My Dark Romeo

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of sexual content, substance use, gender discrimination, and emotional abuse.

Before Dallas Townsend meets Romeo Costa, she imagines her life as “a romance novel” (1). Romeo changes how she sees everything.

Twenty-one-year-old Dallas attends the debutante ball with her friends, Emilie and Jenna. While her friends wait for the handsome bachelors Oliver von Bismarck and Romeo Costa to arrive, Dallas samples the food. She’s surprised when the bachelors appear, and they’re as attractive as everyone said. She stares, unconcerned about what they think. She runs into her sister, Frankie Townsend, who also exclaims about Romeo’s good looks and his Chief Financial Officer (CFO) position at Costa Industries, an arms dealing company.

Dallas breaks away and returns to the food table, overhearing everyone talk about the bachelors. They’re unlike the young men in Dallas’s conservative Georgia hometown, Chapel Falls. Romeo appears beside Dallas and introduces himself. Dallas tries making jokes, but Romeo doesn’t laugh. She breaks away to dance with several men throughout the rest of the evening. She’s tipsy on champagne and enjoying herself. However, the dances don’t mean anything to her because her father, Shepherd Townsend, has already arranged her engagement to the wealthy bachelor,