Hellur, it's me the smut writer. I'm writing this one to talk about my last chapter and also introduce the next one.
"Hate to Love You" was Dark Romance themed with a morally gray character. I don't know if you guys liked it since I only got a few votes and one comment but I'm going to assume you did. I wish you guys could interact more but I love you anyway my lovely snubs.
For my next chapter, I wanted to stay in the theme so I thought maybe you could give me your preferences in this genre. Not sure this is going to happen since you don't interact so I'm going to give mine.
If you go on my profile you'll see that I've been on this app for a while. The first genre I was introduced to was Dark Romance and smut if yk yk. I had the mafia men, the kidnappers, the gangsters, the criminals, the psychos, etc. I tried the same genre from Booktok and if anything they just encouraged me to stop reading and ban the Booktok community from my feed.
Why? You would ask.
There's a line between consensual and non-consensual stuff and the Dark Romance genre stands on tightrope in between. IN MY OPINION (read that again), a good dark romance is one where the Bad guy is unapologetically bad and the love interest is a constant conflict of why she wants him in a way that she shouldn't well because he's bad. It needs to be shown that even if she doesn't verbally agree consent is shown by body language and the absence of serious resistance. And the guy doesn't give her room to show restraint in front of what he knows she wants (him) and pushes until she admits that she does and lets go of that restraint even if it's only for a moment.
Now when I say consent is shown by body language and the absence of serious resistance in my ideal Dark Romance it's proof of arousal:
-heavy breathing
-goosebumps
-shivers
-wetness/hardness
-moans of pleasure
-etc
She is turned on but hates herself for it but most important of all, the bad guy has sought explicit or inexplicit consent for example "Say you want me", "You haven't pushed me yet", "Tell me to stop or say stop and I will", "If you don't want me why do you look so flushed or why are you so wet". His obsession is fascination, not creepiness and it's shown in a non-ambiguous way that she likes the attention but shows restraint because it's unethical, uncommon, dangerous (in a non-harmful way), etc.
That tightrope is crossed FOR ME (read that again) when it's clear that the guy is hunting the girl. She runs, says no, calls the police, fights him, hits him, cries, etc. and he just keeps forcing himself on her because he wants her and wants to make her want him too. It's like he builds an invisible cage around her until she has no choice but to choose him. To get what I'm saying think of your favorite Dark Romance and ask yourself "Is she with him because she does not want to walk away despite how dangerous he is or is she with him because it would be unsafe for her to do so?".
To sum up TO ME (read that again) the perfect dynamic for a Dark Romance should be [I want you and I know you want me too so stop fighting it and give in] and not [I want you and I will give you no choice but make you want me back whether you like it or not].
IFFF you want to say that my last chapter does not check all those boxes I will say you are right. Dark Romance is hard to write when you want to avoid crossing the line, just like I said earlier it's a tightrope.
But I still think "Hate to Love You" passes according to my standards first of all the story is written from Oliver's POV (the MC) which means you don't know what Vicky is thinking.
He gives Victoria more than enough space for five year despite being madly in love with her, he's fascinated by her, he acknowledged that his way of loving is not right, he knew it was insane to go in her room in the middle of the night in and kiss her like that, he knew that she was mad but not indifferent which lead him to tempt his luck and test his theory.
Despite wanting her he seeks her pleasure on top of everything (don't take the "please stop" out of context the lady has sensitive nipples) she gives in at some point and it's clear that she is aroused. See how he asks for verbal consent to go further and walk away when he doesn't get it? Very mindful, very demure.
Anything else is added to show the toxicity and give context. No creepy MF around here.
So that's all I have to say. I don't know if you guys will read this and interact but anyway, I just wanted to share my opinion.
Stay wet, byeee✨️
