Does It Hurt?
H.D. Carlton, 2022
Romance Mystery, thriller & crime
A dark romance about two damaged people whose collision turns desire into a test of survival—and asks how much of yourself you’ll trade for love.
Feels like longing and dread. About love, power and death.
A page from the book
The terrifying arithmetic of needing one person to breathe.
There’s a place in the ocean, so deep, where not a single point of light penetrates through it. And for so long, I’ve been trapped there, unable to breathe. When I met you, you lifted me out of that darkness, and it was the first time I came up for air. You’ve become my oxygen, bella ladra, and I can no longer breathe without you. H.D. Carlton.H.D. Carlton’s dark romances found a wide readership through BookTok, where Does It Hurt? circulates alongside her Cat and Mouse duet.
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Haunting Adeline
H.D. Carlton, 2021
A writer moves into her great-grandmother's haunted manor and attracts a stalker who knows the house—and her—better than she does.
Hunting Adeline
H.D. Carlton, 2022
For readers who want the dangerous part of romance taken literally: obsession, captivity, and devotion that refuses to end, even at the grave.
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Questions readers ask
- What is Does It Hurt? like?
- Feels like longing and dread. About love, power and death.
- What should I read after Does It Hurt??
- If you liked Does It Hurt?, try Phantasma (Kaylie Smith), Fifty Shades Darker (E.L. James) and The Queen of Nothing (Holly Black).
A taste of the feed
What tenderness looks like after it has learned to bite back.
Soft hearts don’t survive here.” “What kinds of hearts do?” He leaned down until their eyes were level. “Hearts with teeth.” He reached out and gently gripped her chin in his hand, rubbing the pad of his thumb across her full, bottom lip. She was frozen in place. “C’mon, angel, show me your teeth.
Phantasma · Kaylie Smith
Some attractions come with the warning already built in.
Christian nods as he turns and leads me through the double doors into the grandiose foyer. I revel in the feel of his hand and his long, skilled fingers curled around mine. The familiar pull is there—I’m drawn, Icarus to his sun. I’ve been burned already, and yet here I am again.
Fifty Shades Darker · E.L. James
A plea that would rather have a fight than silence.
Come home and shout at me. Come home and fight with me. Come home and break my heart, if you must.
The Queen of Nothing · Holly Black
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