Twisted Heathens

Twisted Heathens is the first book in J. Rose's Blackwood Institute series, a dark reverse harem romance set inside an experimental psychiatric program. Its protagonist has been incarcerated in a maximum-security facility and arrives at Blackwood Institute — described as purgatory for the dangerous and disturbed — with no interest in the three-year program meant to rehabilitate her; she wants only to end her life before it runs its course.

Four fellow patients, each carrying damage of their own, refuse to let that happen, and the found-family, why-choose dynamic that forms between them anchors the romance against the institute's unravelling mysteries. Reviewers and the author's own content note flag the book as very dark, with recurring references to self-harm, suicide, sexual assault, and violence.

Twisted Heathens ends on a cliffhanger and is followed by Sacrificial Sinners and Desecrated Saints to complete the trilogy.