I saw your post title, and my immediate thought, before reading anything else, was, "Romance with gore = Kingfisher, right?" I mean, I guess that's not a great leap to make... I've actually been reading lots of Kingfisher lately, and enjoying it for the most part. I started reading her kids' series, Hamster Princess and Danny Dragonbreath, with S, and then went on to Swordheart and the Paladin books.