Why every Cold City book opens with a content note

Every book in The Cold City opens the same way, before the first chapter: a short note that says what is inside. Here is the one from Blood Beneath the Harbor, in full.

This book is a paranormal romance for adult readers. It contains explicit on-page sex, biting, blood-sharing, consensual blood play, vampire violence, old bargains that bind the living, grief, family estrangement, and scenes in which people are held against their will by a debt they did not choose. The central romantic relationship is consensual. Boundaries matter on the page. The heroine’s yes matters. The hero stops when asked. That rule holds for the entire book. If any of the above is not for you tonight, please choose another book and come back when the timing is right. If you are exactly where this book wants you to be, settle in.

Some readers skip it. Some readers tell me it is the reason they bought the book. Both are fine. But I want to say why it is there, because it is not there for the reason people assume.

It is not a warning label

A warning label says: this might hurt you. A door sign says: this is what is in the room. The difference is that a door sign trusts you. It assumes you are an adult who knows what you want tonight and what you do not, and that those two things can change between a Tuesday and a Friday. The note is written so you can make that call in thirty seconds, without spoilers, and without me deciding for you.

What it promises

The list of what is inside changes from book to book. The three sentences in the middle do not. The central relationship is consensual. The heroine’s yes matters. The hero stops when asked. Those are not content notes; they are promises about the kind of romance this is. A vampire who has lived a hundred and twenty years has every advantage over a woman who has lived thirty. The only way that story is a romance and not something else is if the power on the page is handled honestly, and the only way you can know in advance that it will be is if I say so out loud, in front, where you can hold me to it.

Why the heat is explicit about being explicit

These are open-door books. The note says so in plain words because “steamy” means different things to different readers, and a reader who wanted a closed door and got this one is not a reader I served well. Saying it plainly costs me a few sales from people who would have bounced anyway. It earns the rest.

Come back when the timing is right

The last two lines are the ones I think about most. Grief is in these books. Family estrangement is in these books. If you opened one on the wrong night, the note gives you permission to close it, and it says, in as many words, that the book will still be there. It will. All of them are here, with the notes in front, and no hurry.