Book picks similar to
A Brutal Betrayal by D.C. Renee
new-adult
contemporary
dark
romance
Cut Too Deep
K.J. Bell - 2014
A woman traumatized by her past, beaten, battered, and unwilling to trust.A man held captive by his greatest failure, lost, and self-destructive.Letters that unexpectedly bind them together.Is their bond strong enough to survive each other?As a web of deceit is revealed, will they be able to determine what’s real, and what’s worth fighting for? Or will they crumble under the weight of secrets that cut too deep?Can Miller forgive himself and move beyond his fear of failing the one he loves? Can Hadley accept the love she desperately wants but doesn’t believe she deserves?
Weightless
Kandi Steiner - 2016
I remember I wanted to photograph them, the way the red and blue splashed across his cold, emotionless face. But I knew even if my feet could move from the place where they had cemented themselves to the ground and I could run for my camera, I wouldn’t be able to capture that moment. I had trusted him, I had loved him, and even though my body had changed that summer, he’d made sure to help me hold on to who I was inside, regardless of how the exterior altered. But then everything changed. He stole my innocence. He scarred my heart. He took everything I thought I knew about my life and fast-pitched it out the window, shattering the glass that held my world together in the process. I remember the lights. The passionate, desperate, hot strikes of red. The harsh, cruel, icy bolts of blue. They symbolized everything I endured that summer. And everything I would never face again.
Come Back to Me
Mila Gray - 2014
Jessa's finally following her dreams and Kit's discovered there's someone he'd sacrifice everything for.Jessa's prepared to wait for Kit no matter what. But when something more than distance and time rips them apart they're forced to decide whether what they have is really worth fighting for.
My Savior Forever
Vicki Green - 2013
At a young age she was placed in Foster care that moved her around from one place to the other. Finally being freed at 18, she was left with no money and nowhere to go until she finds a small town in Kansas where she can start over.Little did she know her life was going to be uprooted again when she is kidnapped and brutally raped.Jesse is considered HOT in most women’s eyes, but has little time for Romance. While searching for his Mother’s killers, he witnesses a young girl being kidnapped. He now faces decisions that he must make quickly.Will Jesse rescue Cassie? Will Cassie ever find the happiness she longs for?*Due to strong language and sexual content, this book is not intended for readers under the age of 18.
A Pound of Flesh
Sophie Jackson - 2015
There she meets arrogant Wesley Carter, who’s as handsome as he is dangerous, as mysterious as he is quick-witted, and with a reputation that ensures people will keep their distance.As teacher and student, Kat and Carter are forced to leave their animosities at the door and learn that one should never judge a book by its cover. As Carter’s barriers begin to crumble, Kat realizes there’s much more to her angry student than she thought, leaving them to face a new, perilous obstacle: their undeniable attraction to one another.
Razorblade Kisses
R.L. Griffin - 2014
Her family was well off, she ran. They looked for her, she hid. They found her, she ran again. Tragedy strikes, she gets even. The fact is, she doesn't know who she is, she tried to run, to hide and make a life for herself, but that backfired. No one knows her except her best friend, Rachel, if that's even an adequate word for what they are to each other. Rachel helps her build a life for herself below the radar, which is fine until the unthinkable happens, knocking Em out of her unfeeling cocoon. When her house of cards comes tumbling down she runs again, until the one person who can change her mind finds her. **Due to adult situations, language and possible scenarios that may be difficult for some readers to take...take a breath before you start this one. It's gritty and not pretty. Nothing is pretty here. Whiskey is a good thing.**
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.
Facade
D.H. Sidebottom - 2014
This book contains situations that some may find offensive. If you are sensitive to graphic violence read with caution. This book also leads into a second book. You will get answers but the story will continue into a final instalment. You have been warned. Enjoy.
You meet someone. You date. You fall in love. You marry. The four simple rules of love…. Wrong! I’m getting married but I’d never met him before now, never dated him, never fell in love. I have no access to the memories of the most magical time of anyone’s life. My mind won’t allow me to evoke the past, I can’t remember those simple stages to lead me to the fourth . I can’t comprehend why I would have ever wanted to marry someone like Dante. I should never have passed the first stage, although, I may have seen him through the eyes of the woman I once was, this me that lives, breathes here now, can’t understand how we made it to the next stage. I’m not sure, without memories, how I know that this voice inside me, telling me I would never have chosen him, speaks some truth, I just know. He’s controlling, arrogant, callous and violent, and utterly hell bent on humiliating and degrading me – Like watching me falter, watching me struggle to comply and be the woman he asked to marry, powers him- as though he wants to break me piece by piece. Fiber by fiber. Until all that’s here is the shell he created from a soul that I once owned. Now my memories are slowly returning. And they show me a completely different side to meeting him. Our dates, falling in love. The Dante haunting me in the shadows of my mind is loving, gentle and utterly enamored with me, nothing like the man with me now. And this is what taunts me. My tender lover turned into a debauched, cruel sadist who is determined to consume my life, destroy my mind and murder my spirit. I am, Star, and just like with some stars in the sky, the light you see is an echo, a façade, I am already gone I am a no one. Especially to him. To him I am the dark in his desires, the corrupt in his depravity. The sin in his immorality
Vicious Prince
Lili St. Germain - 2018
A brutal abduction.And a love so forbidden, it might destroy them both.Avery Capulet is missing.Taken by a madman. Kept in the dark.She might not survive.He’ll use her body. Destroy her mind. All before he ever lays a hand on her.Rome Montague is a drug dealer. A criminal. A thief.And he needs the secrets Avery and her family are keeping – even if it means cutting them out of her pretty Capulet flesh.Rome Montague is missing – but nobody will miss him.Not that it matters; After the things he’s done to this girl, he doesn’t deserve to be found.Vicious Prince, set in the criminal underbelly of San Francisco, follows two warring families who are ruled by blood, power and twisted desire.Please note this book was formerly titled Verona Blood.
Bump and Run
Tabatha Kiss - 2016
Check.A heart of gold and a smile that turns me stupid? Double check.My father is the new football coach and he’s made it clear that he doesn’t want me dating anyone on the team. So, I’ll just keep my head down and focus on my theater degree. Easy enough, right?Wrong.Enter, Junior Morgan. Exit, my panties. But I don’t want to be just another notch in his bedpost. If Junior wants me as badly as his bulge tells me he does, then he’s gonna have to earn me. Win a game. Win a night with me.Game on, quarterback. We’re just getting started.A handsome playboy. The coach’s forbidden daughter.College football’s Most Valuable Player has met his match!
The Bad Baller Books:
Bump and Run (Junior and Eliza’s story)Go Deep (John and Rose’s story)Home Run Baby (Hunter and Daisy’s story)This title was originally published as Whiplash.
Deep Blue Eternity
Natasha Boyd - 2015
And she’s escaped to the one place nobody will ever find her.But the isolated cottage isn’t empty. Her refuge is home to a troubled stranger, Tom, there for reasons of his own.In the intimacy of the abandoned cottage, and the remote wilderness of the island, the electrifying connection between them is impossible to ignore. Both running from their histories and shielding dark secrets, their pasts catch up with them and collide in an unimaginable way.Deep emotions and powerful chemistry face a painful battle with the tangle of lies, and scars of the past. When the truth emerges, hearts will be shattered.
You Loved Me At My Darkest
Evie Harper - 2014
Kidnapped by a rich madman, Sasha is sold into slavery, while Lily is forced to join The Collection, a unique bevy of exotic beauties enduring frequent horrors at the hands of elite bidders. However, no amount of pain and suffering will break Lily, who will stop at nothing to save her younger sister. Possibly with help from an unlikely ally.Love is stronger than loyalty…Attempting to prove his allegiance to his employer, Jake is tasked with guarding the unruly and uncontrollable Lily. He can’t afford to help her in her quest to free Sasha—not if he hopes to fulfill his own agenda. But in their dark, gritty, tension-filled world, solace is taken wherever it’s found. Bonds are formed and hearts engage despite Jake’s resistance and both their attempts at self-preservation.When certain secrets come to light, the resulting explosion has breathtakingly bittersweet consequences that, by the end, may not leave everyone whole…or alive.
Collared
Nicole Williams - 2016
. .Brings her home. Jade Childs spent ten years in captivity, but now that she’s back, the real battle for survival begins. The media shadows her. Flashbacks haunt her. Her old life evades her. Her so-called new life rejects her. She spent too many years in the dark to recognize the light. She spent too long repressing her feelings to remember how to express them. She spent a decade abandoning hope and cannot dare letting it back into her life. Jade’s not just defined by what happened to her—she’s collared to it.When the twenty-seven-year-old woman is found,A community wants to know the story,Parents want to forget the story,Friends want to be a part of the story,And the man who still loves her faces the greatest challenge yet: letting her go.
Ruthless Princess
Rachel Van Dyken - 2020
A mafia romance about best friends turned enemies by Rachel Van Dyken, the number one New York Times bestselling author of the Eagle Elite series.The enemy of my enemy is my friend…I never thought my father would ask this of me, to become the second generation at Eagle Elite University, to rule with an iron fist, and to take care of anyone who gets in our way.But ever since the incident.Ever since Him.There’s been a war in our little clique.After all, a house divided cannot stand.He’s the problem, not me.He used to kiss me like I was his oxygen.Now he looks at me like I’m his poison.But we both drank it, again and again, never believing there would be a day when our love would start a war.And our friendship would shatter into a million pieces.Then again, the worst thing you could do in the mafia is hang on to hope that your life will be normal.The second worse thing?Fall in love with your best friend.Enemy.And heir to the Nicolasi throne.
Deep Down
Brenda Rothert - 2015
My closest companions now are shame and loss. But a sliver of hope lies in the only person I have left in this world – the one who’s growing inside me.Survival becomes living again because of my child, and the town where I begin anew. That’s where I meet the man who starts to melt the ice inside my heart.As we get closer, reminders of my past become sharper. Clearer. To confront the pain, I have to discover what’s deep down inside me. Is there enough left there to become whole again, or am I too wounded to heal? A portion of sales from this book will benefit the Keith Milano Memorial Fund at AFSP