Book picks similar to
A Kiss to Tell by Willow Winters
romance
dark
dark-romance
mafia
Release
Aly Martinez - 2020
Growing up, Ramsey Stewart branded my soul in ways time could never heal. At twelve, he asked me to be his girlfriend. At thirteen, he gave me my first kiss. By sixteen, we’d fallen in love, planned a future together, and had our eyes set on the horizon. Love never fails, right? But for Ramsey, it did. Love failed him. I failed him. The entire world failed him. At seventeen, Ramsey was convicted of killing the boy who assaulted me. Move on, he wrote in his first and only letter from prison. Start a new life, he urged. I don’t love you anymore, he lied. There was no such thing as giving up on Ramsey. Love may have been our curse, but he was mine—then, now, and forever. So here I am, twelve long years later, waiting for a man I don't even know to emerge from between the chain link gates.
Out of Love
Jewel E. Ann - 2020
Corruption. Serial killers.You name it—I'm fascinated by it. My mom always blamed my overly curious and highly suspicious mind on my dad.My incredibly overbearing dad.Mr. No One Is Good Enough For My Daughter has been terrifying my dates since I turned fifteen.College is my chance to be free from his control and date any guy I want. I'm absolutely certain he would hate Slade Wylder—almost as certain as I am that I do too.Since when have I shied away from trouble? Slade fascinates me. He lives in a house I'm certain is haunted. His dog is trained as well as any guard I've ever seen. Rumor on campus is that he deals drugs. It would explain a lot.But it doesn't explain why he saves me from my darkest moment.It doesn't explain why I can't stop thinking about him.And the explanation I finally discover is far more dangerous than any rumor.
Ruthless Creatures
J.T. Geissinger - 2021
Geissinger.
Five years ago, my fiancé disappeared. He left me with a wedding dress I’d never wear. Left me with the kind of scars that can’t be healed. The man I built my future on vanished like a ghost. All that remained were my broken heart and unanswered questions.Until a mysterious stranger arrives in town. Tall, dark, and dangerous, Kage is as full of secrets as he is sex appeal. Though I know he’s hiding something, I’m drawn to him like a moth to flame.The intensity of our connection is addictive, unlike anything I’ve ever felt before. Heat crackles between us with every look, desire flares into passion, and I fall hard, unable to resist.But when I discover how he’s tied to the darkness in my past, I learn what happens when you fly recklessly into fire:You get burned.
Salvatore
Natasha Knight - 2016
While my father sat silent, a man defeated, giving his daughter to the Benedetti monsters.I obeyed. I played my part. I signed my name and gave away my life. I became their living, breathing trophy, a constant symbol of their power over us.That was five years ago.Then came the time for him to claim me. For Salvatore Benedetti to own me.I had vowed vengeance. I had learned hate. And yet, nothing could have prepared me for the man who now ruled my life.I expected a monster, one I would destroy. But nothing is ever black or white. No one is either good or evil. For all his darkness, I saw his light. For all his evil, I saw his good. As much as he made me hate him, a passion hotter than the fires of hell burned inside me.I was his, and he was mine. My very own monster.SalvatoreI owned the DeMarco Mafia Princess. She belonged to me now. We had won, and they had lost. And what better way to teach a lesson than to take from them that which is most precious? Most beloved?I was the boy who would be king. Next in line to rule the Benedetti Family. Lucia DeMarco was the spoils of war. Mine to do with as I pleased.It was my duty to break her. To make her life a living hell. My soul was dark, I was hell bound. And there was no way out, not for either of us. Because the Benedetti family never lost, and in our wake, we left destruction. It’s how it had always been. How I believed it would always be.Until Lucia.Author’s Note: Salvatore and Lucia’s story is a steamy standalone romance. No cliffhanger and no cheating. It is intended for mature readers.
Corrupt
Penelope Douglas - 2015
My nightmares, however, became my obsession. His name is Michael Crist. My boyfriend’s older brother is like that scary movie that you peek through your hand to watch. He is handsome, strong, and completely terrifying. The star of his college’s basketball team and now gone pro, he’s more concerned with the dirt on his shoe than me. But I noticed him.I saw him. I heard him. The things that he did, and the deeds that he hid…For years, I bit my nails, unable to look away. Now, I’ve graduated high school and moved on to college, but I haven’t stopped watching Michael. He’s bad, and the dirt I’ve seen isn’t content to stay in my head anymore. Because he’s finally noticed me. MichaelHer name is Erika Fane, but everyone calls her Rika.My brother’s girlfriend grew up hanging around my house and is always at our dinner table. She looks down when I enter a room and stills when I am close. I can always feel the fear rolling off of her, and while I haven’t had her body, I know that I have her mind. That’s all I really want anyway. Until my brother leaves for the military, and I find Rika alone at college. In my city. Unprotected. The opportunity is too good to be true as well as the timing. Because you see, three years ago she put a few of my high school friends in prison, and now they’re out. We’ve waited. We’ve been patient. And now every last one of her nightmares will come true. ***Corrupt can be read as a stand-alone. No cliffhanger.
Steel King
Devney Perry - 2019
Everyone but Bryce Ryan. There’s more happening at the club’s garage than muscle car restorations and Harley rebuilds. Her instincts are screaming there’s a story—one she’s going to tell.As the new owner of the small town’s newspaper, Bryce is hungry for more than birth announcements and obituaries. When a woman is brutally killed and all signs point to the club, Bryce is determined to expose the members and their leader, Kingston “Dash” Slater, as murderers.Bryce bests Dash match after match, disappointed her rugged and handsome opponent turns out to be an underwhelming adversary. Secrets are exposed. Truths defeat lies. Bryce is poised to win this battle in a landslide.Then Dash breaks all the rules and tips the scales.One kiss, and she’s fighting to save more than just her story. She’s fighting to save her heart from the Steel King.
Asher Black
Parker S. Huntington - 2017
Huntington comes a steamy, slow-burn love story full of unexpected love and banter.It started with my bladder.I didn't mean to witness a shady deal in the restroom hallway.I didn't think twice when I called the cops.And I certainly didn't know who the club belonged to.Asher Black.Former mafia hitman.Billionaire CEO.New York's most eligible bachelor.When he shows up at my college, looking for the girl who called the cops on his business, I know I'm as good as dead.What I don't expect is his offer--he'll pay my tuition and set me up with a cushy job after I graduate.All I have to do is... be his fake fiancée.Asher Black is a 90,000-word standalone novel in The Five Syndicates mafia romance series.
Rising
Jessica Ruben - 2018
Anonymity is key in my neighborhood—particularly as a lone female walking at night. All I want is to leave my crime-ridden shadow of a home in New York City. I’ve done everything I can to keep my head down and focus on my studies. College is my only goal; love has never been on the map… That is, until my sister brings me to an underground fight, where I meet a gorgeous and mysterious man: Vincent. He is the ghost in my shadows, showing up to feed me pieces of his upper-crust life, then evaporating into darkness until his next visit. I’m falling hard and fast. How can I trust him amidst the depth of his secrets? Vincent may be even more dangerous than the dark world I’m trying to escape.
Rip
Rachel Van Dyken - 2015
But I broke her, and now we both have to pay the price.I'm her nightmare. I'm her savior. And now that I have her signature on an ironclad contract, I own her body and soul. She doesn't remember me. She will. It's inevitable. Because as much as I know I need to stay away, for fear of unlocking the memories I helped her father bury--I can't. She was the apple in the Garden, dangled in front of me, her core so tempting and sweet. A voice whispered. Just. One. Bite. I bit. I tasted. I fell. Welcome to the world of the Russian mafia, where death, is your only future.
Riot House
Callie Hart - 2020
As far as the boys who run America’s most exclusive international academy are concerned, I’m an unwelcome interloper, an inconvenience, and they’re determined to make my life a living hell. When Wren Jacobi sets eyes on Wolf Hall Academy’s newest inductee, all he sees is an easy mark. A reserved little girl with a target painted on her back. He knows nothing of my troubled past, though. Nothing of my mother’s suspicious death, or the horrific treatment I’ve had to endure at the hands of my psychotic father. And he has no idea of the lengths that I, unassuming little Elodie Stillwater, will go to in order to break the savage beast who dreams of breaking me first. There’s a wolf stalking the forests that surround my new school. Little does he know…There are far scarier predators lurking out there in the dark.
Punching and Kissing
Helena Newbury - 2015
Standalone romance: no cliffhanger!She has no choice. She must fight. She's going to need a badass to train her...When an illegal underground fight leaves my brother in the hospital, I make a desperate deal to save his life: I volunteer to fight in his place. To survive, I need a fighter who can teach me to be as tough as him. I need Aedan O'Harra, the blue-eyed, Irish beast of a man who everyone fears.But training together means getting close. Every touch of his hands makes it harder to control my feelings. I begin to see the man inside him, the one no one else can. Can I help him break free of the dark secrets that haunt him and can we save each other, or will we both be defeated? Because neither of us is ready for how dark and desperate this fight will become.
Corrupt Kingdom
Ava Harrison - 2020
That he rules the underworld with an iron fist.A criminal. A murderer. A monster.He controlled fortunes and amassed empires.Our paths should never have crossed, but one poker game intertwined our fate. I woke up stranded on his island. Trapped.Forced to play a dangerous game of hate and lust.He said he took me to protect me. That he was saving me.But who will save me from him?
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***
Blackbird
Molly McAdams - 2017
I’ve trained for this. I know what to say, what to do, and how to act. I’ve perfected the lethal calm required for this life. Now it’s time to buy my first girl. But all it takes is one look at the brave girl who starts singing mid-auction for that calm to slip.Briar Chapman is going to be the death of me, and I don’t care. I’ll take every day with her until that death comes, and I’ll welcome it when it does.On the outside, Lucas Holt is what nightmares are made of. A man cloaked in darkness, with sin-filled eyes and an enticing grin. A devil so devastatingly beautiful and cruel that his very presence instills fear.But beneath his terrifying, ever-calm exterior is an affectionate man haunted by a past that refuses to stay buried. And Lucas looks at me as though he’s finally found the only person who can make it all go away.We’re a battle of the brightest day and the darkest night—and I want to lie in the wake of our war.
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.