This HaBO comes from Mehreen, who is searching for this romance:
Okay, so I read this book quite some time ago. I think it was published pre-2022 or 2020. It’s adult erotica and its dark. And the fact that I cant remember its name is driving me wild.
The heroine meets a guy in a gallery or a museum of some sort and she thinks he’s quite handsome and they have a nice chat. They part ways or they go on a date (I am not sure), but then she is kidnapped and she understands that he plans to keep her captive. She pleads with him to let her go, thinks about her family, etc. I can’t remember how it ends.
That’s all I can remember. I know it’s not a book by Claire Thompson. I looked through many popular dark romances, but none of them rang a bell.
Our dark romance readers, does this sound familiar?
I wonder if this is one of the Persephone/Hades dark romance retellings? I haven’t read any of them personally, but this description certainly fits that trope.
Amelia Wilde’s The Collector trilogy features an artist who is kidnapped by a art collector. It’s part of the Midnight Dynasty shared universe of you read those.
I felt like I’ve seen some other art gallery related things in my KU recommendations lately, so I did some digging…
Bianca Cole’s Stalk Me: A Dark Mafia Romance (Beautiful Monsters Book 1) — gallery owner, but published in 2025, so not old enough
I know there was another one, but apparently the way to get new recommendations in the list is to actually try to find an old recommendation. I’ll try to remember to look again later.
Could it be The Red by Tiffany Weisz? https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30755704-the-red
I see I’ve been beaten to it with my two suggestions. I really think it’s Amelia Wilde’s Collector trilogy, but there are some faint traces of Tiffany Weisz’s THE RED. Both are worth reading if you like dark romance—although please read the CWs/TWs: there’s a reason it’s called “dark” romance.
Because I’m bad at letting things go, I’m skimming through the results of a google search (site:amazon.com kindle dark “gallery” romance captive), to see if anything pops out. Note that I haven’t read any of these, but they all seem to be old enough and have something to do with an artist or gallery.
Dark Captive by Jennika Snow et al, 2016 — collection of 6 stories
Tempt Me With Darkness (Doomsday Brethren) by Shayla Black, says 2023 but comments say it’s been republished — paranormal elements
REMI: A Dark Billionaire Romance (Night of the Diamonds Book 1) by Shayne Ford, 2019 — she’s an art student but I don’t see anything about a kidnapping
Love Me in the Dark by Mia Asher, 2017 — Paris, artist MMC
Twilight Mask: An Enemies to Marriage Mafia Romance (The Alliance) by B. B. Hamel, 2024 — not old enough, but they meet at an art gallery
The Captive (The Kelley Legacy Book 5) by Elle Kennedy, 2012 — apparently they meet at a museum and have a one night stand, and then there’s a kidnapping?
I always like it when an HaBo turns up a new to me sub-sub-genre. Who knew there were so many dark romances involving art galleries and kidnappings? Not me.