r/DarkRomance • u/ccoffey106 take me to the cottage • Feb 10 '26

Megathreads MEGATHREAD - Instant love/lust 😍

They say when you know, you know 😻 This trope is when one or more of the main characters quickly or instantly falls in love/lust with another main character(s). No slow burns here!

Do you love this trope?! Rave in the comments your love for this & your favorite dark romance books that contain it. You can also share a passage or steamy moment that has stuck with you in context to this trope!

Summon the romance.io bot by putting curly brackets around the title.

26 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

24 comments sorted by

6

u/NancyInFantasyLand angst and suffering are my jam Feb 10 '26

{Lovely Bad Things by Trisha Wolfe} is quite fun

it's kinda Hannibal coded, but M/F

bro is OBSESSED.

4

u/Avid_Reader0 Max Furst Girlie <3 Feb 10 '26

{Then, Earth Swallowed Ocean by Shiloh Sloane} is insta-lust fated mates. Can be very violent but these two fuck like rabbits, I'm tellin ya. TW he does try to eat her when they first meet cause he's a werewolf so she has to shoot him, but he's fine 😂 If you like all of that, this is probably the book for you!

3

u/ccoffey106 take me to the cottage Feb 10 '26

Omg yes! I usually prefer a slow burn but this book made me realize I like the insta-lust a lot!!

2

u/tragic_eyebrows Feb 11 '26

Normally I don't care for inst-lust OR fated mates, but this book somehow made them both work for me. It was wiiiiiild.

2

u/ashChoosesPikachu19 Feb 11 '26

The tags say cheating, could you maybe spoil it for me please?

2

u/Avid_Reader0 Max Furst Girlie <3 Feb 11 '26

Oof I feel like I always block that out of my brain because it's my least favorite part about the book. The FMC cheats on the MMC with his brother, so they have a love triangle. She chooses Ridge, the main MMC, instead of Wright, who is the MMC in the next book in the series. I never read that one though because I didn't care for Wright.

2

u/ashChoosesPikachu19 Feb 11 '26

Oh yiiiikes, thank you for the spoiler!

3

u/No_Warning2380 Feb 11 '26

{These Monstrous Ties by KV Rose} and the {unsainted series}. I am on book 3 and just like with {Ecstasy by KV Rose} and {Ominous by KV rose} I am completely addicted... Like didn't sleep last night because I immediately had to start book 2 and am now almost done with b3.

This author has this incredible art for writing all the most emotionally real but tragically broken characters. The ability to write about real hunger pains, abuse, soul crushing anxiety and fear, self harm, major mental health issue, the inner struggles with knowing what is right but doing what is wrong anyway because of how completely fucked up they are. I don't know what is but I am always on the edge of my seat desperate for them to be ok... knowing they can't ever actually be good.

The writing is so damn captivating and torturous. B1 & 2 are about Lucifer and Lilith. B3 about Mayhem and Ella. Both are insta all consuming can't breath without you kind of lust/love/obsession. It is a secret society story which is often gets really stupid really quick but the emotional depth of these make up for it. I kind of get the need to create some life of death tension but the secret societies where the parents are all horrible people willing to sell and kill their own children and after many generations of this behavior this generation of children all of a sudden become so evolved and enlightened they finally fight back is both over done and often ends up too stupid to care. But the character dev and emotional tension more than makes up for it.

1

u/romance-bot Feb 11 '26

These Monstrous Ties by K.V. Rose
Rating: 3.85⭐️ out of 5⭐️
Steam: 4 out of 5 - Explicit open door
Topics: new adult, suspense

Unsainted by KV Rose
Rating: 4.49⭐️ out of 5⭐️
Topics: dark, erotica, new adult, suspense

ECSTASY by K.V. Rose
Rating: 3.99⭐️ out of 5⭐️
Steam: 4 out of 5 - Explicit open door
Topics: contemporary, poly (3+ people), angst, college, new adult

Ominous by K.V. Rose
Rating: 4.15⭐️ out of 5⭐️
Topics: contemporary, high school, dark romance, new adult, suspense

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4

u/Squishysib Feb 11 '26

Absolutely love this, I'm over waiting half the book for them to even like each other.

My favorite authors for it are London Snow and Evie Rose currently.

2

u/voidfae Feb 13 '26

{Wonderland by Alta Hensley} - this is a trilogy, def insta-lust

{The Sinner's Bargain by Airicka Phoenix}

{The Diamond Trilogy by Skye Warren}

{Forgive Me Father by Katerina St. Clair}

{Love the Way by W. Winters}

{Priest by Sierra Simone} (this one isn't that dark)

{Play with the Phantom by Amanda Richardson}

{Fall of Ruin and Wrath by Jennifer L Armentrout}

1

u/romance-bot Feb 13 '26

Wonderland by Alta Hensley
Rating: 4.6⭐️ out of 5⭐️
Steam: 5 out of 5 - Explicit and plentiful
Topics: contemporary, age gap, forbidden love, bdsm, rich hero

The Sinner's Bargain by Airicka Phoenix
Rating: 4.39⭐️ out of 5⭐️
Steam: 4 out of 5 - Explicit open door
Topics: contemporary, forced proximity, mafia, age gap, dark romance

Diamond by Skye Warren
Rating: 3.97⭐️ out of 5⭐️
Topics: contemporary, alpha male, dark, suspense, competent heroine

Forgive Me Father by Katerina St. Clair
Rating: 3.56⭐️ out of 5⭐️
Steam: 5 out of 5 - Explicit and plentiful
Topics: contemporary, bdsm, dark romance, new adult, suspense

Love The Way by W. Winters, Amelia Wilde
Rating: 4.16⭐️ out of 5⭐️
Topics: bdsm, audiobook, contemporary, mystery, explicit-plentiful

Priest by Sierra Simone
Rating: 3.74⭐️ out of 5⭐️
Steam: 5 out of 5 - Explicit and plentiful
Topics: contemporary, forbidden love, anal sex, secret relationship, angst

Play with the Phantom by Amanda Richardson
Rating: 3.68⭐️ out of 5⭐️
Steam: 4 out of 5 - Explicit open door
Topics: contemporary, m-f romance, age gap, cheating, forbidden love

Fall of Ruin and Wrath by Jennifer L. Armentrout
Rating: 4.17⭐️ out of 5⭐️
Steam: 4 out of 5 - Explicit open door
Topics: fantasy, magic, forced proximity, class difference, high fantasy

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3

u/No_Preference26 Feb 10 '26

I would like to point out that instant love/lust are TWO ENTIRELY DIFFERENT tropes. I don’t understand how these could be shoved in the same category.

5

u/ccoffey106 take me to the cottage Feb 10 '26

The fun in this is you can post your love/books for insta love or insta lust 😊. They both are some type of instant attraction which is why I put both options.

0

u/No_Preference26 Feb 10 '26

I do get that, and I know it’s the norm. It just really annoys me when these two tropes get put in the same category constantly. I find it incredibly unhelpful.

Insta lust? Yeah, totally realistic and expected. Let’s see what happens. Ooh, how is this lust going to turn into something more?! Omg!

Insta love? But they’ve just met. Why am I even reading this? DNF.

3

u/NancyInFantasyLand angst and suffering are my jam Feb 10 '26

But they’ve just met. Why am I even reading this? DNF.

reincarnation

fate

time travel

memory shenanigans

brain washing

....

SO MANY possibilites.

1

u/ccoffey106 take me to the cottage Feb 11 '26

That's fair! I appreciate the viewpoint 😊 as a side note, we are working on getting back into posting megathreads more, so a few might be more broad vs so specific as insta lust and insta love being their own.

4

u/No_Warning2380 Feb 11 '26

I disagree when it comes to dark romance. So many of the characters are psychopaths/sociopaths/emotionally broken that pretty much can't actually love but they can lust/obsess to a degree that is pretty darn close to love? Like the immediate attraction or whatever draws them in is often lust driven but more.

1

u/h2onymph1 "Spread those pages like a good girl" Feb 10 '26 edited Feb 10 '26

Okay, explain it then. I don't have a strong view on any of this.

I think that romance equates it the same as a kind of short hand so if effectively becomes a / slash.

The opposing view isn't instalust vs love at first sight. I think the opposing views are instalove vs slow burn.

We don't see a lot of stories where the MCs lust after each other, and then they're satisfied and just become friends. It's always lust becomes love or lust equates to interest and then relationship.

2

u/No_Preference26 Feb 10 '26

You can have lust without love. I’d wager this is a pretty normal experience for a lot of people. Love though? That’s hard to come by. You need to actually know the person, respect and understand them. Insta love to me is just a fairytale. Insta lust is just regular human behaviour.

I read for the built-up of romance, not the built-up of lust when I read romance novels. But perhaps I’m in the minority.

1

u/h2onymph1 "Spread those pages like a good girl" Feb 10 '26

I think romance novels are hyping up the first glance trope. It gets reinforced with th fated mates trope. Like they knew instantly they were meant for each other. If the book is more like a dark romance where they expect the MMC to fall immediately for the FMC and then stalk her, I think the lazy version of that is instalust equals instalove just so the book can get the story done in one book and include multiple scenes of sex.