Nikki Elizabeth's Blog

When I look at myself in the mirror this morning, I see what the rest of the world must. A woman unable to let anyone through the armor.

The curse was a catalyst, but it wasn’t the beginning. I have always tried to hide myself away.

What a fun, easy read by Hayley Anderton! Alana, The Cursed Queen, has given everything to save her kingdom. After a witch curses her, love is the only thing that can break through the dark magic… And though she finds that fabled true love, she still manages to be her own knight in shining armor.

Fast-paced and with no shortage of action, I tore through this book in a few hours. I loved how Bolt showed that despite Alana’s curse, there was a pool of humanity within her just awaiting a ripple of feeling. Enter Fiora, a tattooed witch who forces the self-exiled queen to finally feel again, and mix in a few mile-high arachnids for good measure and you’ve got a real page-turner.

I adored how the self-love felt so earned at the end of the story. I’d recommend this novella by Anderton for fans of fantasy and classic fairytale retellings.

Read if you love: Fairytale Retellings, Novellas, F/F Romance

The post Indie Book Spotlight: A Thorn Among Roses: A Sapphic Beauty & the Beast Novella by Hayley Anderton first appeared on Nikki Elizabeth.

No, I am not “okay”. I’ve had a very bad night spent in sub-zero temperatures with two broken limbs, and now I have to run for my life like some fugitive when I have done absolutely nothing wrong except tell off some ancient psycho to his face, and then you show up like the ghost of Christmas past when I least expect it.

A Midflight Vampire’s Tale by Linda Ling is a refreshingly innovative take on the vampire genre, weaving together ancient Chinese history, modern lore, and a deeply personal tale of redemption. The story unfolds mid-flight, where two vampires reluctantly find themselves sharing a cabin. The setting of an overnight flight serves as the perfect backdrop for a tale that alternates between historical flashbacks and the present, building suspense and intimacy in equal measure. Hands down, this is probably my favorite read of 2024. Genuinely, it was that good.

Cheng’s character is the novel’s emotional core. Her backstory is as rich as it is heartbreaking, and her voice balances the wisdom of centuries with the rawness of unresolved guilt. And if you’re wondering about her past in ancient China, rest assured that Cheng will take us through everything you want to know:

“Never ask a woman her age. Especially someone like me. But since we’re talking about that, I might as well date myself. I was born in the year 247 B.C.”

While I love Cheng’s storytelling and sass, Henry, her reluctant confidant and adversary, absolutely adds another layer of tension and intrigue. The interplay between them is electric, revealing more about their shared history with every chapter. The juxtaposition of two types of vampires — True Bloods and Hybrids — brings a new twist to traditional vampire mythology. Ling’s seamless integration of historical research enhances the story’s authenticity and makes Cheng’s journey both poignant and unique.

A Midflight Vampire’s Tale doesn’t shy away from exploring the burden of immortality, the weight of past mistakes, and the complexities of connection… A deeply human story despite being told by vampires. With its lyrical prose, unforgettable characters, and masterful world-building, Ling’s novel is a must-read for fans of Anne Rice, vampire lore, and historical fiction. I can’t recommend it enough!

Read if you love: Ancient Chinese fiction, Vampires, Paranormal Fiction

The post Indie Book Spotlight: A Midflight Vampire’s Tale by Linda Ling first appeared on Nikki Elizabeth.

As a multi-genre author, I’ve found myself reflecting on what common thread draws my stories together. After a bit of reflection, the answer was obvious: gothic elements. There’s a particular type of gothic story that doesn’t rely on crumbling castles or candlelit corridors so much as the slow decay of modern certainties; rooms that turn tense, technologies that double as instruments of shame and vanity, and intimacies that become political. The Industrialized series opens on that exact terrain. From the mechanical corset that tightens like a ritualized noose to the dusty laboratories and the gala’s gilded rot, the book stages its gothic lens through industry, artifice, and control.

It’s the kind of story that hums with electricity and moral corrosion… and the kind you’ll want to read when the nights get long and the weather turns reflective. Truly, Industrialized is the perfect “darker half of the year” read.

Kristina: A Gothic Mind Unraveling

Every gothic story has its monster-maker — the mind too brilliant to rest, too wounded to stop. In Industrialized, it may seem like Titus is our monster-maker at first glance, but that mind really belongs to Kristina, the novel’s conflicted genius and self-conscious narrator. She doesn’t just inhabit the gothic tradition. Kristina rebuilds it from the inside, soldering intellect and mania together until they’re indistinguishable in the final stretches of Part One: Experiment.

Kristina’s unique tragedy is that she’s both creator and creation. If you haven’t yet read the story, I’m going to do my best to keep this vague while still diving into some of my favorite literary elements. The mechanical corset she’s forced to wear, for example, is a literal machine of restraint, but it’s also a perfect metaphor for her intellectual confinement — a structure that keeps her upright, disciplined, and docile while crushing her. Her mind, similarly, is brilliant and precise, but conditioned by years of indoctrination under Tarm Industries and the Mathesius Family’s corporate dogma. She’s a woman trained to think in systems that exploit her curiosity. She’s very much a victim of that greater, decaying system, but she also can’t resist her desire to create things just to see if she can.

Like a female Victor Frankenstein, Kristina’s genius has no moral off-switch. It’s both ambition and compulsion. The Industrialized series never lets you forget that her experiments are both intellectual and psychological — attempts to resurrect a sense of self after years of erasure. When she mixes new compounds, tests materials, or studies the grotesque technologies of her world, she’s simultaneously trying to escape it and proving she never can. Which leads me back to an earlier point I made: Titus, the series’ MMC, is not the monster-maker. He’s Kristina’s mirror, proof of what she could become and how close she comes to losing herself completely.

Kristina’s narration, meanwhile, reads like a postmodern echo of The Yellow Wallpaper, which was very much by design. (And you’ll spot some references to it in the moving ceiling scene and the final lament about wishing to see the “molding crawl.”) The more she observes, the less we readers trust what she sees. Kristina consistently records, rationalizes, dissociates — all in the same paragraph, at times. And like many gothic narrators of yore, Kristina’s unreliability isn’t a flaw in the writing. It’s the point. Her skewed perception is the evidence of her imprisonment. Her language fractures under the weight of systems designed to control her body and mind, and the reader must learn to read between the cracks as the series unfolds. (Well, for Part One and Part Two, at least. Poor Vinnie’s Valor leans pretty mill-of-the-run dystopian, and The Inconvenience of Time is firmly in the dystopian romance camp. Both, coincidentally, do not have Kristina as a narrator.)

Isolation defines her as a narrator — physical, psychological, ideological. She’s chained both literally (in the corset, in experiments, and in actual chains near the end of Part One) and symbolically (in loyalty to the very structures that hurt her and to her own curiosity). The people around her misread her intellect as volatility, her independence as danger. And what’s more gothic than a woman too clever for the role she’s given?

Kristina, at her core, is the gothic scientist reimagined for the modern age — not a man haunted by what he’s built, but a woman haunted by what she’s allowed to imagine and the horrors she’s enabled.

The Corset: Where Flesh Meets Industry

The mechanical corset is the novel’s first act of bodily horror — and its most enduring one. It “automatically gets smaller,” compressing ribs until breath and blood become luxuries. That image of the corset cutting deeper with each moment isn’t just physical torment — it’s a metaphor for systemic control, the industrialization of femininity, and the cultural obsession with perfection. (As one reader notes, it’s “societal pressure to change yourself in extreme ways to fit in to a mold [even if it could cost your life].”)

When the device is finally removed, the sensation isn’t relief so much as rebirth. The physical details — metal groaning, skin imprinted with mechanical seams — feel almost religious in their intensity. It’s a scene that very much recalls Mary Shelley’s fascination with creation and violation, but through the lens of machinery instead of lightning. And, as we mentioned in Kristina’s opening section, it’s a tool of control and a vehicle of isolation.

Architecture of Secrecy: Laboratories, Galas, and Gilded Rot

Traditional gothic stories love their manors and abbeys. Industrialized gives us labs and hangars instead. The Tarm Industries laboratory and the Nordstern Glänzend hangar aren’t sterile workspaces — they’re cathedrals of modern hubris, filled with hums, fumes, and a devotion to progress at any cost. And, to take things a step further, Columbina’s chapel brings in that decaying, haunting architecture gothic readers so crave. (To keep things in line with the industrial themes, I chose to base it off a few structures in the American Rust Belt and my hometown. The chapel exterior is based on Severance Music Center in Cleveland, Ohio, and its interior is based off St. Theodosius in CLE’s Tremont neighborhood. While I’m jabbering about my hometown, I’ll also add that we catch a glimpse of an “outdoor chandelier” in Part Two, which — you guessed it — is based off the GE Chandelier in Cleveland’s Playhouse Square.)

The Unveiling Gala, too, becomes a kind of gothic masquerade: chandeliers glitter over hypocrisy, and corporate responsibility is performed like liturgy. Everyone is masked by civility, while the real rituals — manipulation, experimentation, and inheritance — happen just out of sight. So much so, in fact, that Kristina is surprised when she learns that an acquaintance from the Gala didn’t survive the night. She doesn’t even discover who was actually behind his downfall until Part Two, as much of the story truly unfolds beyond her narration.

It’s no accident that much of the novel’s horror takes place in spaces designed to impress. In Industrialized, architecture itself is complicit, housing both elegance and cruelty in the same breath. Though not necessarily an intentional construction, it is a bit poetic that Kristina is fascinated by architecture, just as she’s enamored by the systems that strive to control her.

The Body: Scars, Prosthetics, and Technological Ghosts

If the setting is gothic in scale, the body is gothic in texture. Industrialized treats human bodies as records of social engineering — scars, prosthetics, and skin treatments all become ways of reading who has power and who doesn’t. And, ironically, I do mean for those to be applied in tandem. Let me elaborate.

Kristina’s torso, marked by years of mechanical corsetry, holds the story’s emotional center — her body both weaponized and reclaimed.Titus’s prosthetic leg and the recurring talk of experimental balms and physical “corrections” complicate what it means to be healed. Technology saves and harms in equal measure.

Kristina and Titus function as reflection of each other’s best and worst impulses. In terms of power, they very much fulfill a similar duality. They both hold an incredible degree of power, but they also both find that they’re pawns in a larger, more complicated system. They both hold power and very much do not maintain control. And when it comes to descriptions of their deformations, it’s not grotesque for spectacle’s sake — it’s for empathy. Readers feels every inch of what this society has done to its people, and how the scars become both evidence and defiance. (Though, while we’re on a note about the grotesqueness of their injuries… Read the last scene in The Inconvenience of Time if you want to see things get vivid. I googled some fascinating and horrifying things to bring that bad boy to life.)

Why Industrialized Belongs to Autumn and Winter Readers

There’s a certain comfort in discomfort, isn’t there? Especially when the air outside cools and the sun clocks out early. Industrialized feels perfect for that time of year when everything rusts, slows, and burns a little lower. (Almost like the aerugo solution that’s so ever-present in the series. Could that possibly be a metaphor for winter in an environment that doesn’t really get cold? Hmm. I digress.)

The novel’s sensory palette leans cold and metallic: rust, smoke, dim lamplight, the echo of the narrator’s madness. Its tension accumulates slowly rather than explodes. It’s not a story of jump scares, but one of slow unease — the kind you sit with over mulled wine under a rainy window. Believe me, you’ll want to stare outside and contemplate everything when you hit the horrifying conclusion to Part One. This is gothic for thinkers. For readers who like to linger in the gray space between beauty and horror, love and control. One reviewer called the series “cerebral,” and I love that description. It’s really ideal for fans of literary fiction.

What makes Industrialized especially perfect for lovers of literary fiction is its refusal to pick one lane. It’s speculative but poetic, political but deeply human. The story’s emotional current runs beneath the machinery, carried by voice and nuance rather than spectacle. These strands interlace so naturally (if I may say so) that readers who come for the atmosphere stay for the moral calculus. Every invention, every conversation, every scar is doing double duty… Character study and social commentary all at once.

A Gothic for the Modern Age

Kristina’s voice anchors the story in empathy. She’s a survivor navigating a system that rewards obedience and punishes curiosity. Her exchanges with Titus, the Family, and the institution itself trace the contours of power with an almost forensic eye. And the worst part? She’s too close to the situation to see how messy it is.

This is where Industrialized transcends genre: it’s not just gothic dressing over a dystopian plot. It’s a moral autopsy of control, of how bodies become battlegrounds and inventions become chains and social systems become decay. That’s what makes it so timely, so resonant, and so satisfying for readers who like their fiction layered.

Because this book doesn’t just entertain; it lingers. It takes what’s most frightening about modern life — surveillance, perfectionism, corporatized morality — and translates it into gothic language. It’s intelligent, tactile, and quietly devastating. Until it’s very loudly devastating in the final scenes of Part One and Part Two, respectively.

There’s a particular satisfaction in finishing the Industrialized series and realizing the haunted house isn’t a castle at all — it’s the system we live in. The ghosts are institutional rather than supernatural. The monster isn’t lurking in a crypt but running a company, selling “innovation.” In some instances, readers may find that they’re the monster, empathizing with the wrong players and growing frustrated at a victim who’s too close to the situation to see how bad it is. It’s a book that, if read closely, allows you to reflect on yourself and your role in the systems that shape you.

That’s why this story belongs to the darker months: it mirrors our own half-light — the space between what we build and what that builds in return.

The post Industrial Gothic: Why Industrialized Is the Perfect Read for the Darker Half of the Year first appeared on Nikki Elizabeth.

Been itching to start the Industrialized series, but haven’t had a chance to sit down and dive in? I’ve got you. To help get you started, I’ve got a video narration of the prequel novella to introduce you to the series’ world-building, characters, and distinct vibe. Listen in on your commute or while you’re sorting through those annoying autoreply emails early in the morning. Whatever you choose, this easy, breezy story is ready to introduce you to the world of Industrialized.

Please note that the series does include a number of content warnings, though Poor Vinnie’s Valor has less violence and gore than the other books. (In fact, it has almost none.) The primary triggers to note in this story are the selling of children into marriage, cult activity, and chemical manipulation.

The post Live Author Reading: Poor Vinnie’s Valor first appeared on Nikki Elizabeth.

“No, Mr. Burgh. I literally mean this locket has the power to commit mass murder—a little too conveniently at that.”

The Locket by Michelle Konde is a fascinating read. The story follows the misadventures of Agent Burgh (and team), a rational man thrust into an irrational world where cults, bizarre artifacts, and supernatural forces come together. The book artfully balances high-stakes suspense with a richly built world, topped off with digestible and relatable dialogue.

The characters really shine in The Locket. Each newcomer to the story has depth, and the characters’ interactions and quirks add a layer of humanity to the fast-paced thriller. (Be prepared for a bit of swearing, too! haha) You could even argue that the locket itself is something of a character:

“The locket feeds off the energy the planet and its inhabitants radiate—it is a portal through which supernatural balance is sustained. It recognizes when to give or take life as is destined, never more or less.”

While I deeply enjoyed the story, Konde’s atmospheric writing is what really drew me in. She transports readers to the cobbled streets of Prague, capturing the city’s haunting beauty and sense of mystery that perfectly complement the supernatural elements of the story. If you love a good story filled with suspense, richly written characters, and a touch of the paranormal, this book belongs on your TBR!

Read if you love: Espionage, Thrillers, Paranormal Fiction

The post Indie Book Spotlight: The Locket by Michelle Konde first appeared on Nikki Elizabeth.

“Fear isn’t the enemy. Hiding from it is. Every time I do something that scares me, I win a little piece of myself back. Every act of courage, no matter how small, is a victory against the darkness that wants to swallow us whole.”

Eddy Rose is the prose QUEEN. I absolutely love the way she weaves her fictional worlds, and her tone almost leans gothic with rich atmospheric detail, slow, intentional beats, and commentary that borders on pure poetry. A Taste of Rhythm and Courage follows Lion, a beast and undefeated gladiator, as he explores his love for Saradra, a flame-haired freeborn slave who he fears will be taken away as soon as she conceives. Their world is complicated and layered, a place where carnage and cruelty are viewed as entertainment and commonplace necessities, and I find it absolutely fascinating how the author threads such vivid personalities into it.

As an added bonus, this short story comes with a preview of Lion of Zarall, which is an absolute must-read! This easy, breezy read is big on emotion and rich in storytelling, and it’s definitely recommended both as a standalone and as a companion read to the A Twilight of Blood series.

Read if you love: Gladiators, Deep Worldbuilding, Elegant Fantasy

The post Indie Book Spotlight: A Taste of Rhythm and Courage by Eddy Rose first appeared on Nikki Elizabeth.

“I’m not sad that you’ve changed. I’ve changed, too. I’m sad because you can’t see the good in yourself anymore.”

A Fox Among Flames by Sara Puissegur. Oh my gosh. If ASAS laid the foundation for Puissegur’s world, AFAF absolutely sets it alight. This second installment of the Celestial Destiny Series, coming in January 2026, takes everything that made the debut so stand-out – its heart, its peril, its sense of destiny – and sharpens it into something richer and far more emotionally complex. What a seriously incredible read, and so, so rich. I’m going to be reflecting on this arc for a while.

The story picks up right where we left off: Serena training under Queen Elara’s direction and finding her place among soldiers and allies. She’s no longer the frightened girl who fled her home in ASAS. She’s a leader now, hardened by grief and journey but still defined by compassion. Her growing bond with Will adds both tenderness and ache to her journey, especially as the tides of war begin to rise again. Meanwhile, across enemy lines, Anteros continues to emerge as the series’ most compelling contradiction; a prince born to cruelty, fighting to keep his soul intact. As with the first story, his loyalty to his father continues to fracture in surprising ways, and by the time Sabine’s arc unfolds, that fracture becomes something more like a chasm. We see new layers to the prince that were hinted at in ASAS, but become even more potent here. (I have things to say about Talitha, too, but I’ll bite my tongue so we don’t venture into spoilers.) Beyond our parallel heirs, the battle scenes are cinematic, the emotional beats are intimate, and the worldbuilding has SO much texture. Relationships also evolve beyond the expected, from Cole and Xandra’s companionship to Queen Elara’s precarious marriage and motherhood.

Without venturing into spoilers, I’ll just say this: the final act left me HOOKED, y’all. The losses cut deep, the victories feel earned, and the questions left hanging are the kind that keep you itching for the next installment. Puissegur has built a world worth exploring and a cast of characters worth fighting for. Literally SO excited for the next book!

Read if you love: High-stakes fantasy series, slow burn, Chosen One

The post Indie Book Spotlight: A Fox Among Flames by Sara Puissegur first appeared on Nikki Elizabeth.

“My dad is a cynocephalus and my mom is a siren,” I blurted the words out as quickly as possible. Heat suffused my cheeks and I knew I was turning bright red. “What?”

No, like Kai, you didn’t mishear that mythological mashup. Monsters-in-Law by Jeannin Counts is a delightfully weird, heartfelt, and utterly charming MM romance that manages to balance genuine emotional beats with gleeful absurdity. It’s the kind of story that makes you grin and tear up in equal measure… and then laugh when it’s revealed that Mothman is a secret tech guru.

The novella starts off with a sweet and simple office romance but shifts toward something more whimsical and tender as we’re thrust into The Vale, a Halloweentown-like world where mythical beings coexist. Though characters like Itsa and Cabbas aren’t human, the story never loses its very human heart. It’s a fun, affectionate, and occasionally funny story that explores how love can be both messy and transformative at the same time… Even if you’re unfortunate enough to get your mom’s top half and your dad’s bottom. (Because I agree with Huck that having a fin would have been so cool. You know how young humans play mermaids at the pool? I wonder if young residents of The Vale play humans at the pool.)

If you like your romances queer, clever, and full of unexpected magic, Counts’ latest story absolutely delivers. It’s an easy TBR add!

Read if you love: Cozy fantasy, Halloween and autumn vibes, and M/M Romance

The post Indie Book Spotlight: Monsters-in-Law by Jeannin Counts first appeared on Nikki Elizabeth.

I’ve always had one foot in both worlds, never truly belonging to either.

“[A Conduit is] considered a myth, mostly. A Veldan who can channel both Light and Shadow, turning them into something else entirely.”

… What an incredible story! To say I devoured it would be an understatement. Set in Kansas City (and later, Nebraska), the story follows Tessalyn (Tessa) Pryce as she finds love, order, and rebellion in a dystopian/supernatural world. In this strange tech-filled space, select people can manipulate Shadow and Light, but Tessa and her brother, Tristan, are special. She starts to find that she’s a Conduit, able to access Verdelis more directly… Essentially, if she was Jedi, she’s got Anakin’s unique attunement to the Force, and she can manipulate both energies plus siphon from the people around her. And her eyes? They change color. Tristan is a Weaver, who can manipulate both elements, but he’s not tapped into the Force quite as heavily.

The siblings meet Kieran, an AURA soldier who accidentally brings them into his world, separating the siblings from each other and Blitz, the dog they’re separated from who I could personally not stop thinking about. Tessa trains as a soldier, growing closer to her pink-haired, sharp-tongued roommate Lila and Kieran, with whom she finds a romantic connection. As they patrol and face dark creatures called Wraithkin, she catches a glimpse of Tristan, who turns his face away as if he’s never recognized her. Both siblings have recovered from a horrible, deadly condition called the Umbraxis, and Tessa spends her time fretting about the experiments she’d be subjected to if they discover it, which makes her especially concerned about what her brother has gone through at the hands of AURA. And she has strong reason to suspect he’d undergone experimentation, as she learns some dark truths about how the cult-like power harnesses the abilities of children. Naturally, an ounce of rebellion is spurred in her, and she follows Kieran down a path that could, potentially, help break down AURA and create a better, more balanced world.

The worldbuilding and story reminded me of The Initiative in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but if that season was well-done and Riley was a likeable love interest. This story really scratched an itch I didn’t know I had, and I read most of the story in just one day. I couldn’t put it down! I very highly recommend this series, and I definitely plan to read more from Nicole Thorner.

P.S. If Blitz isn’t in future books I will personally riot until I get closure.

Read if you love: YA stories, paranormal worlds, and dystopian plots

The post first appeared on Nikki Elizabeth.

Dystopian romance is a genre that’s all about love forged under systemic pressure — authoritarian rule, surveillance, scarcity, or engineered inequality — where intimacy becomes both a refuge and a rebellion. In this area, relationships are never “just” a love story; they’re often entangled with power, ethics, and survival. When done right, dystopian romance delivers double catharsis: the lovers change each other while they also change (or outlast) the world.

I’ve written about dystopian romance in the past, but it felt like the perfect time to revisit the topic now that The Inconvenience of Time is out in the world. In my previous article, we explored how my dystopian series oddly attracted a specific facet of romance readership… So in this one, I’d like to talk to my fellow authors about dystopian romance as a genre, why readers are craving it, and how to write a book that’s poised to capture readership.

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Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com

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What makes dystopian romance so potent is the way it intertwines something deeply personal (that is, love) with external factors like political corruption, environmental decay, or some other cataclismic happening. Oftentimes, this genre explores both the inner lives of characters as well as the nuances of greater society as a whole. If you’re looking to write your own dystopian romance novel, here’s what you’ll want to bring to the table:

Oppression with receipts
Show how policy shapes daily life. Pirates forced into crime by embargoes? That’s material, immediate pressure — not vibes. The world you build should naturally have some sort of direct impact on your characters rather than just acting as a backdrop.Romance as agency
Partners should help each other make harder, better choices (or expose the limits of choice). If your main character is walking a path that’s leading toward their destruction, their partner should grab their arm and steer them toward a steadier path. They should be a team, but remember that they’re still individuals… Allow their moments of disalignment to create tension.Morally gray power brokers
Industrialists funding rebellions, royals joining them, revolutionaries with terrorist ties — whatever cast you work with, make every ally a risk. There’s a huge bucket of readers that loves morally gray as a trope, and every ounce of friction builds further tension in your story.System-shaking midpoint
A rebellion goes public, rules change, or a ruling family doubles down. Whatever your big reveal is, these big turns should threaten both the couple and the cause. Dystopian romance is all about this steady duality between the characters’ inner lives and the society in which they dwell.Consequences that land
Victories should always cost something: crews scattered, ships wrecked, loyalties priced. Keep the bill visible, whatever prince you choose.Case Study: The Inconvenience of Time (Why This Romance Feels New)

Now that I’ve offered some advice, you’re probably wondering what qualifies me to make such declarations. Hi, I’m Nikki Elizabeth, author of the dystopian Industrialized series, which The Inconvenience of Time is a part of. The story was actually born from reader demand… Several scenes with the FMC and MMC from Inconvenience were cut from the main series throughout its development, and my readers were asking for them. They wanted more of Captain and Saida, so I happily dusted those scenes off and threaded them back into the story. Now, this manuscript delivers a layered dystopian romance by braiding three relationship threads through one collapsing state:

1.) Love vs. Leadership: Captain & Saida

Throughout Inconvenience, a seasoned captain and his first mate carry a slow-burn tension while recruiting forces to topple a king. Their intimacy is constantly deferred by logistics, danger, and a stubborn ethic of care for the crew. The work of leadership repeatedly interrupts the want. They were a fan favorite throughout the original duology, and candidly, they were my favorite, too. As a result, Inconvenience now serves as their tale and as an entry point to the series.

What’s fresh about this dynamic: They’re professionals first. The romance isn’t a detour… it’s forged in joint decision-making! Housing the crew, negotiating with allies, and weighing compromised benefactors all come before their desire for love. Additionally, Captain’s reluctance to allow the crew to come second to his love keeps him from putting romance first.

2.) Love Under Coercion: Kristina & Titus

A brilliant inventor is “recruited””” by a powerful industrialist with a shadowed past; affection grows in a pressure cooker and is later questioned when drugging and manipulation surface. The story treats consent as a live wire, not a box-check. These two were the primary protagonists of the original Industrialized duology, and while Kristina comes across as more mousy and restrained in Inconvenience, Titus absolutely sizzles with less restraint.

What’s fresh: The text interrogates whether love chosen under duress is love at all… and whether “ends justify means” revolutionaries deserve any ounce of devotion. What’s especially potent about this story is that I let the reader choose to draw their own conclusions.

3.) Love as Defection: Kristina & Prince Frazer

A prince, alienated from his father’s authoritarian rule, becomes an ally — and then something more intimate. Their bond reframes loyalty… not to blood, but to the people the crown failed. It’s secret, scandalous, and very, very human at the core.

What’s fresh: Political marriage as control tactic collides with an authentic, insurgent connection. The romance literally teaches the prince how to betray a tyrannical system, how to question his pre-programmed beliefs, and how to find camaraderie in a cold, impersonal world.

Trope Check: How This Story Subverts Expectations

Many dystopian romance books lean on familiar tropes, but The Inconvenience of Time twists them in surprising ways. The classic enemies-to-allies-to-lovers arc doesn’t unfold through a single couple. Instead, multiple asymmetric pairings — from captain and first mate to inventor and industrialist — continuously retest loyalty and force recalibration.

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The rebel leader love interest, often portrayed as purely noble in most media, appears here as a wealthy chemist-turned-industrialist whose charisma is undercut by terrorist ties and manipulative tactics, complicating every moment of trust and attraction. The arranged marriage trope, typically an inevitable obstacle or tragedy, becomes weaponized by the tyrant king himself, turning the pairing into proof of state control and deepening the authenticity of the “real” romance that forms in its shadow. Even the expected big battle blackout is transformed: rather than just a cinematic set-piece, it’s a strategic communications collapse that reshuffles allegiances and raises urgent questions of safety and consent right in the middle of the revolt.

Truly, I cannot recommend enough that you flip reader expectations. Traditional publishing often leans into the same set of familiar tropes, but the independent publishing outlet gives us the freedom to experiment and delight readers in a whole new way. In many respects, that freedom is your secret weapon.

So if you’re considering writing in this genre, remember that the heart of the story isn’t just star-crossed lovers, but also the system pressing down on them. It’s human and it’s societal. The strongest examples let romance and rebellion evolve side by side: every kiss carries risk, every promise tests loyalty, and every act of intimacy feels like defiance. Don’t be afraid to lean into the moral gray, to make consent a living question, and to show how even small personal choices ripple through a world on the brink. In dystopian romance, love isn’t a subplot — it’s the revolution’s beating heart.

FAQ: Dystopian Romance

What is dystopian romance?
A romance set inside an oppressive system (authoritarian rule, surveillance, engineered scarcity) where love and political resistance progress together in tandem.

Is dystopian romance the same as post-apocalyptic romance?
Not necessarily. Dystopian focuses on oppressive systems, while post-apocalyptic typically centers environmental collapse. They overlap, sure, but the pressure sources differ.

Do dystopian romances need tragic endings?
Not necessarily. The genre promises earned hope — some couples win small and live large; others win big and pay dearly. If you’re considering turning your dystopian romance into a series, this may not even be realized until the very end of the last book.

Which tropes fit dystopian romance best?
Morally gray love interests, arranged marriage as control, found family under revolt, consent under constraint, and “choose your people” loyalty arcs are often commen. However, as with any story, your imagination is the only limit.

The post Dystopian Romance: A Clear Definition, Key Tropes, and a Fresh Case Study first appeared on Nikki Elizabeth.