Book picks similar to
Innocence by T.L. Hodel


dark
cliffhanger
dark-romance
dub-con

Things I Wanted To Say (But Never Did)


Monica Murphy - 2021
    Dark and thunderous, furious and fierce. Cold, heartless and devastatingly beautiful, like the statues in our prep school gardens. The school with his family name on the sign. He can do no wrong here. This is his domain. He’s a menace on campus. Adored and feared. Hated and respected. His taunting words carve into my skin, shredding me to ribbons. Yet his intense gaze scorches my blood, fills me with a longing I don’t understand. When I stumble upon him one night alone, I find him broken. Bleeding. My instincts scream to leave and let him suffer, but I can’t. I sneak him into my room. Clean him up. Fall for his lies. Let him possess every single part of me until I’m the one left a gasping, broken mess. When he leaves me alone in the dead of night, he takes my journal with him. Now he knows all my secrets. My hate. My truth. And he promises to use my words against me. I’ll be ruined if my darkest secret gets out. That’s when I strike a bargain with the devil. I’ll let Whit Lancaster ruin me behind closed doors instead.

Kiss Me With Lies


S.M. Soto - 2019
    One unsolved murder. A sickening plot for revenge. When Mackenzie Wright attends her first real high school party, held somewhere deep in the woods of her small California town, no one expects to wake up the next morning to news of a gruesome murder. Especially not her own sister’s. No suspects.No motive.No convictions.Just one unsolved murder and whatever’s left of the now deserted town. Mackenzie has spent years with her sister’s death weighing heavily on her shoulders, but it isn’t until she stumbles across a photograph that changes everything for her. The memories, everything from that night, come flashing back in high-speed technicolor and Mackenzie soon finds herself obsessed with the truth. Determined to find out what really happened to her sister, Mackenzie relies on that one photograph to give her the answers she needs by embedding herself into the lives of five of the wealthiest men in Los Angeles. Consumed by her need for revenge, Mackenzie infiltrates the world of the rich and elite, only to come face-to-face with an alluring complication in the form an elusive playboy. When enemy lines are drawn, Mackenzie has to choose between her loyalty to her sister and the man who has stolen her heart.

The Iron Tiara


Beth Flynn - 2017
    As a child, he ran away from his family and the Cherokee Indian Reservation to enter a life of crime. As an adult, he leads a multifaceted life managing his two businesses—his legitimate landscaping venture, and his loan shark and underworld dealings. Driven by anger and betrayal, Anthony begins the hunt for Christy’s father, Van Chapman, after he runs out on a loan.Christy’s privileged life is not as it seems. She has kept painful family secrets and hidden some of her own. She’s determined to find out the truth and expose Van, but her search delivers her right into Anthony Bear’s hands, adding kidnapping to his list of crimes.Their worlds are as contrasting as the color of their skin. The only thing they seem to have in common is their mutual disdain for Van Chapman…and each other.They couldn’t be more wrong.The Iron Tiara is a spin-off novel from The Minutes Trilogy. It can be read as a standalone, and does not contain a cliffhanger.

Don't...


Jack L. Pyke - 2012
    But now someone knows Jack’s head inside and out, and they’re about to twist all perception and lead him into an underground depravity that nearly sent him down in his youth. As Jack slips further into a dark psychological minefield, only two men offer different paths back to sanity: Gray, a man who knows Jack’s every dark thought, and Jan, the first man to show Jack a “soft lad” approach to head and heart. But with deadly games and ghosts bleeding through into Jack’s reality, it’s a fight to see who out of the three of them will survive long enough to find a way out of the vicious game played by someone known only as… the Unknown.

The Sordid Promise


Courtney Lane - 2014
    She thought she'd left her "baggage" behind her on the opposite coast, only to find that it never left her side. As her self-destructive thoughts begin to consume her, her mother -- realizing Nikki's torment -- pushes Nikki to complete her last wishes.Eric Brenton, Nikki's new neighbor, lives in a dark, chaotic world that is easily hidden behind his model good looks and cocky demeanor. Unapologetic about his dirtier intentions, he sets his sights on Nikki with an offer to help her. But his help comes with very unorthodox conditions and a huge price.And Eric...comes with an extensive black box warning label.

Dirty Little Secrets


K.G. Reuss - 2021
    Cunning. Gorgeous. Killers.They are the Kings of Bolten, an elite academy I have no business being in. My desire to remain invisible is dashed when I find myself bound to one of their enemies.Now, there’s no escape.With me in the crosshairs in a war between Kings and Lords at Bolten, will I be another victim or will the Kings spare me on the condition I belong to them?One thing is certain. I have a few dirty little secrets. Maybe I’m not the good girl everyone thought. Maybe I’m meant to be queen. Maybe… I’m meant to rule.Dirty Little Secrets is a mature #whychoose romance with three sinful Kings of Bolten. Contains dark content and scenarios. Reader discretion advised.

There Are No Saints


Sophie Lark - 2021
    Until the night we both laid eyes on Mara Eldritch.Shaw wants to use her as a pawn in his twisted game.I’m fixated on her for a different reason…She makes me feel things I never thought I could feel. Want things I never wanted.Only she can make me lose control.I don’t know if I should protect her at all costs… or destroy her before she ruins me.Mara knows I’m no saint. But she has no idea she’s dancing with the devil… The Lark Notes: I have always been fascinated by true crime, as well as by villains and anti-heroes. A serial killer is, of course, the ultimate anti-hero — the baddest of the bad boys. Redeeming a character who starts so evil was a challenge that inspired me to entirely new heights and entirely new depths. Come on this darkly sensual and utterly brain-bending ride with me! — Sophie"There Are No Saints” is the first book in the Sinners Duet. Reader be warned: this is a dark and steamy serial killer romance that will take you on a journey through the twisted mind of an artist on the brink of madness.

Reckless Hate


Thandiwe Mpofu - 2019
    The results? Reckless Hate & Catastrophe."Westbrook had four boys that ruled my life once.They were hell raisers.Cunning Athletes.Skilled Manipulators.Hateful Assholes.Gorgeous gods.Heartbreakers. . .Only I never counted on them breaking my heart as savagely as they did, sending me away when I needed them the most. Making me spiral into a vicious abyss of darkness where I'm haunted by a pair of frosty blue eyes filled with hate.But now I'm back and this time around, for a reason that makes breathing almost completely impossible.And if they think I won't get revenge for my brother--one of the Blue Boys--then they have another kind of hell to face.Because I'm no longer their little Blue girl from four years ago. . .

Wicked Saint


Veronica Eden - 2020
    After one kiss, the king of the school hunts me down like I’m a conquest to win. He’ll have to fight harder than that, because I’m no one’s trophy.They all want a piece of me, but I will not bend or break for them.LUCASNo one refuses the king.One case of mistaken identity and a hasty kiss turned my world upside down.The new girl refused me. Not only that, she threw down the gauntlet. That won’t stand. No one ever says no to me. This school is mine and she’ll learn her place as a loyal follower or her life is going up in flames.I’ll make her say yes. She’ll be screaming it before I’m finished breaking her.Warning: Wicked saint is a dark new adult high school bully romance intended for readers 18+. This book is part of a series but can be enjoyed as a standalone. This mature new adult romance contains dubious situations and intense sexual/violent content that some readers might find triggering or offensive. Please proceed with caution.

Beast


Measha Stone - 2018
    After all, Ellie Stevens has been her father’s keeper for as long as she can remember.However, Ashland Titon isn’t a man of mercy. If you owe, you pay. End of story. His unrelenting control has built his empire, and he’s not going to give over that power now. But when Ellie charges into his life with her demands and possibilities of sweet surrender, her offer proves too tempting to pass up.Yet there’s more at play here than just working off a debt. There are secrets buried in the shadows, and dangerous desires to be explored. While the two of them dance to an erotic beat, outside forces threaten Ashland's empire and Ellie must decide where her heart truly lies - and what she's truly willing to risk for love.

Destruction


Jennifer Bene - 2017
    She’s beautiful, well-educated, her father is rich, powerful — and she works for him. The perfect little princess, raised to be just like daddy.But it’s all a lie.A bloody, screwed up lie, and David Gethen is about to tear it all down and destroy Lianna in the process. He wants revenge, he wants to finish the plan his father started years ago — but after he takes her, after he tortures her, he begins to realize just how wrong he may have been.Publisher's Note: This book is a dark romance that contains intense scenes, graphic language, and capture fantasy which may be disturbing for some readers. Please choose another book if this is not your cup of tea!

Heartless


Ivy Fox - 2019
     They saw me for the girl I am and the person I yearn to become one day—a woman who thrives in her freedom and dances away in her rightfully earned independence.They saw all the strong, unafraid parts of me, and coaxed each one of them out, daring me to dream bigger, climb higher.They never once saw the girl I had been groomed to see in the mirror.The abandoned daughter of a dead man.The unwanted child of a woman who despised her.The broken body formed wrong and built on a shaky foundation, threatening to fall apart and shatter.They made all the ugliness disappear and left only wonder and promise. The love we shared for each other was probably the only miracle I would be granted in this life, and I knew they felt the same. Or so I thought. Everything I held dear has been robbed from me, and I’ve been a victim of theft too many times to mention.I will not have them steal my pride.They can keep my heart, for all I care. The day they became my stepbrothers, it stopped working anyway. Heartless is the first book in The Privileged of Pembroke High trilogy which ends in a cliffhanger. This is a bully/enemy-to-lovers, #whychoose, new adult contemporary romance, full-length novel. *Recommended 18+ due to mature language, adult situations, and sensitive content.