Book picks similar to
Love & Monsters by Raven Flanagan
fantasy
romance
demons
monster
Gods & Monsters
Janie Marie - 2012
In fact, she's a sad sight to behold. Afflicted by the sorrow of her tragic past and failing marriage, the young mother of two is as terrified as every other soul when humanity faces doom. Yet, when hope seems lost, Jane does something even her estranged husband fails to--she fights. And she's not alone.David and his companions are what our world has dismissed as mere legend. Their duty to the human race brings them across the country, and they all know it is no coincidence when they cross paths with Jane.As it happens, Jane is special. She's destined to rid the world of darkness.With monsters from every nightmare seeking her out, a noble immortal knight showing her what love truly feels like, a secret past that even Jane can't remember, and even more powerful beings wagering the fate of her soul, Jane will embark on an epic journey to save her family and the world.So what will happen when they realize she's the greatest monster of them all? ***If you want an instant, fearless heroine, Jane won't be your gal. If you actually want to read a deep, epic story and witness every character grow throughout their journey, give this story a chance but be prepared for realistic pacing for character growth.Book One is 155,000 words, but the entire trilogy is over 700,000. This is just the beginning. Each book completes a part of the whole journey and should be read in its entirety.Warnings: Triggers for abuse, mental health disorders. Heavy violence, horror, strong language, emotional and controversial themes, sex, rape(not praised), will have multiple loves for the heroine(stressful but worth the wait and makes sense when it's meant to)*Please do not criticize the mental health disorders in this story or how the character copes with these disorders as well as grief, trauma, and confliction. This book was written for a very specific group of readers in mind, and bashing Jane's path to heal, how she reveals her tragedies, and how she raises her children with these disorders may cause distress to these readers. Be considerate. Everyone grieves differently, loves differently, and heals from trauma in their own ways. Criticizing a survivor in any way is awful, so please be mindful with your reviews. READING ORDERThe Gods & Monsters NovelsThe Gods & Monsters Trilogy1. Gods & Monsters2. The Fallen Queen3. The Light BringerStandalone but best read as fourth Gods & Monsters Novel:Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf? Standalone Alternate reality: Jane's Team: A High School Reverse Harem Romance
The Awakening
Caroline Peckham - 2019
And apparently it's in ours. As twins born in the month of Gemini, we're a rare breed even in this academy of supernatural a-holes.Changelings were outlawed hundreds of years ago but I guess our birth parents didn't get the memo. Which means we're totally unprepared for the ruthless world of Fae.Air. Fire. Water. Earth.No one has ever harnessed all four of them, until we arrived. And it hasn't made us any friends so far.As the rarest Elementals ever known, we're already a threat to the four celestial heirs; the popular, vindictive bullies who happen to be some of the hottest guys we've ever seen. It doesn't help that they're the most dangerous beasts in the Academy. And probably on earth too.Our fates are intertwined, but they want us gone. They've only got until the lunar eclipse to force us out and they'll stop at nothing to succeed.We never knew we had a birthright to live up to but now that we do, we intend to claim our throne.We can't expect any help from the faculty when it comes to defending ourselves. So if the dragon shifters want some target practice, the werewolves want someone to hunt or the vampires fancy a snack then we have to be ready. But we've been looking after each other for a long time and fighting back is in our blood.Today's horoscope: totally screwed.This is a full-length medium burn novel that is the first in a university-age academy series. Expect forbidden love and bully romance with mature content suitable for upper YA readers and onwards.
Soothing Nightmares
M. Sinclair - 2021
I loved them... and they loved me.I had never been afraid of the dark. Abandoned on the front step of ISS, I’d spent my entire life thriving in the realm of darkness that most humans avoided.I was a woman living among monsters.Arabella was abandoned at the front steps of INSTITUTUM SEQUUNTUR SOMNIA (ISS) one stormy night, only to be found and brought in by the monsters that lived there. An institute of nightmares that housed the most dangerous creatures that walked the plane of humanity. A place that trained and harnessed those abilities for their own use, while defending against the humans that were constantly attacking them.But what happens when a young human woman grows up among the nightmares? Feeling no fear but instead taking comfort in her team that she surrounded herself by? By all regards, Arabella shouldn’t have fit in at the institute. Nothing like the warrior-like creatures around her, the 5’1’’ young woman with pink hair and a vision impairment was absolutely fundamental to her team. Not just for her strategic brilliance but her soothing lack of fear that seemed to tame the nightmares around her. Arabella is bound and determined to keep her monstrous men safe while they are on their missions.What happens when their most recent mission attracts the wrong type of attention? What happens when ISS comes under attack and everything that she values is destroyed?Join Arabella and her possessive nightmares as one human woman finds the monster within herself to protect those that she loves. The ISS series is promised to feature terrifying monsters that include everything from the literal monster under the bed to Lucifer’s overbearing son, the prince of Hell. If you love large harems, brilliant, sassy, but slightly naive female main characters with no fear, and a thrilling adventure filled with steam, vengeance, and a happily ever after, then you are absolutely going to love this.Warning: This medium/fast burn RH contains several dark themes from swearing, violence, and sexual themes suitable for +18.
Wounded Kiss
Willow Winters - 2020
His chiseled jaw and silver gaze, I’ve only ever gotten a glimpse of, haunts both my nightmares and my dreams. There’s a treaty between us and them; mere mortals and the ones who terrify but keep us safe. The contract demands that every year there’s an offering and this year I’ll walk across that stage presenting myself. We have no idea what to expect if they choose someone, they haven’t in generations. The only thing we know is that the ones they take belong to them forevermore. If chosen, you don’t come back, or so the story of the treaty goes. Gather and present yourself.This is the offering…… and I… belong to him.
For the Hell of It
Cate Corvin - 2020
Hunger incarnate, ravenous for an angel. The heir to Satan’s sinful throne. And the prince who bound my soul to his until I win my freedom.They think I’m still pure. They think I’m innocent. They think they’ll enjoy corrupting me.Joke’s on them. This angel’s no saint.If Heaven doesn’t want me, I’ll be bad for the Hell of it.For The Hell of It is a steamy reverse harem romance for readers 18 and over.
Big Bad Wolf
Jenika Snow - 2021
And helping out an elderly woman with her shopping to earn some extra cash seemed easy enough.Mindless, hour-long walks through the thick woods that surrounded said village also sounded ideal. No Internet. No television. And just the bare basics to get me by.Perfection. Stress-free. Exactly what I needed.Or maybe I was wrong about it all.I felt someone or something watching me from the darkened, dangerous woods.I felt someone—something—stalking me.I didn’t know what or who it was, but I knew with certainty it wasn’t human… and that it wanted me.RenI wasn’t human, not completely.A Lycan—a centuries-old wolf-like creature that was feared by all, stronger than anything on the planet, and who was only ever after one thing.My mate.For over three hundred years, I had one purpose in life. Find her, the one female born to be mine. My female who’d cause the Linking Instinct—that supernatural connection that told me she was mine and I hers—to finally take root and make me whole.And for hundreds of years, I’d been alone, saving myself for my mate, never stopping the search.Until I scented her, saw her, finally felt my heartbeat and the blood rush through my veins with hope and anticipation.Mine.She didn’t see me, but she sensed me. And she ran. She couldn’t possibly know how much the chase turned me on.I didn’t know how I’d make her understand I could never let her go, that nothing and no one would stop me from making her mine.Because once a Lycan found his mate… nothing in this world, nothing supernatural or human, could keep him from her.
Sing Me to Sleep: A Series of Sacrilegious Events Novel
R.M. Virtues - 2021
Her family is most concerned about the latter at the moment, and when her sister Jenna leaves her alone in their shared home for the first time since The Incident, Penelope finally accepts some help. The only problem? There are side effects. Well, one: sleep paralysis.And the demon who came for her fear.Fear is the only thing that matters to the demons of the Somni Dae, and as long as they deliver it back to Hell, they are free to do as they please. Except enter the waking world of course, but Acheron never minded that. He has everything he needs right here, and in thousands of years, he has never wanted for anything. Until he stumbles across Penelope's dreamscape.Now is not the time to grow attached to a wandering soul, not with Heaven and Hell preparing to wage war. Nor is it the time to grow attached to your sleep paralysis demon, not when getting out of bed is already so hard. But Penelope is finally sleeping, and after Acheron wipes out the last of her fear, they both realize they're stronger together. And they're going to need all the strength they can get.
Shifter Wars
Kelly St. Clare - 2020
Apparently, Mum’s other family play laser tag every Wednesday. Not even joking. Laser tag.What the hell is this place?In hindsight, the massive guy with honey irises was my first major clue. Unusual eyes for a human, right?Perfect eyes for a werewolf.But sexy supernaturals, thongs, and mounting financial strain aside, Mum’s past is buried somewhere in this valley, and I need to dig up the truth or find a way to live with her lies.What do you do when neither option will leave you unscathed?
Black Sunshine
Karina Halle - 2021
Unfortunately, fate has other plans for her. A week before her birthday, she’s kidnapped by the brooding and dangerous stranger with cold eyes and a lethal touch, who has been stalking her on San Francisco’s fog-shrouded streets. Absolon "Solon" Stavig isn’t your average criminal though. He’s a centuries-old vampire who’s caught between wanting to kill Lenore and wanting to save her. You see Lenore, too, is a vampire.She just doesn’t know it yet.Taken by a pair of vampire slayers when she was just an infant, Lenore was raised never knowing her true nature. All Lenore knows is that she has (normal) parents who love her, that she’s exceptionally smart, and she’s squeamish around blood. But once she turns twenty-one, she’ll fully turn into a vampire, and Solon hopes he’ll be there to guide her, opening her eyes to her deepest hunger...both sexual and otherwise. But this turning can’t be kept a secret. Soon both slayers and vampires are hunting Lenore, with only Solon and his unpredictable motley crew of vampires to save her.If they don’t kill her first.Black Sunshine is a dark adult romance with a paranormal twist, about sex, love, secrets, and revenge, set in contemporary San Francisco.
The Fae King's Curse
Jamie Schlosser - 2020
As he looked in my direction with unseeing lavender eyes, I quickly realized our age was just about the only thing we had in common. He spoke with an accent, he had pointy ears, and he was so beautiful it made my heart ache. Oh, and he claimed to be a fae prince cursed by witches who stole his sight.I thought he was crazy from hypothermia. Turns out, he wasn’t, and for some reason he keeps coming back. But a day in my world is a year in his. Every time I see him, he’s older. Wiser. Hotter.Over the past six years, I’ve tried not to fall in love with him because the terms of the curse are clear: If he doesn’t wait for his fated mate in all ways, including an innocent (or not-so-innocent) kiss, he’ll be blind forever.So when Kirian kisses me and pulls me through the portal to his realm, I make it my mission to do some damage control. It’d be a whole lot easier if he wasn’t determined to marry me... And if someone wasn’t trying to murder me every step of the way.
The Merman's Kiss
Tamsin Ley - 2017
Instead, she falls into the arms of a sexy, sleek-tailed monster. He’s wild, seductive, and sets her blood on fire every time he touches her, and soon she begins to need him for more than his magic to breathe underwater. He might just give her a new reason to live.Zantu has evaded the mate-bond for thirty-five years, dodging promiscuous mermaids with vile intents. Unlike mermaids, mermen bond for life, and Zantu refuses to accept the heartbreak most mermen die of. That is, until the glint of gold catches his eye, and a simple salvage mission turns to passion. Now he’s bonded to a human, and begins to wonder if bonding to the right mate might not be so bad. The problem? A finless female won’t live long among the dangers of the sea.Now Zantu must choose between keeping her at his side, and keeping her safe. Either way, he’s sure he’ll end up with a broken heart.Content Warning: Explicit love scenes, dangerous mermaids, and sexy merman secrets. Guaranteed HEA with no cliffhangers. Intended for mature audiences.
Master of Crows
Grace Draven - 2009
In exchange for her freedom, she bargains with her masters, the mage-priests of Conclave, to spy on the renegade sorcerer, Silhara of Neith. The priests want Martise to expose the sorcerer's treachery and turn him over to Conclave justice. A risky endeavor, but one she accepts without hesitation--until she falls in love with her intended target.Silhara of Neith, Master of Crows, is a desperate man. The god called Corruption invades his mind, seducing him with promises of limitless power if he will help it gain dominion over the world. Silhara struggles against Corruption's influence and searches for ways to destroy the god. When Conclave sends Martise as an apprentice to help him, he knows she's a spy. Now he fights a war on two fronts -against the god who would possess him and the apprentice who would betray him.Mage and spy search together for a ritual that will annihilate Corruption, but in doing so, they discover secrets about each other that may damn them both. Silhara must decide if his fate, and the fate of nations, is worth the soul of the woman he has come to love, and Martise must choose continued enslavement or freedom at the cost of a man's life. And love.
To Bleed a Crystal Bloom
Sarah A. Parker - 2021
Fragile.An enigma.Now ward to a powerful High Master who knows too much and says too little, I lead a simple life, never straying from the confines of an imaginary line I've drawn around the castle grounds.Stay within. Never leave.Out there, the monsters lurk. Inside, I'm safe ... though at a cost far greater than the blood I drip into a goblet daily.Toxic, unreciprocated love for a man who's utterly unavailable.My savior. My protector.My almost executioner.I can't help but be enamored with the arcane man who holds the power to pull my roots from the ground.When voracious beasts spill across the land and threaten to fray the fabric of my tailored existence, the petals of reality will peel back to reveal an ugly truth. But in a castle puddled with secrets, none are greater than the one I've kept from myself.No tower is tall enough to protect me from the horror that tore my life to shreds.To Bleed a Crystal Bloom is a dark Rapunzel reimagining full of immersive imagery and breathtaking angst. A unique new fantasy series perfect for fans of Sarah J. Maas and Jennifer L. Armentrout, guaranteed to grip you from the very first page.
Carnage
Sandra R. Neeley - 2018
In truth, she is making every attempt to avoid forced marriage to any of the men he would have her shipped off to. She’s always believed that her husband would love her, would give his very life just to hold her; not be a man who would marry her to claim her father’s wealth. When she arrives in the deep-south, she catches the eye of a local backwoods family of brothers. The eldest, Bobby, decides that he is deserving of a step-up in life, takes her against her will to his hovel of a home at the edge of the swamps to be shared between himself and his brothers. Carolena — not the shrinking flower they think her to be, flees into the deepest, darkest, wildest portion of the swamps in an effort to escape the brothers and their plans for her. Death at the hands of the creatures in these wetlands is a better option, in her mind. Little does she know, she’s also caught the eye of the most dangerous creature there, one of legend — of nightmares. He’s watching her every move, admiring her bravery — and he’s decided he’s keeping her. Carnage is a Gargoyle. He’s also volatile, dangerous, unpredictable, and lonely. One evening minding his own business at the edge of the sanctuary he calls home, he spies a female. A human female, and she’s running headlong into his swamps, with no regard for her own safety. Then he sees the reason; three men, and they’re hot on her trail, torches in hand, hell bent on catching her before she can get away. He watches as they get closer and closer to her, easily following her trail. Carnage makes a snap decision that changes both their lives forever; he drops out of a tree right behind her, slaps one clawed hand over her mouth to keep her from screaming, wraps her in his huge arms and goes right back to the treetops. He shelters her while the men traverse the ground below, unable to determine why her trail disappeared. Carnage admires this little female — she was brave to run into the swamps alone. There are many creatures lying in wait for just such a meal. But she no longer has to worry about that, because now she’s his. He only hopes that she doesn’t fear him too much once she gets a good look at his blue-grey skin, his fangs and his horns. Because regardless of what she thinks, or the rules of his community — he’s not giving her up.
Strange Love
Ann Aguirre - 2020
He's adorable. He's alien as hell.Zylar of Kith Balak is a four-time loser in the annual Choosing. If he fails to find a nest guardian this time, he'll lose his chance to have a mate for all time. Desperation drives him to try a matching service but due to a freak solar flare and a severely malfunctioning ship AI, things go way off course. This 'human being' is not the Tiralan match he was looking for.She's frazzled. She's fierce. She's from St. Louis.Beryl Bowman's mother always said she'd never get married. She should have added a rider about the husband being human. Who would have ever thought that working at the Sunshine Angel daycare center would offer such interstellar prestige? She doesn't know what the hell's going on, but a new life awaits on Barath Colony, where she can have any alien bachelor she wants.They agree to join the Choosing together, but love is about to get seriously strange.