Book picks similar to
Madness by Kailee Reese Samuels
dark
fantasy
reverse-harem
romance
The Faceless
K.B. Everly - 2020
The true horror of the hideous beasts resided only within the gruesome tales she wrote. She never dreamed that reality could be just as cold and cruel as the monsters writhing inside her mind.With the mysterious arrival of a personal invitation to a masquerade ball, Noir’s life takes a page out of one of her stories.The Crows have come home.Men cloaked in secrets and hidden behind white masks, earning them their chilling nickname the Faceless.Noir should’ve ran while she had the chance, but the Faceless have set their sights on her. Now that they’ve found her, they’ll never let her go. They’ve waited an eternity for her, intent on using her to save themselves from the dark fate of their cursed immortal lives.Can Noir find a way to stop her fate being tied to their own? Or will she succumb to their dark desires and break through their black hearts, lifting the curse forever? One thing’s for sure, she won’t come out of this the same person.Because sometimes there’s beauty in the beasts within.**This is a Dark REVERSE HAREM Stand-alone with explicit scenes, light BDSM, violence, and possible triggers**
Cinderella Unmasked
Bonnie Dee - 2009
Three sexual adventures. One true love.
In the years since her husband King Charming boarded a pirate ship to “find himself”, Queen Ella has ruled alone. Romantic love? It’s a girlish emotion. These days, her only confidant is her steward, Sebastian.Five years is a long time to forego sexual pleasures. She’s the queen, after all..shouldn’t she be allowed a few indulgences? A masquerade is just the ticket to find fulfillment Charming never gave her. With Sebastian’s encouragement—and a little help from a fairy godmother—Ella prepares to make some magic.The first masked stranger she dallies with gives her a taste of what she’s been craving. And it’s just not enough. A second ball follows. A third. Each one—and each anonymous man—sends her to new heights of sexual pleasure. And reawakens the notion that maybe, just maybe, love does not always lead to pain.Her indiscretions have not gone unnoticed. As her stepfamily makes a move to take over the throne, Ella has nowhere to turn, no one to trust…except the men behind the masks…Warning: This is the new “happily ever after”, strictly for grown-ups…
Beastkeeper
Cat Hellisen - 2015
Her mother hates the cold, so every few months her parents pack their bags and drag her off after the sun. She’s grown up lonely and longing for magic. She doesn’t know that it’s magic her parents are running from. When Sarah’s mother walks out on their family, all the strange old magic they have tried to hide from comes rising into their mundane world. Her father begins to change into something wild and beastly, but before his transformation is complete, he takes Sarah to her grandparents—people she has never met, didn’t even know were still alive. Deep in the forest, in a crumbling ruin of a castle, Sarah begins to untangle the layers of curses affecting her family bloodlines, until she discovers that the curse has carried over to her, too. The day she falls in love for the first time, Sarah will transform into a beast . . . unless she can figure out a way to break the curse forever.
House of Salt and Sorrows
Erin A. Craig - 2019
Once they were twelve, but loneliness fills the grand halls now that four of the girls' lives have been cut short. Each death was more tragic than the last—the plague, a plummeting fall, a drowning, a slippery plunge—and there are whispers throughout the surrounding villages that the family is cursed by the gods.Disturbed by a series of ghostly visions, Annaleigh becomes increasingly suspicious that the deaths were no accidents. Her sisters have been sneaking out every night to attend glittering balls, dancing until dawn in silk gowns and shimmering slippers, and Annaleigh isn't sure whether to try to stop them or to join their forbidden trysts. Because who—or what—are they really dancing with?When Annaleigh's involvement with a mysterious stranger who has secrets of his own intensifies, it's a race to unravel the darkness that has fallen over her family—before it claims her next.
Kill Me Softly
Sarah Cross - 2012
Desperate to see the town, Mira runs away a week before her sixteenth birthday—and discovers a world she never could have imagined.In Beau Rivage, nothing is what it seems—the strangely pale girl with a morbid interest in apples, the obnoxious playboy who's a beast to everyone he meets, and the chivalrous guy who has a thing for damsels in distress. Here, fairy tales come to life, curses are awakened, and ancient stories are played out again and again.But fairy tales aren't pretty things, and they don't always end in happily ever after. Mira has a role to play, a fairy tale destiny to embrace or resist. As she struggles to take control of her fate, Mira is drawn into the lives of two brothers with fairy tale curses of their own . . . brothers who share a dark secret. And she'll find that love, just like fairy tales, can have sharp edges and hidden thorns.
Beauty and the Beast
Georgia Le Carre - 2020
But it is starting to look as if I may have made a bargain with the devil himself because he won't let me go even though the time we agreed upon is long gone.He now claims he's not done with me and our agreement ends when he says it does.And if I attempt to leave or involve the authorities he will hurt my loved ones My skin always crawled when he touched me, but I gritted my teeth and told myself it was only for a month, but that comfort has been snatched away.I fear there is no way out other than another crazy act.Then out of nowhere everything changes. A lifeline.A tall, mysterious man with icy gray eyes that pierce my soul and sensuous lips that make my heart race, steps into the sordid world I am living in.He's wearing the kind of suit and shoes that costs thousands, and a scar on his face that rumor says came from a tiger.Yeah, I've heard of him. In this city who hasn't?Luca Messana, the head of Boston's ruling Mafia family.He wants me. That much is clear.What he does next takes my breath away...
Drown
Esther Dalseno - 2015
Discovering music, a magnificent palace of glass and limestone, and a troubled human prince, she is driven by love to consult the elusive sea-witch who secretly dominates the entire species of merfolk. Upon paying an enormous price for her humanity, the little mermaid begins a new life, uncovering secrets of sexuality and the Immortal Soul. As a deadly virus threatens to contaminate the bloodstreams of the whole merfolk race, the little mermaid must choose between the lives of her people, the man she loves, or herself.A complete reinvention of Hans Christian Andersen's classic fairy tale, this is a magical-realist fable that captures the essence of sacrifice and the price of humanity.
Gluttony: A Little Red Riding Hood Retelling
Kira Roman - 2021
She was kind and patient. She took the time to raise me right. All of my best memories are with her. Sadly for Grams, there was nothing she could do about the storm growing inside of me.I spent a lot of time running through the woods behind our home. Watching, studying. Waiting.Wolf and Hunter always put a smile on my face, even if Wolf was too scared to talk to me.When a mysterious fire takes the lives of horrible people, the entire town turns a blind eye.After all, why would anyone suspect a sweet girl like Red?Hunter and Wolf think I don’t notice them watching me. Wolf thinks I don’t know his secret. He thinks I don’t know his plan. But he has no idea that I have a plan of my own. Dirty secrets of my own.I’ve never been one to resist having my fill, and I’m done waiting.I’ll play the part they expect, and when they’re ready, I’ll give them my secrets. Every last terrifying one.Note from the author: This standalone ménage contemporary dark romance is the First book of the Sinners Fairytale Retellings series. Each installment can be read on its own and each retelling is intended for mature audiences, since it may contain triggers. Every author contributing to this series guarantees a HEA.
Coral
Sara Ella - 2019
Worse yet, she fears she has been afflicted with the dreaded Disease, said to be carried by humans—emotions. Can she face the darkness long enough to surface in the light?Above the sea, Brooke has nothing left to give. Depression and anxiety have left her feeling isolated. Forgotten. The only thing she can rely on is the numbness she finds within the cool and comforting ocean waves. If only she weren’t stuck at Fathoms—a new group therapy home that promises a second chance at life. But what’s the point of living if her soul is destined to bleed?Merrick may be San Francisco’s golden boy, but he wants nothing more than to escape his controlling father. When his younger sister’s suicide attempt sends Merrick to his breaking point, escape becomes the only option. If he can find their mom, everything will be made right again—right?When their worlds collide, all three will do whatever it takes to survive, and Coral might even catch a prince in the process. But what—and who—must they leave behind for life to finally begin?Taking a new twist on Hans Christian Andersen’s beloved—yet tragic—fairy tale, Coral explores mental health from multiple perspectives, questioning what it means to be human in a world where humanity often seems lost.
The Queen's Protectors
Scarlett Snow - 2019
Three sworn Protectors. A river of blood and vengeance. Living in exile since birth, Violet Sinclaire should never have been born. She is a half blood descendent of royalty and her existence was forbidden by the ancient immortals long ago. Now the royals want her dead. As the One True Queen of the Shadow World, Violet has sworn to take back her throne and avenge her mother’s murder at any cost. First, she must choose her warriors, for they are her shields in battle; the armor that will keep her safe from the royal assassins. Determined that a half-breed will never own the throne, the royals have called for her blood. Little do they know that Violet has blood cravings of her own, and she’s coming for them.
A Throne of Blood is a reverse harem fantasy romance series and Mistress Violet is a Queen to be reckoned with. This series contains graphic scenes of BDSM as well as MF, MFM, and MM+. This book might not be your cup of tea, but you have been warned. Enter at your own risk.
Heart of the Moors: An Original Maleficent: Mistress of Evil Novel
Holly Black - 2019
From New York Times bestselling author Holly Black comes a captivating original novel set between Disney's Maleficent and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, in which newly-queened Aurora struggles to be the best leader to both the humans and Fair Folk under her reign; her beau, Prince Phillip, longs to get to know Aurora and her kingdom better; and Maleficent has trouble letting go of the past.
Into the Heartless Wood
Joanna Ruth Meyer - 2021
For centuries, a witch has harvested souls to feed the heartless tree, using its power to grow her domain.When Owen Merrick is lured into the witch’s wood, one of her tree-siren daughters, Seren, saves his life instead of ending it. Every night, he climbs over the garden wall to see her, and every night her longing to become human deepens. But a shift in the stars foretells a dangerous curse, and Seren’s quest to become human will lead them into an ancient war raging between the witch and the king who is trying to stop her.
Nameless
Lili St. Crow - 2013
Papa Vultusino adopted the mute, scarred child, naming her after his dead wife and raising her in luxury on Haven Hill alongside his own son, Nico.Now Cami is turning sixteen. She’s no longer mute, though she keeps her faded scars hidden under her school uniform, and though she opens up only to her two best friends, Ruby and Ellie, and to Nico, who has become more than a brother to her. But even though Cami is a pampered Vultusino heiress, she knows that she is not really Family. Unlike them, she is a mortal with a past that lies buried in trauma. And it’s not until she meets the mysterious Tor, who reveals scars of his own, that Cami begins to uncover the secrets of her birth... to find out where she comes from and why her past is threatening her now.
Alias Hook
Lisa Jensen - 2013
The wicked pirate captain is flung overboard, caught in the jaws of the monster crocodile who drags him down to a watery grave. But it was not yet my time to die. It's my fate to be trapped here forever, in a nightmare of childhood fancy, with that infernal, eternal boy."Meet Captain James Benjamin Hook, a witty, educated Restoration-era privateer cursed to play villain to a pack of malicious little boys in a pointless war that never ends. But everything changes when Stella Parrish, a forbidden grown woman, dreams her way to the Neverland in defiance of Pan's rules. From the glamour of the Fairy Revels, to the secret ceremonies of the First Tribes, to the mysterious underwater temple beneath the Mermaid Lagoon, the magical forces of the Neverland open up for Stella as they never have for Hook. And in the pirate captain himself, she begins to see someone far more complex than the storybook villain.With Stella's knowledge of folk and fairy tales, she might be Hook's last chance for redemption and release if they can break his curse before Pan and his warrior boys hunt her down and drag Hook back to their neverending game. Alias Hook by Lisa Jensen is a beautifully and romantically written adult fairy tale.
Valiant
Sarah McGuire - 2015
Yet when he's struck ill, she'll do anything to survive, even donning boys' clothes and begging a commission to sew for the king. Piecing together a fine coat is far simpler than unknotting court gossip about an army of giants led by a man who cannot be defeated. And they're marching toward Reggen to seize the throne. But Saville knows giants are just stories, and no man is immortal.Then she meets them, two scouts as tall as trees. She tricks them into leaving, but tales of the daring tailor's triumph quickly spin into impossible feats of giant-slaying. And mere stories won't deter the Duke and his larger-than-life army.Now only a courageous and clever tailor girl can see beyond the rumors to save the kingdom again.