About
Emilie LaForet has loved writing and reading dark romantic stories since she was a
young kid. She is very private about details of her current life but yes she has a family
and lives in this planet. That's it. That's all she will reveal.
Emilie is a sexual abuse survivor who believes that exploring her darkness through
writing and reading brings her closer to healing. This is why she is so grateful to the
Dark Romance genre and community. Her main goal is to help people and to let them
know they are not alone. (Please read her Author's note for more details).
Her favorite characters are of the morally black and mentally struggling type.
Understandably, her favorite stories are the kind that rip your heart apart then leave
your soul in pieces, in the pit of hell, questioning your sanity.
Her first book is titled Your One and Only (published in July 2023). This book is the first
in a trilogy focusing on Stacy and John. This trilogy will be part of the DiSantos Mafia
series involving a total of at least ten books.
All her books will have long trigger warning lists that people should read before
proceeding to purchase them. This is because Emilie likes to explore uncomfortable
heart wrenching topics that most people avoid at all cost.
Being an independent author and a rebel means that readers shouldn’t be surprised if
her stories don’t always follow the usual rules or expectations.
The mental health of readers is much more important to her than book sales. Again her
goal is to help people who struggle with trauma. This is why she strongly urges readers
to please read her trigger warning lists before immersing themselves in her books.
Authors Note
First off, I want to assure readers, I do not in any way approve/support violence against
any animal or human being whether mental, physical and/or sexual. I also don’t believe
people under the age of eighteen are capable of consenting to sex.
I am extremely grateful for the existence of the Dark Romance community and genre.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of misconceptions as to why readers and writers enjoy the
Dark Romance genre.
One of the aspects I most admire is how it helps heal and unite survivors of abuse,
especially sexual abuse. Survivors relieve their trauma almost every day, sometimes
multiple times a day, and this can be through thoughts, nightmares and/or through
PTSD.
Dark Romance allows survivors of abuse to relieve their trauma in a controlled setting
with a happy ending. The minute a reader opens a book to read it, they are consenting
to immerse themselves in that world, despite whatever triggers that book may have. The
reader can stop reading at any time, meaning they get to control how much they want to
experience this event. And if they finish the book, then there’s almost always the
guarantee a happy ending. These are three things no survivor had when they
experienced abuse, Consent, Control, and a Happy Ending.
Another aspect in which this genre helps survivors is that the discussion of these books
opens up the conversation to the experiences of the readers and then survivors bond
more often and find there is nothing to be ashamed of, which is a great part of healing.
This is exactly why representation of survivors is so important. With representation
survivors discover they are not alone in their experiences, survival techniques, or
reactions.
Not only is discussion of these types of books helping survivors bond and heal, it also
helps readers pick up on subtle hints of an abuser, thereby preventing being targets of
abuse.
Unfortunately, there is an immense lack of information for the general population as to
what happens to the body and brain after being exposed to such horrible events and
victims are encouraged almost forced to stay quiet about it. Too many go through life in
silent anguish not knowing that everything they did was normal or acceptable, and they
drown in self-blame and disgust. It doesn’t help that the media has promoted only the
image of survivors who’ve become asexual when 60% of survivors become
hypersexual, thereby ensuring that hypersexual survivors feel even worse about
themselves when this is the more common response to such abuse. Yes the
experiences of asexual survivors is important but in focusing only in their experience
and responses others are pushed to be looked down upon by the general public.
I wish critics of the Dark Romance genre would realize how difficult these scenes can
be to write, especially when the author is a survivor of such abuse, which is not rare.
I re-wrote and edited my first book numerous times and every single time, the scenes
involving abuse triggered me, but I kept going because this was a story I had to get out
there.
Some critics accuse this genre of glorifying abuse since in some stories the main female
characters end up with abusive and irredeemable male characters. But to those critics I
ask: How many of our grandmothers were abused by their husbands and stayed with
them anyway? How many women, girls even, are forced to marry their abusers and stay
with them today? How many are manipulated by their husbands to stay?
These stories are imitating the reality of too many peoples so that they can feel
represented, see that they’re not alone, heal, and/or perhaps escape current abusive
relationships. In a time when at least 60% of college girls claim to have been sexually
assaulted, I think these stories need to be written and read. The goal is not to promote
abuse but to spread awareness/knowledge about it.
Lastly, I write dark romance in hopes of helping survivors heal, and to help spread
awareness of the science of the trauma (how it affects the mind and body), how different
victims survive and endured after.
I write these stories because I want other survivors to know they are not alone in how
they feel, how they react/cope, how they survive, and struggle.
I hope to give them a romantic story where they can relate to the female main character
so that they can be immersed in a story where a main male character can help them
stick all those broken pieces back together.
