Lara Norman

Hey there, dark romance lovers! I'm Lara Norman, and I write the kind of stories that make people raise their eyebrows and whisper, "Should she be allowed to publish that?" (Spoiler alert: I absolutely should.)

Let me tell you a secret - I never meant to write romance at all. I was that weird kid in high school who wrote horror stories that made my teachers schedule "concerned" parent-teacher conferences. But somewhere between my obsession with true crime podcasts and my growing collection of psychology books, I realized that the scariest stories aren't about monsters under the bed. They're about the monsters who look just like us.

My debut novel "Messed Up As Me" introduces readers to my particularly twisted brand of dark romance. It's the story of a woman who courts danger and finds way more than she bargained for in the Mad Hunter. (Fun fact: I wrote most of it during midnight writing sessions while chugging energy drinks and questioning my life choices.) The book deals with themes of obsession, survival, and that gray area where fear and attraction become dangerously blurred.

I write characters who are fundamentally broken but refuse to apologize for it. My heroes (if you can call them that) aren't going to be reformed by love - they're going to drag my heroines down into their darkness. And my heroines? They're not innocent flowers waiting to be plucked. They're complex, often damaged women who are just as capable of darkness as the men who hunt them.

When I'm not writing scenes that would make my mother disown me (love you, Mom!), I'm probably wandering around abandoned buildings for "research" or adding to my collection of vintage medical instruments. Yes, really. My partner has learned to stop questioning the strange packages that arrive at our door.

My writing process is... chaotic, to put it mildly. I plot my books using a combination of color-coded sticky notes, voice memos recorded at 3 AM, and what I like to call "murder boards" - those giant cork boards covered in red string that you see in detective movies. My office looks like a serial killer's Pinterest board came to life.

What can you expect from my books? Raw emotion. Psychological tension that'll make you squirm. Steam that'll fog up your e-reader. And endings that won't always be traditionally "happy," but will always be honest to the characters and their journey.

Fair warning: my books aren't for everyone. They explore the darker aspects of desire, the kind of attraction that makes you question your own moral compass. If you're looking for sweet, safe romance with clearly defined good guys and bad guys, I'm probably not your girl. But if you like your romance with a heavy dose of psychological thriller, a splash of horror, and characters who blur the lines between predator and prey? Pull up a chair. We're going to get along just fine.

I'm active on Instagram and TikTok, where I share writing updates, behind-the-scenes peeks at my research (the non-incriminating parts, anyway), and probably too many pictures of my black cat, Poe. Yes, I named my cat after Edgar Allan Poe. Are you really surprised?

To my readers: thank you for being brave enough to explore the darker corners of romance with me. Your messages about staying up all night to finish "Messed Up As Me" make all those 3 AM writing sessions worth it. (Though my caffeine addiction might disagree.)

Currently working on my next book, which I promise will be even more twisted than the first. Because why stop at making readers question their attraction to one morally gray character when I can make them question their whole concept of right and wrong?

Welcome to my world of beautiful monsters and dangerous love stories. Hope you're ready for a wild ride.

(P.S. If any law enforcement officers are reading this - my search history is purely for research purposes. I promise.)