Book picks similar to
Barely Breathing by Erica Marselas


second-chance
romance
dark
second-chances

Recklessly Mine


Emily Bowie - 2017
    It holds far too many painful memories of the life he had. But when Chase has to take an unexpected trip back to the small town, he is forced to deal with parts of his past he thought he had buried forever. Pulled into the buzz around town about the boy who ran away all those years ago, Katheryn’s heart skips a beat when she is literally knocked off her feet by Chase. He’s scruffy, sexy, and covered in tattoos that scream bad boy, with an attitude to match. Although he appeared to have forgotten about their brief encounter, she never could. For when he left all those years ago, he left with a piece of her heart. As they fall in love, Katheryn is slowly sucked into his world of corruption, family secrets, and lies. Forcing Chase to choose between Katheryn and the life he fought so hard to achieve. After all, isn’t everything fair in love and war?

Dark Mafia Prince


Annika Martin - 2016
    So trusting.
Like you think I’m not a monster.
Like I won’t wrap your hair in my fist and bend you to my will.
Like I won’t sacrifice you, piece by piece, to save my brother.I’m the most dangerous enemy you’ll ever have because every time you look at me, you see somebody good. That friend who died.And when you look at me like that, I die again.MiraI spent years making myself invisible.A good girl, apart from the noise.
Then you came back, beautiful and deadly in your Armani suit.
Don’t look at me like you still know me, you say.
But I remember your smile and those sunny days.Before they lowered your small casket into the ground.
Before they told us the prince was dead.

Love & Ruin


J.A. Owenby - 2018
    Hendrix and Gemma's story continues in Love & Deception and finished with an HEA in Love & Redemption. ** This book includes language, sex, and violence.

Royal Blood


Amity Cross - 2014
    It was black or blacker. And I was the blackest of them all."Xavier "X" Blood only remembers the last few years of his life.Trained as an emotionless and deadly assassin, he goes through each day crossing out names on a never-ending list, not once asking why they deserve what he delivers. Death.Then one day, his programming starts to unravel and it's all because of her.Mercy Reid has a secret. A big one. The kind that will get her killed if it gets out.Looking to get lost, she runs from one hopeless situation and falls into the clutches of a monster. A monster that was programmed by the worst of the worst to kill without remorse. A man who is looking for her.When X is given his latest target, things become muddy. He knows his mark is right in front of his eyes, but he doesn't want to acknowledge it. He's literally losing his mind after all.Will he defy his programming and save the woman who has made him feel again?Or will he pull the trigger?

Black Swan Affair


K.L. Kreig - 2016
    He wears scruff like he invented it and ambles with a swagger that makes panties drop. Killian Shepard. Shep. We grew up together. We played Ghost in the Graveyard. Had our own rock band. It didn’t matter that he was five years older than me. It didn’t matter that he looked at me as a kid sister even as I grew into woman. It didn’t even matter when he left me behind to go to college and start his adult life. He’d be back. He was always meant to be mine.He came back, all right. But instead of smelling of promises, he stunk of betrayal. And he destroyed me—us—the day he married my sister instead of me.So I did the only thing a girl like me in my position could do. I got my revenge. I married his brother, Kael. Now we’re one big happy f*cking family.***mature content appropriate for 18+

Slave to the Rhythm


Jane Harvey-Berrick - 2016
    Guns.MUSIC. Bullets.RHYTHM. Pain.Music in my head, dance in my body, the rhythm of my heart. How far can you fall in just one month? How quickly can the human spirit be broken? Where does evil hide in plain sight?Ash wants to dance. Needs it. To leave behind a life of expectation and duty, to set his soul free. But life is never that simple. Every step is a journey on a new road.For every action, there is a reaction.Every choice has a consequence.And when you meet the wrong person, all bets are off.Laney tolerates her limitations, pushing quietly at boundaries. But when Ash crashes into her world through rage and violence, it sets off a chain reaction that neither of them expected.♫♪ ♫♪ ♫♪ ♫ ♫ ♪ ♫ ♫ ♪♫♪

Hewitt


A.L. Long - 2020
    She thought she could have that with Peter Hewitt. She was wrong. With too many secrets getting in the way she knew it would never work. Accepting her parents’ offer to help with running a new art gallery in Paris, she thought she would be able to put her feelings behind and start a new life, only it didn’t work. Her days were filled with thoughts of Peter. Returning back to New York, Lilly wanted what her best friend Dylan Matheson had, a loving home, a beautiful child and a man that loved her more than life itself. Only the man she wanted to share these things with still had secrets that could tear them apart forever. When danger and loss enters her already imperfect life, would she finally be able to let down her guard and give the one thing she said he would never have. Her heart. This book contains adult content and is intended for mature audiences.

He Loves Me Not


Christine Kersey - 2011
    After all, she's barely met the two men it could be referring to. But as she begins to fall for the man with the striking blue eyes, the disturbing messages increase.Refusing to believe warnings from an anonymous sender, and trusting her own heart, Lily presses forward with her relationship, eventually coming to understand the meaning behind the messages as she fears for her life.He Loves Me Not does not contain any profanity or sexual content.

Denial


Lisa Renee Jones - 2015
    This is a standalone spin-off of the INSIDE OUT series (soon to be a TV show) that follows Ella Ferguson, Sara McMillan's best friend.Ella Ferguson awakes alone in Italy, unsure of who she is, and a gorgeous man has claimed her as his own. He’s tall, dark, and sexy, with money and power, the kind of man who makes a girl want to be possessed. And he does possess her, whispering wicked wonderful promises to her, stealing her trust and her heart. Soon though, the past finds her, yanking her from a cocoon of passion and safety. Everything is not how it seems. The truth will shatter her world, but it can set her free, if it doesn't destroy her first.

Devil You Know


L.A. Fiore - 2017
    One look into his sad green eyes and I was hooked. I wanted to be the one to make him laugh, to make him smile. I hadn't expected him to be the one to make me blush, to make me hot...to make me fall in love. He was my first kiss, my first love, my first everything. I wanted forever with him, but life got in the way.He enlisted, I went to college, and for years we were never in the same place long enough to pick up where we left off.Thirteen years after he left, tragedy brings him home. The stoic boy I fell in love with grew into a quiet, dangerous and wildly sexy man. He still tugs on all the right strings for me, but he seems determined to keep me at arm's-length. However, when trouble comes knocking at my door, he is the one to put himself between that trouble and me. Spending time with him might drive me insane, or it might be our second chance at first love.

Dirt


Cassia Leo - 2017
    Then, in one brutal instant, the universe tilted on its side, discarding us into black nothingness.Now, I have a cocky a**hole for a husband. The only way we communicate anymore is when we’re fighting or f**king.With nothing left to lose, I write Jack a goodbye letter and head for Portland, where I quickly meet a neighbor who helps me find a job. My new neighbor—hot, tattooed ex-soldier Isaac Evans—is complicated. Nevertheless, we form a fast friendship, bonding over our mutual desire to create something beautiful from the wreckage of our lives. But despite the distance between us, Jack and I are still trying to make things work—fighting and f**king dirtier than ever. And he doesn’t appreciate my new friendship with Isaac. Not one f**king bit.

Shattered Dreams


Amber Torney - 2020
    don’t screamI prayed the hand over my mouth would suffocate me before I ever had to tell my best friend the truth.I loved Logan Ducane—he was everything to me.But my secrets ripped our families apart. I’ve spent the last four years trying to rebuild a life worth living,and trying to find my voice after I’d lost so much.Four years of progress ...GONE.I thought I had nothing left to lose, but I was so wrong. My bags are packed, and I’m on my way, to let another Ducane boy finish ripping me to shreds. He says I’m the enemy ...but if only he knew. **Logan**The last time I saw her she was scared, crying, and bloodied, my cousin’s cold and lifeless body at her feet.Four years ago, everything I thought I knew was uprooted and shattered.The girl I thought I loved was the cause of so much pain and angst.Her lies destroyed everything we had,but now I get my chance to make her pay.Four years of hate, anger, and pain—all ready to be released.Shattered Dreams is a Young Adult, Dark Bully Enemies to Lovers, Reverse Harem Romance. This book contains Dark and often confronting themes that some may find TRIGGERING.

Collared


Nicole Williams - 2016
    . .Brings her home. Jade Childs spent ten years in captivity, but now that she’s back, the real battle for survival begins. The media shadows her. Flashbacks haunt her. Her old life evades her. Her so-called new life rejects her. She spent too many years in the dark to recognize the light. She spent too long repressing her feelings to remember how to express them. She spent a decade abandoning hope and cannot dare letting it back into her life. Jade’s not just defined by what happened to her—she’s collared to it.When the twenty-seven-year-old woman is found,A community wants to know the story,Parents want to forget the story,Friends want to be a part of the story,And the man who still loves her faces the greatest challenge yet: letting her go.

Finding What's Mine


Janice M. Whiteaker
    I was sent to find her.Protect her at all costs. I never expected I would want to make her mine. Kerri is everything I’ve been told I can never have.All I shouldn’t be stupid enough to want.I want her anyway.And I’m willing to do whatever it takes.Even if it means walking away from everything I’ve ever had.****I thought I got away.Left a life I hated behind.But it’s come back for me in the form of a man with haunted eyes and wicked lips.A man who tempts me in ways no one has before.Evan brings out the best in me and tames the worst.I never expected I’d have to fight the man I hate most, to keep the one I love.But I’ll burn the world down before I let someone take him from me.⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ If big, tattooed, protective guys are your thing, this book will be catnip.⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ OMG I loved this book… I WANT MORE!!⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ FIVE HUGE and bright stars for this awesome read.⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ Incredible writing and incredible characters.⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ A fast-paced story that draws you in from the beginning and doesn’t let you go until the final page.

Andrei


Naomi West - 2020
    Time to show her how deep the darkness goes.It’s been a bad night for Cora Jones. It’s about to get so much worse.She thinks the man who snatched her from that alley and sold her to a brute is the worst man alive.But he isn’t. Not even close.Not compared to me.I’m Andrei Valeri, don of the Valeri mafia. And when I see Cora on that auction stage, I know one thing only:I have to have her.It costs me a lot to make her mine.But in the end, it will be worth it.Because Cora belongs to me now.And I know just how to make this angel sing.ANDREI is a full-length, standalone auction mafia romance. It contains adult themes that may not be suitable for all readers.