Book picks similar to
Unleash by Lauren Harris


urban-fantasy
young-adult
fantasy
magic

Shadows of the Ancients


Christine M. Butler - 2014
    If only two very important things were not standing in my way.ONE:Zach Brighton - my betrothed.TWO:My wolf was very different!Everyone said I should be happy he still wanted me. I was not.Then, I met someone else, a mystery man who changed everything, but held secrets of his own that threatened his ability to claim me.Maybe I wasn’t meant to be claimed.Maybe I was broken.Or Maybe, I was just waiting for my new life to catch up.This is book ONE of The Ancients Series. This paranormal romantic suspense story MUST be read in order. The main character's story concludes in book 4, but all four of those books are already available!1 - Shadows of the Ancients2 - Falling into the White3 - Branches of the Willow4 - Bound by the Moon*Note: This book was originally released on Mar. 28, 2014. It has been updated, given a new cover, and is listed as a 2nd edition (due to significant changes). If you previously downloaded this book, you should be able to update it and it will require no further purchase.

Seven Psychics


J.C. Diem - 2014
    Her dream is to become a sniper, just like her often absent father. During routine weapons practice, she meets Mark Steel, the head of a small team of agents who work for a mysterious organization. He needs someone with outstanding skills to help his squad destroy seven psychotic psychics. With her father overseas on a mission, she is the next best choice. Still reeling from the knowledge that psychics actually exist, Lexi agrees to become a temporary member of their team. From the first moment that she meets Reece Garrett, she is instantly drawn to him. He is strong, sexy and charismatic and unfortunately thinks of her as little more than a child. Agent Garrett and his team have a secret that few people are aware of. They are shape shifters who transform into ravenous beasts with every full moon. The upside of being shifters is that they possess a natural resistance to mind control, which makes them the perfect team to hunt the psychics. But Reece soon learns that some instincts are impossible for even him to deny. Caught in a mind trap that he can't escape from, he finds himself irresistibly attracted to the one person that he'd do anything to protect.

Amaranth


Rachael Wade - 2011
    She doesn’t expect to fall in love with the handsome Gavin Devereaux and plummet into the world of Amaranth, a place of exile for reformed vampires.Wrestling to escape a deadly ex-boyfriend while giving Gavin a chance, Camille is confronted with decisions that threaten not only her life, but the lives of her inhuman friends she has come to love. Entangled in her friends’ quest for freedom, she dives into their realm and faces the threats of Amaranth’s ruler—the mother of all vampires—and her own inner demons.Now Camille must decide whether she will derail her life and make the ultimate sacrifice for the monsters that interrupted her bumpy path back to sanity—what she still wants so desperately—or escape with Gavin before it’s too late for both of them.

Wrong Side of Hell


Sonya Bateman - 2016
    That honor was reserved for the living." Hauling dead people around Manhattan is all in a day's work for body mover Gideon Black. He lives in his van, talks to corpses, and occasionally helps the police solve murders. His life may not be normal, but it's simple enough.Until the corpses start talking back.When Gideon accidentally rescues a werewolf in Central Park, he's drawn into the secret world of the Others. Fae, were-shifters, dark magic users and more, all playing a deadly cat-and-mouse game with Milus Dei, a massive and powerful cult dedicated to hunting down and eradicating them all.Then a dead man speaks to him, saying that Milus Dei wants him more than any Other. They'll stop at nothing to capture him and control the abilities he never knew he had.He is the DeathSpeaker. He is the key. And he's not as human as he thought...Life was a whole lot easier when the dead stayed dead.

Cursed by the Gods


Raye Wagner - 2015
    . . Olympus still rules. Demigods have elite hunters who viciously kill monsters. And shadow-demons from the Underworld, the very harbingers of death, are tracking her. When tragedy destroys the only safety she’s ever known, all signs point to Hades’s demons. Or do they? Something doesn’t add up, and Hope needs answers. But now, someone knows she exists . . . Forced to hide, Hope pretends to be normal. She’ll do whatever it takes to keep her secret safe— and her heart protected. But when Athan arrives, her world is turned upside down. With gods, demigods, and demons closing in, the question is… How long can a monster stay hidden in plain sight? Join Hope on her unforgettable journey to discover what it means to live and her daring fight to break Apollo’s curse. *Previously released as Curse of the Sphinx.* Perfect for readers who love the adventure and romance of Cassandra Clare’s The Mortal Instruments and the mythology of Rick Riordan's Trials of Apollo. The Sphinx series is filled with Greek gods, monsters, demigods, action and romance. It challenges teenage concepts of fate, true love, and what defines courage and heroes. This series is perfect for teens or young adults at heart.

Fatal Harmony


Anne Malcom - 2017
    A concept to fight against.Evil doesn’t exist.Neither does ‘good.’Vampires do, though.I just happen to be one.I’ve cruised through the centuries managing to avoid all the wars, supernatural and human, but still going to all the best parties.I would say I avoided bloodshed, but it’s kind of part of the whole ‘vampire’ thing.I’ve lived on the fringes of a society that considered cruelty and sadism favorable character traits for almost five hundred years. Now I'm in the middle of a war that might just put my nonbeating heart in a lot of danger.Battles, I can handle.The impossible attraction between me and the vampire slayer, not to mention the penetrating gaze of the king of our race, on the other hand?I might not get out undead.

Inception


Bianca Scardoni - 2015
    I know vampires are real. I watched one murder my father eight months ago, and even though they tried to convince me it didn’t happen—that I’d lost touch with reality due to the trauma, I know what I saw was real.Hollow Hills is now the place I call home. It was supposed to be my chance at a normal life. My chance to bury my secret and start over. But everyone around me is keeping their own secrets, whispering lies into my ears like promises, and one of them is about to turn my entire world upside down.I thought I had it all figured out. I thought I had the answers. I thought I knew who I was. The truth is, I didn’t even know the half of it. There's a reason these vampires are still after me. There's a reason they will always hunt me. Because I'm not human.I'm the devil they fear and the angel they crave.Only problem is, I don't know it yet.INCEPTION is the enthralling first installment in The Marked series. A YA paranormal romance full of atmosphere, supernatural adventure, and jaw-dropping twists that will keep you guessing until the very last page.

Bitten


Noelle Marie - 2014
    It really was unfortunate that he was also the most stubborn, controlling, downright infuriating jackass she’d ever known as well. Oh, and there was the fact that he was a werewolf – a werewolf who has bitten her. Sixteen-year-old Katherine Mayes had never believed in mythological creatures like werewolves or mermaids – certainly not those sparkly vampires that her friend Abby was obsessed with. Even when she’s bitten by a massive animal after a reckless night of teenage adventure and her body begins to change in mystifying ways, she can’t force herself to believe in what she’s convinced is impossible. Little does she realize she’s been infected with a disease a little more permanent than the rabies she feels fortunate to have not contracted. Lycanthropy. Her fierce denial is soundly shattered, however, when she is simultaneously saved and kidnapped by Bastian and his pack. Forced to leave small town Iowa behind and adjust to their way of life in a hidden society, Katherine must also deal with fighting the pull she feels towards the man – or wolf, rather – who has bitten her and disrupted her life so completely.

Tempting Danger


Eileen Wilks - 2004
     National bestselling author Eileen Wilks draws readers into a bold new world where the magical and mundane co-exist in an uneasy alliance--and a cop balanced on her own knife-edged struggle is their only hope against a cold-blooded killer.Lily Yu is a San Diego police detective investigating a series of grisly murders that appear to be the work of a werewolf. To hunt down the killer, she must infiltrate the clans. Only one man can help her--a were named Rule Turner, a prince of the lupi, whose charismatic presence disturbs Lily. Rule has his own reasons for helping the investigation--reasons he doesn't want to share with Lily. Logic and honor demand she keep her distance, but the attraction between them is immediate and devastating-and beyond human reason. Now, in a race to fend off evil, Lily finds herself in uncharted territory, tested as never before, and at her back a man who she's not sure she can trust.

Breathing Fire


Rebecca K. Lilley - 2012
    I was already having the day from hell when two angry druids stormed into my shop. Druids in my shop was bad. Very bad. Their presence in my place of business was a disaster no matter how you looked at it, but the fact that I knew these two druids in particular was an outright catastrophe. The fact that they happened to hate my guts certainly wasn't going to help matters, though it was hardly surprising. Even druids who didn't know me cursed at the sound of my name...

Red


Kate SeRine - 2012
    But everyone calls me Red.”Once upon a time, a spell went awry, stranding Make Believe characters in the ordinary world. Since then, Tess “Red” Little—a/k/a Little Red Riding Hood—has worked as an Enforcer for the Chicago branch of the Fairytale Management Authority. But, consider yourself warned—she’s not just some waif with a basket of goodies. All grown up and with nothing to lose, a gun and combat boots is more her style. And Red’s new assignment threatens to be short on happily ever afters…Someone is murdering transplanted Tales in gruesome fashion. The list of fictional characters capable of such grisly acts is short and includes more than one of Red’s old flames. And if that wasn’t bad enough, there’s another complication, in the form of sexy, enigmatic Nate Grimm, the FMA’s lead detective and part-time Reaper. Used to following her own rules and living life on the edge, Red has managed to avoid taking on a partner until now. But Nate’s dark side makes him perfect for a case like this. That is, if she can trust him. Because if there’s one thing Red knows for sure, it’s that believing in the wrong person can have big, bad consequences…

Her Wolf


Rebecca Royce - 2009
    The only problem is that he’s a wolf and she’s becoming convinced that she’s insane. But Ashlee’s wolf is no ordinary canine; he is Tristan Kane, third son in the royal family of the Westervelt Wolf pack.Trapped in his wolf form by his evil father’s men, Tristan has desperately sought a way out of predicament and is shocked to find that the sad but beautiful redhead who has come to the wolf cage can not only hear him, but awakens in him the knowledge that she is his mate, the other half of his soul.Ashlee, unaware that she is half wolf-shifter, agrees to accompany Tristan back to his pack in Maine to seek answers to her past and understand her future. But as Tristan and Ashlee grow closer, familial betrayals will threaten to destroy the fragile love they have started to build.With the odds stacked against them, Ashlee and Tristan will either embrace their love to save the Westervelt Wolves or be lost forever to despair.

Little White Lies


Aimee Laine - 2011
    For two centuries, she’s played every part from foreign dignitary to office drone. The role she wants most, though, is one she’s denied herself three times already.FBI Agent Wyatt Moreland believes Charley’s photographic memory is the key to his latest assignment. He’s oblivious to the true extent of her abilities, but he can’t deny the sense of déjà vu at their introduction.Unlike Wyatt, Charley knows this isn’t their first meeting.It’s their fourth.The girl he vowed to love, sixteen years before, stands in front of him in her true form - one he’ll never recognize.With each reconnection, Charley loves him more, though she realizes this is her last chance to explain. Only absolute truth can bring them happiness, but can Wyatt forgive her deceptions? Or will lies tear them apart forever?

A Demon Bound


Debra Dunbar - 2012
    All she wants to do is drink beer by the pool, play mischievous pranks on the humans, and get her hot neighbor in the sack. It’s a relaxing break from her infernal home, as long as she manages to avoid the angels, who won’t hesitate to execute her on sight.But when her naughty hellhound lands her in trouble with the local werewolf pack, Sam is blackmailed into helping track and catch a killer. The steps she must take to appease the werewolves will put her right in the crosshairs of the angels. And with angels, there is no second chance.

Werewolves Be Damned


Stacey Kennedy - 2010
    But that doesn’t stop her from hunting the werewolves who slaughtered her human family. She’ll have her revenge, but only if Kyden, the elite guardian, would get the hell out of her way.Kyden can’t decide if Nexi wants to get herself killed or if she just has no clue what she’s doing. But her father made it clear: keep Nexi safe…or else. Of course, the more Nexi runs toward revenge, the more she needs Kyden’s aid, and as she grows into her power and confidence, so does his desire to protect her. The only problem? She’d rather he dropped dead.But when a vampire paints a bull’s-eye on Nexi’s back, she’s hard-pressed to deny Kyden and the help he’s offering. Even if it means getting her revenge will be a little bit harder. At least it will still be as sweet.This story was previously published elsewhere under the title The Willow in 2010, and has been revised and expanded for Entangled Publishing.