If you’re in the market for BDSM romances like Fifty Shades of Grey then you’ve come to the right place!
If you’re a fan of E.L. James’ smash-hit series and are desperate for similar stories, then we have the 9 best BDSM romance novels that are sure to thrill you.
While we love a good meet-cute, a sidesplitting romantic comedy, or a breathless bodice ripper, sometimes we want a little edge and roughness in our romantic protagonists, and this is where BDSM romance novels come in.
Each novel we’ve chosen focuses on a variety of aspects and tropes popular in BDSM so no matter what you’re into there is sure to be something here to get your heart racing!
1. Three Hard Lessons By Nikki Sloane
Payton works at a club where patrons pay for the pleasure of her company.
Payton is great at what she does and knows it, but she’s more than just a little bit surprised when Dominic visits the club one night and offers her $30,000 to chat with her, kiss her, and take her home.
One of Payton’s biggest rules is to keep men at a distance so she can never fall for them, but Dominic has her breaking all those rules.
Dominic is an amazing romantic hero. He’s an alpha kind of guy, but has a curious, innocent side to him that Sloane manages to make totally believable.
He has fantastic chemistry with Payton which is amplified when they start to experiment with BDSM.
2. Desperate Measures By Katee Robert
Jasmine was once a sheltered princess, but this all changes when Jafar stages a coup against her father and offers her a bargain.
Jasmine can either walk free and leave everything behind, or try to best him and regain her rightful inheritance.
Jasmine is blinded by arrogance and plays right into his hands. Jafar soon owns her body, her soul, and maybe even her heart.
While they fight during the day, in the evening Jafar lets Jasmine explore even her deepest and darkest fantasies.
He attends to her every need, no matter how demanding, extravagant, or depraved. Jasmine knows she should be happy, but she can’t shake the fact she is stuck in a gilded cage.
She will do anything to be free, even if that means betraying the man she finds herself falling for more and more each night.
Desperate Measures takes the classic Disney story of Aladdin and cranks up the heat to a 100! It’s a thrilling, undeniably compelling look at what may have happened if Jasmine ended up with Jafar.
Through Jasmine’s self-exploration, a dominant/submissive relationship develops between her and Jafar, and is just the beginning of a steamy series of retellings.
3. Owned By Fate By Tessa Bailey
Caroline Preston is a journalist who finds herself in Serve, the hottest BDSM club in NYC, all in the name of research.
She’s determined to not get sucked into this strange new world, but then she meets the owner of the club, Jonah Briggs.
Jonah doesn’t leave his post for anyone, but when he sets eyes on Caroline, he can’t get her out of his head.
Caroline is helpless, falling for Jonah’s charms, but she’s not going to risk the reputation of her family by spending more than one night with Jonah, no matter how much she’s dying for more.
Jonah is one of the best alphas you’ll ever read, and that’s because he is proud of who he is and doesn’t care what anyone else thinks.
Since Caroline is new to the world of BDSM, we highly recommend this book for romance readers who are too dipping their toes in this subgenre.
4. The Farthest Edge By Kristen Ashley
Technically, Branch doesn’t exist. He’s a man who lives off the grid and is desperate to leave his past – and the guilt that comes with it – behind.
But nobody has ever been able to bring him to the edge – the one thing he craves.
After experiencing trauma herself, Evangeline leaves the extravagant world of the Honey Club. But when she gets an offer from Branch – to play with no strings attached – it’s an offer she can’t refuse.
As their passion grows, Branch and Evangeline push each other as far as they can go, fulfilling their darkest fantasies while falling deeper and harder than they thought possible.
The backstory Ashley weaves for Branch helps you to understand his kink and why he wants to have one area in his life where he isn’t in control at all.
5. Priceless By Miranda Silver
Christina is in her junior year of college and her life has taken a turn for the worse. She’s dropped out of the cheer squad, split up with her boyfriend, her grades are terrible, and she is addicted to uppers.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, she’s also in a financial rut.
Patrick Caruthers meanwhile, is a senior guy with an ice-cold stare that bores into Christina’s soul. He also makes her an offer that she can hardly refuse.
He’ll pay her to join him in his bed each night where she is completely at his mercy.
The fact that our central couple are in college puts a unique twist on the genre, and keeps it from being too derivative of Fifty Shades of Grey.
It also explores humiliation kink so if that’s something that intrigues you, why not pick this book up?
6. Asking For It By Lilah Pace
Vivienne Charles is a graduate student terrified of what she wants. She can’t admit to anyone that her biggest fantasy is being taken by a man completely and mercilessly.
So when the mysterious, charismatic Jonah Marks finds out what she wants, he makes her a shocking offer. They will have secret trysts where he will fulfill her desires while remaining practically strangers.
It’s a strange arrangement but one that makes Vivienne feel amazing.
But it’s ultimately unsustainable because as much as they try to keep their distance, soon the hold they have on each other’s hearts is as tight as the rope tied around Vivienne’s wrists.
This book explores each partner playing out different fantasies that nonetheless mesh. However, while this book has no trigger warnings and the majority of acts are consensual, there are non-consensual acts mentioned too.
However, Asking for It does illustrate just how important it is to have a safe word and to discuss BDSM scenes ahead of time.
7. Bound By Lorelei James
Amery Hardwick was once a small-town girl who is now living her best life in Denver, Colorado as a graphic designer.
Amery meets Ronin Black, owner of a dojo, when she joins her friend for a self-defense class. Ronin is so captivated by Amery that he takes over both her public and private training.
Amery’s boundaries are pushed straight away by the mysterious Ronan, and every time they hook up, Amery becomes just as fixated on him and craves how he makes her feel.
But Amery has a feeling that Ronin isn’t telling her everything, and it causes her to question whether she can trust him, despite how thrilling it is to be possessed by him.
We’ve met a few alpha male lead characters in our list, but what makes Ronan different from the rest is that he’s a martial artist.
The book also features the Japanese bondage practice of Shibari, so if bondage is something that interests you, then you need to check out this book!
8. Training My Straight Teammate By M. Syrinx
Owen’s college football teammate Chris tells everyone he’s straight but some of his actions (like stealing a private, X-rated picture of Owen, or smelling Owen’s gym clothes) suggests the opposite is true.
Owen wants to teach Chris a lesson, something he has a lot of experience with as a Dominant.
However, Chris surrenders a lot more than Owen ever thought he would, but can he handle Owen’s darker, more extreme desires? This is something they’ll both find out, late at night in the locker room.
Training My Straight Teammate features chastity, humiliation and pain play between two teammates, and Owen definitely brings Christian Grey to mind.
9. Rush By Maya Banks
Gabe Hamilton can’t get Mia Crestwell out of his head after she attends his hotel’s grand opening. The only problem is that she’s the younger sister of his best friend.
Still, this doesn’t stop Mia from repeatedly appearing in Gabe’s fantasies, despite their 14-year age difference. But they’re both adults, so why shouldn’t they give into desire?
As she’s drawn into Gabe’s world of lust, Mia realizes there is so much she doesn’t know about Gabe, and she learns just how demanding she is.
Their relationship is obsessive and super intense, but as their relationship becomes something deeper, their affair is at risk of being exposed, and they become more vulnerable to a betrayal they never anticipated.
If you’re a fan of BDSM narratives where the rich alpha male wants to ‘possess’ his submissive, then you’ll love Rush. Gabe Hamilton is the ultimate Dominant!
Final Thoughts
We hope our picks for the best BDSM romance novels gets your heart racing! There is so much more out there than Fifty Shades of Grey!