Hey there, gorgeous. Whether you’re in recovery mode or getting up to a fresh batch of no good, I hope this Sunday afternoon is treating you well. I’m bouncing back and forth between my pre-editor edits on Made Woman and doing release prep for All Pucking In, a spicy hockey romance by my new client K.C. McDermott. It’s the second standalone romance in the Hartford Hydra series and I loved the first so I’m excited for it.
As I was putting together that graphic for the book, it occurred to me how working in the romance sector of the book world has completely changed the way I look at stories in general. I had one of my all time favorite comfort comedies playing on my tablet as background noise and was suddenly seeing the movie through totally new eyes.
The movie is RED. It’s a comedy about a group of retired assassins and although I’ve probably seen it fifty times, the movie still makes me giggle my ass off. The humor is cleverly written. The action is enough to make your pulse race. The casting is incredible (Bruce WIllis, Mary-Louise Parker, Helen Mirren, John Malkovich, Morgan Freeman, Brian Cox, Karl Urban, Richard Dreyfuss). And it’s got a couple of romance storylines that both leave you feeling all warm and fuzzy. I love the movie so much, I could probably recite it line for line.
Working on the marketing and PR side of romance means shifting the way you advertise with the trends of the day. Nowadays, when I’m putting the PR polish on an upcoming romance title, noting the book’s romance tropes and plot bunnies are super-important. As I was watching/listening to RED, I started analyzing the movie for what tropes it uses in the two romance storylines and that’s when it dawned on me for the first time. RED is a dark romantic comedy. Like a Lights Out but with no spice. A budding romance and biting humor with a side of casual disregard for human life. He’s a notorious killer in the black ops world who’s gone totally soft for a woman he’s never met in person. He engages in a little light stalking and ultimately kicks off their romance with a case of kidnapping.
If you haven’t seen the movie, here’s the gist:
Frank Moses is a retired CIA assassin who keeps tossing out his government checks so he has an excuse to call and talk to the woman who takes the lost check replacement requests. Sarah Ross is a call center phone jockey for the government payroll department who only experiences adventure through the romance novels she reads. He gets to know her through their phone chats and by reading all the same books she mentions.
When his house is attacked, he learns there is a contract out on him. So, of course, he shows up in her apartment and breaks in while she’s out on a date. With someone after him, she’s in danger because they know how he feels about her. He packs a bag for her and vacuums her apartment while he waits. When she comes home and freaks out upon finding a stranger in her home, he abducts her for her own safety and they go on an adventure to figure out who is after them.
When you break their story down into the romance tropes we find in the bookworld, this is what RED has to offer:
Quiet Retired Assassin MMC
Black Cat Book Girlie FMC
Slight Age Gap
Grumpy x Sunshine
Forced Proximity
Competence-Induced Lady Boners
Touch Her and I Kill Everything You Love… and Then You Die
A Whole Tribe of INSANE Assassin Besties
💀💀💀 So. Much. Unaliving. 💀💀💀
A Million LOLs
One Very Useful Pig
Victoria and Ivan
~ The Epic Love Side Romance ~
Victoria and Ivan are a side character story line that’s more about their history than anything happening in real time. Throughout the movie, you learn the context of them crossing paths and can see exactly how much of an epic love they are even though their story takes up less than fifteen minutes over the whole film. You do get to see them together more in the second movie.
Enemies-to-Lovers-to-Enemies-to-Lovers
British MI-6 FMC Serving Up Martha Stewart With a Machine Gun Vibes
Russian Agent MMC With Lovesick Mad Hatter Vibes
He Worships Her
Beheaded Enemies Instead of Bouquets
Here’s an adorable moment from Red 2 between Ivan and Victoria while she’s firing sniper shots to save Frank, Marvin, and Sarah from a firing squad. “I love the way your toes curl right before you fire.” LOL He’s so head over heels in love with her. Their love is so sweet that it makes Sarah all mushy whenever they get into PDA.
I don’t know if I will ever be able to watch a movie with a romance story line again without analyzing it to see what tropes were used. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing. As a mood reader, I tend to shop by trope a lot more than I thought would ever become habit. In fact, when it started becoming commonplace to include trope lists with blurbs, I was one who complained about potential spoilers. However, I truly don’t find that to be the case. In my experience, authors are careful in the way they write out their trope lists to avoid spoilers. Want to know what tropes were used in Made Woman? Scroll down to check out my list. Also scroll down to check out Bound by Lily R. Steele! I added it to my TBR pile this morning. The author says it’s a southern dark romance in the vein of Shantel Tessier and we all know how much I love her L.O.R.D.S. world. Follow me over on Goodreads to see when I begin reading Bound and read along with me!
Wishing you many dark fantasies & dirty dreams!
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For Fantasy | For Dark Romance
To her ex, she was a pawn. She’ll prove she was the queen all along.
Halo Kendrick
I was the picture perfect fiancé. Regardless of the things he did and said and basically everything about his personality, I still made sure Callum Spears always looked good. I’d defend his actions, convinced that they just didn’t know the guy I knew. I gave him everything. If he didn’t like something I wore, it was banished to the darkest recesses of my wardrobe. He preferred blondes so I had a standing sushi date every two weeks with my colorist for a touch up before my dark roots could peek through. I even caved to his family’s pressure and agreed I wouldn’t work once we were married. No matter how much I gave, it didn’t stop him from proving everyone else right about him by throwing it all away in the most humiliating way possible.
Now I’m a woman on a mission. I know it would be better to just let it go and move on with my life, but what kind of fun is that? No. I’d much rather see Cal ruined. And I know exactly who can help me get close enough to do it. He’s got a gorgeous face and six-feet-four-inches of tattooed muscle packed into immaculately tailored suits. Yep, my ex’s scorching hot business rival is just the man for the job.
Bentley Scott
Callum Spears is a d**k. A complete waste of oxygen. And yet somehow he managed to put a ring on the finger of the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met in person. When he finally screws up enough that he leaves her running away in tears, chance drops yours truly right in her path to play the knight in shining black armor. In the length of a shared car ride home, I learn Halo isn’t just a breathtaking face. She’s brilliant with a biting sense of humor and big dreams beyond being some sleazy banker bro’s trophy wife. Any man would be lucky to have her on his arm. Imagine my surprise when she turns up at my door with a proposition that would put her on mine for the next few months. Play boyfriend to a stunning woman and crush Spears like a bug beneath my boot while I’m at it? Sign me up.
Letting her get close means showing Halo the real me. A man whose morals are gunmetal gray at best. Whose shadowy empire makes its money from working with some of the worst criminals around the globe. A man who will stop at nothing to protect what’s mine.
And now, that includes her.
MADE WOMAN, the first snarky standalone dark organized crime romance novel in the Dark Syndicates world by Avery Lennox.
Romance Tropes & Plot Bunnies
This novel includes (but is not limited to) the following:
Metal Baddie FMC Full of Sunshine and Snark
Growly Morally Gray Crime Boss MMC
Ex’s Rival-to-Lovers
Fake Relationship
Shaky Alliance
Revenge Scheme
Ride-or-Die Trigger-Happy Bestie
LGBTQIA+ Rep
LOL Moments
All the Banter
Touch Her and Die
Touch Him and Die
Touch My Bestie and Die
Organized Crime (Mafia/Cartel/Gangs/MC)
Spice Level
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Explicit Scenes – Very Hot
~✦~
Preorder Your Copy Today!
Amazon & Kindle Unlimited
PLACEHOLDER PUBLICATION DATE: Please note that the publication date currently shown on Amazon is a placeholder. The release date is expected to be in late October 2026 and will be moved up once the book is finished in editing.
+Add It To Your TBR Pile
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~✦~
TRIGGER WARNINGS: This novel contains dark adult themes that may not be suitable for sensitive readers. Potential triggers in this story include but are not limited to physical assault, sexual assault (off the page; not by the MMC), cheating (not by the MMC), kidnapping, various forms of organized crime and open discussion of their trades, alcohol consumption, substance use, gambling, presence and use of firearms, a sex club, various displays of dominance, a public display of submission (not by the FMC/MMC), and more. Please be advised and read responsibly.
Here are some reading recs for you!
These reads range from dark romance to spicy contemporary.
Almost all are NSFW so be sure to check your trigger warnings if that matters to you.
Heir to a Legacy. Bound by Blood. Tempted by Sin.
She came to write their legacy. He made her part of the lie that built it. Wren Delaney expected a simple puff piece on Kentucky’s richest bourbon dynasty. She didn’t expect Holden Blackstone—the brooding heir with bourbon on his tongue and danger in his shadow. Raised to protect the empire. Trained to bury its sins.
He doesn’t want her questions. He doesn’t want her digging into the past. But he wants her—in every forbidden, possessive way he swore he never would. Their chemistry is brutal. Addictive. Wrong. And the deeper Wren falls into Holden’s world, the clearer it becomes: this family protects its own… violently.
Someone inside the estate watches her. Follows her. Warns her to leave before she uncovers a truth the Blackstones would kill to protect. Holden will burn the whole empire down to keep her safe. But loving a man like him comes with a price—one paid in loyalty, blood… and silence.
A Kindle Unlimited First-in-Series | More Information
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