Dark Romance Anthology: The Abyss

By Allie Bates

If you are tired of formula-romances, with their perfect heroes, perfect heroines and perfectly predictable plots, you're ready for Dark Romance, where any rule can be broken in the service of an... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1891873547
• ISBN13: 9781891873546
• Release Date: November 2003
• Publisher: Opencad International Inc.
• Length: 292 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Romantic Times says ". . .hours of reading pleasure. Enjoy!"

February 14, 2004: Romantic Times Reviewer Diane Tugman says: Inside the pages of this book you will read eighteen dark and short stories. Each one will take you on a journey into the realm of dark romance. . . every one tells a story of love just as passionate and needful as any other. Even the bad guy can be a prince, when given the right princess. . . . If extraordinary is what you crave then I recommend The Abyss for hours of reading pleasure. Enjoy! Overall rating: 4 Hearts Sensuality rating: Explicit

quoting a review from romance junkies

THE ABYSS is the new word in romance genre, an anthology of Dark Romance, a new and daring area of romance where everything is possible. It takes the reader to places where few romance readers have gone before. This anthology contains more than a dozen short stories by different authors, some of them big names in independent publishing, and others demonstrating their star potential. The stories represent many sub-genres, including science fiction romance, romantic suspense, fantasy romance, BDSM romance, and contemporary romance, as well as, romantic cross genre. Representing the new wave in publishing, it also comes as a print book with three (six for the members of the Dark Romance group) ebooks attached. These ebooks are full novels written by some of the participating authors. Dark Romance means a walk on the wild side of romance. It has only one rule-there are no rules. No holds barred. All envelopes pushed. The formula is violated in good old romantic tradition-the ravished one is enjoying it through and through. The edginess makes it a captivating collection, and the creative freedom delivers the thrill of a highly unpredictable read, which is something this reviewer values a lot. THE ABYSS is a unique and fascinating occurrence in the romance genre. The sheer amount of offerings allows everyone to find something they will like. It is impossible to review all eighteen stories, but the overall quality of the book is excellent, and I recommend it to everyone who enjoys a romantic, unusual, and compelling book. PS The new genre of Dark Romance has its own site www.Dark-Romance.com and membership providing extra benefits.

Enter into a world of unexpected and amazing stories.

Ever wish you could read something that breaks all the rules? What about if there were no rules except to tell the best possible story the way it was meant to be told? Nancy Fulton, founding member of the Dark Romance Internet Group wanted to share her love of some untraditional authors by highlighting them in a new anthology. If you only read print books, you may not know these authors. They are the best of the ebook Dark Romance world. Their writing transcends genre to forge new stories open to all readers, and don't follow the traditional rigid romance structure or formula that is seen in the print world. The stories in THE ABYSS are about love; love that is not always true, and not always returned. Serious romances that will make you come away from the book thinking about something other than sweetness and light. THE ABYSS includes eighteen different stories from thirteen different authors. All of these stories have a great premise: An Egyptian Mummy is found perfectly preserved, but all is not as it seems. Can ancient lovers find each other's hearts once more? A Couple seem destined to be together - despite the threat of a monster that may someday come between them. A Police Woman recovering from a vicious attack finds solace in the arms of another officer, but memories return of her attacker who seems less than human. A teenage boy becomes obsessed with a fellow classmate, and spends the next ten years transforming himself to be eligible to date her. A man whose mind is separated from his body guards secrets for his side of the war. When a woman gains entrance to his thoughts, he must discern whose side she is on. A man is hired to put a bullet in a beautiful woman, but something stops him from pulling the trigger. Will that be the worst mistake of his life? A woman struggles to keep her shop when she discovers the sale wasn't legal, and now her nemesis wants to take it from her. A human thief gets more than he bargained for when he breaks into a vampire den looking for silver. Will he trade money for a chance at happiness? A young woman is aggrieved by her brother's choice in friends, but should count herself lucky the rogue took no more than a kiss. A man and a woman meet on a deserted beach, both desperate to find solitude to think through similar problems. Could their meeting be a solution for both? A pregnant woman realises the father of her child is not to be trusted. Should she choose another just because he is good? A Woman seeks to end her life before her first change into a werewolf. A man strives to stop her, for she is also putting his own life at risk. A woman contemplates on how lucky she is that her master still wants her, despite what the years have done to her body. A woman struggling to escape her sadistic Dom is rescued by others who lead a more moderate form of the lifestyle. A young woman struggles against her families wishes to achieve the career she believes has called to her. When she

A different, but fascinating, take on romance

In typical romance, the handsome and upright (but occasionally arrogant and conflicted) hero finds redemption at the hands of the beautiful, virginal, and spunky-but-not-too-spunky heroine--leading to a happily ever after. Nothing wrong with that, right? But sometimes, it's fun to read something just a little different. The Dark Romance Group [...] pulled together a group of their authors to create an anthology of 'romances' with a difference. Eighteen stories, thirteen authors, and at least that many variations on the theme of romance gone different. THE ABYSS contains mummies, vampires, the god of destruction, a cold-blooded thief, a consentual slave, a man whose love is a fantasy, a budding romance where both the hero and heroine are lying to each other about their identities, even a professional assassin who falls for--something different. Pretty clearly, dark romance is a wide-open field and THE ABYSS does its best to convey some of the breadth possible when authors take off the constraints of traditional romance publishing and let themselves go. Most of the authors represented in THE ABYSS (CT Adams, Jordan Alexander, Allie Bates, Tabitha A. Bradley, Charlotte Boyette-Compo, Adrianna Dane, Amy Eastlake, Morgan Huxley, Steve Lazarowitz, Brenna Lyons, Terry Pray, Rob Preece, and Patricia A. Rasey) are extensively published in independent electronic press and the collection offers a uniformly high quality of story, writing, and production value. THE ABYSS isn't for everyone, but it also isn't all gloom and doom. There are moments of humor, clever twists, and human insights. Dark doesn't have to mean depressing and, while there were definitely some downbeat endings, the overall sense of the book is positive rather than negative.