Dark Romance","dark-captor-captive-romance","Enemies to Lovers","Forced Proximity","obsessive-jealousy","only-one-bed","possessive-morally-gray-hero","prison-break-and-escape","protective-brother","Spies","spy-thriller-romance","trauma-and-hurt-comfort"],"summary":"He’s determined to break her.\n\nFor Lucas Kent, his new prisoner is a maddening contradiction: compliant yet defiant, fragile yet strong. He needs to uncover her secrets, but doing so may ruin everything.\n\nHis obsession could destroy her.\n\nShe’s determined to escape.\n\nFor Yulia Tzakova, her captor is the man of both her dreams and her nightmares: tender one moment, cruel the next. She can’t let him crack her, but resisting him may leave her broken.\n\nA moment of weakness could cost her everything.","isbn":null,"updatedAt":"2026-11-06T00:00:19.590938+00:00"},{"title":"Claim Me","author":"Anna Zaires","canonical":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/claim-me","year":2016,"heat":5,"seriesTitle":"Capture Me","seriesOrder":3,"tropes":["Captivity","criminal-underworld","Dark Romance","dark-captor-captive-romance","Enemies to Lovers","Forced Proximity","Found Family","hurt-comfort","morally-gray-antihero","obsessive-possessive-hero","protector-romance","revenge-and-retribution","sibling-rescue-and-reconciliation","Spies","spy-romance"],"summary":"She’s on the run.\n\nYulia Tzakova’s freedom comes at a heavy price. Her former captor dominates her dreams, and survival consumes her waking moments. She may have escaped, but she’s far from safe.\n\nIn the shadowy world of spies and betrayal, nothing is what it seems.\n\nHe’s obsessed with getting her back.\n\nLucas Kent’s rage knows no bounds. The danger of his job occupies his days, but hunting down Yulia is what he lives for. When he finds her, she’ll never escape again.\n\nHe’ll do whatever it takes to keep her.","isbn":null,"updatedAt":"2026-11-06T00:00:19.590938+00:00"},{"title":"Sweeter Than Hate","author":"Anna Zaires","canonical":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/sweeter-than-hate","year":2019,"heat":5,"seriesTitle":"Darker Than Love","seriesOrder":0.5,"tropes":["assassin-heroine","captor-and-captive","Dark Romance","Enemies to Lovers","Forced Proximity","international-crime-thriller","morally-gray-assassin-hero","Novella","possessive-hero","second-chance-lovers","secret-identity","twin-rivalry","undercover-operative"],"summary":"Free novella!\n\nI shouldn’t have heard the things I did. Shouldn’t have attracted his attention.\n\nNow I feel his stare like a touch. Viscerally. Acutely.\n\nThe Russian assassin has me in his sights, and there’s only one way out.\n\nHis bed.\n\nGood thing I’m drawn to danger.","isbn":null,"updatedAt":"2026-11-06T00:00:38.07262+00:00"},{"title":"Darker Than Love","author":"Anna Zaires","canonical":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/darker-than-love","year":2020,"heat":5,"seriesTitle":"Darker Than Love","seriesOrder":1,"tropes":["Assassin","captor-captive-romance","Dark Romance","Enemies to Lovers","Forced Proximity","hasty-marriage","morally-gray-assassin-romance","partners-in-crime","possessive-hero","terminal-illness-and-healing","ticking-clock-romance"],"summary":"Once upon a cold, dark night, a Russian killer stole me from an alley.\nI’m dangerous, but he is lethal.\nI escaped once.\nHe won’t let me do it twice.\n\nThe revenge is his.\nThe betrayal is mine.\nBut so are the lies to protect the ones I love.\n\nWe’re cut from the same twisted cloth. Both merciless. Both damaged.\nIn his embrace, I find hell and heaven, his cruelly tender touch destroying and uplifting me at once.\n\nThey say a cat has nine lives, but an assassin has just one.\nAnd Yan Ivanov now owns mine.","isbn":null,"updatedAt":"2026-11-06T00:00:38.07262+00:00"},{"title":"Terrible Beauty","author":"Anna Zaires","canonical":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/terrible-beauty","year":2022,"heat":5,"seriesTitle":"Molotov Betrothal","seriesOrder":1,"tropes":["age-gap-romance","Arranged Marriage","arranged-betrothal","captor-captive-romance","Dark Romance","dark-mafia-romance","Enemies to Lovers","forbidden-attraction","Forced Proximity","Mafia","morally-gray-antihero","obsessive-possessive-hero","rival-crime-families","sacrifice-for-family","secret-heir"],"summary":"A family contract. A dark bargain. No escape.\n\nEleven years ago, I met him. A year later, I was betrothed to him. Now he’s come to claim me, slaughtering anyone standing in his way.\n\nMy husband-to-be is a monster from a family as ruthless and powerful as mine, a man who deals in violence and destruction… a man terrifyingly like my father. For over a decade, he’s stalked me, shadowing my life.\n\nI fear him. I hate him. Worst of all, I want him.\n\nMy name is Alina Molotova, and Alexei Leonov is a fate I can’t escape.","isbn":null,"updatedAt":"2026-11-06T00:00:51.049977+00:00"},{"title":"Beautiful Chains","author":"Anna Zaires","canonical":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/beautiful-chains","year":2023,"heat":5,"seriesTitle":"Molotov Betrothal","seriesOrder":2,"tropes":["Arranged Marriage","captive-bride","Dark Romance","Enemies to Lovers","family-feud","Forced Proximity","forced-marriage","Mafia","mafia-romance","obsessive-stalker-hero","possessive-hero","reproductive-coercion","secret-pregnancy"],"summary":"Alina\n\nAlexei Leonov. My stalker. My captor. And now, my husband.\n\nOn a yacht in the middle of the Pacific, he is the source of and solace from my suffering.\n\nHe will stop at nothing until I’m bound to him in every way. And marriage is only the beginning.\n\nAlexei\n\nFor eleven years, I’ve plotted and waited, consumed with fantasies of what it would be like once Alina Molotova was finally mine.\n\nNow that I have her, my obsession with her is only getting stronger. My plans for her may be ruthless, but I’ll do whatever it takes to chain her to me—mind, body, and heart.\n\nOnly, there’s one thing I didn’t count on. One variable I didn’t plan for.\n\nThe twisted hand of fate.","isbn":null,"updatedAt":"2026-11-06T00:00:51.049977+00:00"},{"title":"Chained Fate","author":"Anna Zaires","canonical":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/chained-fate","year":2025,"heat":5,"seriesTitle":"Molotov Betrothal","seriesOrder":3,"tropes":["Arranged Marriage","arranged-betrothal","captor-and-captive","crime-family-rivalry","Dark Romance","Enemies to Lovers","Forced Proximity","forced-marriage","hurt-comfort-caretaker-romance","Mafia","medical-crisis-and-survival","morally-gray-protector","obsessive-stalker-hero","she-chooses-him"],"summary":"A final war. A fate uncertain. A bond forged in fire.\n\nAlina\n\nMy marriage began as a cage. Now, it may be my only sanctuary.\n\nTo survive, I must rely on the very monster I once feared. With every tender touch, every protective command, the line between love and hate dissolves further.\n\nHe thinks he’s chained me to him. He doesn’t realize… I may be the one who refuses to let go.\n\nAlexei\n\nShe is finally mine. My wife. My obsession.\n\nBut a shadow looms over us, a vicious twist of fate that threatens to tear her away. I would burn down the world for her, but this is a battle I cannot win with violence.\n\nHer brothers think our vows are her prison. They are a promise. One I will defy heaven and hell to keep.","isbn":null,"updatedAt":"2026-11-06T00:00:51.049977+00:00"},{"title":"Devil's Lair","author":"Anna Zaires","canonical":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/devils-lair","year":2021,"heat":5,"seriesTitle":"Molotov Obsession","seriesOrder":1,"tropes":["age-gap-romance","boss-employee-romance","Captivity","Dark Romance","dark-mafia-romance","Forced Proximity","Found Family","Grumpy Sunshine","instant-attraction","live-in-tutor","Mafia","political-conspiracy","possessive-protector-hero","romantic-suspense","secret-child","single-father","unsolved-murder-mystery","woman-on-the-run"],"summary":"Live-in tutor wanted for four-year-old. Must be willing to relocate to a remote mountain estate. $3K/week cash.\n\nOn the run from ruthless killers, I’m down to ten bucks in my wallet and a half-tank of gas in my ancient car when I spot the ad. The job sounds like the answer to my prayers, but there’s a catch.\n\nThe child’s father is the most beautiful, most dangerous man I’ve ever met.\n\nDarkly seductive and filthy rich, Nikolai Molotov is a tantalizing mystery, a lethally alluring contradiction. Bruised knuckles and tailored suits, tender endearments and dirty promises—my new employer draws me in like a magnet, even as my instincts scream for me to run.\n\nI should’ve heeded them… because I’m not the only one with secrets.\n\nMy safe haven just might be the devil’s lair, and once he’s claimed me, it will be too late to run.","isbn":null,"updatedAt":"2026-11-06T00:00:38.07262+00:00"},{"title":"Angel's Cage","author":"Anna Zaires","canonical":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/angels-cage","year":2021,"heat":5,"seriesTitle":"Molotov Obsession","seriesOrder":2,"tropes":["captive-and-captor","Captivity","Dark Romance","dark-mafia-romance","Fated Mates","Forced Proximity","forced-marriage","hurt-comfort","Mafia","morally-gray-hero","possessive-protector-hero","rival-family-feud","secret-parentage","villainous-biological-father"],"summary":"Back in the devil’s lair, I’m at the mercy of a man who fascinates and terrifies me, a tender killer whose obsession with me is growing by the day. Nikolai Molotov is as much my captor as he is my protector, his compound both my safe haven and my gilded cage.\n\nIf only I could resist his lethally seductive touch… or fight his growing hold on my heart and mind. Because no matter how far I delve into the enigma of his past, I still don’t know the answer to the most crucial question:\n\nJust how dangerous is his love for me?\n\nNote: This is the conclusion of Nikolai and Chloe’s story.","isbn":null,"updatedAt":"2026-11-06T00:00:51.049977+00:00"},{"title":"Tormentor Mine","author":"Anna Zaires","canonical":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/tormentor-mine","year":2017,"heat":5,"seriesTitle":"Tormentor Mine","seriesOrder":1,"tropes":["Antihero","Assassin","captor-and-captive","Dark Romance","Enemies to Lovers","Forced Proximity","grief-stricken-widow","morally-gray-assassin-hero","obsessive-and-possessive-hero","Revenge","revenge-driven-hero","secret-agent-spouse","stalker-romance"],"summary":"He came to me in the night, a cruel, darkly handsome stranger from the most dangerous corners of Russia. He tormented me and destroyed me, ripping apart my world in his quest for vengeance.\n\nNow he’s back, but he’s no longer after my secrets.\n\nThe man who stars in my nightmares wants me.","isbn":null,"updatedAt":"2026-11-06T00:00:19.590938+00:00"},{"title":"Obsession Mine","author":"Anna Zaires","canonical":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/obsession-mine","year":2017,"heat":5,"seriesTitle":"Tormentor Mine","seriesOrder":2,"tropes":["Antihero","Assassin","Dark Romance","dark-captor-captive-romance","enemies-to-lovers-tension","Forced Proximity","kidnapping-and-international-pursuit","morally-gray-assassin-hero","obsessive-possessive-antihero","protective-criminal-found-family","Revenge"],"summary":"I stole her in the night. Caged her because I can’t live without her. She’s my love, my addiction, my obsession.\n\nI will do anything to keep Sara mine.","isbn":null,"updatedAt":"2026-11-06T00:00:19.590938+00:00"},{"title":"Destiny Mine","author":"Anna Zaires","canonical":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/destiny-mine","year":2018,"heat":5,"seriesTitle":"Tormentor Mine","seriesOrder":3,"tropes":["Antihero","Assassin","assassin-and-civilian-romance","Dark Romance","dark-captor-captive-romance","Enemies to Lovers","Forced Proximity","forced-separation-and-pining","found-family-mercenary-team","morally-gray-possessive-hero","pregnancy-scare","protector-romance","Revenge","second-chance-reunion","whirlwind-marriage"],"summary":"Fate made us enemies. I made us lovers.\n\nIn a different world, we were meant for each other.\n\nThis is not that world.","isbn":null,"updatedAt":"2026-11-06T00:00:19.590938+00:00"},{"title":"Forever Mine","author":"Anna Zaires","canonical":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/forever-mine","year":2019,"heat":5,"seriesTitle":"Tormentor Mine","seriesOrder":4,"tropes":["Antihero","Assassin","captor-to-lover","conspiracy-and-false-accusation","Dark Romance","Enemies to Lovers","Forced Proximity","Found Family","hurt-comfort","marriage-and-newlywed-romance","morally-gray-criminal-hero","possessive-protector-hero","pregnancy-and-protective-parenthood","Revenge"],"summary":"I fought against fate, and I won. I made a deal with the devil to keep her.\n\nIt was supposed to be over. We were meant to be happy.\n\nToo bad my enemies had other plans.\n\nNote: This is the conclusion of Peter & Sara’s story. It is strongly recommended that you read the Twist Me and Capture Me trilogies before embarking on this book, as there will be major spoilers for those series.","isbn":null,"updatedAt":"2026-11-06T00:00:38.07262+00:00"},{"title":"Twist Me","author":"Anna Zaires","canonical":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/twist-me","year":2014,"heat":5,"seriesTitle":"Twist Me","seriesOrder":1,"tropes":["age-gap-romance","Antihero","Captivity","Dark Romance","dark-captor-captive-romance","faked-death-and-reunion","forbidden-all-consuming-love","Forced Proximity","hostage-rescue-mission","hurt-comfort","look-alike-obsession","morally-gray-criminal-hero","obsessive-possessive-hero","private-island-captivity","trauma-bonding"],"summary":"Kidnapped. Taken to a private island.\n\nI never thought this could happen to me. I never imagined one chance meeting on the eve of my eighteenth birthday could change my life so completely.\n\nNow I belong to him. To Julian. To a man who is as ruthless as he is beautiful—a man whose touch makes me burn. A man whose tenderness I find more devastating than his cruelty.\n\nMy captor is an enigma. I don’t know who he is or why he took me. There is a darkness inside him — a darkness that scares me even as it draws me in.\n\nMy name is Nora Leston, and this is my story.","isbn":null,"updatedAt":"2026-11-05T23:59:42.368445+00:00"},{"title":"Keep Me","author":"Anna Zaires","canonical":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/keep-me","year":2014,"heat":5,"seriesTitle":"Twist Me","seriesOrder":2,"tropes":["Antihero","Captivity","criminal-underworld-romance","Dark Romance","dark-captor-captive-romance","Forced Proximity","forced-marriage","gilded-cage","hurt-comfort","morally-gray-villain-hero","possessive-protector-hero","revenge-and-rescue-mission","trauma-bond","woman-warrior-heroine","wounded-warrior"],"summary":"Abducted at eighteen. Held captive for 15 months.\n\nIt reads like one of those headlines. And yes, I did it. I stole her. Nora, with her long dark hair and silky skin. She’s my weakness, my obsession.\n\nI’m not a good man. I never pretended to be one. She can love me, but she can’t change me.\n\nI can, however, change her.\n\nMy name is Julian Esguerra, and Nora is mine to keep.","isbn":null,"updatedAt":"2026-11-06T00:00:19.590938+00:00"},{"title":"Hold Me","author":"Anna Zaires","canonical":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/hold-me","year":2015,"heat":5,"seriesTitle":"Twist Me","seriesOrder":3,"tropes":["Antihero","bdsm-power-exchange","Captivity","Dark Romance","dark-captor-captive-romance","Forced Proximity","found-family-under-threat","hurt-comfort","morally-gray-heroine","possessive-morally-gray-hero","trauma-bonded-couple"],"summary":"Captor and captive. Lovers. Soulmates.\n\nWe’re all that and more.\n\nWe thought we were past the worst of it. We thought we finally had a chance.\n\nWe thought wrong.\n\nWe’re Nora and Julian, and this is our story.","isbn":null,"updatedAt":"2026-11-06T00:00:19.590938+00:00"},{"title":"White Nights","author":"Anna Zaires","canonical":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/white-nights","year":2014,"heat":5,"seriesTitle":"White Nights","seriesOrder":1,"tropes":["age-gap-romance","arranged-marriage-rival","assassination-plot","billionaire-oligarch-romance","Captivity","class-divide-romance","Dark Romance","Forced Proximity","instalust","morally-gray-possessive-hero","nurse-and-powerful-hero","romantic-suspense","whirlwind-romance"],"summary":"Power. That’s what I think of when I spot him across the ER. Power and danger.\n\nOne of the wealthiest Russian oligarchs, Alex Volkov is as ruthless as he is magnetic. He always gets what he wants, and what he wants is me, in his bed.\n\nHe’s the kind of trouble every woman should run from. The bullet his bodyguard took for him proves that.\n\nI should stay far away, but for one night, I give in to temptation. Before I know it, he’s pulling me deeper into his world of excess and violence, invading not only my life but my heart.\n\nHow much trust can I place in a man so dangerous? How much do I dare risk for his love?","isbn":null,"updatedAt":"2026-11-06T00:00:38.07262+00:00"},{"title":"Midnight Days","author":"Anna Zaires","canonical":"https://books.mozaikallc.com/en/works/anna-zaires/midnight-days","year":2021,"heat":5,"seriesTitle":"White Nights","seriesOrder":2,"tropes":["Captivity","captor-captive-romance","Dark Romance","dark-mafia-romance","enemies-to-lovers-tension","Forced Proximity","high-stakes-assassination-thriller","hurt-comfort","kidnapping-and-rescue","love-confession-under-fire","morally-gray-billionaire-hero","possessive-protector-hero","revenge-and-blood-feud"],"summary":"My instincts warned me that Alex Volkov is a dangerous man. My mind told me to run when he set his sights on me with unfaltering determination. It’s not that I didn’t try to resist, but Alex had a game plan. He was always one step ahead of me, skillfully drawing me deeper into his web. Even when he gave me freedom, it was only an illusion.\n\nNow, even that illusion has vanished. I’m his prisoner in the truest sense of the word, whisked away to Russia on his private plane. I no longer have a say, not while our lives are at risk, and maybe never again. Our story balances on a thin edge between disaster and happiness. With each day that passes, I grow less certain of which side the coin will land on… or if we’ll even survive.\n\nNote: This is the conclusion of Alex and Kate’s story.","isbn":null,"updatedAt":"2026-11-06T00:00:38.07262+00:00"}]}}