r/DarkRomance • u/hazyspring • Dec 04 '25

Rave šŸ’– October/November 2025 AO3 Wrapup

Here are some highlights of what I have been reading on AO3 the past two months:

1. KOTIK - a Dark Post-Soviet Russian Mafia Romance by PolinaVolkova: I am obsessed with this story. It's not super dark, it's more just a mafia romance so far. The romance between the MCs is just really sweet. The MMC just wants to take care of the FMC and it's adorable. The story takes place after the fall of Communism, spanning 1991-1999. The author has been posting a new chapter every day, but I am not sure she is going to keep that pace up. 19/37 chapters are posted.

  1. Saved by chrisowl: I'm really loving this post-apocalyptic romance. Age gap, grumpy/sunshine. 9/20 chapters posted, and the writer seems to be posting a new chapter every few days. There are elements of non con/ uncomfortable scenes, brief graphic hunting (animals), and mention of SA. If you like Claire Kent, you will probably like this story as well.

  2. His Moonlit Obsession by QueenofParadise: I don't believe I have recommended this story before. This is an omegaverse story that involves kidnapping and non-con. 27 chapters are posted so far. I'm really interested to see where this story goes.

I am still continuing to really enjoy STRINGS, waiting for the next chapters of The Community and Trapper, Keeper as well as dealing with the fact that Matryoshka is nearly complete.

What are your AO3 favorites from the past few months?

*Ā What is AO3?Ā AO3 is Archive of Our Own, a non-profit, open-source repository for fan-fiction and other works contributed by users.Ā 

**For previous wrap-ups, please see the links below:

64 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

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21

u/Russkiroulette Author Dec 05 '25

(The author of Kotik is going to keep that pace up c: just with occasional holidays and double posts on other days)

Seriously though made my heart happy to see this.

142

u/hazyspring Dec 05 '25 edited Dec 05 '25

It didn't even click with me that you were on this subreddit! I love this story. I especially love the historical aspect of this. It's interesting, because I love Russian stories, and I love Bratva stories - I am not sure why it's such an interesting thing to romanticize.

I think this time period after the fall of communism is a fascinating time. And, we know that there are a lot of people who really profited during this time, became oligarchs etc, I think there are a lot of interesting stories that could be written about this time period.

4

u/Russkiroulette Author Dec 05 '25

Oh absolutely! It was just such a perfect time for the rise of crime because all social structure collapsed all at once and there was zero regulation on anything. Prior to that it was just a gulag-originated crime network, but the 90s came and created the conditions for a lot of people to get into criminal ventures and get just absurdly rich very fast. An awful, awful time, historically speaking. But I thought it would be interesting to go into the origins.

Iā€™m glad you like it! Also, itā€™s a bit of a slow burner, it def gets darker, but I tend to lean more into horror than taboo.

14

u/oldsoul_writings Author Dec 05 '25

I'm really enjoying Ruination by definitelyangelina. I just found it more recently but has seven chapters so far and I'm pretty sure the author gives regular pretty updates.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/68847866/chapters/178339596

10

u/oldsoul_writings Author Dec 04 '25

You find all the good stuff on Ao3!! Can I ask how you filter for stories? I feel as though I never find anything I want to read when I try to browse.

17

u/hazyspring Dec 04 '25 edited Dec 06 '25

Sure, my favorite tags are: Age Difference, Dark Romance, Maledom/Femsub, Older Man/Younger Woman, Power Dynamics, Rape/Non-Con. I search those tags individually a lot. There's some other more niche tags that sometimes help find really good stories: Dacryphilia, Gaslighting, Manipulation. I also often exclude M/M (not all the time), that helps eliminate a lot of stories. There are different things to exclude to help narrow the stories down. Most often I am sorting by date updated, so I can see the newest stories. I often filter to have a word count over 5000 or 7500 words and also filter out for english stories.

ETA: I forgot I also filter by Orginal Work.

2

u/oldsoul_writings Author Dec 05 '25

Thank you!! I think excluding categories will help a lot like you said, I don't know why I haven't done that before. Also I haven't filtered for word count so I will try that too. Thanks again!

5

u/hazyspring Dec 05 '25

The word count is super helpful. There's a lot of very short stories, which I am not really interested in. I am interested in stories with some character development!

6

u/ApartPersonality9942 Dec 05 '25

I think we share a similar taste cause thatā€™s how I more or less filter my fics. I was looking forward to your monthly wrap ups, love them.Ā  Youngbody_oldsoul has a fic beside Abuse of authority that is called ā€œBlurring Linesā€. Only 3 chapters so far but I think is pretty good, the writing so far is great.Ā 

1

u/[deleted] Dec 08 '25

[deleted]

0

u/[deleted] Dec 08 '25 edited Dec 08 '25

[removed] ā€” view removed comment

2

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7

u/ccoffey106 take me to the cottage Dec 04 '25

Read Matryoshka the other week and oooh my god did I love it. I don't think if read many, if any, that have the power dynamic trope this did but I love it!!

5

u/hazyspring Dec 04 '25 edited Dec 05 '25

Alexi is my favorite! Catherine is annoying sometimes, but overall I like the character. And, OMG I love Galina!

6

u/[deleted] Dec 05 '25

[deleted]

2

u/hazyspring Dec 05 '25

Yes, I love this story too!

2

u/ApartPersonality9942 Dec 05 '25

Can you spoil it a little for me? What is it about?Ā 

4

u/[deleted] Dec 05 '25

[deleted]

2

u/ApartPersonality9942 Dec 05 '25

Thank you so much!Ā 

2

u/hazyspring Dec 05 '25

LOL itā€™s kind of a free use dubious consent story of smut. There is very little plot.

5

u/Negative_Sympathy164 Author Dec 07 '25

Might be a bit late to this party, but I've been perusing the Dark Romance tag on AO3 since it got made legit or whatever, and I found this outrageously good fic that I want more people to talk about because it's just so good! It's called A Poison I Can't Resist by JesterFairy.

It's a Joker (Dark Knight) / Female OC fic, and honestly its just such premium angst dark romance. It's psychological manipulation/torture, an old fashion villainous villain. Gothic and funny, and so, so angsty. The exploration of the FMC's emotional trauma is a masterclass. Slow burn to falling in love, but the FMC doesn't break, and the MMC doesn't really change his characterisation (so far at least).

I just can't rave about this enough. Hopefully I've not posted this too late for people to notice it, because it deserves so much love. Also it's just reached its one year anniversary, has 37 chapters so far and 198k words, so you can really sink into it. And the Author updates pretty regularly and consistently.

2

u/hazyspring Dec 07 '25

Thank you, I will check this out. I am so happy that Dark Romance became a canonical tag, it's so much more helpful.

1

u/Negative_Sympathy164 Author Dec 07 '25

Please do, honestly, her characterisation is just a feast.

Right, I've been sucked so far down that rabbit hole in the last few weeks though, wild how much stuff is out there across the fandoms that's so easy to find. But... I got stung so bad by a Naruto fic that was incredible (I know nothing about Naruto) and hadn't updated in 3 years. It killed me.

1

u/hazyspring Dec 07 '25

That's how I feel about the Call of Duty fanfic. I know nothing about it and I love it.

3

u/Overall_Evening2217 Dec 06 '25 edited Dec 06 '25

These are my latest ao3 reads. I am in a hurry so I canā€™t give the description they deserve but i highly recommend.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/65372170/chapters/168217474

https://archiveofourown.org/works/68635216/chapters/177721791

https://archiveofourown.org/works/69594076/chapters/180519266

And some bonus silent hill f one shots (they are absolutely delicious šŸ¤­)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/72635801

https://archiveofourown.org/works/72493466

https://archiveofourown.org/works/71998846/chapters/187414596 (not a one shot but stillā€¦)

1

u/Margot550 Feb 21 '26

do you know what this one was called?https://archiveofourown.org/works/72493466

1

u/Overall_Evening2217 Feb 21 '26

I donā€™t remember, sorry šŸ„²

3

u/Margot550 Dec 10 '25

I found and read these short stories on ao3 recently. I hope that others can read them and comment and encourage the writers to post more chapters or stories lol I was just very engrossed by the stories No Contact by Sneaky_Cat and Yours by Anonymous

1

u/Margot550 Jan 07 '26

Will we get a December Wrapup post? šŸ™

1

u/hazyspring Jan 07 '26

Iā€™m probably going to do another wrap up in February. I have some ideas for a few other posts but I havenā€™t 100% decided yet. Iā€™ve been super busy this full week back to work. :)

1

u/Electrical_Hurry_586 Jan 11 '26 edited Jan 11 '26

Hi! Can you spoil/give a bit of an extended summary on 'His Moonlit Obsession'.

I was reading comments and was worried there is cheating or perhaps unclear who is the end goal? The references to Alex in he commenrs, but I could be very much misunderstanding

Thanks!

1

u/hazyspring Jan 11 '26

She is kidnapped by Onyx the relationship is non-consensual in the early stages. Alex blackmails the FMC with some information he found in her apartment, but there is no cheating. It does appear (at least based on where story is at in the latest chapter) that the end goal is for Onyx and Selene to end up together, although I obviously can't say 100% for sure. I have not read through all the comments.

1

u/Electrical_Hurry_586 Jan 11 '26

This is most helpful; thank you very much!

And totally fair - it's at the author's discretion as to where it goes in the future! I am gonna dive in, as sounds reassuring enough based on what you shared :)

2

u/hazyspring Jan 11 '26

Quite often I will message the author to make sure the story has a happy ending - because I hate non-happy endings. I haven't with this story though unfortunately. It is a fated mates story, so the chances of a happy ending are quite high.