Book picks similar to
The Star by Rosie Alice


bully
romance
taboo
step-siblings

Giving In


Lola King - 2021
    He hides it well though, under a beautiful smile and eyes that ravage your heart.But Stoneview Prep’s golden boy has always had a dark aura around him. Like a well-guarded secret. A blackness that he never lets anyone see."Curiosity killed the cat, Jamie." My mom always tells me.She never said it would get me in more trouble than I could handle. She never said it would throw me into the dark world of Jake White. And when I not-so-accidentally find out part of Jake’s past, I finally learn the consequences of mischievous nosiness.Curiosity doesn’t kill this cat. It turns it into a mouse to be played with.At least that’s what Jake decided.JakeThree years. That’s how much my twin and I got of freedom before our past caught up with us.We were doing well, we were being good, we were keeping out of trouble. Most of all, I was in control.But trouble always finds a reason to make its way back to us. And when it does, Jamie Williams is here to witness it.In the morning I learned of her existence, in the afternoon she was spying on me like a fangirl.This girl is desperate to find out what’s behind the golden boy’s facade I was kind enough to put on.So be it.I have time on my hands, darkness on my mind, and a hundred ways to make Jamie Williams bend to my will.This book is approximately 92,000 words and is the first book of a three-book series. Giving In is a dark high school bully romance intended for mature readers. It contains detailed sexual scenes and bullying scenes that some readers may find triggering. If you are unsure of your triggers, please heed the author’s trigger warning in the book.

Want You


Jen Frederick - 2018
    It’s Leka Moore. I don’t care that he took me in when he was barely more than a kid himself. I don’t care that he raised me. I don’t care everyone thinks being with him is wrong. I know we belong together, and the only person I need to convince is him. Leka I found her in the corner of a dark alley. If I hadn’t taken her with me, she would’ve died that night—or maybe worse. Before I knew it, she became the light in my dark life, the haven from the madness. I watched her grow up. I tried to teach her right from wrong. Now that she’s an adult, I’m feeling things that no good man should ever feel. But then…I’ve never been a good man. I have a chance at redemption by saving her from the greatest danger of all—me. A stand alone novel.

Forever Yours (Forever Changed Duet #2)


Amber Nicole - 2021
    College was a mistake.Now I’m back home broken, hopeless and scared, with no clue what to do.Can anything else go wrong?Famous last words.The guys may have thought they left me with a broken heart, but they actually left me with so much more than that.It’s time for me to grow up and move on, because sometimes you just don’t have a choice but to make the best out of what you have left.I’m realizing now, there are things in life more important than jealousy, lies and loss.I may no longer be theirs, but I will forever be yours.This is A Dark Romance with many triggers! 18+ Preferred.

The Doctor


Nikki Sloane - 2018
    I watched him rush to the hospital countless times, his beautiful surgeon hands racing to save lives.After all this time, I can’t escape the truth. I want Dr. Lowe. Lust chokes each moment we’re together. He promises to fulfill my fantasies—every dirty, naughty desire we can dream up.Only, I can’t have him.He’s confident. Experienced. Seductive.And he’s my ex-boyfriend’s father.

Bad Kind of Love


Remi Rose
    But, I guess my life wasn’t meant to be easy. And it was all because of them.Father and son.One was broody and broken, the other was sweet and charming.I fell for them both, only to discover the truth that sent my world crumbling, leaving only secrets and lies between us all. I loved two men but in the end I chose one and destroyed the other.

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.

Perversion


T.M. Frazier - 2018
    New/alternate cover edition here.USA Today bestselling author of the King Series, T.M. Frazier, brings you an all-new trilogy with a sexy anti-hero you're going to love to hate, and a ballsy heroine with more up her sleeve than just tricks. Love is supposed to be a fairy tale.Ours is a death wish.I'm the executioner for the Bedlam Brotherhood. She's a con artist working for my greatest enemy. I use her. She manipulates me.We find ourselves on opposite sides of a bloody war. My heart and head tell me I have to stay away. My lust for her doesn't give a sh*t. Nothings fair in love and gang war.

Devious Kisses


Thandiwe Mpofu - 2020
    𝑰𝒕'𝒔 𝑱𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝑯𝒊𝒈𝒉 𝑺𝒄𝒉𝒐𝒐𝒍.⠀⠀Here’s the 411 about high school—well, at least for my high school, Clintwood Academy.⠀⠀💋It’s a fucking warzone.⠀💋Everyone has a grudge against someone else. ⠀💋It’s the breeding ground for losers, jealous broken-hearted girls, and acne covered fools with zero game.⠀💋The disgustingly rich kids are vile, vindictive, popular, and the mecca of a social life worth a damn.⠀💋Lastly, high school is simply survival of the fittest.⠀⠀And I was the fittest of them all. Once.⠀⠀Once, before I set up to take the fall for an attempted murder of one of the Fitz brothers, the golden boys of St. Jude High, our sworn rival enemy.⠀⠀Before I was played for a kiss and it worked. ⠀⠀Now, the Fitz brothers hate me.⠀They suspect me.⠀They want to destroy me.⠀They know everything about me, and I hate them for it.⠀⠀And now, we’ll all be living together, like one big, happy step-family. With secrets brimming, hatred festering, and other feelings I have no business having for my step-cousin-brothers or whatever, haunting me night and day.⠀⠀Now, let’s kiss and be forever rivals…⠀

The Heir


Sophie Lark - 2021
    Where mafia heirs are trained to control, dominate, infiltrate, and kill.I followed Anna because she’s my best friend. I’ve always been right by her side.She needs me to protect her. Especially from Dean Yenin, a Bratva heir with a lethal grudge.He plans to take everything from me. Starting with Anna...“The Heir” is the first book in the epic dark mafia Kingmakers Series. It’s a forbidden friends-to-lovers romance filled with mystery, suspense, and kindle-melting bedroom scenes that take place everywhere but the bedroom.

Ward: A Dark Forbidden Romance


Margot Scott - 2022
    I didn’t know what to expect when my father’s estranged step-brother, my new guardian, came to collect me.Handsome, patient, brooding. Aidan was the opposite of the rage-filled monster who’d raised me. But I soon learned that my guardian harbored sadistic whims of his own.I listened at doors and peered behind curtains. I saw things I shouldn’t have, things that made my pulse race and my heart beat faster.Things I desperately want him to do to me.AidanMy desires are unconventional.Grace is too pure, too innocent for the things I would do to her untouched body. Yet a twisted part of me longs to see how she’d look on her knees, bound in leather, her silken skin bearing my marks. I’ll permit her to serve me if she promises to play by my rules.If only I could stop myself from breaking them.As her guardian, I’m charged with keeping her safe, and I take that responsibility to heart. But the devastating secrets I carry refuse to remain in the dark.This love will burn us alive, but I’ll walk through fire before I let the flames touch my little one.Author's Note: This title contains dark tropes and sensitive themes, including a highly taboo romance pairing, a 20+ year age gap, physical and domestic violence, suicide, and assault. This is NOT a safe romance, though it does end in a HEA. For a complete list of potentially troubling themes, please visit Margot Scott's website.Ward was originally published in the Killing Me Softly anthology. It is now available as a standalone novel with a new cover and a steamy bonus epilogue.

Badly Behaved


Meagan Brandy - 2021
    A chameleon. I’m whatever I must be.And what I must be is a flawless daughter, a skilled socialite, and the perfect prize to the man who signed along the dotted line. Not that I’m complaining. I’m all for a contractual agreement, a quick and clean catapult into the next phase of rich girl life. One that takes little thought, less effort, and zero devotion. It’s exactly what I want. An impassive life. A calculated future. Or, it was until the lights went out, darkness took over, and I learned what it meant to live.To feel.To fall. But everyone knows what thrives in the night burns in the light and flames were among us. There is no escape. No turning back. No ending within my control. My mother always says our choices determine our consequences. 𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘴𝘩𝘦’𝘴 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵.

Making Her His


Lucy Leroux - 2014
    Her name is Elynn. Alex Hanas couldn't believe that after so many years as a widower, his father was getting remarried. To make matters worse, the American gold digger had a kid—a daughter named Elynn. After months of avoiding it, Alex goes to brunch with every intention of giving his father's new family the deep freeze. But he can't pull it off with Elynn's anxious green-grey eyes locked on him. That was the day his life changed. Four years later, Alex is as close to Elynn as a stepbrother can be. But that's not enough for him. He wants more...and he's done waiting. Making Her His is a complete stand-alone novel of 68,000+ words.

Unteachable


Leah Raeder - 2013
    The summer before senior year, she has plans: get into a great film school, convince her mom to go into rehab, and absolutely do not, under any circumstances, screw up her own future.But life has a way of throwing her plans into free-fall.When Maise meets Evan at a carnival one night, their chemistry is immediate, intense, and short-lived. Which is exactly how she likes it: no strings. But afterward, she can’t get Evan out of her head. He’s taught her that a hookup can be something more. It can be an unexpected connection with someone who truly understands her. Someone who sees beyond her bravado to the scared but strong girl inside.That someone turns out to be her new film class teacher, Mr. Evan Wilke.Maise and Evan resolve to keep their hands off each other, but the attraction is too much to bear. Together, they’re real and genuine; apart, they’re just actors playing their parts for everyone else. And their masks are slipping. People start to notice. Rumors fly. When the truth comes to light in a shocking way, they may learn they were just playing parts for each other, too.Smart, sexy, and provocative, Unteachable is about what happens when a love story goes off-script.

Wicked Idol


Becker Gray - 2020
    Iris Briggs gets under my skin. With her demure skirts and braided hair, she flits around the periphery until she runs right into me, hot coffee soaking me as she looks up with wide, innocent eyes.We start off scalding.In the library, we reach lava levels.And then in the city? She burns me to the ground.I’m Keaton Constantine. My duty is to my family. At least, it was until I started unbraiding the good girl and realizing there’s more to life than duty.

Give Me a Reason


A.L. Jackson - 2021
    Jackson comes a single-dad, enemies-to-lovers stand-alone romance about a jaded club owner and his son’s teacher… Eden Murphy came into my club looking to make some extra cash.A girl like her didn't belong in a place like this. She'd get ripped to shreds.Most likely by me.There's nothing but sweetness dripping from her sexy little body, and I'm the monster who's salivating to get a taste. Trent Lawson is the last man I should want.Dark.Dangerous.So wickedly gorgeous he makes my knees weak. He's also an arrogant jerk who happens to be my new boss. When I discover his adorable son is also in my kindergarten class, I know I have to keep my distance. But neither of us can ignore the attraction that flames.One glance, and our hearts race. One touch, and we’re aching for what we can’t have. One night, and we’re falling fast.Dragging her into my sordid world is wrong.It doesn’t matter. Eden Murphy is mine.