Book picks similar to
Wrecking Ball by Lindsey Powell
mafia
romance
dark-romance
arranged-marriage
Tramp
Mary Elizabeth - 2020
After fleeing a tragic past, Lydia’s determined never to go back to the life she left behind at any price. She lands in Grand Haven, California—a city booming with billion dollar corporations and tech money—and everything changes. Armed with the only lesson she learned from her mother, Lydia builds a life of routine, solitude, and success. Nothing is out of reach when you’re beautiful. Nearly a decade after her arrival, Lydia's the highest paid escort in the city, and only the most influential people in Grand Haven can get near her. She's a goddess among her clients, and out of reach to everyone else. Lydia's created the perfect illusion, and no one will take it from her again.Until a misunderstanding lands her in the office of the city’s most eligible bachelor. Talent Ridge is Grand Haven royalty. Despite running in the same circles as Lydia’s clients, he’s scandal-free and on his way to being the most powerful man in the area. Their chemistry is undeniable, but a relationship has the potential to destroy everything they’ve worked for. Especially when Lydia is running from her past, and Talent is running toward a future she can never be a part of. Beauty and money can’t save them this time. Are Lydia and Talent willing to give it all up for each other, or will their differences cost too much?
Just Drop Out
J. Bree - 2019
All I have to do is survive. After attracting the wrong sort of attention from the richest boy in the country, pissing off the hottest guy in school and being humiliated in front of my favorite rock idol I am now the target of the most popular, and cruelest, group in the freshman class. They want my blood. They can have it. I'm stronger than any spoilt rich kid. But can I survive the game the Juniors have started with me as the goal? Now every boy at Hannaford wants to have me. All except the three I want. Ash, Harley, and Blaise don't care about the game, all they care about is destroying me.
The Royal Arrangement
Jeana E. Mann - 2019
Mann.When I walk into a room, people look twice. Once because I'm the Crown Prince of Androvia, and twice because I'm that guy—the one who makes your panties wet with just a smile. My life is grand until the unexpected death of my father. To claim the throne, I've got to find a wife in twenty-four hours or be forced to marry the woman who cheated on me.A chance encounter with the daughter of my sworn enemy changes everything. The first time I saw her, she was chained to a dungeon wall. The second time I saw her, I took her to my bed. The third time, I proposed marriage. If she accepts, I'll rule her body the same way I intend to rule my kingdom—with an iron hand and no mercy. The stakes are high for both of us. If she turns me down, I could lose the throne to my traitorous uncle. Even worse, if she accepts, I might lose my heart.
Master of Salt & Bones
Keri Lake - 2020
He'd ride up on his white steed and break the curse I've been fated to carry since the day I was born.Funny how things changed over time. How the fairy tale twisted into something far more crooked, darker than I ever imagined.In reality, my knight is scarred and broken, living alone in a castle of bones that overlooks the sea. He isn’t searching for me. He never was.Lucian Blackthorne is as cursed as I am, and equally shunned by the locals, the fishers of men, who believe him to be the devil in the flesh.Perhaps he is, with the way his amber eyes draw me in, ignite me like an infernal blaze. And the sins he whispers in my ear are as wickedly intoxicating as the man himself.Yet, his touch is heaven and his will is my weakness.He calls us forbidden, an unsalvageable tragedy, with no happy end. Maybe we are. But in this story, he’s the one who needs saving.
Cal
B.J. Alpha - 2021
LilyMy teenage son leaves a trail of destruction in his wake, the latest, stealing millions from a Mafia family. Cal the sexy man from my past comes barreling back into my life, as if it isn’t chaotic enough, he’s holding a gun to my head.My ex-lover is now my savior, only I’m not sure he can handle the number of secrets and chaotic baggage we bring.
Binding Rose
Ivy Fox - 2022
And in most cases, you would be correct in that assumption.But not for me.A cartel princess has no vote on who she can or cannot marry—much less love.Any decision in my life was forfeited just by being born into the most powerful Mexican cartel there is.Still, it does sting that I’m to be hand-delivered to the Irish mob and marry into the Kelly family, who my own brother has coined to be nothing more than bloodthirsty savages.They’re animals, Rosa. Filthy, unscrupulous, vicious animals.Those were his exact words, yet he still followed our father’s orders to walk me down the aisle, making sure I didn’t run from my obligation.As if that was even an option.All my choices were stolen away from me the minute I became another pawn to be used and abused at the hands of evil men.Which leaves me to question…Can a rose blossom in the dark?Or will I have to rely on my thorns to protect me against the fate that’s been bestowed upon me?Only time will tell if I’ll survive this cursed life or become another lost soul in these cruel and merciless Mafia Wars.*Binding Rose is a full-length reverse harem novel in the dark and twisted Mafia Wars world.*Recommended 18+ due to mature language, adult situations and sensitive content.
Children of Vice
J.J. McAvoy - 2017
I shall show no mercy; I shall offer no forgiveness; there will be no peace for those who stand against me.I will live for my family.I will kill for my family.I will marry for my family.I, Ivy O'Davoren, the only daughter of Shay O'Davoren, solemnly swear to ruthlessly and mercilessly exact revenge on the Callahans and all those who betrayed my father and family. I will live for revenge.I will kill for revenge.I will marry for revenge.***You devoured the Ruthless People series. Now it’s time to revel in the reign of the Callahan children…Stand-alone sequel series to Ruthless People series. You do not have to read Ruthless People series beforehand .
Beautiful Carnage
Caroline Peckham - 2020
Our fates were spun the night he tried to kill me and now he’s back to destroy me for good.It’s always been us versus them. The Calabresis against the Romeros.This city is ours but they vowed to take it from us. And when they couldn’t, they took me instead.Now I’m chained by the cruellest of them all; the man who wrapped his hands around my throat and tried to squeeze the life from me all those years ago.But I won’t fall prey to him. I’m older, fiercer and I’ve grown claws of my own.Rocco Romero thinks he can keep me captive, but he’s about to regret bringing a sleeping tiger into his home.ROCCOShe’s my greatest failure.The name that always haunts me.My dirty little secret.And when I had the chance to kidnap her from her wedding, nothing on God’s green earth could stop me.She’s mine. I could take her life, her body or her heart if I wanted to.But my brothers refuse to believe me.So when they bet I can’t make the little principessa fall in love with me, of course I step up to the challenge.And when she’s down on her knees, pouring her heart out, I’ll crush it in my fist.I’m lining the Calabresis up like dominoes. And she’ll be the first to fall.**Beautiful Carnage is a standalone mafia bully romance between one sexy guy and girl with hot scenes and alpha men causing havoc at every turn**
Sin
Emma Hart - 2017
I let him think he would win.Despite our differences, it was clear to see that we were no more than two broken hearts colliding in the darkness.Closed off, sexy, and holding a pain that would crush a lesser man, he was the ultimate sin.One I couldn’t deny myself, even though I knew better than to trust a fox...(SIN is book one of the Vegas Nights series. Each book in this series is a standalone novel.)
Mr. Sin
S.J. Tilly - 2021
SinI should have run the other way. Paid my tab and gone back to my room. But he was there. And he was… everything. I figured what’s the harm in letting passion rule my decisions for one night? So what if he looks like the Devil in a suit. I’d be leaving in the morning. Flying home, back to my pleasant but predictable life. I’d never see him again.Except I do. In the last place I expected. And now everything I’ve worked so hard for is in jeopardy.We can’t stop what we’ve started, but this is bigger than the two of us.And when his past comes back to haunt him, love might not be enough to save me.
Owned
Georgia Le Carre - 2014
To Possess. To own her. *****When Lana Bloom learns the devastating news that her mother is dying, she is faced with a terrible dilemma. The one thing that can save her is the one thing she does not have. For young and Innocent Lana, the unthinkable is her only choice. When she walks through the door of that exclusive restaurant she has no idea of the seismic shift her life is about to take, for the highest bidder will not be the rich man she has accompanied. *****Fate drops her at the feet of the deeply mysterious and dazzlingly gorgeous american banker, Blake Law Barrington. Throbbing with raw masculinity and arrogance, this is a man who owns all that he pursues. And now he wants her. Lana cannot deny she is both intrigued and intoxicated by the world Blake inhabits and the smouldering passion he stirs in her body, but she is also fearful for this man is addictive and right now she is very vulnerable. *****She knows she should focus only on the arrangement, but how can she? When he has opened a door that cannot be closed.. *****Recommended for 18+ due to mature themes and sexual content
Confess
A. Zavarelli - 2018
Two signatures. A marriage of inconvenience. Lucian West is one of the most hated men in America. He’s a ruthless attorney who gets what he wants in the courtroom, and outside of it. Now, he wants me. For reasons I can’t fathom, he’s determined to make me his wife. He makes it clear he’s not above blackmailing me to put a ring on my finger. But he should know I can’t be domesticated. I don’t know how to love men. I only know how to leave them… with everything I want. ***I don't do love. I don't even do relationships. But all of that changes when I stumble upon the tragic, beautiful woman confessing her sins in the dark of night. She’s a thief. A con. The essence of everything I loathe. And yet she lures me in with her lying eyes.I want to protect her. I want to bring her to heel. I want to teach her a lesson she’ll never forget. She belongs to me, she just doesn’t know it yet. I've already made her mine in name. Now it’s time to claim the rest of her.
A Not So Meet Cute
Meghan Quinn - 2021
And the answer is usually some bubbly, lovey dovey tale of being struck in the bum by Cupid’s arrow.My meet cute (well not so meet cute) is slightly different. I was trolling a wealthy neighborhood in Beverly Hills, searching for someone to take me as their bride, you know, to make my arch nemesis jealous who consequently just fired me.He was stomping around the block like some sort of gorgeous ogre, mumbling about a business deal gone wrong and attempting to finagle his way out of it.And that’s when we bumped into each other.There were no sparks.Not even a hint of blossoming love.But next thing I knew, I was scarfing down free chips and guac, listening to this man lay out all of his problems which led to his big ask . . . he wanted me to be his Vivian Ward, you know, from Pretty Woman--minus the frisky behavior.We’re talking about living in a mansion, intimate double dates, and pretending we were head over heels in love . . . and engaged. Can you imagine?The absolute audacity.But people do crazy things when they’re desperate. And I reeked of desperation. So, I struck up a deal.My one big mistake, though . . . big . . . HUGE? I accidentally fell for the incomparable Huxley Cane.
Neighbors
Stylo Fantome - 2016
Give you a cup of sugar 2. Let you borrow his lawnmower 3. Water your plants while you're on vacation 4. Make your eyes roll back in your head with his tongue Katya Tocci has never paid much attention to who lives next door - her career always kept her too busy. She's a good girl, working her way to becoming the most sought after cake designer in all of San Francisco. But even a good girl's gotta cut loose once in a while, right? So one fake dating profile later, and she's ready to tarnish her squeaky clean image. Little does she know, her fun time is closer to home than she ever imagined. Throw in a neighbor who wants to corrupt her, and another who just wants to own her, and her entire world is flipped upside down. Who knew neighbors could be so helpful?
This story contains scenes of a graphic sexual nature, multiple uses of coarse language, and one scene of violent cake destruction. Reader discretion is advised
Bitter Vows
Dani René - 2021
A slightly twisted retelling of an age-old favorite. A contract had been signed. An agreement had been made. She was mine. And I never lose my possessions. However, my Little Red is not what I was expecting—sweet and submissive. She’s fire to my ice, and together, we will detonate. My heart has been locked away for so long. I don’t feel. I can’t. And she is certainly far too innocent for me to have. But one taste, one touch, and one soft whimper is all it takes for the rabid wolf inside me to bare its teeth. But fairy tales don’t always have happy endings. Please note: This is book one of two, and ends in a cliffhanger. The second book will release shortly after the first.