Raw

Raw is a dark erotic romance by Belle Aurora. First published in 2014, and nominated for a Goodreads Choice Award, the book centers on a girl who falls for her stalker, struggling to understand why she is so attracted to him. The first book in the Raw trilogy, it is popular with erotica and BDSM readers. Aurora is a USA Today bestselling author who typically writes contemporary erotic romances. She fell in love with romance novels as a young girl, but she didn’t try to write her own books until adulthood. She is known for blending humor with boundary-pushing sexual relationships.

Alexia Ballentine, otherwise known as Lexi, is a twenty-six-year-old social worker living in Australia. Coming from a troubled family, Lexi left home at sixteen. Now, she has a talent for defending young children and removing them from abusive homes. Fiercely independent, she doesn’t rely on anyone, though she does have friends who feel like family to her. Lexi didn’t get the best start in life, but she’s a well-adjusted adult.

Everything changes for Lexi when she notices someone watching her. He wears a dark hooded sweatshirt, and she can’t make out his face. Wherever she goes, this man follows her. He doesn’t approach her, and he doesn’t send her messages, but he still makes his presence felt. Eventually, Lexi adjusts to having him around. She senses that he doesn’t plan to hurt her, and it’s flattering that someone watches her all the time.



One night, Lexi is walking home from work when someone attacks her, dragging her down a dark alley. The attacker brutally assaults her, but Lexi’s stalker appears before the attacker can rape her. The stalker introduces himself as Twitch. Lexi can’t express how grateful she is he defended her from this attacker. She asks if there is anything she can do to make it up to him, but he doesn’t answer.

Lexi doesn’t want to go home alone because she is scared that her attacker is still out there. She begs Twitch to follow her home and stay the night. On one hand, she knows that inviting a stranger into her home is a terrible idea. On the other hand, she feels safe around Twitch and she knows that she can trust him.

Twitch escorts her home but he doesn’t plan to stay the night. Lexi flirts with him because she finds him very attractive. There is something alluring about his broodiness. Twitch warns her that she shouldn’t fancy him because he is a bad man. Despite how dangerous he is, this confession makes Lexi want him more.



Before long, Lexi begs Twitch to sleep with her. Twitch refuses because he doesn’t enjoy conventional sex. Lexi asks what he means, and he tells her that he is a dominant man with violent sexual tastes. He enjoys humiliating women and breaking them down. He also enjoys beating and strangling them for their mutual sexual pleasure.

Twitch cannot sleep with Lexi unless she is sexually submissive and into very dangerous BDSM. She must also agree to no safe words because Twitch finds safe words boring. At first, Lexi panics because she has never considered sex like this before, but she finds him so attractive that she consents to his demands. Readers should be aware that the sex scenes in Raw are very explicit.

Once the sex is over, Lexi gets to know Twitch. She discovers that he runs drugs around the state, and he keeps a submissive, Ling, at home. Lexi wants to meet Ling; Twitch reluctantly agrees to introduce them. Twitch doesn’t want Ling now that he has Lexi, but Ling is a sex addict and she refuses to leave Twitch’s house.



Twitch doesn’t see the harm in letting her stay at his house while she works through her sex addiction problems. Lexi doesn’t get a say in any of this because she is Twitch’s new submissive. She isn’t allowed to question him about anything. Lexi is fiery and she doesn’t let anyone walk all over her, but she loves letting Twitch dominate her. Her friends can’t understand what’s happened to her because she doesn’t seem like the same woman.

Meanwhile, things deteriorate at Lexi’s job. She finds out that one of her charges, a seventeen-year-old boy has started working for Twitch. He sells drugs; it is only a matter of time before he ends up in prison. Lexi is torn between reporting Twitch and her charge to the authorities or letting it go. She decides to step back and let her charge make his own decisions.

Things go from bad to worse for Lexi when she finds out a devastating secret about Twitch: He orchestrated the attack in the dark alley. He wanted an excuse to rescue her and get inside her apartment. Lexi loves Twitch despite this revelation, but he decides he is no good for her. He loves her too much to torture her sexually all the time. He fakes his own death and disappears. Lexi knows that he is still out there, alive somewhere, but she decides to move on with her life.