Book picks similar to
Brutal Winter by Quirah Casey


reverse-harem
dark
dark-romance
mafia

Hard to Love


W. Winters - 2019
    I was too much of a bastard to push her away.I grew up in this life, and now I run these streets. Blood and violence taint everything I touch.Everything but her. She was my constant through it all.Just a touch would singe and soothe.Just a look would tempt and torment.She became my escape and my addiction.I only survived because she was by my side.I should’ve known better than to indulge.I should’ve known better than to let her fall for me.It was only a matter of time before the danger bled into what we had.I was Laura’s downfall. Problem was, she was mine too.

Code of Silence


Shantel Tessier - 2020
    Who just so happens to also be my ex-boyfriend.It’s complicated. Two years ago, he broke my heart when he left me to do his father’s bidding. After months of crying, I finally accepted he was gone and wasn’t going to look back. That maybe he’d never loved me at all. I never wanted to see Luca again.Now a cruel twist of fate has signed me over to him in a heartless deal. I’m his. He thinks he did me a favor, but I feel like I’ve been given a death sentence. He doesn't want to get married because he still loves me. No, he did it for money. More power.I’m going to be a mafia wife. And there’s only one way out of it. Death.But as it turns out, someone else doesn’t want me to marry the ruthless Luca Bianchi. And if he has his way, I’ll see that early grave.Due to mature content and themes this book is recommended for readers aged eighteen and over. Code of Silence is an arranged marriage and a complete standalone. This novel may contain triggers.

Find Me


Ashley N. Rostek - 2021
    My parents. My twin sister. All of them murdered by the man who has stalked me for years. He nearly killed me, too. But I got away and he’s still out there, searching for me. He won’t find me. At least, I hope not. Thanks to WITSEC, I’ve been given a new life with a new identity.The present…My uncle, my only living relative, has helped me glue myself back together and given me the tools I’ll need to survive. I’m not fixed and my grief is heavy, but I’m at a point where I can put one foot in front of the other to try to move on.I know my future will be hard and lonely. I must stay strong and focus on the good. I’m getting a second chance at life. I am safe. My new home is beautiful. The four brothers who live next door are even more so. Little do I know that Colt, Creed, Keelan, and Knox will soon become my everything. It’s as if my lonely heart screamed out for someone good to find me. Four answered back.***WARNING This is a reverse harem romance. Contains violence, graphic killing, foul language, and sexual content. Some parts may be triggering.***

Prince of Hearts


L.A. Cotton - 2020
    Hardworking. Honest.She’d rather spend her days helping at the local shelter than brushing shoulders with her vain and entitled classmates.Niccolò Marchetti is his father’s son.Dark. Dangerous. Deceitful.He’d rather spend his days getting bloody in the ring than attending class and keeping up pretences.When their paths cross at Montague University neither of them are willing to drop the walls they’ve spent so long building. But he can’t resist the girl with stars in her eyes, and she can’t forget the guy who saved her that night.There’s only one catch.Nicco isn’t Arianne’s knight-in-shining-armor, he’s the son of her father’s greatest enemy.He is the enemy.And their families are at war.*Prince of Hearts in the first book in Nicco and Ari’s duet. Due to mature content that some readers may find distressing, this book is recommended for readers 18+

Lost Girl


Elena Trueblood - 2020
    Okay, who am I kidding? Mom did the absolute best she could as an exotic dancer, but my childhood was far from normal. Most girls don't learn knife work at age twelve, have friends with names like Bones and Cobra. The average sixteen-year-old doesn’t take on vigilante acts either. What can I say, I was a lonely girl when Mom passed, what better way to pass the time? Now at twenty-three, it looks like my life might be finding stable again within the crew Cobra, Bones and I created...That is until trouble falls into our club, in the form of four hotter than hell men, who inform me that I’m the lost girl of the Conti family... ya know, just one of the largest mafia families in the country... and they’re my enforcers.I doubt they expected Priest, the vigilante crew member when they came looking for me

Merciless


Willow Winters - 2018
    Women like her are made to destroy men like me. I couldn’t resist her though. Given to me to start a war; I was too eager to accept. But I didn’t know what she’d do to me. That she would change everything. She sees through me in a way no one else ever has. Her innocence and vulnerability make me weak for her and I hate it.I know better than to give in to temptation.A ruthless man doesn’t let a soul close to him.A cold-hearted man doesn’t risk anything for anyone.A powerful man with a beautiful woman at his mercy… he doesn’t fall for her.

Inside The Maelstrom: Part One


Grace McGinty - 2021
    With my car. While I was driving it. Okay, maybe it wasn’t just the tree I was trying to kill. But that wasn’t the end of it. No, I wasn’t even halfway through the spiralling vortex that would consume my life. When a dangerous driving charge gets me put in a fancy rehab for rich kids and socialites with eating disorders, I intended to do my time and then leave. I was going to leave behind the sports star who was addicted to uppers, the coke-head lawyers, the cutters and the space cadets. I was going to leave behind him. Bored, listless, and filthy dirty rich. If there was a waste of oxygen, it was Hendrick Kenley. Although I wasn’t sure why he was in rehab, because he was special (read rich) enough to not have to do group therapy with the rest of us. Didn’t matter, I avoided him and his beautiful cruel smirk, and read until my sentence was over. Fate, that glorious bitch, had other plans though. Days before my release, I pick up a book. Jules Verne’s Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. I’d read through the rest of the Sunny Outlook Center’s meagre library. But in the margins of that tatty paperback was my future. Words from a past inmate of this institution that spoke to my soul and begged me to come find him. Problem was, unlike the rest of the people in the Sunny Outlook, my parents had taken out a second mortgage to pay for my stay. My mystery beau was calling me to Europe, France to be exact. So I had to make a deal with the Devil, and by Devil I mean Hendrick Kenley and his cohort of disenchanted fools. But they offered me a deal I couldn’t refuse; they’d pay for everything for the trip, travelling on a private plane at that, but I had to let them come along. There was a reason for the adage that if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. I’d learn the truth of that the hard way. Inside the Maelstrom is an enemies to lovers contemporary reverse harem romance. May contain possibly triggering themes around mental health.

Their Mafia Bride


L.A. Sable - 2019
     I never wanted anything to do with the family business, which is why go to college out of state and stay as far from “the life” as possible. But the danger is hard to avoid to when your grandfather is head of a crime syndicate and leaves you his fortune and his enemies when he dies. Now, I need protection and the Three Devils are willing to provide it. But these sexy mafia hitman don’t work for free and their help comes at a price. Me. They’re willing to go as far as it takes to keep me safe — kill for me, die for me, even marry me. Except I can’t choose just one and they’re willing to share. ***Their Mafia Bride is a reverse harem romance and the first part of a duet, featuring smoldering mafia hitmen, dangerous bikers and enough heat to burn.

Sweet Mercy


K.A. Tucker - 2019
    Tucker comes the dark and steamy Empire Nightclub series.One visit to my father in prison—convicted for a murder he didn’t commit—and I’ve attracted the attention of the last man I’d ever want knowing that I exist.Gabriel Easton.Son of an infamous crime boss. Deplorable womanizer. Scoundrel to the core.Worse, he has figured out how desperate I am to protect my father from brutality behind bars. He has the power to grant that protection, and he has offered it … for a price.Me.I'll do anything for my father, including agree to Gabriel's cruel game. But I won't comply with his every whim and wish. Unfortunately for me, I think my loathing for him is what he’s enjoying most.That's fine. By the time I’m through with him, he’ll be crying my name.Mercy.

Ryan Rule


Sadie Kincaid - 2021
    Independent and feisty, she’s relied on no-one but herself since the age of sixteen.Working for the Russians, she is finally close to getting the one thing she wants most in life, when she’s stopped in her tracks by the notorious Ryan brothers.The Ryans are Irish Mafia. They are unstoppable. No-one stands in their way. And nothing comes between a Ryan and his family.That is, until the hurricane that is Jessie, crashes into their lives. With a world full of secrets and a past that she can’t outrun, will she be their salvation or their downfall?

Declan + Coraline


J.J. McAvoy - 2015
    Twenty-three-year-old Coraline Wilson is fresh out of college and just wants to experience life to the fullest for the first time. On her journey towards self-discovery, she ends up meeting twenty-seven-year-old Declan Callahan. They fall for each other hard and fast…but their families may prove to be problematic… A Ruthless People Prequel Novella (about 46,000 words)

Hero


Leighton Del Mia - 2014
    For years I’ve watched her from afar, but what started out as duty has become obsession.Cataline FordI work hard.I play by the rules.I’m content.My scars are quiet and invisible, and that keeps me hidden.Doesn’t it?One fateful walk home, I’m taken by someone I didn’t know I should fear. Captive and afraid, nobody will tell me why I’m confined to this hauntingly beautiful mansion. I’m given everything; I have nothing. He takes what he needs from me, and for that I hate him. But I might have loved him once.And just because you’re reading this doesn’t mean I survive him. "Escape is now her singular obsession, the need for it all but physiological. But freedom is the only thing I can't give her, because I have an obsession of my own: her safety. Or, maybe now, just her." HERO is a dual POV, standalone erotic novel. WARNING: meant for a mature audience due to dark themes including non- or dubious-consent.

Possession


Jaimie Roberts - 2017
    A domineering man. A powerful man. On that day, the first of two transactions were made with my very unloving parents. I became his possession.Something to own.Something to keep.An object intended only for his desire, his pleasure, and his ... indulgence.Although promised to this man, I at least remained safe ... untouched ... pure. I was to be his and his alone. On my eighteenth birthday, the second transaction took place.I escaped...But he came for me.Now, I'm his. He owns my body and my soul.And, as if all of that wasn't enough, he wants to own my heart too.I’m trying to resist him—trying to fight that irresistible monster inside of him. But, as with everything else in my life, nothing is ever that easy.Warning: Contains graphic scenes with sexual assault content. Please proceed with caution.

Flawed


Francette Phal - 2014
    That's the only memory he carries from a childhood he does not remember. And now it is all he knows. Blood is his life.Knox Bishop has done a lot of horrible things, all at the command of the man who holds his leash. It's a matter of loyalty for him. Allegiance to the man who saved his life when he was a child. So he goes where he is needed and does what he is told. He tortures. He kills. He kills. He tortures. It is an unrelenting cycle that he constantly craves and can never quite satisfy.Until her.Eighteen year old Lacey Barnes distributes her assets to fund her dreams. Medical school is the end game and she is determined to get there by any means necessary. But a family member's careless mistake derails her plans and now she must pay a price in order to save him. She goes to Knox willingly offering him the only valuable thing she has. Herself. In doing so he allows her into his world, a world she quickly realizes is void of any light and hope for escape is utterly elusive. But escape is something she finds that she no longer wants. "He lays a path of pleasure laced agony for me to follow and I do. Stupidly I follow him down the blinding darkness of his euphoric hell."Disclaimer: This is book is intended for mature audiences (18+) due to description of violence and sexual situations.

Distorted


Nyla K.Nyla K. - 2021
    And trust me, you’ll wish you were. We’re the stain on society. The freaks, the creeps, your favorite Netflix documentaries come to life. They lock us up and throw away the key, because we deserve it. But not me. I’m just a lowly bank robber. I don’t belong here, surrounded by psychopaths and killers with no remorse… At least, I don’t think I do.Getting by unscathed is my top priority. Unfortunately for me and my fellow prisoners, those in charge are more dangerous than we are. You see, the guards run the show, and I seem to have caught the attention of the most twisted one. He has a name, but it might as well be Officer. We move around one another like a sun and a moon, revolving in an axis of confused lust and torment until the truth is distorted, and the thing I once feared becomes that which I crave; my vile addiction, somehow so exquisite. Reality warps in the dungeon, and I’m left wondering which prison is worse… the one holding my body, or my mind. *DO NOT READ OR POST SPOILERS! I am begging you to think of your fellow readers, in your reviews, your posts… everywhere. Revealing plot twists is a dick move. And I promise, it’ll be fun to go in blind. **Distorted is the first book in the Alabaster Penitentiary series. It is a full M/M romance, with HEA. Each book in this series is technically a standalone, though they are interconnected, so it will be recommended to read in order, as references to this story will be made in future books. Distorted is intended for mature audiences and open-minded readers ONLY! If you prefer the same old story, this book won’t be for you. This story is dark, probably darker for some than others, so please proceed with caution, and if you’re easily triggered, steer clear. You’ve been warned.