Instagram story viewer> @donnakesslerauthor> Posts

Donna Kessler

@donnakesslerauthor

1.8K

followers

1116

following

Dark romance • morally grey to pitch black horror •
psychological darkness, trauma,
obsession, angst, emotional wreckage
STREET TEAM SIGN UP ⬇️

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

I’m an author of dark romance books that range from morally grey to pitch black with occasional erotic horror themes. There’s trauma, tragedy, obsession and love that will wreck you. All of my books will contain emotional and psychological depth. Oh, and plenty of angst.

I’ve been dreaming of being an author since I was 8, so I’m excited to finally commit to this career and share all the stories I have to tell. I love emotional wreckage, so I always add in plenty of it. My goal with books that I write is that readers will be able to connect with my characters on an emotional level, and be pulled into the inner conflict and storyline.

CURRENT BOOKS:
Haunted Darkness Of Our Ruin Series:
Book 1: Hearts Entangled In Winter’s Fury - a childhood enemies dark romance where two people are conditioned to hate through trauma and tragedy from a young age, yet cursed to crave. They reunite coincidentally 7 years later and become stranded in the wilderness together, then taken captive by a secluded killer. Themes of anger, grief, addiction, abuse, hatred, hunger, survival.

Book 2: Hearts Entangled In Yearnings Tide (release date is June 26th 2026) - The aftermath. Amelia is carrying grief, PTSD, and memories that show up when she least expects it. Caiden is carrying guilt, rage, and a need he doesn't know how to control when she's near. They're back in the same world again, trying to act normal, but nothing about them is normal anymore. It's push and pull. It's obsession. It's that feeling of wanting something you know you shouldn't touch, then touching it anyway.

Shattered In Darkness (release date is August 17th 2026) - A dark romance that’s traumatic, depraved, pitch black, violent.
Lola learned early that love can be a cage.
She lives under the thumb of a monster—his rules, his punishments, his leash. Survival means silence, submission, and pretending not to bleed.
Brody was the one thing she chose for herself.
Now he’s back, filled with rage, violence, sickening obsession and vengeance. The way he watches her says one thing: He isn’t here to save her.
He’s here to consume her.
Because in the end, she was never free—
She was only ever his. by @donnakesslerauthor

34

3

5 months ago

I’m an author of dark romance books that range from morally grey to pitch black with occasional erotic horror themes. There’s trauma, tragedy, obsession and love that will wreck you. All of my books will contain emotional and psychological depth. Oh, and plenty of angst.

I’ve been dreaming of being an author since I was 8, so I’m excited to finally commit to this career and share all the stories I have to tell. I love emotional wreckage, so I always add in plenty of it. My goal with books that I write is that readers will be able to connect with my characters on an emotional level, and be pulled into the inner conflict and storyline.

CURRENT BOOKS:
Haunted Darkness Of Our Ruin Series:
Book 1: Hearts Entangled In Winter’s Fury - a childhood enemies dark romance where two people are conditioned to hate through trauma and tragedy from a young age, yet cursed to crave. They reunite coincidentally 7 years later and become stranded in the wilderness together, then taken captive by a secluded killer. Themes of anger, grief, addiction, abuse, hatred, hunger, survival.

Book 2: Hearts Entangled In Yearnings Tide (release date is June 26th 2026) - The aftermath. Amelia is carrying grief, PTSD, and memories that show up when she least expects it. Caiden is carrying guilt, rage, and a need he doesn't know how to control when she's near. They're back in the same world again, trying to act normal, but nothing about them is normal anymore. It's push and pull. It's obsession. It's that feeling of wanting something you know you shouldn't touch, then touching it anyway.

Shattered In Darkness (release date is August 17th 2026) - A dark romance that’s traumatic, depraved, pitch black, violent.
Lola learned early that love can be a cage.
She lives under the thumb of a monster—his rules, his punishments, his leash. Survival means silence, submission, and pretending not to bleed.
Brody was the one thing she chose for herself.
Now he’s back, filled with rage, violence, sickening obsession and vengeance. The way he watches her says one thing: He isn’t here to save her.
He’s here to consume her.
Because in the end, she was never free—
She was only ever his. by @donnakesslerauthor

26

2

5 months ago

I’m an author of dark romance books that range from morally grey to pitch black with occasional erotic horror themes. There’s trauma, tragedy, obsession and love that will wreck you. All of my books will contain emotional and psychological depth. Oh, and plenty of angst.

I’ve been dreaming of being an author since I was 8, so I’m excited to finally commit to this career and share all the stories I have to tell. I love emotional wreckage, so I always add in plenty of it. My goal with books that I write is that readers will be able to connect with my characters on an emotional level, and be pulled into the inner conflict and storyline.

CURRENT BOOKS:
Haunted Darkness Of Our Ruin Series:
Book 1: Hearts Entangled In Winter’s Fury - a childhood enemies dark romance where two people are conditioned to hate through trauma and tragedy from a young age, yet cursed to crave. They reunite coincidentally 7 years later and become stranded in the wilderness together, then taken captive by a secluded killer. Themes of anger, grief, addiction, abuse, hatred, hunger, survival.

Book 2: Hearts Entangled In Yearnings Tide (release date is June 26th 2026) - The aftermath. Amelia is carrying grief, PTSD, and memories that show up when she least expects it. Caiden is carrying guilt, rage, and a need he doesn't know how to control when she's near. They're back in the same world again, trying to act normal, but nothing about them is normal anymore. It's push and pull. It's obsession. It's that feeling of wanting something you know you shouldn't touch, then touching it anyway.

Shattered In Darkness (release date is August 17th 2026) - A dark romance that’s traumatic, depraved, pitch black, violent.
Lola learned early that love can be a cage.
She lives under the thumb of a monster—his rules, his punishments, his leash. Survival means silence, submission, and pretending not to bleed.
Brody was the one thing she chose for herself.
Now he’s back, filled with rage, violence, sickening obsession and vengeance. The way he watches her says one thing: He isn’t here to save her.
He’s here to consume her.
Because in the end, she was never free—
She was only ever his. by @donnakesslerauthor

25

5

5 months ago

Monsters Weep Too, Little Bluebird is a psychological pitch black erotic horror book coming out October 26, 2026. Prepare for extreme depravity 😈

What happens when the monster holding you captive becomes the only person you feel safe with? When fear turns into bonded dependence, cruelty becomes a familiar thing, then the mind begins rewriting reality just to survive?

A deeply disturbing descent into the human psyche, where childhood trauma creates monsters, love is warped as dark obsession, the line between victim and captor grows terrifyingly blurred. A very authentic representation of trauma bonding, Stockholm syndrome, conditioning, fawning and childhood trauma long term effects.

Captive x captor, Stockholm syndrome, serial killer MMC, masked captor, psychosis, unreliable narrator, distorted reality, obsession, extreme horror, morally black MMC, psychological manipulation, trauma bonds. by @donnakesslerauthor

34

7

16 hours ago

Shattered In Darkness is a deeply psychological pitch black romance available now on Amazon Kindle and paperback.

What happens when the boy you once loved becomes the very monster you should fear? When the person who once made you feel safe is now the one holding you captive?

Lola and Brody have a complicated and traumatic history, one filled with first love, betrayal, grief, resentment, and years of damage that neither of them has ever really escaped. But Brody isn’t the same boy Lola remembers. He’s grown into a violent, obsessive, and deeply disturbed man who has spent years feeding his hatred, and now that she’s back within his reach, he has no intention of letting her go.

This book explores the darker sides of obsession, psychological conditioning, trauma, control, revenge, and the disturbing ways love and hatred can become tangled together. Brody is morally black, and his obsession with Lola is as destructive as it is consuming. Their relationship is toxic, complicated, and violent. But it wasn’t always bad. Sometimes the people around us can be very toxic and destructive influences, and good things are easily ruined and tainted with darkness. by @donnakesslerauthor

38

1

3 days ago

Just two bluebirds who had big dreams and ambitions, but ultimately their wings with cut too early in life. “Monsters Weep Too, Little Bluebird”, by Donna Kessler is a DARK erotic horror that will make you feel a whirl of emotions. Our two main characters have faced tragic childhoods that they feared and wanted a release from. But ultimately, can we ever really escape our past? Are some pasts too horrific to escape from? This book is a strangely, grotesque, and symbolic tale of two souls who were always meant to stay within in dark, together, their souls bound to one another. They both understood what it is like to be stuck in the dark. But together, are they able to ever make it to the light? Will they ever be able to escape their past? This book describes graphic scenes and is not meant for all readers. Please check the trigger warnings before reading. And remember, not all twisted tales are able to end in a happily ever after in a conventional way.

Are monsters real? Are they born that way or are they created? What happens when you’re surrounded by monsters all of your life? Are you able to live a normal, happy life? The two main characters are grieving/processing their past while trying to rewire their future. Will they succeed or be consumed by the dark?

Monsters Weep Too, Little Bluebird by Donna Kessler is released on October 26th, 2026. It is a perfect Halloween read. by @donnakesslerauthor

13

1

5 days ago

Haunted Darkness Of Our Ruin is a deeply complex childhood enemies to lovers psychological and emotional dark romance trilogy available now. Slow burn and in depth with prose/emotion/inner conflict.

Amelia and Caiden are complicated, damaged, angry, obsessive, and tied together by years of resentment, family trauma, addiction, grief, guilt, abandonment, and wounds that shaped them. What begins with two enemies stranded together in the Colorado wilderness becomes something much bigger than survival as hate twists into hunger, yearning, possession, dependence, and a love neither of them knows how to carry without losing pieces of themselves in the process.

Across the trilogy, their relationship keeps changing as they are forced to face not only what happened to them, but what those experiences turned them into. Old patterns resurface. Trauma follows them home. Addiction, grief, guilt, fear, anger, and self-destruction continue to bleed into the way they love, the way they fight, and the way they see themselves. They have to learn the difference between needing someone and choosing them, between surviving beside someone and actually knowing how to stay.

At its core, Haunted Darkness Of Our Ruin is about what our childhoods make of us, what trauma leaves behind, and whether we can become something different from the people and experiences that shaped us. It’s about inherited damage, attachment, flaws, self-destruction, self-sabotage, forgiveness, accountability, obsession, survival, and learning how to love without disappearing inside another person.

Raw, angsty, trauma-heavy, psychologically in depth, and full of emotional wreckage. It’s two people who keep being pulled back toward each other no matter how much darkness exists between them.

Meet Amelia and Caiden in the Haunted Darkness of Our Ruin trilogy.

Amelia and Caiden are very complex characters. And then they get stranded together and suddenly all of those walls start cracking because when you’re literally trying to survive, you don’t really have the luxury of keeping someone at a distance anymore. They start seeing pieces of each other they never wanted to see, they become attached in ways neither of by @donnakesslerauthor

45

0

5 days ago

I ran from one monster and knocked on the door of another.

Malakar should have been my end, the man who chained me, hurt me and called it love because his mind was too broken to know better. I should have hated him until my last breath, but trauma does sickening things to a person.

It makes cruelty familiar. It makes softness confusing. It makes the monster who weeps after breaking you feel safer than the one who never cared at all.

📖Releases October 26th! 🖤 by @donnakesslerauthor

38

3

5 days ago

Monsters Weep Too, Little Bluebird is a pitch-black erotic horror romance that explores the darkest depths of human depravity, psychological deterioration, captivity, obsession, Stockholm syndrome, abuse, psychosis, the disturbing complexities of trauma and attachment.
Malakar is a monster in every sense of the word, and Starla’s descent into his world is as psychologically devastating as it is terrifying. This story explores what happens when the human mind is pushed beyond its limits, when survival becomes entangled with suffering, and when the very person responsible for your destruction becomes the only familiar presence in your existence.

Releasing October 26th on Amazon Kindle and paperback by @donnakesslerauthor

33

3

6 days ago

MONSTERS WEEP TOO, LITTLE BLUEBIRD is a pitch black erotic horror to be released 10/26/26
This is about captivity changing the mind, losing time and reality, fear becoming familiarity, and attachment growing in a place where it never should have been able to exist.
It’s a deeply complex psychological horror wrapped around obsession, psychosis, stockholm syndrome, hallucinations, unreliable narrator, captivity, isolation, predator & prey, stalking, conditioning, cycles of abuse, violence, depravity, torture, fawning, trauma and a monster who never becomes less monstrous.
The deeper Starla falls into his darkness, the harder it becomes to separate survival from attachment, reality from delusion, and the man beneath the monster from everything he’s done. by @donnakesslerauthor

622

16

9 days ago

HEARTS ENTANGLED IN WINTER’S FURY is a deeply psychological and emotional childhood enemies to lovers slow burn dark romance trilogy.

Amelia and Caiden really do hate each other. Years of anger, resentment, grief and history between them, then they’re thrown into the Colorado wilderness together and forced to depend on the one person they never thought they would need.

It turns into more than survival. It’s about what happens when the person you once couldn’t stand becomes the person checking if you’re breathing, keeping you warm, staying beside you when you’re breaking, looking after you when you don’t know how to look after yourself.

True enemies to lovers, forced proximity, wilderness survival, captivity, hate vs hunger, trauma, complex characters, trauma-rooted hate, betrayal, angst, emotional wreckage by @donnakesslerauthor

23

2

9 days ago

Monsters Weep Too, Little Bluebird is a pitch black erotic horror about a monster who hurts the woman he’s obsessed with, keeps her captive, and somehow still manages to weep when she breaks.

captive x captor, serial killer, masked monster MMC, Stockholm syndrome, psychosis, obsession, violence, psychological horror, staking, isolation horror, predator & prey, hallucination, childhood trauma, cycles of abuse.

this book is depraved, traumatic, disturbing and deeply psychological, it blurs fear with attachment, reality with delusion, and love with something much darker

ARC sign ups are open now, releases October 26th by @donnakesslerauthor

34

0

17 days ago