Book picks similar to
Step by Roxie Rivera


romance
contemporary
mafia
novella

Manik


Amo Jones - 2018
    I live a low-key life, fresh out of college and drifting from town to town until I find my home. I love music, and how it stirs even the deepest and untouched parts of your soul. Depending on what you choose to listen to, would depend on what it touches. It’s the drug we all damper in, only different strains. My strain is Jazz. The smooth instrumental strums that take over me. The sound of cigar smoke, bourbon and an old dusty fedora hat. My strain wasn’t rap, and it sure wasn’t laced with some A-class shit like murky blue eyes casted down from the Lord and the Devil’s handcrafted smile. I knew who he was—the whole world did. One fateful night set off a chain of events, events that no one was coming back from. You can’t save people who don’t want to be saved. You can’t pull them up from the ocean when they’ve latched themselves to an anchor. Love was my anchor, destruction was the water that was drowning me, and the rope that was so tightly clamped around my ankles, was woven with the lyrics of Aeron Romanov-Reed, also known as, 'Manik. He steals hearts from all around the world, but one night, he stole something that wasn’t his to steal. Me.

Owned by the Hitman


Alexis Abbott - 2016
    I will not hurt you, unless you want me to.”I'm in deep to the Mafia. My father was the one who made the deal, and when I inherited his club, I also inherited his troubles.Ivan wants to save me, or so he says. More like he wants me to be his slave for a year. After the one-night stand I had with him, though, would that be so bad? With his impossibly hard body, and the way he always makes me scream...But he's still a monster. He's a criminal, and something so much worse.And yet I can't stop the tingling in my body every time I think of how he touched me, and those dark but delicious words rolling off his tongue, tinged with his Russian accent.He knows what I'll say, even before I do. "I'll take your offer."

The Chronicles of Young Dmitry Medlov


Latrivia S. Nelson - 2010
    America's favorite fictional crime boss, Dmitry Medlov, had a very macabre start to his larger-than-life existence. In the short story series, The Chronicles of Young Dmitry Medlov, volume one explores the inner-struggles of a rogue teen and his rocky rise in the feared organized crime group, the Vory v Zakone, before he became a billionaire underworld Czar. Accidentally released from prison at the age of 18, Dmitry Medlov has 48 hours to assassinate a Ukrainian drug lord and get both he and his brother, Ivan, on a plane to London, before the authorities realize that the teenage hit-man is on the loose. With the clock ticking, he hikes back to Moscow through a snow storm to discover that life has gone on without him. When he left, he was a feared earner for his underboss, Kirill. But as he returns, he finds that many things have changed including the lives of the people he cared for the most. Baby brother Ivan isn’t a little boy anymore, and he’s showing signs of being a heartless sociopath. Following in his big brother’s footsteps, this bad boy can’t be trusted around his two most favorite toys - automatic machine guns and hunting knives. Trying to keep Ivan in line proves to be an on-going nightmare for Dmitry as he realizes that his brother might eventually be the end of him. And while love was never on the agenda for Dmitry, the woman he cared deeply for has recently gotten engaged to a common wife beater. When Dmitry finds out, there might be one murder in Moscow for free. While most kids are learning how to drive and going off to college at his age, Dmitry Medlov is cutting his teeth on murder, sex and mayhem. This coming of age story is not like any other. Understand why the Medlov men became global threats through their feared brotherhood in the twelve-volume series that will take you jet setting around the world. Note to Readers: Volume 2 will come out in December and a new story will post monthly, thereafter..

Royal Engagement


Chance Carter - 2018
    Never marry a princess. I follow my heart. It's the code I live by. And that's saying a lot, since they've been trying to put me in a royal match since the day I was born. I'm not cut out to be a prince. I've always been more of the playboy type. The crown sits a lot more comfortably on my older brother's head. I play my own game, live by my own rules, and will never be the smiling, waving aristocrat they all want me to be. I like to think I got my rebellious streak from my mother. And now, I wonder what she'd think of my choice. Tamara is the last woman on earth any of them would have matched me with. She's not royalty. She doesn't have a drop of aristocratic blood in her body. She's multicultural. Oh, and it gets worse. A lot worse. You guessed it. She's American! She's the star of the hit new royalty TV show, Princess of Nowhere. And for the first time in my life, I'm reconsidering my No Princess rule.

His


Penelope Bloom - 2016
     Everyone in the city knows who I am: Vincent Citrione, top capo of the most powerful crime family in the city. If you’ve got two brain cells to rub together, you’re scared sh*tless of me. If you’re a beautiful woman, I may have given you the hardest, dirtiest f*ck of your life before showing you the door. Commitments? F*ck ‘em. At least, that was my motto until I caught her snooping in the wrong place at the wrong time. I wanted her to be like all the rest. I wanted to forget her. But she’s not like the others. She thinks she can say no to me and get away with it. She thinks she can walk away after what she’s seen. But one taste and I know she’s going to be mine. I don’t care what it takes. Even if I have to kill to keep her safe. I get what I want. And I want her.

Last Hit


Jessica Clare - 2013
    For years I savored the fear caused by my name, the trembling at the sight of my tattoos. The stars on my knees, the marks on my fingers, the dagger in my neck, all bespoke of danger. If you saw my eyes, it was the last vision you’d have. I have ever been the hunter, never the prey. With her, I am the mark and I am ready to lie down and let her capture me. Opening my small scarred heart to her brings out my enemies. I will carry out one last hit, but if they hurt her, I will bring the world down around their ears. Daisy I've been sheltered from the outside world all my life. Home-schooled and farm-raised, I’m so naive that my best friend calls me Pollyanna. I like to believe the best in people. Nikolai is part of this new life, and he’s terrifying to me. Not because his eyes are cold or my friend warns me away from him, but because he’s the only man that has ever seen the real me beneath the awkwardness. With him, my heart is at risk... and also, my life.

Defying Her Mafioso


Terri Anne Browning - 2016
    My brother’s best friend and second in command. And the only man I would give up everything for. I fell hard for the Mafioso at the tender age of eleven. This beast of a man who I knew made people disappear—and probably enjoyed every second of it—was also the sixteen-year-old boy who had picked me up after I’d fallen flat on my face during my dance recital and told me I was the best ballerina he’d ever seen. He’s watched over me, protected me like I was the most precious thing in the world to him. And then he sent me away. Scarlett Vitucci was many things:The daughter of the biggest Cosa Nostra boss from New York to Chicago. The sister of the man I would gladly take a bullet for. And the only woman I would ever love. Sending her away was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but I didn’t deserve her or her love. For three years I stayed away, ignoring the gnawing ache that her absence left in my chest. Now, she was back and fighting what I felt for her was impossible. Letting her go had been a huge mistake. One I would never repeat.

Otherwise Alone


Shay Savage - 2012
    Other than his loyal Great Pyrenees, there's no one around to break up the monotony. The tedium is excruciating, but it is suddenly interrupted when a young woman stumbles up his path. He has two choices - pick her off from a distance with his trusty sniper-rifle, or dare let her approach his cabin and enter his life.Why not? It's been ages, and he is otherwise alone...

Lying and Kissing


Helena Newbury - 2015
    Yesterday, I was just a CIA languages geek, safe behind a desk. I thought I wanted a taste of the action.Then I met him.Luka. Arms dealer. Russian mafia. A man who'll kill to get what he wants. And he wants me.Now I'm on a plane to Moscow with orders to "accidentally" run into him again. Seduce him. Sleep with him.I can’t control myself when I’m near him. And if he finds out who I really am, I'm dead. 18+ due to steamy scenes. Trigger advisory inside book.

The Viper


Kele Moon - 2014
    A gang member. Someone who has seen the dark side of humankind and survived. He has lost family and gained enemies. He has stolen cars and destroyed hearts, stripping one for money and the other for pleasure. His past is haunted and his future is bleak.Until her.Katie Foster is a high school history teacher. Smart, strong, and sexy. She is a woman Marcos shouldn’t want. Shouldn’t touch. Shouldn’t love. He met her in Garnet, a backwards, hick town that’s the last place in the world he wants to be, but he finds himself going back for a taste of the forbidden.Katie represents all that is good in the world, and Marcos knows he’s nothing but trouble for her perfect life. He fights and he screws. He commits crimes and he breaks the rules. He will never change and he will never escape his gang lifestyle.Or can he?What happens when two different people from two very different walks of life risk it all by giving into the passion that threatens to consume both of them? Can a woman who only knows how to play it safe give her heart to a man who lives hard and loves harder?Will she survive The Viper?

Dark Protector


Celia Aaron - 2017
    Charlie shone like a beacon in a world that had long since lost any light. But she was never meant for me, a man that killed without remorse and collected bounties drenched in blood.I thought staying away would keep her safe, would shield her from me. I was wrong. Danger followed in my wake like death at a slaughter house. I protected her from the threats that circled like black buzzards, kept her safe with kill after kill.But everything comes with a price, especially second chances for a man like me. Killing for her was easy. It was living for her that turned out to be the hard part.Author's Note: This is a full-length romance novel. It's not a super-dark read, no trigger warning. Explicit violence and hot sex included. HEA, no cheating.

Spin


C.D. Reiss - 2014
    The one she's just about addicted to, is more than forbidden. With felony-black eyes and a mouth built for lies, loving him is one step away from illegal.But her body keeps overriding her brain. Maybe it's time to stop playing by the rules.Antonio is obsessed. Theresa's the last woman he should touch. She's going to get him killed. She's dangerous. Poison. The wrong woman. Except... She's perfect.And they both figure... One more time. Just one more time. One more time and they won't get killed. One more time and they won't get caught.One.More.Time...**MATURE AUDIENCES--Rough sex. Dirty talk. Criminal activity. Cursing. Fisticuffs. Closed course. Professional driver. Do not try this at home.**

Taking What's Mine


Alexa Riley - 2015
    The town sheriff pulls me over. I should be safe. I'm not. Nothing could have prepared me for what he had planned. And my darkest desires should have remained a secret. But it seems he knows everything about me. I'm his now, and only I will do. Warning: This book contains situations involving forced submission and dubious consent. The hero is obsessed beyond control. Nothing can stop him from being the only woman he'll ever have. These themes are triggers for some but sweet candy for others. If you're willing to hold off judgment until the last page the ending is worth it, I promise.

Enzo (Marino Crime Family)


Nicole Fox - 2019
     Enzo Marino. A man of dark desires and unlimited power. A mob boss. A killer. And now… my newest client. He’s as handsome as my law firm warned me he was – and ten times as dangerous. He can have me executed with the snap of his fingers. But instead, he’s decided he wants me bent in his bed and begging for his touch. What began as another day on the job turns into the biggest nightmare of my life. I’m drawn into a dark web of violence and betrayal in my office by day… And into endless sessions of ecstasy in Enzo’s bed at night. There’s no turning back now. I’m throwing everything I’ve ever known out the window. All because the bad boy pinned me by the throat and whispered four little words in my ear: “You’re mine now, sweetheart.” ENZO is a dark, enemies-to-lovers mafia romance between Enzo Marino, the rich scion of the Marino crime family, and Madelyn, the curvy lawyer assigned to his case. The novel is a full-length standalone. It contains adult themes, language, and content, and is intended for readers 18+.

Seduced into Submission: BOOK ONE: Curious


Angie Daniels - 2014
    The only excitement in her life was raising her twins and clipping coupons until she lands a job at Independent Woman magazine writing a column that explores women’s sexuality. Peyton’s never felt anything close to what she’s read in those supermarket romance novels, and with a husband who’s quick and selfish in bed, she isn’t sure she’s up for the challenge. But then everything changes…she’s asked to join an exclusive club and the initiation introduces her to an erotic world, a sisterhood, and a sexy, dominant stranger who has every intention of showing her the meaning of obedience and submission. However, once the blindfold comes off, and his identity is revealed, her life will never be the same again. ** This is an erotic interracial romance.