10 Gritty romances that’ll keep you on the edge of your seat

Let’s face it. Romance readers are complicated creatures. Sometimes we want a nice, easy, sweet romance, and other times we want a gritty, edgy read that might even make us a little uncomfortable and push us past our normal boundaries. So for those of you looking for a little grit in your romance (and I don’t mean heroes who haven’t bathed, because, ew), here are our top picks that are guaranteed to keep you on the edge of your favorite reading chair:

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Tight
Alessandra Torre

Amazon blurb:
This is not a story of servitude. This is a story of strength.

I was happy in my small town. In my life as a single, thirty-two year old woman. I had a good job, wonderful friends, my independence.

I also hadn't got laid in three years. Hadn't been on a date in two. Had stopped counting calories and wearing makeup... a while ago.

Then Brett Jacobs waltzed in. Caressed my thigh, dug rough fingers into my hair, lowered his soft mouth to my skin, took sexual control of my mind and stirred it all around with what he packed in his pants. He flipped my quiet life upside down and crawled into a place in my heart I thought was dead.

The issue is his secret.
The issue is her.
The issue is that I don't even know she exists, and he thinks she's dead.
The issue is that shit is about to hit the fan and I can't hold on to him tight enough.

Note to Readers: This standalone book contains themes which could be considered dark.

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In the Stillness
Andrea Randall

Amazon blurb:
Natalie is a wife.
Natalie is a mother.
Natalie is a cutter.

Clawing at walls built by resentment, regret, and guilt, Natalie cuts as an escape from a life she never planned.

Staying present is only possible when you let go of the past. But, what if the past won't let go of you?

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Split
JB Salsbury

Amazon blurb:
What do you do when you wake up with no memory of what you did last night?

Lucas spent the first half of his life protecting himself from others, but now his own mind is his biggest enemy. He doesn't know what happens when the blackouts overtake him, but he can recall the feelings—the rage, the confusion, the fear. Thankfully the quiet life he's found in Payson, Arizona has kept the darkness at bay. Until his boss's estranged daughter shows up in town, asking questions she shouldn't and sparking a desire Lucas can't control. Getting close to Shyann is the best thing that's ever happened to him, but when his blackouts return, unleashing the truth he's battled so long to hide, he may just lose her forever . . .

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Deliver
Pam Godwin

Amazon blurb:
His name was Joshua Carter. Now it's whatever she wants it to be.

She is a Deliverer.

She lures young men and delivers them to be sold. She delivers the strikes that enforce their obedience. She delivers the sexual training that determines their purchase price.

As long as she delivers, the arrangement that protects her family will hold.

Delivering is all she knows.

The one thing she can't deliver is a captive from slavery.

Until him.

And her stubborn slave thinks he can deliver her...from herself.

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Finding Home
Lauren Baker & Bonnie Dee

Amazon blurb:
Forbidden passion blooms on the gritty street.

Copy editor Megan works to make her journalistic dreams come true, but her piece on homeless teens brings unexpected consequences. A hustler with the street name Mouth rocks her to the core with his sad story, world weary air, and overwhelming magnetism.

Mouth aka Sean has dreams of his own, big plans to rise above his circumstances and forge a real career. When he’s beaten and his hard-earned savings stolen, he accepts Megan’s offer of a place to stay for a while.

A passionate affair is the last thing either intends. The power dynamic is wrong, the gap in their ages is wrong, and yet sexual attraction crackles between them like a slow burning fuse. 

When it finally explodes the impossible relationship exposes Megan to criticism from all sides. Meanwhile, Sean’s inner turmoil reaches a boiling point of its own as he doubts his worth and wonders if he’s being used yet again.

Can real love grow from such a beginning or are Megan and Sean fooling themselves that an ill-fated love can last?

Note: Check out our 5-star review of Finding Home. ​​

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Prisoner
Skye Warren & Annika Martin

Amazon blurb:
HE SEETHES WITH RAW POWER THE FIRST TIME I SEE HIM—pure menace and rippling muscles in shackles. He’s dangerous. He’s wild. He’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.

So I hide behind my prim glasses and my book like I always do, because I have secrets, too. Then he shows up in the prison writing class I have to teach and he blows me away with his honesty. He tells me secrets in his stories, and it's getting harder to hide mine. I shiver when he gets too close, with only the cuffs and the bars and the guards holding him back. At night, I can’t stop thinking about him.

But that’s the thing about an animal in a cage—you never know when he’ll bite. He might use you to escape. He might even pull you into a forest and hold a hand over your mouth, so you can’t call for the cops. He might make you come so hard, you can’t think.

​And you might crave him more than your next breath.

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Nine Minutes
Beth Flynn

Amazon blurb:
On May 15, 1975, fifteen-year-old Ginny Lemon is abducted from a convenience store in Fort Lauderdale by a member of one of the most notorious and brutal motorcycle gangs in South Florida.

From that moment on, her life is forever changed. She gets a new name, a new identity and a new life in the midst of the gang’s base on the edge of the Florida Everglades—a frightening, rough and violent world much like the swamps themselves, where everyone has an alias and loyalty is tantamount to survival.

And at the center of it all is the gang’s leader, Grizz: massive, ruggedly handsome, terrifying and somehow, when it comes to Ginny, tender. She becomes his obsession and the one true love of his life.

So begins a tale of emotional obsession and manipulation, of a young woman ripped from everything she knows and forced to lean on the one person who provides attention, affection and care: her captor. Precocious and intelligent, but still very much a teenager, Ginny struggles to adapt to her existence, initially fighting and then coming to terms with her captivity. 

Will she be rescued? Will she escape? Will she get out alive—or get out at all? Part psychological thriller, part coming-of-age novel, filled with mystery, romance and unexpected turns, Nine Minutes takes readers into the world of one motorcycle gang and inside the heart of a young girl, whose abduction brought about its fall.

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Sick Fux
Tillie Cole

Amazon blurb:
When Ellis Earnshaw and Heathan James met as children, they couldn’t have been more different. Ellis was loud and beautiful – all blond hair, bright laughs and smiles. Heathan was dark and brooding, and obsessed with watching things die.
The pair forged an unlikely friendship, unique and strange. Until they were ripped apart by the sick cruelty of others, separated for years, both locked in a perpetual hell.
Eleven years later, Heathan is back for his girl. Back from a place from which he thought there was no return. Back to seek revenge on those who wronged them.
Time has made Heathan’s soul darker, polluted with hatred and the thirst for blood.
Time has made Ellis a shell of her former self, a little girl lost in the vastness of her pain.

As Heathan pulls Ellis out of her mental prison, reviving the essence of who she once was, down the rabbit hole they will go.
With malice in their hearts and vengeance in their veins, they will seek out the ones who hurt and destroyed them.
One at a time.
Each one more deadly than the last.
Tick Tock.

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Night Owl
M. Pierce

Amazon blurb:
From bestselling ebook author M. Pierce comes Night Owl, the first novel in a provocative erotic trilogy where an anonymous online writing partnership turns into an uncontrollable, passionate obsession

At twenty-eight, Matt Sky has the perfect life. He has a beautiful girlfriend, a massive inheritance, and four national bestsellers-all penned under his airtight alias, M. Pierce.

At twenty-seven, Hannah Catalano is a train wreck. Her boyfriend is a deadbeat and her job is abysmal.
Matt and Hannah meet online as writing partners. Their relationship is safe, anonymous, and innocent...

Until Matt sees a picture of Hannah. Hannah's picture sparks an attraction Matt is powerless to ignore. When circumstance brings Matt and Hannah together, the strangers begin a love story that's passionate, poignant, unforgettable, and unstoppable.

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Vandal
Carian Cole

Amazon blurb:
She takes my breath away; she is so beautifully damaged. Yes, I had broken her, ravished her life and destroyed her happiness. I brought her to the ultimate despair.

I was responsible for all the pain and suffering that now brought her to her knees in front of me.

Broken.
Hopeless.
Reckless in her agony.

She is a mirror of my own tortured soul.

But what I took away I can give back, in ways she cannot even begin to imagine .

She is everything right in all my wrongs.

She loves me. She needs me.

She has no idea I’m the one who wrecked her life.

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What about y’all? What are your dark, edgy, gritty favorite romances? Let us know!