Hey everyone!

Quick question, since I am relatively new to the platform and am not sure (sorry of this is already been addressed somewhere).

When you read books in another language, do they not count for the readlong? I couldn't get my hands on physical copy of A Dowry of Blood in English, and I kobo ebook was slightly more expensive than the ebook, so I just bought the PT version and added it here. But it seems it hasn't counted, which is a bit sad.

Does anyone know?

because here’s the thing. when dark romance hits?? when it’s done RIGHT??? IT’S EVERYTHING. it’s addictive. it’s raw, messed-up, healing, violent, tender, and literally made to make you feel unsafe but understood.

but when it’s BAD… oh we’re entering the trenches of wattpad wattpaddery. the type of books that make u want to call CPS on the author.

🌶️ THE SPICE VS THE STORYLINE BATTLE

let’s just get this out the way: spice ≠ plot.

“he choked her against the wall” is not character development. I am BEGGING.

i want twisted, obsessive, dangerous love, YES — but i want it to mean something. if you’re gonna give me a stalker, give me one who journals about it. if you're gonna give me a killer, give him existential guilt and a soft spot for dogs (*cough AARON WARNER) or something .

like I do NOT want to read 300 pages of two people having hate-$egs. sir that’s ✨just✩ NOT ENOUGH. give me the angst. the longing. the unearned loyalty. the twisted logic of “i know he’s bad but he’s only bad for me 😩.”

if he’s morally grey and lwk unhinged but he breaks when she cries?? i’m sold. if he says “i’d burn the world down for you” and then actually does it??? THAT’S LITERATURE RIGHT THERE. OBSESSEDDDDD

do i need therapy? probably. but also: fictional red flags don’t count. i’m not defending serial killers irl, i’m reading about them being soft for ONE (1) emotionally unavailable woman in fiction. there’s a difference. (*cough AARON WARNER—again)

also can we talk about the ✨MELTDOWNS✨ these men have when the girl they’ve been threatening with a knife to her throat suddenly gets hurt and they realize they have a heart??

like bro u had her tied with chains in chapter 3 and now ur crying because she has a scratch on her hand?

tbh idk if i love or hate it…

💀 THE DARK ROMANCE THAT ISN’T DARK, IT’S JUST ILLEGAL

and now. my 13th reason.

we need to talk about the books that pretend they’re “dark” but really they’re just 🚩🚩🚩 and a lawsuit waiting to happen.

if ur story involves: —teacher/student “romance” (EXCEPT ZODIAC ACADEMY AS THE ONLY EXCEPTION) —a grown man “falling for” a 17-year-old who acts 12 —SA played off as “tension” (girl…rape is not hot, get a grip on urself) —a man being emotionally abusive and calling it “dominance” —stalking and isolation being “protectiveness” with no consequences

CONGRATS. THAT’S NOT DARK. THAT’S JUST DISTURBING.

i’m not saying every dark romance needs to be morally perfect but you can’t just write trauma and never actually unpack it. not every boundary being crossed is spicy. and if the “romance” feels more like a crime scene, you’ve gone too far.

🥹 DARK ROMANCE THAT FEEDS MY SOUL THO??? OBSESSION FUEL.

give me: —complicated men with violent hands and soft hearts —women who are unafraid, messy, morally grey THEMSELVES (WE STANDD) —unhealthy beginnings that turn into loyalty and trust and healingggg (MANIFESTING) —real consequences. real change. real growth.

when a dark romance gives me the full arc — the pain, the slow burn 🔥 , the internal conflict, the oh my god do i deserve love??? monologue — i’m OBSESSED. cuz we LOVE A BROKEN MANNN. (*cough AARON WARNER—again)

like YES KING. FEEL SHAME. NOW GO BE SOFT. I LOVE GOLDEN RETRIEVER ENERGY SM. ♥️

👏 STOP CALLING IT “ALPHA” WHEN IT’S JUST ANGER ISSUES

i’m so tired of the “dominant alpha male” being code for raging narcissist who can’t communicate and punches walls like BROV, ARE U GOOD, DO I NEED TO BOOK U A THERAPIST TO HELP U FIND A DIFFERENT COPING MECHANISM??? what happened to tension without making the love interest a villain for no reason?

we need more dark roms mmc’s who know how to ask “is this okay?” BECAUSE CONSENT IS HOTTTT 🥵

we need less “i’ll punish you for breathing” and more “i’m obsessed with the way you exist and it terrifies me” (*cough AARON WARNER-AGAIN)

like i’m not asking to rewrite the whole character. i still want the morally unwell men. i just want them written by authors who understand that power should feel hot — not predatory.

and totally not judging u if u don’t agree with all these points because sometimes i gotta admit i luv my tortured mafia kings, — but only if they’re written with depth. with nuance. with humanity. (STILL CAN’T BEAT AARON WARNER ANDERSON CHIEF COMMANDER AND REGENT OF SECTOR 45, SON OF THE SUPREMEME COMMANDER OF NORTH AMERICA THO)

and if they beg on their knees? even better 😌

if u have a rec that made u feel feral, unwell, and morally compromised, drop it. i’m ready to spiral again.

#DarkRomanceRecsPlsss #KissMeOrKillMeIDontCare #BurnItAllDownForMeDaddy #PageboundConfessions #iloveaaronwarnerandersonchiefcommanderandregentofsector45sonofthesupremecommanderofthereestablishment

What are your favorites books with a "friends to lovers" vibe? I'm tired of seeing the same "enemies to lovers" popular books that are not even proper enemies to lovers, barely rivals/dude I fancy but pretend I don't to lovers.

It's so funny. I've not been reading for the past few days but I still come to PageBound because I love seeing the discussions going on. The new updates are so cute. The community is amazing. Hopefully I will get back into it when I go home. That said, I'M LEAVING LONDON. I'm so happy. The past year has been so harsh on me and I can honestly say that I'm not made for london. Yesterday I had to travel 4.5 hours for 15 KM!!! Because of the strike. But even then it usually it takes 2 hours. Which is insane because in my country or any sane country, you can travel 45 km in 2 hours. WITH TRAFFIC.

I've packed up most of my stuff. I'm leaving behind quite a few things. The others I'm giving off to charity or my roommate. And once I go home I'm adopting a kitten! The plan is already in motion. Here are the names I've brainstormed for her!

Bathsheba Aka Sheba Cleopatra or Cleo for short Buttercup or Butter for short And. Jam. Nothing else.

I'm leaning towards Jam. But my mother likes Sheba. What do you think!

whats your preference? i was just having a convo with a coworker about hardcovers vs paperback and our opinions differed quite a bit! personally, i’m a paperback girl.

Hi everyone, a quick announcement about Seasonal + Special Event Readalongs:

For those of you that have been around since the summer, you may have participated in our first Special Event Readalong for Pride. This was a huge hit and fostered PB-wide discussion on queer characters and stories (and bonus: the badge was rad). To continue fostering discussions on more niche and diverse books & voices, we'll be hosting a Special Event readalong once a season.

Our second Special Event will run from October 15 - November 15 and will be (drumroll please...) Dia de los Muertos 2025! Head to the Discuss tab and click on the box above the feeds to check out the selections and see the new badge (and if you're new, click the purple info icon next to the Fall Readalong header on Discuss to learn more about readalongs on Pagebound).

Since we're committing to one Special Event a season, we don't want to overwhelm folks with too many Readalong books. While you only need to read 1 book in a Special Event to earn the badge (and there is no "completionist" sparkly badge), we will limit Special Event picks to 3 books. Starting with the Winter 2025 Readalong, Seasonal Readalongs will only include 4 books. This way, you still only have to read a max total of 5 books per season to earn all Readalong badges available.

As for product updates, looks like most of you have already noticed some of the bigger changes on the site but for those that missed it, the following has been updated over the past 2 weeks:

• Discover Books got a little makeover: every day, we feature a new emoji and show you books whose ratings most frequently feature that emoji. Some of the emojis in rotation will be seasonally themed :) we also show you books that were the most discussed/finished/TBR'd yesterday, so the featured books will change daily and will showcase less mega popular titles.
• the Similar Users list got an update. Before, we were showing any user with over 30 points in that list; now, we prioritize active accounts, so you can find people you're more likely to actually engage with. I'll be making further tweaks to this in the coming weeks.
• No more HTML tags in posts/comments, please use markdown instead! See the Pagebound Club post on this for more info.
• We will save your total page count and pre-populate it when you post using Pages to calculate progress.

We're still beta testing the app but are on track for and end of month release!

Happy Reading, Jennifer & Lucy

I love putting bookish videos on in the background while I do chores. Who are your favorites? Bonus points if they are underrated gems. I watch a lot of the popular ones and would love to branch out and find more in my niche.

And why? Ridiculous answers are also encouraged.

I've been thinking about this because there are so many posts about The Spellshop right now, and honestly… I identify with Kiela so, so much. I feel her in my heart!!

Introverted, book-loving queen - someone who would always rather spend time with her stories than with people. The way she clings to books, the way she just wants to be left alone (but still kind of craves community) ... feels so much like me. A lot of her quotes were almost painfully relatable, like they came straight out of my own head.

So now I'm wondering: who are your characters that feel like you? The ones where you read them and think, "Oh no, that's me"?

So there's this book that I read last year called The School For Good Mothers and I really want to encourage people to read this book! It's almost set in a dystopian world where people send "bad mothers" to rehab and teach them how to be a "good mother" by putting them through rigorous training with lifelike robots. They're taught to speak in a kiddish manner and be excited and are taught to maintain eye contact.

Our protagonist is sent to this school because she left her child alone for two hours! (2 hours. How dare she?!) And her two year old child is sent to therapy. This book is such a good commentary and on the level of pressure that is put on mothers to be a good mom and how culturally a good mother can look so different. I highly encourage people to read this book!

https://pagebound.co/books/401565cc-86c5-4863-bcfa-7b7fcd0f2b76

Hi all, wanted to give you guys a heads up without sending everyone a notification in Founder Announcements 😅

• HTML embedding is no longer allowed on Pagebound. If you try to embed HTML (so think: any of those fancy tags to post an image or do text formatting) you will get an error. There's quite a few reasons for this, but the most pressing one is that HTML does not work on apps (and we are quite close to launching the PB app!)
• Markdown is allowed on Pagebound now! We use CommonMark, guide here: https://commonmark.org/help/ . This will set us up to have inline spoiler tags in the near future
• In an effort to encourage discussion, we've changed Post & Comment points. Post and Comments are both worth 5 points now to reflect the fact that comments are just as important to discussion as posts. We encourage you to check out the book forums for other posts as you read!
• Also regarding points, we will no longer award points for commenting on activity items in your feed (so things like "jennifer earned a badge" or "jennifer joined a quest"). You will earn points for commenting on Posts and Lists only (and, for responding to comments in posts and lists ofc). We want to make sure all comments and posts on PB are authentic and not for point farming ;)
• Quality of life update: when you make a post from a certain page, we now save the total page count and autofill it next time you make a post. No more flipping to the back of your book each time you want to post!

Thanks all, Jennifer

I’m looking for books like the House of Salt and Sorrow, The Rose Bargain, etc

It’s like a fairy tale + historical fiction combined? With magic and wonders? I wanna read more books similar or like that and I was hoping anyone had a good idea of what I’m talking about and had some recs!

I'm nothing if not someone who spreads propoganda about my favourite books. So without further adieu... I will try to convince you to read SOME of my favourite books using my favourite quotes from the books. Since I don't want to unnecessarily spoil anyone, I've placed the quotes under spoiler tags. None of the quotes give away anything about the core plot and plot twists (I promise) but better to be safe than sorry haha.