The Conditioning Room

by Jeanette Clarke

She thought she was buying freedom.
Instead, she paid for her cage.

Lilah West signed the contract for a hundred thousand dollars she desperately needed. The fine print gave away her rights—her body, her choices, her voice. She laughed it off, convinced no one would ever collect.

Months later, she wakes in a pastel-pink room padded like a dollhouse. Cameras track her every move. A calm voice whispers through hidden

“Today we learn how to ask nicely, little one. Use your inside voice, and Daddy will hear you.”

Obedience earns warmth. Disobedience earns punishment. Every rule broken strips away a piece of her identity. Every reward blurs the line between hate and need. And when she finally whispers please, she realizes it isn’t just compliance he wants.

It’s her. Entirely.

Perfect for readers of The Ritual, Praise, and Captive in the Dark, The Conditioning Room is a dark captive romance that will leave you shaken, breathless, and questioning how much control you’d give up for the promise of being loved.

Genres: Dark Romance, Dark, Romance, Erotica, BDSM, Forced Proximity, Spicy

326 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 3, 2025

About the author

Jeanette Clarke is a cross-genre author writing across science fiction, fantasy, romantic comedy, psychological horror, and dark romance. Her stories range from sharp-witted, feel-good romances to intense, psychologically charged tales of obsession, survival, and morally gray love—often with a little extra heat woven in.

When she’s not writing, Jeanette travels frequently, draws inspiration from the world around her, and spends her time with her amazing husband and their wonderful pups.

Reviews

[rebecca kendall · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hold up

I would have given it 3 stars but the ending was horrible. This book could have been good but the FMC was annoying. Is there suppose to be a second book?

[Sheila Grubbs · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received this book as an arc. This book is crazy good! I would say this is a dark spicy romance with a psychological thriller kind of side. There are definitely a lot of trigger warnings which are all mentioned and would highly recommend you read those first. It is dark at times and I found myself trying to decide if I liked Gabriel or couldn’t stand him. But I found myself rooting for him and Bunny / Lila in the end. Would definitely read the second book if Jeannette writes one. She is very careful on how she tells this story, knowing it can be heavy and possibly uncomfortable at times. But very very well done.

[iky reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received this book as an ARC and am voluntarily leaving my review.

Let’s get straight to it—the elephant in the room. With seven full pages of trigger warnings, you already know this isn’t your typical dark romance promising a fluffy HEA. This story dives headfirst into pitch-black territory, with heavy BDSM themes—particularly in the Master/slave psychological realm. Sensitive readers, consider yourselves warned.

That being said… this was so damn good. I devoured it in a single sitting because I simply couldn’t put it down. The plot is a wild blend of kink, spice, and unapologetic Daddy/bunny dynamics that keep you hooked from start to finish.

The MMC still feels like he has layers left to unravel, and with the slightly open-ended conclusion (that still offered just enough closure to be satisfying), I can only assume book two is lurking on the horizon—and I’m ready for it.

What truly elevated the book for me was the FMC’s transformation. Watching her shed layers, break boundaries, and embrace the version of herself she longed for most was powerful. She stepped fully into her role—a true submissive in every aspect—while still holding onto her fire. Her emotions were palpable, from raw joy to unrestrained tantrums, and it made her journey mesmerizing to witness.

📚 Final Thoughts:
Dark, twisted, and utterly addictive, this book has officially claimed a spot in my Top 10 Reads of 2025. If you’re brave enough to walk the razor’s edge of dark romance, this one will consume you.

[Tracy McDonell · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.0 out of 5 stars
Dark 😎😎😎
Reviewed in the United States on December 5, 2025
Format: Kindle
I am not one who reads the trigger warnings… they are waisted pages for me 😎😎 However, this book is DARK and please read those pages!! It is a dark spicy romance twisted in a psychological thriller! It is a crazy ride and I was there for it

[Lisa Kimbrell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a free copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving a review.

This is a very dark story….all the triggers. And the ending, the broken girl fighting back but still brainwashed….just whoa….🤯

[Linda · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've read a lot of dark romance, this one is pretty standard with the new idea of a psychological study aspect. The beginning is interesting, the middle third pretty boring, and the ending unique and a cliff hanger. The sex scenes leave a lot to be desired, and lack description. I'm not into the DD/lg kink, so that is probably coloring my review. The writing overall is good, and I did finish it.

[ink_and_paper04 · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a phenomenal book! Jeanette portrays the slow decent into forced submission and Stockholm Syndrome extremely well, and I couldn’t put it down!

[al3xa · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5
uhh not for me

[Kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars  

Basics
Author: she/her, US?
Genre: psychological thriller OR dark romance
Setting: the Institute
Themes: submission, control, power exchange
Vibes: intimate, naked, psychological

Characters
🐰 Lilah/Bunny - woman who signs her freedom away for a reconditioning experiment, which unveils her submissive nature
📋 Gabriel - scientist studying Lilah, who becomes her Dom

Pros
+ strong start
+ fmc signs, waits, tries to avoid, but is taken to the pink room anyway, as per the contract
+ love to watch her rail against him
+ I think I hate him
+ Prediction. Either there is no mountain house, and he's doing a catch-and-release OR there is a mountain house, and he turned her into a domestic submissive.
+ I'm still not sure he really likes her, despite what he says. Something has my alarm bells ringing that all his talk was just to mold and love bomb her for control. Like in the end, he'll just return her to life because he gets off on breaking them and molding them to need/love/submit to him then breaks them again by abandoning them. Or he has a mountain house full of submissives 1-47.
+ The ending will really decide if this is good or meh. Maybe he doesn't really love her and will abandon her? Maybe she's been faking until she gets a chance to escape? Maybe she kills him? What happens then will color everything I've been feeling for the whole back half of the book.
+ Because I can't believe a word that comes out of his mouth, watching her get all barebreasted and domestic for him is giving me the biggest academic-incel-learned-mindfuck-technique vibes. And because I'm reading this as psychological thriller/horror, I feel revulsion, but that's the point. If I was reading this as a romance, this point would be in my "cons" section.
+ There is such a HUGE lead up to her final day/first day that it is like waving a death flag, but for his abandonment. Her: "One more day of contract." Him: "Then forever of choice... Tomorrow's a big day." 🙈
+ okay ending, I see you 👍
+ I will be reading the next book because I am nosy and need to know what happens. My dream scenario is that he didn't betray her, but he was forcible removed from her due to his actions. And now she'll have to fight and kill to find him/save him. A complete role reversal to get her happily-ever-after-BDSM-style would be great 🙏

Cons
- This, for me, is straight up not a romance. I'm reading it as pure psychological thriller. If you're reading this as a romance, please, this man has so many mentally abusive red flags I cannot. Not that I don't read dark & mafia, but they don't utterly break down the heroine to this point. 🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩
- Their D/s dynamic/romance felt too underdeveloped. She fell for him because he broke her brain. He fell for her because... she railed against him? Didn't everyone do that? Other than landing a hitting blow, what else made her stand out? To the point he abandoned his usual professionalism/ethics/conduct 🤔

Comp Recs
+ Shy Girl by Mia Ballard x Bunny by Mona Awad

Content Warnings
LOTS (just check the very long author list)

[kymagirl · Rating 5 out of 5]

She sold her freedom for a chance to survive. Then he collected.

Lilah is broke, cornered, and too proud to admit how close she is to collapse. When a mysterious institute offers life-changing money for a behavioral study, she reads the fine print, signs anyway, and tells herself she’s smarter than the trap. Months later, it comes for her.

Inside the Conditioning Room, every rule is designed to take something from her. Her name. Her control. Her anger. Her ability to tell punishment from care. Gabriel Mire watches with clinical patience, but Lilah isn’t easy. She fights with pride, fury, and a mouth sharp enough to cut through him.

Gabriel is supposed to stay detached. Instead, Lilah becomes the variable he can’t contain. The more he studies, the more personal it gets, and the more she resists, the more he wants every guarded part of her. Captivity turns darker and harder to name.

As Lilah is pushed past fear into need, and Gabriel slips from observer into obsession, their bond becomes a brutal negotiation between surrender and survival. She doesn’t simply break. She changes. Some pieces of the cage feel like home.

Lilah moves from self-protection into fractured surrender, while Gabriel’s control exposes his own dependency and obsession. Together, they become something dangerous, built on coercion, shame, need, and what can still belong to the self when desire is shaped by control.

A dark, kink-forward, psychological erotica about forced proximity, forced submission, mind control, power exchange, and emotional dependency. It digs into control, shame, survival under coercion, and the blur between care and possession. It’s about a woman who signs away her freedom, a man whose control turns obsessive, and a bond that makes surrender, survival, and self-possession impossible to separate.

The Elevator Pitch: Lilah West thinks a signature can buy her a way out, but the contract she signs opens the door to a room built to strip her down to instinct, need, and obedience. Dr. Gabriel Mire studies her like a subject, shapes her like a possession, and discovers too late that her defiance is the one variable he can’t control. As punishment becomes praise and captivity turns intimate, their bond darkens into a dangerous question of who is breaking, who is choosing, and who truly belongs to whom.

Heat Level: 🖤🔥 Erotica / Kink-Forward

[Kat Jowett · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was dark and fantastic. It definitely won’t be to everyone’s tastes so please check the trigger warnings. I’m not going to write too much because I think your best going into this book blind. It’s about conditioning behaviour and revealing what’s already inside. The ways they do this are massively unconventional and what’s left at the end is a whole new person but can they survive in the real world with out the rules, punishments and rewards…

If you like taboo, dark psychological books with a element of romance then you’ll enjoy this.

I received a free copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving a review.

[Chelsea Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one is dark. Huge list of trigger warnings, and the author follows through on every single one. Expect heavy themes and a raw look at Stockholm Syndrome that doesn’t hold back. At times it’s brutal and overwhelming, but I couldn’t stop reading. The ending really landed for me—it was satisfying after such an intense ride. This book is definitely not for everyone, but if you can handle the triggers, it’s definitely memorable.

[Shelbie Howes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Where do I start?! First thing first, read those triggers! They are there for a reason! This book gave me so many emotions.. from wanting to yell at the FMC, yell with her & even cry with her.. I started to feel the end was becoming predictable but by the end I hadn't predicted anything properly! - also learned a thing or two about myself while reading 😏.

I received a free copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving a review.

[Cassandra Bergman · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Today we learn how to ask nicely, little one. Use your inside voice, and Daddy will hear you.” Well, throw me in a cage and call me bunny because I’m all in. As always check your triggers. I was immediately hooked to this book. It is f*cked up in the best way. I probably shouldn’t enjoy this kind of thing, but we all know I have issues. The ending took a turn, but I wasn’t disappointed! Honestly, I think it made it SO much better. Although now I kind of want a book 2!

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let me reiterate the author when they say- read those triggers. No joke. This book was dark. Intense. It sucked me in so fast, that all I did for 20 hours was read this book from front to back. And just when I thought the FMC was permanently altered in personality, she showed her teeth again, in a demented, but good way. This book is dark and twisted, and very good.

[Savannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is definitely something that draws you in and doesn't let go. I received a free copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving a review. This is not a light hearted happy read. It is intense and emotional and leaves you questioning what just happened. Check. Your. Triggers.

[Tina Dyble · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was completely different from anything I’d read before. I didn’t see the ending coming I thought it was a twisted romance but gosh was I wrong. If you like dark and dirty this is for you.

I received a free copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving a review.

[Kim Whitehead · Rating 4 out of 5]

It started out pretty good but for some reason my interest waned. Entertaining.

[Melanie Garderen · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF at 61%. Can't take the Daddy shit anymore

[Dom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow what a wild ride. It made me uncomfortable but I was intrigued the whole time. I wasn't expecting the ending but I enjoyed it. Can't wait to read the rest!

[Montana Tracer · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVE LOVE LOVE!! I hope there is a next book to reunite Bunny and Gabriel!

[Kendra · Rating 1 out of 5]

what…did I actually read

There is hardly any s*xually explicit scenes in this book. This is purely psychological warfare. The ending is just…completely off base from what the entire book was about. I can see there are two more books in the series and part of me wants to read them just to see how much more unhinged this FMC gets. This is certainly a trigger warning-heavy book so definitely pay attention to that.

[Rima Ayoub · Rating 4 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️⭐️½

I picked up The Conditioning Room after seeing someone on a Facebook book page say, “I don’t know what I just read.” Naturally, I was instantly intrigued. They also mentioned it was “too much” and triggering, so of course I took that as a personal challenge.

The story follows Lilah, who signs a contract for $100k to participate in what she believes is a simple “study.” What she doesn’t realize is that the owner of the institute is also the one running the experiment on her, which sets the tone for a dark, unsettling ride. This is a short book, so everything moves very fast. Would I believe someone could be conditioned that quickly in real life? No. But that’s why this is fiction, and I was willing to suspend disbelief for the sake of the story.

Where this book really got me was the ending. The twist genuinely shocked me, and I went in completely unaware that this is a three book series. Now I’m left with a million questions: What’s going to happen to Lilah? Where is Gabriel? And who is this new character introduced in book two?!

While the pacing felt rushed at times and some elements could have been explored more deeply, the intrigue absolutely worked on me. The book did exactly what it set out to do: hook me. And for that reason, I’ll be diving into the next book.

I would definitely suggest checking the trigger warnings before going in. For me, this felt fairly light.. But my “light” is not someone else’s light, and I can see why it might be too much for some readers. Overall, it was a fun, quick read that did exactly what it needed to do, and I’m genuinely interested to see where the story goes next. Xo 💋

[Cassie berridge · Rating 3 out of 5]

captivating, but repetitive.

The beginning of this story sucked me in.
But I feel like they developed feelings too quickly. And a lot of it, was just them stating the same things over and over again In the second half. Seemed like page fillers to me. Good book. The ending started to throw me for a loop, but the resolution was disappointing.
This could have totally turned into a duet or a series.
Kept my attention, dark and twisty in ways. An easy read. But def not my fav.

[M · Rating 2 out of 5]

I SURVIVED!!!!!!! 2.5*** Holy crap this book felt like it took ages to read. It was entirely too long for what it needed to be and a lot of the sentences felt reused and recycled throughout the whole book I was ready to be done!!!

I thought the concept was fun and original, using a sex study for research as a basis for a bdsm relationship, but it ended up being….odd. From a psychology standpoint this was actually kind of messed up but….

There are no feelings of love or true emotional connections between the characters outside of their “sessions” which are lowkey fucked up imo but like i guess that’s the point???
I think the author was trying to make MMC come off as a regimented research doctor but he came off as a perverted freak with weird fetishes like he was icking me so bad!!!!!

3 stars for a unique ending like maybe I should have seen it coming but with the way the author was writing I thought it would be something cliche, but I wasn’t expecting it. I want to know how this continues but I cannot read more rip

[April · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story was different than any I've read. It is what I would describe as a psychological dark romance. I started out hating Gabriel and ended up wondering if he really loves Lilath. The ending was not what I was expecting and hoping there is a next book coming.

[Luna’s Library]

It started off good but took a strange turn.. the story fell flat for me and the training thing was just bizarre with the bottle 😶

[Cheyenne Joy Mijdam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Personal Copy Review
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Conditioning Room by Jeanette Clarke
Published August 2025

First of all, thank you to BookSprout and Jeanette Clarke for handing me a book that made me sit there at midnight questioning whether pleasure and punishment have secretly been dating this whole time. Deeply appreciated. Truly. My therapist would probably disagree.

Also. Before the dark little gremlins in here start screaming “I need this immediately,” please understand this book comes with a trigger warning list so long it practically deserves its own table of contents. If your ideal reading experience involves emotional stability, healthy communication, sunshine, personal growth and drinking tea while wrapped in a soft blanket… respectfully, run. Go read something magical with dragons and hope. Leave this cursed psychological fever dream alone.

I don’t even know how to explain what this book did to me properly because it didn’t just get into my head. It quietly unpacked boxes in there. Rearranged furniture. Put sticky notes on my psychological understanding of trauma, obedience, conditioning and survival and then sat back watching me slowly lose my mind over it.

And the worst part? It did it carefully. Deliberately. Almost gently. Which somehow makes it worse.

I approached this book clinically at first. I had to. I let the detached observer in me lead because the second I allowed myself to emotionally step into Lilah’s head—or worse, the Doctor’s—I would have ended up folded into a blanket burrito in the corner of my room staring into space while my brain softly dial-up screamed in the background.

This story is dark in the kind of way that lingers under your skin. Not for shock value. Not for cheap horror. The pacing is slow, deliberate and uncomfortable in the exact way it needed to be because this book wants you to sit there with it. To watch. To analyze. To understand. And maybe hate yourself a little for understanding.

What fascinated me most was how perfectly it captures the terrifying things the body remembers even when the mind decides survival is easier than acknowledgment. The way obedience can start feeling safe. The way permission suddenly feels like affection. The way deprivation can make even distorted attention feel holy.

And honestly? That was the part that wrecked me.

Because beneath all the manipulation, all the darkness, all the deeply disturbing dynamics, sits this painfully human truth: if someone offers us the thing we’ve been starving for long enough—even in the most damaged, wrong and devastating form possible—part of us will still reach for it.

Not because we’re weak.
Because we’re human.

This is not a casual read. This is not “just one more chapter before bed.” This is the kind of book that quietly follows you around afterward like an emotionally unstable ghost carrying a clipboard.

Five deeply uncomfortable, psychologically fascinated, sleep-deprived stars.
This book earned its permanent rent-free apartment in my head somewhere around chapter two and unfortunately I don’t think it plans on leaving anytime soon.

[Nikki B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Conditioning Room was one of those books where... I just questioned so many things by the end. Please please read the trigger warning for this one.
Lila is signing a contract. This contract will leave her with a lot of money, but since she desperately needs the money and thinks that what she's signing away isn't something that they'll be interested in collecting on, she signs without reading the fine print. What's in the fine print? Her rights to her body, her choices, and her voice. When the knock come on her door to collect payment months later, she runs. She thought she outsmarted them. She thought she could take the money and hide out, but they find her. She wakes up in a pink room,. cameras everywhere, stripped of everything down to her name. She is now Bunny. And Bunny must do whatever Daddy asks or there will be repercussions. I disliked Gabriel so much. There was not a redeemable quality in him that I liked. The amount of times he gaslit her into believing this is what she was asking for and what she wanted was making me soo mad. This book had a lot of trigger warnings and while I have no triggers, this story, with all the baby like things happening gave me the ick. But I couldn't stop. I even began to wonder if Gabriel was some sort of child obsessed man. Then after breaking Lila and wrecking her to the point she loses herself and identity, she develops an extreme case of Stockholm Syndrome and is so conditioned to needing a command for things that she couldn't function without them by the end. Now... the ending, that twist, I didn't see coming. I loved that she found it in her to fight back. I love the way this ended. I don't know if there's coming to be another one to this.. but this definitely left me wanting more!

[Alicia · Rating 1 out of 5]

0/5 stars. So... So many things are wrong; I don't even know where to start.

1. The setup: Maybe because of my lived experience, the start of the book had me rolling, due to how dumb the premise was. In America, we have this thing called the American Psychological Association, or the APA; they guide all psychological studies. Most people may not know the org, but most people know you cannot be forced to participate in unethical studies no matter what you signed. Meaning out the gate I had to suspend unbelievable levels of disbelief to make this shit work, and I HATE when books cannot bother to come up with a believable premise that would make these events even tangentially possible. The author dared to say:

"This can't be legal," I said finally, my voice hoarse.
"I assure you, our legal team is quite thorough. Everything in that contract is entirely within the bounds of consensual research participation."

Like, are we dead ass?

2. Lilah is a dumbass: Self-explanatory.

3. The dogshit writing: The whole book was written like a cringe retelling of a single chapter of 50 Shades of Grey. The MC was not conditioned nearly enough for her to behave the way she does, and what little "conditioning" she went through was blase at best. Yapping about how broken she was when she basically just spent time with a light dom for 2 months🫩. The last like 10 chapters were spent saying the same thing over and over again, dragging this shit story to hell and back. This was done by making the MC inconsistent and flip-flopping what she is thinking every other page. This all culminated in one of the worst "actually I am a badass" moments I have ever seen or read.