Kelly Kilburn (Author)

In case you’re wondering what I want for Christmas, I’m a size 300-400 page mafia romance. 🥰

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Me: Don’t open the Amazon package… it’s Christmas presents.
Hubby: I moved it to your dresser… but honestly? Felt like another book haul.
Me (aloud): Thanks, babe.
Me (mentally): And so what if Santa reads dark romance? 🫢

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Happy Thanksgiving, dark romance fam 🖤

I’m grateful for morally grey men, messy heroines, and readers who love them both.

🥂 Here’s to full plates, full hearts, and even fuller TBRs.

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#darkromance

Dear 🦋 Algorithm,

Please connect me with dark romance readers who love angsty, page-turning, he growls “you’re mine” mafia romance.

Looking for friends whose TBRs are as spicy and unhinged as mine.

All my love,
Kelly Kilburn
Writer of obsessive men, capable women & questionable life choices
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Anything bookish works! I have lots of readers in my life!

I need all the ideas for bookish gifts please! About to start my holiday shopping. ❤️

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If the Legacy of Gods series and the Off Campus series had a baby… it’d look a lot like the Heirs of the Organized series. 🫢
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Husband: “So apparently—”
gets distracted by his phone and forgets entire sentence.

Now I’m stuck here living in the cliffhanger of a conversation that never happened. Sir, you cannot give me the trailer and then cancel the movie.

a man is making a funny face while wearing a black shirt and a silver chain . ALT: a man is making a funny face while wearing a black shirt and a silver chain .

I swear I outline… and then my characters improvise for 300 pages. 🌶️📚💙
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Just read a sauce recipe that said “one small onion and ONE clove of garlic.” One. Singular. Where is this person from … and do they need help??

Anybody else looking forward to Season 2 of Maxton Hall? 👏👏👏

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Happy to share that my Heirs of the Organized series (books 3 & 4) has been picked up by Carina Press! Can’t wait to share these stories!
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Yes! Good luck with the edits. I always find the waiting is the hardest part!

It’s wild how much changes when you go from reading romance to writing it. I used to lose sleep over book boyfriends. Now it’s over which TikTok trend will convince strangers to buy my mafia romance. 🙄
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Read what you love. You don’t owe anyone an explanation.🔥

🌶️ Smut doesn’t make you shallow.
🤫 Closed-door romance doesn’t make you boring.
📚 DNFing a book doesn’t make you a quitter.

It makes you a reader who knows exactly what they want. And that? That’s power.

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#romancelandia

Then they might read it! God help me then! 🤣

I told my family my book is “like Fifty Shades” because their frame of reference is either that or a Hallmark movie. I wasn’t going to get into the various levels of trigger warnings and dark romance tropes! I might cause my mother-in-law to have an aneurysm! 🤣
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Love dark romance? Here’s a great starter pack if you’re looking to follow others who love morally gray (and sometimes pitch black) goodness! 🌶️📚💙

go.bsky.app/PTdkzqi

Ever since I got a Kindle Paperwhite, I’ve been taking a ridiculous number of baths. I’m gonna turn into a prune… but… it’s water resistant! I can’t help it. 👏👏👏

#reading

a black and white photo of a woman wearing a turtleneck sweater and a dress . ALT: a black and white photo of a woman wearing a turtleneck sweater and a dress .

I should be writing, but I also really want to put a dent in my TBR this weekend. Not sure if I can accomplish both!

I waited the whole series for that book! ❤️

Do any other authors go back and read your prior books because you miss your characters? I sometimes take a break from writing to visit with my old friends… you know, instead of making new ones like I should be.

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Deep into responding to developmental edits on a new dark romance. Hmmm… decisions, decisions. Third act break up or not? Maybe… I am craving a good grovel.

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I know not to spend much time reading my reviews but I loved this one:

⭐️⭐️ “…the storyline wasn’t bad! I just felt like the smut overshadowed everything.”

So, if you like a “not bad” storyline and lots of smut, you may like my spicy mafia romance, Weaponized. 😉

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Watching the movie Misery, and of all the f’ed up stuff in that story, watching Paul Sheldon finish his manuscript on a typewriter is messing with me the most.

I’m imagining it. Developmental edits. Rearranging scenes. Line edits.

Yep. Stephen King is scary.

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Could the guy who DMed me just to say that I write nothing but 🌽 please tell my editor that? Because her developmental edits of my next spicy romance were all about character arcs, pacing and emotional depth… I feel like his definition of romance would be a lot easier. 🤣
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Cover and trope reveal for the next in my Heirs of the Organized series, Scandalized, a (very) spicy college mafia romance. Coming January 2026!
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A reader let me know that a character in my book would have NEVER broken up with his ex-girlfriend in the way I described.

Honey, I created that man. If I wanted him to quit college and start an underground ferret racing league, he’d be placing tiny helmets on those furballs because I said so.
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a woman is sitting at a table holding a piece of paper and a cup that says hello today . ALT: a woman is sitting at a table holding a piece of paper and a cup that says hello today .

Me and my latest WIP plot outline. 🥺

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Further proof I’m a “real author” now… I just got my first one star review! Apparently all of my dialogue is “cringe.”

In completely unrelated news, when questioned, my 21-year-old daughter swears she has never once been on Goodreads. 😂

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