Book picks similar to
Taken by Esme Devlin


dark
freebie
romance
short-story

The Don: The Oath Duet


Serena Akeroyd - 2021
    How could my Lady be anything other than a silken promise taunting me with every breath she takes?A new Don reigns over Manhattan.But though I won the war, peace isn’t easily brokered.Over a decade of avenging my father’s death, I made many enemies.To each and every one, Jen’s a target.But I’ll paint NYC red before I let them harm her.I just never imagined I’d be in the line of fire first…  A heart broken by grief can feel no guilt or shame with the brutality in which vengeance is delivered. This is the first part of ‘The Oath’ duet in The Valentini Family series.

Keeping Her


Angela Snyder - 2017
    What I need.And what I need is the perfect woman. Perfect and pure in every way possible. And I'm willing to obtain that perfection...no matter the cost.So when I make my newest purchase, I expect Adeline's fate to be like all the others before her --- taking what I want and then never seeing her again.But she's different.Her beauty is disarming.And even though I promised to let her go after I took what I wanted...I slowly come to the realization that I can't.I have to break my promise to her, because she's mine now.And I'm keeping her.**Keeping Her is book one of the two-book dark romance Keep Me Series and ends with a cliffhanger. It contains adult content for mature readers.**

Captive in the Dark


C.J. Roberts - 2011
    Kidnapped as a young boy and sold into slavery by a power-hungry mobster, he has thought of nothing but vengeance. For twelve years he has immersed himself in the world of pleasure slaves searching for the one man he holds ultimately responsible. Finally, the architect of his suffering has emerged with a new identity, but not a new nature. If Caleb is to get close enough to strike, he must become the very thing he abhors and kidnap a beautiful girl to train her to be all that he once was.Eighteen-year-old Olivia Ruiz has just woken up in a strange place. Blindfolded and bound, there is only a calm male voice to welcome her. His name is Caleb, though he demands to be called Master. Olivia is young, beautiful, naïve and willful to a fault. She has a dark sensuality that cannot be hidden or denied, though she tries to accomplish both. Although she is frightened by the strong, sadistic, and arrogant man who holds her prisoner, what keeps Olivia awake in the dark is her unwelcome attraction to him.WARNING: This book contains very disturbing situations, dubious consent, strong language, and graphic violence.

Dirty Angels


Karina Halle - 2014
    Please see the bottom of this description to see if this is the kind of book that you'll love or piss you off**For Luisa Chavez, a twenty-three year old former beauty queen, a better life has always been just out of her reach. Sure, she’s had men at her feet since she was a young teenager but she’s never had the one thing she’s craved – security. Having grown up in near poverty, her waitressing job in Cabo San Lucas can barely let her take care of herself, let alone her ailing parents. Every day is another unwanted advance, every day is a struggle to survive.When Salvador Reyes, the depraved leader of a major Mexican cartel, takes an interest in her, Luisa is presented with an opportunity she can’t afford to pass up. She’ll become Salvador’s wife and exchange her freedom and body for a life of riches – riches she can bestow upon her deserving parents. But Luisa quickly finds out that even the finest wines and jewels can’t undo the ugliness in her marriage, nor the never-ending violence that threatens her every move.Soon, Luisa is looking for an escape, a way out of the carefully controlled life she’s leading. She finally gets her wish in the worst way possible.As it is, being the wife of Salvador makes her an ideal target for rival cartels and there’s one particular man who needs Luisa as part of his cartel’s expansion. One particular man whose quest for power has destroyed lives, slit throats and gotten him out of an American prison. One particular man who will stop at nothing until he gets what he wants.That man is Javier Bernal. And he wants Luisa. He wants to take her, keep her, ruin her.Unless she ruins him first.***WARNING*** This book deals with drug cartels and as such it contains a lot of sex and violence and some violent sex. It can get pretty ugly, pretty dark and pretty crazy. There is drug use, abuse, a bit of torture and dubious consent. The hero is not a hero and the villains...well, they're even worse. If this sort of thing bothers you, PLEASE DO NOT READ IT. This ain't no cupcake farting unicorn kind of book. If you are even a bit squeamish about violence, brutality and rape, this is your warning to stay away from a book that you certainly will not like (and why read books that you know you won't like?)******While this is a spin-off of The Artists Trilogy, prior knowledge of the books is not needed. DIRTY ANGELS is the first in a trilogy, however each book can standalone and follows or introduces different characters***

Little Dove


Layla Frost - 2020
    Yeah.Once upon a time.Isn’t that how all good fairy tales start? And Maximo and I, we were definitely a fairy tale.Not the cleaned-up, sanitized ones where life’s problems were solved with a smile and a song. We were the old-school kind. The twisted tales packed with murder, violence, and tragic beginnings.Okay, so maybe we weren’t a traditional fairy tale. After all, Maximo was more villain than prince. He was scarily sexy. Devilishly charming. Controlling, possessive, and dangerous.Especially when it came to me. His little dove.And heaven help anyone who tried to free me from my gilded cage.Warning: Recommended for readers 18+. This book features graphic language, sex, violence, and a Daddy obsessed with his little dove. If this doesn't sound like your kind of fairy tale, this may not be the book for you.

Damaged Locke


Victoria Ashley - 2017
    It’s the first time I’ve felt anything in a long time. But would she really be scared knowing the depth, the lengths I go with my brothers to make any fucker who crosses us pay? I need a woman who can accept me for who I am.For what I am.I’m hoping like hell it’s her because I want nothing more than to claim her as mine…Kadence KingI know Aston’s dangerous, know people fear him. But I want him. I’m drawn to him, just as he’s drawn to the darkness.I should be afraid of him, should turn the other way, but I can’t. I’ve gone mad and let him in my room, in my life, allowing him to consume me. He possesses me, dominates me. Aston Locke shows me what it means to want to be claimed by him and only him.And when he tells me I’M HIS, I have no doubt that’s the truth.Because in the end, it’s what I want too.No matter how dangerous he is…

The Russian Thug: Abducted by the Bratva


Rie Warren - 2020
    And I don’t have a single intention of protecting her.This mouthy tomboy is the only daughter of the O’Sullivan mafia, and they’ve been screwing us over for months. All of that changes today. I don’t like surprises but I do enjoy a challenge and, by the time I’m done with the Irish brat, the uneasy truce between our Bratva and their family will be no more than bloodstains on the streets of Boston.I’m going to abduct her. I’m going to toy with her. I’ll control her and teach her family a lesson they’ll never forget. I can’t wait. The Russian Thug is book 1 in the Krasnov Brothers series. No cliffhangers. No cheating. Includes sizzling hot scenes. Can be read as a standalone!

Devious


J.M. Stoneback - 2020
    He doesn't let his debts go unpaid. He collects what he's owed.Lex Bartoli works for Devious. Lex should know better than to steal his money. But mistakes were made, and now it's time to pay.Unfortunately for me, Devious knows exactly what he wants as payment for Lex's stupid mistake.Me.Lex's daughter.If I won't agree to marry Devious, he has another way of making my family pay.The choice is mine.Marry the enemy... or watch him kill my father as payback.Devious is a mafia book with an arranged marriage, enemies to lovers and an age gap romance.

Innocence


Lee Savino - 2015
    A virgin.I’m ruthless. A beast.She found me for a reason.She’ll be my queen.I’ll give her everything that her heart desires.Except for one thing.Her freedom.She’s mine to keep, and I’m never letting her go.Note: This is a dark mafia romance with dark and intense sensual scenes. It is the first in a trilogy.

The Awakening of Ivy Leavold


Sierra Simone - 2015
    Handsome and possessive, it’s not long before Ivy falls for him. But Mr. Markham has dark secrets, secrets that may put Ivy in danger...I am afraid...As Ivy unravels the mystery surrounding her cousin’s death, she falls deeper and deeper in love with Julian, who opens her body and her mind to his indomitable will. But even as he draws pleasure and desire from her night after night, Ivy can’t shake the feeling that their passionate affair may end in violence…And I'm completely his.***The Awakening of Ivy Leavold is the first book in the Markham Hall Trilogy. It is 40,000 words. ***For Mature Audiences only**

With You


Nashoda Rose - 2013
    I didn’t think it would be a problem. I could handle a few bruises. What I hadn’t anticipated was landing on my back with Sculpt on top of me and my entire body burning up for him.I tried to ignore it.I failed of course. And having a hot, tattooed badass on top of me week after week, acting completely immune to what he was doing to my body—it was frustrating as hell, so I broke his rule—I complained.Then he kissed me. Author’s Note: This novella is Sculpt and Emily’s beginning and how they met. It is an extra and not required to be read before “Torn from You”. Their story and what happens to them is the novel “Torn from You”. *Warning* Huge cliff-hanger. Like huge! But “With You” and “Torn from You” are released on the same day.*

Blood and Roses


Lylah James - 2018
    There was nothing left of me. Then he came and wanted to make me his.He saved me. He gave me a home, a family. He made sweet love to me. I was his Angel. He was my everything. I thought we would live happily ever after, but there are no happy endings in the mafia life.I found this out the hard way, as the blood flowed, red as roses…LyovAngel. The word meant nothing until I saw her. I found her in a place worse than hell. She calls me her savior. But I didn’t save her. I captured the pretty angel and made her mine. Life was perfect. I had everything I wanted.I was her salvation. She was my redemption.Until I lost her. Angels deserve happy endings, but monsters like me don’t.My darkness became hers, and our happily-ever-after became tainted.

Security Binds Her


Jennifer Bene - 2015
    It may take time, but I will.”“And if I don’t break?”“You will.”Taken from work one night, Thalia is thrust into the violent, controlling world of a man she thought had been the security guard for her building, but she quickly learns that this was only a cover to get to her, to take her. As her old life is erased, the guard pushes Thalia to recognize the darker sides of herself, while Thalia endeavors to hold on to who she is.Trapped alone with her abductor, can Thalia fight to retain her self, or will his small glimpses of kindness cause her to finally submit to him?‘Security Binds Her’ is a brutal journey that leaves readers breathless and waiting to turn the page to find out if Thalia will break, or be lost forever to the darkness around her.**WARNING: This book contains graphic punishments, disturbing situations, scenes of dubious consent, and very strong language. Intended for mature audiences.

The Virgin Clause (The Calegaris Book 1)


Caprice Langden - 2021
    He wasn't my type - tall, dark... dangerous. My stomach flipflopped whenever he was around and I got so tongue-tied I could never get words out of my mouth. But it didn't matter. He never talked to me. Barely knew I existed. Why did I just spend the last decade dreaming about him? I'm shy, quiet… still a virgin. A man like Dante Calegari would never be interested in a girl like me. So, I made him an offer he couldn't refuse. ~ She thinks I don't know how she feels, thinks she's hidden it all from me. She couldn't be more wrong. I've known Noemi since she was twelve, watched her grow up. She was sweet back then, a little shy, too quiet. Never talked to me. Just smiled, nodded, and walked away. Then the sweet girl I knew went away to college, traveled the world and came home to torment me. But it could never happen between us. I'm a ruthless killer and she's the girl next door.Then she made a decision that changed things. She handed me what I needed. A pass to my own personal paradise, or a one-way ticket to Hell, depending on how you looked at it. She gave me permission to ruin her. She asked me to agree to the Virgin Clause and I wasn't strong enough to say 'no.' Now, she's all mine. If I can keep her alive.

Birds of Paradise


Anne Malcom - 2018
    I was all of the hideous and ugly realities of the world packaged into one broken human being.He came to kill me.That was his business.Death.He ripped me out of my natural environment, the prison I'd created, and locked me away with all of his beautiful dead things.I hated him.I still hate him.But if I was given the choice and the ability to leave this cage, come back to life, I'd stay dead.In all of my hideous splendor.Because my murderer can only possess dead things.And I can only be possessed by someone more broken and ugly than me.