Book picks similar to
Awakening by Brianna West


paranormal
paranormal-romance
1st-in-series
romance

The Secret Trinity: Unearth


Jenna Bernel - 2012
    She is obsessed with finding a cure for the bad boyfriend plague. Worse yet, she’s in denial about her weird abilities and terrified of her mysterious stalker who causes the earth to quake violently with the snap of his finger.With her two best friends, Aria enters her first semester of college armed with a “no more men” pact in an effort to demagnetize the sleaze balls. Unfortunately, the agreement proves difficult when she meets Liam, a charming foreign exchange student, on the first day of school. Aria quickly discovers that Liam is not only Mr. Perfect, but he also somehow ignites her supernatural side. Upon the invitation of her dream guy, Aria travels to Ireland through the study abroad program, dragging her friends along with her. But her world of euphoric bliss quickly comes crashing down as she uncovers the truth about her past, revealing who she really is and what she was born to do.

Awaken


Sarah M. Ross - 2012
    In a split second, everything changed. A drunk driver ended Lucy’s mortal life.Lucy opens her eyes to a world she never imagined possible and a new destiny: as a Patronus, a guardian of spirits. Adjusting to her new role and abilities while negotiating this confusing realm will test her limits and push her further than she ever dreamed she would go. From wayward spirits who don’t want her help to soul stealing vampires, and even a stuck-up British royal, Lucy must brave them all to save one spirit she can’t bear to lose.Further complicating her life is an inexplicable yet growing connection she feels to a member of her team, Max, whose mysterious behavior leaves her both confused and intrigued.Waking up dead was just the beginning of her problems. Lucy’s death is about to become the greatest adventure of her life.

Slayer's Kiss


Cassi Carver - 2012
    But where her magic falls short, her fists get the job done. The criminal element doesn’t stand a chance once she hits San Diego’s dark streets. When two smoking-hot tenants move in next door, she thinks her love life might finally be heating up. Just being near Gavin and Julian is enough to make her want to offer her body on a platter. Gavin and Julian know it’s only a matter of time before the truth comes out. They’re fallen angels sent to watch over the king’s daughter, one of the last females of her kind. Trouble is, she doesn’t seem to think she needs watching—unless they’re watching her shimmy out of her clothes. No matter how tempting her guardians, Kara’s not about to let anything stop her from tracking down a sadistic killer who carves into his victims and leaves them for dead. Even when she realizes her target may be the very scourge of heaven from which her angels swore to protect her… Warning: Contains a kick-ass heroine with a foul mouth, a kind heart and a raging libido, and two fallen angel warriors who wouldn’t have her any other way. Watch out for sex in the clouds, a magical island of hedonism and a love triangle that gives new meaning to the term “hot-wings”.

Draken


Solease M. Barner - 2013
    Suitable for mature adults only.Cess Lamil is determined to get her college degree with honors and start her career. When the new neighbors moves in down the street, her plans change quickly. Draken, the controlling and obnoxious neighbor, is all she can think about. Despite her initial dislike, Cess feels strangely drawn to the mysterious, handsome Draken, but she soon learns that Draken has dark secrets.Draken Draglen is in town to get the family business in order. He lives by one rule: only sleep with women of his own kind. When Cess walks down the street to introduce herself, Draken fears he is going to break his rule. He is determined to stay away from her, fearing his dark secret may be revealed, but his need for Cess is too strong. Draken makes a decision that could change not only his life, but that of his family as well.

Demon Girl


Penelope Fletcher - 2010
    Rae Wilder has problems. Supernatural creatures swarm the earth, and humanity is on the brink of extinction. Stalked by a handsome fairy who claims she is like him, demonkind, Rae thinks maybe it was a mistake breaking the rules by going over the Wall into demon territory. Plunged into a world of dark magics, fierce creatures, and ritual sacrifice, she is charged with a guarding a magical amulet. The changes to her mind and body are startling, but rather than accept her purpose she struggles against who she is destined to be. Throw in a big lust for a vampire who can't keep his hands off her, and life starts to get complicated. Rae is forced to make the ultimate choice: to live and die human, or embrace her birth-right and wield magics that could turn her into something wicked, a force of nature nothing can control. BrE.

Cursed


Casey Odell - 2012
    But legends sometimes forget the true history of things and Claire’s eyes are soon opened to a world she never knew. One that has been kept from her for most of her life. All Claire wants to do is return home and start looking for her mother, the only family she ever had. But the elves have different plans. The mysterious mark that appeared on her arm isn’t a curse, at least not to them anyway, and before she knows it, she is whisked away on a mission she never agreed to, unless they help her in return.Now she is stuck on an adventure with the perverted elf, Aeron, and one with an attitude, Farron. But there is more to this adventure than she’d ever hoped for.

A Brush with the Moon


Raquel Lyon - 2010
    Away from home & back with her best friend, she’s doing the one thing in the world she loves, art. Life’s perfect, or is it? Something’s strange about her new home. People are dying; an old house pulls her towards its doors. Sophie’s changing too; is it the recent fox bite? All becomes clear when she meets the seductive Sebastian and learns his family’s secret.

Vampire


Tamara Rose Blodgett - 2015
    She runs the seedy side of her game, capturing criminals too dangerous for the local law enforcement. Using unorthodox methods, she finds herself in the crosshairs of the Magistrate for too many allowable kills for the quarter. And her head hurts like hell. Aeslin is part of an elite vampire squad of Turners. A rare sect of vampire scouts who possess the ability to find women with enough undead blood to be turned into full vampire. VAC2: Bounty enforcer, Narah Adrienne, has been served her sentence in the form of three lashes to be meted by a corrupt Magistrate. She's unable to acquire her target as instructed, while strange health issues force Narah to seek help in the dangerous medical underground. They might have answers—for a price. VAC3: Narah Adrienne is a scant twenty hours from her sentence of three lashes. But first she must meet Marc, her liaison with the illegal underground. He might have the fix for her mysterious medical condition. But Marc's solutions come with questions attached—and at a cost too high to pay. Now that Narah understands her bounty target is really a Hunter assigned to commit a part of her to death, she must make the best choice among terrible options. Worse of all, if Narah does not make her hearing the sentence will worsen. Either way, she could die. Only one man can save her and technically, he's not human. VAC4: Narah awakens in captivity. She's escaped the final lash from a sadistic Magistrate meant to teach her temperance, only to find that her sentence was not meant to be a lesson, but an execution. Matthews discovers the truth of Hunter leadership, and with an uncertain end goal he determines to follow his heart, though that decision might cost him his life. Aeslin has exposed his race by removing Narah in plain sight. With the blood clock ticking down the minutes of Narah's life; she turns or she will die. What will happen when both Matthews and Aeslin discover the real motive behind the lashes? VAC5: Being turned isn't everything it's cracked up to be. Narah's a vampire, yet not. Because of a twist of fate and circumstance, Narah finds she's tied to both Aeslin and Matthews. She's now wanted as a deserter from sentencing by the very people she fought beside. And Magistrate Oren still wants his final lash—at any cost. From opposing forces, Murphy and Marc find a common goal in helping Narah return to her former life. However, Aeslin and Matthews have other plans, ones that involve her soul—and her heart. When everyone is taken from Narah, and a sadist holds the reins to her sanity, can the males fulfill their promise to protect her, or will Narah be left to fight this battle alone? VAC6: Narah's been sold out by the most unlikely source, and faces a far graver punishment than her original sentence by Magistrate Oren. Marc and Murphy have now been caught in the crosshairs of her new life and face dire consequences as a result. Opposing forces and their hidden agendas continue to move Narah like a chess piece toward an inevitable stale mate. Can Narah return to her old life? Will she be hunted for an escape that was beyond her control—or will her tie to Aeslin and Matthews help her regain all that's she's lost—and more than she ever dreamed possible

Beneath the Fallen City


Jamie A. Waters - 2014
    But, the rarest artifacts are found in the most dangerous ruins—those under control by the OmniLab traders.Carl is one of those traders—and Kayla’s invaded his district. He’s determined to stop her and the best way to do that is to recruit her. The only problem?Kayla hates traders.When a powerful man intent on revenge starts hunting her, Kayla realizes the only way to save herself may be to accept Carl’s offer. But that would mean surrendering to OmniLab and giving up everything she knows. Only everything isn’t quite what it seems.Including OmniLab.And Kayla’s in a lot of trouble.Beneath the Fallen City is an exciting post-apocalyptic fantasy series with romantic elements and shocking twists. Join Kayla as she unearths the secrets of the past and discovers a hidden world no one thought was possible.

Anathema


K.A. Tucker - 2011
    Her foster parents have the emotional aptitude of robots and her classmates barely acknowledge her existence. About to turn eighteen and feeling like a social pariah, she is desperate to connect with someone. Anyone.When Evangeline meets Sofie after literally stumbling upon her café, she believes she’s found that connection. Willing to do anything to keep it, she accepts a job as Sofie’s assistant and drops everything to fly to Manhattan, where she is thrust into a luxurious world of Prada, diamonds, and limitless cash.With such generosity and kindness, it’s easy for Evangeline to dismiss certain oddities... like Sofie’s erratic and sometimes violent behavior, and the monstrous guard dogs. She’s even willing to dismiss her vivid dreams of mob-style murders, beautiful homeless people living in caves, and white-eyed demons that haunt her each night as figments of her imagination—especially when one of those figments is the gorgeous Caden. When she wakes up with bite marks on her neck, the fairy tale quickly turns into a nightmare. She slowly unravels the mystery surrounding Sofie and friends, and the reality of the bites and the “dreams.” What she discovers is far more mysterious and terrible than anything she could have imagined.In a world where everyone has motive to lie for personal gain, Evangeline must decide which deception is least likely to get her killed.

The First Book of Demons


Raquel Dove - 2012
    A series of strange encounters, and her relentlessly curious nature, lead her into the woods where she meets a destiny that has been chasing her since birth. She is unknowingly brought into a world of demons that is fraught with turmoil and deadly power struggles. Lord Balthazar, a demon prince trying to hold his new kingdom together, seizes on the opportunity and takes her hostage. Alexandra’s strong willed, defiant personality not only gets her into heaps of trouble, but also manages to gain the unlikely affections of the demon lord that holds her captive. As time begins to run out for both of them, sacrifices must be made that are to neither one’s liking, and by the time they realize what they truly want, it may be too late.

The Vampire's Warden


S.J. Wright - 2011
    It was a flash in the moonlight, a blur of motion like I'd never witnessed before. No human had the capacity to move like that. When I found myself face-to-face with him there in the meadow, I knew without a doubt that the journal was authentic. I knew that my grandfather hadn't been crazy at all. Because a foot away from me stood a vampire. What do you do when you find out the people you trust have been hiding a terrible secret? When Sarah Wood's father passes away and hands over to her the responsibility of running the family's inn, she finds put things are far more complicated than she first imagined. She's not just responsible for running the inn. She's become the Vampire's Warden. This is part one of a three-part series. It is 31,880 words long. It is a novella.

Angelfire


Hanna Peach - 2012
    Whether it's with weapons, unarmed or with the “borrowed magics” of distilled angel-blood tattoos, she trains harder than any other Seraphim warrior to prove she is nothing like her parents who abandoned her to become Rogues.When Alyx starts displaying the signs of a strange new magic, most don’t believe her and no one has answers for her. She starts to investigate for herself. The web of lies she uncovers will shatter her world and she’ll be forced to risk everything for Israel, a mortal she barely knows. Alyx and Israel will soon realize that their destinies are inexplicably tied - and that their choices will determine the fate of Earth itself.It begins in Angelfire.Angeldust, the fifth and final installment of the Dark Angel series is now out!

Fallon


Valerie Zambito - 2012
    The hallowed world of Emperica is everything she had ever hoped for as a mortal—immeasurable beauty, unconditional love and light. But, with affection for humankind still burning within her, she joins the Knight Caste to train as an angel warrior. As a Knight, she will give up her wings and return to the place that killed her to use her unique powers to search out and destroy the evil Kjin that roam the earth. As a Knight, she will stop at nothing to protect the mortals in her care.The elders warn her that the path she chose will be a solitary one. That she will not have the same bond with humans as she once did. But, as far as she knows, the elders had never met Kade Royce. When her duties place her in the path of the handsome former cop, emotions buried long ago rise to the surface and she is powerless to ignore the depth of her feelings for this young man. She knows instinctively that she has found what most people search their entire lives for. Ignoring the risks, she invites him into her world of danger, but soon their lives collide with explosive consequence. As a result, Fallon realizes with heartbreaking despair that she can no longer hide from the painful truth. In order for Kade to live, she must destroy him.

Jordyn


Tiffany King - 2013
    There's nothing ordinary about me. I'm "special." I know this because I'm reminded of it every stinking day. I can kick a Daemon's ass with both hands tied behind my back. I can run up a mountain without breaking a sweat. Know what I can't do? Get guys to notice me, or hang out with friends like normal people do. I can't just be ordinary because I have an Arch Angel for a mentor who is always breathing down my neck, and a family of angelic Guides and Protectors who scrutinize every little thing I do. Just for a day I want a life where I'm no longer some anomaly, where I don't have to feel like a lab rat. And then I met Emrys. Okay, so my mentor and family hate him, but probably for good reason. After-all, he is a Soul Trader, and they aren't the most trust worthy beings. But, he is sooo hot with his green eyes, leather jacket and the sexiest tattoo you've ever seen running down his back. And-he doesn't treat me like a project.I've got myself in quite a little quandary here. Choosing between my responsibilities and the Trader that holds my heart is something I didn't sign up for. Torn between two different worlds, I must now decide who to trust and who to walk away from. What's a girl to do? See what I mean? I am an anomaly. I am Jordyn.