A work in progress, built for my wife with love. Suggestions welcome
Discover 160 gothic romance books on TropeScope.
Romance with a gothic atmosphere — decaying manors, stormy landscapes, secrets in the walls, and a heroine at the centre of something she can't quite see. Often historical, often supernatural-adjacent.
Gothic romance descends from the 18th-century gothic novel tradition — think Jane Eyre, Rebecca, the Brontë catalogue. Modern entries evolve the template: V.E. Schwab's The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue (existential curse romance across centuries), Alix E. Harrow's Starling House (gothic-fantasy inheritance mystery), and Ava Reid's Juniper & Thorn (gothic-fairytale horror-romance) prove the atmosphere survives the transition from literary canon to BookTok-native. Often straddles dark romance, paranormal romance, and historical romance depending on the setup.

V.E. Schwab
Cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets, Addie LaRue finds the one man who remembers her name.

Daphne du Maurier
A shy new bride discovers her husband's first wife may never truly be gone — and Manderley holds dark secrets.

Keri Lake
A med student on a haunted island falls for her darkly brilliant professor — and his dangerous secrets.

J. Sheridan Le Fanu
A lonely young woman falls under the intoxicating spell of a beautiful, vampiric stranger in a gothic castle.

V.E. Schwab
Three women across five centuries are offered freedom by an alluring stranger — and everything comes at a price.

Alix E. Harrow
A desperate girl takes a job at a cursed gothic house — and falls for its brooding, lonely heir.
Tension built across crumbling hallways and candlelit drawing rooms. Gothic thrives on deferred touch.

V.E. Schwab
Cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets, Addie LaRue finds the one man who remembers her name.

Keri Lake
A med student on a haunted island falls for her darkly brilliant professor — and his dangerous secrets.

RuNyx
A gothic castle, a century-old mystery, and a forbidden pull between a brooding professor and his darkest student.

Darcy Coates · House of Shadows #1
Married to a brooding stranger to save her family, Sophie discovers their gothic mansion is haunted — and so is her husb

Bea Northwick · The Cruel Dark #1
A haunted woman takes a job with a brooding widowed professor — and his crumbling estate holds darker secrets than eithe

Natasha Siegel
A demon hunts a witch across centuries to claim her soul — but desire may undo them both.
Antagonism turned obsession. Cold corridors, whispered feuds, the line between rival and lover dissolving.

Harper L. Woods · Coven of Bones #1
A witch trained to destroy the Coven must survive its academy — and the infuriating headmaster who hates her.

Isabel Cañas
Childhood sweethearts reunite on the eve of war — only to discover the vampire that tore them apart is back.

J.T. Geissinger
She fled her hometown twelve years ago — now she's back, and so is the man she loved who may destroy her.

Natasha Siegel
A demon hunts a witch across centuries to claim her soul — but desire may undo them both.

Claire Contreras
She sat in the Devil's Chair and wished — now she's falling for the cursed heir she was born to hate.

Victoria Holt
A nurse who follows Florence Nightingale to Crimea can't escape the sinister doctor she blames for her tragedy.
Trapped in the manor, the crumbling estate, the storm. Gothic's defining claustrophobia.

J. Sheridan Le Fanu
A lonely young woman falls under the intoxicating spell of a beautiful, vampiric stranger in a gothic castle.

Alix E. Harrow
A desperate girl takes a job at a cursed gothic house — and falls for its brooding, lonely heir.

RuNyx
A gothic castle, a century-old mystery, and a forbidden pull between a brooding professor and his darkest student.

Isabel Cañas
Childhood sweethearts reunite on the eve of war — only to discover the vampire that tore them apart is back.

Simone St. James
A timid 1920s woman and a scarred WWI veteran must unravel a vengeful ghost's dark secrets before she kills them.

Kat Dunn
A Victorian wife trapped in a loveless marriage falls hungrily under the spell of a mysterious, pale stranger on the moo
Atmosphere and setting drive it — isolated estates, stormy weather, buried secrets, psychological suspense woven through the love story. The heroine is usually the viewpoint character, and something is being hidden from her.
Dark romance is defined by the morally grey hero and taboo dynamics. Gothic romance is defined by atmosphere and setting. The two overlap heavily — Haunting Adeline is both — but each can stand alone.

RuNyx
A gothic castle, a century-old mystery, and a forbidden pull between a brooding professor and his darkest student.

S.T. Gibson · Vampire Companion #1
Dracula's first bride finds love with his other consorts — and plots her freedom from the monster she married.

Harper L. Woods · Coven of Bones #1
A witch trained to destroy the Coven must survive its academy — and the infuriating headmaster who hates her.

Daphne du Maurier
A young heir falls dangerously in love with his cousin's widow — but did she kill her husband?

Andrew Davidson
A burned and broken man is told by a mysterious sculptress that they were lovers in medieval Germany — and she can prove

Isabel Cañas
Childhood sweethearts reunite on the eve of war — only to discover the vampire that tore them apart is back.

Veronica Lancet
A Boston schoolteacher inherits secrets — and two dangerous men — in a cursed 1950s coastal town.

Simone St. James
A timid 1920s woman and a scarred WWI veteran must unravel a vengeful ghost's dark secrets before she kills them.

Kat Dunn
A Victorian wife trapped in a loveless marriage falls hungrily under the spell of a mysterious, pale stranger on the moo

Roshani Chokshi
A scholar married a beautiful mystery — but her childhood home hides secrets that could destroy them both.

Ava Reid
A sheltered witch sneaks out to fall for a ballet dancer while her monstrous father tightens his grip.

Sharon Lynn Fisher
A witch healer arrives at a cursed estate to save its brooding master — a witchy retelling of Jane Eyre.

Alexis Henderson
A slum girl becomes a bloodmaid to a magnetic vampire countess — and prey in a deadly court of dark desires.

Johanna van Veen
A spirit-haunted medium and a wealthy widow uncover deadly secrets in a crumbling gothic estate.

Mary Stewart
An English governess in a French château falls for the sardonic heir — while someone plots to kill her young charge.

C.L. Polk
A soul-sold detective has three days to catch Chicago's vampire killer — or lose her love forever.

S.T. GIBSON · Vampire Companion #2
At a gothic women's college, a fierce rivalry between two girls curdles into something bloodier and far more dangerous.

Karina Halle · The Dracula Duet #2
A vampire who inspired Dracula finds his reincarnated love — but tragedy is always one step behind them.