Drawn
The free universe prequel. Roman & Siobhan connect blood family and chosen family.
Begin here →For readers
Your map to the dark.
Reading order, tropes, content and trigger warnings, and a spoiler-light guide to the people and places inside the Cara Hollis universe.
Start here
Reading order
Every full-length book follows a different couple and ends with a complete Happily Ever After. Reading in order deepens the family and world connections.
Kavanagh Irish Mafia
1. Forged
2. Owed
3. Pulled
Dark Gilded Billionaires
4. Guard
5. Bound
6. Trust
Beyond the locked reading order
Ironworks Fire & Flood
Smoke, Ash, and Char are confirmed as a future wave. Their pairings and internal order are still open.
Meet the cleanup crew →Reader care
Content & trigger warnings
Dark romance should never require you to read blind. Start with the spoiler-light catalog baseline, then open the book-specific list if you want more detail.
Spoiler note: Detailed warnings may reveal plot elements. Choose the level of information that feels right for you.
Catalog baseline — spoiler light
- Explicit sexual content, on-page, scorching heat level
- Organized crime and criminal-enterprise settings
- Morally gray to morally black heroes
- Possessive and protective hero dynamics
- Power imbalance handled within the fantasy
- Guns, physical violence, or threat of violence, varying by title
- Death and grief, on-page and referenced
- Heavy alcohol use
- Adult language throughout
- Catholic religious content and imagery
- Family dysfunction and estrangement
Every book ends with a Happily Ever After. That is a promise.
Drawn — spoiler-light notes
Roman & Siobhan · Universe prequel
Drawn contains:
- Serious illness of an elderly parent and anticipatory grief
- Death, funerals, graves, and discussion of human remains
- Past gun violence, discussed but not depicted as it happens
- Organized crime, family secrecy, and generational guilt
- On-page consensual explicit sexual content, including oral sex and condomless penetrative sex
- Adult language, alcohol use, and Catholic religious content and imagery
- No abuse between the central couple and no present-day on-page physical violence
Forged — spoiler-light notes
Ciaran & Larkin · Kavanagh Book 1
Forged is a dark romance with a guaranteed Happily Ever After. The darkness lives in the world and the stakes, never in how the hero treats the heroine. These notes are intentionally spoiler-light.
On the page
- Explicit open-door sexual content, strong language, and alcohol use, including heavy drinking
- Organized crime and criminal activity, including financial crime
- The sudden death of a family member, followed by grief, a wake, and funeral content
- One scene of physical violence
- A broken engagement involving secondary characters
- Emotional withdrawal during a crisis and betrayals of trust involving family and longtime friends
Referenced or in the background
- A manipulative parent and adult-child estrangement
- A historical killing in the family’s past
- Catholic faith, ritual, and guilt
If you have a specific concern that is not answered here, email author-cara@carahollis.com and I’ll tell you plainly.
Visit the book page →Owed — spoiler-light notes
Declan & Kate · Kavanagh Book 2
Owed contains:
- Emotional abuse within the heroine’s family, including favoritism and scapegoating
- Financial exploitation and coercive family dynamics
- Grief and bereavement, including a referenced off-page death with possible suicide themes
- Serious illness involving an elderly character and an on-page medical emergency
- Verbal family conflict and an unrepentant antagonist
- On-page consensual explicit sexual content
- A protective hero who uses money, information, and leverage on the heroine’s behalf
- No abuse between the central couple
Pulled
Sean & Olivia · Kavanagh Book 3
No on-page violence; the succession conflict is fought with paper, information, and leverage. Other book-specific notes will be published closer to release.
Visit the book page →Guard
Derrick’s story · Dark Gilded Book 1
Book-specific notes will be published closer to release. The catalog baseline applies.
Visit the book page →Bound
Keith’s story · Dark Gilded Book 2
Book-specific notes will be published closer to release. The catalog baseline applies.
Visit the book page →Trust
Noah & Simone · Dark Gilded Book 3
Book-specific notes will be published closer to release. The catalog baseline applies.
Visit the book page →Smoke — future Ironworks wave
Pairing and story order are still open.
Title-specific warnings have not been drafted yet. The catalog baseline may apply.
Ash — future Ironworks wave
Pairing and story order are still open.
Title-specific warnings have not been drafted yet. The catalog baseline may apply.
Char — future Ironworks wave
Pairing and story order are still open.
Title-specific warnings have not been drafted yet. The catalog baseline may apply.
Have a specific concern that is not listed? Ask Cara directly →
Shop by feeling
Tropes & themes
Use these as a mood map rather than a checklist. Individual book pages will gain more detailed trope lists as each release approaches.
Kavanagh Irish Mafia
- Protective, possessive heroes
- Family honor and old debts
- Irish mafia power structures
- Touch her and die
- He falls first
- Blood family and fierce loyalty
Dark Gilded Billionaires
- Chosen family
- Damage beneath the power
- Bound by marriage, choice, and contract
- Protective heroes
- Competent heroines
- Earned devotion
Ironworks Fire & Flood
- Former firefighters
- The cleanup crew
- Debt bonds
- Outsiders who know everything
- Quiet menace
- Kavanagh connections
Spoiler-light orientation
The world
One city, multiple circles. Blood family, chosen family, and the men who clean up afterward share history, leverage, and consequences.
Kansas City · Blood
The Kavanaghs
An empire built through Strawberry Hill and the West Bottoms on loyalty, the Parish, and debts that never stay settled.
Kansas City · Chosen
Dark Gilded
Three outsiders drawn into the Kavanagh orbit by marriage, choice, and contract. Chicago remains Mercer history—not a book setting.
Kansas City · Cleanup
Ironworks Fire & Flood
Former firefighters with a legitimate front and a second job making the unfixable disappear.
Before you read
Frequently asked
The short answers to the questions dark-romance readers ask first.
Do the books have HEAs?
Yes. Every Cara Hollis romance ends with a Happily Ever After.
How dark is dark?
The danger lives in the world and the stakes—not in how the hero treats the woman he loves.
Do I have to read in order?
Each full-length romance stands on its own, but the shared-world connections reward reading in order.
Where should I start?
Start with Drawn. It is free, it opens the shared universe, and it is where the story begins.